Stockport Venues 7 to 8

If you turn left off Shaw Road onto Heaton Moor Road in Stockport, you encounter many differing retail units of shops, restaurants and bars. The first of interest is the Cork of the North wine shop and bar, though I have only thus far graced the doors just the once and not frequented any of their numerous wine tasting events.

The next destination is the Stockport Crown Inn. Now, I don’t know if they were short of available names back in the day, but I can think of five different hostelries with the Crown moniker within a five mile distance of this one. This particular version is a highly traditional bar with one long room and two separate back rooms, one an old fashioned mini snug and a small beer garden with barbecue facilities at the rear.

The Crown Inn. Image Credit beerintheevening.com

It was built in 1820 and initially was set back from neighbouring buildings because of the existence in that spot of three poplar trees. A century later the local lumberjack felled them, and the pub was extended in 1930 by building forwards to line up with the other buildings. The pub was originally under the auspices of Richard Clarke’s Reddish brewery before morphing into a Boddington’s Bitter house in the 1960’s. It has retained many of the original floorboards and wooden effects which only embellishes the allure in my view. Apparently also the tabloids were reporting recently that Ricky Hatton and Claire Sweeney were spotting leaving the said establishment after a night out.

They have a few TV screens showing sporting events but also stage live music every Friday and Saturday in the bay window area by the front entrance. Our first musical visit was there on 20/07/19 with Jo and Paul after grabbing some tea at Valentinos restaurant in nearby Moor Top. The band on stage was a local rock covers band called Rock Doctors who mainly play 1970’s tunes and I recall two or three Bad Company and Free tracks.  

We visited again last month just prior to Christmas and the place was bustling with groups of menfolk imbibing prior to the later showing of Tyson Fury’s latest boxing match. There was a duo called Moor Irish playing which consisted of two lasses, one on acoustic guitar and the other playing a suite of instruments including flute and penny whistle and they were very enjoyable. When I look at the roster board outside there is an act who play there periodically called Reservoir Dads, who I must endeavour to witness one day as (Dad gag incoming alert) they could be ‘bloody’ great!    

Reservoir Dads. Image Credit reservoirdads.co.uk

As you progress down the road you pass (or go in) the Plough on the Moor, a regularly visited homely pub where they produce a rather fine Sunday roast, and we have whiled away many hours in one of their cosy corners.

Further on you reach Casa De Moor, our favourite Tapas restaurant in the region. Beyond the fine evening fare, they also provide huge hearty breakfasts where we have frequented a couple of times on Cheltenham Gold Cup morning before heading home to watch the racing. The last bar on that side is an establishment called the Eden Bar and Eatery which has various different incarnations including being called the Scarlet Door. The road then leads you down to the evocative old fashioned Heaton Chapel train station.

Across the road you will find the Moor Club, a private members club (previously the Conservative Club) which has been in place in that location for over a century. They have five snooker tables within and have professional exhibition matches there. They used to have monthly vinyl nights and have jazz musicians who play every Wednesday and in the summer months you can purchase cold beverages as a non-member and bask on one of the tables outside.

A more extensive beer garden is situated next door at the Stockport Elizabethan, though finding a seat in the warmer months can still be a challenge! Originally built in 1874 the pub started life as Bampton House, a private residence before in the early 1900’s morphing into a private members club but retained the original name. To coincide with the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977, it changed to its current name and became a public house.    

The Elizabethan. Image Credit searchstockport.co.uk

The hostelry is one of many in the area under the auspices of the local JW Lees brewery, which suits me as I am partial to a drop of their ale. It is a large wood furnished establishment and is generally always busy with many sampling the food on offer.

It had a short blast of fame in 2017 when Liam Gallagher’s brother Paul was turned away at the door for wearing tracksuit bottoms, generating an extensive twitter rant from his kid brother. Apparently, they have form in this regard as many moons ago a young David Beckham was refused entry for wearing trainers. For the record, I have never been denied entry, but this is probably more to do with the fact that I have rarely seen a bouncer in residence than of it being due to my sartorial elegance!    

I thought they were a non-live music pub but on one exception on a sunny August evening I just happened to be ensconced there when a local singer called Serena performed a turn. 

Manchester Venues 151 to 152

I am blessed with my current geographical Manchester location as there are regular multi-venue events, the latest to spring up is the Years End Festival which took place at the tail end of 2024 and is based in the main down the Oxford Road corridor. The remit of the days roster was for it to contain up and coming bands and most were guitar based, which suited me down to a tee.

The downside on the day was the monsoon and high winds weather conditions which was a tad bracing! I have previously detailed the Retro Bar downstairs area in an earlier blog, but this festival allowed me to attend a gig in the Manchester Retro Bar Area for the first time. I enrolled my pal Paul to be my wing man, and we met up at that site after we had both separately obtained our entry wristbands from the pickup point.

As I trotted down towards the building it soon became evident that there was a noisy combo already ensconced on the stage. I grabbed a cold beverage and settled in to watch a band called Revivalry who are a thumping three piece from Grimsby. They had such admirable confidence which is remarkable when viewed against the fact that none of the members are above 17 years of age. The lead singer and bassist Josh Courfield who was belting out the tunes looked about 12!

Revivalry. Image Credit grimsbytelegraph.co.uk

They are understandably reliant at this stage in being ferried to gigs around the country in the back of a transit van by one of their understanding tolerant parents and they were chosen to be the youngest band ever to play the Main Stage at the 2024 version of the Kendal Calling festival. They are on Manchester label Cosmic Glue and have already garnered support slots with Reverend and the Makers and The Lathums.  

In a novel twist they climbed down into the crowd to play an acoustic portion of their penultimate track before clambering back onto the stage for the electric second half of the song with full audience singalong participation. They were overall rather fine fun and good luck to them in their potentially burgeoning careers.    

Now, I have always endeavoured to never replicate myself in these articles but I make no apologies now for referencing a tale I mentioned briefly back in the mists of time in the second paragraph of Blog 1.

Hacienda nightclub. Image Credit manchestereveningnews.co.uk

My first ever venue visited in Manchester should have been at the Hacienda nightclub as we had tickets to see Husker Du there in early 1985. There was though a fundamental stumbling block of having no means of transport to be able to get there and back as my brother was between cars, I was too young to drive, and the last train departed at 10.30pm.

Thus, I never got to visit the Hacienda though thankfully did manage to see Husker Du twice in the next couple of years after the unfortunate ‘gig that never was’. To be perfectly honest though I am not overly gutted on that score as despite the club admittedly having a brief golden period, reports from my peers who attended there to see Trouble Funk and Killing Joke amongst others thought it was always sparsely populated and a little bit of a dump!    

One of the co-owners of the Hacienda was Peter Hook, who in 2010 collaborated with the Hacienda’s original interior designer Ben Kelly to renovate and reopen the former Factory Records HQ on Charles Street and Princess Street, opposite the Joshua Brooks public house. It opened as a nightclub and also stages student nights and live music and retained its original name as Manchester FAC251.

Toy Car. Image Credit facebook.com

On entry, my first impression that it was smaller than I had envisaged it would be. The bands that day were playing on the ground floor space with a 400-capacity called Manchester FAC251 Basement. There are apparently two other rooms, the first floor Loft and second floor Boardroom, both with a 200 capacity.  

The room had a metallic nightclub vibe about it, which is always a slightly odd scenario when watching acts at the earlier daylight hour’s time of 5pm. The band on stage was a scouse jingle jangle collective called Toy Car who are a fledgling act who have only thus far released a handful of singles, and they provided an engaging and energetic set.