Tag: Manchester Arena

Manchester Venue 129 – Cathedral

In 1215, Manchester Cathedral was built in the centre of the city with additions to the original design being built at periodic intervals over the next three centuries. It survived damage in the Civil War, the IRA bombing in 1996 and the Second World War, the latter causing extensive destruction that required a further 20 years to restore. Following the Arena bombing in May 2017 the Glade of Light memorial was built outside to commemorate the victims. The church is currently one of the fifteen Grade I listed buildings in Manchester and is situated behind the famous Sinclair’s Oyster Bar.

Manchester Cathedral. Image Credit hoteles.com

In the last 15 years the Cathedral has branched out and begun to showcase live music. My first attendance there was in 2012 where I encountered my pal Rick Clegg and his daughter Charlotte on the train over as they were heading on to an alternate Vaccines gig at Manchester Ritz. We parlayed in the pub over a couple of scoops and then headed separate ways.

A couple of years earlier I had attended my debut ecclesiastical event at St Phillips Church in Salford when watching Wooden Shjips. This was a similar set up with slightly more challenges in regard to viewing the stage due to the proliferation of pillars.

The band performing was Dirty Three, an Australian instrumental rock band I had seen once previously 12 years earlier. Their first ever gig took place on ANZAC Day on 25th April 1992 where Warren Ellis utilised a guitar pick up to his violin which created their trademark feedback driven sound which is a sight to behold when they are in their full flow of 10 minute opuses.

Dirty Three. Image Credit fromthearchives.com

Warren was born in Ballarat, Victoria, coincidentally a town Gill and I stayed in when we visited Australia, and he has also been a dual member of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds since 1994.  They are a terrific and thunderous live act, and on the night, the journalist/musician John Robb was also in attendance, with whom I had a decent chat.  

The second and currently latest visit was as part of the Manchester Dot to Dot festival in 2016. As ever, my gig ‘addiction’ resulted in a co-ordinated effort to attend all of the twenty geographically disparate city centre venues during the day, which was a logistical challenge.

Never one who has been able to embrace Gordon Gekko’s ethos of ‘lunch is for wimps’; a food stop was taken at the excellent chippy that used to be located at the city end of Oldham Street. This was immediately prior to heading over to the Cathedral, which for the record was number eleven on the venue hit list. The fish and chips were still being munched as I stood outside, and I could hear the band ending their set.

My instant thoughts were that I had made a major tactical error, and this would forever be classed as a ‘missed gig’, but I wandered in any way to pray for a miracle! Due to the nature of the event, there was very strict time periods allocated to each set, but remarkably in this case the gig gods were smiled benignly on me as the band returned to the stage for an unprecedented encore of one additional song.

The act on stage was Sundara Karma, who are an indie band from Reading. I had caught them very early in their career as they had only formed the previous year and were just at that stage leaving secondary school and it was five years prior to releasing their debut album ‘Youth is Only Ever Fun in Retrospect’. They were obviously acquiring some hype as they incited a very enthusiastic crowd reaction. With the near miss thus averted I progressed on to achieve the full twenty venues, ending the gig quest in Manchester Texture in the Northern Quarter.  

Sundara Karma. Image Credit schonmagazine.com

Gill and I had tickets for one other event there which was to see Low in April 2022 however we ended up being double booked so therefore could not attend. This was seven months before Mimi Parker’s tragic untimely death leaving me with memories of previous great Low shows I had been fortunate to witness, particularly at Manchester Hop and Grape and Lancaster Library.

Manchester Venues 14 to 15

Halfway down Oldham Street was located Manchester Planet K which I attended twice. The first visit in October 99 was to see Snuff supported by Mad Caddies.

Me and Uncle George were on duty that night and discovered whilst talking to John Dewhurst a week before that he was going to see Godspeed you Black Emperor at the Roadhouse the same night. So, we headed over together for drinks and tea before John headed off to his destination.

Planet K was a reasonable little venue, with about a 300 capacity with the stage at the bottom of the room.

Snuff were as ever good value and the place was half full at the most. They finished the set with a rousing rendition of the Match of the Day theme. John enjoyed his gig also as he described they had some epic length songs in the best post-rock tradition. We parlayed in Yates on Princes Street before heading off for the late train.

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Planet K venue. Image Credit tinamcclelland@manchestermusic.co.uk

My second and final visit was to see Mogwai on 18/04/01. Usual crew of George, John and I in tow. It wasn’t the greatest night as Mogwai unexpectedly came on exceptionally early whilst we were still encamped in the pub and we missed the first twenty minutes.

They had finished their set prior to 10pm and there were also some annoying punters in there. My least enjoyable Mogwai show but still of a decent level. The venue closed a year or so later.  

I had always endeavoured to avoid the cavernous locations as I have a ready preference for the ‘one man and his dog’ venues but the opportunity to see AC/DC for the first time was too good to miss. So, in December 2000 we headed over to Manchester Arena. The Arena is located next to and linked to Victoria train station with a 21k capacity.  

The morning was spent de grouting the shower prior to going out and having some fun. We decamped at Salford Crescent train station and visited the Crescent and Pint Pot prior to meeting other attendees in the Oyster Bar in town. Here I met the current Brighton correspondent Nigel Wiskar (rechristened School of Rock) for the first time.

We had standing tickets in the pit and AC/DC were fabulous and standout tracks were ‘Hells Bells’ and ‘Whole Lot of Rosie’. They adopt a simple premise of playing 12 bar blues at high volume, but they are the absolute masters of it. A top night was had by all.

It was over 17 years later to my next attendance. By that stage we were living in a rented house on an astonishingly noisy Kingsway in East Didsbury.

My mate Rick Clegg has always been a huge Paul Weller fan, so I agreed to be his wingman and provided the lodgings due to our new Manchester postcode. The gig was on 01/03/18 and in the middle of the Beast of the East and was as a result a bracingly cold evening.   

The place was still being rebuilt from the bombing and was as best half full. The gig washed over me to be honest and there had been a published set list including encores in advance of the gig which I find a tad disconcerting. Rick enjoyed it though so mission accomplished.

I also once waited at the foot of those huge steps to provide a lift home for Gill and her three sisters after they had been to see Kylie Minogue.

My last attendance was earlier this year (16/01/20) with George, Tony and Pam Dewhurst to see Slipknot supported by Behemoth.

See the source image
Slipknot promo pic. Image credit you tube

We were up in the gods this time and it was a country mile for a loo visit or to purchase an extortionate beer.  

They had huge stage effects with the ever-present masks, gantries, dual aerial drummers and even a treadmill. They are definitely an interesting live act, though verge on the edge of pantomime at times!

I am going to change tack in my next blog and provide five ‘lost’ albums that in my view did not receive their due attention. I would be interested in your lists so comments welcome next week.