Lemn Sissay, Javelo, I'll Show Harry, Direct Works, Dutch Uncle, Escalater, Playing With Fire, The Big Lift, Vitamin Bible, Friends Of Dorothy, Junior Holder
Hulme Carnival ’87. Ah the wonderful Aaben cinema. For a long time the lifeblood of Manchester’s arthouse cinema, long before Cornerhouse was even thought about and was still a carpet warehouse with a loyal dirty mac brigade entrenched next door.
First recollection of going to The Aaben (meaning “open” in Scandinavian speak I think), was probably around Dec. 1978. I know it had been snowing and the buses were on a go-slow and/ or strike: Winter of Discontent, Moss Side firemen stood round those brazier things outside their station trying to keep the cold at bay.
I went to see a Dylan film “Renaldo and Clara”, 4 hours long and felt like ten. The only good thing I remember about it was some of the live footage and what a breath of fresh air and top bloke Mick Ronson was....made it almost bearable.
It was like stepping into a time warp, walking through the portals of that building. It had a sense of better days long since faded and passed, and in its heyday must have served the community well, along with the nearby Hippodrome.
Saw a lot of films there as it was in the ‘hood and was well worth supporting since it was for the most part run by volunteers.
The toppest of the top thing about the cinema, though, was that in the winter months, because it was voluntarily run, and therefore running on the smell of an oily rag, they would supply you with blankets for warmth as each cinema only had one of those portable calor gas heaters on wheels, up near the front, to take something of the chill from the air.
Then to cap it all off you could nip out for mugs of tea and slices of hot buttered toast to keep your core temperature at a vital level (try getting that in one of those plush multiplexes!).
If it hadn’t been for those people offering their services through the mid 70s to mid 80s, Manchester, culturally speaking, would have been a poorer place.
They used to have a deal going with The Grey Parrot across the way so you could nip in there after a flick and have a bevy and a chat over the spectacle you’d just witnessed; occasionally local bands played there too.
The only time I saw bands play at The Aaben was maybe round ’88 when a Mr. Robb put a night on. It was on the upper level, a place that had hitherto been off limits for the movie going punters, but it turned out to be a great space with decaying grandeur and those plush old red velvet curtains and drapes around the stage they used to have in cinemas and theatres back in Grandad's day. Shame it hadn’t been utilised more often.
The Aaben can be seen in an old Lindsay Anderson black and white film from the ‘60’s - The White Bus - with Arthur Lowe as the local Lord Mayor.
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