LIVE REVIEW – DEATHCRASH + GLASSHOUSE RED SPIDER MITE: YES PINK ROOM – 15/04/2026

If there’s one thing I pride myself on, it’s my memory; be it an important date or an aside about what you had for tea on Tuesday two weeks ago, I can generally be relied upon to recall things I’m informed about without much effort. So, you rightly ask, why was it that I nearly […]
As I stand in the relatively small space of Gorilla in Manchester tonight, the thumping bass and house beat of ‘L.Y.A.T.T’ blasts through the room, the whole crowd lost in a trance of colourful lights and bright visuals on a screen behind Art School Girlfriend. But that comes later. At the start of the show, […]

LIVE REVIEW – ART SCHOOL GIRLFRIEND: MANCHESTER GORILLA – 16/04/2026

LIVE REVIEW – BELLE AND SEBASTIAN: MANCHESTER ALBERT HALL – 11/04/2026

When linking the concept of nostalgia and music, my brain heads straight to one of those 80s music festival, where, tucked away off-the-beaten-track, thousands latch on to their youth by listening to Nik Kershaw perform his greatest hits (if you dare call them that). But as anniversary tours pledge to trapse through deep cuts and […]
There’s something inherently strange about a Gorillaz gig, like you’re never just watching a band, you’re stepping into a fully formed world that’s been ticking over long before you arrived. On March 21st at the Co-op Live Arena, that world didn’t just open up, it swallowed the room whole. No radio-friendly warm-up, no predictable pre-show playlist. Instead, the […]

LIVE REVIEW – GORILLAZ: MANCHESTER CO-OP LIVE – 21/03/2026

LIVE REVIEW – KRIS DREVER + ANNIE DRESSNER: LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC MUSIC ROOMS – 08/04/2026

At 10 pm on 8 April 2024, there was a knock on my front door. Opening it, I was astonished to see two paramedics on my doorstep and an ambulance at the end of the driveway. I was even more horrified to discover that it was not some clerical error and they were genuinely there […]
Tom A Smith’s show this evening in Manchester’s best small venue felt like the end of something. Sunderland’s worst kept secret has been steadily honing his craft for over a decade, and those fortunate enough to have seen him play over the years will attest to the growing maturity in both his songwriting and stage […]

LIVE REVIEW – TOM A SMITH: DEAF INSTITUTE – 02/04/2026

LIVE REVIEW – LEON THOMAS: MANCHESTER ACADEMY – 27/03/2026

The Mutts never Heel tour. I had the pleasure of seeing Leon Thomas at the Manchester Academy and what a time was had, but let’s start off with the basics. Doors open at 7pm, I get there for 9pm, fashionably late as per usual. Technical difficulties I do apologise but Leon hasn’t hit the stage […]
A little under a year ago, embarking from the quaint city of Chester to the contrastingly eccentric Manchester, I went to see Michael Kiwanuka at the Apollo. It was not only a fantastic gig, but it was the first time I got to write for Silent Radio, the very publication which you find yourself reading […]

LIVE REVIEW – KEO: MANCHESTER RITZ – 07/03/2026

LIVE REVIEW – MOGWAI: MANCHESTER APOLLO – 27/02/2026

“Thank you Manchester, for rejecting fascism last night.” Stuart Brathwaite – guitarist and vocalist for Mogwai – stands in front of a Palestine flag and celebrates the outbreak of common sense that brought Hannah Spencer of the Green Party the Gorton and Denton seat in this week’s by-election, beating Reform. He is met by a […]
At long last! Nearly three years since I first went to see an act there – Manchester group Mandy, Indiana, who put on a rollicking show and who have a new album out that’s apparently well worth a listen – I returned to The White Hotel on Wednesday to catch a particularly dreamy double bill. […]

LIVE REVIEW – FINE, MARIA SOMERVILLE & NASHPAINTS: THE WHITE HOTEL – 18/02/2026