Tag: Sounds from the Other City

Manchester Venues 54 to 56

Returning to the cosy environs of Salford’s Sounds from the Other City (SFTOC) festival this week, I am continuing to traverse down towards Salford Central train station. Behind the excellent New Oxford pub, lies the St Phillips Chapel Street Church.

The church is nigh on 200 years old and is a Grade 2 listed building and its architectural style is apparently Greek Revival. In addition to their Sunday services, they also have concerts, recitals, and community activities.

I have seen four gigs there; however, my first attendance was an individual visit on 10/12/10 outside of the SFTOC roster. It was the first time I had visited that area and Uncle George and I had a sally around a couple of local pubs before venturing to the venue. As it was my first Church gig, I was fascinated to see how it would pan out.

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St Phillips Church with Bexley Square in the foreground. Image Credit Pinterest

It was a surprisingly relaxed atmosphere however understandably toilet facilities were very limited. To my astonishment they served alcoholic beverages including a keg of real ale. We grabbed a drink as it would be rude not to and caught the support band Frankie Rose and the Outs who are a lo-fi indie group. Their driving force Frankie Rose is an ex-member of Crystal Stilts, Vivian Girls and Dum Dum Girls and the Outs consisted of a further three female members and their sound had a Spacemen 3 dream pop vibe.

Overcoming my ingrained Catholic guilt (it should be considered a medical condition!) from my youth regarding suitable activities in religious buildings, we took a pint of the finest ale to sit in the pews upstairs. We begin to watch a psychedelic rock outfit which was an odd experience in the surroundings we found ourselves in.

The band in question was Wooden Shjips, which has also resulted in a spin off band called Moon Duo. They hail from San Francisco and their sound consisted of long epic guitar wig outs. I have always found this genre of music in equal parts intoxicating but unsettling due to its repetitive psychedelic swirl!

My other three attendances were under the auspices of SFTOC. The first in 2012 was Withering Hand playing under the stage name Dan Willson. He is an Edinburgh based musician and previously played guitar for a group in Bishops Stortford called Tinfoil Circus amongst other bands and he has also supported Frightened Rabbit and King Creosote.

In 2017 I saw Ola and the following year the nattily titled Have you ever seen the Jane Fonda Aerobic VHS? They were a Finnish garage pop rock group with sweet melodies, a very odd combo but also good fun I seem to recall. 

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Have you ever seen the Jane Fonda Aerobic VHS? Image Credit discogs.com

Nearby the Church is one of the festival’s central hubs on Bexley Square. Located there was the Bexley Square Live Tent and in there in 2017 I saw Tobi Sunmola. Tobi was a young rapper who hails from Nigeria but is now based in Manchester and appears to be receiving some attention with airplay on national radio. The following year I witnessed Kxngs, an electronic loungecore act from London.

Next door to there in 2017 was the Bexley Square Bar Tent where alongside obtaining refreshments I saw Liohness, a drum and bass act who reside in Bristol.

Manchester Venues 44 to 46

As you traverse down the rather exposed A6 into the City Centre from Salford Crescent station you encounter the Old Pint Pot pub overlooking the River Irwell. It was originally a school and was called Adelphi Riverside in the eighties before obtaining its current moniker in the nineties and has been a regular haunt for Salford University alumni for many years.

It is a Marston’s Brewery pub and apparently has recently gone through an extensive refurbishment with the introduction of a state-of-the-art unique overhead beer dispense system called Palm Pour.  There is also a fine beer garden with a vantage over the river.

My first visit there was for a beer prior to watching AC/DC at MEN Arena in 2001. On another visit whilst meeting Gill after work I arrived first and upon entering the establishment my ears were assailed by the unmistakable sound of Husker Du’s sonic cover of the Byrds ‘Eight Miles High’. This remains one of my favourite ever Huskers track and I have never heard it in a pub environs before or after that day!  

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The Old Pint Pot. Image Credit scoopergen.co.uk

I have always been fond of this pub, and it remains a focal gathering point within the auspices of Sounds from the Other City festival. At the 2017 festival in the Old Pint Pot Main Bar, we saw a terrific band in an Americana vein called the Roasts, though searching now I cannot find reference of them, but I most certainly saw them! We also saw another act called Lord Kessell and the Drums.

On my first visit there in 2012 we saw a decent local post rock band called Day for Airstrikes, whose first full length album ‘Widows’ released in 2006 (not to be confused with Sennen’s debut album of the same name) through Piccadilly Records.   

There was a more conventional stage in the Old Pint Pot Upstairs and at the same event in 2018 we watched TV AM. At the following years event we saw a brief portion of indie band Pip Blom’s set, they were obviously a draw because we could barely push through the door!   

To exemplify the broad spectrum of venues utilised by the festival, the next one located just down the road is the Angel Centre, a healthy living centre offering free activities to the Salford community including events such as free E-Cig appointments and mental health and horticulture drop ins.

In the main room they had kitted up a small stage in the corner and a pop-up bar to the left. I have witnessed gigs there at each of the three SFTOC festivals I have attended.

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Angel Centre. Image Credit guerillapocasts.com

On my first foray in 2012 I saw Frazer King, a quirky six-piece band from the local suburb of Wythenshawe who were difficult to quantify but Ennio Morricone punk could be an apposite description of their sound.

In 2017 we saw a terrific band called Golden Dregs, led by driving force Benjamin Woods. They were a welcome blast of garage rock Americana and his vocals resembled Bill Callaghan of Smog; they went down a storm complemented by a cold brew from the bar. I completed the venue trilogy in 2018 by watching a local band called Cattle.