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Opening in the early 1870s, the Alhambra was Belfast's first music hall and was a "real spit on the floor type joint", according to Mr Marshall.

The stark beauty of Samuel Beckett’s absurdist classic, part music hall romp, part abstract painting, was awakened in a production starring two gifted comics who didn’t overplay their slapstick hands, Rainn Wilson and Aasif Mandvi.

Since it opened in 1888, the building has been used as a music hall, bingo hall and, most recently, a nightclub.

The brand, named "His Master's Voice", was launched English composer Edward Elgar in 1921, selling gramophones, radios and popular music hall recordings.

Meow Meow, the performer on the night I went, is an absolute jewel of her art form, funny and clever, acerbic and vulnerable, beloved of music halls and symphony halls alike.