In the continuance of my ongoing Stockport story, I am going to initially backtrack to new venues visited in areas that I have already covered. The first one in that regard is the Stockport Dog and Partridge located at the junction of Didsbury Road and Burnage Lane just outside the East Didsbury metro station.
Stockport Dog and Partridge. Image Credit yelp.com
The D&P is a large, detached pub that originally opened in 1959 replacing an older pub a couple of doors down. It was at that stage under the jurisdiction of Boddingtons Brewery and was a sister to the nearby Griffin hostelry owned by the same company. It underwent a significant refurbishment in 2017, shortly before I moved into that area. I initially cited this as a Manchester establishment, but I then subsequently discovered it is in fact about 20 yards over the Stockport border.
There are benches facing the main road at the front of the pub and a more enclosed beer garden at the rear which Gill and I utilised a couple of times during the pandemic. Inside it is brightly lit and caters quite heavily toward live sports and on occasions can be a tad rough and ready. I had noted that in the last couple of years they began referencing live music on Saturday nights, so a Didsbury Road pub crawl was arranged with Marcus in tow to take advantage of this fact.
We started further up Didsbury Road and visited the Crown, Heatons, the aforementioned Griffin before arriving at the Dog and Partridge about 9.30pm. We grabbed a table in the corner and caught a local singer called Dennis playing.
Progressing then over to Moor Top you would find Stockport Nook. This café bar first opened in 2015, and I visited for the first time three years later where on the outside tables you can nuzzle a coffee during the day or a craft beer in the evening. At that stage they rather bizarrely had the lavatories behind the bar. Since the pandemic they have created a shared space with the chippy on the left and Roost at 113 on the right which encompasses three restaurants with tapas, Mexican and Italian cuisine available under one roof.
Stockport Nook. Image Credit stockporthub.co.uk
Around this time Nook totally refurbished their establishment with repurposed timber and other artefacts. They also linked up with North Manchester based pizzeria Dough So Good who have now built a pizza shack in the covered beer garden downstairs (previously a car parking space) which is accessed from the back of the building. They also have on their schedule vinyl nights and Open Door Thursdays with music acts performing and on one of those very evenings we saw a chap called Acoustic Al play there.
Martin Stephenson and the Daintees were a folk based band from the Northeast of England who were formed in 1982 after the lead singer and self-taught musician had previously commenced busking at the age of fifteen. They were signed initially to a local independent label called Kitchenware Records alongside other bands such as the Kane Gang and Prefab Sprout. The label also struck gold a couple of decades later by capturing The Editors at an early stage who recorded their platinum selling album ‘The Back Room’ with them.
Martin Stephenson’s combo who also contain his wife Kate took an eight-year hiatus in 1992 but then reformed and have operated continuously since 2000. They released their most acclaimed album Boat to Bolivia in 1986 and like many other bands have undertaken full tours since playing that album in full. He also collaborated with Billy Connolly in 2018 on a documentary about the comedian’s colourful life.
Martin Stephenson live at Plot 20 Allotment Music Festival. Image Credit youtube.com
In a previous blog I referenced the Blue Cat in Heaton Moor where the band played in 2009. My good pal Mark was there, and he told me the tale of a request then being made of Martin to play at a local allotment. He had a renowned predilection for playing obscure unusual venues, so he readily accepted the challenge. Thus on 06/09/09, you would find him undertaking a gig with large sunflowers in the background and the set even includes a Postman Pat/Muppet Show medley! Slightly wonky footage of his performance there can be found on You Tube under Plot 20 Allotment Music Festival.
Good stuff Jimmy
I remember the Martin Stephenson allotment gig very well. MS, as you’d imagine, relished the novelty of playing such an unusual and homespun venue (Can an allotment be described as a venue? I think it can)
MS was not alone that day. Support slots were provided by Helen McCookerybook who I think was MS’s partner at the time. She was an early 80s Peel favourite as the Helen in Helen & The Horns.
Also on the bill was local busking legend Brian Cockayne. Brian works as a gardener these days, but in the 70s he lived in the US and was once married to Kate Pierson of the B-52s!
Just one minor correction to your highly detailed Stockport review, Jimmy: The bar on Shaw Road was just called the Blue Cat.
Mark B
Stellar background material there Mark as ever, much appreciated. Sounds like a fun novel event to be in attendance at.
I don’t where I got the Blue Cat embellishment from, I shall amend!
I only discovered Martyn Stephenson in recent years when my mate Neil (Blackpool HMV manager and promoter) gave me a playlist of artists he’d been involved with (The Lathums being another) . Love his stuff and had the pleasure of meeting him after a gig at the New Continental.