LIVE: JON HOPKINS – 24/09/2013

– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – I’m a little dubious about tonight’s gig at Gorilla, the main reason being that Jon Hopkins’ recent Mercury Prize nominated album ‘Immunity’ has been played to death since I got hold of it a few months ago and I’ve never listened to it with anyone else around. For me the whole […]
– PHONES 4U ARENA, MANCHESTER –  It’s a pretty big deal when a young British band, who have spent years playing every toilet venue in the UK and beyond finally get a break and get to play some bigger rooms. So it must feel pretty good to be in Eliza And The Bear right now. After […]

LIVE: ELIZA AND THE BEAR – 20/09/2013

LIVE: JAMES BLAKE – 20/09/13

– THE RITZ, MANCHESTER – James Blake. Not to be confused with the James family of bland, Blunt or Morrison. Blake is a producer and musician of incredible skill and flair. He crafts his songs from a rich array of sounds and electronic production techniques; with nods to bass, dub step, hip hop, R&B and […]
– SATURDAY – I’m sure just like ourselves everyone here has checked the weather for the weekend and noted that today is going to be the best of the three days in Portmeirion, so we decide this is the day to make the most of the village and its surroundings. First port of call is […]

LIVE REVIEW: FESTIVAL NO. 6 – 14/09/2013

LIVE REVIEW: FESTIVAL NO. 6 – 13/09/2013

– FRIDAY – Last year’s festival wristbands cleverly had ‘I am not a number’ written on them, a nod to The Prisoner, the sixties cult sci-fi show filmed at Portmeirion. This gave you a bubbling anticipation of what lay beyond. But this year’s wristbands are different, gone is the ‘I am not a number’, and […]
– SUNDAY 15/09/2013 – It’s half five in the morning and the wind has now been giving our tent a bit of kicking for the last hour or so, so I decide it’s time to go outside and make sure all the tent’s guy ropes are still intact. As it turns out most of them […]

LIVE REVIEW: FESTIVAL NO. 6 – 15/09/2013

LIVE: THE BLACK ANGELS – 17/09/2013

– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – Considered by many these days to be among the top tier of neo-psychedelic bands, there are some who look no higher than The Black Angels. Well worthy of this type of lofty praise, their style of late night psychedelia is good enough to impress on first listen – or to put […]
– NIGHT & DAY CAFE, MANCHESTER – One of the great things about radio is being able to switch it on and listen to a new band. Actually, even to listen to an old song from a classic band is what can make you feel great. It’s all closely linked, as you know each band […]

LIVE: CATFISH AND THE BOTTLEMEN – 18/09/2013

LIVE: YOUNGHUSBAND – 17/09/2013

– THE CASTLE HOTEL, MANCHESTER – Younghusband or Young*Husband as they sometimes like to be called was initially a bedroom project of Euan Hinshelwood.  Hinshelwood had been in a number of bands but when these failed to develop, he began to write and record his own music and after a few low-key releases , lead […]
– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – Looking around, there is no shortage of garage rock crawling out of the bins in every suburb and back alley of America, infecting itself among the fuzz-demented noise craving youth.  That being said, barely legal Chicago five-piece The Orwells fit this mould of what you might call yet another “underground […]

LIVE: THE ORWELLS – 13/09/2013