Tag: The Smiths

Manchester Venue 138 – St James and Emmanuel Parish Church

In the centre of Didsbury Village, School Lane crosses over at the traffic lights onto Barlow Moor Road where you will pass the slightly battered establishment of the Nelson public house. This is currently one of the stops on the famous Didsbury Dozen beer route which has been in place for decades, the dozen being subject to subtle changes as one place opens, and another closes. The crawl has seen a recent upturn in more youthful groups undertaking a Saturday sally round, which has been viewed as a positive as it maintains a steady footfall for the hostelries, but also a negative due to an increase in drunken antics.    

On the other side of the street is Manchester St James and Emmanuel Parish Church which is in front of Didsbury Library. It is the second oldest church in Manchester, with some elements dating back to 1275 and the Grade II listed building was extensively refurbished in 1986 and is affiliated to four local schools. It also contains a bell tower with the six bells originally being cast in Gloucester in 1727.

St James and Emmanuel Church. Image Credit didsburycivicsociety.org

This building has previous pandemic connotations for myself as I had one of my vaccinations here and also undertook a couple of shifts as a Covid volunteer. I have also attended the café located within.

A small matter of a few weeks ago we were in that very area when we discovered the residents were currently in thrall to the Didsbury Pride event taking place that day. Immediately sensing a bonus gig, I navigated the security into an extremely busy area behind the church where there many stalls of varying merchandise and also a stage at the very back where the Didsbury Choir were undertaking a jaunty set. Afterwards by chance we saw Tris and Ross perched outside the nearby Head of Steam so grabbed the chance to have a cheeky cold one with them!

Continuing down the road takes you past a couple of cafes including the bohemian bar and book shop Art of Tea and then onto the traffic lights with Palatine Road. If you take a left turn, and on that stretch of the highway, you can see on the right the remnants of Fridays nightclub which opened originally under the name of Riverside in the 1970’s. It was a renowned venue in the 1980’s and 90’s and many punters who survived the aforementioned Dozen gravitated there after closing time.

Fridays Nightclub. Image Credit manchestereveningnews.co.uk

It was made up of three separate rooms and based on the testimonials it sounded abundantly ‘cheesy’ with the traditional sticky floors and on Thursday nights all drinks were 80p until midnight. It also apparently had a draconian dress code in place. It continued into the new century and in 2010 launched a Polish party night to welcome people in the Manchester area who derived originally from Eastern Europe. It finally closed in 2016 before morphing into Bar Rogue which at some unspecified stage subsequently closed for good.

Further down Barlow Moor Road you arrive upon the Grade II listed Woodstock Arms which has a large outdoor area primed for summer drinking. I recall watching Portugal lose to Uruguay there in the red hot summer World Cup of 2018. It is also one of the prime locations used on the popular TV series Cold Feet and they also utilised houses on the streets nearby.

If you head across the busy Princess Parkway you reach the Southern Cemetery, which is the largest municipal cemetery in the United Kingdom and second largest in Europe. Notable people buried there are John Rylands, Sir Matt Busby, L.S Lowry, Tony Wilson and Joy Division and New Order’s manager Rob Gretton.   

‘Cemetry Gates’. Image Credit blog.sevenpounds.com

The location was also the inspiration for local miserabilist Morrissey to warble the opening lines ‘A dreaded sunny day, so I meet you at the cemetery gates’ on the Smith’s track ‘Cemetry Gates’. The title track apparently being deliberately misspelt and is based on Morrissey’s walks there with his photographer friend Linder Sterling who he initially met at a Sex Pistols sound check in 1976. Linder was also the frontwoman of post-punk band Ludus and designed the cover for one of the Buzzcocks early singles.   

Stockport Gigs

When we moved into our current pad in 2018, we quickly realised we were located 100 yards over the Manchester border into Stockport. This sparked thoughts of my previous interactions with Stockport.  

My first two visits were to the football stadium at Edgeley Park to watch Preston away. In our promotion season in 1986/87 we had a Monday night match, but when Uncle George arrived to pick me up and drive to the game, his car would not start up again. I didn’t drive or own a vehicle at that stage, so the only other option was to borrow my parent’s car as they were away on holiday and George had insurance to drive any motor.

Those initial shenanigans resulted in us arriving very late and we could only access the home end before being escorted around the pitch to the PNE enclosure, but in those basic stadium days we were then perched on the side of a dusty mound with hugely limited views, though thankfully we won the game 3-1. I recall us heading for a beer in the Greenall Whitley land of Warrington on the way home.  

We returned about five years later for a Friday night match and were well beaten with the 6ft 7-inch striker Kevin Francis tormenting us, as a postscript I have just read that he has had an interesting post career change and now works for the Canadian police force. Final word on the football front is that I am delighted to see Stockport flying high at the moment as they have been through a very lean period for the last couple of decades.     

I used to occasionally travel over to my brothers in Nottingham via Stockport on the M63 (as it was then). My only other recollection was in the early 1990’s when Gill was based in Eccles we travelled over to the Garrick Theatre, which remains to this day, to see the Rochdale Cowboy Mike Harding. He was excellent entertainment with I seem to recall a running gag throughout the evening involving cheese and crackers.

Stockport Garrick Theatre. Image Credit theatresonline.com

Stockport lies 7 miles southeast of Manchester and dates back to 1170 and the River Tame and River Goyt meet here to form the River Mersey and we can walk into the centre from our current home in about 45 minutes down the river. It has a considerable industrial heritage with industries covering products such as hemp, rope, cotton, silk and hats, the latter producing more than 6 million hats at its peak in the late 19th century.

Dominating the skyline over the M60 is the terrific Stockport viaduct with its 27 brick arches and uniquely Stockport train station is one of a very rare number in Britain to have a Platform 0. The reason for the quirky numbering is that there was only room for a new Platform on the Platform 1 side of the station. The Plaza is a Grade II listed cinema and variety theatre and is the last of its kind operating in original format. They have odd gigs there and last year Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott undertook a post Covid concert specifically for NHS staff.

Stockport Viaduct. Image Credit flickr.com

Stockport has suffered as a poor cousin to Manchester, but they are in the midst of a regeneration with many independent outlets opening up around Underbank and the 700-year-old marketplace. I do hope though that they retain the heritage and do not build a plethora of tower blocks as they have to excess in Manchester. They do also have a horror one way system and a ‘Wayward Pines’ car park with an overflow that on one occasion thought we would never be able to leave!

On the musical front, there is the remarkable fact the Jimi Hendrix Experience played not once but twice in Stockport in 1967, the first at the Sinking ship and a month later at the Tabernacle. The famous Strawberry Studios were located there, and it existed from 1968 to 1993 and was utilised by 10cc, The Smiths, Stone Roses, Paul McCartney and Joy Division. The upcoming band the Blossoms are from the town and other famous residents include the Crown actress Claire Foy and tennis legend Fred Perry.  

Jimi Hendrix Stockport flyer. Image Credit sevenmilesoutrecords.co.uk