Tag: Sounds from the Other City

Manchester Venues 161 to 162

The Sounds from the Other City festival I attended in 2024 sensibly decided to reincorporate the venues contained within Salford University grounds, and I believe they are also to be retained on the roster for the 20th anniversary edition taking place in 2025.

Manchester Peel Building is the University’s oldest structure that remains in live usage. It was originally designed by architect Henry Lord and was the site for the Salford Royal Technical Institute when first opened by the future George V and Queen Mary in 1896. The distinctive red Accrington brick Grade II listed building changed to its current moniker in 1967 and is currently home to the University’s School of Environment and Life Sciences.     

Salford Peel Building. Image Credit confidentials.com

On the lawn outside there is an elaborate brick gazebo also designed by Mr Lord, however it is visually misleading as it is in fact a disguised ventilation duct for the laboratories in the old Technical college.

Within the edifice itself, there are various lecture halls and in one of those seated auditoriums there were bands performing on the stage which was curated on the day by the Band on the Wall venue and Manchester based Reform Radio. The first act we saw was ISHA who is a producer and artist who gravitates between living in London and Amsterdam. She was a multi-instrumentalist one woman act who primarily concentrates on bass playing and released her debut EP ‘Bending Colours’ in 2023.

Later, we witnessed Muva of Earth who is a London based Nigerian singer who has morphed now into Divine Earth and is a solo act but is also one half of Divine Angel, hopefully you are still with me! She was also named by the Face Mag as ‘London’s new Alt-Jazz superstar’. Though I must report she certainly didn’t cause me to transcend when I watched her!    

Next door resides the Manchester Salford Museum and Art Gallery where I had visited once before in its daytime guise for coffee and cake prior to Gill’s graduation.  Back in 1849, Salford City Council allowed Lark Hill Mansion to be designated as an educational site and converted it into a public museum and library. A year after opening it had expanded to have the capability to house 12,000 volumes, a further year later the art gallery was added to the complex.  

Salford Museum and Art Gallery. Image Credit hotels.com

This site then turned into its current modus operandi and is located in Peel Park, so named after Robert Peel and commemorating his contribution to the subscription fund which the council used to originally purchase the Mansion. The gallery and museum are faithful to the history of Salford and Victorian art and architecture. The location for many decades held over 400 artefacts by local painter L.S Lowry, before they were transferred in 2002 to a purpose-built gallery within the Lowry in Salford Quays, next to where much of the BBC and 6 music radio is now located.    

When we attended in the afternoon it was close to capacity, so I grabbed a perch on a windowsill that then transpired to be a sweltering sunspot. On stage was an engaging singer songwriter called C Duncan who was being very well received by the audience. Christopher Duncan is a Glasgow boy and is signed to the renowned Bella Union label, he has recorded output going back to 2014 and his debut album ‘Architect’ was nominated for the 2015 Mercury Music Prize.

C Duncan. Image Credit bbc.co.uk

A single from his third album ‘Health’ was produced by Elbow’s Craig Potter at Salford’s very own Blueprint Studios. He has had support slots with Belle and Sebastian and his tunes have appeared on various TV programmes including Waterloo Road. The muse was obviously always in his bloodline as both his parents were classical musicians and though they are now retired they have ‘reformed the band’ to provide string sounds on his most recent recordings. He had a dreamy folky style and was a fine accompaniment to my window basking!  

Much later we headed back to the library to endeavour to catch the last artist on the day’s roster. It was still busy, so after queueing for a little spell, we finally gained access to catch the last song on Laura J Martin’s set.  She is a Liverpool lass and on her first album in 2016 she recruited members of Lambchop, Silver Jews and Jesus Lizard to assist her. Prior to her recently released fourth album ‘Prepared’ she undertook an apprenticeship with renowned local flute player and maker Willy Simmons.    

Manchester Venue 139 – Maxwell Hall

I am returning this week to the tale of the 2024 Sounds from the Other City Festival (SFTOC). Within Salford University between 1964 and 2004 there was a thriving venue in the University grounds called Manchester Maxwell Hall. The Maxwell building containing the aforementioned hall was officially opened in 1961 by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip. The upper hall staged the gigs with a capacity of 1000 seating and a balcony above of a further 220 capacity. I once sat in that very balcony area whilst attending one of my talented wife Gill’s many graduation ceremonies.

The opening band to play on the 25th of March 1964 was Dave Berry and the Cruisers at a cost of six shillings, they were so named based on the lead singer’s admiration of Chuck Berry. They are not to be confused with Marvin Berry and the Starlighters, the fictional musician and Chuck’s cousin from the original Back to the Future movie!  Other acts to play there include The Who, Black Sabbath, U2, New Order, The Kinks, James and of course The Smiths!

Marvin Berry and the Starlighters. Image Credit backtothefuture.wikia.com

One story goes along the lines that Paul McCartney and the Wings rolled up in a van in 1972 and asked if they could play as the band had just recently formed and were engaged on a practice tour. The tickets were priced at 50p with half going to the band and the other half to the University. Blondie also famously graced the stage in 1978 and there is an iconic picture that only emerged in 2017 with Debbie Harry draped in the actual poster for the gig.

In the 1990’s the allure of the venue waned due to the introduction of competing venues in the city with Charlatans having the honour of playing the final gig there on 20th December 2004. There then followed an utterly mystifying gap of fifteen years before an extensive refurbishment plan was touted within the £800m Salford Crescent Masterplan to restore the venue to its former glory but like many other schemes I assume it was then scuppered by the pandemic.

Debbie Harry embracing Salford Uni. Image Credit blogs.salford.ac.uk

Five years later the venue was belatedly chosen as one of the locations within the 2024 edition of SFTOC, which rekindled talk of possibly rebooting the venue. The layout of the venue reminded me of Whitehaven Civic Hall.

On the day we attended we saw a jaunty slightly surreal Welsh six piece called Melin Melyn (translates as Yellow Mill). They sing in their native language and have been cited alongside other artists in a movement named ‘Cool Cymru 2.0’. The driving force of the band are the original members Gruff Glyn alongside Garmon Rhys, who also double up as a pair of professional actors, the former garnering credits in Dr Who, Poldark and the Royal Shakespeare Company.  Their music I would describe as a pot pourri of folk and surf rock.

Maintaining the Welsh theme, we also caught the end of Gruff Rhys (of Super Furry Animals) headline set who was promoting his latest solo album ‘Sadness Sets Me Free’. He is ambidextrous and somewhat bizarrely plays left-handed on an upside down right handed guitar. He has tried his hand at scripting opera and also provides vocals to the Mogwai track ‘Dial: Revenge’ off their Rock Action album. He curtailed his show with a nod to Bob Dylan’s video for Subterranean Homesick Blues via the usage of cue cards with audience prompts for applause etc.      

Maxwell Hall. Image Credit bbc.com

There has been a spate of other venues in the near vicinity including a former horse racing track at a site called Castle Irwell which was sold onto the University in 1960’s. It first evolved as a student village and then the old racecourse members stand was converted into the popular Pavilion Bar and Nightclub (known locally as the Pav) under the ownership of the Students Union.

Bands to have played gigs the Pav include Texas, Pulp and Atomic Kitten before its closure in 2009. The village at Castle Irwell subsequently closed in 2015 after a half of century of providing housing for approximately 40k students. Sadly, a year later there was an arson attack which created such a huge fire that at one point 50 firefighters were in situ utilising pumped water from the nearby River Irwell. Housing has since sprung up on that original site. 

Pulp flyer from their 1992 show. Image Credit pulpwiki.net

There were also events at the Student Unions Building in the 1970’s and 1980’s but the only recorded gig I could track there was a performance by Heart! I am sure there must have been other higher quality gigs there. The final one to note is the Salford College of Technology where local legends Joy Division once graced the stage in 1978.