Long Live Bask
Over the years Stockport has seen some of the greatest names in music play in the town. I’m just too young to have seen the likes of The Beatles in Offerton, David Bowie in Heaton Chapel or The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix play in the town centre.
In those heady days of the swinging 60s Stockport was a hive of musical activity with all the above and many more top acts playing in and around the town.
And sadly as I reached my early teens and started to go to gigs almost every single music venue in the town had disappeared.
We did still have the Davenport Theatre, where as a kid I saw Showaddywaddy (I was a kid remember), and in later years I saw the likes of Tina Turner, Edwin Starr and Jimmy Ruffin there.
In truth The Davvy tended to cater more for the Panto crowd but did have some of the top comedy acts play there too, Freddie Star, Paul Calf (ask your dad) Jimmy Tarbuck and French & Saunders were just some of the sold out shows that they put on.
The Ritz Cinema did have a go at being a live venue as they put on Def Leppard, but I don’t remember any other gigs there.
Other venues were around the town, the likes of Smugglers had their Punk nights, and several pubs had regular gig nights but overall if we wanted to see a proper gig we had to go to Manchester.
As a seasoned gig goer I have always lamented the lack of a proper gig venue in Stockport and even The Plaza, the one true venue of note, didn’t really cater for us until Blossoms started to launch their albums there.
In June 2019 Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott played two sold out gigs and Blossoms played their as yet largest headlining gig over three unbelievable nights at Edgeley Park but it wasn’t until early in 2022 we were gifted a new venue, when Bask opened in Exchange Square next to Stockport Station.
Handy for those who wanted a bite to eat and/or a drink before getting their train, handy for Stockport County fans to meet up pre and post-game, but most importantly the new bar promised some decent gigs.
I was lucky enough to hold one of the earliest events at Bask when I launched my book ‘The Stockport County 100 Club’ there. The event sold out and a truly memorable evening of County nostalgia, with several ex and current players giving up their time to chat on stage, plus the current manager Dave Challinor bringing along the recently won ‘National League Trophy,’ made for a very successful night.
The first sold out gig in July 2022 saw Gomez frontman Ben Ottewell storm through a superb set, in front of a completely mesmerised audience. It was something else, I have to be honest and admit that I really didn’t expect to see someone of Ben’s stature playing in a bar in Stockport, but having set the bar high, my old friend Benji Taylor, one of the co-owners of Bask, used his quite considerable contact list to bring some extremely high flyers onto town over the coming months.
We had Courteeners frontman Liam Fray, several old school singers like Miles Hunt (The Wonder Stuff), Nigel Clark (Dodgy), James Walsh (Starsailor) and John Power (Cast). There were new and upcoming bands like Lottery Winners, Dirty Blonde and The Sherlocks.
Ben Ottewell came back, (and came back again), We had Reverend & the Makers, The Inspiral Carpets, The Lathums, The Zutons and The Lightning Seeds, there were some off the wall Comedy gigs with the likes of Justin Moorhouse and Scott Bennett, great ‘Spoken Word’ evenings with artists like Kevin P Gilday and JB Barrington, and superb DJ nights with the likes of the legend that is Graeme Park.
But then after Jamie Webster put on two tremendous gigs in August 2024, Bask was suddenly no more, Benji had left the company, the name and style of the bar changed. It soon became known as Fitzpatrick’s Irish American Sports Bar & Grill. It is still a great bar, still does good food and is still a pre and post-match gathering place for County fans but sadly no longer does it have those fantastic live music events that we were treated to for that unforgettable two years.
As they say we shouldn’t be sad because it’s over, we should be happy that it happened…
Long Live Bask
In July’s heat of twenty-twenty-two,
Ben Ottewell sang unplugged and true,
Gomez fans packed to the door,
He showed us all that Stockport could roar.
Without the trek to Manchester’s glow,
A speakeasy pulse began to grow,
Right here, in Exchange Square’s quiet hum,
Where proper live music had finally come.
Over two golden years, a fever-dream run,
Liam Frost channelling Courteeners fun,
John Power gave us Cast, brave and bold.
Sweat and strings and stories told,
James Walsh brought Starsailor songs to town,
Liverpool’s Zutons and Lightning Seeds came down,
Nigel Clark brought Dodgy’s crooked pain,
Ben Ottewell returned and returned again,
Reverend & The Makers lit the night,
Dirty Blonde’s edge, Sherlocks burning bright,
Inspiral Carpets, Lottery Winners’ cheer,
The Lathums carrying hope crystal-clear.
We stood shoulder to shoulder, pints in hand,
In that small room where magic took its stand,
Singing choruses till voices cracked and sore,
The small stage packed, as was the floor.
Beyond the bands, the laughter rolled as well,
Comedy nights that left us in a spell,
Justin Moorhouse, Scott Bennett’s quick-fire wit,
Mrs Boon’s Tea Parties on Sundays were really fit.
Then evenings turned electric, beats unfurled,
Superstar DJs lighting up our world,
Graeme Park spinning gold from decks of fire,
While poets claimed the mic with raw desire.
JB Barrington, David Scott - Argh Kid’s roar,
Lol the Poet, Tom Stocks, Keith’s Brother and more,
Kevin P Gilday’s fierce and fearless word,
Spoken-word fire that left the silence stirred.
From strum to stand-up, verse to vinyl spin,
A thousand moments stitched beneath the skin,
Bask gave us days and nights that felt alive,
Where Stockport’s soul refused to just survive.
Then August twenty-four, the curtain fell,
Jamie Webster’s sold-out nights, a defiant spell,
Fists raised, lungs raw, two rounds of fire,
To close the book on all we’d come to admire.
It ended swift, as vivid sparks often do,
But echoes cling within the walls, still true,
A bar reborn, its old name swiftly erased,
But Stockport’s beating heart will never fade.
We miss it so much, the sweat, the sound, the spark,
No Manchester needed; Bask lit up the dark,
Those nights we proved the town could hold its own,
With songs and laughs and words that felt like home.
Long live Bask, in memory’s stubborn keep,
We were there. We heard it. And we’ll always weep,
For the little venue that we won’t ever forget,
Where for two years the town never slept.