Tag: Florence and the Machine

Manchester Venue 93 – Rose and Monkey

Nearby to Shudehill Bus Station, you will find two fine old-fashioned boozers, The Angel and the Marble Arch, the naming of the latter indicating its linkage to the Marble brewery and the pub also has the added bonus of a sloping floor, evident even before you have imbibed a drop of ale! If you then headed from there over towards Ancoats you would locate the Wing Yip Chinese supermarket where Gill and I used to visit in the 90’s to obtain ingredients for us to be wannabe chefs during the time Gill was undertaking her nurse training further across the city.

Marble Arch pub. Image Credit timeout.com

Back on Swan Street is the food hall Mackie Mayor where you can take your pick from a choice of cuisines and a plethora of craft beers, and I have sampled a couple of wares there, including some tasty pizzas. Mackie seems to have set a trend by inciting other similar establishments to spring up in other suburbs of the city and also at Stockport Market.

Just around the corner is Manchester Rose and Monkey. The building that now houses the pub was built in 1783, the reason for the creation was a reaction to the boom in population resulting from Richard Arkwright building the world’s first ever steam powered mill right outside the front door. Sixty years later it was first recognised as a pub, in fact two, as there was an additional one in the basement! There were many names across the years, The Glasgow Tavern, The Grapes, John O’Groats, Tam O Shanter and then latterly the Burton Arms.  

In the late 19th century, the two local gangs of ‘Angel Meadows’ and ‘Bengal Tigers’ regularly clashed. Around that time the Smithfield Market was built directly behind the pub and the olde world charm of the nearby Smithfield Arms still remains. Music also abounded on the streets with the production via the residents in ‘Little Italy’ of barrel organs and hurdy gurdies and the proximity of the market turned the Burton into a renowned yet somewhat dubious musical establishment.

Manchester Rose and Monkey beer garden. Image Credit mancunianmatters.co.uk

It was a brash Man United football supporters haven in the 90’s before rebadging itself into a real ale pub and a subsequent name change to the Rose and Monkey. It is now a homely establishment, and the small stage is just inside the front door and has hosted events by The Blinders, Goa Express and John Bramwell of I Am Kloot fame who performed in the large beer garden at the rear which contains a fully functioning vegan bar in the summer. There is also a bonny resident pub dog called Django who has somewhat bizarrely been credited on a recent Mysterines album.  

My one musical visit there was during the 2019 Dot to Dot festival. It was the most geographical stretching version of that event I had attended, and we had walked up from somewhere in the Ritz area so were craving a quick sit down. They had closed the front door due to the proximity to the stage, so we gained access via the beer garden.

Upon entering we were met by the sound of a lass who was performing on a piano on the little stage, she had a beautiful voice and was a compelling soothing watch. The artist in question was Megan Dixon Hood from Macclesfield and she has been referenced in the ‘forest pop’ genre and perhaps could be likened to Florence and the Machine and she has recently released her debut album ‘East of the Sun’.   

Megan Dixon Hood. Image Credit bandsintown.com

Lancaster Venue 3 – Lancaster Library

One fantastic initiative that has appeared in the last 17 years (since 2005) is the award winning Get it Loud in Libraries and Lancaster Library was at the forefront, if not the first to undertake this commendable pursuit. The concept being rather simple to see high quality artists in the unusual intimate surroundings of the local library.

Many heavyweight performers have embraced this ethos as an antidote to playing soulless stadium venues. Many libraries have joined the roster including Coventry, Birkenhead, Barrow and Blackpool. Some of the names who have appeared are Florence and the Machine, Idles and Ellie Goulding. I also recall at Lancaster specifically that Frank Turner and Adele have graced the venue. I had attended one library gig before at Finsbury in February 89 to see Peggy Seeger and Ewan McColl and one after in 2017 to see Honeyblood at Wigan Museum of Life (which was actually a library). 

Lancaster Library resides in the northwest corner of Market Square, where in 1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie was proclaimed regent by the Jacobite Army. This library enterprise first caught my attention 263 years later in 2008 when Robert Forster was booked for a Lancaster slot.

Lancaster Library. Image Credit creativetourist.com

Robert being one half of the co-writing team alongside Grant McLennan in the enigmatic 1980’s Australian band the Go-Betweens. The gig took place in the front portion of the building and once you got used to the quirky setting, he was very enjoyable. There was an intermission allowing us to scamper over to the nearby John O Gaunt pub, and I recall Algarve Ray had also headed over from the gig and we discussed my recent holiday in the Algarve!

The next visit in 2011 was a double header with a difference as there were two gigs scheduled, one on the Saturday night and the other on Sunday afternoon. Due to the highly opportune synchronicity Gill and I decided to grab a cheap room for the night at the Best Western Hotel near the station.

I met Gill after the PNE match, and we caught a train over, and I recall watching Crawley losing narrowly to Man Utd in the FA Cup 5th round when we were getting changed at the hotel. We grabbed some tea at the 1725 Tapas restaurant on the opposite end of Market Square.

In the intervening three years they had created a stage in the larger room of the library to aid an increased capacity. The act that evening was a band from Ohio called Mona, whose driving force was Nick Brown, the band being named after his grandmother. I had seen them on Jools Holland, and I thought they had the look of a young Glasvegas about them.

Mona. Image Credit NME.

They had just won the BBC Sound of 2011 poll though not yet released their debut album. They garnered some stadium support slots later that year with Kings of Leon and the sound was arguably in the same bracket. On the night the lead singer had a decent set of pipes, and I enjoyed their set. 

The following day, we decided to grab some Sunday lunch and a couple of aperitifs at the Borough gastropub before the 3pm gig. Yuck were a London band that were releasing their self-titled debut album the very next day. They were firmly in the grunge bracket and created a fine racket though I think a night-time gig in a more unkempt venue would have been a better fit for them. They subsequently split in 2015 and were supported that afternoon by emo band Pegasus Bridge.            

My final visit there was on Monday 09/07/12 to see Low and a group of us pottered over to watch them. They were still most certainly in their usual soft hushed vein prior to the shift to their more recent guitar led material. One of the crew left halfway through as he found it all too maudlin, but I thought they were in fine form and the venue played to their strengths.

On arrival back in Preston we had a flier at the Vic and Station before someone foolishly suggested we take advantage of the Old Dog down in Church Street which during the week stayed open until 4am. I finally toppled out of said establishment at 2.50am, my one and only visit to the late bar. Thankfully I had booked Tuesday as leave, but it took me quite a while to beginning functioning the next day!