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The timeline of Night & Day Cafe’s noise row – including a surprise cash offer from Matty Healy

Phew, this was a wild ride.

Daisy Jackson - 10th April 2024

The battle to ‘save’ Manchester’s iconic Night & Day Cafe seems to have finally come to an end, with a lengthy court battle wrapping up last month.

The historic venue has helped launch the careers of countless bands and played host to intimate gigs from the likes of Ed Sheeran, Arctic Monkeys, Wet Leg, James Bay and Elbow.

A couple of years ago though, a ‘new resident’ in the neighbourhood filed a noise complaint.

And then Night & Day Cafe was slapped with a Noise Abatement Notice by the council.

And then they took the whole thing public, and the row rumbled on and on and on.

The resident unwittingly at the heart of the media storm (some very famous faces were rallying behind the venue) said that the music was so loud it could ripple their toilet water, Jurassic Park-style.

In a lengthy piece recently published by The Mill, previous residents came forward and backed them up, saying that the flat was ‘uninhabitable’ and a ‘living nightmare’.

That piece also revealed that Matty Healy, frontman of The 1975, at one time came forward and offered to buy the flat for cash to put an end to the whole thing.

But three years after the noise complaint row hit headlines, Night & Day Cafe has been granted permission to continue operating as a gig venue and nightclub, with a few conditions that should end the back-and-forth between them and their neighbours.

Manchester City Council has maintained throughout the ordeal that it has had no intention of shutting down the Oldham Street venue, saying that the Noise Abatement Notice was issued as a ‘last resort’ after months of negotiating and compromising.

After three years of public statements and court hearings and occasional celebrity endorsements, it looks like Night & Day Cafe can finally go back to what it does best.

And if you also got lost in the whole storyline along the way, here’s a little refresher of what happened and when (it goes back a full decade…)

Night & Day Cafe’s noise row as it happened

January 2014 – Night & Day is first hit with a Noise Abatement Notice, with thousands (including Johnny Marr, Frank Turner and Tim Burgess) signing a petition to have it removed.

September 2014 – Night & Day is allowed to remain in operation, on the condition that owners meet with residents every three months and to discuss any issues.

August 2020 – A man buys a Northern Quarter flat that neighbours Night & Day Cafe. The world is still under lockdown restrictions and live music is all-but non-existent.

July 2021 – Restrictions lift and this iconic venue springs back to life with its first event. The noise is so loud inside the neighbouring apartment, the toilet water ripples, Jurassic Park-style. The residents file their first complaint, and meet with the owners of Night & Day to discuss a solution.

November 2021 – After multiple complaints, and multiple meetings with the venue’s bosses, Manchester City Council serves Night & Day with its Noise Abatement Notice. The council received hundreds of noise complaints that year – this was the only one that resulted in a NAN (the rest were sorted out by venues without council involvement).

November 2021 – Night & Day goes public with its Noise Abatement Notice and launches a petition to have the NAN removed. It gains almost 100,000 signatures and is shared by many famous faces in the music industry.

November 2021 – The resident at the centre of the row speaks to the MEN, saying their issue is with the club nights (not the gigs) and that he’s spent thousands of pounds trying to insulate his flat from the noise.

November 2021 – Local artist Paul Hallows, who works under the name himHallows, creates a series of tongue-in-cheek free posters about the whole situation.

October 2022 – Night & Day pushes its petition to have its NAN removed again, as the venue says its future ‘still hangs in the balance’. It claims that complying with the requirements of the abatement notice ‘would effectively ruin Night & Day’s business’.

November 2022 – Night & Day heads to court for the first time, with celebrities rallying around the venue. Jeremy Pritchard from Everything Everything, Elbow’s frontman Guy Garvey, and Matty Healy from The 1975 all lend their support.

November 2022 – Manchester City Council confirms it’s had five complaints from four different flats – not just the one at the centre of the row.

December 2022 – Blossoms perform at the venue to mark one year to go until the opening of the Co-op Live Arena. They have #SaveNightandDay posters plastered to their equipment.

Summer 2023 – Matty Healy pops up to the flat and tries to buy flat for cash, according to reports in The Mill. The sale fell through because The 1975 were sued for a large sum, after Matty kissed his bandmate on stage in protest of Malaysia’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws.

January 2024 – Night & Day heads back to court for a three-day hearing. There were several other court appearances over this timeline, but to be honest, we’ve lost track too. They said again ‘the source of the problem is that when the adjoining building was converted from warehouse to flats, no consideration was given to the pre-existing live music venue’.

March 2024 – It all wraps up quickly at Manchester Magistrates’ court, and the NAN is upheld. Night & Day can remain open, but will have to compromise.

Phew.

Read more

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Featured image: The Manc Group