LIVE: JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION – 10/05/2014

– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – Since their inception in 1991, New York based Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (or JSBX as their moniker is often shortened) have long since dispensed with traditional set lists. They are touring the 2012 release Meat and Bone, their first studio album since Damage in 2004.  JSBX’s  high energy punk blues, firmly […]
It’s been about a week since Liverpool Sound City 2014 came and went, but the three-day festival is still fresh in my mind. If you haven’t heard of it, Sound City is the largest metropolitan music and arts festival in the UK. It originally started as a showcase of the UK’s Northwest acts at the […]

REVIEW: LIVERPOOL SOUND CITY 2014

LIVE: ALBERT HAMMOND JR. – 07/05/2014

– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – Albert Hammond Jr. – Seemingly the happiest man in music today. The question is, who can blame him? Having kicked the drug habit, the latter months of 2013 saw him marry the gorgeous Justyna Sroka, as well as put out his third release as a solo artist – the superb five […]
– ACADEMY 3, MANCHESTER – The Hold Steady, a five-piece band based in Brooklyn, has brought its rock and roll show to Academy 3 tonight. When tickets first went on sale, I decided to head down to the student union the next working day to pick some up. Mistake. The gig was sold out by […]

LIVE: THE HOLD STEADY – 07/05/2014

LIVE: BIG UPS – 06/05/2014

– KRAAK, MANCHESTER – I’ve been to Kraak Gallery quite a lot recently, and I’m really pleased this is the case as it’s one of Manchester’s finer small venues and it’s great that more bands are stopping by to play here! Tonight we have quite a diverse line up on our hands but the focus […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – Backstage at The Deaf Institute, The Twilight Sad frontman James Graham leads me to a tiny room containing three bunk beds and room for nothing else. “It is like when you were wee and your pal came to play PlayStation” he says with a smile. Hailing from Glasgow, The […]

INTERVIEW & REVIEW: THE TWILIGHT SAD – 02/05/2014

LIVE: DUM DUM GIRLS / PINS – 03/05/2014

– THE ROADHOUSE, MANCHESTER – “Are you waiting for us? I didn’t get the memo.”  The opening words as PINS begin their co-headline show with Dum Dum Girls at the Roadhouse.  The room is packed, so much so that it is difficult to see the band on stage from only a few rows back. The […]
– ISLINGTON MILL, SALFORD – I’ve been waiting to see Factory Floor for a while now having missed their last Manchester gig due to being stuck on a train for 7 hours after a wedding in December. So when I found out they were putting on a night at the brilliant Islington Mill, I made […]

LIVE: FACTORY FLOOR – 03/05/2014

LIVE: BLOOD RED SHOES – 28/04/2014

– CLUB ACADEMY, MANCHESTER – Having given their most recent album a few spins, and hearing who had been lined up as the support for their UK Tour, I’m really looking forward to this gig. Support comes in the way of DZ Deathrays (who I miss, sadly) and Slaves, who I’m very fortunate to catch. […]
 – THE RITZ, MANCHESTER – The mothership has landed, mo fo’s. Yep, George Clinton – one of the originators of funk music and general interstellar space oddity – is back on the road, taking his message of funk to believers across the lands. From the 1960s, Clinton has created some of low-down seediest and irresistible […]

LIVE: GEORGE CLINTON & P-FUNK – 17/04/2014