LIVE: KATE TEMPEST – 09/11/2014

– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – Although I didn’t feel as though it was the strongest of lists, this years Mercury Music Prize certainly switched me on to records by artists I had previously overlooked. One of these records was Everybody Down, the superb debut album from writer, poet, rapper Kate Tempest. Kate has been […]
– ACADEMY 3, MANCHESTER – When my gig buddy and I arrive at the Academy, we are welcomed by a metal storm produced by the SikTh + Idiom gig happening in Academy 2. Like Dante in his Divine Comedy, we ascend to the upper floor, hoping for the heavenly experience normally guaranteed by a Turin […]

LIVE: TURIN BRAKES – 08/11/2014

LIVE: PINK MARTINI – 03/11/2014

– THE BRIDGEWATER HALL, MANCHESTER – There’s nothing better than feeling a bit flash. Tonight I’m at The Bridgewater Hall with the missus for a bit of ‘culture.’ As we soon find out we’re only 10 rows from the front of stage, I’m feeling flash – like a slightly under-dressed (though still smart) Patrick Bateman. […]
– MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL – A couple of tracks into the set and it strikes me there are many intriguing things about watching a gig in a cathedral, this breezy, boxed-in assemblage of air in the heart of Manchester. Firstly, when attempting to order a drink at the impromptu bar in the corner (even if it’s […]

LIVE: BELLE AND SEBASTIAN – 28/10/2014

LIVE: ROYAL BLOOD – 02/11/2014

– THE RITZ, MANCHESTER – Tonight is a special occasion for Manchester gig-goers. Royal Blood are in town, whose debut album was the fastest selling rock album since ‘Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds’, selling over 40,000 copies in its first week. It’s their first headline tour and with their album success, they are here to […]
– SOUND CONTROL, MANCHESTER – Like many a Manchester punk gig, the floor is sticky. The bottom of your shoes squelch and a giddy swirl of shaved heads and Doc Martens spring as if in slow motion at the front. This scene, I have only ever witnessed in flashback programmes to the Wilson era. A […]

LIVE: EAGULLS – 01/11/2014

LIVE: JOSH PYKE / PYLO – 31/10/2014

– THE NIGHT & DAY CAFE, MANCHESTER – It’s been a couple of years since I last saw JOSH PYKE at Manchester’s Deaf Institute: and in that time you can see his growth as a performer. In my interview (HERE) with the acoustic singer-songwriter, he told me his latest album The Beginning and The End […]
– THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER – So, it turns out halloween is an appropriate time to catch Foxygen. Now touring their third album in 2 years, the Californian duo of Jonathan Rado and Sam France have genre hopped from Sergeant Pepper, and The Velvet Underground to Bowie and The Rolling Stones, emulating many other prevalent bands from the […]

LIVE: FOXYGEN – 30/10/2014

LIVE: 65DAYSOFSTATIC – 29/10/2014

-MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL, MANCHESTER – Tonight is a special night. It’s ten years since Sheffield post-rockers 65daysofstatic released their debut album The Fall of Math, and tonight they are playing it in full in the magnificently moody surroundings of Manchester Cathedral. It couldn’t be more perfect for them, the grandeur of the venue matching the scope […]
– ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER – It is now almost a year since Black Francis appeared at Albert Hall to mark my first live event here at this Wesleyan chapel that had been largely hidden away and out of public consciousness for four decades. But it is only really in 2014 that the building has been […]

LIVE: ST. VINCENT – 22/10/2014