Tag: South by South West festival

Manchester Venue 191 Gorilla – Part 1

On Whitworth St, directly opposite Manchester Ritz and within a literal stumbling distance from Manchester Oxford Road rail station you will find Manchester Gorilla. The venue is uniquely situated under a railway arch and was previously the arts, theatre and comedy site The Green Room back in the 1980’s. On the comedic front Alan Carr, Steve Coogan and Caroline Aherne graced that stage and James and Doves played early gigs there.

When that business closed the Trof Group took over the running and Gorilla initially opened its doors in 2012. Its future looked extremely perilous during the pandemic, but thankfully a new owner was sourced and that saved the day, and it is now linked to its sister site of Deaf Institute nearby on Oxford Road.

Gorilla. Image Credit discover.ticketmaster.co.uk

There is a tidy little bar at the front of the venue but there is no access from there to the gig space, apart from sometimes being directed by ‘Rock Steady’ to exit gigs through this bar area. The actual entrance is around the corner under the tunnel, and a few stairs brings you into the main room with a 550 capacity. 

It is a well laid out space with a merchandise stall to the left and the extendable/removable stage at the bottom of the room. However, like many other locations it can be arguably too busy when at full capacity, presenting logistical challenges when trying to access the two bars and even move around!  It also has a raised platform at the back of the hall with a smattering of elevated seats.

It generally provides good sound and local lad Johnny Marr talks very warmly about the venue and has actively encouraged his peers to include a touring date there. They have regular club nights with promoters such as Guilty Pleasures and Now Wave.

I have attended eighteen gigs there over the years with my first show being British Sea Power in April 2013. I have now seen them six times in total, and this was my second sighting 11 years after I discovered their unique stagecraft at the Leeds Festival in 2002. I recall them being introduced on stage by 6 music DJ Marc Riley.

Near to the culmination of the set, I nipped to the loos which are positioned behind the stage and encountered a chap dressing up into an eight-foot polar bear outfit. Before you ask, nobody had put anything suspicious in my beer, it was actually a tradition the band had at the stage of their career where a couple of bears would parade around the mosh pit during the encore!   

The bears and the band in action. Image Credit NME.

A month later, I returned as the venue was part of the roster for the sorely missed multi venue Dot to Dot festival. On that particular day I saw the aforementioned Marc Riley faves Teleman. The original germination of the band was the three members Pete Cateermoul and the Sanders brothers, Johnny and Thomas who were part of Pete and the Pirates. After they disbanded, they were joined by drummer Hiro Ama and became Teleman in 2011. I have always thought they have an intriguing sound, and they lived up to that in a live setting.

Also performing were the Wildflowers who were formed in 2012 and based in Brighton and Bristol. The driving force is main songwriter Siddy Bennett and her sister Kit who had an interesting bohemian upbringing via living on boats, caravans or in protest camps. They have a country punk sound and were coined in the early days as ‘Punk Dolly Parton’s’. Their breaking moment was a set they played at South by Southwest festival in Austin Texas that inspired Detroit label Original 1265 Records to sign them up. I could hear diverse elements in their sound ranging from Mamas and Papas to White Stripes.  

Next up was the old troubadours Nada Surf where the gig was completely sold out and they were touring their latest album ‘You Know Who You Are’ and were in as fine form as ever as they have now amassed a quality back catalogue. 

In August 2014 Gill and I headed over to watch Joan As Policewoman, whose stage name was a homage to the 1970’s television cop show called Police Woman starring Angie Dickinson. Her actual name is Joan Wasser who was adopted at a young age and was musically precocious as she had piano lessons at the age of six and violin tutelage at the age of eight. She started her professional musical career in the Boston University Symphony Orchestra.

Joan as Policewoman. Image Credit blogspot.com

Then to paraphrase Neil Young around the time of his commercial peak of recording ‘Harvest’, who was quoted as saying ‘It put me in the middle of the road, travelling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there’. Joan adopted this ethos literally as she was jaded by the classical structure so did a full U-turn and morphed into being a member of various punk bands.

She suffered personal heartache in May 1997 when her fiancé of three years Jeff Buckley accidentally drowned in Memphis. At the time we saw her, she had just released her fourth solo album ‘The Classic’ but surrounded herself with a touring band for the live dates.

In March 2016 I saw Pelican for the second time after their staggeringly loud show a few years before at the Ruby Lounge venue across town. They are classed in the post-metal genre; there is literally a label for everything! They are entirely instrumental and produce long slabs of glorious brutal noise and three of their members are also part of the band Tusk. The show wasn’t as intense as the previous one, but still very good. 

Preston Venue 60 The Ferret – Part 3

If you walk to the back of the Preston Ferret there is a well utilised beer garden, where you can seek some quiet solace and grab some air in the gaps between bands. In a spot just before you head outside there was for a spell the traditional cramped pub pool table.

The Ferret beer garden. Image Credit visitpreston.com

In November 2012 after seeing an underwhelming Eddie and the Hot Rods gig at the Continental I witnessed Bobbie Peru for whom the driving force is Bert Genovese. He originated from Connecticut but is now based in Manchester. Next on the list was False Flag who supported Piatcions. The main band were from Domodossola in Italy and originally named Thee Piatcions, they provided some enjoyable psych infused shoegaze but sadly only ever produced one single EP.

In March 2013 I attended my mate Jez Catlow’s 50th birthday shindig where he played sets from his three bands in Strettles next door. During breaks in those sets we wandered the 20 yards to the Ferret and saw local bands The Escobars and Binary. The same month after a Nine Black Alps gig at Preston Blitz I witnessed the bruising punk of Beard of Wolves, a two-piece from Wolverhampton who wore pig masks on stage. They memorably described their sound ‘as getting beaten by a meth addled Scarlet Johansen’ and unsurprisingly imploded for ever in 2014.

Beard of Wolves. Image Credit thrashhits.com

In May 2013 I saw Dave Clark and the Stones who proceeded Orphan Boy from Grimsby. The latter combo split in 2015 but reformed in 2022 and seem to be still active on the gig circuit. The following week I saw again The Chapman Family alongside Rook and the Ravens who feature the Fay brothers in their lineup. Also on that bill were Brassic and The Laze who evolved from a sludge outfit called Doom Cow. For a three-year period, The Laze had their own Valhalla club night at Liverpool Zanzibar’s club and their sound was heavily influenced by Frank Zappa.In August 2013, I saw the Escobars for a second time alongside the Locals.

A couple of months later I saw Deadwood Dog’s first headline set across the road at 53 Degrees. After the Dog’s show I sallied over to the Ferret and continued the canine theme by catching the scuzzy grunge sounds of Cat Called Dog. They must surely or at least subconsciously derive their name from Cat Deeley’s character Cat the Dog from SMTV Live which used to salve my hangover on Saturday mornings in the late 1990’s!

My first appearance of 2014 involved local combo The Kausters who were supported by Local Girls. Also on the bill was Matthew Cogley who performed solo but also doubled as the guitarist and singer with Chorley band Failsafe. His band once appeared on an episode in the third series of the successful Inbetweeners TV series and appeared at the famous South by Southwest festival in 2010. There is however a desperately sad postscript in that he subsequently died whilst on a trip to Belfast on New Years Day 2015 at the tender age of 30.

Later that month I saw the quirky four-piece Hello Bamboo. Soon after I saw an absolute belter of a show when Massive Wagons who are a rock band from Lancaster hit the stage. They reminded me of the Darkness in a good way and were terrific fun and incited a febrile audience reaction. Since that gig they have had a steady but exponential rise with support slots with Status Quo and Ugly Kid Joe prior to two individual headline tours and a top ten UK position with their ‘House of Noise’ album released during the pandemic.

Massive Wagons. Image Credit planetradio.co.uk

Next up was some soulful folk from Bill Orrick followed by some reggae rock crossover vibes from Conscious Collective. In November 2014 it was Moon and the Beams with their self-described slightly-delic rock who supported Mothertongue who provided some prog rock sounds. The final show of 2014 was a four-piece from Leeds called Clay who revolved around the nucleus of the Harvey brothers. The main band that night was Avalanche Party who provided some gritty garage punk and they hailed from the windswept ‘Wuthering Heights’ North Yorkshire moors. 

After my first exposure to the delightful Lovely Eggs at the Continental in March 2015 we decamped to the Ferret to catch some ska punk with Honour Roots and some prog with Jagwar. Next up was Nikki and the Styx (not the Motley Crue bassist) who supported local glam rockers Dragstrip Junkies whose members had the evocative names of Adam Wired, Johnny Rocker and Paul Wasted. A double bill followed with Monster as Humans, who reminded me of Aerogramme, preceding Midas Fall. The main band being a Scottish female duo who had gothic tones.