LIVE: DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979 – 21/10/2014

– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – May 4th, 2011. I’m off to the big smoke to see the reformed Death From Above 1979 play the HMV Forum – A band adored by many, but one whose future looked bleak. At the time of their departure from the music world in 2006, the much loved Canadian punk rock […]
– ACADEMY 1, MANCHESTER – Following an undoubtedly successful summer, Clean Bandit’s marathon of dates subliminally catalyse their position at the front of public consciousness. Notably reflected in the quartet’s newfound take on electronic music, and symbolised by the dramatic soar in venue capacity, Clean Bandit scream modernity breaking the archaic stereotype of not only […]

LIVE: CLEAN BANDIT – 17/10/2014

LIVE: BABY GODZILLA – 20/10/2014

– SOUND CONTROL, MANCHESTER – If you’ve been any rock festival or gig in the past 12 months, chances are you’ve seen Baby Godzilla. The Nottingham-based foursome have been working super hard on the live front this year, playing absolutely anywhere they’re asked to and with an army of fans growing at each gig and […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER- Going from gig to gig around Britain with a guitar and a suitcase, a young Paul Simon once sat on a Cheshire railway station platform and wrote a lonely song about missing a home far, far away. Tonight, almost 50 years later, two other great American troubadours are in north-west […]

LIVE: GRANT-LEE PHILLIPS & HOWE GELB – 10/10/2014

LIVE: TOM VEK – 08/10/2014

– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – In another world, Tom Vek probably deserves to be massive.  His recorded output is always unique and interesting: Plumbing the archives of electronic pop, he can achieve melodic dissonance, looped grunge and electro-wobble in the space of a single album, and this is enough to tempt me to Gorilla to see […]
– MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL , MANCHESTER –  Manchester Cathedral plays host to the debut performance of Bill Ryder-Jones’s excellent debut album If…, recorded in 2011 as a hypothetical film score to the novel ‘If on a Winters Night a Traveler’, by Italo Calvino. The book itself is an experimental work, featuring ten chapters each of two […]

LIVE: BILL RYDER-JONES WITH MANCHESTER CAMERATA – 09/10/2014

LIVE: TALL SHIPS – 08/10/2014

– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – A few years back, I had the pleasure of seeing Tall Ships play to a packed out crowd at Soup Kitchen, as part of the annual Carefully Planned Festival. I’ve been a big fan of Tall Ships for a while now, so I was delighted to hear they were coming […]
– THE ROADHOUSE, MANCHESTER – Andrew ‘Falco’ Falkous is an angry man. The Future of the Left singer is not only responsible for some of the best straight up rock music this country has produced in the last decade, but also a misanthropic outpouring that could make Charlie Brooker blush. Tonight the welsh band hit […]

LIVE: FUTURE OF THE LEFT – 05/10/2014

LIVE: THE TWILIGHT SAD – 05/10/2014

– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – I’ve spent the past few days downing lemsip, using all the toilet roll and refusing to take off my coat. Winter is here folks. Despite my immune system being at its weakest, there is something about this time of year that I love. There seem to be a few bands […]
– ACADEMY 2, MANCHESTER – After an extended organ drone intro, Dry The River arrive on stage looking more like The Eagles than ever – all hair and plaid. Lead singer Peter Liddle is clad head-to-toe in white and looks like Gareth from The Office playing Jesus. They crack on with the title track of […]

LIVE: DRY THE RIVER – 04/10/2014