Tag: Manchester St Anns Square

2025 Gigs – Part 2

I will continue my tales of 2025 gigs with Manchester St Ann’s Square where they have regular events around key dates of the year, for example St Patricks Day. At three at those singular events at different points, I saw the Bovver Boys, Barry’s Brass Band and a singer called Gwenda.  

Nearby to Manchester Piccadilly station resides the old atmospheric venue Manchester Star and Garter where in February I fell into capturing a small segment of an all-day gig there and witnessed some thunderous grindcore from local noiseniks Burnt Body, though I did sagaciously decide to abstain on the moshpit duties at that one!

Burnt Body. Image Credit facebook.com

In July I saw a Philadelphia ska punk act called Catbite whose chief vocalist was a lass called Brittany Luna who had previously trained as a jazz singer. She has recently performed with Laura Jane Grace who was previously the lead singer of Against Me, a band I saw on my 42nd birthday back in 2010. The duo performed some shows primarily paying a homage to Operation Ivy, a short-lived band who were a forerunner of the California ‘East Bay Sound’ in the late 1980’s. In the next step of the family tree two members of the Ivy then set up Rancid in 1991 who are still playing to this day.

In May I returned to the Academy complex for my 101st gig across all their four sites, this particular one taking place at Manchester Club Academy. My enigmatic pal Matty Allen is a Death Metal guru and had for a spell been jokingly sending me gig invites for various events, and I finally threw him a curve ball by accepting an interesting sounding one.  Another friend at work Ben, let’s call him Death Metal guru 2 was also knowledgeable and approving of the bands on the roster.

Thus Matty, his mate Rob and I gathered in Big Hands prior to the gig and had a conflab in their roof garden. The support band were called Cryptopsy who are from Montreal and were formed in 1988 and are now nine albums into their lineage. They were my preferred act on the evening, and the drummer Flo Mournier was particularly impressive, and they also used to have a vocalist with the jocular name of Lord Worm.

The headliners were Decapitated from Poland who formed in 1996 with the members ranging from 12 to 16 at that stage. They suffered untold tragedy in 2007 when the original drummer died in a car crash at the age of 23. They are regularly touted as one of the key proponents of the genre.

An additional observance of the crowd is that due to the intense nature of the music you could perhaps surmise they may have more of an aggressive outlook, but they were in fact one of the friendliest audiences I have ever encountered with a refreshing lack of phones in my eyeline.

Mani. Image Credit yahoo.com

At the nearby Manchester Academy, I caught Black Rebel Motorcycle Club for the sixth time and a full decade since my last sighting, they were playing the ‘Howl’ album which was celebrating its 20th anniversary. It is a softer sounding record but still contains some terrific tunes with ‘Complicated Situation’ being my fave. They were in good form and included a touching tribute to Mani, who had passed away three weeks earlier, by playing a solo acoustic Stone Roses track with full audience singalong.        

Prior to the gig at the aforementioned Manchester Big Hands, I saw a fuzzy and noisy garage rock band called Ahmed & The Romans who contained in their ranks three Italians and the lead singer Ahmed who is an Anglo-Egyptian. 

At the tail end of September Marcus and I trundled into Manchester Yes Basement. The band in question were called The Pill, an act that we had both simultaneously heard playing and being interviewed on Steve Lamacq’s 6 music show. Texts were instantly sent confirming that our interests were piqued and tickets were swiftly purchased.

The Pill. Image Credit genius.com

The Pill consist of spiky female duo Lily Hutchings and Lottie Massey from the Isle of Wight. They derive from the island that has recently spawned the not dissimilar Wet Leg and also Coach Party. They happened on a musical career via an unusual route as they started with the creation of a punk rock Pinocchio digital puppet show. They began to receive a considerable and unexpected following, and the band was the natural next step though Lily had never played before, so she actually learnt the guitar for the formation of the combo!

On the night, they were bloody good fun with tracks such as ‘Woman Driver’ and ‘Scaffolding Man’ with their whip smart lyrics that many prehistoric men would take literally and simply not have a scoobie that they were taking the proverbial!

Manchester Venue 123 to 125

Manchester St Ann’s Square near Deansgate in the city centre has a long history dating back to 1708. When the Act of Parliament that granted the initial build of St Ann’s Church was approved there was an additional stipulation that a 30-yard space should be retained for the fair which had toll entry gates and was a primary place to hire servants. The fair area then became the square and was named after the monarch of the time.

The adjoining conservation space was home to the Cotton Exchange which morphed into the current Royal Exchange in 1874, at that stage containing the largest trading floor in the country. The building is now utilised as a thriving theatre.  

St Ann’s Square with Royal Exchange Theatre. Image Credit Manchester Evening News.

On one corner of the square is the back entrance to one of Manchester grandest pubs Mr Thomas’s Chop House which was opened in 1867 by its founder Thomas Stubbs. It is a Grade II listed building and has many of the original features. The main entrance is on Cross Street directly opposite one of my favourite Chinese restaurants in town, the Rice Bowl.

Nearby is the legendary basement bar Corbieres initially opened by ex-Manchester City footballer Mike Doyle in 1978. It has always had the reputation of having a fine content on the jukebox and I always liked the tale of punters in there backing the winner of the 1983 Grand National on a horse called Corbiere and spending the winnings on ale in the bar for the rest of the day!

St Ann’s Square is one of the many sites utilised for the Christmas markets but is also the hub for other festivals. One such event was the annual Jazz festival which was based there in May 2019.  Coinciding with the day of this event, John Dewhurst and I were burning shoe leather across the length and breadth of the city in attendance at the sorely missed Dot to Dot festival.

Corbieres Bar. Image Credit manchestersfinest.com

As we passed through the square a band called Heavy Leno were on stage and as there was link up that year with the Manchester Food and Drink festival, we took the opportunity to grab a seat for a beer and a pizza stop. This was in addition to other 20 venues we visited that day! Earlier this year in March the Irish festival tent run by the O’Sheas bar was located there and I witnessed a band called The Cullodens play.

The aforementioned Manchester St Anns Church was only the third church to be consecrated in the city. The church narrowly escaped damage from a Luftwaffe raid during World War 2 and apparently still has a burnt-out incendiary bomb which landed on the roof.

It contains within an organ that dates to 1730 which has expanded over the years and now contains 54 speaking stops. The church has for a long time been linked up with the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), and students perform recitals there. I happened to be passing one afternoon in June last year and I could hear tuneage so snuck in and I caught a portion of one such RNCM Organ recital.   

St Ann’s Church. Image Credit Geograph Britain and Ireland.

The adjacent street to the church is Manchester King Street which for many years has been one of the main shopping streets in the city and was the first city centre street to be fully given over to pedestrian use in 1976. On my birthday in 2019 we have been for a meal and discovered there was a pop-up stage in place on King St, the reason for which I cannot recall. Performing on the said stage was a local singer songwriter called Dee Olares.