We were heading up to Manchester for a long weekend.
Primarily to see Morrissey in concert at the new Co Op Live Arena but also to take the opportunity of looking around Manchester.
Quick word on Morrissey
You may be reading this with a “Oh No, how can he like that depressive Morrissey?” and make reference to Hang the DJ and Girlfriend in a Coma. But…! As I happens, I don’t much care for those songs. Check out ‘Barbarism Begins at Home’ or ‘All You Need Is Me’ for more representative examples.
I’m a big believer in that we should like what we like, not what the herd likes.
I am a big fan of The Smiths and Morrissey. I like the humorous and dark lyrics, the Melodies, and it’s just me. This will be the sixth time in 25 years I’ve seen Morrissey live.
First in 1991 at the old Wembley Arena (Kill Uncle tour) then UEA, Ipswich Regent (Boxers tour), Kings Lynn (Ringleader of the Tormentors tour) and Plymouth.
The Kings Lynn gig was the best, both in terms of gig experience (packed venue, moshing, atmosphere) and the Tormentors album Italian theme, which remains my favourite today.
On walking out on stage at Kings Lynn, Morrissey announced… “Good evening gentlemen and rough women…”! 😂
Anyway, enough of defending what I like… did I get any good photos in Manchester?
Day 1
Kathryn suggested we take a trip to Salford Lads Club.
This venue has been on my bucket list as it is the site of a famous Smiths photograph.
We got a taxi there to find a queue of people waiting to get their photo in the same spot.
We went inside the club and mingled with loads of fans, had a wander around including a visit to The Smiths museum which is a small room full of memorabilia, mainly press cuttings and photos of celebrities visiting the club.
We left the club and walked back taking in the surroundings.
I had never been to Manchester and first impressions were of a vast and friendly city, and I really liked the old industrial buildings mingled with more modern architecture.
I was shooting with my Fuji compact camera.
Walking along the Canal
Early evening, we looked at various options for getting to the gig as it appeared about 45 minutes away on foot.
We saw a route that would take us along the canal so decided to head for that one.
It was really nice walking along the side of the canal, and clearly we weren’t the only ones taking this route. It was on this walk that I grabbed my favourite shot of the day.
We reached the Co Op Arena and made our way in.
This relatively new venue has a capacity of 23,500 and tonight’s show was a sell out.
Needless to say, the gig was fantastic and we were very impressed with the venue. Multiple floors, easy access, minimal queuing.
After the gig, we walked back along the canal. This wouldn’t be a walk you would do alone at night but with lots of other people going the same way, it was no problem at all.
Day 2
Next day, we visited Manchester Art Gallery which was really good.
I was particularly interested in this modern photographic version of an Adolphe Valette painting called Albert Square from 1910 which uses multiple images collated together to present a sense of a busy city.
We left the gallery and walked further into the centre and stopped for a coffee.
I placed the Fuji on the windowsill and set a slow exposure, although as it turned out just 1/8s was enough to blur and capture passing people.
This next shot (which I’ve called ‘Tramway’) was my best one and I really like it.
While we were enjoying our coffees and people watching, there was a bit of drama as suddenly about a dozen blokes (a few of which pulled down a Velcro strip on their jacket to reveal ‘Police’) ran across the road to the square to arrest someone and they were dragged back towards us and down a side street.
We finished our coffees and headed back to our hotel.
I had to grab a shot of the Manchester trams, and every time we see trams we always say we would love to see them in our home city as there once was back in early 1900’s.
On the way back, I grabbed a shot of this statue of the suffragette founder Emmeline Pankhurst.
We found somewhere to eat and then wandered back to our hotel – we would be leaving next morning.
Leaving Manchester
We checked out and were going to head back home via the Peak District.
We briefly stopped at the Old Trafford football ground as I’d never seen it. Kathryn suggested we take a look around but I wasn’t bothered so we moved on.
I thought the stadium looked smaller than I would’ve imagined although this was from the side and at distance in the car park.
Peak District
We stopped at Mam Tor and walked up to the trig point.
On the way up the path to Mam Tor, I grabbed a shot of the bendy road to Edale.
We left the Peaks with a reminder of just how lovely it is there and how fresh the air is.
Poppy Fields
As we sneaked back across the border into Norfolk, we stopped at some poppy fields near Kings Lynn and I grabbed some shots.
The sky was very flat, and with only a compact fixed lens camera, this was only ever going to be a snap.
And that was it, the end of our long weekend.
A really nice day or four away.
Onwards and upwards…