On Whitworth St, directly opposite Manchester Ritz and within a literal stumbling distance from Manchester Oxford Road rail station you will find Manchester Gorilla. The venue is uniquely situated under a railway arch and was previously the arts, theatre and comedy site The Green Room back in the 1980’s. On the comedic front Alan Carr, Steve Coogan and Caroline Aherne graced that stage and James and Doves played early gigs there.
When that business closed the Trof Group took over the running and Gorilla initially opened its doors in 2012. Its future looked extremely perilous during the pandemic, but thankfully a new owner was sourced and that saved the day, and it is now linked to its sister site of Deaf Institute nearby on Oxford Road.
Gorilla. Image Credit discover.ticketmaster.co.uk
There is a tidy little bar at the front of the venue but there is no access from there to the gig space, apart from sometimes being directed by ‘Rock Steady’ to exit gigs through this bar area. The actual entrance is around the corner under the tunnel, and a few stairs brings you into the main room with a 550 capacity.
It is a well laid out space with a merchandise stall to the left and the extendable/removable stage at the bottom of the room. However, like many other locations it can be arguably too busy when at full capacity, presenting logistical challenges when trying to access the two bars and even move around! It also has a raised platform at the back of the hall with a smattering of elevated seats.
It generally provides good sound and local lad Johnny Marr talks very warmly about the venue and has actively encouraged his peers to include a touring date there. They have regular club nights with promoters such as Guilty Pleasures and Now Wave.
I have attended eighteen gigs there over the years with my first show being British Sea Power in April 2013. I have now seen them six times in total, and this was my second sighting 11 years after I discovered their unique stagecraft at the Leeds Festival in 2002. I recall them being introduced on stage by 6 music DJ Marc Riley.
Near to the culmination of the set, I nipped to the loos which are positioned behind the stage and encountered a chap dressing up into an eight-foot polar bear outfit. Before you ask, nobody had put anything suspicious in my beer, it was actually a tradition the band had at the stage of their career where a couple of bears would parade around the mosh pit during the encore!
The bears and the band in action. Image Credit NME.
A month later, I returned as the venue was part of the roster for the sorely missed multi venue Dot to Dot festival. On that particular day I saw the aforementioned Marc Riley faves Teleman. The original germination of the band was the three members Pete Cateermoul and the Sanders brothers, Johnny and Thomas who were part of Pete and the Pirates. After they disbanded, they were joined by drummer Hiro Ama and became Teleman in 2011. I have always thought they have an intriguing sound, and they lived up to that in a live setting.
Also performing were the Wildflowers who were formed in 2012 and based in Brighton and Bristol. The driving force is main songwriter Siddy Bennett and her sister Kit who had an interesting bohemian upbringing via living on boats, caravans or in protest camps. They have a country punk sound and were coined in the early days as ‘Punk Dolly Parton’s’. Their breaking moment was a set they played at South by Southwest festival in Austin Texas that inspired Detroit label Original 1265 Records to sign them up. I could hear diverse elements in their sound ranging from Mamas and Papas to White Stripes.
Next up was the old troubadours Nada Surf where the gig was completely sold out and they were touring their latest album ‘You Know Who You Are’ and were in as fine form as ever as they have now amassed a quality back catalogue.
In August 2014 Gill and I headed over to watch Joan As Policewoman, whose stage name was a homage to the 1970’s television cop show called Police Woman starring Angie Dickinson. Her actual name is Joan Wasser who was adopted at a young age and was musically precocious as she had piano lessons at the age of six and violin tutelage at the age of eight. She started her professional musical career in the Boston University Symphony Orchestra.
Joan as Policewoman. Image Credit blogspot.com
Then to paraphrase Neil Young around the time of his commercial peak of recording ‘Harvest’, who was quoted as saying ‘It put me in the middle of the road, travelling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there’. Joan adopted this ethos literally as she was jaded by the classical structure so did a full U-turn and morphed into being a member of various punk bands.
She suffered personal heartache in May 1997 when her fiancé of three years Jeff Buckley accidentally drowned in Memphis. At the time we saw her, she had just released her fourth solo album ‘The Classic’ but surrounded herself with a touring band for the live dates.
In March 2016 I saw Pelican for the second time after their staggeringly loud show a few years before at the Ruby Lounge venue across town. They are classed in the post-metal genre; there is literally a label for everything! They are entirely instrumental and produce long slabs of glorious brutal noise and three of their members are also part of the band Tusk. The show wasn’t as intense as the previous one, but still very good.