Be it the food and drink, leisure and shopping facilities old and new, bands like Blossom putting the town back on the map, or its growing nightlife scene, the regeneration of Stockport over the last few years has been wonderful to watch — and amongst it all, one place is shining bright: Bask.
Having only just celebrated its first anniversary after opening back in June of 2022, located right outside the train station, Bask is a bar, cafe, music venue and many more things all rolled into one and in the 12 months it’s been open, it’s arguably become the one of it not the best night out in Stockport.
At least for our money, anyway.
So, what makes this spot where people step out of the station to enjoy a coffee, a pint or something to eat so special? Well, it’s partly because of the fact that it never stays simply that place to grab a quick little something for very long — be there long enough and something is always happening.
If you do happen to find yourself stepping out of the station and making the two-yard trip from the doors onto the ever-developing Stockport Exchange, you’ll see Bask’s instantly recognisable orange sign outside a modern glass-panelled unit which used to be a coffee shop with about three people in it.
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Cut to today and you’ll find a large and lovely room lined with bar stool window seats, big speakers, two screens showing sport; plenty of tables as well as comfy booths and wooden benches sturdy enough to support your weight when you clamber on top of them hours later (we’ll get to that).
But before you get to that, you have plenty to choose from when it comes to food and drink in the daytime. Whether it’s a big breakfast to start the day, a steaming hot pie from local favourites Ate Days A Week, fresh butties or a luxurious meat and cheese platter to feel all cultured or just a pint of their house lager, you really spoilt for choice.
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As you peruse the healthy bar selection — stocking lots of booze including their house lager and two custom brands of Stockport Gin — you’ll see a glorious selection of cakes from Manc music legend Clint Boon’s wife, Charlie, who drops off fresh batches of baked goods every week and even hosts regular bottomless brunches and her already legendary
Credit: The Manc Group/BaskThere’s some seriously top scran.
Bask’s live gigs and mega music nights
Speaking of the Boons, the Tea Party isn’t just about scranning cakes and posh coffees: it’s a jumping-off point for what is an absolutely stellar monthly schedule that is regularly packed out with live performances, themed music nights and all-round partying.
From Inspiral Carpets, Reverend & The Makers, The Lottery Winners; The Sherlocks, Ruby J and all manner of massive music names from the North have taken to this stage already over the last year, and it won’t be long before more acts from all over the country cotton on to how mint a venue Bask is to play.
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You’ll also find many members of staff like barman and musician French Coriandah, as well as co-owners Simon Silcock and XS Manchester DJ Gareth Brooks on stage, playing guitar or spinning tracks on the decks — they even had This Is England‘s Thomas Turgoose doing a set the other week, as you do.
They also do their best to promote up-and-coming artists with their weekly Acoustica event every Monday, where aspiring musicians can rock up every week and it’s free entry for the punters. Even when there isn’t live music or, say an 80s-themed night on the cards, they still regularly belt out the best bangers from throughout the ages every weekend and, believe us when we tell you, it’s a vibe in there.
Credit: Bask/Thomas Edwards(via Instagram)We’ve had some absolutely belting nights out in Bask.
Bask Bingo, comedy nights, matchdays and more
And it doesn’t stop there — not even close. From the ‘Baskmaster’ pub quiz to their sellout Bask Bingo and ‘Bask in Laughter’ comedy nights which have seen the likes of Justin Moorhouse, Haley Ellis, Smug Roberts and countless others cracking up locals, they will literally have a stab at anything these lot.
The most impressive part, at least from our experience anyway, is that they always seem to pull it off. This place was originally supposed to open up as just a restaurant but after extraction issues set those plans back, they had to readjust and boy are we lucky they did.
Whether it’s inviting along spoken word artists every month, hosting FIFA tournaments or the Stockport Social Creative Culture and Music Mixer (a bit of a mouthful, we’ll admit), Bask isn’t happy to just be one thing or another and that’s why it’s so good.
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It’s even become a regular haunt for the Stockport County faithful week in and week out (having a few mad Hatters in-house doesn’t hurt), serving pies and pints pre-game, right up until late after it’s finished. While many pubs and bars keep footy fans at a distance, this place welcomes them in with open arms — they were even flying the flag for both teams at Wembley earlier this year.
Credit: BaskThey thrive on two slogans: ‘Stockport isn’t sh*t… it’s forever being beautiful’
It’s been a while since Stopfordians had a place like this. The town centre’s Underbank has gradually been rejuvenating under the Old Town revival and Foodie Friday now seems bigger than ever, but there’s something about having a spot that does all of this right on your doorstep that feels special.
We’re happy to go on record by saying that Bask is not only well worth swinging by at any time during the day but beyond just being the best night out in Stockport, it’s also currently one of the best times you’ll have anywhere in Greater Manchester.
If you’ve never been before, it’s worth heading over and giving it a try — you’ll most likely end up doing what we did the first time around: nipping in for ‘one drink’ and end up staying till 2am. Go on, why not?
Louder for those at the back: ‘Stockport isn’t sh*t’.
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It’s a good little crew this. Pop in and say hello.Credit: Bask/@thomasedwardsphotography (via Instagram)
Featured Image — The Manc Group/Bask (via Instagram)
Feature
The best Manchester-based anime-style memes we’ve seen online as Ghibli craze takes over
Danny Jones
Now, the internet can be used for a lot of silly and pointless things – you might argue us sharing our favourite memes every morning is a prime example of that – but we have to admit, the second we saw a Manchester-inspired Studio Ghibli image on social media, we were hooked.
If you have absolutely no idea what we’re talking about, there is a current craze that has taken over the internet, which has seen recognisable memes and images recreated in the style of the iconic Ghibli anime films, created by legendary animator and filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki.
Once you’ve found one, you tend to start spotting them more and more frequently, and in the case of the chronically online like us, we’ve been inundated with them for weeks now.
People are using AIto create them in various different contexts, but it won’t surprise you to learn that our favourite Ghibli/anime memes are those based around Manchester. For example:
Bloody hell, the internet really is brilliant sometimes, isn't it? 😂 https://t.co/virpFx60u7
As it happens, this was the first and perhaps still the best we’ve seen to date, but it didn’t stop us from falling down an animated rabbit hole looking for others.
To be honest, we didn’t actually have to do much searching ourselves as they’re absolutely all over the algorithm at the minute, and have been for a good month or so.
‘Ghibli memes’ may be an overgeneralisation of what is a rather specific and famed art style, but this ongoing flood of anime-style cartooons is being created by users giving prompts to ChatGPT, the increasingly popular large language model (LLM) and AI tool.
Designed with OpenAI software, the artificial intelligence chatbot can do everything from write extensive study notes and flash cards to fixing blurry images, writing computer code, entire essays and quite literally countless other things.
In this instance, people are just reimagining moments from the zeitgeist and famous memes in this style by feeding the image to ChatGPT, along with an ‘in the style of Studio Ghibli’ prompt.
One for the Blues…And the Reds.All of these images have been designed using ChatGPT. (Credit: Eleventh Minute/centredevils via X)
Pretty cool, right?
You’ll find that footballer Twitter (sorry, X*), in particular, is absolutely full of fan accounts recreating iconic club scenes in the Miyazaki art style, giving their favourite players big ‘Chibi’ eyes (another unique aspect of anime) and so on.
It’s all just a bit of a laugh, after all; even we here at The Manc put ChatGPT to the test back in June 2023 and asked it to design ‘the perfect day out in Manchester’ – to varying degrees of success, we might add.
As ever with machine-learning, the more information you feed it, the better the result and although we know these are original pictures being reimagined, it still goes to show just how impressive and varied AI is becoming.
We’ve also enjoyed some that aren’t necessarily Manc but are quintessential British humour or simply more universal memes.
Exhibits E and F…
Even after all these years, we feel like we still see this in some context at least once a week – and it still makes us laugh.‘What a sad little life, Jane…’Credit: brandsynario (via Instagram)/No Context Brits (via X)
Despite these memes riding a real wave right now, the Ghibli portrait fad is just that; there are plenty of other aesthetics being toyed with, too.
Actually, it already has, as we’ve now started coming across people making action figure versions of themselves and/or famous people, full decked out with accessories inside blister packs and everything.
On the other hand, many people are understandably concerned about what this means for artists and although there is no substitute for genuine human expression, whatever form that may come in, lots of people are railing against it as the possibility of AI-based pop music has been posited.
With that in mind, maybe the best twist we’ve seen is our very own Stanley Chow subverting the trend and doing Ghibli stuff in his equally iconic style. We’ll take these geometric gems over computer-generated imitations any day.
For now, it’s just a bit of fun and we confess we’ve got some light entertainment out of it, but the increasing possibilities being thrown up by AI in terms of art do pose a lot more complex questions.
We’ll finish with one final example because let’s be honest, there’s only really one thing on our minds at the minute – at least until the summer finally rolls around…
Let us know if you’ve seen any other fun examples and what you make of the whole Ghibli meme trend down in the comments.
LF System on headlining Amber’s for ‘The Drop’, dancefloor anthems and more
Thomas Melia
Scottish DJ duo LF System are playing an intimate set in Manchester as part of ‘The Drop’, a special monthly event series for a very important cause.
‘The Drop’, sees the hitmakers joining two more greats, DJ Paulette and Turno, as headliners for this remarkable event all about raising awareness and funds for mental health in the music industry.
The mastermind partnership of Headstock and Skiddle, each event champions a charity which benefits including Music Minds Matter (Turno) and Nordoff & Robbins (DJ Paulette and LF System).
The first monthly set comes from the DJ duo behind one of the biggest UK club staples, ‘Afraid To Feel’, as LF System take over Manchester’s newest clubbing venue, Amber’s – who typically keep their lineups private – for an exclusive ‘Coffee Table Session’.
LF System, Conor Larkman and Sean Finnigan, outside their New York session venue.Credit: Supplied
LF System Interview
This event is in aid of Nordoff & Robbins: how important is this cause to you?
We feel like music should be enjoyed by. Anyone, no matter what. Nordoff & Robbins make that possible.
They help everyone, all ages through music therapy. It’s important to us that [this event] supports them. Everybody deserves a chance to have a go at music, it’s a great cause that allows people to have great opportunities.
You’re going to be playing Amber’s, which is one of Manchester’s newest clubbing venues, how are you feeling?
I’ve heard a lot of good things about it, so I just really want to get in there and experience it for ourselves.
It’s weird coming to Manchester at this time of year as well; we’re always here in winter, usually freezing and raining, so it’ll be quite nice to come down this April.
Amber’s nightclub has some very important rules, including a no-phone policy in order to bring clubbing back to its roots – how do you feel about this?
Oh, we’re all for that!
I think there’s been a bit of a problem recently, so anything that can be done to make clubbing all about the music and as immersive as possible the better. It’s about living in the moment. I think that’s a good thing.
I don’t think we’ve ever actually done anything with a no-phone policy before; somehow, they’ve always snuck them in. Exciting.
LF System’s Conor at a recent event in New York.The Scottish duo LF System, playing an intimate set in New York.Credit: Supplied
What can fans expect from your special set for the monthly music series ‘The Drop’?
It may be a bit different to what we usually do as it’s a coffee table session set-up, but there’ll definitely be good vibes and good music all night.
There’ll be a lot of unreleased stuff that we’ve been making recently, mostly from our new EP that’s coming, and it gives us a chance to play our new songs and see people’s reactions. So far, they’ve been good every time we’ve included them.
How come you’ve opted for a ‘Coffee table session’ rather than a huge rave vibe, especially considering how much your music gets crowds up on their feet?
We’ve never actually done a coffee table session in a club before, so that’ll be our first for us. It’s going to be electric and fresh.
You just get to showcase a lot more music than when what you do when you’re playing a club set, different BPMs.
[Coffee table sessions] still get people up and dancing, but it’s just a different type of night. It’s relaxed, happy dance music, you know what I mean? You don’t have, don’t have to go mad ‘fer it, just a nice chilled one.
As well-respectedDJs, it’s only fair we consult you on Manchester’s clubbing scene, so how would you rate the club culture and atmosphere in our city?
We always have a good time in Manchester and there’s always good crowds. It [Manchester] is just like that.
There’s a good culture to do in this city, so I think it’s a good place to bring this session too, and we’re looking forward to it.
It’s got a really rich history and you can always feel that when you’re there, it’s always a good time in any of [Manchester’s] different venues. Everyone always seems right up for it.
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House music is known to improve people’s moods, and ‘The Drop’ is all about music and mental health, so to finish off, what’s your all-time favourite top three mood boosting house tracks?
Sean
‘Music Sounds Better With You’ by Stardust
‘Beautiful People’ by Barbara Tucker
‘In Love With You’ by The Paradise
Conor
‘Why Not?’ by Skate Bård
‘I Think I’ll Do Some Skipping On My Own’ by Sandy B (Opolopo Rework)
‘Night Walkin” by Mermaid S
LF System are bringing their bangers to ‘The Drop’ in Manchester.Spinning the decks just like they will at Amber’s in Manchester later this month at ‘The Drop’.
Danny Jones -
14th July 2023 
