LIVE REVIEW – plus44Kaligula + Mogan + Twenty One Children + SILVERWINGKILLER: WHITE HOTEL – 13/06/2026

I woke up from an over long nap and put an infinite amount of tissues in my pocket since I have been bunged up for the past week (I have a long history of hitting my nose against heads, chairs, edges of steps, footballs and I have never received any kind of medical intervention which […]
On the day that Sparks announce their forthcoming Live on the Moon album, the intrepid explorers roll into the less exalted but still unique terrain of Blackpool for the first time. It is also my first visit to the sleekly modernist Blackpool Opera House. Initially built in 1889, the current building is the third one […]

LIVE REVIEW – SPARKS: BLACKPOOL OPERA HOUSE – 15/06/2026

LIVE REVIEW – LOLA YOUNG: MANCHESTER APOLLO – 11/06/2026

To be a popular music artist, is to perform and entertain with a curse. At least that’s how it comes across. Think about it. That old archetype of the artist engulfed in tragedy, surrounded by suffering, yet using that strength to create something beautiful, something memorable, something that will be talked about for years, if […]
I became aware of alt-country quartet Friendship through their bassist, Jon Samuels, who I saw playing live as part of MJ Lenderman’s ‘the Wind’ touring entourage nearly a year ago. Though he played guitar in that lineup – the bass duties covered by the loveable Landon George – his energy in that show was as […]

LIVE REVIEW – FRIENDSHIP + WYATT: YES PINK ROOM – 09/05/2026

LIVE REVIEW – THE SCRATCH: MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2 – 25/04/2026

Travelling down the M62 in 90 odd degree heat stuck in traffic as everyone has decided to play Manchester today from Olivia Dean, Yungblud to The Scratch. Going a bit earlier to make a day of it, walk the streets and try that Dave’s Hot chicken that everyone is raving about. The sun’s shining, the […]
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 […]

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

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

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, […]
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 […]

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

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

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 […]
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 […]

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