Category: Manchester

Manchester Venues 179 to 180

It recently came to my attention that there are Thursday night live music events in a couple of hostelries in Didsbury village. So, on the 15th May this year I enrolled Marcus for a jaunt around the streets and also to have an overdue catch up over a couple of cold brews. When I first moved over to Manchester we did visit the Manchester Art of Tea a couple of times on Barlow Moor Road, but I had not frequented for a while so made that our initial meeting point.

Art of Tea. Image Credit spottedbylocals.com

The café bar is owned by Ryan Thompson and Karen Schofield who after working in a suite of Manchester bars decided to open their own business in 2010 in the location of a former record shop. Within a month of opening, the establishment had signed up with the Manchester Food and Drink festival. It is a cosy little European style establishment with a long narrow main room on entry with a scattering of seats outside.

They operate as a café during the daylight hours with tidy breakfasts and tempting fresh cakes before morphing into an informal bar in the evening and additionally they have the quirky touch of a display of tea pots that have been donated to them. It also doubles up as a picture framer and a second-hand bookshop with a further room at the rear displaying their current selection.

In 2014, they began to stage Thursday Music nights with an open mic and also featured bands. The events were organised by the local musician and promoter Matt Hibbert, and they ran for a spell of five years. He also set up specific ‘Artist tribute’ nights and hosted amongst others Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young evenings. A couple of regular performers in that period, namely Ayanam Udoma and Chloe Jones apparently appeared on the Voice TV programme and the former was chosen to be coached by Tom Jones.   

Ayanam Udoma. Image Credit thesun.ie

On my arrival on the night, I discovered a ‘Jimmy bonus’ as unbeknownst to myself I had happened to land on a rebooted Music evening. The place was very busy, but we purloined a couple of continental beers from the bar and managed to squeeze onto a small table at the back.

First up to the microphone was the new promoter and local singer called Emily Mercer who performed a short acoustic set. Her first musical foray was at the age of 13 when she played guitar in an emo band before she decided that the piano was now her instrument of choice. She was also one of the co-founders of the Manchester Women Songwriters collective. She has appeared at the Manchester Jazz Festival and has also released a slew of singles.  

We decided to hang around for the next act as they were playing in quick succession, which transpired to be an acoustic two-piece with the distinctive name of Jimmy Page XI. The main singer has been performing on the local circuit for around three years, and they played some jaunty upbeat tunes with active audience participation including the punters sat outside the open doors.  

As you walk back to the junction and turn left into Wilmslow Road there was for a short spell a bar called Juicebox but after that closed it was reopened as a cocktail bar called Bunny’s Outpost. This is the latest outlet of the Bunny’s Dive Bars chain and adds on the four existing branches located in the city centre.

Saints and Scholars. Image Credit tripadvisor.co.uk

Just beyond there and prior to reaching the library you will find Manchester Saint and Scholars, which has been a bar and restaurant situated in very that spot since approximately 2008. I can only assume the name derives from Irish history where in the 5th century following the collapse of the Roman Empire the country managed to stay immune from all the resultant European turmoil. As a consequence, on an intellectual and artistic front they entered into what is now described as ‘Ireland’s Golden Age’ which then derived the title of ‘Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum’ which translates as the Island of Saints and Scholars.

There are a few outside tables and a small bar area when you enter the ivy clad building which opens out into a larger main room where we have dined a couple of times. The venue also contains worryingly wonky stairs up to the lavatories. On the evening of our visit a band called Ceilidh Boys were playing a chilled set in the function room area.

Manchester Venue 178 – Stage and Radio

A couple of years ago I was persuaded to make my debut in attempting an escape room with my pals  Clare, Hayley and Lottie, the venue being located down Port Street buried deep in the Northern Quarter. My first sighting of this concept was on the Crystal Maze TV programme in the early 1990’s which was very popular with hosts including Richard O’Brien (Rocky Horror Show) and Ed Tudor-Pole (lead singer of punk band Tenpole Tudor). It then evolved in 2003 into physical locations across the world, totalling 50,000 by 2019.

The Crystal Maze. Image Credit justwatch.com

It is based around a team using mental agility to solve clues and puzzles to ensure you can escape the room (or rooms) within a specified time limit. In our instance it was an interesting dynamic to watch four project managers and their different approaches, a couple were in the hyper harum-scarum camp and the remaining two in the considered analytical mould (myself contained in the latter more horizontal category!). The synergy coalesced and everyone wholly contributed to enable us to make our exit in time to head to the nearest pub for an after action review!   

Further down the road you will find the Port Street Beer House which does exactly what it says on the tin with a rotation of 18 keg and 7 craft beer lines. They opened their doors initially in 2011 and were the forerunners of the craft beer pubs that now proliferate widely across Manchester. They have a compact bar area downstairs with a function room upstairs and outdoor seating available for those sunny evenings. 

They stage ‘meet the brewer’ sessions, one of which I inadvertently witnessed, where they ran through the merits and tasting notes of each beverage on sale. They also introduced the innovative concept of the Indy Man Beer Con, which was a four day festival and reportedly the first of its kind across the country specifically for the craft beer trade. The successful events ran for eight years being before stalled by the pandemic.

Port Street Beer House. Image Credit pubgallery.co.uk

On the corner of Port Street and Great Ancoats Street a remarkable discovery was made in 2016 when preparations were being made to build a 13 storey skyscraper. Builders were astonished to find an ancient underground pub, complete with untouched brandy bottles and personalised crockery emblazoned with the name of the former landlord Thomas Evans. He owned the Astley Arms pub in 1821 which was eventually demolished in 1986.

Next door to the Beer House is Manchester Stage and Radio which is located within a 200 year old four storey warehouse, which is so synonymous with many other venues in the Northern Quarter. I have just discovered it has a long and illustrious history with the site being the city’s oldest nightlife venue. It originally opened its doors straight after World War 2 in 1946 and was a renowned jazz venue for many years led by renowned promoter Eric Scriven. It was named Club 43 after its address of 43 Port Street and luminaries such as Miles Davis, Ronnie Scott and Ella Fitzgerald graced the stage there.

An old flyer for Club 43, probably dated early 1960’s. Image Credit crj-online.org

Fast forward half a century to 1998 and at an ‘In the City’ showcase Muse and Coldplay both played, and the rumour goes that the latter were scouted by the Universal Records representative Debs Wild at that very show, thus subsequently signing their first professional recording contract. It was then for a spell a salsa dancing location trading as Cuba Café. In 2016 it morphed into its current iteration and three years later it moved under new ownership, and they developed it into a specialist electronic dance venue.

They have an outdoor space and upon entering you have a jazz influenced ground floor bar and upstairs is the Attic with seating and table service which can be hired out for functions. They have also converted the downstairs space into a dimly lit nightclub with a capacity of 150 and an accompanying licence until the post witching hour of 4am.

They have greatly improved the sound and acoustics by subtle but effective changes such as repositioning the booth. The booth is also adaptable to allow it to collapse so allowing bands to play. The initial launch involved CROP Radio undertaking an epic 15-hour live stream, I am sure punters needed some kip after that one!

On one of my sporadic visits to the establishment I discovered my attendance was on one of the live music nights and a chap called Steve Johnson was playing in a corner of the main bar.