CityLife

New lease of life for Sound Control

NEW BEGINNINGS: Ben Taylor

THE brothers Taylor have been taste-makers on the Manchester music scene for years with Night & Day, The Roadhouse and the Ruby Lounge all benefiting from Ben and Jay’s expertise.

Soon you will be able to add to that list Sound Control. As while older sibling Jay has been working his magic over in the Northern Quarter as manager of hip rock’n’roll nightspot Ruby Lounge, Ben has been squirreling away putting his PR campaign into place for a brand new establishment on the other side of the city.

With the Northern Quarter already choc-a-bloc with live music venues, the so-called Southern Quarter based around the city end of Oxford Road has been steadily prospering too, thanks to the addition of Odder and The Deaf Institute.

Now Sound Control is aiming to join the success story.

Musos will no doubt recall the three-storey building on New Wakefield Street used to be a instrument shop, which in a previous life carried the moniker A1 Music, sold Oasis their first guitars and carried the advert, which future Stone Roses’ drummer Reni answered.

Milk warehouse

Originally a milk warehouse, the owners have wisely decided to keep the current name along with existing interior features, in what, when they open this autumn, they hope will ultimately become Manchester’s most impressive one stop live music venue, basement club and ground floor feeder bar.

Boasting a capacity of 800 split over its three floors, promotions manager and owner of TJ Events had this to say on what revellers can expect: “We won't be pigeon holing any genre; we also hope to give the punter enough under one roof, room to room, genre to genre. We will play host to touring shows, club nights, after shows, unsigned nights and the like.”

Owner and entrepreneur Andrew O’Dwyer (of Space café bar and Sub Space club), adds: “I am really pleased to re-open such a landmark building to the public and introduce Sound Control Manchester to the live music scene.

“I fully intend to keep the building in a raw industrial state so that it does not lose too much of its wonderful character, Sound Control will pay homage to our legendary musical achievements whilst opening up new opportunities to young up and coming bands looking to make their mark within the industry.”

Anyone hoping to play Sound Control should log on to www.soundcontrolmanchester.co.uk for more information.