Tag: Snuff

Manchester Venue 135 – Bread Shed

On the opposite side of Grosvenor Street from the Deaf Institute venue you will find the Sand Bar. This is one of the many hostelries within the Oxford Road corridor, but it is a singular Manchester institution and one of my fave places to visit. It came into existence in the mid-90’s and I have been attending there for pre-gig drinks for many years. It is housed in an old industrial mill with an olde world feel and has an unprepossessing and almost hidden entrance. They have always served fine beers and was the first place that I was aware of that stocked continental lagers and was the location of my first sampling of the Bavarian Schneider Weisse wheat beer!  

Manchester Sand Bar. Image Credit flickr.com

On the next corner is another watering hole with the previously very simplistic name of ‘The Pub’. It is housed in a Grade II listed building, and they regularly have quiz nights and open mic nights, this one being more of a sporadically visited hostelry. A recent artistic addition to their side wall in May this year was a large mural of Kurt Cobain. At the back of this pub for many years there was a nightclub called the Zoo, now a singular music venue called Manchester Bread Shed.

I first visited the venue in its Zoo nightclub phase as part of the Dot to Dot festival event in 2013 and the act on stage was Beans on Toast which is the stage name of folk singer Jay McAllister who derives from Braintree in Essex. He is a prolific musician and has recorded fifteen albums since 2005 and has a liking for releasing them on his birthday of 1st December.

The Bread Shed. Image Credit designmynight.com

To be honest, he was not my cup of Yorkshire Tea though there were many punters in there who were lapping up his performance. On a personal front, my day improved dramatically immediately after as I caught a startlingly good Wolf Alice set across the road in the Deaf Institute.

In August 2017 the site rebooted as the Bread Shed and the owners Stonegate Pub Company spent £450k on upgrades. The unusual name derived from the history of the building as in the 1900’s it was the Duncan & Foster bakery site. This was also reflected in the attached pub revising its name to the Flour & Flagon. It was set up as an events space with a 480 capacity and beyond the live music they also reinstated the XS Malarkey comedy night that had for a short period been rehomed at the Comedy Store.   

Prior to attending a Fontaines DC gig at Gorilla in 2019 I cheekily blagged my way into the venue and caught a portion of a pretty woeful Iron Maiden tribute who were at the same low calibre level of the ‘legendary’ Damascus gig (my third ever gig) at Preston Clouds in 1984!   

My next visit was in October 23 where Marcus and Anita attended with Gill and I. Marcus had some ticket issues on the door but managed to negotiate his way in. The band we had come to see was the Boo Radleys who I was witnessing after a 29-year sabbatical as I had not seen them since two gigs in 1994. They were on a rotating joint headline tour and were the support on the night and were in excellent form with the fabulous ‘Lazarus’ being performed towards the end of their set.  

The headliners were Cud who are an electro indie band from Leeds who I had surprisingly never seen before. They formed in 1987, broke up in 1995, but reformed again in 2006. In their first incarnation they undertook a cover of Hot Chocolate’s ‘You Sexy Thing’ which garnered a number 20 position in John Peel’s festive fifty in 1988. Their lead singer is Carl Puttnam who can be marmite to some people, and I honestly didn’t approach them with high expectations. However, these chaps could play and were seriously good fun, reminding me of the vibrancy of Electric Six’s live performances.   

Cud band. Image Credit 3loopmusic.com

My latest visit was in April this year to see the ska/punk sounds of Snuff for the eighth time. Just when I was thinking the audience were very quiet on the first three tracks and not resembling an archetypal Snuff crowd they then played ‘Soul Limbo’ cricket theme, and the place went ballistic! So much so the instantly created moshpit had a kick back and Uncle George was knocked back onto the floor and temporarily flattened, but he is literally made of Teflon so bounced straight back up again! I had a rare foray into the pit myself for a few tracks and as ever thoroughly enjoyed their show!    

Manchester Venues 115 to 117

As cited in a previously blog, The Band on the Wall has recently been refurbished with a new site for gigs outside their main venue room, with an 80-person capacity. Thus, at the culmination of a gig I attended there recently we walked out into the Manchester Band on the Wall Bar and discovered a bonus band on the small stage called Black Cat Lion. I am assuming they only commenced playing when the band in the main room had finished their set.

Band on the Wall. Image Credit propermanchester.com

The last time I encountered an occurrence like that was when leaving Nottingham Rock City in the late 1990’s after watching a Spiritualised set to discover to my utter delight that the South London punks Snuff were in the middle of a thunderous set in a function room downstairs. That night I dived into the already fully functioning mosh pit and thoroughly enjoyed the half bonus gig and the standout was their cover of ‘I Think Were Alone Now’ with the vocals provided by a selected chap from the aforementioned pit!

Situated in a very old area of the Northern Quarter is Tariff St. I have also previously covered the bars and venues on this evocative ‘mill town’ thoroughfare, but I had never yet witnessed a gig at the Manchester Whiskey Jar Upstairs Bar, only having attended gigs in the downstairs space. The Whiskey Jar is housed in a Grade 1 listed textile mill, and it lives up to its name by having around 350 varieties of the hard stuff available, with representation from many continents.

Whiskey Jar bar. Image Credit creativetourist.com

On the same night of the above Band on the Wall gig I was navigating my route back to Manchester Piccadilly station for the late train home, and my attuned ears could hear music at ’100 yards’, much like Father Jack of Father Ted fame who could pick up the distinctive sound of a Sauvignon Blanc bottle at the same distance! Therefore, I had no choice but to undertake a quick detour into the Whiskey Bar to catch the last 1.5 songs of the Blues Kids set whilst still allowing enough time to enable myself to make the scheduled train without excessive scampering!

In November 2019 I attended at the last minute the Off the Record festival, an event for unsigned bands that takes place in a suite of venues in the Northern Quarter. I picked up my wristband from the hub venue of Gullivers about 6pm and decided to weave down Tib Street to my first venue. As I walked down I was distracted by a sign outside Manchester Matt & Phred’s.

Matt & Phred’s opened in its current format of a Jazz and Blues late night club in 2010 and holds live gigs 6 days a week. It has an appropriate low lit intimate setting with a 200 capacity and apparently provides fine cocktails and tasty pizzas. In its previous guise in 2007 Adele played two gigs there in a fortnight window and to have graced the stage there also are Rochdale’s Lisa Stansfield, Wynton Marsalis, Ed Harcourt, Mumford and Sons, Daniel Johnston and George Ezra.

Matt and Phreds. Image Credit DesignMyNight.com

Due to the genre of the music, I couldn’t see myself ever paying for and attending a gig there and had only once previously been in for a drink in an afternoon setting. However, returning to the previously mentioned sign outside which was providing an invite to attend a free early gig which happened to be at the exact point I was walking past.

Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth I entered the establishment and found a side wall to lean on. The act on stage were called Courteous Thief and transpired to be a folk singer who was a fisherman’s son from North Wales. He had already by that stage picked up support slots with Turin Brakes, Tom Hingley, Mark Morris and John Otway.