Tag: Manchester Thirsty Scholar

2024 Gigs – Part 3

I always manage to catch some random performances in venues around Oxford Road train station prior to heading home. One such venue is Manchester Grand Central where in May I saw a band called Level Up, in September I witnessed Throwback, in October I caught Ben from the Block and a month later Warrington act Pray for Mojo. The latter combo provided a pleasing slab of psych rock in the vein of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.  

The other venue in that vicinity is the old stalwart Manchester Thirsty Scholar. I visited the Scholar in August and October where I saw a couple of double acts called Alvin and Rob and Sid and Benny. Jenny Jazz followed at the tail end of October.

My final attendance in December was part of the Year’s End Festival on a monsoon style rainy day where first up on stage were a noisy garage rock band called Redchecks. They are a Welsh act who are now based in Manchester, but somewhat confusingly formed in Glastonbury in 2021.

Scatterchild. Image facebook.com

The other performers were locals Scatterchild who had recently released their debut album ‘An Everyday Landscape’. It was possibly the busiest I have seen the pub in all my visits, and we snuggled into a spot perched on the bar. It turned out be my last gig there prior to the recently rebadging of the hostelry into O’Connells Irish pub, still thankfully staging live music.

Another venue of the Year’s End festival roster was Manchester Retro Bar Downstairs Stage. It was only my third visit to the cellar and as it transpired my last as the venue is now closed for good after a thirty-five-year tenure. It is due to be demolished soon to make way for the Sister regeneration project which aims to generate 10,000 jobs and 1500 new homes.  

Retro however are still aiming to relocate and set up in a new site and are apparently exploring possible locations in this regard. The band on stage were called Wren and they cut a very heavy presence with their noisy sludge metal and it is the kind of music your Granny may love!  

The final festival venue to reference was further down Oxford Road at Manchester Deaf Institute Lodge. The first act I saw was Meelik who were most definitely the first ever band I have seen from Estonia. I then undertook some research on famous bands from the northernmost of the Baltic states and the intriguing name that caught my eye was the punk band called Bedwetters!

Meelik. Image Credit escbubble.com

Meelik fall more into the indie genre and are literally a high school band formed originally by their guitarist, Rain. Confidence in their musical ability was initially gained after winning one of their school song competitions. They had a break from 2011 to 2022 before reforming and entering their national Eurovision Song Contest qualifiers where they obtained a fourth place. On stage they wore school uniforms though they avoided Angus Young comparisons by the virtue of them wearing long pants! They were rather quirky, and I enjoyed the portion that I saw of their set.

The other act was Nadia Sheikh who is a Spanish/British singer and songwriter now based out of London. She self-released a slew of singles prior to obtaining a coveted 19 date support slot for Stereophonics on a sold out tour including dates at Manchester and Cardiff Arena. She had a heartfelt expressive voice which was overlaid over an indie backdrop sound.

There were also acts playing in the Manchester Deaf Institute Music Hall. First up was Kynsy who was probably my favourite performer of the whole day. Outside of her stage non de plume name she is known by her family as Dublin born, now London based lass Ciara Lindsey. She gained her musical stripes as a teen in an all-female rock band before branching out as a solo artist and received many favourable reviews. I liked her soulful voice and heartfelt tunes, and she reminded me of Hatchie.   

Kynsy. Image Credit NME.com

The other artist playing was Orphan Boy, a combo from Cleethorpes but now based in Manchester. Upon sighting them, I had a sense of déjà vu which turned out to be justified as my annals informed me that I had seen them twice before, once at the Wickerman Festival in 2008 and the other at the Mad Ferret in Preston.    

There was one additional visit to the Music Hall in August when I saw Southall, who are sometimes also known as Read Southall, reflecting the founding member who hails from Oklahoma. The sextet is strictly in the country rock mould and have released four albums in total since 2015 and the lead singer also has a likeness to the old crooner Mick Hucknall.

Although I can never reference the latter named without casting my mind back to Mark and Lard’s infantile but humorous Ancient Customs CD in 2010 where the singer, actor and comedian Bernard Wrigley (nicknamed the ‘Bolton Bullfrog’) undertook ‘Two Ronnies’ style readings on top of musical accompaniments with titles such as ‘Humping the Hucknall!

2023 Gigs – Part 2

This week I will complete the tale of gigs in 2023. In April I returned to the comforting environs of the Sounds from the Other City festival in Salford. In the Manchester Islington Mill Club I saw a local punky trio called Ether Mech. We then headed onto Manchester Pint Pot (downstairs) where I encountered Is33n (pronounced i-seen), an artist who has been supported by the Brighter Sound musical enterprise. Also, I saw Caitlin LM who doubles as an artist and music producer, and she had a chilled electronic vibe.

Up the steps I traversed into Manchester Pint Pot (upstairs) where I witnessed Spencer Cullum, a folk musician originally from Romford who relocated to Nashville to learn the ways of the ‘steel pedal’, to me one of the most distinctive sounding instruments in the world of music. Also playing up there was the Brown Brogues, a noisy two-piece garage rock band from Manchester, their sound somewhat reminiscent of the Kills.    

Brown Brogues. Image Credit heymanchester.com

We then pottered on to Manchester Five Four Studios 2 to see DEK (full name Dream English Kid) who had an electronic shoegaze sound with the shimmering vocals provided by Hannah Cobb, and they have had support slots with KVB and Whitelands. I also just discovered rather excitingly that they derive from my hometown of ‘Proud’ Preston. Next door in Manchester Five Four Studios 1 I saw the composer and producer plus44kaligula.

Now, one of the inherent requirements if you are playing one of these festivals is not to be tardy when your time slot is due as the gaps between bands are sharp and the set windows are short. As we entered Manchester St Phillips Church a band called Max Fulcrum and the Win were doing the exact opposite of this requirement with a staggering amount of ‘faffing about’! The driving force of the large ensemble is Dominic Rose, previously front man of Fake Turins.

St Phillips Church. Image Credit manchestereveningnews.co.uk

There was I thinking they may produce a sonic racket in the mould of Polyphonic Spree or Arcade Fire, though when they finally started up, I was crushingly disappointed as they were a very limp proposition resulting in me heading for the exit whilst muttering darkly under my breath about time wasters!  The final gig that day took place at the hub of Manchester Bexley Square where an acoustic guitarist called Kid Katharsis took to the stage.

There were a couple of low level gigs featuring local artists at Manchester Albert Schloss and we also caught a singer/songwriter called Will Doolan whilst on a night out in Manchester Head of Steam in Didsbury Village. Additionally, I had a couple of bonus gigs at Manchester Thirsty Scholar whilst waiting for the train after attending other shows in the city.

On a steaming hot July Sunday, we headed to Manchester Castle for a novel late afternoon gig. In advance, we grabbed some late lunch at the nearby Blue Eyed Panda Chinese restaurant in Ancoats. Whilst there I was checking on periodically on score flashes on Carlos Alcaraz’s dramatic win in the Wimbledon final taking place that day. The venue was busy and as a result it was ridiculously hot in there.

The support was a band called Supermilk who were originally in 2017 a solo project of Jake Popyura before moving into a full band formation from 2022. They were very enjoyable and engaging in a live setting. However, I have just picked up the very sad news that earliest this year Jake announced that he has a rare and terminal neurogenerative disorder.    

Supermilk. Image Credit cloutcloutclout.com

The headline act was Fortitude Valley who we had seen for the first time a year earlier, though I didn’t personally enjoy their performance as much on this occasion as I did at that thrilling first sighting.  

In September, Gill and I traversed over to the fair city of Lancaster with Marcus and Tris. Our destination was Lancaster Library for an afternoon show to witness Erland Cooper who was previously in The Magnetic North and Erland and the Carnival. He is a multi-instrumentalist producer from Orkney and incorporates a lot of nature aspects in his tunes. He gathered some publicity when he deleted all digital files and buried the only existing copy of his first album on the island and provided some treasure hunt clues which resulted in two chaps discovering them 18 months later.

He provided some lovely music but at times it was veering rather closely to being pretentious and self-indulgent. The support was a cellist from London called Midori Jaeger. Prior to the show we caught something more primal across the road in Lancaster John O Gaunt with music from Grunge God and Sheena.

We returned that way a month later for the Lancaster festival and visited Lancaster Jailor’s Barrel which is near the train station. It was previously known as the Robert Gillow but changed its name during the pandemic when they discovered that he was linked to the slave trade. On stage was a local acoustic guitarist called Keith Mitchell. Later that day I visited Lancaster Tap House where I saw Keith Riddle.