Under an old railway arch surrounded by bars, garages and take-aways sits one of Manchester’s finest modern venues and an establishment that has, since opening in 2012, cemented itself as a key fixture on the national gig circuit and popular nightspot for Mancunians.
Originally, the Gorilla site was The Green Room – a 1980s experimental art, theatre and comedy venue that laid dormant for decades following that venue’s closure. In 2012, a major revamp took place on the site and Manchester was gifted a venue that, by popular consensus, is the best recently opened venue in the city, a hugely popular and multi-functional music space.
With 550 capacity, some of which is on a raised balcony directly facing the stage, this mid-tier venue is small enough to be intimate but large enough to be a tour fixture for some of the most exciting emerging and established acts in the UK and internationally. Gorilla might just be the best sounding venue in Manchester, with terrific acoustics and a state-of-the-art sound system, and with its distinctive backdrop of rows of dark lockers, it’s certainly visually arresting.
Gigs at Gorilla: