Tag: Manchester New Century Hall

2025 Gigs – Part 3

I shall commence the final part of my 2025 review with the observation that I regularly head over to Liverpool for work and periodically catch a sliver of live music whilst traversing back to Liverpool Lime Street for my train home. One such bar is Liverpool Smokie Mo’s on Great Charlotte Street where I have seen local singers Paul Gillies and Chris Kinsella playing.

In March we gravitated over to Manchester New Century Hall where I saw Mercury Rev for the seventh time and the first time for a decade. They were premiering their new album ‘Born Horses’ but obviously including some highlights from their desert island disc ‘Deserter Songs’.  

Mercury Rev. Image Credit gigantic.com

On a work outing we visited New Century food hall one evening and we got ensnared into the nights quiz event. The second prize was two free tickets to any gig at the venue upstairs, and I have no idea why, but everyone turned round to me at that particular news!  Obviously we achieved a second place, and the tickets were donated generously to myself. Unfortunately, the first choice of Blondshell I couldn’t make due to illness and the revised choice of Dirty Three due to being notified of a close family bereavement just as I was setting off to that gig, so it was obviously not meant to be, but still a nice touch from my colleagues!

Whilst out on a sally down Burton Road in West Didsbury we caught a portion of the Beat Boys at Manchester Rustik, a bar that has since closed its doors for the final time. Over in Didsbury Village there are regular gigs over the weekends at Manchester Kennedys. I saw a chap called Paul Hunt playing and manufactured a visit there on Christmas Eve to ensure I reached my double century of gigs in the year. The act to mark that achievement was a geezer called Chris Addington from Rochdale who is a bit of an all-rounder as a music service tutor, musical director and alongside being a solo performer has been in a suite of bands, the latest being called Filthy Animals.

The final block of this year’s gigs will be covered under the auspices of the Lancaster Live Festival where over two days I saw 37 gigs and a grand total of 23 new venues.  I shall take you firstly to Lancaster Tap House where on the Saturday we witnessed a local band called Fuse. The following day we returned and caught the Sun Street Stompers who are a traditional jazz band whose driving force is Barry Marshall.

Sun Street Stompers. Image Credit jazznorthwest.co.uk

Barry has a long-standing pedigree as a clarinet player and played in various bands before in 1984 being approached by Steve Thorn, landlord of Ye Olde John O Gaunt pub, to set up a Sunday lunchtime band and the Stompers were born. They have retained that residency for over four decades with an ever-changing line up and provide valuable opportunities for local upcoming musicians. For the festival they made a rare foray to another hostelry, and they played in front of a hugely respectful audience where you could literally hear a pin drop.  

Continuing the theme of Lancaster Ye Olde John O Gaunt, a venue which was also subject to a double visit on the weekend. On the first day we saw Slackrr, who were a noisy pop punk trio who have been around since 2018 and had just released their third album ‘A Light on the Horizon’. On the Sunday we caught Helen and the Mellons who are a folky trio and are regular participants on the local circuit.

Directly opposite there is Lancaster Market Square where on Day 1 a jaunty band called Des Songsmith & the Flat Cap 3 graced the stage. On Day 2 we were presented with sets from Charlie Blugrass and from Daisy Smith. The latter named is a local singer/songwriter and is also the driving force behind the creation of a four-piece rock band called Do You Like Worms? The band’s moniker derives from a Beach Boys track recorded in 1960 which was subsequently released on a compilation album in 1963.

A stumbling distance away is Lancaster Library, one of the original venues for the hugely successfully ‘Get it Loud in the Library’ initiative and where I had previously seen Robert Forster, Yuck and Low amongst others. On this particular occasion Northern Frisk were performing who are badged as one of the finest ceilidh bands in the North of England and regularly appear at festivals, barn dances or they can even be hired for weddings.

Northern Frisk. Image Credit facebook.com

At the fine setting that is the Lancaster Pub Outdoor Stage we saw Circus Freak, a rock covers band from Bolton featuring Rokkin Roy on guitar. Later, we witnessed White Tyger who were in a similar vein to the previous band and were formed in 2015 in the West Midlands. Nearby at the Lancaster Cornerhouse a singer/songwriter called Brendan Cleary was on stage and then at Lancaster Crafty Scholar we caught sight of Mark McKenna, who we then found a second time whilst he was playing a later set at Lancaster Hogarths.

At the Lancaster Royal a very enjoyable and accomplished four-piece blues band based in Liverpool named Reillo were on stage. Their name derives from the reverse spelling of the surname of the lead singer James Ollier, who is the driving force and main songwriter in the band and a guitarist since the age of 14. Nearer to the station is Lancaster Jailors Barrel (previously the Robert Willow) where a solo indie singer called Jamie Walker was playing.

Manchester Venues 149 to 150 – New Century Hall

Of the four main city centre train stations, Victoria would probably be my least attended as it has always been slightly on the wrong side of the tracks for me! Now if you depart the station down the approach heading alongside the tram tracks towards Shudehill Interchange but deviate marginally to the left down Hanover Street, you reach the Sadler’s Cat public house.

Sadler’s Cat pub. Image Credit secretmanchester.com

The Sadler’s was originally known as the Pilcrow which was purpose built as part of a regeneration programme commitment by the Co-operative Society, following the demolition of the Crown and Cushion pub to make way for a new public road. The current name reflects the commemoration of the very site of the first hot air balloon flight in 1785 and the pilot being one James Sadler who took his feline friend with him on the trip! The pub is contained within the NOMA complex and is now owned by the Cloudwater brewery and is a good basking spot in the summer with a suite of outside tables.

Staying with the Co-op theme, across the square from the hostelry you find the New Century Hall which was built as their 1000 capacity Insurance Society building in 1962 and sits adjacent to New Century House. They had many major acts play there in the 1960’s including Rolling Stones, Tina Turner, Jerry Lee Lewis and the Kinks. There is also an anecdote of the Jimi Hendrix Experience performing there in 1966 and a young John Cooper Clarke being denied entry as he was not wearing the obligatory tie, despite being bedecked in Fred Perry and a striped sports coat, bouncers eh! 

John Cooper Clarke. Image Credit pinterest.com

It is a three-storey building with the basement containing the Access Creative College where you can obtain degrees in music and gaming. The ground floor houses the Manchester New Century Food Hall where I first visited in December 2022 on a Christmas works do where we partook some tucker from one of the many food vendors and watched the England v Wales World Cup match. Where the big screen showing the match was located, there is normally a stage, and I have seen a couple of local singers perform there.

Upstairs from there is the Manchester New Century Hall which on first sight I was instantly impressed by with the wood surrounds and tasteful lighting. Even when busy it remains an accessible venue with ability to scoot down the sides to obtain a spot nearer to the stage. I can see myself in the future checking their listings from a venue viewpoint ahead of many others in the city where they become an almighty scrum when reaching capacity, the Albert Hall being a case in point.

My first attendance was in May 2023 with Gill and our good friends and fellow rabble rousers Jo and Paul. We had a couple of drinks around the Kampus area near Piccadilly and in the Northern Quarter. The band we were going to see was The Beths from Auckland in New Zealand. They were promoting their hugely recommended third album ‘Expert in a Dying Field’ which I have given serious airplay to as I love the upbeat nature of it, and I thoroughly enjoyed their set. Their sound reminds me of a fellow upcoming band called Fortitude Valley.      

Manchester New Century Hall. Image Credit manchestereveningnews.co.uk

My next attendance was with Gill in June 2024 where we only shamefully discovered the Abel Heywood Hydes brewery pub for the first time, but we have rectified that by attending a couple of times since. The band that night was the Lovely Eggs who I didn’t enjoy as much as their previous times I have seen them.  

There then followed two attendances in Sept 2024. The first was remarkably for me to see Ride for the first time, however I had previously seen an individual set by Mark Gardener at Preston Continental back in November 2011 where they also showed a screening of ‘Anyone Can Play Guitar’ which provides a story of the Oxford music scene featuring Ride alongside many other bands.    

For the uninitiated, Ride were prime shoegaze pioneers releasing two highly touted albums on Creation records in the early 1990’s. They broke up in 1996 before reforming in 2014 and were touring their latest album ‘Interplay’. The sound quality was poor early on but once they sorted that out, they were excellent.

My latest visit involved a large group of us including my pals Jason Gill and Barry Jury going to see the Go Team for the fourth time and for my first time for 14 years. They played in full their superb debut album ‘Thunder Lighting Strike’ with other tunes interspersed in their set.           

As a postscript I have managed to obtain some degree of numerical symmetry as New Century Hall was the actual 150th Manchester venue that I had visited.