Tag: Lancaster John O Gaunt

Gigs from Abroad Part 21 – Porto (Part 1)

In July 2024, Gill and I made our debut visit to the intriguing and picturesque city of Porto (also known as Oporto), Portugal’s second largest city behind Lisbon. I can now see why it was pronounced as a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1996, and chosen as Best European destination in 2012, 2014 and 2017 and also became the joint European Capital of Culture alongside Rotterdam in 2001.

In 1387 John I of Portugal married Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt. The latter geezer has an old grungy pub named after him in the centre of Lancaster and I am sure you will be unsurprised to learn that I have seen a band there! At that time the world’s oldest recorded military alliance, the Treaty of Windsor was signed between the two countries.

Famous people from the city include Ferdinand Magellan the globe circumnavigator, Olympic marathon winner Rosa Mota, footballer Dioga Jota and Rui Reininho, lead singer of rock band GNR, whose most renowned album was ‘Rock in Rio Douro’ released in 1992 and it topped the Portuguese charts for a remarkable nine months.

The other famous ex-resident is the Harry Potter author JK Rowling who was an English teacher there between 1991 and 1993. It is said that the impressive art deco Livraria Lello bookshop inspired her vision of Hogwarts, and she began drafting the first novel while ensconced in the city. We only managed to view the shop from the outside as we shuffled past as there were astoundingly long queues.     

Livrario Lello bookshop. Image Credit pandotrip.com

The city centre suffered a dramatic loss of population between 1970 and 2010 before tourism breathed new life back into the area, the previously abandoned buildings being turned into shops and fashionable restaurants, and even a McDonalds is now contained within one of those grand structures. My pal Jason Bax captured it perfectly with his apposite description of ‘charmingly derelict’ when he visited the city to attend the Coliseum to see Nick Cave back in 2008.

On our trip, we left from Manchester on a brutally early Sunday flight and arrived in the city late morning and grabbed some lunch opposite our hotel located within a stone’s throw of the atmospheric Sao Bento train station with its 20,000 glazed tiles designed by Portuguese painter Jorge Colaco.  

Later that day we headed over the hugely striking Porto Ponte de Dom Luis I Bridge over the River Douro, where you can walk across either on the lower level or across the higher level with the expansive views and you amble in the shared space alongside the metro. Just prior to there was a chap called Carlos who was serenading the punters with some jaunty tuneage.

Ponte de Dom Luis Bridge I. Image Credit creativemarket.com

Now I must say I am very partial to a good bridge and there are some absolute crackers here with the first one being built in 1806. The Dom Luis I followed in 1886, and another was designed by Gustav Eiffel, the chap who built that other one in Paris! The additional impressiveness only increases when you consider the fact of the extremely challenging logistics of their design as there are such steep drops down to the riverbank. Later on in the trip we went on a river cruise under all of these structures, which was a visual treat.

On the far side of the bridge in the Ribeira area, we arrived at Porto Jardim do Morro which sits at a historically significant location as it was contained within the Serra do Pilar grounds. This area housed an Augustinian monastery built in 1670, that due to its elevated position played an integral role during the Siege of Porto (1832-34) in Portugal’s Civil War. It is also the location of Sao Joao Festival, a traditional event that takes place every June and includes a firework display set against the panoramic background.   

Jardim do Morro. Image Credit portomoments.com

It is a very bonny green space and as we discovered a really popular communal area with a posse of families basking on the grass in the evening sunshine. There were ice cold beers and Ruffles crisps on sale from a nearby kiosko, both of which we obviously partook in and joined the locals in watching the sunset. Whilst we there we witnessed a local singer called Tiago Macarata.  

What I became instantly aware of is that are singers/artists dotted everywhere across the city, thus I have honed the ones recorded in my annals down to acts witnessed outside specific bars and restaurants where we happened to be residing.   

Afterwards we left Jardim do Morro we headed down to the Ribiera riverfront to hunt down some tea at the swathe of restaurants in that area and post-tucker we saw Mick playing a set in Porto Theophilu’s Bar. Later on, outside another bar we saw Sally yodelling on the Porto Promenade.

2023 Gigs – Part 2

This week I will complete the tale of gigs in 2023. In April I returned to the comforting environs of the Sounds from the Other City festival in Salford. In the Manchester Islington Mill Club I saw a local punky trio called Ether Mech. We then headed onto Manchester Pint Pot (downstairs) where I encountered Is33n (pronounced i-seen), an artist who has been supported by the Brighter Sound musical enterprise. Also, I saw Caitlin LM who doubles as an artist and music producer, and she had a chilled electronic vibe.

Up the steps I traversed into Manchester Pint Pot (upstairs) where I witnessed Spencer Cullum, a folk musician originally from Romford who relocated to Nashville to learn the ways of the ‘steel pedal’, to me one of the most distinctive sounding instruments in the world of music. Also playing up there was the Brown Brogues, a noisy two-piece garage rock band from Manchester, their sound somewhat reminiscent of the Kills.    

Brown Brogues. Image Credit heymanchester.com

We then pottered on to Manchester Five Four Studios 2 to see DEK (full name Dream English Kid) who had an electronic shoegaze sound with the shimmering vocals provided by Hannah Cobb, and they have had support slots with KVB and Whitelands. I also just discovered rather excitingly that they derive from my hometown of ‘Proud’ Preston. Next door in Manchester Five Four Studios 1 I saw the composer and producer plus44kaligula.

Now, one of the inherent requirements if you are playing one of these festivals is not to be tardy when your time slot is due as the gaps between bands are sharp and the set windows are short. As we entered Manchester St Phillips Church a band called Max Fulcrum and the Win were doing the exact opposite of this requirement with a staggering amount of ‘faffing about’! The driving force of the large ensemble is Dominic Rose, previously front man of Fake Turins.

St Phillips Church. Image Credit manchestereveningnews.co.uk

There was I thinking they may produce a sonic racket in the mould of Polyphonic Spree or Arcade Fire, though when they finally started up, I was crushingly disappointed as they were a very limp proposition resulting in me heading for the exit whilst muttering darkly under my breath about time wasters!  The final gig that day took place at the hub of Manchester Bexley Square where an acoustic guitarist called Kid Katharsis took to the stage.

There were a couple of low level gigs featuring local artists at Manchester Albert Schloss and we also caught a singer/songwriter called Will Doolan whilst on a night out in Manchester Head of Steam in Didsbury Village. Additionally, I had a couple of bonus gigs at Manchester Thirsty Scholar whilst waiting for the train after attending other shows in the city.

On a steaming hot July Sunday, we headed to Manchester Castle for a novel late afternoon gig. In advance, we grabbed some late lunch at the nearby Blue Eyed Panda Chinese restaurant in Ancoats. Whilst there I was checking on periodically on score flashes on Carlos Alcaraz’s dramatic win in the Wimbledon final taking place that day. The venue was busy and as a result it was ridiculously hot in there.

The support was a band called Supermilk who were originally in 2017 a solo project of Jake Popyura before moving into a full band formation from 2022. They were very enjoyable and engaging in a live setting. However, I have just picked up the very sad news that earliest this year Jake announced that he has a rare and terminal neurogenerative disorder.    

Supermilk. Image Credit cloutcloutclout.com

The headline act was Fortitude Valley who we had seen for the first time a year earlier, though I didn’t personally enjoy their performance as much on this occasion as I did at that thrilling first sighting.  

In September, Gill and I traversed over to the fair city of Lancaster with Marcus and Tris. Our destination was Lancaster Library for an afternoon show to witness Erland Cooper who was previously in The Magnetic North and Erland and the Carnival. He is a multi-instrumentalist producer from Orkney and incorporates a lot of nature aspects in his tunes. He gathered some publicity when he deleted all digital files and buried the only existing copy of his first album on the island and provided some treasure hunt clues which resulted in two chaps discovering them 18 months later.

He provided some lovely music but at times it was veering rather closely to being pretentious and self-indulgent. The support was a cellist from London called Midori Jaeger. Prior to the show we caught something more primal across the road in Lancaster John O Gaunt with music from Grunge God and Sheena.

We returned that way a month later for the Lancaster festival and visited Lancaster Jailor’s Barrel which is near the train station. It was previously known as the Robert Gillow but changed its name during the pandemic when they discovered that he was linked to the slave trade. On stage was a local acoustic guitarist called Keith Mitchell. Later that day I visited Lancaster Tap House where I saw Keith Riddle.