Tag: Manchester Albert Hall

Manchester Venues 86 to 87 Albert Hall – Part 1

One of the more recent additions to the venues in the city is Manchester Albert Hall, however it does have a significantly long back story. The site on Peter Street was originally the New Jerusalem Church during the 18th and 19th centuries before the Albert Hall we now recognise was designed as the Manchester and Salford Wesleyan Mission in 1910.

It is a huge building cut across four floors and one of its early functions was to stage ‘Peoples Concerts’ so was an early forerunner as a music venue! It was also a forum for people rallies and Winston Churchill famously delivered an oratory there in 1950.

The top two floors remained unused from 1969 before the Trof group, who own various pubs and venues in the area, bought the site in 2012. They commenced the restorative work of the highly ornate building and first began to stage concerts in 2013 with the official opening the following year.   

The music space on the upper floors has a Gormenghast Gothic vibe with coloured glass rooflights, and they thankfully decided to retain the original organ. The capacity is 2000 with a large standing area downstairs and a seated viewing area on the floor above.

The ground floor space was originally a car showroom before morphing into Brannigans nightclub in the 90’s replete with the uniquely coloured tile dancefloor. Following the Trof purchase it became a Bavarian style beerhaus called Manchester Albert Schloss with its own separate entrance from Peter Street.

Brannigans nightclub. Image Credit blogspot.com

The word schloss translates as ‘a castle, palace or manor house, built as a retreat for recreation, indulgence, pleasure and debauchery’ which sounds like an intriguing place to visit! The Albert element derives back to Queen Victoria who when grieving her husband named many buildings across the country in his honour. The Manchester branch opened in 2015 and has since been followed by the introduction of other sister venues in Birmingham and Liverpool.

It is a large vibrant pub with decent food and a plethora of continental lagers to wash it down with. The renowned food critic Jay Rayner has been a keen advocate of the venue, so much so he returned with his jazz band to play a set on the small stage. My one gig there was to see the Albert Schloss house band play in 2018.

Returning to the main Albert Hall, I have attended 18 gigs there which puts it in eighth place on my most visited venue list, which shows the metronomic regularity of my appearances as the venue has only just celebrated its tenth anniversary.  

Manchester Albert Hall. Image Credit blogspot.com

My first attendance was shortly after the hall opened in 2013 when somewhat unsurprisingly, I went to see Mogwai. However, it was not a standard Mogwai performance as they were undertaking a tour to premiere their soundtrack of the Zidane movie. The film utilised many camera angles to cover the whole 90-minute performance of the French footballer Zinedine Zidane and the band provided segments of background sound in between the quieter moments where the only noise that can be heard is emanating from the crowd in attendance at the match.

Even if you are not a football fan, it is an engrossing watch and more reminiscent of an art movie, after the film had finished, they played a few further tunes. For the one and only time I was in the upper seats, and it was an extremely hot day so were melting in the auditorium. I recall chatting to John Robb afterwards about the upcoming PNE v Blackpool match and Uncle George and I being interviewed by a student magazine about the event we had just witnessed.

Mogwai on Albert Hall stage on Zidane tour. Image Credit pinterest.com

Mogwai must have taken a liking to the venue as they returned for two shows (over three nights) in 2018 which I attended, the first one as a solo outing and only by virtue of obtaining a spare ticket the day before the event. They undertook another double header in February this year over consecutive nights, Gill finally managing to catch them on the first night. The second show on the Friday where they played ‘Mogwai Fear Satan’ for the first time on the tour, was sold out and extraordinarily busy.

2021 Gigs – Part 3

The third and final part of reviewing the 2021 gigs recommences with a couple of visits to Manchester Ritz. The venue is now firmly ensconced in my Top 3 venues visited list as I have been attending there consistently over the years since my first attendance in October 87 watching the astoundingly loud and intense Swans.

First up on 22/09 was the old stalwarts Ash, who I was watching for the sixth time, three of those being at festivals, and it was the first time I had seen them in eleven years. Prior to the gig we had a drink in Brew Dog near Albert Hall on Peter Street, coincidentally the most profitable Brew Dog bar in the world, and then feasted on a pizza that took an age to arrive in Rudy’s Neapolitan restaurant next door.

I thought they were decent but slightly one dimensional, and I always contend that their sound has never been quite as complete since Charlotte Hatherley left, though admittedly they do still have a bagful of recognisable tunes. I was at the bar mid-set when I found out that PNE had drawn Liverpool at home in the League Cup though that subsequently ended up with the usual golden chances missed and then inevitable defeat.  

Ash in Charlotte Hatherley days. Image Credit Steve Scalise.

The other attendance was to see Maximo Park on 10/10 which saw Rick Clegg toggle over for a rare appearance in Manchester and I think his first visit to the Ritz. After a trio of scoops in Yes, Lass O Gowrie and Temple Bar we headed into the venue. It was the second time I had seen them though overall not as enjoyable as my first sighting of them fourteen years earlier.   

I finally went full circle from my first ever blog and first Manchester venue by revisiting Manchester Apollo for the first time in thirteen years since being pummelled by the gentle My Bloody Valentine! There were four of us in attendance and we had a couple of pre-gig aperitifs in the Wine and Wallop in West Didsbury, the future of that chain being currently in doubt, prior to a cab to the venue.

Wine and Wallop. Image Credit DesignMyNight

When we reached the busy bar inside, we discovered they sold beer in two-pint pots which we decided to purchase though it wouldn’t accept my card asking me to input my pin details in. To my chagrin I realised the reason for this was the round cost £52, above the then limit of £50, this equated to an unacceptably brutal price of £6.50 per pint. Come on, Apollo, you can do much better than that!   

The band on stage was the ever-dependable Public Service Broadcasting who were in excellent form, and we had a cracking vantage point near the front.

My pal Marcus is a huge James fan and he persuaded me to attend their Manchester MEN Arena show in December. I had only just managed to purloin some tickets when they were released about a year earlier and was bizarrely sat waiting for an appointment in Stockport Specsavers at the time. I rather rudely had to ask for the lass to delay my appointment slightly as I had finally reached the booking page!

Our significant faux pas was to foolishly book our Covid booster appointments the day before the gig which resulted in Gill being unable to attend and myself feeling distinctly below average. We did consider watching the support act Happy Mondays only from a statistical angle viewpoint as it would have created a new personal record of 34 years between seeing a band as I first saw them in Camden in 1987, but in the end decided not to.

My record thus remains at a 28-year gap with Meat Puppets, however the Loop gig later this year will be just shy of a 32-year gap since witnessing them at my last ever gig at Manchester international 1 in 1990.

We were seated up in the gods with a side on view of the stage, the band were very good value over there 2hr 15-minute set and we watched the last track stood up by the barrier. Marcus headed off to a Christmas works do and I must have resembled a sulky teenage emo as I dragged my weary feet back from the tram stop!

We happened to be out and about of 21st December and sallied into the Manchester Parrs Wood, which will always have a special place in my heart as the first pub we ever visited on that mad day we relocated to Manchester, though there some people rather brazenly sat in ‘our seats’ from that first night! There was a band on stage called Irish Fiddle who performed the seemingly obligatory cover of ‘Dirty Old Town’.