Tag: Maximo Park

Preston Venues 52 to 53 Moor Park – Part 2

Sunday arrived and Gill and I were up bright and early for attended the Radio 1 Big Weekend on Preston Moor Park and with the weather set fair and my festival hat donned we traversed the fifteen-minute walk to the gates.

The festival site was located towards the ‘Deepdale Road’ end of the park where the football pitches are located, probably selected by the organisers as the best geographical drainage point. We were in place for the opening of the doors at 12 and there were three stages in operation, the Main Stage and the In New Music We Trust Stage, both under marquees and the Outdoor Arena for more dance orientated acts.

The exact location of the Radio 1 site. Image Credit blogpreston.co.uk

The first band we saw was an enjoyable set from the Enemy from Coventry with their mod-inspired sound. They had just released their debut album ‘We’ll Live and Die in These Towns’ which remarkably went straight to Number 1 in the UK Charts and in fact their first three albums all went Top Ten.

Next up was a musician called Sam Duckworth whose stage name is Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. He was followed by the Sri Lankan rapper Mathangi ‘Maya’ Arulprgasam who performs as the rapper M.I.A. which translates as either ‘Missing in Action’ or Missing in Acton’! She subsequently received an MBE in 2019 for her services to music.

We then saw Dizzee Rascal with his suitably ‘hammed up and bonkers’ set, with the London group the Klaxons followed Dizzee. Three months earlier they had released their debut album ‘Myths of the Near Future’ which went on to win the Mercury Prize later that year.

The day of watching bands was interspersed by wandering around the site, basking on the grass, having a cold brewski and seeing many people I knew. On one such foray I caught a segment of Rihanna singing her current hit ‘Umbrella’ which went to Number 1 that very day with its refrain of ‘Ella, Ella, Ella’!   

I also saw Just Jack and Mark Ronson, who has been a renowned collaborator with many acts such as Amy Winehouse and Lady Gaga. The Dundee scamps the View were reassuringly shambolic and their ‘Superstar Tradesmen’ track was as gloriously anthemic and joyous as ever!  

The View. Image Credit tenementtv.com

We missed the Stereophonics as we decided to watch the full set of Newcastle Upon Tyne’s stalwarts Maximo Park, who probably shaded it as the highlight of my day with Paul Smith’s laconic delivery.  

We split the headliners and watched the first half of the set by Bloc Party before wandering over to view the final part of Kaiser Chiefs, who I always slightly cruelly paint as a cartoon band, but they do have some fine festival tunes and the lead singer Ricky Wilson was a whirling dervish on stage. He gave the security staff palpitations by clambering up a gantry during the outro of ‘I Predict a Riot’.  

The music finished bang on the curfew at 10pm and we sauntered the short distance home down the park reflecting on a never to be repeated day in Preston musical history!

On a much less grand scale there are other festivals that take place annually on the park. One such event is Rockprest that places its stage near to Preston Moor Park Pavilion which I attended the once in 2015. It is a tribute band event which I am always highly sceptical of but that was countered by the chance of visiting a new venue virtually on my doorstep, I believe the event continues to this day.

Preston Moor Park Pavilion. Image Credit flickr.com

I attended the day after gallivanting around the Heptonstall festival which I shall cover in a future blog. Thus, I was rather jaded and the two bands I saw, namely an East Lancashire act called Folkestra, and the nattily named Pearl Scam from Manchester who have been in operational since 2011, didn’t salve my fatigue. The torrential downpour obliterated my remaining resolve and I skulked homewards! 

2021 Gigs – Part 3

The third and final part of reviewing the 2021 gigs recommences with a couple of visits to Manchester Ritz. The venue is now firmly ensconced in my Top 3 venues visited list as I have been attending there consistently over the years since my first attendance in October 87 watching the astoundingly loud and intense Swans.

First up on 22/09 was the old stalwarts Ash, who I was watching for the sixth time, three of those being at festivals, and it was the first time I had seen them in eleven years. Prior to the gig we had a drink in Brew Dog near Albert Hall on Peter Street, coincidentally the most profitable Brew Dog bar in the world, and then feasted on a pizza that took an age to arrive in Rudy’s Neapolitan restaurant next door.

I thought they were decent but slightly one dimensional, and I always contend that their sound has never been quite as complete since Charlotte Hatherley left, though admittedly they do still have a bagful of recognisable tunes. I was at the bar mid-set when I found out that PNE had drawn Liverpool at home in the League Cup though that subsequently ended up with the usual golden chances missed and then inevitable defeat.  

Ash in Charlotte Hatherley days. Image Credit Steve Scalise.

The other attendance was to see Maximo Park on 10/10 which saw Rick Clegg toggle over for a rare appearance in Manchester and I think his first visit to the Ritz. After a trio of scoops in Yes, Lass O Gowrie and Temple Bar we headed into the venue. It was the second time I had seen them though overall not as enjoyable as my first sighting of them fourteen years earlier.   

I finally went full circle from my first ever blog and first Manchester venue by revisiting Manchester Apollo for the first time in thirteen years since being pummelled by the gentle My Bloody Valentine! There were four of us in attendance and we had a couple of pre-gig aperitifs in the Wine and Wallop in West Didsbury, the future of that chain being currently in doubt, prior to a cab to the venue.

Wine and Wallop. Image Credit DesignMyNight

When we reached the busy bar inside, we discovered they sold beer in two-pint pots which we decided to purchase though it wouldn’t accept my card asking me to input my pin details in. To my chagrin I realised the reason for this was the round cost £52, above the then limit of £50, this equated to an unacceptably brutal price of £6.50 per pint. Come on, Apollo, you can do much better than that!   

The band on stage was the ever-dependable Public Service Broadcasting who were in excellent form, and we had a cracking vantage point near the front.

My pal Marcus is a huge James fan and he persuaded me to attend their Manchester MEN Arena show in December. I had only just managed to purloin some tickets when they were released about a year earlier and was bizarrely sat waiting for an appointment in Stockport Specsavers at the time. I rather rudely had to ask for the lass to delay my appointment slightly as I had finally reached the booking page!

Our significant faux pas was to foolishly book our Covid booster appointments the day before the gig which resulted in Gill being unable to attend and myself feeling distinctly below average. We did consider watching the support act Happy Mondays only from a statistical angle viewpoint as it would have created a new personal record of 34 years between seeing a band as I first saw them in Camden in 1987, but in the end decided not to.

My record thus remains at a 28-year gap with Meat Puppets, however the Loop gig later this year will be just shy of a 32-year gap since witnessing them at my last ever gig at Manchester international 1 in 1990.

We were seated up in the gods with a side on view of the stage, the band were very good value over there 2hr 15-minute set and we watched the last track stood up by the barrier. Marcus headed off to a Christmas works do and I must have resembled a sulky teenage emo as I dragged my weary feet back from the tram stop!

We happened to be out and about of 21st December and sallied into the Manchester Parrs Wood, which will always have a special place in my heart as the first pub we ever visited on that mad day we relocated to Manchester, though there some people rather brazenly sat in ‘our seats’ from that first night! There was a band on stage called Irish Fiddle who performed the seemingly obligatory cover of ‘Dirty Old Town’.