Albert Hall, Manchester — Attraction in Manchester

15th July 2024: Lauren Daigle

Overall: Genuine 5⭐️…..would be 6⭐️ if I could.

Staff: Brilliant, approachable & very helpful

Venue: It’s an old building with plenty of quirks & character - a fantastic place for music!

Bar: Good options, great staff, pricey…..but comparable with other venues.

Performance: Great warm up with Ben Hastings (Hillsong Utd) & Lauren Daigle was up there with the best concerts I’ve been to.

In detail…… Long queue but very well managed by the venue & staff. It rained, but it’s Manchester, so always have a coat/brolly 😆 We arrived at 18:30 & the queue was building. In by 19:20. Have seen other comments about 1hr+ queuing, but it’s the same at every venue…..you either arrive early to be at the front of the queue or arrive later & have a longer queue - make a choice & live with it.

Queue staff were nice & door staff really set the tone…..super cheerful & pleasant despite witnessing one get a mouthful from someone trying to skip the queue.

Mrs C took an adventure in the toilets (it’s a bit of a maze - clean & tidy…..which is most important.)

Got a 0% IPA from the bar - nice craft beer, not just a standard offer. Almost no queue, even though it was getting busy. Great service.

Went on to the mezzanine, which was about 50% full as we got there. Still good seating options. It’s an old (I guess) Methodist church hall or similar, so it’s plain wooden seating. It’s designed for practicality, not comfort, but was very bearable with my hoodie under me as a pad.

At capacity, it did start to get very warm. The fans went on to get air moving around 20:45 & stayed on throughout as far as I could tell (to be fair, I wasn’t there to watch the fans 🤪) Around the same time, the staff started coming round with bottles & jugs of water, freely handing them out to all. They were relentless & continued to run up & down with water for everyone well into Lauren Daigle’s set. Well done to the management for making the call & massive appreciation for the way in which the staff did it. Only downside was the odd crowd members who kept getting multiple cups/bottles for themselves instead of letting everyone have some first……but you can’t change human nature.

Warm up act was Ben Hastings & he was marvellous from the get go. Clearly connected with the crowd & got everyone behind some lovely worship songs.

Staging was the same for Ben & Lauren & was simple, even sparse, but in this kind of venue, I’m coming to see the artist, not the backdrop. Through both sets, you felt close to the stage & able to see all the little moments & emotions on the faces of the performers.

Lauren Daigle……..simply wonderful! Fabulous set for almost 2hrs straight through with a mix of big hitters, contemplative songs & genuine moments where you could see she was getting as much from the crowd response as we were getting from her incredible vocals & presence.

Wrapped up around 11:10 & there was a slow procession out of the building, but everyone upbeat & orderly. Last little nicety of the evening was the 3 staff at the door as we left…..all smiling, all lovely & all making the end of the night as pleasant as the first foot through the door.

Have joined the mailing list specifically to get a chance to come back & enjoy similar artists & shows in this...

Update July 22 - heard back from the venue who although polite asked us to go back to the ticket seller who obviously asked us to go back to the venue. No one wants to refund even though we were forced to miss the gig after song 2 due to the insane uncomfortable heat and poor health and safety. At this point, if you're ok with COVID or heatstroke, I'd say book gig tickets at this venue but if not, please heed my warning. I'm £200 worse off and would not recommend.

Update 12/06/22 - not heard ANYTHING back from the venue or ticket vendor. No accountability at all. Stayed over in Manchester for this gig so a total waste of money at an unsafe badly managed venue.

May 22nd 2022 - Very poor venue for us. The upper part got red hot, people were literally ill. No air con on and sweltering heat, windows boarded over with clear perspex it was scary level uncomfortable, no joke. Sat on wood steps, not great for backs either. £50+ down the drain. Toilets were three flights of stairs in different areas down in the basement and the way back up was confusing and spooky. Be warned - you'll see what I mean if you go, it's not fun sadly. I held open the door a little to let in a draft as there were younger girls passing out near me due to it being about 30° plus in the venue and got told off for opening the door of the stairs slightly to let in a draft due to health and safety of spreading fire. Fire was the least of our fears tonight. The venue was sold out and many people felt they were massively overcrowded. I had my back up against the door downstairs (you can see on the photos) as there were honestly that many people squeezed in. It was fully at capacity (too many) and was packed upstairs too with many trying to sit in the fire aisles (these are very thin at best anyway). Quite a few younger gig members were experiencing panic and overheating. Gutted as I was so looking forwards to this gig but i was overheating so bad myself too and left after the third song. Some staff were nice (Emma on reception downstairs wrote down our details kindly) some were terrible ('close the door/ draft I don't want to come back and have words with you, it's health and safety' girl on security)😭 I stayed over in Manchester for this, instead of Leeds gig, would NOT recommend this venue, it feels unsafe tbh. Will be getting in touch to flag up leaving due to the heat and people being...

Went here to watch a concert with my daughter who has special needs. I had contacted the venue months before our visit to enquire about special provisions for her. I had to provide documentation as proof but the process was smooth via email.

Once we arrived we had been instructed to go straight to the front of the queue where we would be taken to a special seating area. Again, this process was pretty smooth. One of the members of staff (security) went above and beyond to make sure my daughter felt comfortable. We were given special wristbands and that meant we had a runner who would go and get drinks etc so we didn't have to leave our seats.

The environment was OK. My only issue is they sat a pregnant lady and her husband on steps right next to us during the support act, and this blocked our route out as they took up all the stairs. It made no sense as there were plenty of seats these people could have sat in, however the security guard in our area seemed a little clueless and clearly wasn't clued up on health and safety. I can't score the place down though because other than that we were so well looked after and all the other staff were absolutely lovely. They went above and beyond for my daughter.

I paid £9+ for two drinks of coke. (To be expected). There were plenty of toilets inside (lots of stairs). You can even go out the back for a smoke if you feel the need.

The building itself is beautiful and reminded me of a church in many ways. We had an excellent view of the artist (Jessie Murph) and overall it was a lovely experience.

I highly rate the staff here and I can't wait to return for...