Tag: Action Records

Manchester Venue 26 – Club Academy

The fourth and final venue within the Academy complex is Club Academy. The venue is located downstairs with stairs heading down to the venue to the right of the ground floor bar. In the 90’s the venue was called the Cellar nightclub before turning into a singular music venue in the early 2000’s.

I wish we had known of the existence of the nightclub at that time as we were often searching for a late bar before catching the 1.24am train home. I had seen those stairs many times but thought they headed down to another non-public area of the building complex.

At the point in time across the road was the now disappeared Jabez Clegg pub which we frequented regularly. I was unaware that they used to have the odd gig upstairs. I recall Gordon Gibson, proprietor of Preston’s legendary Action Records telling me that he once was very fortunate to catch a private set in that very room by Natalie Merchant, 10000 Maniacs lead singer.

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Jabez Clegg Pub. Image Credit manchesterhistory.net

The capacity of Club Academy is 650, slightly larger than Academy 3 and is the most academic type venue of the four with their school reminiscent corridors leading to the loos. The stage is at the bottom and bars to the left and it has been expanded since my first visit there.      

I have attended five gigs there in total and that brings the total across all of Academy venues to 88.About five years ago I thought it would be an absolute shoo in to achieve the century however despite a huge increase in my gig attendance my visits to the Academies have been sporadic due to so many other competing venues constantly opening in the city.

My first visit was on 26/04/07 was to see the mercurial Marie McKee, previously lead singer of Lone Justice. There was always a hint of the diva about her, but she has the most electrifying voice. She wandered on with her backing band including her husband and early in the set launched briefly into singing acapella which was compelling. Her recent recordings had a country tint about them, and it was an enjoyable gig.

On 09/12/11 Death in Vegas were back in town for their first tour for a few years. The pubs were extremely busy with Christmas do’s in full flow.

Around the time of their two seminal albums the Contino Sessions and Scorpio Rising at the turn of the century they were an utterly absorbing live act. Unfortunately, they didn’t quite kick it that night as they concentrated heavily on their more dance-oriented material. It was a sold-out gig and it had attracted many that I would quantify in the ‘undesirable’ category.    

There was a breakdown in communication post gig which resulted in us catching the late choo-choo which I think must qualify as the busiest train I have ever encountered and as a result we were very relieved to arrive home that night.

In 2015 I witnessed the young scamps from Dundee, The View. They were in equal parts frenetic, chaotic but always engaging and ‘Superstar Tradesmen’ was as ever the highlight. There are elements of their lyrics in that track that mirror the story in my most loved Iain Banks novel ‘Espedair Street’ which relates to a rock star making it big and the corresponding impact on his childhood sweetheart. He remains my favourite author with his stunning imagination and caustic wit and it was the cruel hand of cancer that took him from us far too soon.

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Iain Banks Espedair Street novel. Image Credit Wikipedia

The following year we saw Electric Six on their annual winter tour. They had their moments, but it was a diminishing return from the startingly good impression they made the first time I witnessed them.   

My last appearance was to see the old punk stalwarts Slaughter and the Dogs from down the road in Wythenshawe, who supported Sex Pistols at their famous Lesser Free Trade Hill gig in 1976. It was unfortunately a rather limp performance from them on the night that I saw them.     

Gig Miscellaneous – Part 2

So, once I had identified a band, how did I go about to listening to them as there was no Spotify in those days. Even though I had never heard one note of the bands I had become interested in, the only option was to buy a plethora of LP’s which involved many enjoyable Saturdays skulking around record shops. Thankfully most of the records were good, but naturally there some duds. Initially these were purchased from John Menzies and Brady’s. I then discovered Action Records, a jewel of an independent record shop, down on Church Street in Preston which has become a staple for me, and the indefatigable owner Gordon Gibson and his loyal staff have provided top customer service for over 35 years.

Action Records in Preston. Image Credit Yell

Having purchased and listened to recorded output from the band, how do you know when and if they are touring? In those days NME was an essential purchase in this regard and on the day of its weekly release (Wednesday) I scoured the upcoming gig list for likely suspects. I managed to catch a very early Strokes gig by being on the ball in this regard. Another source of fruitful information was from On the Wyre, a 3-hour Sunday afternoon programme on Radio Lancashire which played a wide range of obscure material. Also, when I began attending gigs the upcoming lists distributed by the venues were highly useful, the International and Academy in Manchester were especially key players in this.  

Word of mouth information was valuable, especially in relation of local gigs, and I garnered and utilised these communications to catch quite a few gigs. However, it could be erratic, and I recall somewhat annoyingly gigs were missed, namely early Wedding present and Mogwai gigs, at the Caribbean Club and the Adelphi respectively.  

How and where to buy tickets was the next conundrum. For Preston gigs Action Records or even picking them up from the venue box offices was the best option. For further afield, mainly Manchester in the early days I visited House of Records above the market in Preston who for a short spell were an agent for Manchester tickets. However, the main source of Manchester tickets was always Piccadilly Records who in the late 80’s were located on the corner of Mosley Street near Piccadilly Gardens. I used to obtain a suite of tickets from them and I was on first name terms with the lass who issued the tickets and my method of payment was the rather archaic cheques in the post!

Piccadilly Records. Image credit Local Data Company

In latter years, I tend to favour ENTS24 and SEES as reliable ticket agents, I am not a great fan of Ticketmaster and only use them I have no other choice.

Now people who know me will tell you I am generally chilled to the point of horizontal, however over- zealous unnecessary officialdom is a grouse of mine, so I have had the odd mild altercation with unreasonable bouncers.

My chief irritation though is saved for ticket touts. To a degree, I understand their function and accept that unfortunately sometimes they are a necessary evil. What really shakes my tree though is their complete inflexibility and greed. My absolute nadir in that regard was when I had a spare ticket for a  Black Rebel Motorcycle Club gig and the negotiation resulted in them offering me £15 for a face value £25 ticket for a sold out gig and they had the temerity to suggest I was being unreasonable to have the expectation that they would make a higher bid. My reaction was to outline to them unsavoury alternate uses for the ticket rather than them obtaining it! Later in the pub opposite the venue we encountered a girl who needed a single ticket which I sold at face value and it was patently clear she was a fan of the band. She had approached the touts who quoted her a mind bogglingly inflated price of £60. For the touts out there, I would quote a James line ‘You can do better that that’!