In May 2009, we watched PNE lose again in the play offs, this particular time to Sheffield United and post-match the discussion turned to attending another event on the weekend of the play-off final. Thus, a couple of weeks later Uncle George, John Dewhurst and I took a car down the old M63 to South Manchester and found some cheap digs near Old Trafford football ground.
We then purloined a cab over to Chorlton and I recall visiting the Sedge Lynn Wetherspoons pub which used to be an old billiards hall. The venue we were gravitating towards was the Irish Club on High Lane, which was originally founded in 1956 to serve the local Irish community. In more recent times, it has had numerous financial difficulties and was put up for sale in 2020, and its future remains very uncertain.
It held numerous community activities and also hosted comedy nights with Peter Kay and John Bishop performing in the building. It also periodically had gigs on and the week before our attendance Sad Day for Puppets played there, whose debut album I thought was a decent output. I do recall however the NME reviewing the gig and inexplicably scoring it 0 out of 10, which withstanding the fact of personal preferences aside as there are bands I really do not like, I would never provide a score of zero for a live performance!
The venue reminded me of a large doctor’s surgery house, in a good way. Firstly, there was Chorlton Irish Club Acoustic room where I saw a set by Manchester band Bugs in Ember who were at that point crafting their debut album ‘Take These Bones’.
Chorlton Irish Club. Image Credit the businessdesk.com
Next to there was the Chorlton Irish Club Downstairs stage and first up was a five-piece from Matlock called Bicycle Thieves. They were followed by Marple boys the Dutch Uncles who had only formed the year before and were just releasing their self-titled debut album. They have links to the afore-mentioned local football club of West Didsbury and Chorlton and have in fact performed a promo on the pitch and their post-punk sound is still going strong as they are now six albums in.
The Dutch Uncles on the pitch. Image Credit The Quietus
On the Chorlton Irish Club Upstairs stage we initially saw LoveLikeFire who were an enjoyable San Francisco dream pop band. The main act was Pains of Being Pure at Heart, a shoegaze band from New York. I was always a huge fan of this band and treasure their self-titled debut album and this performance was very early in their career and about their sixth date in England and first in Manchester.
Refreshingly and in the spirit of old Manchester International days, they only took the stage at 11.45pm and were leaning on the wall next to me just prior to their performance. They were always best where they had oodles of volume and they were thankfully pretty thunderous in that regard that night.
They opened with my fave track ‘Contender’ and were spellbindingly good and were clearly taken aback by the hugely favourable and noisy audience reaction, at subsequent performances they always referenced this special night. They understandably only played about a 35 minute set as that encompassed all the tunes they had at that stage. After the show I managed to sweet talk a bouncer into letting us into a local late bar for a last drink before our 1am taxi pick up.
Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Image Credit beardedgentlemenmusic.com
I have thought about this event after the fact and it ticked so many boxes for me with the multiple self-contained venues, a discerning likeminded crowd, great music, and late performances which places it firmly as a Top 20 gig in my all-time list!