Tag: Aidan

Liverpool Venues 8 to 10

The city of Liverpool, much like Manchester excels itself in retaining the grand architecture of vintage buildings. Meeting this particular criteria, Liverpool Old Bank public house on James Street down near the waterfront was originally the National Bank built in 1920. When it reopened as a hostelry it retained the American style ornate grandeur including the original tiled floors and high ceilings. It initially opened under the First National Bar name before morphing into the Old Bank in 2018.

Liverpool Old Bank. Image Credit theoldbankliverpool.co.uk

It contains a large bespoke bar on the ground floor with a smaller mezzanine bar in the upstairs area and it was on this upper deck that a group of us gathered for my pal Joe Glenny’s leaving do in November 2023 as he was jetting off for a career break in Australia. Whilst we were in residence there was a posse of acoustic musicians playing on a small stage downstairs.

I managed to glean one of the performer’s names so can record I saw a singer called Aidan play there. I did subsequently notify Joe a few months later that Mogwai were playing in Sydney when he was in residence there, but he shamefully missed attending the gig, there’s just no helping some people!

On a separate occasion, I was pottering around near Central station, as you do, and on Ranelagh Street chanced upon Liverpool Ranelagh’s Tavern. It is a ten a penny Irish theme bar and there was a singer called Seamus yodelling away in the corner.

Ranelagh’s Tavern. Image Credit ranelaghs.co.uk

Liverpool naturally exploits their hometown history with the Beatles and there are a plethora of bars paying homage to the band down Mathew Street and the most famous of them all is the Cavern Club where they played many of their early gigs.

In fact, between the 9th of February 1961 and the 3rd of August 1963 they performed there 292 times, and they were initially billed as deriving from Hamburg. They were surpassed only by the Hideaways who followed them as the resident house band who played over 400 gigs and were thus rewarded with their name being included on the wall of fame.

The Cavern opened its doors in 1957 as a jazz club with its driving force being a local chap called Alan Synter who found a cellar space which was being used at that stage as a tropical fruit warehouse and prior to that a World War II air raid shelter. It is said that when the club was at full capacity, the heat resulted in a sweet fruity smell emanating from the walls, which then became locally known as the ‘Cavern Perfume’. 

The club then moved on to embrace the mood of the day and rebadged itself as a Merseybeat venue. Bands who played there in that period include Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Black Sabbath, Queen and the Who and the local lass Cilla Black was employed there as a hat-check girl.

The Beatles on stage at the Cavern Club. Image Credit beatlesbible.com

Its history then became a little complicated when it closed in 1973 to make way for a ventilation shaft for the new Merseyrail underground railway. That however was never completed, and the site then turned into a car park. There were plans to reopen it in 1982, but it was identified that it was structurally impossible to do so. Many of the bricks from the original cellar were then sold to raise funds for the Strawberry Fields Children’s home.

At a 90-degree angle across the road, they decided to build a new Cavern which was recreated as much as they could in its original image. The initial owner was the former Liverpool football player Tommy Smith, but it closed again in December 1989 when it lost its licence following a vicious assault on a customer resulting in imprisonment for those involved.  

In July 1991 three friends reopened it and still run the club today. A chap called Paul McCartney returned to play a couple of gigs and secret warm up events were staged there by Arctic Monkeys, Jake Bugg, Travis and Oasis over the years. My one visit to Liverpool Cavern Club took place there in 2013 where I witnessed a singer called Freddie. I walked past recently and noted that they now charge simply for the privilege of entering the establishment, so I may not be visiting again!

Other British Gigs – Part 6

Despite being a proud Lancastrian, I always enjoy visiting Yorkshire towns as they quite often have a rustic charm to them. In 2016 we made a visit to Ripon racecourse which has a long history dating back to 1660 and they were quite literally forerunners by having the historic first ever occurrence of a ‘ladies only’ race as early as 1723. It is an ongoing travesty that is has taken another three centuries since then to even reach any modicum of equality in this regard.  

The pleasant setting at Ripon Racecourse generates the moniker as Yorkshire’s Garden Racecourse, and we stayed nearby at the Black A Moor Inn which was literally five minutes’ walk away down a country road. We visited on St George’s Day where they rather quaintly had a separate turnstile and free access to anyone called George, if you could provide evidence of your name. It was a shame that we didn’t have Uncle George in tow on this trip!    

Ripon Racecourse. Image Credit the strayferret.co.uk

They had Theakstons beer on draught which is a good thing in my book and there was also traditional music with a set by the Wetherby Silver Band who have been performing since 1878, not with the same band members! It was a taxi ride into the town centre, and we found a couple of decent pubs to dethaw from the bracing winds outside and I recall the FA Cup semi-final between Everton and Manchester United was showing on a small TV in the corner.

We subsequently ended up in a rather average quality eatery, which was unusual as we always generally found a decent restaurant when away on these trips, quite often a curry house.   

In that regard when we visited Catterick races, we stayed in the nearby town of Catterick Garrison and had some tea in the Asha Tandoori, which I would quantify as a hugely traditional venue. This sparked a thought as what criteria constituted a perfect old fashioned Indian restaurant and I have identified five key elements evolved since my first experience of Preston’s ‘Curry 1/16th Mile’ down on Church Street back in the 1980’s!

The first is fine food and drink, including ice cold Cobra, which is a ‘Shay’ Given! The second is traditional bhangra music to tap your feet to and the third is a slopey floor and the dangerous vertigo inducing stairs, an example of this is in the Shahzaad Tandoori in Preston. The fourth is food being served on a trolley in true Mrs Overall style and the fifth is the most important of them all in that at the culmination of the meal you are served After Eights with no substitutes accepted!

Ten miles down the A61 from Ripon lies Thirsk where we visited the races in the summer of 2022, complete with a stay in one of the requisite quirky B&B’s you always find in these small towns!  They have been racing there since 1612 and it is a lovely homely old market town with many green areas on the outskirts and the course is within easy walking distance from town. They are the home of the World of James Herriot Museum and are also within a 20-minute commute of direct trains on to York.  

Thirsk Market Square. Image Credit reddit.com

At a bandstand at Thirsk Racecourse, we saw a chap called Aidan undertake a short set between races. We completed the day by visiting a couple of hostelries around the Market Square and then had a fine meal at Hung Moey Chinese restaurant to complete the evening.