Tag: Beth Orton

Manchester Venue 114 – Albert Square Festivals

One of the most famous buildings in Manchester is the neo-gothic Town Hall which obtained Grade 1 listing status in 1952 and currently houses Manchester City Council and other local government staff. The town hall was completed in 1877 after a nine-year build and the small matter of the usage of 14 million bricks! It contains within the Great Hall, which is adorned with Ford Madox Brown’s Manchester Murals, there is also the impressive Clock Tower which is 85 metres high which even has a singular name for the clock bell, Great Abel. 

Manchester Town Hall. Image Credit citybaseapartments.com

The Town Hall’s resemblance to the Palace of Westminster resulted in it being used as a location for the original 1990 version of House of Cards and the BBC drama State of Play. The venue was in fact used to announce the result of the 2016 Brexit referendum.

However, a report in 2014 highlighted the urgent need for modernisation and essential repairs to be undertaken on the building. Subsequently it was closed to visitors in 2018 to undergo a £330m renovation. I have read in the last month that due to ongoing pandemic impacts and the rise in pricing of materials the original completion date has pushed back from July 2024 to provisionally summer 2026.

The building faces St Peters Square to the South and Albert Square to the North. Due to its size and location, the latter named has been used for events and public gatherings including memorials commemorating the Manchester Arena bombing.

It is also a perfect site to host music events so in July 2018 I attended Manchester Albert Square Festival Hall when the 9-day Manchester Jazz Festival was taking place. I grabbed a couple of opportunities to dive into the site for some bonus gigs when heading from work to Manchester Oxford Road station for my commute home. On the first occasion, I saw Minor Swing and on the second I witnessed Squid Ink.

Manchester International Festival. Image Credit ilovemanchester.com

In March 2019 they also had a St Patricks day festival gathering around Cheltenham races time, and I saw the Ceilidh Boys at that soiree. A couple of months later when attending the Dot-to-Dot festival I managed to catch a bonus act called Gobe Band there at a separate event taking place on the square as they were not part of the festival roster of my event.

In 2019 the bi-annual Manchester International Festival took place with the hub location being Albert Square. It was a relaxed set up with lots of food outlets and a couple of real ale tents and with music starting at noon I also had a sally over at lunchtime on the days I was in the office. They set up the music stage under a covered marquee with comfy seats and I always had room when I visited, but I heard it was extremely busy when The Orielles and Working Mens Club played a late evening set there.    

The Orielles. Image Credit soundofbrit.fr

Thus, my first attendance was on 05/07/19 when a group of us were in town and we headed to the site and happened to see House of Ghetto. On my next visit I witnessed Chloe Foy, a singer-songwriter from Gloucestershire who subsequently released her debut album ‘Where Shall We Begin’ in 2021.

The following day there was a Welsh oriented bill hosted by 6 Music DJ Huw Stephens. He introduced a Welsh-language pop band called Gwilym (translates as William), who sounded like they have been influenced by their forebearers Super Furry Animals. Mary Anne Hobbs also hosted a 6-music show on the festival site in a temporary DJ booth and there was the obligatory appearance from the omnipresent John Robb.

The following week I saw a seven-piece local band called Kara. On the lunchtime the next day I witnessed a solo singer Matthew Whitaker and after work the artist was Hannah Ashcroft, a local indie lass who has collaborated with Beth Orton and had support slots with BC Camplight and the Lathums.

My final appearance was when I met up with Gill and we grabbed some tea on the site. Playing that day were acts called Aim Sky High and One Little Atlas who are a local two-piece dream pop combo. They had an ethereal sound and have composed a couple of film scores and have had the opportunity to play at unusual venues such as John Rylands Library and the Whitworth Art Gallery in the city.

Second T in the Park Festival

Having previously commuted from Edinburgh for the 1999 festival, we made a conscious decision to identify some accommodation nearer to the site for the 2000 version. As a result, we found a B&B in the little village of Glenfarg just off the A75, Gill attended this festival for the first time.

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Glenfarg Hotel. Image Credit Undiscovered Scotland

One element we had no control over was the weather and what we were confronted with was the most persistent monsoon rain I have ever encountered; it just never stopped the whole weekend. We were fortunate to be able to leave the site and I had unbounded sympathy with punters who were camping.

I recall seeing the reports of the weather at one particular Glastonbury being so inclement they encountered the first cases of Trenchfoot for around a century, they must have run close to that in 2000. When we see torrid weather nowadays, we acknowledge it is raining but can verify it is indisputably not T in The Park rain!    

On both days of the festival, we headed into Ayr for a couple of drinks before grabbing a taxi down to the site. In one of the boozers on the Saturday, I think it was called This Old Hoose, we encountered a couple of older ladies, christened the ‘Golden Girls’ who were happily imbibing Gin and were good company.  I kept looking out the window consistently echoing the refrain ‘it’s getting brighter’ even though it patently was not!   

There was a fine bill on Stage 2 on Saturday, and it had the humungous additional benefit of being in a marquee and therefore under cover.  The Wannadies produced a great guitar heavy set before some softer soothing tones with the excellent Morcheeba.  Following them was the erstwhile singer songwriter Beth Orton.  In the Dance tent we caught a portion of David Holmes.

In King Tuts Wah Wah tent we watched Lapsus Linguae and Looper. On the main stage we saw segments of both Ocean Colour Scene and a reprise from the previous year from Fun Lovin Criminals.  We watched the whole of Moby’s headline set where you could witness a sea of yellow temporary T in the Park macs providing sparse cover in the conditions. Moby was good but provided a carbon copy of the Glastonbury set from a couple of weeks earlier, knew I should have swerved that to keep a fresher outlook.

Me and Gill lost Uncle George and John at one stage due to a miscommunication and this was in the days before we all had mobile phones, we luckily found them a couple of hours later prior to the taxi back to the digs.  

On the Sunday morning, there was a brief one-hour respite in the weather, so we went for a local walk but were instantly surrounded by smidges on the motorway bridge, so that exercise was soon curtailed.  

In the Dance tent, we caught Darren Emerson and a part of a banging set from Leftfield. We also watched a terrific more dance-oriented set from Death in Vegas. Elsewhere we saw a very early performance in a side tent from Coldplay and also witnessed A, Dum Dums, Dark Star and Embrace.

There was a hit laden set from Supergrass who followed Idlewild on the main stage. There was a fun performance from the indefatigable and timeless Iggy Pop and we stayed for some of Travis’s headline act.

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The irrepressible Iggy Pop. Image Credit Gigwise.

We then squelched off to the taxi pick up point and got summarily ripped off by the taxi firm, but to be honest I didn’t care as I would have paid 10 gold bars to depart the site by that stage!

When we landed back, the lad on duty at the hotel ordered boots off and he graciously opened the back bar for us. He served us soothing brandies and whiskies and we could watch the festival highlights on a little portable in the corner of the bar. What lucky people we were, and it provided a warming end to the weekend’s activities!