Tag: Husker Du

Manchester Venues 40 to 43

Back in the 1980’s the only available train from Preston to Manchester was an once an hour service into Manchester Victoria Station and the last train home was at the rather useless hour of 10.30pm, in those days the band may not even have hit the stage as gigs had much later start times. Any track into Victoria also always appeared to be a Northern all stopper exploring the delights of Lostock, Blackrod and Adlington on its journey over.

The station was designed by George Stephenson and built in 1844 and now caters for around 10m customers per annum. It also contains a central hub of the metro system and I have caught a few trams home from there. It has an ageing grandeur within, and one interesting fact is that I had my best ever Hot Chocolate from one of the kiosks here prior to a last train.

I once slept in a waiting room on the platform following my first Husker Du gig at Manchester International in 1985 on a cold Friday night before catching the first train at 6am on the Saturday morning. Much like Piccadilly Station the Preston trains annoyingly departed from the furthermost point from the entrance which is the full length of the station and to add insult to injury you then need to head up and over some steps to reach the platform. I have witnessed many punters whilst sat on the last train doing a comedy slowing down run when they realise the chase is futile, I have also on a couple of occasions been one of those punters!

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Manchester Victoria Station pre refurbishment with a high speed engine on the track. Image Credit Geograph Britain and Ireland.

Victoria is located adjacent to the MEN arena from which you can exit directly onto the station. On the 03/11/17 whilst waiting to meet Gill I witnessed the King Division Brass Band playing on the concourse.

Not being a natural shopper, I tend to skirt around Market Street in the centre but traversing home one evening just after we moved to Manchester on 20/09/17, I was distracted by a full set up called Marley Band playing some reggae/dub sounds on the sidewalk opposite Skechers.  

Within the sanitised environs of the Arndale Centre nearby in April 18 I witnessed a huge roving combo containing a plethora of drummers called Sergeant Pepper Band who produced bizarre Beatles covers.

Now, the purists out there may scoff at the three venues outlined thus far and I admit they are a smidge tenuous but in the spirit of fair debate I would refer you back to my previous Definition of a Gig and a Venue blog article as evidence for the defence!   

However, I will finish this week with an undisputable venue. This one perhaps best portrays my dedication (nee fixation) in sourcing new venues. Thus, upon leaving the Ritz on 25/03/14 after an early set by Band of Skulls me and Uncle George jumped into a cab to locate the Eagle Inn in Salford.

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Eagle Inn in Salford. Image Credit eventthestars.co.uk

The pub is located on 18-19 Collier St, a 5-minute walk from Vic Station but literally buried deep within some ramshackle windswept streets. It is a Grade 2 listed building dating from 1902 and is a traditional Joseph Holts brewery back street boozer.

There is a terracotta plaque of an eagle with a name above the door but is also known by the name of the Old Lamp Oil. The attached cottage was converted into a live music venue that opened in October 2013 and is now a separate room off the main bar with a small stage built into the brickwork.  

On the night in question, we arrived after the main band Buller had taken the stage and I negotiated a reduced-price entry after I explained our considerable detour to arrive there.

It was an interesting venue and worth a visit, and we had wisely pre-ordered the original cab to take us back to the station for the last leg home. Further out into Salford from there is another enticing sounding venue called the White Hotel which I have not yet managed to visit, but I plan to rectify that one day!   

Gigs from Abroad Part 2 – Bremen

I have been fortunate to have a group of like-minded pals who for around 15 years as a group have had a weekend jaunt to different European cities. I have attended ten of these shindigs and they are a combination of a splash of culture and a large dollop of beer! They have thus far been mainly based in Germany, but we have also visited Holland, Belgium and Portugal.

My first trip was to the scenic city of Cologne with its gothic cathredral where we also visited the old capital of Bonn. My second sojourn was in January 2010 to Bremen in the North west of Germany. On arrival on the Thursday it was a short tram ride from the airport to our hotel opposite the Hauptbahnhof.     

That evening we headed out for a good sally to the bars in the University end of the City and found a terrific bar where they had a rarely sighted posted of Husker Du ‘Metal Circus’ and they also had a band advertised for the following evening, so plans were hatched for a return visit. Bremen also being the home of Becks beer, a brew that I find a bit metallic tasting at home was transformed in its home town environment. There were many variants, Haake Becks being my favourite.

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The rather fine Haake Becks. Image Credit canmusuem.com

It has become a tradition on these trips to partake a train trip on Day 2 to a nearby town and on this occasion, Bremerhaven was chosen, the location being a port city on the North Sea coast. The weather that weekend was biting and to arrive by the waters edge took this to a new glacial level, resulting in being possibly the coldest place I have ever visited. Tony Dewhurst pottered off to the local zoo where he said even the polar bear was trembling!  

We walked around shivering and after spying the rare sight of a C&A next to a Woolworths on the main shopping drag and visiting the submarine museum we went searching for an aperitif. This proved tricky as there was a dearth of bars, but we eventually located one near the station. The mein host was a tad miserable but we stacked the jukebox and had a couple of brews prior to heading back into Bremen.

Whilst heading to the gig that evening, we saw a poster advertising that the indefatigable UK Subs had played in a local venue the night before which we unaware of until that point in time!

I am not altogether sure what it called so it shall be known as The Eisen Bar. It was infinitely busier than the previous night and was packed to the rafters. The headline band were a local group called International Removals who were of the post-punk variety singing in English and produced a thoroughly enjoyable set. A google search informs me they are still in operation which gladdened me to see, and their recent output sounded good.   

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The Eisen Bar with the Husker Du ‘Metal Circus’ poster in the foreground. Image Credit Facebook

A central gathering point in German cities is the main Train station with trains running until very late. It is also a hub for food outlets, and we devoured some unwholesome snacks about 2am.

We were heading back to the hotel when one chap in the crew highlighted that he had seen an indie nighclub called ShagAll on the far side of the square, so we foolishly headed over to investigate. What an absolute gem of a place where the DJ playing a blinder and more Becks were supped, I recall Electric Six’s ‘Gay Bar’ being aired. This quality musical output resulting landing back at the digs at 4.50am!

5.5 hours later I was awoken by my roommate Dave Keane informing me we had to vacate the room by 11am. He was in fact incorrect as it was noon, thereby losing one hour of absolute golden slumber! Outside the hotel Bayern Munich fans were streaming past on their way to their Bundesliga match against Werder Bremen, who are coincidentally but unsurprisingly sponsored by Becks Brewery.

We mulched around town for a bit with stifling hangovers before heading to Paddys Pit, a subterranean Irish bar near the hotel. The reason for this alcoholic masochism was to watch PNE in a FA Cup tie v Chelsea.     

The first pint equated to the hair of a very vicious Rottweiler but worryingly I soon started to come around. We subsequently lost the match 2-0 and had some good-natured banter with locals who were in residence for the Bremen v Munich match immediately following our game.   

From there, we grabbed a taxi to the airport for the short flight back to Liverpool. We had pre-booked a taxi from a firm who turned out to be charlatans as they had not even departed from Preston by the time we had landed. When they eventually arrived, we remain convinced the driver had impaired version as he only very nearly avoided an incident at Switch Island!  

On arrival back in Preston we grabbed a sit-down curry in the Royal Piri Piri restaurant on East View on Deepdale Road, near the old Hollywood Bar and Stephenson Arms, before finally heading home for some desperately needed sleep!