Tag: Bob Dylan

Manchester Venues 179 to 180

It recently came to my attention that there are Thursday night live music events in a couple of hostelries in Didsbury village. So, on the 15th May this year I enrolled Marcus for a jaunt around the streets and also to have an overdue catch up over a couple of cold brews. When I first moved over to Manchester we did visit the Manchester Art of Tea a couple of times on Barlow Moor Road, but I had not frequented for a while so made that our initial meeting point.

Art of Tea. Image Credit spottedbylocals.com

The café bar is owned by Ryan Thompson and Karen Schofield who after working in a suite of Manchester bars decided to open their own business in 2010 in the location of a former record shop. Within a month of opening, the establishment had signed up with the Manchester Food and Drink festival. It is a cosy little European style establishment with a long narrow main room on entry with a scattering of seats outside.

They operate as a café during the daylight hours with tidy breakfasts and tempting fresh cakes before morphing into an informal bar in the evening and additionally they have the quirky touch of a display of tea pots that have been donated to them. It also doubles up as a picture framer and a second-hand bookshop with a further room at the rear displaying their current selection.

In 2014, they began to stage Thursday Music nights with an open mic and also featured bands. The events were organised by the local musician and promoter Matt Hibbert, and they ran for a spell of five years. He also set up specific ‘Artist tribute’ nights and hosted amongst others Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young evenings. A couple of regular performers in that period, namely Ayanam Udoma and Chloe Jones apparently appeared on the Voice TV programme and the former was chosen to be coached by Tom Jones.   

Ayanam Udoma. Image Credit thesun.ie

On my arrival on the night, I discovered a ‘Jimmy bonus’ as unbeknownst to myself I had happened to land on a rebooted Music evening. The place was very busy, but we purloined a couple of continental beers from the bar and managed to squeeze onto a small table at the back.

First up to the microphone was the new promoter and local singer called Emily Mercer who performed a short acoustic set. Her first musical foray was at the age of 13 when she played guitar in an emo band before she decided that the piano was now her instrument of choice. She was also one of the co-founders of the Manchester Women Songwriters collective. She has appeared at the Manchester Jazz Festival and has also released a slew of singles.  

We decided to hang around for the next act as they were playing in quick succession, which transpired to be an acoustic two-piece with the distinctive name of Jimmy Page XI. The main singer has been performing on the local circuit for around three years, and they played some jaunty upbeat tunes with active audience participation including the punters sat outside the open doors.  

As you walk back to the junction and turn left into Wilmslow Road there was for a short spell a bar called Juicebox but after that closed it was reopened as a cocktail bar called Bunny’s Outpost. This is the latest outlet of the Bunny’s Dive Bars chain and adds on the four existing branches located in the city centre.

Saints and Scholars. Image Credit tripadvisor.co.uk

Just beyond there and prior to reaching the library you will find Manchester Saint and Scholars, which has been a bar and restaurant situated in very that spot since approximately 2008. I can only assume the name derives from Irish history where in the 5th century following the collapse of the Roman Empire the country managed to stay immune from all the resultant European turmoil. As a consequence, on an intellectual and artistic front they entered into what is now described as ‘Ireland’s Golden Age’ which then derived the title of ‘Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum’ which translates as the Island of Saints and Scholars.

There are a few outside tables and a small bar area when you enter the ivy clad building which opens out into a larger main room where we have dined a couple of times. The venue also contains worryingly wonky stairs up to the lavatories. On the evening of our visit a band called Ceilidh Boys were playing a chilled set in the function room area.

Manchester Venue 139 – Maxwell Hall

I am returning this week to the tale of the 2024 Sounds from the Other City Festival (SFTOC). Within Salford University between 1964 and 2004 there was a thriving venue in the University grounds called Manchester Maxwell Hall. The Maxwell building containing the aforementioned hall was officially opened in 1961 by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip. The upper hall staged the gigs with a capacity of 1000 seating and a balcony above of a further 220 capacity. I once sat in that very balcony area whilst attending one of my talented wife Gill’s many graduation ceremonies.

The opening band to play on the 25th of March 1964 was Dave Berry and the Cruisers at a cost of six shillings, they were so named based on the lead singer’s admiration of Chuck Berry. They are not to be confused with Marvin Berry and the Starlighters, the fictional musician and Chuck’s cousin from the original Back to the Future movie!  Other acts to play there include The Who, Black Sabbath, U2, New Order, The Kinks, James and of course The Smiths!

Marvin Berry and the Starlighters. Image Credit backtothefuture.wikia.com

One story goes along the lines that Paul McCartney and the Wings rolled up in a van in 1972 and asked if they could play as the band had just recently formed and were engaged on a practice tour. The tickets were priced at 50p with half going to the band and the other half to the University. Blondie also famously graced the stage in 1978 and there is an iconic picture that only emerged in 2017 with Debbie Harry draped in the actual poster for the gig.

In the 1990’s the allure of the venue waned due to the introduction of competing venues in the city with Charlatans having the honour of playing the final gig there on 20th December 2004. There then followed an utterly mystifying gap of fifteen years before an extensive refurbishment plan was touted within the £800m Salford Crescent Masterplan to restore the venue to its former glory but like many other schemes I assume it was then scuppered by the pandemic.

Debbie Harry embracing Salford Uni. Image Credit blogs.salford.ac.uk

Five years later the venue was belatedly chosen as one of the locations within the 2024 edition of SFTOC, which rekindled talk of possibly rebooting the venue. The layout of the venue reminded me of Whitehaven Civic Hall.

On the day we attended we saw a jaunty slightly surreal Welsh six piece called Melin Melyn (translates as Yellow Mill). They sing in their native language and have been cited alongside other artists in a movement named ‘Cool Cymru 2.0’. The driving force of the band are the original members Gruff Glyn alongside Garmon Rhys, who also double up as a pair of professional actors, the former garnering credits in Dr Who, Poldark and the Royal Shakespeare Company.  Their music I would describe as a pot pourri of folk and surf rock.

Maintaining the Welsh theme, we also caught the end of Gruff Rhys (of Super Furry Animals) headline set who was promoting his latest solo album ‘Sadness Sets Me Free’. He is ambidextrous and somewhat bizarrely plays left-handed on an upside down right handed guitar. He has tried his hand at scripting opera and also provides vocals to the Mogwai track ‘Dial: Revenge’ off their Rock Action album. He curtailed his show with a nod to Bob Dylan’s video for Subterranean Homesick Blues via the usage of cue cards with audience prompts for applause etc.      

Maxwell Hall. Image Credit bbc.com

There has been a spate of other venues in the near vicinity including a former horse racing track at a site called Castle Irwell which was sold onto the University in 1960’s. It first evolved as a student village and then the old racecourse members stand was converted into the popular Pavilion Bar and Nightclub (known locally as the Pav) under the ownership of the Students Union.

Bands to have played gigs the Pav include Texas, Pulp and Atomic Kitten before its closure in 2009. The village at Castle Irwell subsequently closed in 2015 after a half of century of providing housing for approximately 40k students. Sadly, a year later there was an arson attack which created such a huge fire that at one point 50 firefighters were in situ utilising pumped water from the nearby River Irwell. Housing has since sprung up on that original site. 

Pulp flyer from their 1992 show. Image Credit pulpwiki.net

There were also events at the Student Unions Building in the 1970’s and 1980’s but the only recorded gig I could track there was a performance by Heart! I am sure there must have been other higher quality gigs there. The final one to note is the Salford College of Technology where local legends Joy Division once graced the stage in 1978.