Tag: Manchester Yes Basement

2022 Gigs – Part 1

These articles will cover the gigs I have seen in 2022 that occurred in venues already covered in previous blogs.

An unwelcome and hugely disagreeable blast of Covid blighted Christmas 2021 and half of January for me, and as I am sure many others can relate to, has left me with a legacy of sporadic health dips since then. However, what the pandemic patently illustrated is that life is just too damn short, so I have continued to throw myself readily into attending as many gigs as feasibly possible!

In late January 2022, for the first time in my life I was called up on jury service. On my first day another attendee sat in my numbered seat resulting in a number change and in a ‘swinging doors’ moment they had a gentle one-day trial and were dismissed from service whilst I was thrown into a deeply unpleasant 11-day trial complete with emotional subject matter.

The Jury Room. Image Credit Coral Gables Art Cinema.

The other jury members were a fascinating cross section of society and I got pally with one chap as he was also a huge muso and regular gig goer and we have remained in touch and as a result he is obviously stored in my phone under the name of Barry Jury!

There have been a couple of high-profile trials recently at Manchester Crown Court, namely Olivia Pratt Korbel and Lucy Letby. The latter being a 10-month event and I have the utmost sympathy for anyone involved and impacted by that trial, including the jury members, who were understandably excused afterwards from jury service for the rest of their lives.

As they had been refurbishing the main court, my case was heard in the slightly strange environs of the Hilton Hotel but located fortuitously for myself right next to Deansgate station. As ever, I had my beady eye on a potential gig around that time but didn’t want to attend if the trial was still running. When it became evident that we would be delivering our verdict on 16/02/22 I prepared for a gig that evening.

It was however a chaotic travel day with high winds disrupting the metro and I had a catch a train in and metro home. Whilst walking home I contacted Uncle George and confirmed and purchased some tickets. Within the hour I was back on the train into town, and we headed on to Manchester Yes Pink Room.

The band playing was Nordic Giants, an unusual instrumental post rock duo who are adorned with masks on stage and have intriguing cinema shorts playing in the background, I thoroughly enjoyed their performance. The night predictably ended in a train cancellation and a resultant bus home; I slept well that night!    

Nordic Giants on stage. Image Credit Laut.

I attended another gig there in September to see Harriette Pilbeam, an Australian singer/songwriter who performs under the stage name Hatchie. It was on a Sunday night, and I ended up attending on my own so made the very unusual decision to drive, making it only about the fifth gig where I have done so. I am glad I made the effort to drag myself out as she was in good form.      

Also, in September I headed to their other venue Manchester Yes Basement to see Ducks Ltd, who hail from Toronto in Canada, and they are firmly in the Wedding Present mould, and they have also covered ‘Head On’ by Jesus and Mary Chain which can only be good things in my book!

Ducks Ltd. Image Credit entertainment-factor.blogspot.com

At the gig I finally met up with my first Twitter pals Sharon and Keith in a face-to-face environment who were very fine company. After the show Marcus, Paul and I rather shambolically stayed in the nearby Font Bar until the early hours, it was my last attendance at the bar as it closed forever a month later.

Manchester Venues 48 and 49 – Yes

In the early days of my Manchester gig going career in the mid to late 1980’s there used to be a requirement for a designated driver on the trips because of the sheer inadequacy of the train timetable. The most visited venue at that stage was my favourite ever Manchester venue International 1.

The route used to take us from the M62 through Prestwich visiting a choice of Holts’s houses the White Horse and the Friendship Inn at the traffic lights, then a couple of Boddingtons pubs The Grove and the Brewers Arms underneath the Boddington’s brewery and adjacent to Strangeways Prison. Once we had traversed through the city and China Town, we could stop for a final drink at either The Garratt on Princess Street or the nearby Lass O Gowrie on Charles Street.

The Lass O Gowrie is a grand old pub in the traditions of other city pubs Peveril and the Peak and Britons Protection. The walls are decked with period pictures of Manchester and it is a real ale haven and they used to serve their own beer called Log 36 and Log 42. There is a decking area at the rear of the pub overlooking the River Medlock originally opened by comedian Johnny Vegas.

For a short period in the 90’s I used to watch Coronation Street and on one anonymous Tuesday night pre-gig we wander in to see the whole cast in the pub. The chap who played Jim McDonald who used to lean on the Rovers Return bar was in the exact same pose thereby encapsulating life imitating art! On that theme I know there have been bands who reference film characters and events. I recall a Japanese death metal band called Keyser Soze named after Kevin Spacey’s enigmatic character from Usual Suspects and another act called 1.21 Gigiwatts from Back to the Future!

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Jim McDonald leaning on the Rovers Return bar. Image Credit The Mirror

In the Corry script they would often say they were going to the new restaurant on the precinct, so in this regard the new venue on the precinct would be on the next corner from the pub! In September 2018 a former auctioneers house and printers press was converted into a four-storey music venue called Yes. Commendable local promoters Now wave were the instigators in this venture.

It houses two gig venues, serves tidy looking pizza in the ground floor bar, and has a roof terrace containing a NASA approved sound system which can be spied from the train running between Oxford Road and Piccadilly stations 

I first visited the 1st floor venue Yes Pink Room on 31/01/19 where the décor matches the name. It has a capacity of 250 and it has a cosy feel to it. The band in question were Swearin who are a lo-fi Philadelphia four piece. They had first crossed my threshold when I picked up their terrific sophomore album Surfing Strange released in 2013, which comes recommended.

The band is led by alternate lead vocals from Kyle Gilbride and Alison Crutchfield, the later also has a solo venture called Waxahatchee, who somewhat confusingly sometimes support Swearin on tour. I thoroughly enjoyed their live performance. My other visit there was to see Art Brut who were not in the same class and were very disappointing fare. 

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Manchester Yes Venue. Image Credit getintothis.co.uk

On the night we saw Swearin they finished quite early, so we headed downstairs to the Yes Basement and managed to negotiate a half price entrance fee to catch the end of soul singer Otto Hardman’s set. It is a decent venue in its own right, more in the lounge core mould and has a smaller capacity of 60.