retiredmartin

September 2026. Manchester.

Apart from an essential haircut, I was also in Manchester to see Ninush, whose single “Neighbours” (not THAT one) is a modern classic.

A gig at a rare pre-emptive tick in Manchester’s studentland, too, which I head for on the V2 bus, taking in the Oxford Road pub sights.

Oxford Road is home to plenty of corporate gig venues and curry and brutalism,

but very light on great pubs.

The Student Union refurbished the Salutation to give Hulme a first GBG entry in decades, and now the folk behind top music venues have relaunched The Abbey.

Tucked between the Whitworth, Manchester University, the science park and Heineken brewery, it’s a really classy, multi-roomed place.

Pre-gig, everyone is in the garden on another typically tropical Mancunian night, quite a few going for the Blackjack cask (Stout VERY GOOD).

Any pub with the poster for “Perfect Days” and a soundtrack of Mount Kimbie and Nick Drake is a winner,

just a shame it’s in Greenheys not Thomas Street.

Matt, who’s the Abbey’s target audience with its Psych Fest connections, is ready with the snipey comments.

Yes, it’s the Black Country New Road crowd. Intelligent, attentive, adoring, obssessive.

Support from the brilliant “dogdanddog“, who could be the second coming of BCNR,

before Ninush shows what magic can be achieved with violin, cello and guitar in an extended outro on Neighbours. Great gig, great pub.