Tag: James

Manchester Venue 191 Gorilla – Part 1

On Whitworth St, directly opposite Manchester Ritz and within a literal stumbling distance from Manchester Oxford Road rail station you will find Manchester Gorilla. The venue is uniquely situated under a railway arch and was previously the arts, theatre and comedy site The Green Room back in the 1980’s. On the comedic front Alan Carr, Steve Coogan and Caroline Aherne graced that stage and James and Doves played early gigs there.

When that business closed the Trof Group took over the running and Gorilla initially opened its doors in 2012. Its future looked extremely perilous during the pandemic, but thankfully a new owner was sourced and that saved the day, and it is now linked to its sister site of Deaf Institute nearby on Oxford Road.

Gorilla. Image Credit discover.ticketmaster.co.uk

There is a tidy little bar at the front of the venue but there is no access from there to the gig space, apart from sometimes being directed by ‘Rock Steady’ to exit gigs through this bar area. The actual entrance is around the corner under the tunnel, and a few stairs brings you into the main room with a 550 capacity. 

It is a well laid out space with a merchandise stall to the left and the extendable/removable stage at the bottom of the room. However, like many other locations it can be arguably too busy when at full capacity, presenting logistical challenges when trying to access the two bars and even move around!  It also has a raised platform at the back of the hall with a smattering of elevated seats.

It generally provides good sound and local lad Johnny Marr talks very warmly about the venue and has actively encouraged his peers to include a touring date there. They have regular club nights with promoters such as Guilty Pleasures and Now Wave.

I have attended eighteen gigs there over the years with my first show being British Sea Power in April 2013. I have now seen them six times in total, and this was my second sighting 11 years after I discovered their unique stagecraft at the Leeds Festival in 2002. I recall them being introduced on stage by 6 music DJ Marc Riley.

Near to the culmination of the set, I nipped to the loos which are positioned behind the stage and encountered a chap dressing up into an eight-foot polar bear outfit. Before you ask, nobody had put anything suspicious in my beer, it was actually a tradition the band had at the stage of their career where a couple of bears would parade around the mosh pit during the encore!   

The bears and the band in action. Image Credit NME.

A month later, I returned as the venue was part of the roster for the sorely missed multi venue Dot to Dot festival. On that particular day I saw the aforementioned Marc Riley faves Teleman. The original germination of the band was the three members Pete Cateermoul and the Sanders brothers, Johnny and Thomas who were part of Pete and the Pirates. After they disbanded, they were joined by drummer Hiro Ama and became Teleman in 2011. I have always thought they have an intriguing sound, and they lived up to that in a live setting.

Also performing were the Wildflowers who were formed in 2012 and based in Brighton and Bristol. The driving force is main songwriter Siddy Bennett and her sister Kit who had an interesting bohemian upbringing via living on boats, caravans or in protest camps. They have a country punk sound and were coined in the early days as ‘Punk Dolly Parton’s’. Their breaking moment was a set they played at South by Southwest festival in Austin Texas that inspired Detroit label Original 1265 Records to sign them up. I could hear diverse elements in their sound ranging from Mamas and Papas to White Stripes.  

Next up was the old troubadours Nada Surf where the gig was completely sold out and they were touring their latest album ‘You Know Who You Are’ and were in as fine form as ever as they have now amassed a quality back catalogue. 

In August 2014 Gill and I headed over to watch Joan As Policewoman, whose stage name was a homage to the 1970’s television cop show called Police Woman starring Angie Dickinson. Her actual name is Joan Wasser who was adopted at a young age and was musically precocious as she had piano lessons at the age of six and violin tutelage at the age of eight. She started her professional musical career in the Boston University Symphony Orchestra.

Joan as Policewoman. Image Credit blogspot.com

Then to paraphrase Neil Young around the time of his commercial peak of recording ‘Harvest’, who was quoted as saying ‘It put me in the middle of the road, travelling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there’. Joan adopted this ethos literally as she was jaded by the classical structure so did a full U-turn and morphed into being a member of various punk bands.

She suffered personal heartache in May 1997 when her fiancé of three years Jeff Buckley accidentally drowned in Memphis. At the time we saw her, she had just released her fourth solo album ‘The Classic’ but surrounded herself with a touring band for the live dates.

In March 2016 I saw Pelican for the second time after their staggeringly loud show a few years before at the Ruby Lounge venue across town. They are classed in the post-metal genre; there is literally a label for everything! They are entirely instrumental and produce long slabs of glorious brutal noise and three of their members are also part of the band Tusk. The show wasn’t as intense as the previous one, but still very good. 

Electric Fields Festival – Part 2

This week I shall continue the tale of our attendance at the 2018 Electric Fields Festival in Drumnlarig Castle in Dumfries and Galloway. It was a three-day event, but we decided to head up there for Days 2 and 3 which were the Friday and the Saturday thereby missing Orielles, Ride and James amongst others on the Thursday’s roster.

I now had an extra hour on my journey with the initial leg from Manchester to Preston where I picked up Jez Catlow and Uncle George en route. We then decamped at the Booths Café in Fulwood and nursed a cappuccino whilst awaiting John Dewhurst finishing work. We all then dived into John’s transit van with the additions of his brother’s Paul and Tony who were also in attendance.

Now, fate and timing had dealt us a kind hand due to the fact that Paul’s sister-in-law Bernie had recently opened up a bed and breakfast in Dumfries located centrally near the train station. She generously offered to provide lodgings and fed and watered us for the weekend, a lovely lady she was!   

The Electric Fields ‘Red Stripe’ posse. Image Credit Tony Dewhurst.

On arrival, we had a skelp around some of the town’s hostelries before jumping into a cab down to the festival entrance point. We slid down the hill and it was a green tinged and pretty location, and the weather was thankfully behaving itself.

They had pronounced themselves as being encompassed within the boutique festival category, and the set up reminded me of the Connect Festival I attended at Inverary Castle back in 2007. They also had the huge bonus of a real ale tent which provided a welcome alternative to the frothy Tennents Lager!

It was quite a small site, and the acts played across two areas, the Main Stage and BBC Introducing Stage. I have struggled to find a day bill listing so am going to rely on my memory as to who I think played each day.

First up were Out Lines who are on Mogwai’s Rock Action label and are a collaboration of Kathryn Joseph, producer Marcus Mackay and Twilight Sad’s James Graham and they had recorded their one and only album ‘Conflats’ the year before.

There was then some psych-pop from Hallo Maud, MC rapping from Lady Leshurr, indie rock from Soccer Mommy and ex Coventry University students Feet, hip hop from Edinburgh’s Young Fathers and a perennial festival appearance from The Coral.

I witnessed a decent country folk set from Tracyanne & Danny who were a collaborative project consisting of Tracyanne Campbell from Camera Obscura and Danny Coughlan from Crybaby. There was a fun performance from the old troubadours Idlewild who I was witnessing for the seventh time and then Teenage Fanclub who fitted into the day like your old Arran sweater!

The most enjoyable set of the day was from Public Service Broadcasting. They were in fine form and the best I have seen them, and they had just recently expanded their sound to include sporadic blasts of joyous brass which only enhanced the sonics of their performance. There were then some predictable taxi shenanigans, but we eventually made it back to our digs.   

On the Saturday we attended a couple of pubs on the other side of the river to make it easier for a tax pick up. In one hostelry there were a posse of disgruntled Queen of the South fans, Dumfries football team, who had left the nearby ground in disgust when they were 4-0 down to Ayr at half time!

Idles on stage. Image Credit www.pinterest.com

I saw a portion of the Horrors set and some rock/dance crossover sounds from Makeness which consists of a UK based producer called Kyle Molleson. The latter has recently had his biggest tour so far with a support slot with Unknown Mortal Orchestra. I also caught a noisy performance from Brighton band Black Honey and a couple of tracks from Noel Gallagher & the High Flying Birds on the Main Stage.  

My favourite three acts of the day were on the BBC Introducing Stage with first up being Baxter Dury. He has chiselled out of a music career for himself and moved away from being famous just for the fact that he was Ian’s son. Next on were Sunflower Bean, a three-piece from New York who I thoroughly enjoyed with their swirly sounds, reminding me of Fleetwood Mac and The Orielles.

 The undeniable highlight was Idles who are a proper throwback band with their socially conscious ethos, passion and glorious intensity. They pour everything into each performance and must be absolutely exhausted afterwards. The only downside was that we had already booked a cab for a specific time which resulted in only catching two thirds of their show, and I never yet seen them again!  

The New Bazaar. Image Credit cdlh.co.uk

The day’s music wasn’t finished though as when we landed back in town, we headed to Dumfries New Bazaar. The pub’s main claim to fame was that it was the location of the formation of the aforementioned Queen of the South and there is a plaque to commemorate that first formal meeting on 26th March 1919. On the night we saw a local band called Nearly Not Guilty which wrapped up nicely the weekend’s entertainment.