Tag: Pixies

Manchester Venue 17 – Old Trafford Cricket Ground

I have frequented Old Trafford a few times in its original incarnation as a cricket venue. My first visit was in 1983 when I was very fortunate as a 15-year-old to attend the World Cup semi-final with my dad where England were playing India. The times were so different then as we just wandered up and got straight into the ground through a cash turnstile.

The match was a sell out on a gobsmackingly hot day and as a result we were lamping drinks down to rehydrate. My dad offered me a beer which is the first proper ale I can recall partaking. Due to the heat I gulped down as if it was Vimto resulting in being somewhat hazy for the next couple of hours.

Despite England having a promising opening partnership they summarily collapsed and lost the match by 7 wickets.

The following year we tried but failed to get in to a one-day game versus West Indies and missed out on the mercurial Viv Richards plundering an infamous 189 not out.

I attended other test matches including Day 2 of the Ashes test in the famous 2005 series after which we mercilessly ribbed a couple of placid Aussies in a nearby pub.

We have also stayed at the Old Trafford Lodge a couple of times, once to attend a family wedding in 2007 on the day England beat Australia in the Rugby World Cup quarter final.

Round about the turn of the century Old Trafford decided to utilise the venue for an annual batch of summer concerts, for a period badging it as the Mood Festival.  

I was excited to note that REM were booked to play on 13/07/03 following on from their fine Glastonbury headline performance the previous month.

It was another staggeringly hot Sunday afternoon as the five of us in attendance melted on the train on the journey over. We decided to frequent the bars on Deansgate locks, in the first bar we visited the local celebrity Tony H Wilson was rather intoxicated but like a trooper he recovered to be in fine shape on Granada Reports the following day.

At the venue they had a very commendable beer voucher process which kept the queues down.  

The support acts were Badly Drawn Boy and Idlewild as we sweltered in the tropical weather watching from the pitch. Michael Stipe was in mischievous mood as he likened the one cloud in the sky to Badly Drawn Boy. Did that suggest he wasn’t enamoured with one of the support acts?

I recall him apologising for being American due to the Gulf War, perhaps he was also prescient of a future muppet becoming President. Though pots and kettles spring to mind here with Boris the Spider in power on our shores!

See the source image
REM. Image Credit BlogSpot.com

I had grown up with REM as I discovered them when I was 16 and they were magnificent that night with ‘Strange Currencies’ and ‘End of the World’ verging on being transcendental. They were arguably at the peak of their powers and fuelled by the ale, weather and the terrific music I was over zealously dancing away. It remains one of my Top 10 gigs.

We circumnavigated the metro and the crowds successfully by going the wrong way for one stop and then returning into town.

We saw them there 2 years later but whilst still being decent it was not in the same league as the first attendance. They had also foolishly moved away from vouchers to a first come first serve resulting in waiting in a devilishly long queue which covered a fair portion of Feeder’s support set, thankfully the beer hut was located to the side of the stage. My pal Algarve Ray timed it well as I was at the top end of the queue when he unexpectedly appeared so I could add his order to mine.       

My one other attendance was to see the Pixies for the first time in 15 years on their comeback tour in 2004. It was a grey rainy day, but Pixies served to brighten the mood with me bouncing around in the oldest moshpit I have ever encountered with ‘Where is My Mind’ being the highlight.

See the source image
Pixies. Image Credit Uncut.

We caught the initial portion of the Stereophonics headline set before heading off the site. We were distracted en route by unusual activity occurring in the DJ tent where there have been a friendly coup and the DJ was only being allowed to play Pixies tracks. The opening notes of each new Pixies song resulted in rapturous applause, it was quite a sight.  

We had just had time for a cheeky one in Thirsty Scholar prior to the train and wouldn’t you just know it on our entry to the pub they were playing a Pixies song!

Manchester Venue 2 – International 1

Aah, let me count the ways I loved this venue: –

  • Low strung roof which assisted greatly with the acoustics and created a fabulously sweaty communal venue when busy
  • Bars either side serving Colt 45 or Schlitz
  • Responsive DJ playing fab tunes when requested and memory tells me or tricks me that they played Long Ryders ‘Looking for Lewis and Clarke’ every visit
  • Loos at the side of the stage to allow you to swiftly rejoin the moshpit
  • Like minded brethren in the audience
  • Main bands rarely came on before 11 and of consistently high calibre
  • Cheeky little food hatch with un nutritious snacks to soak up the ale
  • All in all, what’s not to like?

I visited 20 times between 1985 and 1989, the venue closed around 1992. In my new Manchester pad I live a couple of miles away from the old site. It is now a Turkish deli/supermarket. I always had pretensions if winning the lottery to reopen the venue, but my odd £25 prizes are clearly not enough to achieve that aim.

The hallowed venue now! – Image Credit Jimmy Crossthwaite

My first visit was to see Hüsker Dü with the prior knowledge we wouldn’t get home and involved train and a fair bus ride as it was on the outskirts of town in Longsight. Whilst queueing up lead singer Bob Mould clattered out the doors past us to buy some cigs in the small newsagent next door which was exciting for us avid fans. They were mighty fine in front of a sparsely attended venue. The remainder of the night was trekking back into town to  Victoria and crashing in the waiting room while they loaded the paper trains before catching the first train back at 6am. Being a durable 17 year old I recall a couple of hours kip, on to Preston North End to sell programmes, watch the match and then inevitably out again that night. A few years after I became friends with another chap who was there and also napped on the station prior to a trip back to Blackpool (Spig, if you are reading this).

There was always an obliging driver in the crew to ferry us there before trains became the regular route to Manchester gigs. There was always a couple of aperitifs as we always travelling in via Holts and Boddingtons pubs in Prestwich, I believe the Friendship Inn is still standing and the afore mentioned Holts was 64p a pint (cheapest beer in Britain!).

Some of my favourite early gigs were here, notably astonishing performances from Lone Justice (what a set of pipes Marie McKee has and a fantastic cover of Velvets ‘Sweet Jane’), 10,000 Maniacs (stunning vocal also from Natalie Merchant) , Hüsker Dü again and the first ever gig in England for Meat Puppets in 1987 supported by the Inca Babies.

Picture shows the infamous Lone Justice gig on 20/02/1987. Image Credit radiox.co.uk

There was a dream joint headlining tour from Throwing Muses and Pixies. I read somewhere that it was something like the Pixies 26th ever gig and Black Francis cut a very menacing presence howling like a Banshee with me joyously bouncing round the moshpit despite having at that age an ever present nose bleed!

Other bands seen were Shop Assistants, a polished Robert Cray, That Petrol Emotion, Proclaimers and Rhythm Sisters, joyous Bhundu Boys (twice and once with a compelling hangover after a quiet night at the infamous Strawberry Duck at Entwistle!), Screaming Blue Messiahs and Wild Flowers, Wonderstuff and Darling Buds, Triffids (laconic Aussies) and Waltones, Amayenga and finally a thunderous Loop.

Flyer from 1986 – see Wonderstuff and Voice of The Beehive dates. Image Credit mdm.archive.co.uk

One notable exception was Green on Red and Steve Earle where it was just one of those nights where the gig didn’t work, the set was dull and to top it off the transport home had been vandalised and was bereft of a coat and a back seat window so was bloody freezing all the way home especially for Dave Keane in the back seat!

Two remaining standouts were Voice of the Beehive which was the first gig I attended with my then girlfriend, now wife Gill. The other was a carload of us attending the Stiff Little Fingers comeback tour on 18/12/87 which despite being sub-tropical outside remains one of the hottest gigs I have ever attended with a maximum of two songs in the moshpit before an obligatory rest station on the DJ’s steps.

Despite not attending a gig there in 30 years, and over 900 gigs since it still sits proudly as my 5th most attended venue.