Tag: Jesus and Mary Chain

Manchester Venues 110 to 112

When in attendance at the Sounds from the Other City festival (SFTOC) over the years we have found some interesting stops for food because as a Northern chap I view ‘tea breaks’ as hugely important! We have had pastel de nata from Porta Tapas, tasty offerings from Caribbean Flavas and the best ever Chicken Fried Rice and Curry Sauce from the infamous Chungs Chippy. On my first visit in 2012, Uncle George and I headed to a chippy nearby to the Salford Arms, sadly neither the pub nor the chippy are still operational.

As I perched on the windowsill waiting for my food, I started chatting to the lady sat next to me who was also wearing a festival wristband, I looked up and realised I was parlaying with the Salford resident and fine actress Maxine Peake. I have always a lot of respect for our Maxine as in my view she has a sound moral compass and is also a big muso.  She was at the point of time starring in the excellent TV drama Silk and the last I saw that day was her wandering off down the street to the next venue whilst hoovering up a bag of French fries!  

Maxine Peake in Silk. Image Credit BBC.

The venue next door was the Manchester Chapel Street and Hope United Reform Chapel which was built in 1819 and was Class II listed in 1980. I had read recently there are current plans to convert the site into a complex of flats and community centre.

I first visited there in 2012 and you accessed the building around the back before entering the main room. The band on stage was a Brighton duo called Peepholes who created synth led post-punk sounds.

My only other visit was at the 2017 festival where I recall Gill and I first encountered the colourful Cloudwater brewery cans that were on sale. Cult Party are a Manchester collective founded by multi-instrumentalist Leo Robinson and whilst we were watching they announced the next song would be an epic. They were true to the word as 15 minutes later we left the building, and the sprawling track was still meandering its way to its conclusion.

Cloudwater beer can. Image Credit shop.cloudwaterbrew.co.uk

Further down Chapel Street towards the city centre you will find Manchester Black Lion (downstairs venue) pub on the corner with Blackfriars Street, it is located across from the Sacred Trinity Church.  It is a grand old building dating back to 1776.

In 1889, the Van Dwellers Protection Association was formed there with the primary purpose of safeguarding and protecting fairground workers and barge dwellers who were at that stage being targeted by a local evangelist who carried a lot of political clout. This organisation evolved into the Showmans Guild in 1917, which still represents the business to this day. This commendable work was recognised on the centenary in 2017 with the introduction of a plaque on the pub wall.  

Black Lion pub. Image Credit itravelapi.com

In the downstairs area an act called Work Them were playing and in between a DJ set unexpectedly but gloriously played the little heard track ‘I Don’t Want to Be Friends With You’ by the Shop Assistants, containing the brutal line ‘but I don’t want to be civilised, you leave me, and I will scratch your eyes out’.

I went over to congratulate them on this song choice as I have always loved this short lived band, and they remain my favourite C86 combo and the best support act I have ever seen when they surpassed the headliners Jesus and Mary Chain with a stunning shoegazey set at Blackburn King Georges Hall in 1986.  

In that visit in 2012, we attended the other room, Manchester Black Lion (upstairs venue), where we saw a decent three piece shoegaze band from Manchester called The Shinies. They had at that stage only released one single prior to the issue of their one and only album ‘Nothing Like Something Happens Anywhere’ in 2015.  

2022 Gigs – Part 1

These articles will cover the gigs I have seen in 2022 that occurred in venues already covered in previous blogs.

An unwelcome and hugely disagreeable blast of Covid blighted Christmas 2021 and half of January for me, and as I am sure many others can relate to, has left me with a legacy of sporadic health dips since then. However, what the pandemic patently illustrated is that life is just too damn short, so I have continued to throw myself readily into attending as many gigs as feasibly possible!

In late January 2022, for the first time in my life I was called up on jury service. On my first day another attendee sat in my numbered seat resulting in a number change and in a ‘swinging doors’ moment they had a gentle one-day trial and were dismissed from service whilst I was thrown into a deeply unpleasant 11-day trial complete with emotional subject matter.

The Jury Room. Image Credit Coral Gables Art Cinema.

The other jury members were a fascinating cross section of society and I got pally with one chap as he was also a huge muso and regular gig goer and we have remained in touch and as a result he is obviously stored in my phone under the name of Barry Jury!

There have been a couple of high-profile trials recently at Manchester Crown Court, namely Olivia Pratt Korbel and Lucy Letby. The latter being a 10-month event and I have the utmost sympathy for anyone involved and impacted by that trial, including the jury members, who were understandably excused afterwards from jury service for the rest of their lives.

As they had been refurbishing the main court, my case was heard in the slightly strange environs of the Hilton Hotel but located fortuitously for myself right next to Deansgate station. As ever, I had my beady eye on a potential gig around that time but didn’t want to attend if the trial was still running. When it became evident that we would be delivering our verdict on 16/02/22 I prepared for a gig that evening.

It was however a chaotic travel day with high winds disrupting the metro and I had a catch a train in and metro home. Whilst walking home I contacted Uncle George and confirmed and purchased some tickets. Within the hour I was back on the train into town, and we headed on to Manchester Yes Pink Room.

The band playing was Nordic Giants, an unusual instrumental post rock duo who are adorned with masks on stage and have intriguing cinema shorts playing in the background, I thoroughly enjoyed their performance. The night predictably ended in a train cancellation and a resultant bus home; I slept well that night!    

Nordic Giants on stage. Image Credit Laut.

I attended another gig there in September to see Harriette Pilbeam, an Australian singer/songwriter who performs under the stage name Hatchie. It was on a Sunday night, and I ended up attending on my own so made the very unusual decision to drive, making it only about the fifth gig where I have done so. I am glad I made the effort to drag myself out as she was in good form.      

Also, in September I headed to their other venue Manchester Yes Basement to see Ducks Ltd, who hail from Toronto in Canada, and they are firmly in the Wedding Present mould, and they have also covered ‘Head On’ by Jesus and Mary Chain which can only be good things in my book!

Ducks Ltd. Image Credit entertainment-factor.blogspot.com

At the gig I finally met up with my first Twitter pals Sharon and Keith in a face-to-face environment who were very fine company. After the show Marcus, Paul and I rather shambolically stayed in the nearby Font Bar until the early hours, it was my last attendance at the bar as it closed forever a month later.