– Ritz, Manchester – Sophie Allison’s music as Soccer Mommy has always had a cathartic edge (see tonight’s encore closer ‘Your Dog’ from her debut album Clean, with the positively holler-able opening line “I don’t wanna be your fucking dog”), but rarely has it been so goddamn dark as it is on her latest LP […]
– Deaf Institute, Manchester – Sunday nights were made for watching Laura Veirs. But this is not the same Laura Veirs who has played this stage before. On her first UK tour since navigating a divorce from her husband and long-time producer, this is a new, quietly confident and tentatively upbeat Veirs reaching to pick […]
– Stoller Hall, Manchester – In an interview in the excellent ‘Loud & Quiet’ magazine, Tirzah took her interviewer to an exhibition. Afterwards, when asked what she thought of it, Tirzah replies: “Maybe I’m a bit too traditional, but I found all the extras a bit too distracting. I’d rather see something stripped back so […]
– Ritz, Manchester – In 2022, there’s something tiring about describing any kind of art as ‘feminist’. Yes, the word and the movement carried us to places we needed to be. And the battle to demolish damaging barriers, language and stereotypes is far from over. But the term ‘feminist’ has been hijacked, repurposed and distorted. […]
Every so often a band comes along that has everything your ears want in an album and for me the two records released by Amyl And The Sniffers have all that in abundance. In front if a packed Albert Hall they take to the stage and blast through ‘Go F**k Yourself’ and ‘Freaks To The […]
– Soup, Manchester – Imagine one of those coming of age dramas beloved of streaming services delivering endless content to the kids. You know the ones, featuring an eclectic cast of misfits who over the course of eight episodes manage to steal your heart and really make you care about their trivial day to day […]
– Gorilla, Manchester – I know a grand total of one Mattiel song, yet here am. At Gorilla, watching Mattiel. It’s exactly 15 minutes until the doors open and there’s one, two, three. Three of us in the queue. This initial lack of people makes me nervous but hey, at least I’ll be able to […]
– Yes Basement, Manchester – “Does anyone have any questions or concerns?” Tomberlin, or Sarah Beth Tomberlin, to give her full name, asks us as she re-tunes her guitar for the umpteenth time this evening. A shy Monday night crowd in the Yes basement make some non-committal murmurs; “No? Ok, well I guess I should […]
– Manchester Cathedral – Are Low a noise band now? Based on this astonishing showing tonight, they’re not too far off the label, which has seen them evolve over a wonderful 25-year career from slowcore beauty to fractured, disintegrating noise, with just enough of the aforementioned beauty still around to connect them to their past. […]
– Albert Hall, Manchester – How does a band who haven’t released a record in nearly a decade until very recently, haven’t toured for nearly as long, and no longer have their OG frontman who performed some of their most beloved songs, mount a credible comeback that people will be bothered about? The answer lies […]
GIG GUIDE
Our gig guide is handpicked and every act has been listened to before making it onto the list.
See this month's guide
ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 30 JANUARY 2026
ALBUM REVIEW – AQUAKULTRE: 1783
ALBUM REVIEW – BEVERLY GLENN-COPELAND: LAUGHTER IN SUMMER
EP REVIEW - NORMAL SERVICE: SONGS FOR SWINGING LOVERS
ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 23 JANUARY 2026
ALBUM REVIEW - TYLER BALLGAME: FOR THE FIRST TIME, AGAIN
FEATURE: RETROSPECTIVE - DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL - DUSK AND SUMMER: CAUGHT BY EMOTION
ALBUM REVIEW - THE HARA: THE FALLOUT
LIVE REVIEW - SUPERHEAVEN: MANCHESTER RITZ - 17/01/2026
ALBUM REVIEW - PLANTOID: FLARE
