Manchester Venues 153 to 155 – Caribbean Festival

One of the strengths of my hometown of Preston is that it has always been a multi-cultural city with a large proliferation of the Windrush generation amongst others settling there in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

As a result of this cultural background there were two thriving establishments dotted across the city, the first being the Caribbean Club in Kent Street which had a golden period in the 1980’s and 1990’s where I saw The Membranes, Snuff and Scream perform. The club is now long gone but Jalgos in the city centre remains, a venue where I once saw UK Subs play upstairs.  

Jalgos Club. Image Credit lep.co.uk

There is also every May bank holiday a large Caribbean procession on the Preston streets with colourful floats and steel bands with the end point of the parade being a festival gather in Avenham Park. The 50th anniversary version of this event took place in 2024.

When we relocated over to Manchester, I always endeavoured to make an appearance at their own festival. The actual start year of their event is somewhat disputed, some say 1970 and others say 1971, what is not in doubt however is that the location for the festival has always been the large Alexandra Park in the Moss Side area of town. It can’t be easily overlooked that the shindig has over the years sometimes had a chequered history with gang incidents, drugs arrests and even murder.  

The original British festival was held in London in 1959, in direct response to the racist riots that took place in Notting Hill and also Nottingham the summer before. The driving force and organiser was Claudia Jones who is now revered as the ‘mother of the British Caribbean carnival’.

A flyer for Preston Caribbean festival fundraising. Image Credit socanews.com

Her back story is fascinating as she was born in British Colonial Trinidad in 1915 before her childhood years in 1930’s Harlem in New York. As a black woman and a ‘communist’ she was victimised in the McCarthy post war era and was shamefully classed as a criminal and deported to Britain in 1955. She admirably became a strong advocate of fostering the local community and continued to fight the politics of the day and the inaugural festival was created four short years later. Ms Locita Brandy was Claudia’s equivalent in being the impetus behind the subsequent inception of the Northern version.  

Alexandra Park dates back to 1864 and was first opened to the public in 1870. There were at that time experimental usage from the architect Alexander Hennell of oval shaped and curved pathways, a raised walk and a half mile lime walk wide enough for horse drawn carriages. Additionally, one of the original park keeper’s homes, Chorlton Lodge still remains to this day.

The park was the location of the great Manchester Woman Suffrage demonstration of 24th October 1908 and several Rock Against Racism events took place there with a particular one on 15th July 1978 which featured both Steel Pulse and the Buzzcocks. 

Thus, on Sunday 11th August 2024 we decided to make our long overdue debut. Initial thoughts were to walk the 5 miles there, but a stiflingly hot day put paid to that idiotic idea. We travelled over on the metro and alighted at Withington tram stop which is a stone’s throw from those cemetery gates that Morrissey famously sang about, it was about a mile trek from there to the park.

Manchester Caribbean Carnival. Image Credit themanchestercarnival.com

There was extremely thorough security checks at the gate before we undertook a circuit of the huge site. Initially on the Manchester Caribbean Youth Stage we saw a band called Black Oxygen before catching up with Axis Attack on the Manchester Caribbean Jamaican Corner Stage.

There were fun fairs and vendors of all different shades including numerous rum bars which we swerved around. We did however hit one of the food stalls and sampled a terrific homemade curry which was served with rice and beans, salad and plantain. 

Now, in my time I have been to more loud gigs than you can wave a stick at, but the noise level there was astounding, and the bass was vibrating through to your very soul. We grabbed a spot on the grass but could not hear ourselves to have a conversation, so were virtually reliant on sign language. Whilst we munched on our food our ears were assailed by a chap called RJ on the Manchester Caribbean Main Stage.

Preston Venue 5 – Caribbean Club Part 1

Located on the corner of Kent and Canute St buried in the back streets of Deepdale, near a couple of old battered boozers you would have found the Caribbean Club (formerly the Twang Club). It was basically an old social club and had one side for members and the other for functions and gigs. It had excellent bar staff and the capacity was probably around 400. I frequented it four times between 1985 and 1992. The venue closed in 2009.

One of those visits was my first gig of a new decade on 05/01/90 to see Snuff, a South London Ska/Punk band. I had been bought their debut album for Christmas. I would contend that the album title is the longest one in history, namely –‘Snuffsaidgorblimeyguysstonemeifhedidn’tthrowawobblerchachachachachachachachachachachayou’regoinghomeinacosmicambience’.

John, Uncle George and I were in attendance and we met in the Moorbrook pub. John had the night before interviewed the then PNE chairman Keith Leeming for the club fanzine ’53 Miles West of Venus’.

I cannot recall the name of the first band, but they did covers of Prong songs. Blammo were the main support and were fronted by a Mark E Smith lookalike. I bought a 50p flexi disc afterwards and I may still have it somewhere.

Snuff came on about 11.15 and they did a combination of original tracks and astutely chosen cover versions. ‘Somehow’ and ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ were standout tracks. They were and remain a great live act and were very crowd interactive. They also played Bran Flakes (They’re tasty!) and Shake N Vac jingles at 100mph. They played to 12.15 and I remember a chap approached them afterwards with a computer printout of every venue they had played – obviously a kindred spirit!

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Snuff, pictured in 1990. Image Credit blogspot.com

Now at a couple of other gigs I have just been out of the frame on crowd pictures on NME gig reviews, namely Screaming Blue Messiahs and F—-d Up. However, my moment of fame had arrived as the NME review afterwards outlined it as a great gig despite a couple of slightly dodgy individuals pogoing away in front of the stage, I am so proud of that reference etched forever in black and white print!

My last attendance was on 08/02/91 to see the Membranes. I was living in various grotty rented rooms from 1989-1993 and didn’t attend many gigs in that period due to lack of funds. This state of play was exemplified by this being my first gig for 5 months. On the Friday afternoon of the gig I bought my first car from a friend of mine – a classy Beige Allegro!

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A not dissimilar looking motor, but not me driving! Image Credit flickr

Quick car tale – I recall once being on the motorway and encountering two other Allegro’s following each in the inside lane so I joined on the back to create a convoy of three Allegro’s for a few miles – hopefully providing a quirky sighting for motorists speeding past.

Prior to the Membranes gig, there was a works outing I joined up with in the Exchange pub at 5pm. Later that evening there was a split in the fellowship as a good portion heading off to another do at Grasshoppers Rugby Club. Myself, George and a couple of other lads via Pickwicks Tavern landed at the gig about 9.30, with admission fee of £2.50.

Support was an anarchist band called Archbishop Kebab, whose name was the best thing about them as their lead singer was pretty woeful. Between bands the DJ spun one of the Husker Du’s finest tunes, their bracing cover of Byrds ‘Eight Miles High. Big Al and Gordon from Action Records wandered in to the venue at this stage.

Membranes are a post punk band from Blackpool formed in 1977 fronted by John Robb and were at that stage a three-piece. They broke up shortly after this gig and reformed in 2009 and are still on the circuit.  They were very loud and decent and played to 12.15. They were maybe a tad too industrial for my tastes, but a good time was had in the moshpit.

We had been out for a fair spell so were all flagging so wended our way home. Woke up next morning, no hangover and buzzing, got outside, car wouldn’t start…………  

To complete the Allegro tale, it finally gave up the ghost about three years later and was towed unceremoniously to the scrap yard which happened to be about 200 yards from the location of the Caribbean Club!