Tag: Damon

Manchester Venues 199 to 200

In the year 2000 (could be a song lyric there!) a bar opened on New Wakefield Street adjacent to Manchester Oxford Road train station. It was called the Font Bar, and the split-level site was a no frills establishment and became eternally popular with the University students due its cheap drinks. 

Font Bar. Image Credit manchesterbynight.com

For around a decade from 2004 the area was the location for an annual festival called Eurocultured where three local streets were closed and there were over two hundred artists playing over three stages, one being positioned under the arches near to the Gorilla venue, and the residual artwork from that festival remains on the walls today. The festival was initially founded because of that year’s enlargement of the European Union, though those events sound like they from another era considering what has happened since!  

They utilised other nearby bars and venues including Revolution, the Blackdog Ballroom and the much missed Sound Control and it was an event I had never heard of until researching it for this very article. The ethos of the gathering was to embrace and celebrate the European cultural heritage and created eclectic rosters and a sample of this from 2013 included three French electronic music composers who collaborated to form a gypsy jazz trio called Caravan Palace.  

There was also Swordfishtrombones from the Czech Republic, dub step from The Correspondents, Irish dance from the Japanese Popstars and some Ukranian folk dancing with the Orlyk Dance Ensemble to jig along to whilst becoming suitably merry if you imbibed the Swedish cider Rekordelig. Additionally, there was Datarock, labelled as the Norwegian version of ‘Happy Mondays’, who were known for wearing red jumpsuits, though for an unknown reason in 2018 their sartorial choice shifted to all-black versions!  The performers on the acoustic stage were covered live on the then local TV Channel M.

Datarock during their ‘Red’ phase. Image Credit lifeinnorway.net

The Font Bar survived the covid period and even added outdoor seating for the first time prior to the bar closing unexpectedly in January 2023. Their Fallowfield outlet had previously shut in 2018, but their Chorlton branch remains. It was not a bar I visited regularly but had sporadic forays with my last being in September 2022 when Paul, Marcus and I imbibed far too much after a Ducks Ltd show at the nearby Yes venue.  

After a fallow eighteen months, Mother Marys took over the reins and opened in June 2024 with the new venture headed up by nightlife gurus Joseph Finegan, Greg Dwyer and Chris Sharp. The first named had hosted many events at the nearby Gorilla and the Deaf Institute venues and the latter named brought with him the pedigree of also owning the renowned music venue The Fleece in Bristol. They devised a weekly event schedule of an open stage on a Monday, stand-up comedians and regular live bands and DJs across the two gig spaces on other nights.  

They invested in a bespoke KV2 sound system and a state of the art lighting system.  Food was also served with all-day breakfasts and in a homage to the previous history of the building a £2 cocktail called ‘The Font’ was also available. It then suddenly closed in November 2025 due to financial pressures, which was hugely unfortunate as they had at that stage been listed as a shortlisted nominee in the This Is Manchester Awards.

As you enter the bar, Manchester Mother Marys Upstairs Stage was directly facing you in an alcove above the stairwell. I first visited in August 2024 and saw a local singer called Damon playing there.  My next attendance was on 07/12/24 as part of the Year End Festival, where this was being utilised as the base and the ticket collection point.

Mother Marys. Image Credit secretmanchester.com

When I was collecting my wristband there was a local chap called Elijah Jenkins playing. Elijah is a soul singer who initially had a solo support slot with Reverend and the Makers before evolving into a four-piece band. I then headed out in the monsoon conditions to meet Paul in another venue before later returning to base camp. On the second pass we saw Patrick Saint James, a Derry born now Manchester based performer who has been on the support roster for Kate Nash.

When I first moved over to Manchester nine years ago, I was at that stage positioned on a total of 76 venues in the city, and I very quickly achieved my century. The new sites then kept being ticked off enabling me to record Manchester Mother Marys Downstairs Stage as my 200th different Manchester venue. The band to commemorate this milestone was a Rochdale female led combo called Foxglove who provided some soothing dream pop.     

Manchester Venues 188 to 190

The Manchester Didsbury Salmon of Knowledge is situated on Wilmslow Road in Didsbury village. It has had previous incarnations under the names of Dockyard, Stokers Arms, O’Neill’s and Times Square. In the early 90’s it was listed under the latter name and was a Bass Brewery house serving in my view the worst beer ever, the infernal Stones Bitter. It changed in 1996 to O’Neills and was for a couple of decades a traditional ‘Irish pub’.

The Salmon of Knowledge. Image Credit geograph.org.uk

In 2014 the ownership moved over to the Stokers Arms, and it was under this derivation I first encountered the establishment, and it was one of the first pubs we visited after our relocation to Manchester in 2017. It was a decent sized pub and had a battered charm about it and I recall having some tidy pub grub there.    

It has always been a good spot to watch sport thus Marcus and I were in residence there in the balmy hot summer of 2018 to watch England’s World Cup quarter final win over Sweden. We returned trying to play the ‘lucky pub’ card for the semi-final, but it didn’t work out as we then witnessed the slightly unfortunate defeat against Croatia. On both occasions the place was packed to the rafters.   

The further changes in ownership did not materially change the layout of the pub, the latter being the second branch of Salmon of Knowledge to open alongside the original version located in the Northern Quarter.

One welcome addition though was the introduction of live music staged on a small area near the front door. I have seen two acoustic acts performing there, one called Sally and Steve, and the other was Electro Gang. 

Diagonally across the road at the traffic lights there has always been a large unit on one of the Wilmslow Road/Barlow Moor Road corners. The building was previously the Clock Tower pub, then a branch of Zizzi before morphing into a steak joint called Cau. The restaurant was in situ when we first moved to the area, but we never had a chance to visit and in 2018 it closed for good when the parent company Gaucho fell into administration.

Kennedys Bar. Image Credit kennedysirishbar.co.uk

Despite its prime spot, the site remained empty for 7 years though there were rumours in that lengthy time span of bar One Eight Six taking over but that never came to fruition. Unexpectedly in the middle of 2025, it was announced Manchester Didsbury Kennedys Irish Bar would soon be located there.  

It opened as a sister chain to the already established branch in Altrincham which was established back in 2021. The original branch also recently expanded by diversifying into a spare unit next door to the pub with the addition of an Irish Deli.  

The Didsbury version stirred up a veritable ‘fuss over nowt’ before it had even opened by painting the exterior in vibrant red paint, which generated plenty of clickbait on social media. They also stated publicly that they wished to stay separate and apart where they possibly could from the monorail of the recently renewed interest in the Didsbury Dozen pub crawl.

We first visited about a month ago and were supping the obligatory Guinness, though not as nice as the Station pub just down the road. It is a large open room bar, and they stage regular music, though the sound on entry that day was thunderously loud.

On a stage in a corner away from the entrance we saw there was an act called El Rey performing, who was born in Newry, Northern Ireland but then moved to Manchester to further a burgeoning music career. He was followed by a chap named Damon.

We then moved onto Manchester Didsbury Famous Crown which is farther down Wilmslow Road towards East Didsbury train station and which we have frequented a few times before. I have struggled to find the previous history but know it was previously a Greenall Whitley brewery house and can confirm it is a proper olde world boozer with some original features therein.

The Crown. Image Credit aboutmanchester.co.uk

The pub was a rather naughty child during covid by opening illegally which led to it being forcibly closed down. Post-pandemic it was subject to a £470K investment and refurbishment from pub operators Punch Pubs & Co before officially reopening on 01/10/2022. They now stage periodic live music and on that particular visit we encountered a local lass called Jenny performing who had a terrific voice.