Tag: Manchester Hop and Grape

Third T in the Park Festival

My third and final visit to T in the Park was in the summer of 2001. It was the usual crew of Uncle George, John Dewhurst, Gill and I with the addition of a new name in the ranks as one of Gill’s younger sisters Justine made her virgin festival appearance.

We encountered a dramatic start to the weekend’s proceedings as I had a tyre blowout on the M6 near Lancaster necessitating the always challenging spare tyre change on the hard shoulder.

I have always been a big tennis fan, and this 2001 event was in the days when Tim Henman was burdening the British responsibility, a few years before Andy Murray broke the glass ceiling in terms of historic achievements. Thus, we were listening to his Wimbledon semi-final against Goran Ivanisevic in the car and he was in control of the match on the journey up before a cruel and sustained rain delay.

We were back in residence at the tranquil Glenfarg Hotel which was a welcome sight after a long drive. We caught Top of the Pops on TV presented by Gail Porter with what I believe was The Strokes debut performance, their track of choice was ‘New York City Cops’. I had seen a stellar sold-out show by them 16 days earlier at Manchester Hop and Grape.

After dinner, we foolishly decamped to the hotel back bar and started sampling the local single malt which had repercussions the following day! Due to the hotel being full on the first night the ladies were staying in an annex about 10 minutes’ walk away, so we escorted them over there, swaying all the way!

The weather for the weekend was a tad iffy, but obviously no patch on the monsoon apocalypse of the previous year. On the Saturday we headed into Perth for couple of liveners before heading to the site in a cab. The route from the cab drop to the entrance took us past a rather fragrant battery chicken farm.

In the King Tuts Tent I witnessed the gentle sounds of Kurt Wagner’s Lambchop. On the main stage we saw ‘Mr Wobbly Head’ David Gray and a decent headlining set from the Stereophonics. In the NME tent I caught My Vitriol.

The highlight of the day for me though were the Proclaimers though everyone disrespectfully disowned me, and I attended on my own though they patently missed a treat. The tent was packed to the rafters, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The audience camaraderie was wholly evident exemplified by the fact that when I needed a comfort break, I managed to sneak in and out mid set under the canvas assisted by some generous fellow punters. If I had to return to the main entrance, I would not have gained re-entry!  

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The Proclaimers with David Tennent. Image Credit BBC.

On arrival back at the hotel, I discovered the Henman match had progressed, but further rain delays meant it remained unfinished.

The following day we decided to travel directly from the hotel and prior to lunch saw on a back-room bar portable TV Henman finally lose his 3-day epic battle.  Another plucky British defeat, we have sporting pedigree in that particular pursuit! That said, I am posting this blog on the day of  England playing Italy in the Euro Football final, so hopefully we can lay that curse to bed this evening.  

A gentle lunch and a few sherbets proceeded the taxi ride. Most of my time that day was spent in the NME Stage Tent witnessing Cosmic Rough Riders, Goldfinger, Ash and the headliners JJ72. My favourite act of the day there was a sparkling set from Grandaddy who played a crunchier set than when I had seen them a year earlier.

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Grandaddy. Image Credit nme.com

I caught portions of Toploader and Texas on the main stage. The other highlight was a terrifically noisy set from the laconic Scottish miserabilists Arab Strap.

We then encountered some taxi trauma when initially it did not turn up as scheduled until I gave them a rollicking and the taxi eventually surfaced to take us home and provide an ending to my T in the Park trilogy!  

On an unrelated point I attended my first gig yesterday post pandemic at the Manchester International Festival after a unprecedented break of 487 days and hopefully we can all attend more in the coming months.  

Manchester Venue 31 Night and Day – Part 2

My first visit to Night and Day Café was unusually to see a support band on 02/11/06. The band in question was the terrifically named post-rock outfit Amusement Parks on Fire from Nottingham. I had picked up on them via their second album Out of the Angeles with its distinctive sci-fi sleeve cover. They were a decent noisy live act with the venue only about a third full.

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Amusement Parks on Fire ‘Out of the Angeles’ album cover. Image Credit Discogs

For the main act Mumm Ra I recall there was a hugely overactive guitar tech thoroughly prepping the kit, unfortunately despite the odd moment the headliners were a tad limp and a bit twee for my tastes.

In May 2012 we headed in after another gig at the Soup Kitchen and caught a portion of Rooftop Runners set who were a Berlin based electronic combo comprising two Canadian brothers. We caught a further gig at Gulliver’s that night to complete a commendable trifecta. The following year we saw local act Egyptian Hip Hop who supported The Words.      

I also saw John Steele Singers, a non-descript six-piece from Brisbane in Australia and witnessed a decent fuzzy surf pop set called Get Inuit from Kent in 2015 as part of the Carefully Planned Festival.  

On a cold January night in January 2008 we decided ambitiously to do a double header of gigs which was deemed feasible by the virtue of Night and Day having later set times. So, after witnessing most of the Explosions in the Sky set at the Academy and additionally finding out North End had got an important victory over West Bromwich Albion, we jumped in a cab in true movie style and landed right on cue to see the much touted Glasvegas wander on stage.

The Glaswegians had a real presence about them, and this is surprisingly for me to say but on this occasion, they overcompensated with volume which resulted in them losing a degree of the subtlety of their self-titled debut album material. The song highlights on the night were ‘Geraldine’ and Stabbed’, the latter being a particularly dark heartfelt track.

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Glasvegas on stage. Image Credit GDR.

After the gig we ensconced to the bar and upon suddenly realising the late train was due we smuggled the remaining half bottles of Budvar out of the venue to accompany the walk back. Upon turning the corner to trot up the hill to Piccadilly station there was a young copper who on espying us had a big grin on his face due to the combined age of about 140 between the three of us. His opening riposte was ‘I am not going to have any trouble with you lads am I?’ to which he got three nods of assent and astutely asked us to lose the bottles at the bin 100 yards beyond him before we entered the station, a fine example of community policing if ever I saw one, so well done to him!   

On other visits I saw Low Island, an interesting Wrexham band called Gallops and an experimental project called Self Esteem consisting solely of Rebecca Lucy Taylor who was previously a member of Slow Club. I additionally saw Brad Stark and Seazoo, a quirky Welsh indie band. I witnessed a fine set from an Australian/Danish duo called Palace Winter who as a result of their quality I then made a conscious effort to see them in their own right a couple of years later.

It is now exactly a year to the day (13/03/20) since I saw my last gig of Nada Surf at Hop and Grape, which is naturally my longest ever gap between gigs. But there are now chinks of light on the horizon and I am hopeful of having my first vaccine soon. I have now started booking some gigs for later in the year which is very exciting!