Tag: Stereophonics

Liverpool Venues 28 to 30

I am starting this week with a recent addition within the Mathew Street Cavern Quarter, namely Liverpool Temple Tavern. The hostelry initially opened its doors in June 2025 taking over the old Reiss store that was located there previously. They are owned by local independent Pub Invest Group who also hold the reins on forty other sites in the city including the nearby Erics and Rubber Soul.

It is split over two floors with grand interiors and comes complete with outdoor tables for those ‘summer nights’. Music is featured at various points during the week under the banner of Trad sessions and on my one foray I saw a local artist called Steve performing.

Temple Tavern. Image Credit liverpoolecho.co.uk

I now return to the Sounds of the City Festival I attended in May 2025 where our next port of call was the Jacaranda on Slater Street (known locally as the Jac). It was opened in 1958 by a forward thinking geezer called Allan Williams who leased an old watch repair shop and then transformed it into a coffee bar. It provided a stage for fledgling local bands and was a key player in the rise of Merseybeat in the 1960’s.

Four young scamps named John Lennon, Stuart Sutcliffe, George Harrison and Paul McCartney were regular visitors and were called The Silver Beetles. The first two named paid for some rehearsal space by painting murals in the cellar, which unsurprisingly remain to this day.

The venue also hosted the first ever Beatles performance in August 1960 where they played as a five-piece for 2.5 hours with the addition of Pete Best. They had to improvise microphone stands by utilising broom handles held aloft by fans. Their reward was to be paid with beans on toast and Coca-Cola, and they proceeded to deputise for the regular house band the Royal Caribbean Steel Band every Monday night.  

Jacaranda Beatles wall. Image Credit beatlesstory.com

The afore mentioned owner of the establishment secured their first tour to Hamburg also in 1960, where they actually set off from outside the Jacaranda in Mr Wiliiam’s green Austin van. He also introduced them to Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr) who was a club regular and at that stage a drummer for Rory Storm & The Hurricanes.

Cynthia Lennon cites that John completed the lyrics to ‘One After 909’ song in the venue, the song then later reappeared on the Let It Be album. Allan Williams was invited to those album recording sessions, and in the footage, John is heard to say ‘Where do you think you are? The Jacaranda?’ They parted ways after that with Brian Epstein taking over the management reins, and the rest as they say is history.    

Fast forward then to the mid-1990’s and the place was literally on its knees and in a derelict state. The new owner Graham Stanley restored it but in the upgrades was considerate of its history.

In 2018 he also launched two related record shops, coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the original opening. One was based within the original building and the other Jacaranda Baltic located nearer to the waterfront. In one of the branches, he managed to purloin a 1948 voice-o-graph booth, only one of four working versions that exist in the world. Many album launches have taken place there including Foals, Stereophonics, Wunderhorse and The Pretenders.  In 2024 a blue plaque was installed based on its Beatles connection.  

Upon entry you find yourself in the homely Jacaranda Ground Floor Bar where we saw a local singer called Freddie performing. At the top end of the large room there are steps that take you down to the main venue of Liverpool Jacaranda. It has a 400 capacity, and they have live music every night and like Cinderella morphs in another mode at the midnight hour at the weekends, with free live shows, namely Indie Rock Circus on Fridays and Rock N Roll Circus on Saturdays. The festivities are completed with open mic events on the Sunday.

The Jacaranda. Image Credit Liverpool Echo.

However, this is where I discovered one of the key challenges of this festival, even during an early afternoon slot, which was the fact that the small cellar venues were liable to fill out very quickly.

So, I had a new novel position of watching from halfway down the stairs and peering through with my nose against the glass and a muted sound travelling through the pane. But as I would arbitrate in my one man ‘gig VAR’ meetings, they all count! What I could see but only partially hear was some energetic folk sounds from Sair, who I can only obtain sketchy details about, but I think derive from Leeds.

2024 Gigs – Part 3

I always manage to catch some random performances in venues around Oxford Road train station prior to heading home. One such venue is Manchester Grand Central where in May I saw a band called Level Up, in September I witnessed Throwback, in October I caught Ben from the Block and a month later Warrington act Pray for Mojo. The latter combo provided a pleasing slab of psych rock in the vein of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.  

The other venue in that vicinity is the old stalwart Manchester Thirsty Scholar. I visited the Scholar in August and October where I saw a couple of double acts called Alvin and Rob and Sid and Benny. Jenny Jazz followed at the tail end of October.

My final attendance in December was part of the Year’s End Festival on a monsoon style rainy day where first up on stage were a noisy garage rock band called Redchecks. They are a Welsh act who are now based in Manchester, but somewhat confusingly formed in Glastonbury in 2021.

Scatterchild. Image facebook.com

The other performers were locals Scatterchild who had recently released their debut album ‘An Everyday Landscape’. It was possibly the busiest I have seen the pub in all my visits, and we snuggled into a spot perched on the bar. It turned out be my last gig there prior to the recently rebadging of the hostelry into O’Connells Irish pub, still thankfully staging live music.

Another venue of the Year’s End festival roster was Manchester Retro Bar Downstairs Stage. It was only my third visit to the cellar and as it transpired my last as the venue is now closed for good after a thirty-five-year tenure. It is due to be demolished soon to make way for the Sister regeneration project which aims to generate 10,000 jobs and 1500 new homes.  

Retro however are still aiming to relocate and set up in a new site and are apparently exploring possible locations in this regard. The band on stage were called Wren and they cut a very heavy presence with their noisy sludge metal and it is the kind of music your Granny may love!  

The final festival venue to reference was further down Oxford Road at Manchester Deaf Institute Lodge. The first act I saw was Meelik who were most definitely the first ever band I have seen from Estonia. I then undertook some research on famous bands from the northernmost of the Baltic states and the intriguing name that caught my eye was the punk band called Bedwetters!

Meelik. Image Credit escbubble.com

Meelik fall more into the indie genre and are literally a high school band formed originally by their guitarist, Rain. Confidence in their musical ability was initially gained after winning one of their school song competitions. They had a break from 2011 to 2022 before reforming and entering their national Eurovision Song Contest qualifiers where they obtained a fourth place. On stage they wore school uniforms though they avoided Angus Young comparisons by the virtue of them wearing long pants! They were rather quirky, and I enjoyed the portion that I saw of their set.

The other act was Nadia Sheikh who is a Spanish/British singer and songwriter now based out of London. She self-released a slew of singles prior to obtaining a coveted 19 date support slot for Stereophonics on a sold out tour including dates at Manchester and Cardiff Arena. She had a heartfelt expressive voice which was overlaid over an indie backdrop sound.

There were also acts playing in the Manchester Deaf Institute Music Hall. First up was Kynsy who was probably my favourite performer of the whole day. Outside of her stage non de plume name she is known by her family as Dublin born, now London based lass Ciara Lindsey. She gained her musical stripes as a teen in an all-female rock band before branching out as a solo artist and received many favourable reviews. I liked her soulful voice and heartfelt tunes, and she reminded me of Hatchie.   

Kynsy. Image Credit NME.com

The other artist playing was Orphan Boy, a combo from Cleethorpes but now based in Manchester. Upon sighting them, I had a sense of déjà vu which turned out to be justified as my annals informed me that I had seen them twice before, once at the Wickerman Festival in 2008 and the other at the Mad Ferret in Preston.    

There was one additional visit to the Music Hall in August when I saw Southall, who are sometimes also known as Read Southall, reflecting the founding member who hails from Oklahoma. The sextet is strictly in the country rock mould and have released four albums in total since 2015 and the lead singer also has a likeness to the old crooner Mick Hucknall.

Although I can never reference the latter named without casting my mind back to Mark and Lard’s infantile but humorous Ancient Customs CD in 2010 where the singer, actor and comedian Bernard Wrigley (nicknamed the ‘Bolton Bullfrog’) undertook ‘Two Ronnies’ style readings on top of musical accompaniments with titles such as ‘Humping the Hucknall!