Tag: Sex Pistols

Glasgow Barrowland – Part 2

The Barrowland is known locally as the Barras and they once obviously based a Taggart story around the venue and in the opening scenes a body was discovered in the doorway – Murder!

The venue remains the only one I have encountered thus far with a metal detector which identified that Uncle George’s keyring  had a penknife enclosed which was summarily confiscated until after the gig. It was an astonishingly civilised venue bar with no hassle queueing and healthy banter.

Upstairs was the grand ballroom venue with 1900 capacity. The place had a great vibe about it with a good view from any vantage point. It was a big event for us and for the Glaswegian Mogwai boys as it was their first performance at their spiritual home. Pre-gig ‘God Save the Queen’ by Sex Pistols boomed out of the speakers.

Mogwai were in fine fettle and the set highlights were ‘Summer’, ‘Ex Cowboy’ and a thunderous ‘Mogwai Fear Satan’. The cheeky monkeys even turned off the sound system at the end and then briefly turned it back on for a couple of seconds which was a sensory shock!

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Barrowland Main Hall. Image Credit barrowland-ballroom.co.uk

Around that time, I had got into a habit of saying ‘God Bless You’ which nearly got me in a scrape in a nightclub later that evening! A couple of leisurely Sunday lunchtime pints in a plush bar with leather armchairs near Central station before the train home completed a fine weekend.

We have seen two further superb Mogwai performances at Barrowland on 22/12/11 and 21/06/15. At the latter gig I extended the stay at the Premier Inn for a further night as Gill headed up on the train for the second night.

For the first time we discovered that evening some fine bars in the West End including Oran Mor which was a short shuttle train ride out of the city. This is a grand bar in the style of the Piano and Pitcher pubs with a music venue upstairs, but I have never yet had a chance to see a band there. We also had a top Tapas meal that night at Café Andaluz, which also has another branch opposite the Wetherspoons in the city centre.  

My one other attendance at Barrowland was to see the East Kilbride boys Jesus and Mary Chain on 23/11/14. We took Gill to one of the interesting local boozers across the road before the gig.  

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William and Jamie Reid from Jesus and Mary Chain. Image Credit Consequence of Sound.

They were playing a 30-year anniversary tour of their seminal debut album ‘Psychocandy’.It still sounded fresh and vibrant though Jamie Reid was in a particularly truculent mood and it is highly unusual for me to state this, but the guitars were too loud as it tended to drown out his vocals. It was still an enjoyable gig though.

As you headed back into the city from the venue there was a late bar en route called Maggie Mays which we have visited before to ‘have one for the ditch!’. After the Mary Chain gig there was a band called Trembling Bells twinkling away in the corner.    

Manchester Venues 9 to 12

There was a legendary gig etched in folklore in the heady red-hot summer of 1976 at the Lesser Free Trade Hall where the Sex Pistols apparently influenced many members of the audience to head out and form their own bands. Bob Dylan also played there twice in the mid 60’s, one of those performances inciting the ‘Judas’ shout on the back of him committing the heinous crime of going ‘electric’. In 2004 the venue stopped all performances and was converted into a hotel.

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Flyer from Sex Pistols gig in 1976. Image credit herestheartwork.co.uk

My one and only foray was there on 21/05/89, just shy of my 21st birthday to see the 10000 Maniacs. George drove over and it was a busy sporting night as we listened to Lancashire CC losing a cup quarter final to Worcestershire on the radio on the way over and Blackburn were playing Crystal Palace in a play-off match before being undone in the second leg by the forward line of Wright and Bright! Additionally, Barry McGuigan was fighting Jim McDonnell at the G-Mex next to the venue, for which touts were trying to foist tickets on us. He lost that night and it subsequently turned out to be his final bout.

We visited the Friendship Inn in Prestwich and parked up near the Boardwalk. The venue was quite a classical site and was all seated and despite my best efforts we could not get anywhere nearer the stage. Maniacs were in great form and the best tracks were off their opus ‘In My Tribe’ especially ‘Hey Jack Kerouac’, ‘Don’t Talk’, What’s the Matter Here’ and a fabulous encore of ‘Verdi Cries’. A very fine gig.

Referencing the G-Mex Conference Centre above leads to recollections of my one gig there. I have visited the G-Mex several times on work events and it used to be the location of Manchester Central station. They also now have a huge annual beer festival there. Contemporary update is that as I write this they are currently converting the venue to an emergency hospital to assist in the fight against the Covid 19 pandemic.  

My one visit was in 1993 to see Madness. Gill was undertaking a Paediatric Nursing course at that stage and lodging at Hope Hospital (now Salford Royal). The tram network running past there was only a twinkle in the developer’s eye at that stage. Locally we used to periodically frequent the disreputable Inn of Good Hope (coined locally as Good Grope!) and visit a fabulous Chinese restaurant about 100 yards from the hospital grounds which was utilised around that time for a scene in Coronation Street involving Des Barnes.

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Inn of Good Hope, Eccles Road, Salford in 1990. Image credit flickr.

Gill had got pally with a lass on her course who had settled in Monton so we headed with Liz and Clive into the metropolis that night for some nutty boy action. The venue was cavernous and rather soulless and was probably at best half full. As you would expect Madness were good fun, but I struggled to connect with it that night, perhaps due to the impersonality of the venue.

On the corner of Princes St and Portland St there is a faux Irish Bar called Scruffy Murphy’s where around 1993 I saw a lad called Seamus perform acoustically.

As referenced previously Chinatown has always been a central hub for us pre and post gigs and we used to periodically visit the Chinese Jazz Restaurant. On one visit there was an inhouse band playing whilst we were devouring our supper and I recall George requesting a tune, but for the life of me I cannot recall what it was!