Tag: Car Seat Headrest

Manchester Venues 89 to 91

One of the constants of Manchester gig going over the years has been the continuing existence of Manchester Thirsty Scholar, which is a hostelry that lies under the train arches at Oxford Road Station. Once you have navigated down the 56 steps outside the station you walk past the Salisbury pub and Zombie Shack and the Scholar is just to the right further up the cobbled steps. It was adjacent to one of my favourite ever Manchester venues, Sound Control which sadly closed a few years ago.

The Thirsty Scholar. Image Credit frenchysrant.com

I could not find any history reference to the pub, but I have been frequenting at least since the mid 1990’s and it may have been previously called Archie Bar. It was for a spell the only vegetarian pub in Manchester, and they had club nights in the Attic upstairs. It was for a sustained period our first meeting pub point on arrival before very often heading down Oxford Road to one of the Academy venues. It also doubled as the final port of call for a flying beer before scampering up the aforementioned steps to catch the last train.

It is a small cosy pub and has always had some decent ales on tap and regularly has Northern Soul nights with vinyl DJ Martin the Mod spinning some rarely heard 45’s. In more recent times it appears to have more of a jazz slant.

They regularly have live bands on who play on the raised area to the right of the bar, and I have inadvertently caught a few performances there, many after attending other gigs in the city. I have never paid to watch a band apart from attending one year when the venue was part of that year’s Dot to Dot festival roster.

The first band I saw there in 2013 was a rather woeful U2 tribute band. At the Dot-to-Dot event later that year I witnessed Ellie Rose who was a singer songwriter who napped a prestigious spot a couple of years later at the BBC introducing stage at Glastonbury and she released a suite of singles in 2019.

In 2017, Uncle George and I landed there after a Car Seat Headrest gig at nearby Ritz and there was a band on stage, who when approached for their name stated ‘We Don’t Have One’ so naturally that became their new moniker in the Jimmy annals. The remaining four gigs there involved house jazz bands.    

There is a decent sized sheltered beer garden outside the pub and in 2020 prior to seeing Ladytron at the Ritz there was a temporary Manchester Thirsty Scholar Outside Stage set up where I witnessed a chap called Acoustic Dave play. 

The Revolution bar chain has been trading since 1996 but the story began in 1991 when two friends opened a small bar in Ashton-Under-Lyne. This has now expanded to 69 nationwide outlets and also the spin off Revolution De Cuba bars. There used to be a Revolution in Preston on Main Sprit Weind which occupied the site of Lou’s Longbar, one of the first pubs I ever visited in my youth.   

Manchester Revolution Bar. Image Credit keytothecity.co.uk

There are currently three branches in Manchester, namely on Parsonage Gardens and Deansgate Locks and the remaining one is Manchester Oxford Road Revolution. I have naturally in my time visited all three sites! On the 29/04/16, Gill and I happened to visit prior to catching the train and an act called Ste and Cassey were performing in the corner of the pub.   

Manchester Venues 87 to 88 Albert Hall – Part 3

Now I could be wrong here, but my impression is that the early shows immediately post- pandemic appeared to have less tickets on sale as for a spell there was more room to breathe, even at sold out shows. Then, the sold-out events seemed to become much busier and for me this is one of the flaws in Manchester Albert Hall’s arsenal as at some of their gigs there you literally cannot move. A case in point was a Mogwai date this year where I was pinned in a spot by the bar (though there are worse places to be!) which didn’t allow you to adjust your position or viewpoint even if you wanted to.   

My next gig at the venue was to see Car Seat Headrest in November 2018. I have always been a huge fan of this band ever since I first heard the track ‘Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales’, the song is derived from the 2016 ‘Teens of Denial’ album. That album ticks so many musical boxes from me and I would rate is as highly as being one of my Top 10 albums.  

Car Seat Headrest. Image Credit Billboard.

The driving force behind the band is Will Toledo who as a solo member self-released an astonishing 12 records between 2010 and 2014 before becoming a fully-fledged band the following year. In my view their music is so thoughtful and heartfelt but beautifully wrapped up in a crunchy garage rock sound which I have an inherent weakness for. The lo-fi lyrics talk specifically and empathise with the waifs and strays, lonely and dispossessed bedroom warriors of the world and the audience that night reflected that cross-section of the population, and I thoroughly enjoyed their show and the resulting exultant sing along!

As part of the Dot-to-Dot festival in 2018, I saw Dream Wife, a three-piece pop punk band from Brighton. I saw so many bands that day, and I cannot recall a note of whatever portion of their set I witnessed, but they do appear to have received a fair degree of critical acclaim since then.

July 19 resulted in seeing two reforming 90’s bands but neither hit the heights for me. The first being the Anglo-French combo Stereolab, who came across as a tad self-indulgent. The second was the Glaswegian lo-fi popsters Belle and Sebastian whose ongoing driving force has been Stuart Murdoch. They formed in 1996 and have produced twelve studio albums. Their previous members have included Isobel Campbell who collaborated on a couple of excellent albums with the late great Mark Lanegan.    

Their jaunty single ‘The Boy with the Arab Strap’ was featured on the soundtrack of the ‘Juno’ movie and the C4 series ‘Teachers’ featuring a young Andrew Lincoln. In my opinion though, Andrew’s defining role remains the character Egg in the fantastic ground-breaking BBC 2 series ‘This Life’. Despite a couple of decent moments, the band were too twee for me.

In February 2020 I saw the Texan post-rock band Explosions in the Sky where it was patently clear when we were out and about that the dark clouds of Covid where beginning to form. In November 21 the old troubadours Jesus and Mary Chain were back on tour, and I was seeing them for the eighth time in total and for the first time in seven years. They played their excellent second album ‘Darklands’ in full and following an intermission played some further tunes. They sounded in very fine form and Jamie looked well though William looked a little weather worn and was seated throughout the performance.      

Jesus and Mary Chain. Image Credit exclaim!

In April 2022, I saw Sea Power (now without the British in their name) for the sixth time and later that year witnessed Mountain Goats. The latter band being from California and their constant member is John Darnielle, and for many years he operated as the solo member. Their name was derived from a line in a Screamin’ Jay Hawkins song, and they were firmly in the folk-rock vein and there were some die-hard fans in attendance.

My most current gig there was a couple of months ago to watch Eels who provided a soothing performance led by the distinctive vocals and quirky presence of Mark Oliver Everett (stage name E). They were supported on the night by the French soul rock band Inspector Cluzo.    

One postscript before I go, when leaving the hall during Dot-to-Dot festival in 2018 there was a Manchester Albert Hall Beer Van situated right outside the venue. There was an impromptu gig taking place in the open van by some accomplished musicians called the Road Crew, it was an enjoyable interlude before walking on to the next venue!