LIVE REVIEW: BAR ITALIA – YES 31/10/2023

It’s Halloween night, but there are no spooky shenanigans at Yes this evening. The most interesting guitar band to emerge in a good few years are here to do their post-punk/goth/shoegaze/britpop/grunge thing and there’s no time for messing about. Despite being around for around 4 years now, there’s still an element of the unknown to […]
For my first visit to The White Hotel in Salford, it is fitting that both acts I witnessed are themselves Manchester bands – though not at all in the Madchester sense of the phrase. Not that there’s anything wrong with a bit of 90s nostalgia, mind you, but the descriptor comes nowhere close to encapsulating […]

LIVE REVIEW – MANDY, INDIANA & SLAP RASH – THE WHITE HOTEL SALFORD 27/10/23

LIVE REVIEW: SQUID – NEW CENTURY HALL 18/10/23

Is there anything more delightful than a singing drummer (or is it a drummer who sings? One to debate)? There’s something magnificent about them, sitting there behind their kit, boshing away whilst also finding the wherewithal to bash out a tune too. How do they do it? How are they not completely breathless all the […]
Having witnessed the ever evolving PJ Harvey perform live in many guises over the years from the guitar fury of the 1992 Manchester Boardwalk gig in the early days, to the more abstract folk of her last few releases, it’s safe to say that you never quite know what to expect from a PJ Harvey […]

LIVE REVIEW: PJ HARVEY – ALBERT HALLS 03/10/23

LIVE REVIEW: 65 DAYS OF STATIC – NEW CENTURY HALL – 15/09/23

I’m still undecided on album anniversary shows. You know the ones: a band don’t have anything new out but in this shit show of an industry they still have to tour if they are to even consider making some cash, so they convene around an arbitrary number of years since a (mostly) beloved album came […]
As a child in the 1980s, Dexys Midnight Runners were everywhere, you couldn’t go to a party or event without ‘Come On Eileen’ being played at least once. Dexys seemed to dominate the pop world for while, in a whirl of cleverly crafted theatrical pop which blended northern soul with folk influenced violins. Fast forward […]

LIVE REVIEW: DEXYS – BRIDGEWATER HALL – 8/9/23

LIVE REVIEW: BE YOUR OWN PET – DEAF INSTITUTE 31/08/2023

Attitude, energy and a lack of pants is what Nashville punk band Be Your Own Pet are serving up. And I’ll absolutely be ordering more. Feeling as if I’m in a foreign land outside Deaf Institute in Manchester, I do what anyone would do and take a quick look around. Seems as if I’m in […]
On Thursday night the legendary John Cale, perhaps mostly known for his role in one of the most iconic and influential acts of the 60s/70s – The Velvet Underground – played an eclectic set of classics and new jams to an intimate and lucky Albert Hall crowd. This famous Manchester venue over the years has […]

LIVE REVIEW: JOHN CALE – ALBERT HALL: 24/08/2023

LIVE REVIEW: THE LAST DINNER PARTY – DEAF INSTITUTE 28/07/23

The Last Dinner Party are breaking all the rules. Tonight, they have sold out the jewel in the Manchester live music crown having released exactly two songs; by the time they are back in town in October to play the much larger Academy 2, they’re unlikely to have released many more. This is virtually unheard […]
John Grant is blessed with a glorious, honeyed voice. Early in his solo career, he lived up to the cliché about being able to make anything sound good by turning a list of the items for sale in his childhood sweet shop into the most wonderful confection full of wonder and longing (‘Marz’). At Manchester […]

LIVE REVIEW: JOHN GRANT SINGS THE SONGS OF PATSY CLINE WITH RICHARD HAWLEY AND BAND 11/07/2023