Tag: Foals

Liverpool Venues 28 to 30

I am starting this week with a recent addition within the Mathew Street Cavern Quarter, namely Liverpool Temple Tavern. The hostelry initially opened its doors in June 2025 taking over the old Reiss store that was located there previously. They are owned by local independent Pub Invest Group who also hold the reins on forty other sites in the city including the nearby Erics and Rubber Soul.

It is split over two floors with grand interiors and comes complete with outdoor tables for those ‘summer nights’. Music is featured at various points during the week under the banner of Trad sessions and on my one foray I saw a local artist called Steve performing.

Temple Tavern. Image Credit liverpoolecho.co.uk

I now return to the Sounds of the City Festival I attended in May 2025 where our next port of call was the Jacaranda on Slater Street (known locally as the Jac). It was opened in 1958 by a forward thinking geezer called Allan Williams who leased an old watch repair shop and then transformed it into a coffee bar. It provided a stage for fledgling local bands and was a key player in the rise of Merseybeat in the 1960’s.

Four young scamps named John Lennon, Stuart Sutcliffe, George Harrison and Paul McCartney were regular visitors and were called The Silver Beetles. The first two named paid for some rehearsal space by painting murals in the cellar, which unsurprisingly remain to this day.

The venue also hosted the first ever Beatles performance in August 1960 where they played as a five-piece for 2.5 hours with the addition of Pete Best. They had to improvise microphone stands by utilising broom handles held aloft by fans. Their reward was to be paid with beans on toast and Coca-Cola, and they proceeded to deputise for the regular house band the Royal Caribbean Steel Band every Monday night.  

Jacaranda Beatles wall. Image Credit beatlesstory.com

The afore mentioned owner of the establishment secured their first tour to Hamburg also in 1960, where they actually set off from outside the Jacaranda in Mr Wiliiam’s green Austin van. He also introduced them to Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr) who was a club regular and at that stage a drummer for Rory Storm & The Hurricanes.

Cynthia Lennon cites that John completed the lyrics to ‘One After 909’ song in the venue, the song then later reappeared on the Let It Be album. Allan Williams was invited to those album recording sessions, and in the footage, John is heard to say ‘Where do you think you are? The Jacaranda?’ They parted ways after that with Brian Epstein taking over the management reins, and the rest as they say is history.    

Fast forward then to the mid-1990’s and the place was literally on its knees and in a derelict state. The new owner Graham Stanley restored it but in the upgrades was considerate of its history.

In 2018 he also launched two related record shops, coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the original opening. One was based within the original building and the other Jacaranda Baltic located nearer to the waterfront. In one of the branches, he managed to purloin a 1948 voice-o-graph booth, only one of four working versions that exist in the world. Many album launches have taken place there including Foals, Stereophonics, Wunderhorse and The Pretenders.  In 2024 a blue plaque was installed based on its Beatles connection.  

Upon entry you find yourself in the homely Jacaranda Ground Floor Bar where we saw a local singer called Freddie performing. At the top end of the large room there are steps that take you down to the main venue of Liverpool Jacaranda. It has a 400 capacity, and they have live music every night and like Cinderella morphs in another mode at the midnight hour at the weekends, with free live shows, namely Indie Rock Circus on Fridays and Rock N Roll Circus on Saturdays. The festivities are completed with open mic events on the Sunday.

The Jacaranda. Image Credit Liverpool Echo.

However, this is where I discovered one of the key challenges of this festival, even during an early afternoon slot, which was the fact that the small cellar venues were liable to fill out very quickly.

So, I had a new novel position of watching from halfway down the stairs and peering through with my nose against the glass and a muted sound travelling through the pane. But as I would arbitrate in my one man ‘gig VAR’ meetings, they all count! What I could see but only partially hear was some energetic folk sounds from Sair, who I can only obtain sketchy details about, but I think derive from Leeds.

Leeds Venues 4 to 5

Our initial destination en arrival at our first attendance at the Live at Leeds multi venue event in May 2014 was the huge Leeds Arena about 3pm to collect our all-important wristbands. As is my responsibility at these events I checked the timetable and map and swiftly morphed into my ‘sherpa’ role.

The first port of call was the Leeds Belgrave Music Hall and Canteen and what a great inaugural venue it turned out be. It is located in the Northern Quarter and as you know, any aspiring city needs to have a Northern Quarter! It first opened in 1934 as Leeds Children’s Palace, dually serving a function as a recreation hall and nursery school.    

   

Leeds Belgrave Music Hall and Canteen. Image Credit Yorkshire Evening Post.

The three-storey building fell into repair until it was restored under its current guise in 2013. It is an Aladdin’s cave as it contains two kitchens, two bars and most importantly a 300-capacity multipurpose event space as it hosts comedy, art exhibitions, films alongside live bands. There is also a fine roof terrace which we visited briefly after purchasing a terrific local cask ale from one of the bars.

The venue itself had a good vibe and contained a decent vantage from all angles to the stage. It was about two thirds full even at this early point in the afternoon perhaps due in part to its proximity to the ticket outlet point but also due to the quality of the venue.

We saw half the set of Pet Moon from Oxford. The band is essentially Andrew Mears, a former member of the city bedfellows the Foals and of prog band Youthmovies Soundtrack Strategies. You could discern those clear influences in the math rock derived sounds emanating from the stage.

Prior to attending our next venue, a quick football score check was required as it was the last day of the football reason with my team Preston’s play-off opponents being confirmed as Rotherham United. As any regular subscribers would know by now you don’t need to ask who subsequently won the play-off match!

Still contained within the Quarry Hill district you would find the Leeds College of Music which moved to its current location in 1997.This establishment has had many different names since it was founded in 1965 and it is now listed as Leeds Conservatoire. In 2011, it was awarded All-Steinway School status, becoming uniquely the only conservatoire in England to have 90% of its pianos from the renowned Steinway family.

Leeds College of Music. Image Credit konsultanpendidikan.com

As with many institutions of this ilk, they have a list of previous alumni including many from the jazz domain but also Badly Drawn Boy and Ryan and Gary Jarman from local combo The Cribs. In a slightly more obscure vein, the members of We Are Domi, who represented the Czech Republic at the recent 2022 Eurovision Song Contest met and formed whilst in attendance at the College of Music.

The Conservatoire hosts an annual programme of concerts in its 350 seated auditorium which has the highly original title of ‘The Venue’. Three years after our attendance in 2017 the performance space was revamped with a rooftop extension.

The band on stage when we arrived were Arc Iris, an indie band from Rhode Island and contain Jocie Adams, a former member of the Low Anthem who was also briefly a NASA technician. To be fair, the music was too loungecore and wonky structure for my tastes, which then presented the conundrum of  how to shuffle out politely as there weren’t many attendees and it was not one of those venues where you could watch from the back and head out accordingly.

In those circumstances I always adopt the approach of leaving mid-song whilst the band are in flow and distracted, which is exactly what we did, heading on to the next venue and continuing the gig journey!