Tag: Manchester Albert Hall

Gigs Abroad Part 29 Cologne – Part 2

As Cologne was the first German city I had ever visited I always pined to make a return. That trip had also created a chain reaction of visiting many other locations in the country with the current count now at nine cities where I have stayed and with several others visited on our regular days trips when we are away. Thus, it transpired that one sunny day Gill and I were sat foe r we could fit in another cheeky weekend away. Cologne was entered into the possible destinations and was then chosen and subsequently booked.

Now, you may surmise that I manufactured the next part of the story to my advantage but that is genuinely not the case. A few days after we concreted the trip, Gill suggested in passing to check whether there happened to be any interesting gigs taking place when we were there.

My previous experience in this regard on earlier trips is that we always seem to be a week early or late for an interesting band, however that was about to dramatically change. I think I may have muttered the words ‘Ye Gods’ and nearly fell off my chair when I saw that the mighty Mogwai were playing the final date of their current European tour on our first night in the city. It was naturally a ‘Shay’ given that we had to attend and tickets were purchased forthwith.

Bez and Shaun Ryder back in the day. Image Credit etsy.com

Prior to boarding there was a star stop moment with the ubiquitous Shaun Ryder holding court in the circular bar in Terminal 3. It was the first time I had eyeballed him face to face since watching the Happy Mondays in a support slot at Camden Dingwalls in October 1987. He was being regularly approached for selfies before he pottered off for a flight to Nantes.

The only remaining challenge was our scheduled afternoon flight and arrival time on the Saturday created the potential scenario where any delay would put our attendance in doubt. We landed a smidge late and it took us a little while to locate and arrive at our digs, though they were handily placed adjacent to a S-Bahn stop.

The gig was taking place at Cologne Live Music Hall (locally known as ‘LMH’ or just ‘Live), which had a previous life as part of the Heinz Strunck & Co machine factory before morphing into a bespoke music venue in 1990. It retains elements of its industrial heritage, one feature being the use of the old cranes.  

It has a capacity of 1800 and has hosted performances in the past from Pearl Jam, Death Cab for Cutie and Chvrches. Many have been recorded live for the music TV show Rockpalast (Rock Palace), which is a German institution and has been running since October 1974 where the featured band on their first night was ELO.

ELO. Image Credit listal.com

The venue was in the Ehrenfeld area of town and took some finding as it was buried away down a dark back street, a little reminiscent of the White Hotel location in Salford. We had not had time to eat, and the local food options were rather sparse, and we even considered the slightly desperate option of Burger King. I am glad however we did not as we finally located the Music Hall about 20.10, and we were informed that the band were hitting the stage at 20.15!

The gig gods were clearly in a benevolent mood as in the courtyard there was a beer point and a food stall that despite approaching closing time for the night proceeded to throw together a ‘bits and bob’s’ tea for us. Thankfully it was a warm night resulting in the back door of the venue being wide open. This then created the novel scenario of us grazing and imbibing on the picnic benches whilst we could clearly hear the reaction of the crowd and Stuart Braithwaite’s perennial introductory words of ‘Good Evening, we are Mogwai from Glasgow’. We listened to the first three tracks before heading indoors to actually see them as well.  

The Music Hall picnic benches. Image Credit koelntourismus.de

It remains a cash only venue which I find rather refreshing, and again fortuitously I happened to be holding a batch of euros. It was Gill’s second ever Mogwai gig and she thoroughly enjoyed them, much more so than her first one in the cramped environs of Manchester Albert Hall. It was a terrific venue and an appreciative respectful audience, and they finished the set with a thunderous ‘Mogwai Fear Satan’.  Afterwards we headed back into town and sampled some Kolsch in one of the beer houses near the main train station

On the Sunday we visited the Cathedral and walked the city including the river paths. We did at one stage become trapped in an extremely busy children’s fair that seemed to go on for ever, as soon as we had navigated our way past we headed to the hostelry. On the Monday we grabbed a late Schnitzel lunch before which completed a fine trip before we headed off for our flight home.

Manchester Venues 194 to 195

On the Friday of 29th August 2025, I unsurprisingly yet again sallied into Manchester for a gig, but this time I had an hour of opportunity before I was meeting up with a pal for a pre-gig aperitif. So, I thought I would embark on a Jimmy treasure hunt to see if I could tick off any other venues not previously attended. As a result, I chose an area of town near to Deansgate that I do not visit on a regular basis on my other evening gig jaunts.

I alighted the train at Manchester Oxford Road station and gravitated to the left down Oxford Road into Peter Street were residing opposite Albert Hall is Manchester Impossible. This establishment was previously Bar 38 and possibly prior to that Pizza Express, but my memory is a tad hazy on that latter reference.

Bar 38. Image Credit restaurantsofmanchester.com

In 2005, Bar 38 was one of the locations alongside the Metropolitan University Students Union venue to stage a four night residency for an American TV programme called Total Request Live, though I have no personal recollection of that show. The premise of it was that at the chosen locations they played music videos and staged live music in the venues. It was compered by the likes of Trevor Nelson and Zane Lowe with acts playing including Editors, Mystery Jets, Kooks and the rapper Kenzie.

After a couple of years of inactivity after Bar 38 disappeared, Impossible opened in 2017. The new owner was Aaron Mellor who was the manager of Tokyo Industry’s (not the old Tokyo Joes night club in Preston!). He brought to the table his pedigree of being the UK’s largest privately owned nightclub operator having previously run popular club nights in Ibiza, New York and London.

The three floor site undertook a £3m renovation with the 500 capacity basement named the Theatre of Impossible, which was designed with the intention being a 21st century version of a nightclub, hence the theatre title. It came complete with a large dancefloor and long bar and had opening hours of between 10pm and 4pm at weekends.   

Impossible Bar. Image Credit Visit Manchester

The mezzanine area upstairs is a gin area badged with the informal name of ‘Ginpossible’, with an eighteen page menu listing a choice of over ninety gins. They also apparently have a cryogenic freezer, one of only three in the world, which has the capability to freeze alcohol to minus 74 degrees and thus creates edible cocktails! 

The ground floor is a bar and eatery with a 280 capacity where they serve tucker until 9pm. They also stage live music with slightly pretentious names such as Industry Thursday and First Call Friday. They have a large south facing outside terrace space on the Great Northern complex side of the building.

On the night in question, I was mulching past this area and saw a punter having a smoking break and through the open door I could hear some tuneage. Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth I adopted my scarlet pimpernel pose and tailgated them through the door. I leaned innocuously on a side wall and watched a couple of tracks of drifting loungecore from a singer called Sally before leaving via the same route.

I am sure you can gain easy standard entrance via the front door, but I am going to generate some poetic licence here and retain the unjustified notion of me grabbing an ‘illegal’ cheeky bonus gig and venue!

I then headed over to Bridge Street, which is located off Deansgate, and which takes you down to Salford Central station. On the west side of the road is the appropriately named Manchester B Lounge at the Bridge. It first opened its doors back in 1808 under the moniker of The Pack Horse.

The Bridge. Image Credit todobares.com

More recently it has had spells as The Bridge Street Tavern and then morphed into the award winning gastro pub The Bridge which under the chef Mr Owen-Brown was renowned for Lancashire sourced grub. The latest incarnation was instigated by the same folk who introduced the B Lounge at the Brunswick pub over near Piccadilly station.   

The pub has a traditional layout and a long thin bar area and in the upstairs space there is a dining area and a function room for hire. This area also provides to a small roof top garden space. The latest version of the pub now stages live music and when I visited there was a local singer called Tania performing some jaunty folk tunes.