Tag: Lovely Eggs

Manchester Venue 191 Gorilla – Part 2

Manchester Gorilla had a coup a few years ago when none other than Kylie Minogue requested to play two intimate European dates prior to her upcoming arena tour and she chose to play Berghain in Berlin alongside the Gorilla. I believe as a result the tickets went like hot cakes!

My next visit to describe was the exceedingly welcome reformation of Rocket from the Crypt (RFTC), who in my personal view were the best live band on the circuit for a couple of years in the late 1990’s and was the first time I had witnessed them in twelve years. They were still in fine fettle, and I enjoyed the show.

Manchester Gorilla. Image Credit Visit Manchester.

The driving force of RFTC is the lead singer John ‘Speedo’ Reis, who owns the Swami record label and has also been in several other bands over the years including Pitchfork, Drive Like Jehu, Sultans, Night Marchers, Swami and Hot Snakes. In January 2018 I saw the last named act who serve up a more stripped down sound than RFTC where John was more in the background and during the first track dampened down the ‘Speedo’ chants from the admittedly sparse audience. They produced an urgent, vibrant and thoroughly enjoyable performance.   

On a cold January night in 2015 we trogged over to see Neneh Cherry for the first time. She was born in Sweden under the name of Neneh Mariann Karlsson and her half-brother is musician Eagle Eyed Cherry. She has punk heritage as a 15 year old member of the Slits and around that time roomed with lead singer Ari Up in a squat in Battersea. In 1989, she had a huge hit with ‘Buffalo Stance’ and has also dabbled in DJing and broadcasting.

She cut a spiky intriguing presence and was a veritable bundle on energy on stage and we very much enjoyed the show however we unfortunately had to scamper off early to guarantee we could catch a train home.   

The Slits. Image Credit billboard.com

Next up was Parquet Courts, a four piece from New York who met whilst at university in Texas. They were touring to support their fifth album ‘Human Performance’, for which the art and packaging of that particular release garnered a Grammy Award nomination.

Later that year, I had my latest dose of the unique Lovely Eggs who were in fine form. It was Gill’s first exposure to them, and she was swiftly converted. They were supported on the night by the Hornblower Brothers, who have nobody named Hornblower or any brothers in the lineup! What I can tell you is that they had more than a passing resemblance to Half Man Half Biscuit. A couple of years later in 2018 we saw the Eggs again there and they marked a milestone as it was the first time I reached a century of gigs in a calendar year.   

The next one on the roster was a band that I had been chasing for a long time, but events always seemed to conspire against me when they announced tour dates. The act in question was Mono, an instrumental band from Tokyo. They formed in 1999 and have released eleven albums in total, and my favourite is the epic titled ‘Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined’. In 2005 they took the unusual route of releasing a split album with the aforementioned Pelican and restricted the recording to vinyl and only 4000 copies.

They have more of a lush classical sound then their post-rock compatriots. They are seated when they play live, but they are definitely not Westlife as they break into some noisy sonic guitar sounds when the muse takes them. The only remaining band of this ilk who I have still not seen is Built to Spill.

Mono were joint headliners with French post-rockers Alcest, who started originally as a black metal combo before moving into less abrasive territory, and their sound evoked comparisons with My Bloody Valentine.   

Mono on stage. Image Credit asiapacificarts.org

In April 2018 I witnessed the Madrid majesty of the Hinds. They were originally a two-piece called Deers but risked legal action from The Dears so changed the name to their current moniker, but to a degree retained the original as it can be translated in some languages to ‘female deers’. They then morphed into a four-piece and released 4 albums before resorting back to a duo in 2023.

They are firmly in the garage rock domain with lovely harmonies and were terrific fun and had a fine stage banter and presence. My most recent attendance at the venue was in 2025 to see the band again for a second time. In 2019 I had my second sighting of Fontaines DC who were very entertaining again and were supported by Cut the Mustard.

At the final ever Dot to Dot festival later that year I saw Crows who provided some thunderously loud abrasive post-punk. Their latest album ‘Reason Enough’ was recorded in a former Catholic church and convent in Stroud and their lead singer James recently fronted the band Humanist on their arena support slots for Depeche Mode. Finally in May 2024 I saw Maybeshewill, a post-rock band from Leicester who I enjoyed as much as the previous time I had seen them at the Ferret in Preston in 2011.

Now, for the very eagle-eyed (not Cherry!) among you, you will have noted that I have only documented seventeen gigs at the venue, the eighteenth I will document next time in its own specific article, and the reasons for this will then become apparent.

Manchester Venues 182 to 183

Alongside the seemingly omnipresent Action Records in Preston, the other hugely important record shop in my gig going lifetime is Manchester Piccadilly Records. They originally opened in 1978, which was coincidentally also the conception year of Factory Records. They started as a record concession within another shop before morphing into a singular store themselves.

They were located initially in the Piccadilly area before moving to Brown Street near to Piccadilly Gardens. I remember distinctly visiting that particular site many times in the late 1980’s/early 1990’s and I was also in regular correspondence when sourcing many tickets, predominantly for gigs at that stage at the old Manchester International 1. Now one for the kids out there, I use to send a paper item called cheques through the post and then as if by magic valuable tickets were subsequently received on my doormat a couple of weeks later!     

Original site of Piccadilly Records in 1990. Image Credit mdmarchive.co.uk

They had a change of management in 1990 before being caught up in the IRA bombing of 1996. One of the staff at that time still owns a Fugees album which had its cover shredded when the windows blew through in the explosion. A year later they moved into their current location on Oldham Street in the yet to be developed Northern Quarter.

They have moved with the trends and times and exploited the post punk genre in their earlier days and continued to develop and adapt as the digital streaming age came into play. They have received regular newspaper awards and additionally have won the prize for the best independent record store at Music Week and also at the Gilles Peterson worldwide awards. It remains eternally popular and local musicians Tim Burgess and Johnny Marr are regular visitors.  

On an annual basis they used to produce a little book with their albums of the year and also recommendations of timeless lost albums. As a direct result I finally became acquainted with Neutral Milk Hotel’s remarkable 1998 album ‘In the Aeroplane Over the Sea’.

Like all good record shops, they began to showcase and undertake in-store sessions, and a particular one caught my beady eye which was taking place on 31/01/20. It was on a Friday, so I gravitated down there after work. The band in question was the Smoke Fairies who derive from Chichester and consist of Katherine Blamire and Jessica Davies.

Smoke Fairies. Image Credit nme.com

They first met at school in Sussex in the 1990’s and undertook a blues musical education by spending 2002 in New Orleans. Their fledgling music then took another direction when they discovered folk when working as car attendants at the Sidmouth Folk Week festival. They subsequently garnered valuable support slots with Bryan Ferry, Richard Hawley and Laura Marling and were the first UK act to release a single on Jack White’s Third Man Records, produced by the man himself.

They were chosen to provide a cover of ‘Alabama’ for a MOJO compilation to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Neil Young’s ‘Harvest’. On the very day of the gig, they had released their fifth album ‘Darkness Brings the Wonders Home’ which had a brooding melancholia to it, in the vein of PJ Harvey. The duo positioned themselves by the counter and undertook a short enjoyable set appreciated by a decent size audience. I was also then intending to attend a Lovely Eggs session in that location but that was later cancelled by the pandemic.

In 2021 a previously under-used area on the corner of Dale Street and Lever Street was recreated as the Manchester Mala Secret Garden Bar, the land being previously used as a drugs den with paraphernalia and tents being regularly spotted there. It is situated outside the Chapter One bookshop and café within the Northern Quarter and is also nearby to the Travelling Man shop which quite often catches my eye when I walk past, where they specialise in comics, graphic novels and board games.

Mala Secret Garden. Image Credit opentable.ca

As Mala means ‘garden’ in Hawaiian it has now been converted into a Victorian glass house with ‘Parisian-style gardens’ with cable cars resembling cabins with room for individual batches of six people. There are numerous trees and plants and with an additional children’s play area and within the horticultural space there are picnic benches and long tables placed undercover with capacity for eighty punters.

On a Sunday they stage chilled jazz-tinged events and last year I was in brief residence there and I saw a blues based singer called Stephanie performing a short set.