Tag: Manchester Twisted Wheel

Manchester Venue 175 – Night People

Manchester Night People was located on Princess Street about equidistant between China Town and Canal Street, just around the corner from the Satan’s Hollow venue. I can find very scant history online for this establishment, but I think it opened in around 2017, and I believe it closed post-covid for a 6 month refurbishment, but it looks like it never subsequently reopened.

I visited there four times in total, and I know they were included on the Psych Fest roster, an event I have never yet attended but also for the now defunct Dot-to-Dot festival which I was present at for several years.

I recall they used to stage Northern Soul shindigs for the Twisted Wheel events and due to the age now of many of the participants they staged it on a Sunday afternoon. I am sure the intimate downstairs setting would have made it an ideal location for such a gathering, and I recently located a flyer of the legendary Geno Washington and the Ram Jam band playing there in 2018. I would estimate the capacity of the venue would have been somewhere around 200.

 

Night People flyer. Image Credit mdmarchive.co.uk

My first visit was in February 2018 in the company of one of my Northeast correspondents Jamie Young. We were already attending a gig at Night and Day that evening so grabbed the opportunity to undertake an earlier foray to the new venue on the block! We met initially in the iconic Marble Arch public house before sampling some tea at the Mackie Mayors food hall and then headed down to Night People.

The first act was the Mancunian band slowhandclap who appear to play a lot of gigs at the Northern Quarter venues, and they provided a slab on noisy post punk. Also on the bill were Chester two-piece DEH-YEY who like many duos produced a fair old racket of fuzzy dark sounds with the driving force being the guitarist/vocalist Cash Burns. They have released a slew of singles thus far and have garnered a support slot for the much touted Belfast band Enola Gay.  

Three months later as part of Dot to Dot we saw an American singer songwriter called Kyle Craft. He was born in an isolated Mississippi river town in Louisiana and his first introduction to guitar music was a random purchase of a David Bowie compilation at his local Kmart store.

I think we can all attest to our own individual epiphany to hearing music that will go on to change and influence our life. My personal individual ‘journey’ (a much over used reality show phrase nowadays) was via my dad’s Neil Young and my brother’s Husker Du records and also hearing Stiff Little Fingers for the first time as a young pup at an early school disco.

An early 2018 sighting of Fontaines DC at the venue. Image Credit whenthehornblows.com

Kyle subsequently moved to Texas, and he formed a band called Gashcat who then broke up a couple of years later with the slightly bizarre reasoning of ongoing adverse comparison to Neutral Milk Hotel! In 2016, he recorded his debut album ‘Dolls of Highland’ on Sub Pop Records and then gathered together a live band callee Showboat Honey and secured a support slot with Drive-By Truckers.  

On the afternoon I saw him they produced an excellent set of deep fried Southern rock , where I could hear shades of Green on Red, Lone Justice and The Band, his strong vocal complemented by a fine backing band was a good combination. My next trip was again linked to Dot-to-Dot and the band on show this time was a local combo called ELM.

My final visit was on 26th February 2020 when the spectre of Covid was just beginning to gather pace. I attended with my pal Paul Wilson who had other Preston folk in tow including Aidy and Janet from Lostock Hall. I recall we met in one of the Wetherspoons before having a bevy at the timeless Lass O Gowry. Throughout the gig between bands there was a DJ set from writer and broadcaster Dave Haslam who is primarily famous for being DJ for over 450 sets at the Hacienda nightclub incorporating a Thursday night residency at the Temperance club night from 1986 to 1990.  

The first act on stage was Mick O Toole and the main support were the Gallowgate Murders, a five-piece Celtic punk band from Edinburgh who had only formed the year before. The headliners were the Rumjacks, a rumbustious combo from Sydney in Australia who were also in the Celtic punk mould. They were formed in 2008 and they were renowned for their energetic live shows and lived up to their billing. Their most famous song ‘An Irish Pub Song’ went viral and has garnered over 85m hits on YouTube.

The Rumjacks. Image Credit iheart.com

I recall a generous chap we had never met buying us a round at the bar before Paul and I entered the thrashing, flailing white hot intensity of the mosh pit. It had been a fair while since I had been in such a vibrant pit and my first since turning 50, and I had to recalibrate instantly to peel off my outer layer of clothing and take my watch off for safe keeping and then dived back in.

It was a very small area not helped by some inopportune bruise inducing shelves around the perimeter, but we were in there for the last hour of the gig, and it was a bloody good sweaty fun, more so in hindsight when the first lockdown kicked in a couple of weeks later!

Liverpool Venues 11 to 12

I am returning this week to the ‘Beatles influenced’ musical haven of Mathew Street in the centre of the city. One of the establishments even goes so far as to name itself after one of their albums, namely Liverpool Rubber Soul. There are a suite of bars that line the street, and they are badged within the ‘Rubber Soul Complex’ and located within the Cavern Walks area.

Rubber Soul Bar. Image Credit go-eat-do.com

I surmise that the bar has been open for many years but can find no detail of this apart from the fact that it unexpectedly closed in 2009 before being extensively refurbished and reopened in 2013. One of the two bar rooms incorporates an exhibition pertaining to its history as a former fruit market and the legendary Liverpool Eric’s nightclub that is situated in the downstairs space.  

Additionally, TP Molloys the site of the previous Tutti Frutti nightclub which was originally behind the venue was changed into a carvery and grill restaurant. That building which dates back to the 1930s had lain empty for many years but this was also restored and is now called Yesterday. Rubber Soul is a fairly basic sports bar showing big screen sports and has DJ’s playing every Friday and Saturday. On one particular night I saw a singer called Callum play there.

The afore mentioned Eric’s opened on 1 October 1976 in the basement of the Fruit Exchange building in Victoria Street. Shortly after they moved to their new location of Mathew Street opposite the Cavern Club. The local promoter Roger Eagle was the driving force and used his experience from previously hosting nights at the Stadium in Liverpool and the Twisted Wheel in Manchester.

He was joined in the enterprise by Ken Testi, who managed Deaf School and Pete Fulwell who was the owner of the ‘Inevitable’ record label and latterly manager of local bands It’s Immaterial and The Christians. The choice of Eric’s name was a tad tongue in cheek and its particular plainness was in response to the trend at that stage of naming disco clubs with funky names such as ‘Tiffany’s’!

The original Eric’s in the 1970’s complete with intriguing graffiti! Image Credit pinterest.co.uk

A lot of life’s successes and failures can come down to timing of ‘sliding doors’ moments and they were very fortunate in this regard as the opening of the club coincided with the explosion of punk. Thus, in the opening month the Stranglers played and there were huge queues for The Runaways.  The Sex Pistols also performed which transpired to be their one and only Liverpool gig.  Other acts to play there include The Clash supported by The Specials (a fine double bill!), The Ramones, The Slits and X-Ray Spex.

They also had the novelty of staging two shows on Saturday’s, one a matinee set in the afternoon for the under 18’s and then a more regular gig in the evening. There was apparently one famous afternoon show when Iggy Pop played a storming set to a posse of school children who took him by surprise by singing a full rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ back to him. He finished the performance with ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ though due to his star quality the price of the show had doubled from the usual price of £1 to £2!

The mention of matinees makes me reminiscent of those days where bands would not arrive on stage before 11pm. It has now gone so far the other way that due to club nights following the gigs in some venues, the event can be finished by the very early time of 9.30pm. There were also in those days’ gigs taking place all year round and I recall Blondie once playing Glasgow Apollo on New Years Eve in 1979 which was recorded for Radio 1 and Old Grey Whistle Test.

Talking of timings and also the recent onset of spring makes me recall when my brother and I were young lads down in London on a weekend when the clocks changed and were heading back to Preston on an early train on the Sunday morning. When we got on the train back into the city, we both commented that it seemed remarkably quiet, little wonder as we had tangled up on our spring forward/fall back understanding. Thus, our thinking was that we were on an 8am train, but the real time was actually 6am, what a couple of plonkers!   

Iggy Pop on stage at the infamous Eric’s gig. Image Credit liverpoolerics.blogspot.com

The club survived until March 1980 when it was raided by police for drugs offences, and the last band to play there was Psychedelic Furs, I never visited in that era as I was far too young. The club was then briefly Brady’s before closing again shortly after. There was a significant time gap after that before the original venue reopened in 2011, with OMD playing on the opening night. I once recently visited the pub at ground level and saw a chap called Teddy playing.   

In 2009 Eric’s history was covering extensively in the tome titled ‘Liverpool Eric’s: All the Best Clubs are Downstairs, Everyone Knows That’. An ethos I can readily attest to as I have found that many of the most atmospheric venues are in cellar spaces, The Ruby Lounge, Roadhouse and Peer Hat in Manchester, EBGB’s in Liverpool and the 13th Note Bar in Glasgow to name but a few!