LIVE: LUKE ABBOTT – 30/11/2012

– KRAAK, MANCHESTER – Occupying Manchester’s rapiest looking venue tonight is Border Community signee Luke Abbott. After maneuvering through a dirty ginnel and up a set of grimy looking stairs, a battered wooden door opens up to a warm and relatively lush room filled with hulking rhythms pounded out by Manchester locals, Ghosting Season. With […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – As the rain howls down outside of The Deaf Institute, the need for some heartfelt Scottish warmth intensifies. Having seen Admiral Fallow upstage many a band earlier in the year as part of the Dot to Dot festival, my expectations are pretty dam high. The 6 piece band from […]

LIVE: ADMIRAL FALLOW / OLYMPIC SWIMMERS – 03/12/2012

LIVE: WILLY MASON – 02/12/2012

– THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER – A relaxed Sunday night atmosphere awaits American singer songwriter Willy Mason who sings his heart out to a packed Ruby Lounge. The son of folk singing parents, Mason is currently touring around the UK promoting his third album ‘Carry On’ which is due to be released on the 3rd […]
– THE ROADHOUSE, MANCHESTER – After a one-minute walk from the tram stop, I’m out of the cold, foggy night, down a flight of stairs and into the relative warmth of The Roadhouse. A hand stamp from the friendly door staff and the purchase of an Irish stout later, and I’m all set for the […]

LIVE: THE LOVELY EGGS / BAD GRAMMAR – 30/11/2012

LIVE: SHEARWATER – 26/11/2012

– ST. PHILIP’S CHURCH, SALFORD – I love gigs in unconventional venues. Almost equally, is having to set off five minutes before this evening’s Shearwater gig starts. Tonight’s proceedings take place right on my doorstep, in the gorgeous, St Philip’s Church. Dating back to 1825, it’s a hidden gem, poking out onto Salford’s Chapel Street. […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – We are here at the Deaf Institute to experience the performance of a peculiar conceptual album and academic lecture with Luke Haines (The Auteurs), Cathal Coughlan (Microdisney and The Fatima Mansions) and narrated by Andrew Mueller. They describe themselves as a “dauntless trio”. The North Sea Scrolls, written by […]

LIVE: THE NORTH SEA SCROLLS – 26/11/2012

LIVE: ADAM ANT AND THE GOOD, THE MAD AND THE LOVELY POSSE – 25/11/2012

– THE RITZ, MANCHESTER – So Adam Ant is back – still or, again- this time with his band The Good, The Mad and the Lovely Posse. In his heyday, Ant – real name Stuart Goddard- was a very subversive kind of pop star, a British “pop glam-tinged” star. He began by riding that (new) […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – As The Neighbourhood take to the stage they ooze an effortless cool.  The LA five-piece rocketed in popularity after being selected as Zane Lowe’s Hottest Record in the World on Radio 1, with their infectious single ‘Sweater Weather’. As a band bathed in anonymity in their beginnings, and with […]

LIVE: THE NEIGHBOURHOOD – 15/11/2012

LIVE: TURBONEGRO – 22/11/2012

– ACADEMY 3, MANCHESTER – Turbonegro must (never) be destroyed! The Turbojunged are out in force this evening in Manchester. The classic Denim jacket emblazoned with the leather cap and the area of fan base below. On the stairs up to Academy three there are Jungeds from Aberdeen, Stoke, Lisbon, Oslo, Lemmington, Madrid and of […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – Tonight, Father John Misty, supported by No, is a sold-out show at The Deaf Institute, probably my favourite gig venue, and one whose glitter ball seems to have grown each time I visit. Either it’s a trick of the mind or just maybe that mysterious sparkly sphere that ominously […]

LIVE: FATHER JOHN MISTY / NO – 23/11/2012