LIVE: SAVAGES – 07/11/2012

– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – Arriving for the first time in Gorilla since its refit from the Green Room I am surprised and impressed at the rather cavernous space they’ve opened up towards the back of the building. With its curved archways, bare brick and cool décor it’s perfect as a new gig venue. Having already […]
– SOUND CONTROL, MANCHESTER – Jessie Ware is very much your girl next door pop star. It was only a few years back that the South London based vocalist was just beginning her musical career as a backing singer for mid-noughties indie king Jack Penate. A few low key but seminal collaborations later and Ware […]

LIVE: JESSIE WARE – 08/11/2012

LIVE: DEATH GRIPS – 06/11/2012

– SOUND CONTROL, MANCHESTER – Death Grips are probably the closest thing we have to actual punk these days. For those not aware, the story (roughly) goes: mysterious hip hop/hardcore band release a widely praised mixtape, play some intense shows. Band signs, somewhat bizarrely, to Sony backed major label Epic, announces that two albums will […]
– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – There’s a rare down moment during How To Dress Well’s exposed performance when someone nervously shouts for a drum solo. Eyes turn to the nominal ‘drummer’ of the trio on stage, and what emerges as he tinkers with his magical toolbox is nothing like a drum, rather a highly strung […]

LIVE: HOW TO DRESS WELL – 03/11/2012

LIVE: UN-PEELED – 27/10/2012

– THE NIGHT & DAY CAFE/GULLIVERS, MANCHESTER – Un-Peeled is part reverent nod, part push forwards for the music the great man championed #Keepingitpeel Keepitpeel . The set is an all dayer at Oldham Street venues, Night & Day Cafe and Gullivers. I arrive at Night & Day round 7.30 at the tail end of The […]
– ACADEMY 3, MANCHESTER – It’s All Hallows’ Evening and folk/blues rock duo, the Two Gallants are in town. There’s a spooky atmosphere in the air tonight, as hoards of young ‘uns line the streets, screeching and clutching each other from the freezing cold. Girls with thick make-up prance around in short, ripped skirts and devil horns. The […]

LIVE: TWO GALLANTS / THE HICKEY UNDERWORLD – 31/10/2012

Live: Beach House – 31/10/2012

– The Ritz, Manchester – It’s hard to say why some shows work and others do not. Rewind two years and Beach House, a previously unknown (to me anyway) Cocteau Twins-esque act hailing from Baltimore steal my heart in Manchester Cathedral. The setting, the sound and the light show gel completely, and the band, riding […]
– THE RITZ, MANCHESTER – Drinking my first beer of the night, I thought of my chumbuttlies with whom I would soon be road-tripping to the gig, singing nursery rhymes and drinking from stolen pint glasses as we went. On the road, we joyfully reminisce about the Ritz of our whipper-snapper days and had a […]

LIVE: THE WALKMEN / WILD NOTHING – 30/10/2012

LIVE: EIGHTIES MATCHBOX B-LINE DISASTER – 29/10/2012

– CLUB ACADEMY, MANCHESTER – An 80’s Matchbox B- Line Disaster gig is like cuing for a ride at a theme park. You wait ages and then you’re rewarded with a forty second or in this case, forty minute thrill. As is their want, 80MBD (sorry abbreviations necessary) like to wait for as long as […]
– THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER – When Joe Jean & The Jing Jang Jong – the band more memorable for their name than their records – finally split up after a year of empty hype in 2009, you might have assumed that their members would spend their time in exile from the music industry ever […]

LIVE: TOY – 28/10/2012