First Chop Brewing Arm

The four stars are definitely warranted for this place as a music venue. In fact I LOVE it. Despite us getting hopelessly lost getting here and thereby missing half the set of the band we wanted to see, it turned out to be well worth our merry ground. There is ample space to park behind the unit, which is bizarrely located in a derelict railway arch that resembles an unofficial homeless shelter. As it turned out we weren’t the only ones who were late due to the strange location. Many disgruntled friends had similar hide and seek adventures, only theirs cost them a few more quid in a taxi.
One thing you need to be aware of before you go is that it is NOT the Raddison Edwardian! Wear warm clothing, and perhaps not your best tuxedo/​evening dress, this place is basically a big dungeon with huge amps in one room and a makeshift bar in the other. The ceiling and walls near the bar area have something unGodly growing on them and the walls were very wet. Both of these I thought were cool features before realising that it wasn’t in fact an artistic decisive deco rational endeavour. Once you get past the dirty wet walls and the strange fungus growing on the ceiling it’s actually a fantastic music venue. The acoustics were incredible due to the large space and tunnel shaped interior of the main hall. The thing I loved about it was how different it was from other Manchester music venues. It had its own little charm, with tiny laser beam displays at the front as well as sniper like green/​red lights emanating from the back which made it look like all the audience members had targets marked on their backs.
All in all it was a very «cool» experience which kind of ended as soon as the gig. There was no hanging around and chatting in the hall. Everyone kind of wanted to get out of there, as an eery silence fell upon the empty music hall. I can envisage this being used in a future film project of mine for sure. It has magnificent production value for a horror/​thriller film sequence. With its given name, it kinda demands it no?

Situated in a railway arch off a busy main road on the edge of Salford & Manchester is one of my new favourite music and beer venues, First Chop Brewing Arm is Salford brewery First Chop’s place to put on gigs, oh and they might do a bit of beer making round here too.
A cosy little ramshackle place that doesn’t attempt to spruce up it’s surroundings or be something that it’s not, walking from Manchester city centre down Quay St, you’ll have to keep your wits about you to spot the venue, in the dark it’s easier as it’ll be the only railway arch with any dim illumination coming from it.
Once you’ve actually found the place, only a few bare pieces of outdoor furniture really let you know that you’re at a venue. I’ve been to a couple of gigs put on here now (courtesy of local promoters Hey! Manchester) and both have been outstanding; Jesca Hoop has the most wonderful voice, with tunes to make you laugh, cry and stomp around a bit, whilst The Wave Pictures defy words from someone as pathetic as me, just buy their albums and thank me later.
Anyway, these 2 artists sum up the venue quite nicely, as Mike Skinner once put it, cult classics, not best sellers. First Chop Brewing Arm is a functional rather than stylised-​industrial place to listen to good music and drink great beer.
It really is great beer too, and probably the cheapest place to get hop-​forward, experimental ales of this quality in the city centre (or just outside to be precise).
I absolutely love it when venues open, whether it’s a bar, café, gig venue or vintage shop, in somewhat incongruous places — a sign of a bustling city is people making space work for them, not having purpose built identi-​units. Just have a wander around London, New York or Berlin to see how great little businesses appropriate a little space, do their thing and make something special — this is exactly what First Chop Brewing Arm are doing, and I hope that others follow suit in the area.