LIVE: EVERYONE YOU KNOW – 28/10/2019

– Soup Kitchen, Manchester – It’s Monday night and after touring for nearly a week, Everyone You Know have arrived in Manchester. The band, consisting of two half-brothers, has recently released their second EP ‘Look After Your Pennies’ and started their first proper headline tour on 22nd October. I haven’t seen a gig at Soup […]
-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- Binge With the headline act billed as one of Japan’s most interesting ‘noise’ bands, it’s not a particular surprise that this opening act is also a two-piece, with a technical heaviness that places the 4/4 convention into a dustbin and promptly kicked down an escalator, never to return. With but a guitar and […]

LIVE: MELT-BANANA / BINGE – 21/10/2019

LIVE: HOT CHIP – 25/10/2019

-VICTORIA WAREHOUSE, MANCHESTER- Somehow I’ve never managed to see Hot Chip live, despite them being one of my all time favourite bands. I was, like many, caught hook, line and sinker by the majestic ‘Over & Over’, that monkey with its miniature cymbal burrowing its way into my brain like the world’s most potent ear […]
-BAND ON THE WALL, MANCHESTER- A lot can happen to a band in just over a year and for Perth’s Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, to use the term bumper would be a huge understatement. Returning to Manchester for the fourth time in thirteen months, the band, somewhat unsurprisingly, have sold out yet another venue and continue […]

LIVE: PSYCHEDELIC PORN CRUMPETS – 25/10/2019

LIVE: SQUID – 22/10/2019

-YES, MANCHESTER- I don’t even know where to start with this. Part of the ridiculously brilliant Speedy Wunderground crew (including black midi and Black Country, New Road), Squid are making weird, wild, unpredictable, fascinating music seemingly with no boundaries or conventions, just doing what the fuck they like and seeing what happens. Tonight in Yes’ […]
-NIGHT AND DAY CAFE, MANCHESTER- New Yorker Frankie Cosmos (or Greta Kline, to give her her given name), is nothing if not prolific. Since 2014 she’s released four albums and two EPs, with two of those albums and one of those EPs coming within the last year. It’s not just the volume of albums either; […]

LIVE: FRANKIE COSMOS – 21/10/2019

LIVE: HENGE – 19/10/2019

-ACADEMY 2, MANCHESTER- It’s cold. Save for one brief run and the odd cursory hands over my eyes glance at the news, I’ve spent almost all day reading under a blanket. It gets to early evening and my housemates are making bread from scratch. Our home is just one pumpkin spiced beverage away from wholesome […]
-BAND ON THE WALL, MANCHESTER- What an absolute triumph this show is. Self Esteem (Rebecca Lucy Taylor to her mum) returns to Manchester after playing Yes earlier in the year for what is a kind of a victory lap for her brilliant debut album Compliments Please, and absolutely slays it. The packed out Friday night […]

LIVE: SELF ESTEEM – 18/10/2019

LIVE: RISING UP! PETERLOO 2019 – 17/10/2019

-HOME, MANCHESTER- When the line-up for this year’s Manchester Folk Festival was announced, tonight’s show at HOME was the one I was most looking forward to. 2019 is the 200-year anniversary of the Peterloo massacre that took place at St. Peter’s Fields, a few minutes on foot from where I am now sat. Following on […]
-RETRO BAR, MANCHESTER- Akin to all alldayers of old, Deco pick and mix from an eclectic inventory of bands that vary in sonic and, unfortunately, qualitative terms. Allowing inexperienced bands to share the bill early on is admirable, affording them an opportunity to hone their craft and test their metaphoric mettle; yet as a spectator […]

LIVE: DECO RECORDS ALL-DAYER AT RETRO – 28/09/2019