Tag: Husker Du

Manchester Venues 151 to 152

I am blessed with my current geographical Manchester location as there are regular multi-venue events, the latest to spring up is the Years End Festival which took place at the tail end of 2024 and is based in the main down the Oxford Road corridor. The remit of the days roster was for it to contain up and coming bands and most were guitar based, which suited me down to a tee.

The downside on the day was the monsoon and high winds weather conditions which was a tad bracing! I have previously detailed the Retro Bar downstairs area in an earlier blog, but this festival allowed me to attend a gig in the Manchester Retro Bar Area for the first time. I enrolled my pal Paul to be my wing man, and we met up at that site after we had both separately obtained our entry wristbands from the pickup point.

As I trotted down towards the building it soon became evident that there was a noisy combo already ensconced on the stage. I grabbed a cold beverage and settled in to watch a band called Revivalry who are a thumping three piece from Grimsby. They had such admirable confidence which is remarkable when viewed against the fact that none of the members are above 17 years of age. The lead singer and bassist Josh Courfield who was belting out the tunes looked about 12!

Revivalry. Image Credit grimsbytelegraph.co.uk

They are understandably reliant at this stage in being ferried to gigs around the country in the back of a transit van by one of their understanding tolerant parents and they were chosen to be the youngest band ever to play the Main Stage at the 2024 version of the Kendal Calling festival. They are on Manchester label Cosmic Glue and have already garnered support slots with Reverend and the Makers and The Lathums.  

In a novel twist they climbed down into the crowd to play an acoustic portion of their penultimate track before clambering back onto the stage for the electric second half of the song with full audience singalong participation. They were overall rather fine fun and good luck to them in their potentially burgeoning careers.    

Now, I have always endeavoured to never replicate myself in these articles but I make no apologies now for referencing a tale I mentioned briefly back in the mists of time in the second paragraph of Blog 1.

Hacienda nightclub. Image Credit manchestereveningnews.co.uk

My first ever venue visited in Manchester should have been at the Hacienda nightclub as we had tickets to see Husker Du there in early 1985. There was though a fundamental stumbling block of having no means of transport to be able to get there and back as my brother was between cars, I was too young to drive, and the last train departed at 10.30pm.

Thus, I never got to visit the Hacienda though thankfully did manage to see Husker Du twice in the next couple of years after the unfortunate ‘gig that never was’. To be perfectly honest though I am not overly gutted on that score as despite the club admittedly having a brief golden period, reports from my peers who attended there to see Trouble Funk and Killing Joke amongst others thought it was always sparsely populated and a little bit of a dump!    

One of the co-owners of the Hacienda was Peter Hook, who in 2010 collaborated with the Hacienda’s original interior designer Ben Kelly to renovate and reopen the former Factory Records HQ on Charles Street and Princess Street, opposite the Joshua Brooks public house. It opened as a nightclub and also stages student nights and live music and retained its original name as Manchester FAC251.

Toy Car. Image Credit facebook.com

On entry, my first impression that it was smaller than I had envisaged it would be. The bands that day were playing on the ground floor space with a 400-capacity called Manchester FAC251 Basement. There are apparently two other rooms, the first floor Loft and second floor Boardroom, both with a 200 capacity.  

The room had a metallic nightclub vibe about it, which is always a slightly odd scenario when watching acts at the earlier daylight hour’s time of 5pm. The band on stage was a scouse jingle jangle collective called Toy Car who are a fledgling act who have only thus far released a handful of singles, and they provided an engaging and energetic set.

Other British Gigs Part 7 – York

There is archaeological evidence that gives weight to the theory that the area of York existed as far back as 8000BC. As you cross over into an AD timeline the town was owned by the Romans and the Vikings, and it was subsequently significantly damaged in the Norman conquest of 1066. In later times, it prospered as the urban centre of Yorkshire and remarkably in 1660, it was the third-largest city in England behind London and Norwich.

Famous York folk include Judi Dench, Frankie Howard, former England manager Steve McClaren, composer John Barry and the bands Shed Seven and the 1980’s ‘anarchists’ The Redskins who once famously in 1984 brought a striking miner onto stage on Channel 4’s The Tube to make a speech during their song but his microphone was switched off! They also must have a sweet tooth in the area as the chocolatiers Joseph Rowntree and Joseph Terry (latterly of Chocolate Orange fame) were born there. 

The Redskins. Image Credit Pinterest

York is literally stacked with history and remarkably contains 34 conservation areas, 2084 listed buildings, 22 ancient monuments and a plethora of olde worlde atmospheric old boozers! I have very fond memories of visiting York as a child and tromping along the remnants of the city walls.

We reacquainted about 20 years ago with some old friends that Gill trained with back in the day and geographically York was a mutually agreeable meeting place to have a rendezvous. We had three annual trips and, on each occasion, coupled it with a jaunt to the nearby Wetherby races and I recall one drunken night visiting the local branch of Popworld! On one of those forays, I also remember being in a boozer there watching Michael Owen score two late goals for England to win a terrific match 3-2 against old rivals Argentina.  

The small downsides are that the city can be a tad touristy and has a rather complex one-way traffic system. To mitigate this, we now choose to travel there on the train and tend to stay at the nearby Premier Inn. As a train enthusiast I always try and make a pilgrimage to the terrific and heartily recommended Railway Museum which first opened its doors in 1975. There are even two public houses encased within the station, namely the Duke of York and the York Tap to whet your whistle before the journey home!     

My favourite ever racecourse is located in the city and the races have taken place since 1731 on the nearby Knavesmire accessed via a short shuttle bus ride from the station. The Knavesmire is a large green space where the gallows were originally located, and Dick Turpin was hanged there in 1739. It is such a good viewing course and exemplifies one of my visualisations of the ‘green and pleasant land’.

York Racecourse. Image Credit webaviation.co.uk

When in attendance in 2018 there was a pop-up stage in the York Races County Stand, where we saw Dr Jazz who are a local 6-piece Great Gatsby band who play songs from the 1920/1930’s era and are bedecked in top hat, waistcoats and bow ties. We saw the same band again at our most recent visit a couple of months ago.

In 2018 they also had another band called Dr Thirsty playing on the York Races Tattersalls Stage, who are a wedding and function band. On our next visit the following year we witnessed Superlicks, a locally based three piece ‘party’ band.  On our latest trip they had then set up a bespoke area thus creating York Races Tattersalls Stage 2 where the Irish Jags were performing some woeful covers. Additionally, by the bus pick up area there was the York Racecourse Stage where a singer called Ed Winchard was playing.  

On the 2024 visit we decided to stay a couple of nights and on the Thursday, we discovered a terrific pub called the Market Cat, a three-storey establishment with views of the market and the archaic streets of the city. They had a comprehensive selection of fine ales and tidy looking pizzas. Best of all, they had a fine indie soundtrack, and I heard tracks by the View, Sea Power and most excitingly Husker Du whilst ensconced there. On our way back to the digs we caught a chap called Barney playing in York Brewdog.

Market Cat viewpoint. Image Credit tripadvisor.co.uk

We braved the chaotic local Wetherspoons for breakfast on race day and had a good sally round the city post -racing including a sly return visit to the Market Cat. On the Saturday we were on York St Helen’s Square, off Stonegate which was the original location for the departure point for stagecoaches to London. On a pop up stage, we saw Malachy playing whilst three years earlier we witnessed local four piece King No-One there. The latter recently played at the Year End Festival I attended in Manchester a couple of weeks ago.