Bad tee shirts and beer bellies!

Wishbone Ash – The Met, Bury 1^st November 2019

Friday saw us make a trip to Bury, one of our favourite places in England. This small town (population 78000) is part of Greater Manchester and therefore considered insignificant when compared to its (in)famous neighbour.

 Bury is proud of it’s ‘famous’ market :

Market of the year 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015!

Voted Britain’s Favourite Market 2019

I love British markets. They epitomise British people and hark back to an age when the community pulled together, bought local produce and crafts and weren’t bombarded with glossy adverts.

Bury market brings in tourists by the busload, has a wide range of stalls and is great value for money.

Bury is the birthplace of much missed comedian Victoria Wood, Elbow’s Guy Garvey and England’s own Neville Brothers, Gary and Phil. There are many more famous sons and daughters of Bury, I have namechecked the ones who mean the most to me.

Lecture over! Our first stop was The Art Picture House. This Grade 2 listed building is part of the Wetherspoons chain and the best in my humble opinion. The three-storey building is the former Art Picture House, described by The Theatres Trust as ‘a fine example of an early 1920s cinema, exceptionally theatrical in its plan and decoration’. It was completed in 1923.

Fortified by a couple of pints my next stop was an eagerly awaited visit to Wax and Beans. This was my first visit and I wasn’t disappointed. Over to the owners;

A unique concept, where you can relax in comfort, enjoy a delicious coffee (and maybe even some cake), whilst listening to the tunes of your choice.

We have a huge range of used vinyl to choose from that we can play for everyone throughout the store.  Or, if you’d prefer, choose to sit with our turntable, which allows you to play your own choice of vinyl through headphones (you can even bring your own to play if you want).

All the secondhand vinyl you can choose to listen to is available to buy… where else do you get to enjoy before you buy. 

Not only that, we have lots of brand new vinyl, artwork and unusual momentos on offer.

I loved the place, really friendly and has a good selection of new and used vinyl. I didn’t try the coffee but walked away with five albums, a CD and a button badge!

Next stop was The Two Tubs, Bury’s oldest pub. Another favourite of ours. It’s quite a big place but I love the snug front bar. A good selection of Thwaites beers is on sale and ‘home cooked’ food.

We ate at an excellent Cambodian restaurant. For a small town, Bury has some good places to eat that are not chains (a pet hate!)

So, to the gig! I love the Met. A small theatre, (capacity about 250 seated or 400 if a standing gig), It has great acoustics and the bar serves quality beers at pub prices. You can take your drinks into the show which is an added bonus.

Sat in the bar preshow I was fascinated (and repelled) by the number of bad tee shirts and beer bellies on show. This is where the germ of the idea for this blog came about. When I eventually got my shit together and started taking photos of some of the specimens on show I had missed some of the worst offenders. Comrades, you would have been truly appalled at some of the ones I missed (a psychedelic orange number will give me nightmares for years to come!)

So how was Wishbone Ash?

This was their 50^th anniversary tour. The age demographic in the audience reflected this momentous anniversary (see the middle-aged moshpit below!!). I was six years old when they formed…….a sobering thought !

When I started senior school many years ago I was always fascinated by the albums under the arms of ancient sixth formers. One on regular display was Argus by Wishbone Ash. I was fascinated by the helmeted, spear carrying warrior on the cover and the sense of foreboding it conveyed. When I eventually heard the album I loved it! In the intervening years I have owned 3 or 4 vinyl copies, the CD and the (expanded) digital edition. Strangely, until recently, it is the only Wishbone Ash album I have owned.

This was the first time I have seen the Ash and I’m pleased to say they were great. Original member Andy Powell still leads the band. His flowing locks are no more but the trademark Flying V is still there

They did two sets, both an hour long. Highlights were The King will come, The Pilgrim and Jailbait. The air guitars were out in force for Blowin’ Free which was the encore.  Four tracks from Argus, the only regret is that they didn’t play the Warrior.

Real Guitars Have Wings

The King Will Come

Throw Down the Sword

Sometime World

We Stand As One

In Crisis

Way of the World  

Blind Eye

Deep Blues

Enigma

The Pilgrim

Tales of the Wise

Living Proof

Jail Bait

Blowin’ Free

Post gig we adjourned to the Robert Peel, Burys other (and biggest) Wetherspoons. It was full of young people in Halloween costumes (a day late guys) but £3 for a double Jim Beam and Coke made it all worth it (I needed to buy four rounds to check that they hadn’t undercharged me!!)

A grand day out! We are back in Bury to see the Hotclub of Cowtown in a couple of weeks. I have already down selected an Indian restaurant for us to eat at……………….can’t wait!