LIVE: OF MONTREAL – 05/10/2010

– ACADEMY 1, MANCHESTER – Who shot streams of sparkle and strangeness through the Tuesday night sky? Who bastardised performance art with camp disco flamboyance, only to nurture this bastard child and let it grow into a fabulous monster? Of Montreal did, oh yes, and nanas would cry out in terror or thrill at the […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – San Diego residents, Crocodiles, visit the Deaf Institute in support of their second album ‘Sleep Forever’ which was released over here on September 10th. They’re a band who clearly wear their influences on their collective sleeves. Jesus and Mary Chain, Spacemen 3 and Echo and The Bunnymen are all […]

LIVE: CROCODILES – 04/10/2010

LIVE:MARK RONSON & THE BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL – 02/10/2010

– ACADEMY 1, MANCHESTER – Uniqueclectlic. That’s the word for a Mark Ronson gig. Ok I made it it up. But this experience was unique and electric as the throbbing crowd at The Apollo get taken on tour de force ride consisting of 80s electro through to indie rock via hip hop. Kick off begins […]
– THE ROADHOUSE, MANCHESTER – If a sign was needed that Exit Calm were gathering a bit of momentum, the crowd that greets me at The Roadhouse is it. It’s certainly a welcome sight – vindication of my faith in this young band from South Yorkshire. The previous time I saw them, I could have […]

LIVE: EXIT CALM – 01/10/2010

LIVE: 3OH!3 – 28/09/2010

– ACADEMY 3, MANCHESTER – Who said pop was dead? It’s a drizzly September evening and the dancefloor of the humid broom-cupboard known as Academy 3 is seeing more action than Darren Day’s grotty bedpost. Scores of teenagers brandishing glowsticks, make-shift banners and Gladiators-style polystyrene headwear are foaming at the mouth at the thought of […]
– APOLLO THEATRE, MANCHESTER – Midway through ‘The Handshake’ a beer sails through the air and hits the drummer on the head. He glances over his shoulder, sticks his middle finger up at the unattentive, bored audience and, like the consummate professional he is, finishes the track. After which he again sticks his middle finger […]

LIVE: MGMT – 26/09/2010

LIVE: THE VASELINES – 23/09/2010

– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – Managing to ram so many people into such a small space you can see how The Vaselines got their name (wince). Just on the off chance that there was any call for yet another petroleum jelly related pun when discussing the Glaswegian outfit… The Vaselines, Eugene Kelly and Frances […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – The first time Willy Mason toured the UK, he was a fresh-faced 19 year-old from Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Armed only with a guitar and a small rucksack of clothes, he slept on floors and sold roughly-mixed demos of stripped-down, Dylan-esque odes to politics, society and the love of a […]

LIVE: WILLY MASON – 21/09/2010

LIVE: LIAM FROST – 20/09/2010

– SOUND CONTROL, MANCHESTER – There’s a Ziggy Stardust moment at tonight’s concert, about half way through. Liam Frost – who seems to be thoroughly enjoying himself on stage -suddenly says, between songs: “this is the last time I’m going to be singing these songs and doing this for a while”. I pretty much spit […]
– BAND ON THE WALL, MANCHESTER – As I wander through the half-filled, refurbished environs of The Band on the Wall, I gaze up at the Indian dropout, hippies onstage who seem to have been sent here through a time warp from the 1960s (via the 1980s). Decked in washed out, bleeding baggy clothes, string […]

LIVE: RAGHU DIXIT – 19/09/2010