Music: Kamikaze Quintet, Matt & Phreds, Tib Street, Northern Quarter, 9.30pm – 1am
Jazz is a marmite of a musical genre. Many people would rather eat a brick baguette than listen to jazz, others go buck wild at the very hint of a skipping sax solo biba dadad bi ba dada ya dada ya bi bop bada bi da.
For those of the latter tilt, Matt & Phreds is a relative mecca, a long established NQ music venue specialising in live jazz music and evoking a gruff bohemian smoky Anchorman jazz club vibe… without the smoke.
The Kamikaze Quintet are a lively Manchester group playing popular jazz standards from the likes of Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, Freddy Hubbard and Wes Montgomery as well as original material with a jazz infused afrobeat flavour. Now keep that symbol splashy and let’s take that bass line for a walk.
£5. Weekends sell out quickly. Call 0161 839 7187 to book.
Jazzy
Exhibition: Design Manchester’s 10 x 10, Bench Self Made Gallery, Until Wednesday 28 August
This collaborative exhibition in the all-things-creative basement space beneath NQ’s Bench store on Church Street has been launched to get the ball rolling for Design Manchester’s first annual festival.
Taking place over two days in October, the festival has been set-up to showcase the best of Manchester’s creative community and homegrown talent. The exhibition is themed around the notion of ‘longevity’ and will bring together ten collaborative works produced by local artists and designers including Music’s Mike Ash and Jon Bland, graphic designer Dave Sedgwick, Lazerian’s (fancy interiors) Liam Hopkins and even a performance poet, John Cooper Clarke, who looks like Alice Cooper and once said ‘give him scars and khaki to wear/remove his balls, he’ll go anywhere’. Tight on Ray Mears that.
FREE. Find out more on Twitter or Facebook.
10x10
Cars: Classic, Vintage and Sports Car Show, Tatton Park, Saturday 17 – Sunday 18 August, 9am – 4pm
Since Flemish missionary and quite-handy-with-a-spanner experimentalist Ferdinand Verbiest first put together a steam-powered toy car for the Chinese Emperor in 1672 we’ve always had a bit of a fascination with the car. From Henry Ford’s Tin Lizzie to the design of the 2WW workhorse Jeep to middle-aged men just falling short of penetrating the exhaust of the new Lamberrariorsche XZ45t50, the history of the car is a tale of human innovation, collaboration and perseverance.
This weekend at Tatton Park will see around 2000 examples of some of the worlds most celebrated vintage and sports cars with up to 70 car club displays. There are also special events for Rolls Royce Enthusiasts, a giant auto jumble sale and rides to shut the kids up. Stick them on the waltzer and go digging.
£7.50 Adult, £5 10-15 years, Under 10 years FREE. Info here.
Classics
Family: Spinningfields Family Film Club, Tangled, Saturday 17 August, 11am
Spinningfields has teamed up with Disney On Ice to present Dare to Dream, a free family event combining screenings of Disney films with all those other things kids love: face painting, balloon modelling, hair braiding, smelly crisps, making noise, ruining trousers, anything round, getting wet and pitting insects against each other in matchbox death matches. But mainly the first three.
Launching this Saturday with 2010's Tangled, the story of a smouldering thief caught up with a newly freed Rapunzel, Dare to Dream will also be showing Cinderella on Saturday 24 August and The Princess and the Frog on Saturday 31 August at Screenfields in Spinningfields.
FREE and unticketed. Just turn up. More info here.
Club: Greg Wilson @ 2022NQ, Dale Street, Northern Quarter, Saturday 17 August, 10pm – 3.30am
DJing for the best part of 40 years, Greg was the first DJ to mix live on British TV in 1983, a weekly regular at the Hacienda and the guy that taught Norman Cook aka Fat Boy Slim, then an aspiring young DJ called Quentin (err), how to scratch.
Widely considered as one of the most influential figures on the UK dance scene, Greg has put together much lauded sets at Electric Chair, Horse Meat Disco, Fabric, Back To Basics, Asylum, Melting Pot, Sub Club, Ministry of Sound and played out the last New Year’s Eve at 2022NQ to such a raucous climax that they thought they better get him back. Expect Disco, Electro and Funk… Or Distrofunk. Made that up, but it’d definitely sounds better than dubstep. Whose crap idea was that?
£10. Last few tickets remaining. Buy here.
Which one of these is the on button?
Sport: The Premier League is back, Begins Saturday 17 August
So the Premier League returns. Yes, we’ve had a fantastic British summer of sporting success, our Ashes demolition of the old enemy, Andy Murray ending a 77 year wait, Chris Froome’s triumph in the Tour de France, The British Lions mighty roar down under, Justin Rose becoming US Golf Open Champion, factor in our athletic prowess and last year’s London Olympics and you may very well ask, who needs football?
Well, tens of millions of us. Yes the likes of Murray and Froome may make figures such as Rooney and Suarez look like whiny cash-spunking fuckwits, but the beautiful game doesn’t belong to them, it belongs to us, and this is the greatest footballing city in the world. So rejoice, for the Premier League is back, and we've got two new managers to hound:
Saturday 17 August: Swansea vs Man United 5.30pm (Sky Sports)
Monday 19 August: Man City vs Newcastle 8pm (Sky Sports)
Most importantly, Grimsby take on Welling at 3pm Saturday in the Conference. Up the Mariners.
Best of pals
Food: Pride Fringe: The Great Village Bake Off, The Molly House, Richmond Street, Sunday 18 August, 1pm
Fancy yourself as a bit of a Hollywood? Reckon Nigella’s buns have got nothing on yours (and that girls got fair buns)? Then sign up and get baked. Cooking baked, not Snoop Dog baked.
The Great British Bake Off winner John Whaite and Coronation Street’s Jennie McAlpine will join Manchester Pride Patron Claire Mooney on the judging panel of the Village Bakers' first annual Great Village Bake Off at The Molly House on Richmond Street this Sunday 18 August, whilst raising money for the Manchester Pride Community Fund. Competition categories include: Campest cupcake, tartiest tart and firmest buns. The best chocolate doughnut category has been scrapped this year, brought in the wrong crowd.
£5 to enter. £10 for clubs. Tickets here.
Nice buns
Theatre: National Youth Theatre: West Side Story, Victoria Warehouse, Wednesday 21 – Saturday 24 August, 7.30pm (also 2.30pm Friday and Saturday)
Arguably one of the most significant and best-loved musicals ever created, West Side Story transports Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet back to 1950s New York City, as two young idealistic lovers find themselves caught between warring street gangs, the Jets and the Sharks.
Set in Warehouse Project’s new home of Victoria Warehouse, Nikolai Foster directs a cast of 40 performers supported by an orchestra of 35 youngsters drawn from all over the UK.
£20 + booking fee. Tickets are available here.
Lookin' at me punk?
Film: Poutfest Film Season, Cornerhouse, Until Thursday 22 August
Coinciding with the Pride Fringe festival, Poutfest brings you the best in new queer cinema with a selection of LGBT titles. This specially selected line-up from Peccadillo Pictures includes Vito, A documentary exploring the life of gay rights activist Vito Russo on Monday, She Monkeys, an intense and complex debut from Swede Lisa Aschan on Tuesday and Cannes festival hit The Invisibles on Thursday. If you don't fancy a film there's always the Pink Gay Dog Show in Sackville Gardens on Sunday 18 August. I don't think the dogs are gay. Could be.
Art: The Smiths in Posters, Barcelona NQ Café Bar, Until Saturday 31 August
Supplied by Catalonian Marc Capella, in conjunction with the Manchester Photographic Gallery, the collection comprises of 38 original promotional posters from all the band’s albums and singles. Initially displayed in Catalonia, this is the first time a full collection of Smiths’ posters has been shown in their entirety.
On top of their outstanding musical contribution The Smiths had one of the most impressive collections of record artwork ever. Designed by Morrissey himself, the sleeves featured a host of well-known faces - ranging from film stars such as James Dean and Alain Delon to local lasses Pat Phoenix and Viv Nicholson. The posters are in effect an integral part of The Smiths' legacy.
FREE. Read our whole preview here.
The Smiths
