The Castle Hotel has an established place in Manchester’s lively pub and live music scene.

Long being a bastion for indie bands and lovers of a real pint, way before the Northern Quarter became the place to hang out, this vintage Victorian pub has recently had a refurbishment that can only be truly described as a renaissance.

The original features of this great old boozer have been reinstated as if they had never been away with original tiles, woodwork and wallpaper being rejuvenated and married with carefully chosen, modern replica work.

The pub is split into three rooms; the bar, the snug and a double-height live performance space at the back. As the new management are very much into their music and wished for all fixtures to be sympathetic to the rest of the décor, they opted for a retro, floor-standing CD jukebox which sits perfectly in their front bar. We’ve also recently installed a remote selector for the jukebox in the back room, so you can choose what you listen to wherever you’re drinking.

Having a CD jukebox allows them to choose exactly which albums they want playing in the venue, whilst retaining that great traditional pub feel. The jukebox’s built-in amplifier and speakers provide a focus for the bar room and also feeds the music through to the speakers in the snug, with a remote control for staff use behind the bar.

The live music set-up in the back room is of the highest quality and uses two powerful Martin Audio F15+ speakers and a huge S18+ bass speaker. The live mixing desk and outboard equipment all fits in to a sound booth at the back of the room. The stage box and monitor connections are all conveniently installed and accessible for ease of operation. The system can take feeds from the stage and the mixing desk or from the jukebox in the front bar, allowing the site to operate as a whole or as two separate venues.

A full stage lighting set-up with colour-controllable LED lights and compact lighting controller finishes the look, with a projector and screen giving the room even more functionality and versatility for one off events and regular nights, such as the quiz.