Tag: Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Bolton Venues 2 to 7

This week I am concluding the tale of my attendance at the muti-venue Right to Roam festival in Bolton town centre in July 2023. Outside of a side door of the Market Hall brings you to the outdoor Bolton Patio Stage containing its own bar area. Initially we saw Minatore, a stoner duo from Nottingham comprised only of drums and guitar but that did not stop them making a mighty din with their Black Sabbath riffs.

Next up was The Empty Page, a punky band from Manchester who have just released their second album ‘Imploding’ which was recorded at Eve Studios in Stockport. The final act was Dirty Blonde, a Manchester female duo whose grungy sound channelled early Blondie and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, I thoroughly enjoyed their set.  

The Bolton Main Stage was located on the Victoria Square outside the Town Hall, the square being one of the first parts of town to be pedestrianised and they hold an annual Buskers Ball there. It was an area suitable for a large capacity but unfortunately was sparsely attended especially just before A Certain Ratio’s headline set as we noted when walking past later heading back to the station. We caught the Katie West Band performing on the stage, Katie undertook her apprenticeship playing wash tub bass and piano in New Orlean’s French Quarter, then was in a duo called Truckstop Honeymoon before creating her current combo.

Right to Roam. dekyas.com

The intermittent monsoon conditions were a challenge all day, especially when sallying over to the outermost point of the festival, Bolton Northern Monk Brewery. On an outdoor pop-up stage an act called Helle were performing and in a coincidental nod to the brewery’s home in Leeds, the noisy four-piece punk band were also from the same Yorkshire city.

The weather was quite frankly awful by this point, and I had oodles of sympathy for the band on stage in those conditions as most punters were sheltering in or as near as possible to the covered brewery room.

The next venue was Bolton Octagon Theatre. The Octagon was opened in 1967 and the concept of the first flexible professional theatre in the UK was initially the brainchild of five students and their college lecturer Robin Pemberton-Billing.  This included facets of design, music, dance, film, repertory theatre, schools, education and daytime availability.

The Octagon Theatre. Image Credit uk.sports.yahoo.com

It was paid for by a combination of a large public fundraising appeal and a couple of council grants. Since it opened, around 3.5m people have passed through the doors and luminaries such as Danny Boyle and Maxine Peake learnt their trade there. 

We headed up to the small theatre room and the band on stage were called Percy who were formed in York in 1996. They still have two remaining founding members of Colin Howard and Andy Wiles and they also employed ex-Housemartin Hugh Whitaker on drums between 1997 and 2004. They provided some quirky intriguing post-punk and have just released their latest album ‘New Phase’.

Being a Northern lad and following strictly the Lancashire Hotpots advice, a chippy tea is a requisite requirement now and then and we satisfied that craving with a nosh fest at the award-winning Bolton Olympus Fish and Chips Restaurant. Whilst hoovering up my mushy peas, we were treated to a soothing set from the house pianist.

2023 Right to Roam bill. Image Credit righttoroambolton.com

The final venue on the roster was the rock pub Bolton Alma Inn situated on Bradshawgate which is over 170 years old. In 1979, the building was purchased by Burtonwood brewery who then bought out the fine arts shops next door to extend the pub. A large fireplace and range was discovered during this refurbishment which subsequently provided the site with Grade 2 listed status. They have live music on every weekend and Caliban and Raging Speedhorn have played there.

We caught up with the other chaps in attendance who were ensconced in the south facing beer garden where the stage was positioned. First up was local noiseniks Bandit followed by some self-styled ‘cosmic punk’ from Londoners Waco who have garnered support slots with Slaves, Anti-Flag and Juliette Lewis & The Licks.

The final and standout band was Riskee and the Ridicule, who are a vibrant inclusive grime punk band from Kent. They have been in existence since 2011 and recently released their fourth album ‘Platinum Statue’ and are finally receiving some overdue attention. There was a logistical challenge for us as we returned to the Alma from another venue just before their set and could not gain access as it was packed to the rafters. However, there was a novel alternative as we could watch them through a fence at the side of the venue, and thankfully the rains stayed away for the duration of their set.   

2022 Gigs – Part 2

I am continuing the tale this week of the 2022 gigs I attended at venues already covered in previous blogs.

Every year, there will always be gigs that I go to in one of the Academy sites and I am rapidly closing in on 100 gigs in total across their four venues, all since I attended my first ever, namely Wedding Present at Academy 2 in February 1988. Thirty-four years later In February 2022 I attended Manchester Academy 2 again to see Dry Cleaning with Graham Jones in tow.

They are a post-punk band with a distinctive lead vocal from Florence Shaw interspersed with spoken word lyrics and they later in the year released their second album ‘Stumpwork’ containing the catchy single ‘Gary Ashby’. That night I also finally managed to make a visit to the Old Abbey Taphouse, a community pub located in Hulme near to Manchester science park where they undertake sporadic gigs and I hope to return at some point to attend an event.    

Old Abbey Taphouse. Image Credit Manchester Evening News.

A month later I returned to Academy 2 to see Warmduscher, a post punk band from London for whom Mark Reilly from 6 Music is a keen advocate. I personally didn’t warm to their sound, but their twitchy energetic lead singer Craig Louis Higgins Jr (Clams Baker) was an interesting presence. It was also a landmark gig numerically as it transpired to be my 500th gig in Manchester.  My final visit there was in June to see Dave Wakeling’s Beat, one of the two splinter groups out there touring who emanated from the original Beat.

In September I headed to Manchester Academy 1 to finally witness Godspeed You! Black Emperor who formed in Montreal, Canada in 1994. They are a Canadian instrumental post-rock combo who provide sweeping soaring soundscapes and apart from the slightly dizzying visual screens behind them they were a terrific live proposition.

I was in tow with Uncle George and John Dewhurst, the latter previously saw Godspeed in Planet K in 2000 on the same night that George and I saw Trail of the Dead at the Roadhouse a couple of streets away, that was one noisy night in Manchester!

Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Image Credit Chicago Tribune.

On my birthday weekend in June, Gill and I went for a meal at a local restaurant on the Thursday before the following night heading to Manchester Ritz to watch Lovely Eggs. It was their biggest ever gig and they were as vibrant as ever. Holly was in a particularly combative mood, exemplified by her justifiably and scathingly condemning the security staff when they aborted her plans to undertake the final of a stage diving contest. Her wrath was only increased by the fact that prior approval had been sought and obtained but then ignored. They were supported by Thick Richard on the night.  

On the Saturday we stayed over in Preston after attending a family barbecue before travelling back over to Manchester on the Sunday prior to another gig at Manchester Apollo. We were off to see Yeah Yeah Yeahs but at one point in the early evening Gill bandied about the phrase that our attendance looked more like a ‘No No No’, however our gig stamina kicked in and we shuffled off to the venue.  

I had never previously seen them and was anticipating a good one and my preconceptions were met fully as they were superb and lead singer Karen O had a hypnotic presence on stage, English Teacher were the support band.  

I attended there again in November to see Sigur Ros and visited the Aspley Cottage pub next door for the first time in 14 years and the hostelry was refreshingly unchanged. I met up with Barry Jury and a couple of his pals and Sigur provided an epic 2-hour set.   

The final venue to reference is the ever-reliable Manchester Night and Day. In June we attended to see The Courettes with our friends Jo and Paul. The band are jointly from Denmark and Brazil and perhaps best fit under the Spector Wall of Sound genre. They were good fun and had a very keen tendency to keep shouting out the phrase ‘Come on Manchester’! They also bravely asked the audience to crouch on the knees for a sustained period during one song, which was a challenge for the majority of the audience, including me!   

My final appearance to Night and Day was somewhat accidental in that I was scheduled to attend the White Hotel in Salford for the first time, but the gig was cancelled. Not wanting to totally kibosh the evening I found an alternate gig involving an artist I would not normally pay to watch but I was so glad we did.

The night started with meeting Uncle George in Piccadilly Central bar (previously Monroes) near Piccadilly train station and some tea in Ning on Oldham Street. When we arrived at the venue, it was all seated at the front and we managed to grab a pew at the side of the stage.

The support was Peter Bruntwell and the main act was a sprightly 74 year old called Bill Kirchen who has been quantified as the ‘Titan of the Telecaster’ for his terrific guitar work and has collaborated over the years with Nick Lowe, Gene Vincent, Link Wray and Elvis Costello. With the latter he penned a remarkable tune called ‘There is a Man at the Bottom of the Well’ with Elvis’s laconic delivery and the line ‘is he looking down from heaven or staring up at hell’ which he played on the night.

Bill Kirchen on stage. Image Credit gigharbourmarina.com

His outro was remarkable as he played a medley of around thirty high quality, seamless short segments of artists including Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Nirvana and AC/DC. It resembled the best ‘Stars on 45’ you could ever wish to hear and something I have never seen in 38 years of watching gigs!