Manchester Venues 122 Deaf Institute – Part 2

Nearby to the Deaf Institute Music Hall on the same side of Grosvenor St is the Footage pub (previously Flax and Firkin) which is a large vibrant pub with craft ales and many TV screens showing the latest sports. Just around the corner is the basement Umami Noodle Bar which has been a regular pre-gig eating stop for over 20 years.

The Footage with the Trof Deaf Institute sign in the background. Image Credit Zomato.com.

My first gig there was on 02/07/09 when I saw Nine Black Alps, a four-piece band from Manchester whose original moniker was The Chelsea Girls. The Alps name was selected from a line in a Sylvia Plath poem. I had picked up on them initially via their belting debut album ‘Everything Is’ which I still play periodically to this day.   

A couple of years later I had to cancel at short notice a trip to my brothers in Nottingham thus missing a Kyuss (forerunners to Queens of the Stone Age) gig. I was kicking my heels and a couple of lads were off to see Killing Joke, so I tagged along, but discovered on arrival at the Academy that their gig was sold out. A variant C approach then evolved by quickly checking that night’s gig listings and identifying an event at the Deaf that I could attend and then meet up after with the boys for the train home.

I struck lucky as the act on that particular night was the Dum Dum Girls whose name derived from a Vaselines album and an Iggy Pop song, thereby displaying their musical influences. Originally it was a solo project for Californian Kristin Gundred who then renamed herself as Dee Dee. After she signed up with legendary label Sub Pop three more girls were added into the band including the drummer Frankie Rose who has also been in Crystal Stilts, Vivian Girls and Frankie Rose and the Outs.

Dum Dum Girls. Image Credit Fanpop.

They disbanded in 2016 where Dee Dee then became Kristin Kontrol and her sound morphed more into the synth pop arena. She also around that time provided an excellent atmospheric cover of one of my favourite Jesus and Mary Chain tracks ‘Teenage Lust’. They were enjoyable live with many of the tracks coming off their debut album ‘I Will Be’ and reflecting the geographical location they were playing in, they decided to finish their set with a cover of ‘There is a Light That Never Goes Out’.  

Next up was one of those ‘right place right time’ moments that only occur very occasionally in one’s gig going journey. During my attendance at the Dot-to-Dot festival in May 2013 I had sighted on the roster an upcoming band I had just become aware of, and at that stage had only released two singles. The band in question who were performing in a teatime slot were Wolf Alice.

The venue filled up just before they landed on stage, and they were stunningly good, and rarely have I seen a young band who had such poise and justifiable confidence in their sound and ability.  At one quiet point between tracks a punter at the bar said in an awed voice ‘outstanding, absolutely outstanding’ which received a shy thankyou from lead singer Ellie Rowsell.  They finished with their superb first single ‘Fluffy’ and it was plainly obvious they were destined for great things including subsequently headlining Glastonbury stages and Mercury Music prizes.

As the set arrived at a tumultuous finale and the band left the high stage Ellie was struggling to step down so I proffered a hand to assist her which she gratefully accepted. Musical royalty was touched in that very instance and I am sure Ellie has not washed her hand since!   

Wolf Alice. Image Credit nylon.com

In October 2013 I went to see White Hills for the first time who are a stoner psychedelic rock band from New York and provided a pleasing slab of white noise. They have had a prolific output since their formation in 2003 and have recorded over fifty releases incorporating an impressive twelve studio albums. In their early days they were championed and supported by Julian Cope and were also cherry picked to appear as a live band in a scene of a 2012 Jim Jarmusch movie ‘Only Lovers Left Alive’.  

There then followed a gap of 4.5 years until my next visit in March 2018. Gill and I headed down with our pal Laura Buckley to see an Icelandic dream synth pop band called Vok, the name translating as a ‘hole in the ice’. They had formed in 2013 and gained some instant recognition by winning Musiktilraunir, an annual Iceland music contest and the year before we saw them, they released their debut album ‘Figure’. 

Manchester Venues 54 to 56

Returning to the cosy environs of Salford’s Sounds from the Other City (SFTOC) festival this week, I am continuing to traverse down towards Salford Central train station. Behind the excellent New Oxford pub, lies the St Phillips Chapel Street Church.

The church is nigh on 200 years old and is a Grade 2 listed building and its architectural style is apparently Greek Revival. In addition to their Sunday services, they also have concerts, recitals, and community activities.

I have seen four gigs there; however, my first attendance was an individual visit on 10/12/10 outside of the SFTOC roster. It was the first time I had visited that area and Uncle George and I had a sally around a couple of local pubs before venturing to the venue. As it was my first Church gig, I was fascinated to see how it would pan out.

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St Phillips Church with Bexley Square in the foreground. Image Credit Pinterest

It was a surprisingly relaxed atmosphere however understandably toilet facilities were very limited. To my astonishment they served alcoholic beverages including a keg of real ale. We grabbed a drink as it would be rude not to and caught the support band Frankie Rose and the Outs who are a lo-fi indie group. Their driving force Frankie Rose is an ex-member of Crystal Stilts, Vivian Girls and Dum Dum Girls and the Outs consisted of a further three female members and their sound had a Spacemen 3 dream pop vibe.

Overcoming my ingrained Catholic guilt (it should be considered a medical condition!) from my youth regarding suitable activities in religious buildings, we took a pint of the finest ale to sit in the pews upstairs. We begin to watch a psychedelic rock outfit which was an odd experience in the surroundings we found ourselves in.

The band in question was Wooden Shjips, which has also resulted in a spin off band called Moon Duo. They hail from San Francisco and their sound consisted of long epic guitar wig outs. I have always found this genre of music in equal parts intoxicating but unsettling due to its repetitive psychedelic swirl!

My other three attendances were under the auspices of SFTOC. The first in 2012 was Withering Hand playing under the stage name Dan Willson. He is an Edinburgh based musician and previously played guitar for a group in Bishops Stortford called Tinfoil Circus amongst other bands and he has also supported Frightened Rabbit and King Creosote.

In 2017 I saw Ola and the following year the nattily titled Have you ever seen the Jane Fonda Aerobic VHS? They were a Finnish garage pop rock group with sweet melodies, a very odd combo but also good fun I seem to recall. 

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Have you ever seen the Jane Fonda Aerobic VHS? Image Credit discogs.com

Nearby the Church is one of the festival’s central hubs on Bexley Square. Located there was the Bexley Square Live Tent and in there in 2017 I saw Tobi Sunmola. Tobi was a young rapper who hails from Nigeria but is now based in Manchester and appears to be receiving some attention with airplay on national radio. The following year I witnessed Kxngs, an electronic loungecore act from London.

Next door to there in 2017 was the Bexley Square Bar Tent where alongside obtaining refreshments I saw Liohness, a drum and bass act who reside in Bristol.