42s – or 42nd Street, or just 42s to anyone who’s been – is Manchester’s indie and alternative club night in its purest form. The venue on Bootle Street has been the go-to for anyone who wants to hear Arctic Monkeys, Oasis, The Strokes, and Joy Division on a night out without any pretence or performance. You go, you drink, you shout lyrics at the ceiling. That’s the deal.
The crowd is overwhelmingly students and the pricing matches – cheap entry, cheap drinks, cheap night. The music policy is indie, rock, alternative, with dips into punk, post-punk, and whatever else fits the vibe. DJs read the room well and know that at 1am everyone wants to hear Don’t Look Back in Anger whether they’ll admit it or not.
The venue itself is rough around the edges. Sticky floors, basic decor, toilets that have seen better decades. None of that matters. The atmosphere on a packed Saturday is electric – proper communal singing, people making friends at the bar, that specific energy that only happens when everyone in the room likes the same music. 42s isn’t trying to be cool. It’s trying to give you a good time and it succeeds every single week. A Manchester rite of passage.
