One of the constants of Manchester gig going over the years has been the continuing existence of Manchester Thirsty Scholar, which is a hostelry that lies under the train arches at Oxford Road Station. Once you have navigated down the 56 steps outside the station you walk past the Salisbury pub and Zombie Shack and the Scholar is just to the right further up the cobbled steps. It was adjacent to one of my favourite ever Manchester venues, Sound Control which sadly closed a few years ago.
The Thirsty Scholar. Image Credit frenchysrant.com
I could not find any history reference to the pub, but I have been frequenting at least since the mid 1990’s and it may have been previously called Archie Bar. It was for a spell the only vegetarian pub in Manchester, and they had club nights in the Attic upstairs. It was for a sustained period our first meeting pub point on arrival before very often heading down Oxford Road to one of the Academy venues. It also doubled as the final port of call for a flying beer before scampering up the aforementioned steps to catch the last train.
It is a small cosy pub and has always had some decent ales on tap and regularly has Northern Soul nights with vinyl DJ Martin the Mod spinning some rarely heard 45’s. In more recent times it appears to have more of a jazz slant.
They regularly have live bands on who play on the raised area to the right of the bar, and I have inadvertently caught a few performances there, many after attending other gigs in the city. I have never paid to watch a band apart from attending one year when the venue was part of that year’s Dot to Dot festival roster.
The first band I saw there in 2013 was a rather woeful U2 tribute band. At the Dot-to-Dot event later that year I witnessed Ellie Rose who was a singer songwriter who napped a prestigious spot a couple of years later at the BBC introducing stage at Glastonbury and she released a suite of singles in 2019.
In 2017, Uncle George and I landed there after a Car Seat Headrest gig at nearby Ritz and there was a band on stage, who when approached for their name stated ‘We Don’t Have One’ so naturally that became their new moniker in the Jimmy annals. The remaining four gigs there involved house jazz bands.
There is a decent sized sheltered beer garden outside the pub and in 2020 prior to seeing Ladytron at the Ritz there was a temporary Manchester Thirsty Scholar Outside Stage set up where I witnessed a chap called Acoustic Dave play.
The Revolution bar chain has been trading since 1996 but the story began in 1991 when two friends opened a small bar in Ashton-Under-Lyne. This has now expanded to 69 nationwide outlets and also the spin off Revolution De Cuba bars. There used to be a Revolution in Preston on Main Sprit Weind which occupied the site of Lou’s Longbar, one of the first pubs I ever visited in my youth.
Manchester Revolution Bar. Image Credit keytothecity.co.uk
There are currently three branches in Manchester, namely on Parsonage Gardens and Deansgate Locks and the remaining one is Manchester Oxford Road Revolution. I have naturally in my time visited all three sites! On the 29/04/16, Gill and I happened to visit prior to catching the train and an act called Ste and Cassey were performing in the corner of the pub.