Tag: Mogwai

Manchester Venue 102 – Bridgewater Hall

Just down from St Peters Square whilst following the tram line back to Deansgate station you pass the grand building of Manchester Bridgewater Hall on the left-hand side. Nearby down some steps you would find the Piano and Pitcher which we used to occasionally frequent. This has in recent years adopted the contemporary trend by morphing into a large food hall called Society with various vendors and craft beers available, I visited there a couple of months ago and had a rather tidy but overpriced Tiffin Box. Your nearest hostelry on the Deansgate side is the ever reliable and olde-worlde Briton’s Protection.

Britons Protection. Image Credit pinterest.com

The earliest inkling of the concept of the Bridgewater Hall was when repairs were being considered to the nearby Free Trade Hall in the 1950’s following wartime damage. The Free Trade was at that stage home to the city’s Halle Orchestra and hosted concerts, and I visited there just the once in the late 1980’s to see a fabulous gig by 10000 Maniacs.

It was decided that a singular bespoke venue was required, and a site was chosen where the former bus station and car park used to be located. Architects were carefully chosen with the acoustic integrity being high on the requirements list. Construction started on 22 March 1993 with an overall resultant cost of £42million including a £1.2million pipe organ with an astonishing 5500 pipes and at the time of build was the largest instrument to be installed in the UK for over a century.

They adopted unusual building techniques in that it was formed from solid reinforced concrete and is built on around three hundred earthquake proof springs, both initiatives improve the sound and the second one protects the acoustics from all outside noise and vibration. These concepts are beyond my small brain to comprehend but I do know that the resultant impacts are highly effective as I have encountered some of the finest sound quality there of any venue I have visited.  

Image Credit Bridgewater Hall

The first concert there was held on the 11th of September 1996 and was officially opened by the Queen. Within the Hall there are food options in the Charles Halle Restaurant and the Stalls Café Bar, and they also serve ice creams at the intervals sparking childhood memories of Pearl and Dean music in the ABC and Odeon in Preston!  The main auditorium seats 2341 people and has been designed to be tiered in such a way for all attendees to be as close as possible to the stage.

They have around 250 events a year, mainly of a classical inclination but they do also undertake a smaller selection of carefully considered traditional gigs, often where the band’s sound matches the aesthetic of the venue. A friend of mine recently saw the Sparks there, of which I was rather jealous!

My first visit there was in May 2011 when Mercury Rev decided to play in full their timeless ‘Deserter Songs’ album. We were seated up in the balcony trying manfully not to do ‘Waldorf and Statler’ impressions. They played the record in running order even including the wonky ‘Happy End (The Drunk Room)’ track and then we were treated to a few bonus songs on top. The sound literally soared in all directions including vertically upwards to our box and it was a fabulous gig.

Bridgewater Hall. Image Credit meetmeinmanchester.com

My other attendance in 2014 was naturally to see Mogwai and was the 25th time I had witnessed them, this time we were sat in some exceedingly comfy seats at ground level.  I was envious of my pal Dave Dyson as it was his Mogwai debut, and they performed a stellar set with ‘New Paths to Helicon Part 1’ and ‘We’re No Here’ included in their encore.  

London Tenth Trip

A Northern invasion of London is always to be savoured when Mogwai decide to play in the capital city. Thus, when they announced they were to be incorporated in the bill for the Meltdown Festival in 2014 by playing Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank we jumped at the chance to attend.

Uncle George, John and Tony Dewhurst and I headed down on the Virgin express to and dropped our bags across the road at our digs at the handy Premier Inn opposite Euston Station. We met Nigel who had headed in from Brighton at a boozer in Borough Market where we discussed my gig list and the very early germination at that stage of the idea to create this very blog!

We progressed down the river and had a drink at the bar within the Globe Theatre. As we passed London Tate Modern, I witnessed a young singer called Jolie Fox on a makeshift stage. We continued down the river afterwards to then arrive at the London Royal Festival Hall.

Globe Theatre. Image Credit travellousworld.com

The Festival Hall was opened in 1951 after an expenditure of £2m and was built as part of the Festival of Britain which was instigated to provide a boost to the national morale after the Second World War. It sits alongside the Hayward Gallery, The Queen Elizabeth Hall, and the Purcell Room within an 11-acre site all under the auspices of the Southbank Centre, with the main venue having an all seated 2900 capacity.

It has been run as an independent concern since 1988 and the building has Grade 1 listed status. In 2014, their Festival of Love concluded with 70 couples, including 15 same-sex couples marrying on the main stage. On the musical front, Grace Jones and Patti Smith have played there and Brian Wilson premiered his sixth album Smile with a live performance.

Royal Festival Hall. Image Credit circular1.com

We mulched about briefly in the downstairs area and I purchased a new Mogwai t-shirt from the merch stand, Clinic had supported that night, but we had missed their set. We headed upstairs and grabbed our seats and admired the surroundings before Mogwai took the stage. I thought ‘Travel is Dangerous’, and a thunderous ‘Mogwai Fear Satan’ were excellent, with the latter track ending the initial set, before the aural assault continued into the encore with ‘New Paths to Helicon Part 1’ and We’re No Here’.   

Afterwards we jumped on the nearby tube for the commute to the final gig of the evening, but annoyingly I left my newly purchased T-shirt in the carriage when disembarking! Our destination was Chalk Farm station which takes you instantly into another of those innumerable London suburbs with its own high street, bars and community.

The tube station is next to the Roundhouse venue where many fine bands have undertaken residencies there, our next venue was not as highbrow and was namely London Chalk Farm Fiddlers Elbow.

Chalk Farm Fiddlers Elbow. Image Credit londonsubscene.net

It was a filthy rainy night (not in Soho!) and we struggled to locate the pub, but we landed eventually much to our relief. The hostelry was built in the 1840’s and was previously known as The Old Mother Shipton before holding the Fiddler’s name since the 1970’s. It is a Grade II listed building and a homely venue with Chesterfield sofas and a music room with a 150 capacity.

It is an independently run concern and they host alternate event such as poetry readings and book signings, but their main pursuit is live music, with both the Vibrators and The Damned having played there back in the day.

On the night of our visit, the band on stage were the MOBBS, who billed themselves as ‘garage punk rock ‘n’ roll at one hundred miles per hour’ but unfortunately, they did not quite live up to that rather enticing preamble!