Tag: Half Man Half Biscuit

Manchester Venue 216 – Grafton Arms

Around eighteen months ago Gill had to undergo an unexpected major operation, but mercifully it went as well as could be expected and after a lengthy convalescent period she is now back fighting fit. One by product of this fraught period is that I gained unwanted but extensive knowledge of Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI).

A few years ago, they closed a suite of the outlying suburb establishments such as Pendlebury and Booth Hall hospitals and created a giant central hub. This behemoth of a site contains the aforementioned MRI, Manchester Royal Eye hospital, St Marys hospital and the Royal Manchester Children’s hospital and other education and research facilities.

It is situated within the Chorlton and Medlock suburb between Oxford Road and Upper Brook Street (A34), just beyond the Academy venues and lies opposite Whitworth Park. It is a mile long, and I know that as I have measured it when driving in! It contains two large car parks with commendable staff parking spaces available from the third floor upwards, though it can be a conundrum to obtain a public spot during visiting hours.   

Manchester hospital grounds. Image Credit curtismoore.co.uk

There is also a McDonalds, Starbucks and even an M&S Simply Food there. Several buses weave their way through, and it could be a mini country itself, in the mould of Vatican City! On a musical front the local Lime Art Studio undertake a lunchtime concert series which takes place in the Eye Hospital Atrium. They stage around 100 gigs annually with performances from jazz, classical and world artists.

As you depart the more northerly car park your eyes land on the MRI social club which is for staff members only with a £3 annual subscription. They have live sports and in a rather quaint throwback style they have a DJ (quite often DJ Billko based on their websites) on Payday Friday. Though as I wandered past I did wonder if they have ever had bash em up bands performing live there.

The club is now based in the hospital grounds but has had previous different locations and they also had a football team affiliated to them back in the 1970’s who staged their matches at the allegedly haunted and long closed Barnes Hospital in Cheadle. This was previously a mental asylum which always invokes memories for me of Arkham Asylum in Batman’s Gotham city, an establishment I would not have even sent my worst enemies to!

It was also once the setting for a co-produced Italian/Spanish 1974 zombie B movie called ‘Let Sleeping Corpses Lie’ known locally as ‘Don’t Open The Window’. As ever art then later imitated life with a portion of the film dialogue featuring in the 1997 ‘Wizard in Black’ track by Electric Wizard and Carcass had a song in 2020 called ‘‘The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue’ which matched another alternative English title of the movie.  

Barnes Hospital. Image Credit mark-davis-photography.com

Many hospitals now have a Discharge lounge to provide a waiting area to receive final medication and to await transport home. We were ensconced there for three hours, and it was a remarkable place resembling nothing less than a soap opera.

There was an Asian elder woman shouting out for bespoke service in a foreign language but in the main being roundly ignored, numerous malady discussions and a regular trip advisor chap who was providing extensive reviews of the soup and sandwich options on the wards, sounding not unlike a Half Man Half Biscuit track! There were also exceedingly weatherworn but patient staff, a piano in the corner and then to put the cherry on top the priest wandered in….

Just outside the hospital grounds is the Manchester Grafton Arms public house, which has had the same name since the 1950’s and in those days, it had a reputation as a rough house street corner boozer. It has been a long standing Holts Brewery hostelry, who in 1984, demolished the original and turned it into a much larger establishment.   

It has various music icon murals on the walls within, and they have ‘Jammin’ Thursdays and open mic nights and have also staged ‘Grafton-bury’ live events. I am not a regular frequenter and have never really seen it particularly busy despite its student based location, but for obvious reasons the mention of live music has always intrigued me.

Grafton Arms. Image Credit whatpub.com

I quite often pass on the way home to the bus stop after gigs at the Academy complex and on such occasion after a Slowdive show, I could hear tuneage so wandered in. Alongside a silent TV showing Blackburn playing in the extra time of an FA Cup tie there was a chap called Davie B performing.   

My other visit thus far was in May 2025, again after another gig. Now this was an interesting one as I caught the last three tracks of Pist. I wasn’t previously aware of them but researching on the bus home informed me that they derived from Connecticut and were quite legendary in the punk pantheon. They were on the circuit initially between 1993 and 1996 and reformed in 2023. It seemed a slightly incongruous venue for them, but they were excellent.

Their driving force was Bill Chamberlain who was the guitarist and chief songwriter. I have just rather sadly read that Bill passed away last year and their final ever gig was at the Cowley Club in Brighton, so it appears I witnessed them on their concluding tour. They reminded me of Black Flag, and their last single was ‘Right to Choose’ which exemplified their hardcore sound.    

Manchester Venue 191 Gorilla – Part 2

Manchester Gorilla had a coup a few years ago when none other than Kylie Minogue requested to play two intimate European dates prior to her upcoming arena tour and she chose to play Berghain in Berlin alongside the Gorilla. I believe as a result the tickets went like hot cakes!

My next visit to describe was the exceedingly welcome reformation of Rocket from the Crypt (RFTC), who in my personal view were the best live band on the circuit for a couple of years in the late 1990’s and was the first time I had witnessed them in twelve years. They were still in fine fettle, and I enjoyed the show.

Manchester Gorilla. Image Credit Visit Manchester.

The driving force of RFTC is the lead singer John ‘Speedo’ Reis, who owns the Swami record label and has also been in several other bands over the years including Pitchfork, Drive Like Jehu, Sultans, Night Marchers, Swami and Hot Snakes. In January 2018 I saw the last named act who serve up a more stripped down sound than RFTC where John was more in the background and during the first track dampened down the ‘Speedo’ chants from the admittedly sparse audience. They produced an urgent, vibrant and thoroughly enjoyable performance.   

On a cold January night in 2015 we trogged over to see Neneh Cherry for the first time. She was born in Sweden under the name of Neneh Mariann Karlsson and her half-brother is musician Eagle Eyed Cherry. She has punk heritage as a 15 year old member of the Slits and around that time roomed with lead singer Ari Up in a squat in Battersea. In 1989, she had a huge hit with ‘Buffalo Stance’ and has also dabbled in DJing and broadcasting.

She cut a spiky intriguing presence and was a veritable bundle on energy on stage and we very much enjoyed the show however we unfortunately had to scamper off early to guarantee we could catch a train home.   

The Slits. Image Credit billboard.com

Next up was Parquet Courts, a four piece from New York who met whilst at university in Texas. They were touring to support their fifth album ‘Human Performance’, for which the art and packaging of that particular release garnered a Grammy Award nomination.

Later that year, I had my latest dose of the unique Lovely Eggs who were in fine form. It was Gill’s first exposure to them, and she was swiftly converted. They were supported on the night by the Hornblower Brothers, who have nobody named Hornblower or any brothers in the lineup! What I can tell you is that they had more than a passing resemblance to Half Man Half Biscuit. A couple of years later in 2018 we saw the Eggs again there and they marked a milestone as it was the first time I reached a century of gigs in a calendar year.   

The next one on the roster was a band that I had been chasing for a long time, but events always seemed to conspire against me when they announced tour dates. The act in question was Mono, an instrumental band from Tokyo. They formed in 1999 and have released eleven albums in total, and my favourite is the epic titled ‘Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined’. In 2005 they took the unusual route of releasing a split album with the aforementioned Pelican and restricted the recording to vinyl and only 4000 copies.

They have more of a lush classical sound then their post-rock compatriots. They are seated when they play live, but they are definitely not Westlife as they break into some noisy sonic guitar sounds when the muse takes them. The only remaining band of this ilk who I have still not seen is Built to Spill.

Mono were joint headliners with French post-rockers Alcest, who started originally as a black metal combo before moving into less abrasive territory, and their sound evoked comparisons with My Bloody Valentine.   

Mono on stage. Image Credit asiapacificarts.org

In April 2018 I witnessed the Madrid majesty of the Hinds. They were originally a two-piece called Deers but risked legal action from The Dears so changed the name to their current moniker, but to a degree retained the original as it can be translated in some languages to ‘female deers’. They then morphed into a four-piece and released 4 albums before resorting back to a duo in 2023.

They are firmly in the garage rock domain with lovely harmonies and were terrific fun and had a fine stage banter and presence. My most recent attendance at the venue was in 2025 to see the band again for a second time. In 2019 I had my second sighting of Fontaines DC who were very entertaining again and were supported by Cut the Mustard.

At the final ever Dot to Dot festival later that year I saw Crows who provided some thunderously loud abrasive post-punk. Their latest album ‘Reason Enough’ was recorded in a former Catholic church and convent in Stroud and their lead singer James recently fronted the band Humanist on their arena support slots for Depeche Mode. Finally in May 2024 I saw Maybeshewill, a post-rock band from Leicester who I enjoyed as much as the previous time I had seen them at the Ferret in Preston in 2011.

Now, for the very eagle-eyed (not Cherry!) among you, you will have noted that I have only documented seventeen gigs at the venue, the eighteenth I will document next time in its own specific article, and the reasons for this will then become apparent.