Manchester thoughts. Music thoughts. And a bit of social media commentary.

Well, we successfully and efficiently got ourselves into Manchester early yesterday evening for the Madeline Peyroux concert at the Bridgewater Hall. My Italian conversation class on zoom finished at 5.30. By 5.55 we were catching a bus at the crossroads to go to the tram-stop in Oldham and so on to Manchester. A masterpiece of timing!

We got off the tram at the Deansgate-Castlefield stop as the Bridgewater Hall is at that end of town. I like the Bridgewater Hall, a quietly elegant building, erected to replace the Free Trade Hall as the home of the Halle Orchestra and concert venue for all sorts of music. Apparently there were plans to replace the Free Trade Hall after it was damaged during the Second World War but in the end the hall was repaired and it was not replaced until the 1990s. The Bridgewater Hall was one of a number of structures built in the 1990s that symbolised the transition to a new and modern Manchester following de-industrialisation and the 1996 bombing.  They must have worked fast because the bombing took place in June 1996 and the Bridgewater Hall held its first concert on 11 September 1996 and was officially opened by the queen on 4 December. 

So there it is, a very pleasing modern building, unlike the cluster of skyscrapers that has sprung up close to the Deansgate-Castle stop since I was last there. I had read about them but not seen them until last night. They don’t add much beauty or elegance to the skyline in my opinion. And then there is this strange building which has popped up close to the former Central Station, converted long since into an exhibition centre known for a while as GMex but now apparently called Manchester Central. It should be safe from demolition as it is now a listed building. 

We arrived at the Bridgewater Hall in time to see the support act, something which I feel we should do if possible. How else will new performers become known to a wider public? It must be dispiriting to have got excited about playing a venue like the Bridgewater Hall only to find that most of the audience has ignored your part of the evening. The smoke machine was going full-pelt on the stage. I was reminded of an occasion many years ago when we saw Suzanne Vega have to leave the stage with an asthma attack as a result of an over-zealous use of the smoke machine. On this occasion it was pumping away because the support act was called Smoke Fairies, two young women who played guitar tunefully and sang well. Unfortunately their sound engineers had not ensured that we could hear the words of their songs clearly so it was a little difficult to judge them properly. 

Madeleine Peyroux and her excellent band sang a mix of songs from her Careless Love album and some other stuff, old and new. Her sound engineers worked fine. A good time was had by all - our first time properly playing out since lockdown. We must do so more often. We arrived back in Oldham in time to have missed the last bus to Delph by about 15 or 20 minutes. Fortunately we can afford the occasional taxi, especially as we get free bus and tram travel. So it goes. 

And today the sun is shining again. And the world, or the UK anyway, continues its craziness. Here are a couple of comments I culled from social media:

“Russ Jones - TheWeekInTory

We begin with our new leader, Margarine Thatcher, who in only three weeks has become PM, finished off The Queen, taken two weeks away from work, ruined our relations with the US, crashed the economy, and started a backbench rebellion to remove her from office.”

“Ali Brady

Traders are referring to Truss as “Daggers” - as in Dagenham, 2 stops past Barking …”

It must be hard living in the public eye and open to all the sarcasm but hey! if they remove her she’ll get a nice fat PM pension! 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!