THE WAVE PICTURES – 17/04/2013

– TAKK COFFEE HOUSE, MANCHESTER – Having only found out the location for this secret gig the day before, I enter Takk, a coffee shop on the edge of Manchester‘s Northern Quarter, with a  little trepidation. The most common adjective used to describe this area is ‘trendy’. Well this is the closest physically I’ve ever […]
– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – Well, well, well, what do we have here then? Gorilla is tuning its dial towards a club night. I think this is my first gig preamble that feels more like post gig excitement. Bouncy, upbeat tunes and a nugget of Fool’s Gold cracked out before the main man gets on stage. […]

LIVE: STEVE MASON – 10/04/2013

LIVE: BRITISH SEA POWER – 12/04/2013

– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – “Is that a Polar Bear!!!” There is a subtle beauty that British Sea Power have always commanded and a fan base that understands this beauty and what it means. The opening ‘quiet set’ affirms this beauty with a warmth of songs like Salty Water that make you feel all fluffy inside. […]
– ACADEMY 2, MANCHESTER – Manchester Academy 2 is not a particularly majestic venue, in fact, it looks almost identical to a high school assembly room, so it seems odd that such a place should host an artist like James Blake, a musician who could no doubt fill a space at least three times as […]

LIVE: JAMES BLAKE – 10/04/2013

LIVE: THE SHEEPDOGS – 05/04/2013

– NIGHT & DAY CAFE, MANCHESTER – Oh Canada! Tonight’s the night Saskatchewan’s blues-rock four piece The Sheepdogs grace us Mancunians with their bearded presence. Having missed the opportunity to catch the boys live in Vancouver over the Christmas holidays, I was more than thrilled to find out they’d be on tour throughout the UK […]
– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – According to the bastion of truth that is Wikipedia, a hookworm is ‘a parasitic nematode that lives in the small intestine of its host, which may be a mammal such as a dog, cat, or human’. A parasite, something that sucks the life out of whatever unfortunate host it happens […]

LIVE: HOOKWORMS – 05/04/2013

LIVE: BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB – 24/03/2013

– THE RITZ, MANCHESTER – There is an undeniable feeling of heaviness in the air tonight at The Ritz as San Francisco alternative rock trio Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are about to begin a sold out gig in Manchester in promotion of their seventh studio album Specter At The Feast.  At best, the new record […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – Oh what a sexy night. From the moment the first chord reverberates through the dark, expectant air Kid Congo & the Pink Monkey Birds are on a trip to crazy town, and they’re taking no prisoners. Brian Tristan of The Gun Club, The Cramps and The Bad Seeds infamy […]

LIVE: KID CONGO AND THE PINK MONKEY BIRDS – 22/03/2013

LIVE: WILD NOTHING – 19/03/2013

– SOUND CONTROL, MANCHESTER – Nocturne was one of my favourite albums of last year, and is certainly my favourite jangly-American-indie album of 2013. I only heard it in about October, so for such a summer-y album the climate at the time felt a bit at odds with the tunes within, but I fell hard […]
– THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER – There seems to have a lot interest surrounding London based outfit Theme Park since there formation back in 2011. Even before the release of their debut single they were already all over the press and all the underground indie scene kids were also getting far too excited. Since then, […]

LIVE: THEME PARK – 15/03/2013