Gigs from Aboard Part 13 Vietnam – Part 2

We continued our Vietnam trip in 2014/15 by heading over to Phu Quoc, an island off the south coast where we spent Christmas Day and the trickiest challenge whilst there was to decide whether I preferred either Saigon Red or Saigon Green beer (for the record it was a marginal preference for the Green).  

When we were sat outside the cabin one evening, we witnessed the surreal sight of a cockerel casually walking down the path and then up the steps of the lodgings opposite. It then proceeded to tap its beak on the door and waited patiently, after two attempts with no reply it retraced its route and strutted off into the sunset.

‘Not the actual cockerel’. Image Credit raising-happy-chickens.com

I was at that point checking that I wasn’t drinking a Saigon ‘special’ beer but then gathered the intel from our neighbours that the previous owners had been feeding it, but they had flown home that morning leaving our resident cockerel shy of a snack that evening. This event reminded me of a story in Paul Auster’s ‘True Tales of American Life’, a book I would heartily recommend.  

Our next destination was Hoi An, with its ancient town and bustling marketplace and excellent food. We hired bicycles for a couple of days and cycled out to the nearby beach and into the residential areas where the tannoy’s on the street spouted out their ongoing Government propaganda.

When we were in a particularly touristy area of Singapore, we were stung with a beer price of nearly £10 (near to Manchester Ritz prices!), but in total contrast in one restaurant in Hoi An I obviously had to sample their local moonshine beer at 42p a pint. Unsurprisingly it was pretty poor fare! As we had been away for a sustained period, there was one night where we craved some different food. In this regard, we discovered a nearby Australian diner called Dingo Deli where we feasted on some excellent cheese on toast and drinkable coffee!   

Dingo Deli. Image Credit tripadvisor.jn.

On New Years Eve we headed down to the busy bars at Hoi An Harbour where they had set up a big stage for the celebrations, and performing was a local act called Louie, who were then followed by a fireworks display.  The only downside was the monsoon weather, so we saw the New Year in with a very tasty doughnut from a street trader before heading back to our digs.

A couple of days later we walked past Hoi An Que Nha Bar on the way to a restaurant and intriguingly we could see a stage set up. We passed a couple of hours later and the place was in full flow, and we were encouraged through the door by the local punters outside. To our astonishment we were provided front row seats in the packed bar resulting in envious glances from later attendees.  

Hoi An river view. Image Credit pinterest.

The venue was in effect a karaoke bar with backing music provided by a band called Hang Truang. We had no idea of the required etiquette as we crouched down on the little stools, but gathered quickly that karaoke was a serious business here and is all about the audience reaction though it turns out we had vastly different viewpoints than the other customers.

One singer who we thought was high quality was subjected to a brutally complete silence at the end of the track, but another performer who literally murdered ‘Yesterday’ by the Beatles was rewarded with roses thrown on the stage. I also unintentionally caused a bit of chaos by breaking the lavatory door, and I had only had a couple of drinks! We stayed for about an hour and thoroughly enjoyed our karaoke experience and it was a fascinating insight into the local culture.   

2022 Gigs – Part 2

I am continuing the tale this week of the 2022 gigs I attended at venues already covered in previous blogs.

Every year, there will always be gigs that I go to in one of the Academy sites and I am rapidly closing in on 100 gigs in total across their four venues, all since I attended my first ever, namely Wedding Present at Academy 2 in February 1988. Thirty-four years later In February 2022 I attended Manchester Academy 2 again to see Dry Cleaning with Graham Jones in tow.

They are a post-punk band with a distinctive lead vocal from Florence Shaw interspersed with spoken word lyrics and they later in the year released their second album ‘Stumpwork’ containing the catchy single ‘Gary Ashby’. That night I also finally managed to make a visit to the Old Abbey Taphouse, a community pub located in Hulme near to Manchester science park where they undertake sporadic gigs and I hope to return at some point to attend an event.    

Old Abbey Taphouse. Image Credit Manchester Evening News.

A month later I returned to Academy 2 to see Warmduscher, a post punk band from London for whom Mark Reilly from 6 Music is a keen advocate. I personally didn’t warm to their sound, but their twitchy energetic lead singer Craig Louis Higgins Jr (Clams Baker) was an interesting presence. It was also a landmark gig numerically as it transpired to be my 500th gig in Manchester.  My final visit there was in June to see Dave Wakeling’s Beat, one of the two splinter groups out there touring who emanated from the original Beat.

In September I headed to Manchester Academy 1 to finally witness Godspeed You! Black Emperor who formed in Montreal, Canada in 1994. They are a Canadian instrumental post-rock combo who provide sweeping soaring soundscapes and apart from the slightly dizzying visual screens behind them they were a terrific live proposition.

I was in tow with Uncle George and John Dewhurst, the latter previously saw Godspeed in Planet K in 2000 on the same night that George and I saw Trail of the Dead at the Roadhouse a couple of streets away, that was one noisy night in Manchester!

Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Image Credit Chicago Tribune.

On my birthday weekend in June, Gill and I went for a meal at a local restaurant on the Thursday before the following night heading to Manchester Ritz to watch Lovely Eggs. It was their biggest ever gig and they were as vibrant as ever. Holly was in a particularly combative mood, exemplified by her justifiably and scathingly condemning the security staff when they aborted her plans to undertake the final of a stage diving contest. Her wrath was only increased by the fact that prior approval had been sought and obtained but then ignored. They were supported by Thick Richard on the night.  

On the Saturday we stayed over in Preston after attending a family barbecue before travelling back over to Manchester on the Sunday prior to another gig at Manchester Apollo. We were off to see Yeah Yeah Yeahs but at one point in the early evening Gill bandied about the phrase that our attendance looked more like a ‘No No No’, however our gig stamina kicked in and we shuffled off to the venue.  

I had never previously seen them and was anticipating a good one and my preconceptions were met fully as they were superb and lead singer Karen O had a hypnotic presence on stage, English Teacher were the support band.  

I attended there again in November to see Sigur Ros and visited the Aspley Cottage pub next door for the first time in 14 years and the hostelry was refreshingly unchanged. I met up with Barry Jury and a couple of his pals and Sigur provided an epic 2-hour set.   

The final venue to reference is the ever-reliable Manchester Night and Day. In June we attended to see The Courettes with our friends Jo and Paul. The band are jointly from Denmark and Brazil and perhaps best fit under the Spector Wall of Sound genre. They were good fun and had a very keen tendency to keep shouting out the phrase ‘Come on Manchester’! They also bravely asked the audience to crouch on the knees for a sustained period during one song, which was a challenge for the majority of the audience, including me!   

My final appearance to Night and Day was somewhat accidental in that I was scheduled to attend the White Hotel in Salford for the first time, but the gig was cancelled. Not wanting to totally kibosh the evening I found an alternate gig involving an artist I would not normally pay to watch but I was so glad we did.

The night started with meeting Uncle George in Piccadilly Central bar (previously Monroes) near Piccadilly train station and some tea in Ning on Oldham Street. When we arrived at the venue, it was all seated at the front and we managed to grab a pew at the side of the stage.

The support was Peter Bruntwell and the main act was a sprightly 74 year old called Bill Kirchen who has been quantified as the ‘Titan of the Telecaster’ for his terrific guitar work and has collaborated over the years with Nick Lowe, Gene Vincent, Link Wray and Elvis Costello. With the latter he penned a remarkable tune called ‘There is a Man at the Bottom of the Well’ with Elvis’s laconic delivery and the line ‘is he looking down from heaven or staring up at hell’ which he played on the night.

Bill Kirchen on stage. Image Credit gigharbourmarina.com

His outro was remarkable as he played a medley of around thirty high quality, seamless short segments of artists including Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Nirvana and AC/DC. It resembled the best ‘Stars on 45’ you could ever wish to hear and something I have never seen in 38 years of watching gigs!