Tag: Elbow

Manchester Venues 212 to 215

Last month I returned to the vibrant Sounds From the Other City (SFTOC) festival in Salford for my sixth attendance, with my debut being back in 2012. The ticket collection point at the earlier festivals was Islington Mill, and even though this has now been replaced by Maxwell Hall within Salford University, it remains a central focus point.

The Mill is a Grade II listed, six-storey Georgian building located just off Chapel Street. It was originally purpose-built in 1823 and underwent a structural collapse a year later resulting in eighteen deaths before then being swiftly rebuilt. Like many of the dark satanic cotton mills of that era it was intertwined with the horrific slave trade.

As manufacturing industries declined in the 1960’s it evolved through retail and storage phases before falling into partial disrepair. It then moved into its current bohemian multi-occupancy arts status which has been greatly assisted by ample funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and they now trade under the name Islington Mill Arts Club.

Islington Mill. Image Credit Manchester Evening News.

They are ever expanding and a current example of this is that they own and are regenerating the adjacent Regent Trading Estate with the support of Salford City Council. Bands that have previously played the Mill include Acid Mother Temple, Ariel Pink, Boris and Peaches. There have also been one-off shows from the likes of Elbow, Grimes and Bjork.   

I have previously covered many of the venues in the building but was excited to see a new one on this year’s listing. There was an element of levitation and physical endeavour required to access the gig at Manchester Islington Mill 5th Floor. When I disembarked the metal stairs, I rewarded myself with a cold beverage whilst watching a rapper by the name of Cartier.

Back over on Chapel Street there is a small café originally known as GK Gallery & Tea Room when it first opened its doors in January 2016. As the name implies, they have an Art Gallery within where their mission is to support emerging artists by staging exhibitions. Many of these are graduates based at nearby Salford University. For me however their chief but dangerous pulling power is the ready availability of tasty homemade cakes!

Manchester ‘Beatz’ Cafe. Image Credit tripadvisor.com

More recently they have changed their name to Kith and Kin and for the first time were included in the SFTOC roster under the one day pseudonym Manchester Beatz Café. I saw an artist called Beatz Nails performing there.

As you progress back onto New Bailey Street there is a new bar called Manchester Tangerine which sits directly opposite Salford Central Station. The venue was opened in 2025 after a period of 12 months transformation work on two previously derelict railway arches and is modelled to a degree on other city centre venues, Diecast and Ducie Street Warehouse. It is owned by the existing team behind the Mala hidden garden bar and Want Studios.

It encompasses three individual areas, the first being Platform 1 which is the daytime Canteen Club which utilises seven independent kitchens including a bakery, in-house coffee roastery, florist and wine shop. Platform 2 then contains an art, dance and music performance hall, mainly used in the evenings, and the Grand departures bar is a specialist martini bar with a taproom with 40 taps. The building overall has a 300 person capacity.

Manchester Tangerine. Image Credit themanc.com

It is believed the colour scheme is a nod to Salford FC who are reverting to their original orange and black kit from the upcoming 26/27 season. This was their kit colour until the Manchester United boys of 1992 took over the club in 2014 and in a slightly narcissist touch changed it to red.     

Now, as a Preston North End fan I reacted in an allergic way when I first heard the name of the bar as it is the kit colours of our arch enemies Blackpool FC! But in the interests of ‘new venue’ research I took that on the chin and made an appearance.

I attended prior to heading down to the SFTOC event and my initial observations pertained to its unexpected size and a blazing orange hue everywhere. I had to admit grudgingly that it was quite impressive from a cocktail bar style viewpoint. Whilst I was there an act called Jazzy John was performing in one of the rooms.     

Whilst undertaking a rare foray to the Christmas Markets in 2025 and when traversing between St Anns and Cathedral Square, I noticed there was a pop up stage just to the side of Manchester M&S on Market Street where I saw a full band under the moniker of Dad and Lad playing.

Stockport Venue 11 – Spinning Top

I am continuing the tale this week of Stockport gigs and will begin wending my way in towards the town centre. However, I will initially take a brief cultural diversion if I may as I have just discovered that a large property called ‘Ferncliff’ on Mauldeth Road  is up for sale. The dilapidated house which contains ten bedrooms, and five receptions rooms is on the market for cash offers around £1.6million! The reason for my referencing is that it was used as the location for the 2019 quirky dystopian Russell T Davies scripted Years and Years TV series.

So, picking up from beyond Heaton Chapel train station, this leads you to Wellington Road North which astonishingly runs you later on into Wellington Road South, who would credit it! It is more commonly known as the A6 and the route of a Manchester institution, the 192 bus! Transport has run down this route from Hazel Grove to Manchester city centre since 1889, commencing with horse drawn trams before it was later numbered as the 192 in 1969.

The 192 Bus. Image Credit flickr.com

The buses are astoundingly regular and there are even night services at the weekends, and it is recognised as the busiest route in the country with 9m annual passengers and in 2008 became the first in Britain to have solar-powered on-street ticket machines. In 2013 a local singer called Dave Hulston devised a whole album in commemoration called ‘Willow and the 192’ which spawned a one-off festival called ‘192 Accoustifest’ at the M19 bar in Stockport.

There must be something in the local water supply as Elbow in their track ‘Great Expectations’ reference the 135 Bury to Manchester bus and the Manchester Blog winner, also in 2013, was penned by philosophy PHD student Geoff Stevenson who was musing about his travels to Manchester University aboard the 43 bus from Wythenshawe.      

Now obviously when you move to a new area you want to try and darken the doors of all the public houses at least once to tick them off, I am assuming that is a standard aspiration for anybody, or maybe just me! In this regard, plans were afoot to have a sally down and visit the four A6 Heaton Norris hostelries on the outskirts of Stockport, but this was scuppered by the pandemic.

By the time I managed to make the pilgrimage in 2024 with Uncle George in tow, the number of available pubs had halved. The first closure was the Hope Inn that had a microbrewery enclosed within which produced their own brand of Fool Hardy ales. It reopened fleetingly post-covid but then was struck by lighting and then closed for good and has now reopened as a branch of the Mother Hubbard’s fish and chip chain. They now have 19 sites, including one in Dubai with the first opened by Coronation Street’s Stan and Hilda Ogden in Bradford in 1972 and the price then for fish and chips was a paltry 45p!

The Railway pub. Image Credit Jimmy Crossthwaite

The other pub was the Railway where they used to have Jazz gigs every Sunday and Tuesday and rather poignantly the chalk board outside is still showing details on the gigs that were scheduled for March 2020 before the sudden universal closures. At least the jazz gigs survived by relocating to the Moor Club in Heaton Moor.

However, the ‘jewel in the crown’ the Magnet Free House was most definitely open and is a real ale pub renowned across the area. It was originally a coaching inn built in 1840 due its close proximity to the now long gone Heaton Norris train station before latterly refurbishing into its current format in 2009. It is a terrific boozer with around 25 ales on tap and numerous staff serving behind the small bar. It was packed on a Saturday teatime, and we decamped to the decent size beer garden outside where they also had a pizza oven in full operation.

It also has the accolade of being named as one of the 12 ‘best boozers’ in the UK by National Geographic in 2024 with their ratings based around an aversion to loud music, Sky Sports and ordering with QR codes. Gill and I have visited since and worryingly discovered there is a bus stop outside that provides a bus route close to home! Further down the hill is the Midland which is a lot less interesting where me and the Uncle played some woeful darts, Luke Littler we were not!

After you cross the River Mersey and begin to climb up again you reach Stockport Spinning Top. The venue is situated under the Garrick Theatre, where I saw Mike Harding thirty odd years ago, and first opened its doors in 2014. They have had comedy nights in the past and also showcase local original artwork on the walls which is then available to purchase.

The Spinning Top. Image Credit useyourlocal.com

They have live music taking place there four times a week, mainly in the rock vein. They appear to have a lot of cover bands playing but also have occasional original acts and I can find records of the late 80’s popsters The Distractions playing there in 2017. On the same night we visited the Magnet we made our debut visit to the venue.

It was a fairly spartan lay out with the bar to the right and the stage to the left. The band performing were Paytron Saint, a three piece alt-rock band who hail from the Amber Valley in Derbyshire. They formed in 2018 and have released a slew of singles so far, mainly recorded at their own Chicken Coop studio. They were fully acoustic on the night, and they were very enjoyable.