Tag: Aqua

Gigs from Abroad Part 24 Copenhagen – Part 1

The history of Copenhagen in Denmark rolls back all the way to the 11th century with its initial wealth and expansion being built around the harbour and the herring fishing trade. In 1801, the forever pesky British fleet fought a major battle there, the Battle of Copenhagen, against the Danish navy. It was at this particular skirmish that Lord Nelson famously ‘put the telescope to the blind eye’ to ‘definitely maybe’ miss Admiral Parker’s signal to cease fire!

In the summer of 2000, the cities of Copenhagen and Malmo in Sweden were connected up via a toll bridge/tunnel suitable for road and rail traffic. It is named Oresund Bridge and was famously used for the backdrop for ‘The Bridge’ Television series. The opening scene set its stall out in style by having a mysterious body positioned at the exact midpoint of the structure, thereby falling under the joint jurisdiction of both countries police forces.

Oresund Bridge. Image Credit livingnomads.com

I watch a lot of foreign dramas, always with subtitles as I personally believe they need to be viewed in their original format, and this remains my favourite. For the record the remainder of my Top 5 would be Gomorrah, Dark, The Killing and The Bureau.

In 2002 the city’s metro system opened for business and in 2015 they staged the worldwide COP15 climate convention with Barack Obama in attendance. Famous city residents include the actor Mads Mikkelsen, comedienne Sandi Toksvig, fairy tale author Hans Christian Andersen, model Helena Christiansen, footballer Kasper Schmeichel and film director Lars Von Trier. On the musical front there is Aqua of ‘Barbie Girl’ fame, Iceage and the fabulous Raveonettes.

Copenhagen was named in 2025 as the happiest city in the world with the criteria based on elements such as economy, environment, education, healthcare and work-life balance, or alternatively as I personally rebadge the slogan for myself under the banner ‘gig-life-work balance’! The highest British entry in that list was London languishing down in 31st place. 

Aqua. Image Credit storage.googleapis.com

We made our debut visit to the city and in fact to Scandinavia as a whole in June 2023 and we were blessed with three days of wall-to-wall sunshine. It has got to be noted it is staggeringly expensive, and we literally could not swing a cat in our ‘compact’ hotel room! Aside from those grouses I found it to be a bonny and intriguing city with an abundance of rivers and waterways. Whilst we were there the locals were hunting any suitable spare spot by the water’s edge to bask in the sun.

On our first night we headed over to Vesterbro’s Kodbyen (known locally as the Meatpacking district). It is still a partially functioning meat packing area, but it has graduated away from its past life of butchers and porn shops into a now fashionable cornucopia of outdoor bars and restaurants.  

On day 2 we grabbed some breakfast at one of the local coffee shops before having a culture hit to follow the caffeine hit. Slotsholmen is a compact island in the city centre, but it is the seat of political power as it is houses the home of the prime minister, supreme court and the monarchy. The Royal Stables were particularly impressive and the Christianborg Palace (known as the ‘Castle’) was the location that was utilised for the excellent political drama Borgen.

To achieve a graduation in Denmark is a huge life event and one of the key traditional ways to celebrate is for the students to hire and then travel round in a decorated truck dressed in white sailor hats, and on the way visit all their parents and take a dip in Storkespringvandet.

As you navigate the city streets, they are a noisy presence with their honking and hollering and the first time Gill and I encountered them we exchanged a ‘WTF’ look. The first two or three sightings had a cultural novelty attached but as the number of occurrences was then ever increasing the viewings soon lost its lustre!

Borgen cast. Image Credit digital.tv

To take full advantage of the balmy weather we headed over the three adjacent green spaces in the Parkmuseerne district which was initially built in 1874. Contained there is the Ostre Anlaeg Park, The Kings Garden and the Botanical Gardens.

The latter contains the largest collection of living plants in the city totalling around 1300 and around 27 glass houses. There are also various museums dotted around the park. Whilst we were lounging there, we watched a local drama group setting up a temporary outdoor stage for a Shakespeare performance taking place the next day.   

Manchester Venues 147 to 148 – Royal Northern College of Music

As you progress down Oxford Road towards the Academy venues you reach the traffic light junction with Booth Street West and on that very corner is the Manchester Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM). Just beyond there is a recently developed retail area containing a Brewdog outpost and a branch of the omnipresent fast food chain Five Guys.

Across the road from the RNCM for many years resided the Phoenix public house, previously Barney McGrews, situated under the precinct. I can find records of the Phoenix being around since the 1970’s and in those days, it was a punky biker venue where upstairs they held sweaty club nights under the Tangled or Acid Rock monikers.

Phoenix pub. Image Credit manchestersfinest.com

Live music was staged there from 1977 onwards on the Bass Charrington pub rock circuit roster. There are scant details of bands but can find evidence of Aqua, a Burnage High school band, (does that scenario sound familiar?) who played there the following year with Graham Massey of 808 State in their ranks. They are absolutely not to be confused with the other band with the same name who release ‘Barbie Girl’ a couple of decades later!  

It was a renowned student haunt due to its proximity to the universities. It became more of a drum and bass venue in the 1990’s and Clint Boon, Mani and Piccadilly Records used to undertake DJ nights there.  Around the time I visited, it had morphed into an ‘It’s a Scream’ chain pub with bright yellow frontage and was in a very tired state by then. It subsequently closed its doors for the final time in 2011.

The RNCM was officially opened in its current location on 28 June 1973 and was a fusion of the Royal Manchester College of Music (RMCM), which opened in 1893 with original principal being Sir Charles Halle and the Northern School of Music, founded in 1920.

Its remit encompasses musical education and contains two thriving public performance venues alongside a smaller recital room and theatre, the latter two spaces are utilised in the main for educational and conference events. The college was subject to a £7.1m refurbishment in November 2014 across all areas including a new lighting rig and sound equipment. Previous alumni naturally contains many illustrious conductors and composers and also Howard Jones!  

RNCM. Image Credit Royal Northern College of Music.

The first venue I will cover is the Royal Northern College of Music Concert Hall which has a fixed seating of either 443 or 598 with an additional balcony setting raising the maximum capacity to 710. The layout ensures that all of the seating encircles the stage in the middle of the room and ensures a good view from all vantage points. They have a constant diverse roster of performances and previous acts to play there include Adele, David Byrne, Hugh Laurie, Halle Orchestra and Jarvis Cocker. Filming has also taken place there for television shows Waterloo Road and Question Time.

My first attendance was in November 2013, and I had an unusual journey there. On the day I needed to attend a workshop in the glamorous location of Telford, thus caught a train from there direct to Manchester and met up with the rest of the crew in the Joshua Brooks public house. I recall we also visited the Sand Bar and naturally gravitated to our usual nearby noodle bar for some tea.

As you enter the RNCM building there is initially a bar and café area before you reach the venue hall at the end of the corridor. They adopt a similar policy to the Royal Albert Hall where you could not take drinks into the venue and if returning from a comfort break you had to wait until the current track finished before you can grab your seat again.

The act that day was the incomparable Mark Lanegan, personally one of my Top 5 favourite vocalists with his gravelly ‘lived in’ unique delivery. He was touring his recent album ‘Imitations’ which featured cover versions of tracks by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Nancy Sinatra and John Cale.

On the night he undertook an excellent version of Bobby Darin’s ‘Mack the Knife’ and Lou Reed’s ‘Satellite of Love’, the latter especially poignant as Lou had recently passed away. I have just read this week of a hugely emotional concert held with guest artists to celebrate what would have been Mark’s 60th birthday, he is sorely missed.

Mark Lanegan. Image Credit mubi.com

I had one other attendance there a couple of years later to see Mercury Rev and I spotted John Robb in the audience. The band were in a particularly noisy mode that evening with some guitar heavy tracks in the set, which suited me down to the ground!

The other venue is the Royal Northern College of Music Theatre which has fixed seating capacity of 600 plus the option to have additional removable pit seats. This is a more traditional ‘cinema style’ setting and I have visited there just the once in October 2023. We went to see a play called New Dawn Fades which chronicles the story of Joy Division which contain live songs with a full band. It is written and directed by Brian Gorman who also takes an acting role as Factory boss Tony Wilson.  It was pretty well made but the second half of it leading to Ian Curtis’s suicide was understandably very bleak viewing.