New Century — Local services in Manchester

Visited for the first time yesterday, and as a disabled person I feel very frustrated. The accesible seating is a small platform set up at the back of the room and a cornered off few rows of chairs on the floor below it. However, the floor seats had been taken by people attending the event who didn't want to stand, and there was only 1 empty seat on the platform meaning that I wouldn't be able to sit with my carer/companion. We asked if we could have 1 extra chair to put on the platform but this wasn't possible for health/safety reasons. The staff were very friendly and did try to help as much as possible, which was appreciated, and they did ask people to move from the seats if they hadn't purchased accessible tickets. (Considering we were given blue wristbands on arrival to show we needed access accommodations, shouldn't this have been checked at the platform to make sure everyone who needed one got their seat?) When we finally got a seat on the floor chairs, we had no view of the stage at all 🙃🙃 The further response from the venue was to "arrive early in order to get a platformed seat" which is unfortunately rather abelist, and seems to defeat the point of not having enough platform and seating for those who...

Went to watch a John Grant gig. Left my jacket at the cloakroom for £2 or £3. There was a very reasonably priced house lager, but other drinks were not cheap. As well as the main bar, there were smaller stands at either side of the hall which seemed a great way to avoid too many people all squeezed into a small area and reduce the amount of pushing through the crowd. There were jugs of iced water on the ends of the bars. All drinks came in plastic glasses. The venue seemed quite clean and in good repair. There were two sets of stairs to get up to the hall, and I am sure there must've been a lift for those who need it. The hall had good stage lighting and acoustics. We walked from Ancoats Travelodge, which is a straight walk along the same stretch of road so an easy to follow route, but check that you are happy with the distance. I would guess it took us 15mins at a good pace. There are bars...

Went to see kokoroco last night, the vibe was great, they looked great on stage, but the sound quality was terrible. Moved all around the room and there wasn't a spot where I thought yeah this is it. Solos and individual moments came through ok but really I don't think the overall mix was good atall, not sure if this was down to the bands engineers, the fact the ceiling is so high, all the hard surfaces so they need the master to be turned down. When all band members were playing and singing you couldn't here a single beat of the percussion and I thought the bass and drum mix was way too heavy on the bass. It felt as if I was watching them 500m back at an outdoor festival rather then in a purpose built indoor venue. Saw them at gorilla few years back and it was a much...