Readers might recall an article I wrote earlier in the year about this new venue, which is in my hometown of Oldham (population around 250,000), part of Greater Manchester (population around three million).
Greater Manchester is the second most significant area of the UK economically, after London; think (on a smaller scale) Gothenburg to Stockholm; Bergen to Oslo; Aarhus to Copenhagen; Tampere to Helsinki. You get the idea.
It is widely recognised as the most musical city-region in the country as measured by such metrics as the greatest number of music venues per capita and the greatest number of chart hits per capita, including #1s. Its two arenas, Coop Live and the AO Arena, are the two largest in the country – NOT the O2 in London.
There is a student population alone of over 100,000, a sizeable number of them from the Nordic countries (they have their own societies).
As with so many projects in the UK the venue has been delayed, and it will now open in November 2025, replacing the ageing Queen Elizabeth Hall.
It has been allocated a name, The Loom, representing an historic device used to weave cloth and tapestry. Oldham was once by far the biggest town in the world spinning cotton, with over 500 huge, multi-storey mills.
I can think of better names, but that is by the by…
Once opened, the Loom will hold up to 1,000 people standing, around 700 seated and 500 people for sit-down banquets. The main hall will have sub-dividers, meaning the size of the room can be modified to accommodate different sized events.
That is copying an idea employed by the state-of-the-art Factory International/Aviva Studios in Manchester, which works very well. It means there could be a wedding reception taking place at the same time as a rock concert and neither party being aware of the other.
So it is not too big to be considered by bands that could not attract a crowd large enough to fill the entire room, and there will be many of those. 1000 is a lot.
It is located bang in the centre of the town, 100 metres from the Central tram stop, which can bring in event-goers from across the whole of Greater Manchester and beyond, and with a large number of inexpensive car parks and some free parking nearby.
That stands in sharp contrast to the centre of Manchester, six miles (9.5 km) away, where it is often impossible to find a parking spot (the last gig I attended there I had to park in a dodgy inner city suburb and engage in a 30-minute walk to and from the venue) and where many of them are not easily accessible by public transport either.
And of course that makes it easier for bands, unloading and loading.
The Loom will be literally surrounded by existing eating places, food halls and characterful pubs, even a state of the art market hall in the same building. Close by is The Lyceum, Oldham’s dedicated building for the Arts and Sciences and home to the Oldham Music Centre.
I’ve made it my business to try to get this new venue established as the go-to place in the north of England for Nordic artists and bands. Such places exist in London, but not to my knowledge anywhere else in the UK.
There will be a series of open days soon and I will try to get some images of the venue to post. I will also endeavour to speak to the management about the extent to which this objective of mine is likely to be realised (it will be used for many different events of course), technical details, costs and how it can be booked.
In the meantime, if the prospect of playing at this venue is attractive to you, and you are thinking about touring here at the back end of the year or in 2026 please let me know now. It will help to have some idea of potential demand.
Cheers
David
Photos:
Main image: Oldham by night
Mid section images:
(1): Tram network
(2): My ‘local’, the award winning Fox & Pine pub, just around the corner from the new venue.
