This week, I am returning to the strange and wonderful venues under the auspices of the Sounds from the Other City festival in Salford.
The first venue on the 2018 festival was at the fivefourstudios hall at the bottom of Oldfield Road out beyond Islington Mill. By day, the place was a multipurpose space, wedding venue and a photography studio. It was a slightly style over substance venue but interesting, nonetheless.
We initially climbed up to the attic room as an artist took the stage. We were hoping for some acoustic tuneage to start the day’s proceedings but in the immortal words of Morrissey from ‘Frankly Mr Shankly’ what we actually got was a blast of ‘such bloody awful poetry’! There was only a sprinkling of people in attendance, and it was discourteous to leave so quickly so we allocated one more poem which as luck would have it continued for what felt like days after which we escaped down the stairs!
The venue itself is appropriately five minutes’ walk from Salford Lads Club where the Smiths filmed the famous video on their bicycles for ‘There is a Light that never goes out’.
We caught an RnB singer/songwriter called Rosebud in the main hall. Additionally, in the fivefourstudios annex we encountered some electronic loungecore from a local duo called Pearl City.
Further down Oldfield Road you arrive at Hot Bed Press which is a print workshop and art school that also runs night school courses. It is an utterly self-financing venture and was set up back in 1994. In an area at the side of the building we saw an electronic duo called She the Throne who produced some ambient soundscapes.
As we headed back towards Chapel St, we decreed that nourishment was required before heading onto the next venue. The food establishment of choice was Chungs Chippy. I wonder how the place survives 364 days a year as it is in such a sparse location but that day they were queuing out of the door. The original plan was fish and chips, but we ended up buying probably the finest ever Chicken Fried Rice and Curry Sauce which resulted in envious glances as we walked out of the door. It was fabulous food which kept us satiated for the remainder of the day!
We needed a sit down after such a hearty snack, so we headed up to Le Cassis on the A6. This was an inviting little wine bar, and it is official address is in the superlatively named Vimto Gardens. As we lounged on our comfy sofas there was a local band on stage called Gathering of Strangers. They produced some fine anthemic songs even though they were playing that day in acoustic mode. I have endeavoured without success yet to catch their full electric set.
Across the road was the School of Electronic Music. This establishment has been in existence since 1996 and they provide courses for Music Production and Audio Engineering. On stage there was an engaging and amusing set from Manchester drag musician Monopoly Phonic.