Tag: Sex Pistols

Manchester Venue 138 – St James and Emmanuel Parish Church

In the centre of Didsbury Village, School Lane crosses over at the traffic lights onto Barlow Moor Road where you will pass the slightly battered establishment of the Nelson public house. This is currently one of the stops on the famous Didsbury Dozen beer route which has been in place for decades, the dozen being subject to subtle changes as one place opens, and another closes. The crawl has seen a recent upturn in more youthful groups undertaking a Saturday sally round, which has been viewed as a positive as it maintains a steady footfall for the hostelries, but also a negative due to an increase in drunken antics.    

On the other side of the street is Manchester St James and Emmanuel Parish Church which is in front of Didsbury Library. It is the second oldest church in Manchester, with some elements dating back to 1275 and the Grade II listed building was extensively refurbished in 1986 and is affiliated to four local schools. It also contains a bell tower with the six bells originally being cast in Gloucester in 1727.

St James and Emmanuel Church. Image Credit didsburycivicsociety.org

This building has previous pandemic connotations for myself as I had one of my vaccinations here and also undertook a couple of shifts as a Covid volunteer. I have also attended the café located within.

A small matter of a few weeks ago we were in that very area when we discovered the residents were currently in thrall to the Didsbury Pride event taking place that day. Immediately sensing a bonus gig, I navigated the security into an extremely busy area behind the church where there many stalls of varying merchandise and also a stage at the very back where the Didsbury Choir were undertaking a jaunty set. Afterwards by chance we saw Tris and Ross perched outside the nearby Head of Steam so grabbed the chance to have a cheeky cold one with them!

Continuing down the road takes you past a couple of cafes including the bohemian bar and book shop Art of Tea and then onto the traffic lights with Palatine Road. If you take a left turn, and on that stretch of the highway, you can see on the right the remnants of Fridays nightclub which opened originally under the name of Riverside in the 1970’s. It was a renowned venue in the 1980’s and 90’s and many punters who survived the aforementioned Dozen gravitated there after closing time.

Fridays Nightclub. Image Credit manchestereveningnews.co.uk

It was made up of three separate rooms and based on the testimonials it sounded abundantly ‘cheesy’ with the traditional sticky floors and on Thursday nights all drinks were 80p until midnight. It also apparently had a draconian dress code in place. It continued into the new century and in 2010 launched a Polish party night to welcome people in the Manchester area who derived originally from Eastern Europe. It finally closed in 2016 before morphing into Bar Rogue which at some unspecified stage subsequently closed for good.

Further down Barlow Moor Road you arrive upon the Grade II listed Woodstock Arms which has a large outdoor area primed for summer drinking. I recall watching Portugal lose to Uruguay there in the red hot summer World Cup of 2018. It is also one of the prime locations used on the popular TV series Cold Feet and they also utilised houses on the streets nearby.

If you head across the busy Princess Parkway you reach the Southern Cemetery, which is the largest municipal cemetery in the United Kingdom and second largest in Europe. Notable people buried there are John Rylands, Sir Matt Busby, L.S Lowry, Tony Wilson and Joy Division and New Order’s manager Rob Gretton.   

‘Cemetry Gates’. Image Credit blog.sevenpounds.com

The location was also the inspiration for local miserabilist Morrissey to warble the opening lines ‘A dreaded sunny day, so I meet you at the cemetery gates’ on the Smith’s track ‘Cemetry Gates’. The title track apparently being deliberately misspelt and is based on Morrissey’s walks there with his photographer friend Linder Sterling who he initially met at a Sex Pistols sound check in 1976. Linder was also the frontwoman of post-punk band Ludus and designed the cover for one of the Buzzcocks early singles.   

Manchester Venue 26 – Club Academy

The fourth and final venue within the Academy complex is Club Academy. The venue is located downstairs with stairs heading down to the venue to the right of the ground floor bar. In the 90’s the venue was called the Cellar nightclub before turning into a singular music venue in the early 2000’s.

I wish we had known of the existence of the nightclub at that time as we were often searching for a late bar before catching the 1.24am train home. I had seen those stairs many times but thought they headed down to another non-public area of the building complex.

At the point in time across the road was the now disappeared Jabez Clegg pub which we frequented regularly. I was unaware that they used to have the odd gig upstairs. I recall Gordon Gibson, proprietor of Preston’s legendary Action Records telling me that he once was very fortunate to catch a private set in that very room by Natalie Merchant, 10000 Maniacs lead singer.

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Jabez Clegg Pub. Image Credit manchesterhistory.net

The capacity of Club Academy is 650, slightly larger than Academy 3 and is the most academic type venue of the four with their school reminiscent corridors leading to the loos. The stage is at the bottom and bars to the left and it has been expanded since my first visit there.      

I have attended five gigs there in total and that brings the total across all of Academy venues to 88.About five years ago I thought it would be an absolute shoo in to achieve the century however despite a huge increase in my gig attendance my visits to the Academies have been sporadic due to so many other competing venues constantly opening in the city.

My first visit was on 26/04/07 was to see the mercurial Marie McKee, previously lead singer of Lone Justice. There was always a hint of the diva about her, but she has the most electrifying voice. She wandered on with her backing band including her husband and early in the set launched briefly into singing acapella which was compelling. Her recent recordings had a country tint about them, and it was an enjoyable gig.

On 09/12/11 Death in Vegas were back in town for their first tour for a few years. The pubs were extremely busy with Christmas do’s in full flow.

Around the time of their two seminal albums the Contino Sessions and Scorpio Rising at the turn of the century they were an utterly absorbing live act. Unfortunately, they didn’t quite kick it that night as they concentrated heavily on their more dance-oriented material. It was a sold-out gig and it had attracted many that I would quantify in the ‘undesirable’ category.    

There was a breakdown in communication post gig which resulted in us catching the late choo-choo which I think must qualify as the busiest train I have ever encountered and as a result we were very relieved to arrive home that night.

In 2015 I witnessed the young scamps from Dundee, The View. They were in equal parts frenetic, chaotic but always engaging and ‘Superstar Tradesmen’ was as ever the highlight. There are elements of their lyrics in that track that mirror the story in my most loved Iain Banks novel ‘Espedair Street’ which relates to a rock star making it big and the corresponding impact on his childhood sweetheart. He remains my favourite author with his stunning imagination and caustic wit and it was the cruel hand of cancer that took him from us far too soon.

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Iain Banks Espedair Street novel. Image Credit Wikipedia

The following year we saw Electric Six on their annual winter tour. They had their moments, but it was a diminishing return from the startingly good impression they made the first time I witnessed them.   

My last appearance was to see the old punk stalwarts Slaughter and the Dogs from down the road in Wythenshawe, who supported Sex Pistols at their famous Lesser Free Trade Hill gig in 1976. It was unfortunately a rather limp performance from them on the night that I saw them.