Tag: Brown Brogues

2023 Gigs – Part 2

This week I will complete the tale of gigs in 2023. In April I returned to the comforting environs of the Sounds from the Other City festival in Salford. In the Manchester Islington Mill Club I saw a local punky trio called Ether Mech. We then headed onto Manchester Pint Pot (downstairs) where I encountered Is33n (pronounced i-seen), an artist who has been supported by the Brighter Sound musical enterprise. Also, I saw Caitlin LM who doubles as an artist and music producer, and she had a chilled electronic vibe.

Up the steps I traversed into Manchester Pint Pot (upstairs) where I witnessed Spencer Cullum, a folk musician originally from Romford who relocated to Nashville to learn the ways of the ‘steel pedal’, to me one of the most distinctive sounding instruments in the world of music. Also playing up there was the Brown Brogues, a noisy two-piece garage rock band from Manchester, their sound somewhat reminiscent of the Kills.    

Brown Brogues. Image Credit heymanchester.com

We then pottered on to Manchester Five Four Studios 2 to see DEK (full name Dream English Kid) who had an electronic shoegaze sound with the shimmering vocals provided by Hannah Cobb, and they have had support slots with KVB and Whitelands. I also just discovered rather excitingly that they derive from my hometown of ‘Proud’ Preston. Next door in Manchester Five Four Studios 1 I saw the composer and producer plus44kaligula.

Now, one of the inherent requirements if you are playing one of these festivals is not to be tardy when your time slot is due as the gaps between bands are sharp and the set windows are short. As we entered Manchester St Phillips Church a band called Max Fulcrum and the Win were doing the exact opposite of this requirement with a staggering amount of ‘faffing about’! The driving force of the large ensemble is Dominic Rose, previously front man of Fake Turins.

St Phillips Church. Image Credit manchestereveningnews.co.uk

There was I thinking they may produce a sonic racket in the mould of Polyphonic Spree or Arcade Fire, though when they finally started up, I was crushingly disappointed as they were a very limp proposition resulting in me heading for the exit whilst muttering darkly under my breath about time wasters!  The final gig that day took place at the hub of Manchester Bexley Square where an acoustic guitarist called Kid Katharsis took to the stage.

There were a couple of low level gigs featuring local artists at Manchester Albert Schloss and we also caught a singer/songwriter called Will Doolan whilst on a night out in Manchester Head of Steam in Didsbury Village. Additionally, I had a couple of bonus gigs at Manchester Thirsty Scholar whilst waiting for the train after attending other shows in the city.

On a steaming hot July Sunday, we headed to Manchester Castle for a novel late afternoon gig. In advance, we grabbed some late lunch at the nearby Blue Eyed Panda Chinese restaurant in Ancoats. Whilst there I was checking on periodically on score flashes on Carlos Alcaraz’s dramatic win in the Wimbledon final taking place that day. The venue was busy and as a result it was ridiculously hot in there.

The support was a band called Supermilk who were originally in 2017 a solo project of Jake Popyura before moving into a full band formation from 2022. They were very enjoyable and engaging in a live setting. However, I have just picked up the very sad news that earliest this year Jake announced that he has a rare and terminal neurogenerative disorder.    

Supermilk. Image Credit cloutcloutclout.com

The headline act was Fortitude Valley who we had seen for the first time a year earlier, though I didn’t personally enjoy their performance as much on this occasion as I did at that thrilling first sighting.  

In September, Gill and I traversed over to the fair city of Lancaster with Marcus and Tris. Our destination was Lancaster Library for an afternoon show to witness Erland Cooper who was previously in The Magnetic North and Erland and the Carnival. He is a multi-instrumentalist producer from Orkney and incorporates a lot of nature aspects in his tunes. He gathered some publicity when he deleted all digital files and buried the only existing copy of his first album on the island and provided some treasure hunt clues which resulted in two chaps discovering them 18 months later.

He provided some lovely music but at times it was veering rather closely to being pretentious and self-indulgent. The support was a cellist from London called Midori Jaeger. Prior to the show we caught something more primal across the road in Lancaster John O Gaunt with music from Grunge God and Sheena.

We returned that way a month later for the Lancaster festival and visited Lancaster Jailor’s Barrel which is near the train station. It was previously known as the Robert Gillow but changed its name during the pandemic when they discovered that he was linked to the slave trade. On stage was a local acoustic guitarist called Keith Mitchell. Later that day I visited Lancaster Tap House where I saw Keith Riddle.

Manchester Venues 65 to 67

Continuing the circular route of the Sounds from the other City Festival brings us to the historic Kings Arms on Bloom Street. It is situated deep in the old industrial quarter of Salford, and it is an easy five-minute jaunt from Salford Central train station. The pub was first licensed in 1807 and the original building initially resided on the other side of the street.

Lucy Davis was a landlady there in the 19th century and after throwing her husband out for being a drunken lout, she created a profitable dance hall and den of ill repute upstairs! It has been the base for many interesting clubs, namely the North of England Irish Terrier Club, the Knitting Club and the Salford Friendly Anglers Society, the world’s oldest angling club and a sign of the final listed club is still visible on the gable end of the pub.

Many pubs fell by the wayside in this area, but the Kings continued to flourish being famously taken over in 2011 by Zena Barrie and Paul Heaton of Housemartin’s and Beautiful South fame. They embellished the artistic undertakings and a pot pourri of arts exhibitions, vaudeville, comedy, poetry nights and gigs took place under their tutelage. They were also apparently regularly heard rehearsing in the upstairs function room.

Paul Heaton. Image Credit Hull Daily Mail.

The pub has also been used as a location for music videos and TV shows like Cracker, Fresh Meat and the Hairy Bikers and was always a good gathering point to commune with like-minded souls on the SFTOC monorail, much like the other central hubs of the festival such as Islington Mill and the Old Pint Pot.

It is an olde world pub with a large main bar room area downstairs with seats dotted around the perimeter. At one of the festivals, I saw a Chinese dragon parade the room, it is that kind of quirky place. They are a renowned real ale venue and have been in the Good Beer Guide for the last decade and are a keen supporter of small local breweries. There is also a small beer garden accessed from the back of the pub.

Stairs led you up the Manchester Kings Arms Events Space.  It is a theatre style space and has a standing capacity of 120 and seating capacity of 50.  The venue even holds a wedding licence.

My first visit there was on 06/05/12 was to see Meddicine from London. An appropriate act considering the industrial history of the area as he resembled a lo-fi Death in Vegas though a single released last year sounded more like Eminem.   The other act that day was a good fun two-piece local scuzzy garage rock band called Brown Brogues. 

Five years later I witnessed Manchester electronic artist Vacuumorph and in 2018 I saw AYA, a Manchester rapper and producer who formerly recorded under the moniker LOFT.

Kings Arms. Image Credit kingsarmssalford.com

In a room adjacent to the main bar was Manchester Kings Arms Downstairs Stage where acoustic gigs occasionally took place. In 2012 an act called Yule FM played there and six years later in 2018 a local chap with the vaguely unpleasant moniker of DJ Acid Rephlux performed on that stage.

At the 2017 festival they excelled themselves by creating a third stage putting them on a par with Chorlton Irish Club and the Adelphi in Preston as the only other venues where I have attended three stages.

The only issue was that nobody could find the third stage, before we eventually realised, we had to traverse down the stairs past the kitchen and into the beer cellar. Thus, Manchester Kings Arms Basement became and remains the smallest venue I have ever attended, with about 10 people crammed in and myself outside with my head craned around the entrance peering into the dark interior. The band on the tiny stage was an act called Maeve Rendles 9 Victims, and despite an extensive search I can find no back story behind their mysterious and sinister name! 

The continuing joy for me of these festivals is the chance to visit these types of different venues that in any other context you would not normally attend.