Manchester Venues 14 to 15

Halfway down Oldham Street was located Manchester Planet K which I attended twice. The first visit in October 99 was to see Snuff supported by Mad Caddies.

Me and Uncle George were on duty that night and discovered whilst talking to John Dewhurst a week before that he was going to see Godspeed you Black Emperor at the Roadhouse the same night. So, we headed over together for drinks and tea before John headed off to his destination.

Planet K was a reasonable little venue, with about a 300 capacity with the stage at the bottom of the room.

Snuff were as ever good value and the place was half full at the most. They finished the set with a rousing rendition of the Match of the Day theme. John enjoyed his gig also as he described they had some epic length songs in the best post-rock tradition. We parlayed in Yates on Princes Street before heading off for the late train.

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Planet K venue. Image Credit tinamcclelland@manchestermusic.co.uk

My second and final visit was to see Mogwai on 18/04/01. Usual crew of George, John and I in tow. It wasn’t the greatest night as Mogwai unexpectedly came on exceptionally early whilst we were still encamped in the pub and we missed the first twenty minutes.

They had finished their set prior to 10pm and there were also some annoying punters in there. My least enjoyable Mogwai show but still of a decent level. The venue closed a year or so later.  

I had always endeavoured to avoid the cavernous locations as I have a ready preference for the ‘one man and his dog’ venues but the opportunity to see AC/DC for the first time was too good to miss. So, in December 2000 we headed over to Manchester Arena. The Arena is located next to and linked to Victoria train station with a 21k capacity.  

The morning was spent de grouting the shower prior to going out and having some fun. We decamped at Salford Crescent train station and visited the Crescent and Pint Pot prior to meeting other attendees in the Oyster Bar in town. Here I met the current Brighton correspondent Nigel Wiskar (rechristened School of Rock) for the first time.

We had standing tickets in the pit and AC/DC were fabulous and standout tracks were ‘Hells Bells’ and ‘Whole Lot of Rosie’. They adopt a simple premise of playing 12 bar blues at high volume, but they are the absolute masters of it. A top night was had by all.

It was over 17 years later to my next attendance. By that stage we were living in a rented house on an astonishingly noisy Kingsway in East Didsbury.

My mate Rick Clegg has always been a huge Paul Weller fan, so I agreed to be his wingman and provided the lodgings due to our new Manchester postcode. The gig was on 01/03/18 and in the middle of the Beast of the East and was as a result a bracingly cold evening.   

The place was still being rebuilt from the bombing and was as best half full. The gig washed over me to be honest and there had been a published set list including encores in advance of the gig which I find a tad disconcerting. Rick enjoyed it though so mission accomplished.

I also once waited at the foot of those huge steps to provide a lift home for Gill and her three sisters after they had been to see Kylie Minogue.

My last attendance was earlier this year (16/01/20) with George, Tony and Pam Dewhurst to see Slipknot supported by Behemoth.

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Slipknot promo pic. Image credit you tube

We were up in the gods this time and it was a country mile for a loo visit or to purchase an extortionate beer.  

They had huge stage effects with the ever-present masks, gantries, dual aerial drummers and even a treadmill. They are definitely an interesting live act, though verge on the edge of pantomime at times!

I am going to change tack in my next blog and provide five ‘lost’ albums that in my view did not receive their due attention. I would be interested in your lists so comments welcome next week.

Preston Venues 8 and 9

Just behind Preston prison, on Ribbleton Lane was the Preston TUC Club (also known as the Ribdale Club). It was a scruffy slightly battered venue with a decent sized gig room on the left-hand side of the building.

My first visit was in 1985 on a Thursday night with the band in question being the Food Scientists. They had some truly suspect barbecued beans with baked potatoes on sale which I really should not have purchased. The band were instantly forgettable and did a short set allowing me to jump on the 11.15 bus home.

My other visit was on another Thursday 10/12/87 to see Chumbawumba. Astonishingly there were five gigs on in Preston that night, a true tsunami of music and a feat possibly never repeated. They included Tank at the Guild Hall and Frank Sidebottom at London Road Labour Club, I cannot recall the other two events.

There was a group of us out and we also ran into Tony Dewhurst in the Greyhound prior to them going to the Frank Sidebottom gig. I headed to the other gig on my lonesome before catching up with John Dewhurst inside the venue.

We witnessed a couple of supports prior to the main band coming on at 10.30. This was prior to their ‘Tubthumping’ 15 minutes of fame period. There was about 10 of them in the band and they very interactive, anarchic and overtly political, creating a vibrant moshpit.

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Chumbawumba promo pic. Image Credit last.fm

They did one song in the style of Dylan’s ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ with the discarding of the placards and encored with an acapella version of ‘The Diggers’ for which Billy Bragg had previously performed a cover. They played about an hour set and were good fun overall.

Couple of years later I missed a Snuff gig there as I was recovering from a tonsillectomy. I can find no records there of any gigs into the 90’s so assuming the music part of the venue closed around then.

Down by the River (not the Neil Young track!) in Preston lie the linked Parks, Miller and Avenham Park. The latter has a natural bowl effect and we used to partake in the local tradition of rolling eggs down the hill on Easter Monday.  

Avenham Park on an Easter Monday (before my time!). Image Credit Blog Preston.

There used to be an old stage at the foot of the slope, which was utilised during the Preston Guild events which take place every 20 years (in place since 1179) and this venue was used extensively in the 1992 event. The stage has long now and there is a café and tourist information where it once stood.

I saw four different gigs there over the years. The first being a short impromptu one when traversing the park on the way to another gig in town after a couple of bevies in the Continental pub. This was on 31/05/92 and we caught a portion of Jools Holland and Rhythm and Blues band’s set.

I witnessed two local bands events, the first in July 2000 witnessing Lorane, Bridge and Cujo and the second was on 26/07/03 to see sets by Gotukola, Free Parking, Idiom Lifeline and Neocoma.   

Between 1994 and 1996 Gill and I lived on a flat off Fishergate Hill which was 5 minutes-walk from the park and remarkably a free Heineken Festival was scheduled to take place there.

We headed down on a Saturday in June 1994 and were chatting to a couple of friends whilst a young bunch of upstarts from South Manchester called Oasis were playing in the tent about 100 yards away – I can claim I heard them at least!

We now live within 5 minutes’ walk to where the Gallagher boys grew up and the record shop they frequented and my pal Marcus lives opposite the house where the Definitely Maybe album cover picture was taken

I am sure I saw more than one band that day but did not record the details so the only one I definitely clocked was a superb set from Boo Radleys. The fact that I could witness such a fine band for free on my doorstep was a rare boon. Their best track was ‘Lazarus’.  

The festival continued the following year but with a significantly more commercial slant with Spice Girls playing. I decided to swerve that one and reminisce on the previous year’s show!

I appreciate this is a first world problem, but today marks 100 days since my last gig, my longest gap between gigs since 1994. I am hoping and praying that all these venues, especially the smaller ones  survive the pandemic.