I was reading though my last article (well somebody has to!!) and realised that I actually missed the whole target of my annoyance. The newest addition to Exchange Square is a subtle contraption; a 65 metre tall Ferris Wheel the construction of which has blocked off most of the square and there are wires and hoses lying around the square.

It was originally due to be in Liverpool, but somebody broke into the design office and changed the original artist conception drawings to show a two hundred foot brick in place of the wheel.

Apparently, or so I am told, back in the good ol' days, when men were men, women were women and other things that are something now were other things that were probably a bit better then their modern equivalent, live music in the Rainy City thrived. The number of coffee shops and places where a little stage was set up in a corner for singer/songwriters to play their folk songs to a respectful audience numbered into the hundreds. Where are they now?

True there are a growing number of open mic slots on, but still barely a couple of dozen as far as I can remember and few of these are advertised regularly. A bizarre occurrence that we have spotted, though, is that every new open mic night seems to occur on Tuesdays. Aside from the Star and Garter, I can think of no open micy type nights at the weekends, 'cause pubs want to pack them in and play inoffensive music at people.

I suppose this is fair enough, most people in the city and its environs want to go out at the weekend and get drunk, have a good time and sleep with strange and interesting people, rather than listen to a tortured artist plying his trade.

There are a few nights on Mondays, one or two open mics on Thursday and, as far as I know, nothing on Wednesday and Friday has bugger all. So why is everything on a Tuesday? Most of us play at venues we feel comfortable with so are hardly likely to keep trying out new joints every Tuesday, especially if they want to build up an audience.

I was overhearing people on the bus last night and they were talking about a night out previously where they had seen a guy lying on the street in the heart of studentland, outside a kebabanists. The various comments that they heard included:
'Drunk again.'
'No wonder he's drunk, he's dead think, can't take his beer.'
'Look he's dead, ha ha ha.'

On their way back from the pub they saw the police cordoning off aforementioned kebabanists as a crime scene.

Reminds me of a Bob Dylan song, Man on The Street.

Well, the crowd, they gathered one fine morn,

At the man whose clothes 'n' shoes were torn.

There on the sidewalk he did lay,

They stopped 'n' stared 'n' walked their way.

I think I've rambled far enough on nothing in particular. So I'll leave you with some plugs. BTW, if you want Manchester gigs plugged, or reviewed, drop me a message on my Personal Space.

• Frank is Dead – 22^nd October at The Green Rooms
• Midland Railway – 25^th October at Night and Day

Till next time

Love, peace and blues

tjm

Mancunian Blues Archive

The_Jon_M

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