Bolton is a former textile mill town in Greater Manchester and in its industrial peak in the 1920’s there were over 200 cotton mills in the area employing 36,000 workers people making it one of the most concentrated cotton spinning centres in the world. The northern side of town faces Rivington Pike and the locally famous Winter Hill TV mast on the West Pennine Moors. Famous ex-punters include comedian Peter Kay, steeplejack Fred Dibnah and boxer Amir Khan. They also have a baseball team based there with the memorable moniker of Robots of Doom.
Bolton Robots of Doom emblem. Image Credit news.ltn.com.tw
My first forays into Bolton were on football trips and in fact the first ever away game I attended on my own following Preston was at their old ground of Burnden Park with the terraces adjacent to Normid superstore! A group of us went over on the train, we drew 2-2 and the game took place on 17th December 1983.
The significance of that date is contained in the tale that when I was walking back to the station and put my transistor radio on (pre-internet!) to check the football scores I was instantly approached by two policeman. The reason for their interest was for any details of the news headlines, but I had only picked up on the sports results so could not provide any information. It transpired the only news headline that day was of the IRA Harrods bombing in London.
Many football trips followed including a couple at their new stadium at Horwich retail park when they relocated there in 1997. A particular nadir was in May 1993 when Bolton beat us 1-0 to gain promotion and that result also relegated us, a particularly fun afternoon that one!
The old away end at Burnden Park, at least you could do some shopping after! Image Credit Fine Art America.
I recall in the mid 1990’s I had a prang in my motor which necessitated obtaining a new bonnet. The sourcing of that particular car part took me to an anonymous retail park under railway sidings in Bolton. The suspicious looking geezers and location was akin to completing a deal outside a lock-up in the Sweeney!
Aside from the above occurrences it is a place I have rarely frequented despite it being a 30-minute train ride from Preston as we would normally just pass through on the way to Manchester, I only have recollection of one pub trip over that way.
On a musical front, there have never been any venues of note there apart from a brief period in 2009 when a venue called the Soundhouse opened with a 650 capacity. I picked up that Glasvegas were playing there but dawdled on tickets and it subsequently sold out on me. Shortly after that gig the venue abruptly closed for good.
However, the musical gods decided to give Bolton a second chance with the inception of the Right to Roam festival, a metropolitan multi venue music and arts event around the town centre. Jez Catlow flagged it to me as an event of interest after he attended the 2022 version. The tickets were only £10 and there were over 100 bands performing over two days, though not altogether sure how the organisers break even.
Marcus, Anita and I decided to head over to catch up with Jez’s crew on the Saturday of the July 23 shindig. The trip started surreally as at my local train station there was a pillock who instead of taking the standard route via the main road between platforms decided to hop across the actual track. I don’t whether there is a third ‘live’ rail on my route, but if so, he avoided it!
The ticket pick up point was in the basement of the Grade II listed Market Hall which opened in 1855 and encompasses an area of 7000 square yards and at the time it was cited as ‘the largest covered market in the kingdom’.
Bolton Market Hall. Image Credit flickr.com
Next door was Bolton Bar Four in the Vaults which opened its doors in 2022 and championed music and young upcoming acts in an intimate setting. First up there was the former Hacienda glass collector and Inspiral Carpets frontman Tom Hingley with an acoustic set. Later, we saw Double Cross who were an acoustic harmonica and guitar duo.
I have just read that the bar is closing as they are a making a loss and the business will be moving into the new market food hall where they hope to maintain the music slant with open mic nights at weekends. The owners will continue to run their other music sites, the Ramp and the Loft, both in nearby Horwich.
