The closure of Manchester’s Night & Day cafe would be “devastating” for the area and kill its image as a music city, council heads have been warned, before a crucial court battle that threatens the future of the famous venue.
Many of the biggest names in British music have graced the Night & Day stage in its 31-year history, including Johnny Marr, the Charlatans, Arctic Monkeys and Ed Sheeran.
However, it could soon close its doors for good following a noise complaint made by a resident who moved into an apartment next door during the quiet COVID-19 lockdown period in 2020.
The cafe, which is credited for sparking the beginning of Manchester’s thriving northern quarter, this week faces a three-day court hearing to try to overturn a noise abatement order served by the city council last year.
If it loses, Night & Day has said it would have no choice but to close.
The prospect of losing such a treasured venue would be hugely embarrassing for a city that has traded for years on its proud musical legacy, from “Madchester” and the Hacienda to recent acts such as Blossoms and the Courteeners.
This month, it was the only British city to feature in Lonely Planet’s must-visit destinations for next year, with judges citing its musical heritage.
This weekend two of Greater Manchester’s music heavyweights urged the council to drop its legal action against Night & Day, while musicians said if it continued, the city should “take down the billboards, switch off the marketing, drop the pretense, and prepare to close up shop on music.”
The complaint was received following the bar’s first live show after lockdown in June last year, when a neighbour who moved in during the pandemic the previous year complained about the volume.
Manchester city council has been accused of failing to ensure that the apartments were properly soundproofed when it allowed them to be built in a converted millinery warehouse next door to Night & Day in April 2000 — a charge it strenuously denies.
Jennifer Smithson, the daughter of Night & Day founder Jan Oldenburg, who runs the club with her husband, said she was “terrified” about having to call last orders for the last time.
“If they prosecute us for being a nuisance, I don’t think we could come back from that,” she said. “I don’t know what they envisage, but any change to how we do things now would ultimately mean we’d close.”
Over a few hours under gray skies, dozens of combat planes and helicopters roar on and off the flight deck of the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier, in a demonstration of US military power in some of the world’s most hotly contested waters. MH-60 Seahawk helicopters and F/A-18 Hornet jets bearing pilot call signs such as “Fozzie Bear,” “Pig Sweat” and “Bongoo” emit deafening screams as they land in the drizzle on the Nimitz, which is leading a carrier strike group that entered the South China Sea two weeks ago. US Rear Admiral Christopher Sweeney, who is commanding the group, said the tour
RISING RISK: With no communication between nations flying jets closely over the South China Sea, one mistake by a pilot could quickly escalate a situation, an expert said The China Coast Guard (CCG) maintained near-daily patrols at key features across the disputed South China Sea last year, ramping up its presence as tensions over the waterway with Southeast Asian neighbors remain high, new tracking data shows. Patrols in the waters surrounding the Vanguard Bank off Vietnam, an area known for its oil and gas reserves and the site of repeated standoffs between Chinese and Vietnamese vessels, more than doubled to 310 days last year, the Washington-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative said. The number of days Chinese ships patrolled near Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗) in the Spratly Islands (Nansha
A court in Thailand sentenced a 27-year-old political activist to 28 years in prison on Thursday for posting messages on Facebook that it said defamed the country’s monarchy, while two young women charged with the same offense continued a hunger strike after being hospitalized. The court in the northern province of Chiang Rai found that Mongkhon Thirakot contravened the lese majeste law in 14 of 27 posts for which he was arrested in August last year. The law covers the king, queen and heirs, and any regent. The lese majeste law carries a prison term of three to 15 years per incident for
‘DISTURBING’: Nearly half of 16 to 21-year-olds assumed that girls either ‘expect’ or ‘enjoy’ sex which involves physical aggression, such as airway restriction One in 10 children have watched pornography by the time they are nine years old, according to “disturbing” new research by the children’s commissioner for England. The report found that one-quarter of pupils in their final year of primary school had already been exposed. It also showed much of the material being consumed by children and young people featured violence. Four out of five (79 percent) of those surveyed had seen pornography involving violence by the age of 18, while one in three young people have actively sought out depictions of sexual violence such as physical aggression, coercion and degradation. The report, by