Tag: Tobi Sunmola

Manchester Venue 82 – The Castle Hotel

The Manchester Castle Hotel located at the top end of Oldham Street was built in the late 18th century and began trading as a public house in 1816 and it is estimated the grand olde world interior complete with Victorian tiles and mosaic floor dates as far back as 1897. It has had many previous monikers including The Crown and Sceptre, The Crown and Anchor and The Clock Face.

Manchester Castle Hotel. Image Credit Flickr.

There has always been a musical ethos within the pub incorporating the involvement of John McBeith who went on to launch the Roadhouse venue, fondly remembered by me as being the first venue I ever saw Mogwai. The Castle was also the site of a famous John Peel interview with Ian Curtis in 1979 and Fall’s Mark E Smith also chose the pub as a meeting point for some of his abrasive monologue interviews.

The pub fell on tough times and closed in 2008, before subsequently being refurbished and reopened with a linkage to its sister pub Gulliver’s across the road and has gone from strength to strength since that date.

Despite being a fairly small hostelry, they have incorporated an eighty-capacity venue off the corridor to the rear of the pub. Facing the small door entrance is the mixing desk and the stage is to the right, and I must say it is one of the most cramped areas I have encountered when a gig is sold out!

I have attended eleven gigs in total with only the first one being where I have paid a singular ticket to see the band, the others being part of other multi wrist band events such as Carefully Planned and Dot to Dot Festivals.

Thus, on 23/10/11 I saw Veronica Falls who were a four-piece formed in London in 2009. They formed from previous bands The Royal We and Sexy Kids and are still active though sadly their drummer Patrick Doyle died in 2018. They first came to my attention via their excellent debut single ‘Love in a Graveyard’ which was a combination of C86 meets the Raveonettes, and they were good fun in a live setting.   

Veronica Falls. Image Credit Clash

Three years later, Space Blood were in town, a two piece slightly jokey instrumental combo from Chicago and I would place them in the math rock vein, and they have a couple of albums on the books. The following year I witnessed bands called Face, Georgio Tuna  and The Stay Aways, an all-female four piece based in Brighton and London. 

In 2017 I saw a young rapper called Tobi Sunmola from Nigeria, who moved from the country of his birth at the age of 17 and is now living in Manchester. The following year I saw Grand Prix and Thyla, the latter being a four-piece dream pop band who all met while attending university in Brighton. When one of their original guitarists departed in 2021, they decided to call it quits and their final ever gig was at the Hope and Ruin in Brighton on 25/05/22.

In May 2019 I saw another four-piece band called SUN SILVA who initially got together whilst at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Six months later I witnessed Winnie and the Rockettes, a funk and soul band who have supported Chaka Khan and Martha Reeves and the Vandellas and have also headlined the famous Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club. My latest and only post-Covid visit thus far was in April 22 to see a Manchester band called Another Country $$$$.

Manchester Venues 54 to 56

Returning to the cosy environs of Salford’s Sounds from the Other City (SFTOC) festival this week, I am continuing to traverse down towards Salford Central train station. Behind the excellent New Oxford pub, lies the St Phillips Chapel Street Church.

The church is nigh on 200 years old and is a Grade 2 listed building and its architectural style is apparently Greek Revival. In addition to their Sunday services, they also have concerts, recitals, and community activities.

I have seen four gigs there; however, my first attendance was an individual visit on 10/12/10 outside of the SFTOC roster. It was the first time I had visited that area and Uncle George and I had a sally around a couple of local pubs before venturing to the venue. As it was my first Church gig, I was fascinated to see how it would pan out.

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St Phillips Church with Bexley Square in the foreground. Image Credit Pinterest

It was a surprisingly relaxed atmosphere however understandably toilet facilities were very limited. To my astonishment they served alcoholic beverages including a keg of real ale. We grabbed a drink as it would be rude not to and caught the support band Frankie Rose and the Outs who are a lo-fi indie group. Their driving force Frankie Rose is an ex-member of Crystal Stilts, Vivian Girls and Dum Dum Girls and the Outs consisted of a further three female members and their sound had a Spacemen 3 dream pop vibe.

Overcoming my ingrained Catholic guilt (it should be considered a medical condition!) from my youth regarding suitable activities in religious buildings, we took a pint of the finest ale to sit in the pews upstairs. We begin to watch a psychedelic rock outfit which was an odd experience in the surroundings we found ourselves in.

The band in question was Wooden Shjips, which has also resulted in a spin off band called Moon Duo. They hail from San Francisco and their sound consisted of long epic guitar wig outs. I have always found this genre of music in equal parts intoxicating but unsettling due to its repetitive psychedelic swirl!

My other three attendances were under the auspices of SFTOC. The first in 2012 was Withering Hand playing under the stage name Dan Willson. He is an Edinburgh based musician and previously played guitar for a group in Bishops Stortford called Tinfoil Circus amongst other bands and he has also supported Frightened Rabbit and King Creosote.

In 2017 I saw Ola and the following year the nattily titled Have you ever seen the Jane Fonda Aerobic VHS? They were a Finnish garage pop rock group with sweet melodies, a very odd combo but also good fun I seem to recall. 

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Have you ever seen the Jane Fonda Aerobic VHS? Image Credit discogs.com

Nearby the Church is one of the festival’s central hubs on Bexley Square. Located there was the Bexley Square Live Tent and in there in 2017 I saw Tobi Sunmola. Tobi was a young rapper who hails from Nigeria but is now based in Manchester and appears to be receiving some attention with airplay on national radio. The following year I witnessed Kxngs, an electronic loungecore act from London.

Next door to there in 2017 was the Bexley Square Bar Tent where alongside obtaining refreshments I saw Liohness, a drum and bass act who reside in Bristol.