LIVE: VESSELS – 16/03/2015

– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – Vessels’ recently released album Dilate is something of a departure from their lean, guitar-focussed Slint-via-Radiohead post-rock stylings. Previous record Helioscope is a brilliant, greyscale exercise in tension and release and where Dilate still uses similar dynamics in terms of building layers to a dramatic climax, this time it’s in glorious […]
– ACADEMY 2, MANCHESTER – It could be that I’m biased in favour of anything Nordic, but it seems to me that Northern Europe always walks proudly on an independent path, away from mainstream styles, genres and attitudes. Tonight at the Academy 2 (justifiably sold out) I am blessed with the experience of Swedish-Argentinian singer […]

LIVE: JOSE GONZALEZ / OLOF ARNALDS – 14/03/2015

LIVE: COSMOSIS – 14/03/2015

– ANTWERP MANSION, MANCHESTER – The website insists that this venue didn’t used to be a squat… to be honest, it looks as though it still is a squat. Graffiti covers  any area that’s reachable, inside and out – electric extension leads twist through holes in the walls and ceiling like overgrown vines – the […]
– THE NIGHT & DAY CAFE, MANCHESTER – As I make the trip to Manchester tonight to finally see Clinic perform, it occurs to me that the Liverpool band of electro-psyche obscurists have always been on the periphery of my musical ‘default setting’. What I mean is, I listen to quite a lot of music […]

LIVE: CLINIC – 13/03/2015

LIVE: UNDERWORLD – 13/03/2015

– ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER – I’m not sure how I feel about full album shows. On one hand, if you love the album it’s great – you know what’s coming and you know the band will play your favourite song from it because, er, they have to. On the other hand, there’s no surprise, there’s […]
– NIGHT & DAY CAFE, MANCHESTER – Home-schooled and raised on a diet of the Ramones, Misfits and Zeppelin by their manager father, Missouri based three-piece Radkey have earned many plaudits for their live shows.  They’re in town for a one-off UK appearance to celebrate the conclusion of the recording of their debut album in […]

LIVE: RADKEY – 06/03/2015

LIVE: JAWS – 06/03/2015

– ACADEMY 3, MANCHESTER – I don’t know if they’ve put something in the water down there, but there seems to have recently been a big influx of exciting new indie bands coming out of Birmingham and smashing it. From big tours to big record deals, big riffs to big hooks, it’s all been going […]
– GULLIVERS, MANCHESTER – “I dream away my morning”, Vikesh Kapoor sings on ‘I Dreamt Blues’ conjuring up an image of Alan Sillitoe’s protagonist from Saturday Night & Sunday Morning, Arthur Seaton slaving over his lathe at a bicycle factory dreaming of plotting an escape from his small town drudgery. In fact, this is what […]

LIVE: VIKESH KAPOOR – 03/03/2015

LIVE: JOHN SMITH 27/02/2015

–  ST. PHILIP’S CHURCH, SALFORD – St. Philip’s church in Salford, through vicar Andy Salmon, has been the location of various performances in the past few years. A 2011 M.E.N. interview with the vicar reveals that the programming has also included, interestingly, a regular ‘Goth, Metal, 80s and Punk club night’. Despite the conventional religious […]
– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – There was huge disappointment for me, almost 5 years ago – Manchester’s own Julie Ann Campbell, aka LoneLady, withdrew from a support slot for Chris Cunningham due to illness. Her superb debut album ‘Nerve Up’, released on Warp in 2010, had piqued my interest enough to leave me wanting more. It’s been a long wait. […]

LIVE: LONELADY – 26/02/2015