Tag: Manchester Club Academy

2024 Gigs – Part 1

After a slow start to the year due to some ill health my numbers then increased exponentially to reach a personal best figure of 143 gigs for 2024. My current total for 2025 suggests I have a decent chance though of surpassing that figure this year. As with all previous annual updates I will cover only the venues that I have already reviewed in previous blogs.

Where shall we start? I guess a good as place as any is the old stalwart Manchester Academy 1. I visited there in February for the 32nd time and as a result also reached another milestone as it was my 100th visit to the entire Academy complex (includes also 42 gigs at Academy 2, 19 at Academy 3 and 7 at Club Academy). My century being achieved a small matter of 36 years and 7 days since my first attendance at Academy 2 in February 1988 to see Wedding Present.

Slowdive. Image Credit NME.

I also had the veritable bonus of finally after a few years of correspondence meeting the music aficionado and musician Andrea for a quick drink prior to the event. The gig itself was my first ever sighting of the now revered shoegazers Slowdive. The band formed in Reading in 1989 and subsequently broke up in 1995 after the release of their third album ‘Pygmalion’. Some of the members formed a splinter group called Mojave 3 before Slowdive reformed for Primavera in 2014 and have since released two albums, the latter ‘Everything is Alive’ achieving a Top Ten placing in several countries.    

The venue was as busy as I have ever witnessed it, and I managed to snuggle into a spot about halfway in on the left-hand side. There was a considerably more youthful crowd than I had anticipated, and it has now become apparent that shoegaze is now being heard by a fresh new generation. The band had a compelling presence, and it was an enjoyably immersive experience.

They were supported by some newer kids on the block, Whitelands, who have been playing since 2017 and had just released their debut album on the legendary Sonic Cathedral record label.  On the night, I also made the inadvertent discovery for the first time of the infinitely quieter upstairs bar!

There was a sojourn in June with my brother-in law Phil to Manchester Old Trafford Cricket Ground as a wingman to see the Foo Fighters on Day 2 of their residency there. We had a couple of scoops prior in Chorlton whilst dodging the rain showers and en route to the ground made a virgin visit to the old Holts brewery pub The Quadrant.

The Quadrant pub. Image Credit flickr.com

There were some painfully slow ticket queues reminding me why I very rarely attend stadium gigs. We sallied about and stood in different spots for their near three hour set. Dave Grohl always cuts a charismatic presence and his swear box was overflowing by the end of the show!

There was a visit to Stockport Rock Salt Café in Moor Top in August where I saw a chap called Eddie performing and just before Christmas, I watched the oddly named Liffey St featuring Eoin Griffin & Mixi Toal at Stockport Cassidy’s in Heaton Moor.

I made another pilgrimage to the Sounds from the Other City festival (SFTOC) in Salford. First port of call was the Manchester Pint Pot Upstairs where I witnessed the Manchester three-piece Shell Company. They had a brooding electronic sound topped off by spoken word poetry from their vocalist Rosebella Allen and have released records that were recorded at the White Hotel venue.

In Manchester Pint Pot Downstairs we could barely scramble through the door to obtain a sighting of Thraa, a Manchester drone duo consisting of Sally Mason and Andi Jackson. They were both in other bands before forming this one and have garnered support slots with Lorelle Meets The Obsolete. They were intriguing as they employed two guitars and threw away traditional song structures to produce shards of sounds, sometimes minimalist and sometimes rather joyously noisy!

Just around the corner in Manchester St Phillips Church we caught a singer called BEATRICE, which I cannot find any information about. Further down the A6 brought you to the vibrant communal area and the Manchester Bexley Square Live Tent where Meme Good were noisily cooking up a storm on the stage. In the nearby fine hostelry Manchester New Oxford, I saw a combo called Fellowship.

St Phillips Church. Image Credit manchesterhistory.net

We then pottered over to the busy hub of Manchester Islington Mill Courtyard where in the outside area alongside the bars and pizza huts, we saw and heard the synth sounds of local musician Sarah Bates. Her career commenced as a solo vocalist and at one stage worked with the legendary producer Nile Rodgers.

Back under the roof in Manchester Islington Mill Mirage Bar we witnessed a portion of Chermonseg’s set. Down the corridor in Manchester Islington Mill Partisan Bar we saw Zolatec who is a drum and bass artist. She was born in Leicester with the name of Ayeshah but is also known under the stage name of Zola Steelpan, reflecting the influence of that particular instrument in her repertoire. She is a festival stalwart and has performed at the Notting Hill Carnival.

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.