LIVE: Tera Melos/Tangled Hair – 09/06/2011

– NIGHT & DAY CAFE, MANCHESTER – What’s going on here, then? Why has everyone swept to the front like some kind of beardy avalanche to see the support act? It transpires that Kingston trio, Tangled Hair, are a remoulded version of Colour, the math-pop pioneers who split in 2009 and whose delicate template Tubelord […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – Male singer songwriter types playing solo with acoustic guitars are not my thing. The whole lonesome sensitive soul routine of acoustic indie rockers like Bon Iver et al just leaves me cold. On sight of another 20’s / 30’s male (and it generally always is males) with an acoustic […]

LIVE: SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE – 07/06/2011

LIVE: JAMES BLAKE – 07/06/2011

– SANKEYS, MANCHESTER – Gigs are better when you arrive fashionably late; rarely do I catch the support act and when I do I usually stand there impatiently waiting for the main event. However, it would seem there is fashionably late and just plain old, late. My sister and I rock up to Sankeys at […]
– SACRED TRINITY CHURCH, SALFORD – Jesus may have won the battle, when he kicked the moneylenders out of the temple, but he lost the war. Idolatrous, life-sized silver male and female torsos (nipples intact) – which clearly contravene one or more of the Ten Commandments – stand to the left of the stage on […]

LIVE REVIEW: Emmy The Great – 06/06/2011

LIVE REVIEW: IBIZA ROCKS OPENING PARTY – PLAN B – 01/06/2011

– IBIZA ROCKS HOTEL, SAN ANTONIO – The summer is finally here which means two things to most of us – festival season and holidays. Music lovers and party people seem to head to one particular little island in the Balearics at this time of year. An island that needs no introduction – Ibiza. Famous […]
– ISLINGTON MILL, SALFORD – In Islington Mill for a show promoted by Fat Out Till You Pass Out, who generally have excellent taste in music and artwork for their gig posters. They have a series of interesting shows coming up this summer including their own two day festival in August, and they are kicking […]

LIVE REVIEW: Æthenor – 04/06/2011

LIVE: NOW WAVE PRESENTS CARIBOU/BATTLES – 04/06/2011

– THE APOLLO THEATRE, MANCHESTER – Just before Battles take the stage a friend of mine gets into a fight in the crowd.  Some over-priced cider is accidentally spilt over a punter which results in said punter taking issue.  Insults are exchanged, a tussle ensues where the cider spiller jumps on the back of the […]
– SACRED TRINITY CHURCH, SALFORD – Gigs in Churches are the new black. Sacred Trinity nestled on the cusp of Manchester, on Salford’s Chapel Street – which is now getting quite a reputation, of the good kind. Bang in the middle of this new creative cluster, round the corner from Islington Mill, the uber top […]

LIVE: I Am Blackbird – 03/06/2011

LIVE: SPARROW AND THE WORKSHOP – 29/05/2011

– THE ROADHOUSE, MANCHESTER – Three support bands have been lined up for tonight and the Roadhouse only has a handful of customers. I arrive late and manage to catch Meursault (while ordering a Guinness) who I would simply describe as The Twilight Sad, if they were a little sadder. Wire lights run along the […]
– CENTRAL METHODIST CHURCH, MANCHESTER – High on my list of bands to see, The Kills caught my attention six years ago on a TV broadcast of Fashion Rocks. The duo of Jamie Hince and Alison Mosshart played the minimal and raw ‘No Wow’ as models paraded around the stage. As a darker version of […]

LIVE: THE KILLS – 27/05/2011