Tag: Mogwai

Manchester Venue 13 – Roadhouse

When I converse with seasoned Manchester gig goers three particular older venues in my experience are remembered fondly. These are namely the International 1, Boardwalk and Manchester Roadhouse. The venue was located at Number 8 Newton Street in the Northern Quarter. The club had previously been a snack bar and nightclub in the 70’s before morphing into a music venue. The venue sadly closed in 2015.

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The Roadhouse. Image Credit NME

It was a slightly scuzzy but charming basement club with a small stage and a capacity of 200. One of my largest regrets was being aware of White Stripes playing there on a very early tour but not being able to make the gig.  

I attended 5 gigs there between 1998 and 2009. The first being Mogwai in April 1998. Now, I am not usually prone to being melodramatic, but it was one of the strangest nights of my life. The night started normally enough with me, John Dewhurst and Nick Sharp in attendance. We had only a couple of beers in the Millstone on Thomas St where I suspected afterwards that potentially our drinks were spiked.

The night then on is distinctly hazy. The support band was Aerial M who also sometimes worked under the moniker Papa M. It was the first time I had seen Mogwai and from what I remember they were excellent. Nick disappeared unannounced mid gig and headed home as he felt ropey. Me and John headed on auto pilot for some supper to kill an hour before the late train but neither of us ate much and John was not himself. I was then very unusually for me physically ill at the station.

The finale to this surreal trip occurred on the train where I was awoken from a slumber by a commotion around me. The bizarre sight that greeted me on my awakening was the train guard stood in front of me with an axe. With my heart racing, I asked him the reason and it turned out the train was blocked by a small tree that he was going to clear with the said tomahawk. I was never so glad to arrive home as I was that night!

My next visit was in May 99 to see the at the time highly touted Llama Farmers from Greenwich supported by Seafood. They had obtained some decent supports slots to the likes of Green Day and Foo Fighters, but I can honestly say they didn’t live up to the hype and sounded too much like Placebo for my liking. They released 2 albums but subsequently drifted away on the ether.

The previous year I discovered a band with the very unique name of And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead from Austin Texas who had a released a decent self-titled first album. They arrived at the Roadhouse in March 2000. Unfortunately, they attracted the most annoying heckler who directed unjustified sustained vitriol at the unfortunate support act Sleepwalker.

AYWKUBTTOD were excellent with their post hardcore scuzzy sound and I recall the drummer and guitarist trading places several times during the gig. They are still on the circuit and have just released their tenth album.

My last gig there on 12/06/09 was to see Drones a punk rock band from Perth, Australia supported by the Snowmen. We happened to be out in Manchester and fell upon this gig and it is one of those that I cannot recall much about, it just passed me by.

My penultimate show was more memorable when I went to see Asobi Seksu on 10/02/09. The gig was originally scheduled for Jilly’s Rockworld on Oxford Road however before the scheduled gig the venue closed for good and the gig rescheduled to the Roadhouse. That was my one shot at attending the Rockworld, so it remains a lost venue.

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Asobi Seksu. Image credit Allmusic

Asobi Seksu were from New York and in the shoegaze/dream pop genre and their first two albums were excellent. They could certainly cut it live as well with a periodic thunderous guitar line in there. Another endearing element to this gig was the surprisingly enlightened approach from the bouncers to allow us to stand on chairs at the back to view the stage as visibility at the venue could be impaired when busy.  

The band had a DIY ethic exemplified by them running their own merch stand. A couple of years after I heard one of their tracks booming out when in Top Shop in Southport and I would say undoubtedly, I was the only punter in the store who could name that band!

Gig Miscellaneous – Part 2

So, once I had identified a band, how did I go about to listening to them as there was no Spotify in those days. Even though I had never heard one note of the bands I had become interested in, the only option was to buy a plethora of LP’s which involved many enjoyable Saturdays skulking around record shops. Thankfully most of the records were good, but naturally there some duds. Initially these were purchased from John Menzies and Brady’s. I then discovered Action Records, a jewel of an independent record shop, down on Church Street in Preston which has become a staple for me, and the indefatigable owner Gordon Gibson and his loyal staff have provided top customer service for over 35 years.

Action Records in Preston. Image Credit Yell

Having purchased and listened to recorded output from the band, how do you know when and if they are touring? In those days NME was an essential purchase in this regard and on the day of its weekly release (Wednesday) I scoured the upcoming gig list for likely suspects. I managed to catch a very early Strokes gig by being on the ball in this regard. Another source of fruitful information was from On the Wyre, a 3-hour Sunday afternoon programme on Radio Lancashire which played a wide range of obscure material. Also, when I began attending gigs the upcoming lists distributed by the venues were highly useful, the International and Academy in Manchester were especially key players in this.  

Word of mouth information was valuable, especially in relation of local gigs, and I garnered and utilised these communications to catch quite a few gigs. However, it could be erratic, and I recall somewhat annoyingly gigs were missed, namely early Wedding present and Mogwai gigs, at the Caribbean Club and the Adelphi respectively.  

How and where to buy tickets was the next conundrum. For Preston gigs Action Records or even picking them up from the venue box offices was the best option. For further afield, mainly Manchester in the early days I visited House of Records above the market in Preston who for a short spell were an agent for Manchester tickets. However, the main source of Manchester tickets was always Piccadilly Records who in the late 80’s were located on the corner of Mosley Street near Piccadilly Gardens. I used to obtain a suite of tickets from them and I was on first name terms with the lass who issued the tickets and my method of payment was the rather archaic cheques in the post!

Piccadilly Records. Image credit Local Data Company

In latter years, I tend to favour ENTS24 and SEES as reliable ticket agents, I am not a great fan of Ticketmaster and only use them I have no other choice.

Now people who know me will tell you I am generally chilled to the point of horizontal, however over- zealous unnecessary officialdom is a grouse of mine, so I have had the odd mild altercation with unreasonable bouncers.

My chief irritation though is saved for ticket touts. To a degree, I understand their function and accept that unfortunately sometimes they are a necessary evil. What really shakes my tree though is their complete inflexibility and greed. My absolute nadir in that regard was when I had a spare ticket for a  Black Rebel Motorcycle Club gig and the negotiation resulted in them offering me £15 for a face value £25 ticket for a sold out gig and they had the temerity to suggest I was being unreasonable to have the expectation that they would make a higher bid. My reaction was to outline to them unsavoury alternate uses for the ticket rather than them obtaining it! Later in the pub opposite the venue we encountered a girl who needed a single ticket which I sold at face value and it was patently clear she was a fan of the band. She had approached the touts who quoted her a mind bogglingly inflated price of £60. For the touts out there, I would quote a James line ‘You can do better that that’!