Tag: Manchester Albert Hall

2024 Gigs – Part 4

In March I made another pilgrimage to Manchester Band on the Wall where I went to see BDRMM for the second time. I will cover the band in more detail when I review my first sighting of them on what turned out to be a chaotic night at Manchester White Hotel.

I thoroughly enjoyed their set, but the downside was that it was exceedingly busy with no wriggle room to gravitate from your chosen slot. Uncle George, John Dewhurst and Riggers were in tow, and I recall pre-gig drinks at Northern Monk Refectory MCR and Smithfield Market Tavern and pre-gig tucker at Viet Shack.   

Manchester Northern Monk. Image Credit reeceleung.com

Around the time of the Cheltenham Festival and St Patricks Day I was on the way to another gig, and I happened to catch a portion of the House Band at Manchester Blues Kitchen Bar and a segment of the set of a singer/songwriter named Harriet at Manchester Albert Schloss. Later in the year I saw a couple of other acts at Albert Schloss when they had regular daytime gigs taking place to coincide with the student graduation season.

The gig I was indirectly heading towards was at Manchester Albert Hall and was preceded by imbibing a couple of bevvies in the Sir Ralph Abercromby located in an alley right behind the venue. My Albert Hall attendance was to see the Pixies for the fifth time and my ticket was booked prior to realising that they were playing ‘Trompe Le Monde’ and ‘Bossonova’, my least favourite of their albums as my personal highlight of theirs has always been ‘Surfer Rosa’.

Having said all that, it was beneficial to reappraise these records and there is some belting tunes sporadically dotted about on them including on the night fine versions of ‘Velouria’, ‘Allison’ and ‘Planet of Sound’. I have also just clocked that earlier this year they released a live album of the shows on that tour. They were supported by The Pale White who were a three piece from Newcastle who include in their ranks brothers Adam and Jack Hope. 

A small matter of eight days after I returned to the venue to have my latest sweet fix (Some Candy Talking?) of Jesus and Mary Chain. I have in the last month travelled past the 40th anniversary of my attendance at their legendary gig at Clouds in Preston on the 6th of September 1985.

Preston Clouds attached to Preston Odeon approximately 1981. Image Credit facebook.com.

There was a posse of seven gathered in the afore mentioned Sir Ralph Abercromby prior to the show for beers and badinage. They started with a bang with ‘Jamcod’ and ‘Happy When It Rains’ and completed the main set with a flourish of ‘I Love Rock and Roll’ and ‘Just Like Honey’. I also had the veritable treat of finally catching up with fellow local music aficionado Cath Aubergine at the conclusion of the gig. The night as many before it culminated in the Temple of Convenience bar.    

In October I had my final 2024 visit where I saw Public Service Broadcasting performing. They were as ever at a decent level but was probably my least favourite viewing of them across the four times I have witnessed them so far.

There were two appearances at Manchester Ritz, bringing my total there to 37, which places it in third place on my most attended venue list. The first was the Australian band Jet who formed in 2001 and disbanded in 2012 before two separate reformations, the second one preceding this tour. They were playing their original popular first album ‘Get Born’ and it was around 15 years since I saw them previously in the same venue.   

The other gig was with the stellar company of Rick Clegg and his daughter Charlotte and her pal Laura. We went to the newly reopened and revamped Grosvenor pub on Oxford Road with the obligatory visit to the Umami noodle bar close by. The band playing was English Teacher from Leeds, led by the charismatic singer Lily Fontaine. Their debut album ‘This Could Be Texas’ had recently won the 2024 Mercury Prize, thankfully breaking a nine-year stronghold of London-based musicians winning the award. They were a quirky bunch and very enjoyable.

English Teacher. Image Credit nme.com

The final show of the year to reference was at Manchester Night and Day and came to my attention via some musical gurus on Twitter (now X) before I decided like many others to ditch that poisonous platform. Marcus and I attended, and we watched a portion of that night’s Euros 24 match in the boozer beforehand.

The band was the Reds, Pinks and Purples which is the brainchild of Glenn Donaldson who is also a photographer and record collector. He is a prolific singer/songwriter exemplified by writing 200 songs and releasing seven albums in seven years. When he is playing live, he is part of a five-piece band comprised of musicians from his San Francisco home. He has a soothing evocative voice and was one of my favourite gigs of the year. He was supported by Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse band who hail from Kentucky.

Manchester Venues 149 to 150 – New Century Hall

Of the four main city centre train stations, Victoria would probably be my least attended as it has always been slightly on the wrong side of the tracks for me! Now if you depart the station down the approach heading alongside the tram tracks towards Shudehill Interchange but deviate marginally to the left down Hanover Street, you reach the Sadler’s Cat public house.

Sadler’s Cat pub. Image Credit secretmanchester.com

The Sadler’s was originally known as the Pilcrow which was purpose built as part of a regeneration programme commitment by the Co-operative Society, following the demolition of the Crown and Cushion pub to make way for a new public road. The current name reflects the commemoration of the very site of the first hot air balloon flight in 1785 and the pilot being one James Sadler who took his feline friend with him on the trip! The pub is contained within the NOMA complex and is now owned by the Cloudwater brewery and is a good basking spot in the summer with a suite of outside tables.

Staying with the Co-op theme, across the square from the hostelry you find the New Century Hall which was built as their 1000 capacity Insurance Society building in 1962 and sits adjacent to New Century House. They had many major acts play there in the 1960’s including Rolling Stones, Tina Turner, Jerry Lee Lewis and the Kinks. There is also an anecdote of the Jimi Hendrix Experience performing there in 1966 and a young John Cooper Clarke being denied entry as he was not wearing the obligatory tie, despite being bedecked in Fred Perry and a striped sports coat, bouncers eh! 

John Cooper Clarke. Image Credit pinterest.com

It is a three-storey building with the basement containing the Access Creative College where you can obtain degrees in music and gaming. The ground floor houses the Manchester New Century Food Hall where I first visited in December 2022 on a Christmas works do where we partook some tucker from one of the many food vendors and watched the England v Wales World Cup match. Where the big screen showing the match was located, there is normally a stage, and I have seen a couple of local singers perform there.

Upstairs from there is the Manchester New Century Hall which on first sight I was instantly impressed by with the wood surrounds and tasteful lighting. Even when busy it remains an accessible venue with ability to scoot down the sides to obtain a spot nearer to the stage. I can see myself in the future checking their listings from a venue viewpoint ahead of many others in the city where they become an almighty scrum when reaching capacity, the Albert Hall being a case in point.

My first attendance was in May 2023 with Gill and our good friends and fellow rabble rousers Jo and Paul. We had a couple of drinks around the Kampus area near Piccadilly and in the Northern Quarter. The band we were going to see was The Beths from Auckland in New Zealand. They were promoting their hugely recommended third album ‘Expert in a Dying Field’ which I have given serious airplay to as I love the upbeat nature of it, and I thoroughly enjoyed their set. Their sound reminds me of a fellow upcoming band called Fortitude Valley.      

Manchester New Century Hall. Image Credit manchestereveningnews.co.uk

My next attendance was with Gill in June 2024 where we only shamefully discovered the Abel Heywood Hydes brewery pub for the first time, but we have rectified that by attending a couple of times since. The band that night was the Lovely Eggs who I didn’t enjoy as much as their previous times I have seen them.  

There then followed two attendances in Sept 2024. The first was remarkably for me to see Ride for the first time, however I had previously seen an individual set by Mark Gardener at Preston Continental back in November 2011 where they also showed a screening of ‘Anyone Can Play Guitar’ which provides a story of the Oxford music scene featuring Ride alongside many other bands.    

For the uninitiated, Ride were prime shoegaze pioneers releasing two highly touted albums on Creation records in the early 1990’s. They broke up in 1996 before reforming in 2014 and were touring their latest album ‘Interplay’. The sound quality was poor early on but once they sorted that out, they were excellent.

My latest visit involved a large group of us including my pals Jason Gill and Barry Jury going to see the Go Team for the fourth time and for my first time for 14 years. They played in full their superb debut album ‘Thunder Lighting Strike’ with other tunes interspersed in their set.           

As a postscript I have managed to obtain some degree of numerical symmetry as New Century Hall was the actual 150th Manchester venue that I had visited.