In the winter of 1993, Simon Sutherland walked into Night and Day Cafe and enquired if he could have a gig for his new band. In those days Night and Day Cafe was not a music venue it was just a cafe. The response was something like this; ‘we are a cafe not a music venue and we don’t have a PA system’.
Despite this, a date was agreed under the condition the band bring their own PA and the Cafe provide a support act.
On November 12 1993, 22 Strings made their Manchester City Centre debut at Night and Day Cafe with American songwriter Holly Burton on support.
Night and Day Cafe originally opened in 1991 as a chip shop and would not become a music venue until some time later. But the Cafe would become a haunt for local musicians. Throughout the 1990’s 22 Strings would play a number of gigs at Night and Day Cafe and regularly hang out there with the likes of Tony Wilson, Bryan Glancy and John Bramwell. But the gig of November 12 1993 begs the question, were 22 Strings one of the first bands to play Night and Day Cafe?
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