Andy's Star shines on

Much-loved pub to continue in the way legendary landlord fought for

- DAMON WILKINSON and STEPHEN TOPPING

'WE FOUND solace at the Star and Garter,' sang The Courteeners on their 2016 single Modern Love. And the Middleton lads weren't alone. For decades the ramshackle pub-cum-nightclub has been a sticky-floored haven for the city's indie kids, punk rockers and metal- heads.

But for much of the 21st Century the fiercely independent venue has faced the almost constant threat of closure. Amid the planned expan- sion of Piccadilly station, the rise of the Northern Quarter and successive waves of regeneration and gentrifi- cation, the 'Temple of Doom' as it's affectionately known, fought a rear- guard action against the might of big developers.

But it was a fight the late landlord Andy Martin, who sadly died last March aged 52, faced with character- istic bluntness and humour. "We told them to stick it where the sun doesn't shine," he once told the NME while discussing how he turned down a £400,000 offer for the pub from Net- work Rail.

And now, as the Manchester Even- ing News reported earlier this week, that defiance has paid off. Broad- wick, the firm behind nearby May- field Depot, has invested in the 220-year-old Grade II-listed pub.