Tag: The Cheatahs

Manchester Venues 142 to 144

Within the Northern Quarter as you progress away from the vibrant and busy Oldham Street down Hilton Street towards Stevenson Square you reach Manchester Corner Boy. The establishment for many years was the iconic Koffee Pot café before morphing into an American diner called West Corner in 2016, a place I visited once for a slightly non nutritious snack! A couple of years later it changed again into its current incarnation as an Irish bar and deli.

Corner Boy. Image Credit ilovemanchester.com

It is owned by nearby Hatters Hostel and is a homely venue with low lighting and mahogany décor, they have a small outside seating area and also serve traditional tucker such as Irish stew, colcannon, and soda bread and naturally a decent pint of the black stuff. There is a function room downstairs that can be hired out.

They undertake DJ sets on a weekend and occasionally also have live music and so it came to pass that after an excellent Black Doldrums gig at nearby Gullivers I landed in there to catch a portion of a soulful set by the Manchester based Olivia Joseph band.   

Beyond the pub you arrive instantly at Stevenson Square where during the pandemic they made the pro-active decision to pedestrianise the area to allow the suite of pubs in the vicinity to be able to have outside tables in a continental style. Thankfully as the world returned to normal, they maintained this sensible approach and as a result it can be a very lively area on a sunny afternoon with people sat out nursing cold beers and cocktails.

On the far angle of the square on the Piccadilly station side you would find Manchester Shack Bar and Grill, not to be mistaken with Dino’s Bar and Grill featured in the Thin Lizzy track ‘The Boys are Back in Town! It appeared to be modelled to a degree on an American diner with their award winning burgers and has seating outside on an astro-turf surface.

Manchester Shack Bar and Grill. Image Credit ilovemanchester.com

It had a large spacious bar area and there was a chilled vibe about the place. After a noisy Cheatahs gig at Soup Kitchen we dived in there for a flyer before sallying off for the last train home. Whilst in residence they had some acoustic acts on, and we saw two local singers called Josh Morrison and Ex Moxley.

In 2019 the original Hilton Street site closed but it quickly relocated over to High Street on the other side of the Northern Quarter and took over from where the Blue Pig used to be. Blue Pig was one of around dozen bars in NQ, Printworks, Heaton Moor and West Didsbury that was owned by the hospitality group Mark Andrew Developments (MAD Ltd) which unexpectedly went into liquidation at the tail end of 2018.  The Shack however is still standing strong to this day at its revised address.   

The concept and evolution of Manchester Feel Good Club commenced back in 2016. The owners and married couple Keira and Aimie Lawlor-Skillen were struggling with eating disorders and mental health issues and wanted to instil more positivity into their life so instigated the Feel Good name which started initially on Instagram, and which has now grown exponentially up to 335k followers. It evolved from there via a candle making business and then in 2020 by opening up a physical space which is located on Hilton Street.

Manchester Feel Good Club. Image Credit northernquartermanchester.com

The club is primarily a coffee shop and bar and generally closes at 6pm. However, on certain days it has after hour events including Mischief Cabaret and Queer open mic nights. They also have a clothing range and have billboards dotted about the city outlining their ongoing ethos.

In June this year Gill and I happened to be striding past on our way to another gig and were distracted by a vibrant atmosphere in the club. On stage was a trans artist called Miss Chief Cabaret whose character was created by Rupaul’s Drag Race alumni Banksie who featured in Series 5 of the television show.

This is the stage name for Jonathan Banks, who was born in Wigan and is now the artistic director of the venue Firehouse on Swan Street. He is 6 foot 8 inches tall but rises up to 7ft in heels and on the night, he was camping it up on stage and going down a storm with a highly animated audience who were living up to the name on the door!      

Manchester 74 Soup Kitchen – Part 2

I recall being sat in the Soup Kitchen bar in early 2017 when I knew that we would soon be relocating to Manchester, in the background I could hear the distinctive intro theme song to Marc Reilly’s 6 music show and for some odd reason that very event made the upcoming move feel infinitely more authentic!  

In Feb 2015 I unearthed a diamond when we saw Ex-Hex there, coincidentally my 550th gig. They are an all-female garage rock trio from Washington DC and had just released their terrific debut album ‘Rips’.  Uncle George’s reaction was priceless, he watched silently for the first three tracks and then spun round and exclaimed ‘where the hell did you find this lot Jim?’. The justification for his infectious enthusiasm was due to a compelling performance by the band, inciting memories of previous forbearers The Runaways and the Slits.

Ex-Hex. Image Credit The Daily Telegraph

They had supported the legendary Rocket from the Crypt and I also saw them on a later tour double billing with the Jacuzzi Boys. On this night they were supported by Princess, an arty American band who could be loosely labelled in the ‘math rock’ category.

The next band on the roster was The Cheatahs, who unusually had Canadian, American and German members but were based in London! I had first picked up on them via their excellent self-titled debut album evoking highly favourable comparisons to the seminal Sugar album ‘Copper Blue’. After releasing their second album, they sadly disbanded in 2016.

For the first half of the gig the sound was shambolic as it could not cope with their sonic attack. The second half was very enjoyable and perhaps their finest track ‘The Swan’ was especially glorious. They were supported by a Brighton psychedelic rock band called Novella.  

The Cheatahs. Image Credit Genius

In May 2016, Babeheaven were on the roster. The London duo produced introspective electronic pop music and finally issued their debut album in 2020 called ‘Home for Now’. Later that year I witnessed Trudy and the Romance, a three piece from Liverpool, previously they were simply called Trudy. They were perhaps best quantified in the country blues bracket. 

In February 2017 the weather gods did not smile on us as there was a huge storm that evening, but we just about managed to navigate into and out of Manchester on the infrequent trains left available. I am glad we did because Julia Jacklin was excellent with her uniquely soothing voice. She was brought up in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney in Australia which we have fortunately had a chance to visit. She deservingly now receives a lot of radio airplay.

I then saw Jakl (Hughie Gavin) who was a singer/songwriter from Margate. I have just read a story about him where his dad was hospitalised with a Covid coma, he wrote a specific song and played to him every day, his father woke up a week later and sang the melody of the song back to his son as it was the only thing he could recall when he was in the coma.

Next up was multi-instrumentalist Jacob Allen who was originally a bedroom recording artist from South London who plays under the stage name of Puma Blue. He was followed six months later by Fizzy Blood, an indie rock band from Leeds.

I made two further visits in 2019, the first being a six-piece synth band from Manchester called Mealtime. They were in the LCD Soundsystem mould and have been garnered quite a bit of media attention since then.

The second was a four-piece named Two Weeks in Nashville, whose sound leaned heavily into the 1970’s genre. Their moniker derived from an inspirational holiday they took in Tennessee’s capital city which reinvigorated their musical ambitions. My latest attendance was on 02/04/22 as part of the Fair Play Festival to see a local artist called Tyler Crude.