Tag: Preston Raiders

Manchester Venues 166 to 167

Directly outside the Manchester Oxford Road station in an old coffee shop and cycle hub they have now opened the Oxford Road Tap which completes the trilogy of tap bars at Manchester stations alongside the already existing Victoria and Piccadilly Tap. I have had one visit thus far to this small tidy craft beer spot where it has a large repurposed National Rail sign and also a live timetable, so you know exactly how much time you have to drain your pint!

Oxford Road Tap. Image Credit uk.news.yahoo.com

Opposite the train station access road and the Palace Theatre you will find the Grade II listed Principal Manchester building, though it is more widely known as the Refuge Assurance building. The Refuge company was founded in 1858 and moved to its Oxford Road location in 1890.

After purchasing the site, they worked with the renowned Victorian architect Alfred Waterhouse in designing their new head office, whose previous work included London’s Natural History Museum. The grand ornate high ceiling interior was built in 1895. There were further extensions in 1905 and 1912, the latter incorporating the impressive 220ft baroque clock tower which formed the new main entrance, with clock quarters stylised with a Manchester bee, which is now synonymous with many other contemporary artefacts in the city. The latest incarnation accommodated up to 1900 clerks.

During the Second World War they constructed two air raid shelters in the basement but thankfully avoided any direct hits. The Refuge company relocated to Wilmslow in 1987, the building then becoming Charterhouse Hotel and in 1996 it was renamed as the Palace Hotel. It changed hands again in 2016 with the Manchester Refuge Bar taking over one half of the building.

Refuge Bar. Image Credit we-heart.com

There are many separate spaces in this vast space, and these include the public bar that you encounter immediately upon entry. Behind there is the Dining Room where we have visited once for a very decent Sunday lunch, it is exceedingly popular, and we had to book a couple of months in advance. Next to there is the Winter Garden area and there is additionally the Den and a Private Dining Room which can both be booked with capacities of 80 and 10 respectively.  

I had walked past this building for many years on the way to the station, but it was around 2018, a couple of years after opening, before I finally made a visit to the bar. It is also handy as an alternate though tad expensive venue to contrast the nearby fine grungy pubs and has been utilised prior to late trains and for post Ritz and Gorilla gig drinks.

They have regular DJ’s on there but in April 2024, the day we sampled our Sunday fodder, I was delighted to find that my ‘bonus gig’ banner was flashing as there was a jazz band playing in the main bar.

The aforementioned attached Manchester Principal Hotel (now renamed post-covid as the Kimpton Clocktower Hotel) was subject to an extensive £25m refurbishment in 2016 which resulted in the creation of the largest hotel ballroom in the whole of the Northwest of England. The hotel is alleged to be haunted by a grieving war widow who committed suicide by throwing herself down the staircase from the top floor and this area was only accessible to the menfolk at that time! Room 261 is also to be avoided with reports of the sounds of children playing in the hours of darkness.  

The annual Manchester Literature festival has been in place since 2006 and was built on the legacy of its forerunner the Manchester Poetry festival. It is a two-week multi venue event that occurs every October and also provides a year-round Creative Learning programme which supports the next generation of readers and writers.

Principal Hotel. Image Credit Country and Town House Magazine

One of the selected venues for the 2018 event was the Principal Hotel. Marcus had a spare ticket for an audience with the Wedding Present lead singer Dave Gedge and this took place in one of the numerous function rooms on a Sunday afternoon.

As we exited the lift I ran into Jo Davies (nee Brewer) who was one of the large crew that I used to attend the Raiders/Warehouse indie nightclub with in the early 1990’s. I was a regular there between 1985 and my last attendance on John Dewhurst’s stag do in 2005. I know the next generation of sons and daughters now attend, though I did hear last week from one of those old timers on a recent attendance that one of the DJ’s was playing Taylor Swift, by heck that would never have happened in my day!

Dave was there to talk about a book he had recently penned with the interviewer Richard Houghton called ‘All The Songs Sound The Same’. The theme of the tome was to present 300 Wedding Present stories from fans, friends and band members including one from our current PM Sir Keir Starmer. He then followed the chat by playing acoustic versions of four of the band’s finest tunes.     

Manchester Venues 108 to 109

In the 1990’s the regular pre-gig haunt when visiting the various branches of Manchester Academy was the Jabez Clegg public house. As that establishment gradually declined and subsequently closed, we then discovered the allure of Manchester Big Hands.

The pub is located at the top end of Oxford Road opposite the Red Chilli Chinese restaurant. It opened its doors in 2001 with the concept of creating a NYC dive bar, the kind of equivalent place where you would have expected the Strokes in their early days to have gathered and discussed the concept of their debut album, over a few cold beers!

It has battered low strung sofas where you can babble nonsense with like-minded punters and suits me down to a T. It does remind me somewhat of a bar version of the Raiders/Warehouse nightclub in Preston.  In more recent years it has the welcome addition of a heated outdoor rooftop space which you reach once you have navigated the cramped steps taking you upstairs.

Big Hands bar. Image Credit reddit.com

Some bands tend to attend there post -performance but in that regard, I have only personally seen Tad Kubler of Hold Steady and the 6 music DJ Marc Reilly. They possess a terrific noisy jukebox that at times has free credits available for communal use, though some younger punters are confused by the sheer concept of a jukebox! It became a tradition for a spell to ensure we had played ‘Hells Bell’s by AC/DC before we departed.   

One particular Sunday we were in residence prior to a Meat Puppets show and remarkably our group of three were the only punters in, the DJ had just finished playing a vinyl record and I asked whether they could switch the jukebox on. They willingly complied and the track I had selected ‘Black Math’ by White Stripes came on at ear shattering volume, which they then respectfully only turned it down by a smidge!

They occasionally have bands playing there, and I have been fortunate to randomly catch a few whilst imbibing a couple of pre-gig scoops. The musical acts squeeze into the slightly raised area at the back of the bar and in keeping with the ethos of the establishment they are normally thunderously loud.

Big Hands bar. Image Credit oxfordroadcorridor.com

The first in 2017 prior to a Helmet gig was a three-piece from Oldham called Hopper Propelled Electric and they produced a noisy sludgy sound reminiscent of early Stooges. In 2019 I saw a local band called Lurker and in 2021 saw an act called World without Frontiers. A few weeks ago, prior to a Therapy? gig I saw a couple of bands called Pray for Mojo and Swamp Kids.

In 2018 the original jukebox was stolen and unfortunately was never recovered. This coincided with the death of the bar owner Scott Alexander from cancer at the tragically young age of 43.  He was close friends with the members of Elbow and is thought to be referenced in their song Some Riot in the line of ‘Tall Gentle Boy’. Scott also owned the sister bar Temple of Convenience down near Oxford Road station.

Temple of Convenience Bar. Image Credit manchestersfinest.com

Now I have spoken previously about the merits of this establishment so will not duplicate that here. However, one tale relates to me and Uncle George being outside the Manchester Temple Of Convenience Bar Entrance and encountering a busker called William who asked us to name a tune and George challenged him with two obscure tunes, (so obscure neither of us to this day can recall the songs!). William without batting an eyelid instantly played vibrant versions of those songs to a rapt audience of two punters. For that very reason alone I have allowed him inclusion onto my gig list.