Tag: Manchester Blues Kitchen Bar

2023 Gigs – Part 1

Continuing the theme of previous years, I will now cover the 2023 gigs attended at venues already reviewed in previous blogs. Because I am sure you are desperate to know lets firstly cover the numbers bit! It turned out to be a record breaking year in that I attended 128 gigs in total which also encompassed 70 new venues.

So, I shall start with the familiar haunt of Manchester Academy 2 and cover my 41st and 42nd visits to that venue. In the cold depths of mid-winter in January Marcus and I headed there to witness the Delgados who are a four-piece band from Glasgow who produce some imaginative music. They formed in 1994 before disbanding in 2005 and then subsequently reformed in 2022 hence this comeback tour.

The Delgados. Image Credit nme.com

I had seen them once before on our honeymoon at Dublin Mean Fiddler in 1998 where they were on an excellent double bill with Nottingham’s Six By Seven. I thoroughly enjoyed their current incarnation as they cut an engaging presence on stage in front of a responsive crowd just glad to witness them back on the gig circuit and their tour culminated with a date in their home city.

The other attendance to Academy 2 also involved a further lengthy gap from my first sighting, in this case 20 years and one week exactly from when I witnessed the Northern Irish combo Therapy? at Preston Mill. Now to be fair I have always been fairly ambivalent about this band and their show on the night unfortunately didn’t alter my viewpoint.  

Prior to the gig there was an obligatory visit to the nearby mecca Manchester Big Hands where they periodically have live bands playing at the end of the room. That night I encountered a noisy Warrington psych rock band called Pray for Mojo who earlier in the year had graced the stage at Manchester Psych Fest. In 2022, they had released their debut album titled ‘Welcome to Mojopia’. They were supported by Swamp Kids.  

I shall now return to the Academy complex with a visit to Manchester Club Academy with the more than welcome return of the Raveonettes. The Copenhagen duo of Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo were back on the circuit after a 4 year sabbatical. They were in fine form and played a greatest hits set with my personal highlight being one of their early singles ‘That Great Love Sound’. They were supported by local noiseniks Dr Dr.   

The Raveonettes. Image Credit discogs

Prior to night one of my Mogwai triple bill (over four nights and two cities) Gill and I grabbed a table and had an aperitif in the Manchester Blues Kitchen Bar. The act on stage whilst we primed ourselves for the upcoming aural assault were called Cry Wolf.   

The next gig derived from my very learned musical twitter (I still call it twitter!) pal @parramaterial who recommended Black Doldrums on their latest tour that included a date at Manchester Gullivers. Thus, the troops were enlisted and four of us popped over to have a gander and they were wholly worthy of the effort. Black Doldrums are a North London trio who released their debut album ‘Dead Awake’ in 2022 and they created a hugely enjoyable psych shoegaze cacophony on the night.

Black Doldrums. Image Credit louderthanwar.com

In June I had a foray over to Manchester Didsbury Park Green for the summer festival where a lass called Sally Smith was playing.  The following week another twitter recommendation resulting in four of us attending Manchester Yes Pink Room to watch Screaming Females. Their driving force was Marissa Paternoster who initially formed the band in 2005 at a high school in New Jersey.

Obscure fact time, she was referenced as the 77th greatest guitarist of all time in the Spin magazine in 2012. They released eight albums in total, all on the terrifically named Don Giovanni record label. I happened to catch them and their very decent stagecraft on their final ever tour as they subsequently broke up later in the year. 

The next two gigs to cover took place at Manchester Ritz where Tony Dewhurst, Rick Clegg, Barry Jury and I (Gang of Four) went to watch the Gang of Four who entertained with their angular post-punk sound. In October we managed to purchase tickets to see the Pretenders and the eternally youthful Chrissie Hynde. Unusually, on arrival the queue snaked back to beyond the Sainsburys on the corner, but we managed to enter the establishment just in time for their excellent show and her voice still sounds terrific. She dedicated one song to Johnny Marr, who was in the audience watching on his birthday.  

Manchester Venues 75 to 76 – Blues Kitchen

As you head down Deansgate and just across Bridge Street you reach the Lost Dene pub, which was a Covid hero establishment for me. We attended with a couple of friends just prior to the third and most challenging lockdown at the tail end of 2020 and they were superb finding us two tables adjacent to each other even though we were in different households. It justifies the mantra of always bring honest as groups were denied entry as they were patently not in the same household when challenged for additional details!  

A little further down Deansgate brings you to Quay Street where you find the Opera House. An establishment I have yet to visit even when in theatre mode, but I recall Uncle George and Tony Dewhurst attending there to see Gil Scott Heron shortly before his death in 2011, by all accounts it was a belting gig.

Next to there on Little Quay Street resided for many years the Old Grapes owned by Coronation Street’s character Vera Duckworth (actress Liz Dawn). It was for a while a meeting point for us and was utilised if we ever undertook a group taxi to a gig. It was situated round the corner from the old Granada studios. It finally shut its doors for the last time in 2016 and is now an office block with the 20 stories restaurant at its apex and is contained within the large Spinningfields complex.

The Old Grapes pub. Image Credit Manchester Evening News

Back on Quay Street there used to be the large Aussie sports themed Walkabout pub which I periodically used to visit. It opened in 2000 and closed for good on New Year’s Eve 2015.

The building itself used to be a Victorian Eye Hospital with many original features. It apparently bears similarities with the Manchester and Salford Skin Hospital that used to be further down the block. It then became the Post Office Social Club prior to the Walkabout era.  

The site remained empty for a few years until the Blues Kitchen group purchased it and added it to their existing three sites in London and it was opened post pandemic. They stage music seven nights a week and as the name implies, they dabble in the blues, soul and funk domain.

It has made great strides to retain the blues heritage, and this is exemplified by it retaining a stained-glass window retrieved from Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in New Jersey where the legendary Woody Guthrie once resided. It has a gospel roof created from 19th century tin plates retrieved from a disused church in Manhattan and there is also a bizarre option available of booking private parties inside a 1920’s Air Stream Caravan.

I had never really intently studied the roster here but when a couple of friends invited us to a gig, I jumped at the chance to visit. So, on 26/08/22 after a quick libation at Brewdog we deliberately arrived a bit earlier to sample the Manchester Blues Kitchen Bar downstairs which is an open access area even if you are not attending a gig upstairs.

It was vibrant and busy with standing room only and had low lighting and I liked the place instantly. On stage was the Kitchen House Band modelling the smoky Amy Winehouse vibe (not her tribute band Amy House Wine!).

  

Manchester Blues Kitchen interior. Image Credit secretmanchester.com

We then traversed up the ornate stairs to the 500 capacity Manchester Blues Kitchen Venue. The band we had come to see was Smoove and Turrell who have supported the irrepressible Nile Rodgers and Chic on a previous tour. My colleague at work John Scott (I do always try to resist calling him Bon!), used to DJ with Smoove in Newcastle back in the day.

They hail from Gateshead and have been in existence since 2007 and the bedrock of the band is Jonathan Scott Watson (Smoove) and singer/songwriter John Turrell. When they tour, they expand the combo with several other members.  On the night they produced an energetic slab of Northern Funk despite them all having to cram on to quite a small stage!