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

LIVE: HOW TO DRESS WELL – 23/10/2014

– 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 […]
– 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 […]

LIVE: WOLF ALICE – 22/10/2014

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