Tag: Mogwai

Manchester Venues 223 to 225

Included in one of many tributaries weaving off from Stevenson Square in the Northern Quarter is Lever Street where you would find the Manchester Faraday. Back in 2012, a company called Bakerie opened what was badged as a bread and wine bar in that building. They apparently had a plethora of different vinos available, numbering over ninety, and staged occasional live music and made an instant enough impact on the local scene to be awarded the Manchester Food & Drink Festival best newcomer prize for 2012.

Their cellar bar area contained a novel wine jukebox, now I don’t how that device operated but notwithstanding that it still sounds like an intriguing premise to me! They had a small shop nearby where they sold bread and wine which punters could take away and the owners at the time also owned ran three other NQ sites, namely Dough, Apotheca and Pie & Ale.

That particular venture finally closed its doors in March 2018 and was rapidly taken over by a Scandinavian bar and restaurant called Fika, but they only had a short lived seven month residency. They were then followed for a 6 year period by a games bar called 7 Sins before the current owners moved in there in 2025.

Faraday pub. Image Credit Unknown.

The Faraday has maintained some historical precedent by having an active games presence in the upstairs area with shuffleboard tables, interactive darts and pool tables. I happened to be skulking past one rainy night (not in Soho!), as you do, and I was enticed into the establishment by the sound of live music emanating out from the door. I slid past the bouncers and avoided being allocated to a table and grabbed a perch on the edge of the bar.  

My first impression was favourable as the ground floor area was kitted out in a traditional British pub style with vintage pub mirrors, wonky bar stools, leather seating and the archetypal wood panelled walls. On a small stage at the end of the large room, I saw a local singer called Alvin performing.

A couple of hundred yards away on Hilton Street you will find a bar called Manchester To Be Frank. They opened in October 25 and then subsequently decided to relaunch in April 26 by adopting an Irish slant and the moniker was changed accordingly to ‘To Be Sure’! This revised version of the bar boasts that they apparently have the largest whiskey selection in the Northwest.  

To Be Frank bar. Image Credit www.manchestersfinest.com

The previous tenant there was a Melbourne inspired bar called Another Heart to Feed which was initiated in 2017 becoming the second branch of the chain alongside their original premises in West Didsbury.  

The closing time of ‘To Be Sure’ is 2am every weekday night and 3am on Fridays and Saturdays. Also, on the weekends they stage live music on the ground floor with a DJ spinning vinyl in the basement. My one visit thus far was when returning from another gig and I saw a chap called Dennis playing.

Hilton Street initially commences from Spear Street, which runs through the centre of Stevenson Square, and then it proceeds as one of the three main thoroughfares across the Northern Quarter. You pass the Nancy Spains and the Affleck & Brown hostelries which sit on respective sides of Oldham Street before crossing Tib Street (named after the underground River Tib).

At this stage the name changes to Manchester Thomas Street and on the right is Evuna NQ restaurant, which is in my humble view the finest tapas restaurant in the city centre.  About five doors down from there is the renowned Millstone public house which is always highly busy with a marginal musical angle as there appears to be an all-day karaoke permanently ongoing.

The Millstone. Image Credit manchestersfinest.com

Now, when I say renowned that is patently not a recommendation, as my personal ‘renown’ with this hostelry is that I remain convinced to this day that our gig party had our drinks spiked there prior to my debut Mogwai show at the Roadhouse in 1998. Additionally in a homage to our new prime minister the pub recently changed the sign on the door to say ’10 of the North’!

A few months ago, I happened to be walking by and there was a pop-up stage directly opposite the pub where a combo called The Zumba Band were performing. Further bars are then encountered until the street terminates when it reaches the Shudehill Interchange. In December 2023 in a very unexpected turn of events the street was chosen to be the location for the catwalk for the Metier d’Arts 2023-2024 fashion show, resulting in undoubtedly bemused ‘A-listers’ mulching up and down the road!  

A postscript this week is that within this article I have proceeded to roll past 250k (a quarter of a million) words in total. The actual landmark word this time is ‘party’ which is one I can live with and fight for the right for!

Manchester Venue 211 – Victoria Warehouse

Buried away in the wastelands of Salford on Trafford Wharf Road, by the banks of the Bridgewater Canal, you will find the venue of Manchester Victoria Warehouse. It is situated nearby to both the cricket and football Old Trafford stadiums and the Trafford Centre shopping complex.

I miraculously once found an alternate route home through this area saving me a considerable amount of time when the M60 Barton Road Swing Bridge was completely backed up. Also in that area is the White City retail park which I foolishly visited the one time, and to escape from it you had to cross the most surreal road junction where to turn right you had bear sharp left initially for over 100 metres!  

The Warehouse has a long lineage as it was built originally in 1932. In the heady days of the Manchester textile boom it was utilised by the Liverpool Warehousing Company as a base to store cotton and other fabrics. Many of the unique bespoke spaces, including the Cotton Sheds, Head Office and Skyhook were designed at this time.

Victoria Warehouse with existing signage visible. Image Credit creativetourist.com

Within the bays, which were numbered based on allocation to individual companies, products from Kelloggs, McVities and Cadburys were packed over the intervening five decades. Thus, at any particular point in time you could have had either a bowl of Frosties, a plate of Jaffa Cakes or a Finger of Fudge (which is just enough to give your kids a treat!) at your fingertips.

In 1980 a catastrophic fire scorched through the venue. A couple of years later a rather large mural featuring Trafford Park industries was constructed by a local chap called Walter Kershaw. It was placed on the wall of the Warehouse storage buildings by the side of a busy road, but this positioning then eventually resulted in its downfall in 2007 as it was removed on public safety grounds.  

Trafford Park mural. Image Credit forwallswithtongues.co.uk

In 2005 the building was bought by developers and refurbishments commenced in 2009 with the addition of modern lighting, bars, dressing rooms and media spaces. On the 8th of April 2012 the Warehouse Project was launched and consisted of two storage areas.

It was designed primarily as a dance venue before branching into other directions with fashions shows, the first event being staged by GAP. In 2015 they obtained a civil ceremony licence and subsequently it was utilised to host weddings. Also, that year the then chancellor George Osbourne made his empty rhetoric ‘building a Northern Powerhouse’ speech there. Three years later the name changed to the O2 Victoria Warehouse, and it has a capacity of 3500.   

It first appeared on my radar when Speedo from Rocket from the Crypt hosted a weekend residency with sets from all the bands he has played in. I really wanted to attend but couldn’t make it work due to having alternate plans already in place. I then had tickets to see Mogwai in 2020 but that then became a ‘lost gig’ during the pandemic.

Whenever I parlayed with my musical peers, a theme emerged in that people appeared to actively hate the venue, which was a very rare thing to hear. Their main grouses appeared to be its location and its restrictive layout, especially when busy. I finally managed to arrange my first and only appearance thus far when 6 Music chose it as their main venue for their 2025 festival. They then announced Mogwai on the roster and my fate was sealed.

Thus, on the 28th of March, I met Rick (the nights Mogwai virgin) and Uncle George in the Deansgate pub before we navigated down to the venue. Upon arrival, we weaved our way through the olde world building, however due to misleading stage times we annoyingly only caught the last two tracks of English Teacher’s support set.  We then completed our group by meeting up with Paul and Tim.

Warehouse stage. Image Credit discover.ticketmaster.co.uk

Looking at the main room, I could understand people’s misgivings as there would be two poor visibility doorways at the rear if it was a full capacity event, but thankfully that night it was probably only about 2/3 full. This enabled us to obtain a prime spot about ten rows from the stage.  

Mogwai were introduced onto the stage by the enthusiastic DJ’s Deb Grant and Tom Ravenscroft. It was a decent set with ‘Mogwai Fear Satan’ their penultimate track before a three song encore with the accompaniment of the KNDS Fairey brass band and they completed their show with ‘2 Rights Make 1 Wrong’.

The brass band originally derived from the Fairey Aviation works factory in Stockport in 1937 and over the years they have been national champions for an impressive nine times.   

Post gig, Rick shuffled over to the nearby Trafford Road metro station to enable him to then pick up the last train back to Preston. But what of Uncle George, I don’t hear you ask, we waited and searched but of him there was no sight or sound.  

About an hour later after I returned home, I finally achieved contact with the wandering minstrel. I discovered he was drifting aimlessly down Chester Road and managed to pinpoint his current location on a map and then book an uber under my name to ensure he arrived home safely!