Tag: Manchester International 1

Manchester Venues 182 to 183

Alongside the seemingly omnipresent Action Records in Preston, the other hugely important record shop in my gig going lifetime is Manchester Piccadilly Records. They originally opened in 1978, which was coincidentally also the conception year of Factory Records. They started as a record concession within another shop before morphing into a singular store themselves.

They were located initially in the Piccadilly area before moving to Brown Street near to Piccadilly Gardens. I remember distinctly visiting that particular site many times in the late 1980’s/early 1990’s and I was also in regular correspondence when sourcing many tickets, predominantly for gigs at that stage at the old Manchester International 1. Now one for the kids out there, I use to send a paper item called cheques through the post and then as if by magic valuable tickets were subsequently received on my doormat a couple of weeks later!     

Original site of Piccadilly Records in 1990. Image Credit mdmarchive.co.uk

They had a change of management in 1990 before being caught up in the IRA bombing of 1996. One of the staff at that time still owns a Fugees album which had its cover shredded when the windows blew through in the explosion. A year later they moved into their current location on Oldham Street in the yet to be developed Northern Quarter.

They have moved with the trends and times and exploited the post punk genre in their earlier days and continued to develop and adapt as the digital streaming age came into play. They have received regular newspaper awards and additionally have won the prize for the best independent record store at Music Week and also at the Gilles Peterson worldwide awards. It remains eternally popular and local musicians Tim Burgess and Johnny Marr are regular visitors.  

On an annual basis they used to produce a little book with their albums of the year and also recommendations of timeless lost albums. As a direct result I finally became acquainted with Neutral Milk Hotel’s remarkable 1998 album ‘In the Aeroplane Over the Sea’.

Like all good record shops, they began to showcase and undertake in-store sessions, and a particular one caught my beady eye which was taking place on 31/01/20. It was on a Friday, so I gravitated down there after work. The band in question was the Smoke Fairies who derive from Chichester and consist of Katherine Blamire and Jessica Davies.

Smoke Fairies. Image Credit nme.com

They first met at school in Sussex in the 1990’s and undertook a blues musical education by spending 2002 in New Orleans. Their fledgling music then took another direction when they discovered folk when working as car attendants at the Sidmouth Folk Week festival. They subsequently garnered valuable support slots with Bryan Ferry, Richard Hawley and Laura Marling and were the first UK act to release a single on Jack White’s Third Man Records, produced by the man himself.

They were chosen to provide a cover of ‘Alabama’ for a MOJO compilation to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Neil Young’s ‘Harvest’. On the very day of the gig, they had released their fifth album ‘Darkness Brings the Wonders Home’ which had a brooding melancholia to it, in the vein of PJ Harvey. The duo positioned themselves by the counter and undertook a short enjoyable set appreciated by a decent size audience. I was also then intending to attend a Lovely Eggs session in that location but that was later cancelled by the pandemic.

In 2021 a previously under-used area on the corner of Dale Street and Lever Street was recreated as the Manchester Mala Secret Garden Bar, the land being previously used as a drugs den with paraphernalia and tents being regularly spotted there. It is situated outside the Chapter One bookshop and café within the Northern Quarter and is also nearby to the Travelling Man shop which quite often catches my eye when I walk past, where they specialise in comics, graphic novels and board games.

Mala Secret Garden. Image Credit opentable.ca

As Mala means ‘garden’ in Hawaiian it has now been converted into a Victorian glass house with ‘Parisian-style gardens’ with cable cars resembling cabins with room for individual batches of six people. There are numerous trees and plants and with an additional children’s play area and within the horticultural space there are picnic benches and long tables placed undercover with capacity for eighty punters.

On a Sunday they stage chilled jazz-tinged events and last year I was in brief residence there and I saw a blues based singer called Stephanie performing a short set.

Manchester Venues 130 to 132

Levenshulme is a suburb south of Manchester, residing on the A6 equidistant between there and Stockport. If you drive out of the city centre past Manchester Apollo, you will then pass through this area. It is historically badged under Lancashire before falling under the Manchester borders in 1909. Levenshulme is situated next to the suburb of Longsight where the fabulous venues of Manchester Internationals 1 and 2 were located in the mid to late 1980’s and early 1990’s.

It has its own small train station, which is on the London Euston route. A quirky fact is that the 77-yard stretch of road the station is located on has never been christened. Thus, via lottery funding in 2007 an unofficial road sign was erected with the informal locally used moniker of ‘The Street With No Name’. Sadly, though I don’t think Clint Eastwood’s character ‘The Man With No Name’ from Sergio Leone’s ‘Dollars Trilogy’ westerns has ever visited the road!

The Street With No Name. Image Credit flickriver.com

Close to the station is where the weekly local markets were held from 2013, but due to rising costs were closed in 2023. The old ‘dandy’ highwayman Dick Turpin used to frequent the old Blue Bell Inn, a pub which still stands to this day, now owned by Samuel Smiths brewery and an Italian restaurant named Cibus on the A6 has just been awarded the Good Food Guide of best local restaurant in the North West.

Nearby to there your nostrils are assailed by the fine aromas emanating from the McVities biscuit factory. Liam and Noel Gallagher’s mum Peggy used to be employed by them and bring home the rejects and broken biscuits to the two lads which Noel then used to increase his popularity to taking them into school earning him the nickname of ‘Gallagher the Biscuit’.  I became very animated when I discovered they had a shop on site, but then instantly distressed when I subsequently uncovered that it is only open to employees! I think I may need to raise this ultra important anomaly with my local MP!

McVities Factory. Image Credit themanc.com

Levenshulme alumni include actors Arthur Lowe who played Captain Mainwaring in Dad’s Army, and Gwyneth Powell who was headmistress Bridget ‘The Midget’ McClusky in Grange Hill. From the musical spectrum you have Oasis drummer Tony McCarroll and Wayne Fontana who fronted the Mindbenders.  

When it became apparent this year that my accumulation of gigs could feasibly result in attending 200 singular venues in Manchester, I have begun to make a concerted effort to achieve this aspiration by invoking Project 200. In this regard I took advantage of the fact that Levenshulme is the key Irish enclave in the city, therefore they had events on and around St Patricks Day that I could advantage of.

In July 2023 Aunty Ji’s restaurant closed and was taken over by an Irish and Scottish establishment called Manchester Bia Café Bar. They apparently excel with their fried breakfasts and also commendably provide ‘free porridge breakfasts’ every morning for school children where the need arises. They are also licensed and have periodic live music acts.  On the Sunday afternoon of my visit there was an Irish duo called Grace Kelly & Debbie Garvey playing in front of a packed venue.

The Manchester Union Inn is a traditional sports and music pub where on the same Sunday I saw a Manchester University student violinist Coleen Langan perform. As of today’s date, I am now sat on 192 Manchester venues, so a remaining 8 required for my double century!  

The East Levenshulme district was original known as the Talleyrand, allegedly named after the French statesman of that name who was in exile there during the French Revolution. Respecting that tradition there is now an establishment on the A6 called Manchester Talleyrand.

It is a very homely establishment as you initially enter into a dimly lit continental style beer café, and then encounter the in-house STOCK art gallery. They also utilise the small back room as a multi-functional arts space which includes live gigs in its schedule. The establishment is owned by pals Tom Hughes and Dean Brocklehurst, who met when they were working together at HOME.  

The Talleyrand. Image Credit creativetourist.com

I became aware that they were hosting some interesting eclectic sounding bands, and previous acts who have performed are John Otway, TV Smith and Laetitia Sadier from Stereolab. In April 22 we decided to make our debut visit with my pals Paul Catterall and Mark Barry in tow. The latter named is a fine fellow, highly knowledgeable muso and a serial gig goer back in the day but alas now only a very sporadic attendee, so I had to coax him out of semi-retirement!     

The band playing was the Flatmates who were formed in 1985 and part of the C86 scene. The guitarist and songwriter Martin Whitehead formed his own record label The Subway Organisation and were based in Bristol. They are best remembered for their No 2 indie chart single ‘Shimmer’. They disbanded in 1989 but subsequently reformed in 2013 and provided an enjoyable set on the night. They were supported by a fuzzy guitar band from Leeds called Nervous Twitch.