Once a cotton spinning mill in Salford, now a product of gentrified Greater Manchester among a run down high street, it would be almost too easy for this gig venue, bar, art space and recording studio to attract the most pretentious 'scenester kids' that Manchester has to offer. Yet somehow the crowds are always friendly and welcoming and never without a healthy amount of grizzled music journalists in their midst, all just eager to hear the best gigs being performed in their city. Putting on acts from Beach House to Lightning Bolt to The Ex, music fans will find themselves walking the long walk from Manchester city centre back to this venue time and time again.

James Street, Salford, Manchester M3 5HW
www.islingtonmill.com/
+44(0)7947 649 896
Google map: bit.ly/a5E01m

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The Gallery provides a large collection of great permanent and special event art exhibitions which would interest all ages.

All sorts of works from all periods of art history, including paintings and sculptures. The building itself is architecturally very interesting with its new all-glass section connecting two parts of the main buildings. Other galleries in the area worth noting are the Whitworth (on Wilmslow road across the road from the hospitals) and the Lowry centre (in Salford Quays).

www.manchestergalleries.org
Mosley Street, not far from the Central Library and the Town Hall.

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I recommend the work of artist Liam Spencer. He is a local artist whose work showing impressionist views of modern Manchester has been exhibited in the Lowry and Manchester Art Gallery. While you would need to check local listings for his exhibitions - there have been Spencer shows once or twice a year in the last few years - there are a few places you can find his work - not all of them totally obvious.

Manchester Art Gallery on Mosley Street has a couple of his panoramic paintings in its permanent collection, and the Lowry in Salford also has some of his work. Spencer's work has been reproduced in some limited print formats and is available from Wendy Levy Contemporary Art in Didsbury. While there, it would be worth a meal at the The Lime Tree restaurant in nearby West Didsbury, which also has a panorama painting of Salford Quays but the most unlikely place you would see a Spencer work is the reception to the Accident and Emergency section of North Manchester General Hospital in Crumpsall, which has a huge panorama of the hospital itself, at a worryingly low height given the agitated states I've seen some of the clientele in. Let's hope your visit to Didsbury's bars and restaurants doesn't cause you to visit the final stop on my Liam Spencer tour!

www.liamspencer-art.co.uk Also: The Lime Tree Restaurant - 8 Lapwing Lane
Didsbury; Tel:0161 445 1217. Wendy Levy Fine Art - 17 Warburton Street, Didsbury, Manchester, M20 6WA; Telephone: 0161 446 4880; www.wendyjlevy-art.com/; North Manchester General Hospital: Delaunays Road, Manchester, M8 5RB; 0161 795 4567.

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It's a beautifully carved wooden memorial to the Manchester volunteers who went to Spain in 1936 and 1937 to fight the Fascists who had overthrown the democratically elected government there.

I love the beauty of the carvings and the poignancy of the meaning of the memorial.

The fact that so many ordinary folk from Manchester felt so strongly to travel hundreds of miles to another country in order to fight against Fascists and in doing so risking their own lives really makes me question my own life and whether I would have had the bravery to do the same.

Somehow I think not.

In the Manchester Town Hall, Albert Square.

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Breathtakingly brilliant photographer showcasing Manchester in its seldom noticed technicolour glory. When the rain falls hard in the humdrum town centre, his pictures remind you of how beautiful the city can be.

www.neilroland.co.uk

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Paintings by Norman Adams.

Mulbery Street
off Brazennose Street, M2

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Cinemas, galleries, bars, general arty hangout and good value meals, all under one roof. Great place to catch more interesting films, or just to have a quiet drink.

Oxford Road, right by the station.

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Keep your kids happy in the interactive gallery at Manchester Art Gallery. Buttons to press, things to do, clothes to dress up in. Take the portrait challenge: can you sit still while the woman in the picture twitches, smiles and burps?

Mosley Street; Tel: 0161 235 8888; www.manchestergalleries.org/

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