LIVE: FOXYGEN – 30/10/2014

– 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 […]
-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 […]

LIVE: 65DAYSOFSTATIC – 29/10/2014

LIVE: ST. VINCENT – 22/10/2014

– 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 […]
– ST PHILIP’S CHURCH, SALFORD – On How To Dress Well’s (aka Tom Krell) second album Total Loss, there’s a song called ’Say My Name Or Whatever’ that opens with a spoken word monologue from a boy that ends with the line ‘the only bad thing about flying is having to come back down to the […]

LIVE: HOW TO DRESS WELL – 23/10/2014

LIVE: WOLF ALICE – 22/10/2014

– CLUB ACADEMY, MANCHESTER – Manchester is often a tough crowd for bands. The city’s arguably unparalleled musical heritage means us Mancunian folk expect a lot when we venture out on a wet Wednesday evening. But Wolf Alice have no problems with that. The London four-piece are welcomed to Club Academy like returning heroes, with an […]
– 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 […]

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

LIVE: CLEAN BANDIT – 17/10/2014

– 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 […]
– 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 […]

LIVE: BABY GODZILLA – 20/10/2014

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

– 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 […]
– 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 […]

LIVE: TOM VEK – 08/10/2014