LIVE: THE HORNBLOWER BROTHERS – 05/03/2010

– ISLINGTON MILL, SALFORD – It was a normal weekday evening back in November of last year. I’d returned home from work and was listening to Marc Riley’s show on BBC 6 Music. As always there were some great tunes played as is expected, but on this particular night I was stood at the kitchen […]
– DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – It’s great to see The Deaf Institute almost full to capacity. Most are probably here to listen to the song with lots of numbers in it, but there’s much more to The Phenomenal Handclap Band than their Tings Tings-style smash hit. It’s worth mentioning the support band to put things […]

LIVE: THE PHENOMENAL HANDCLAP BAND – 03/03/2010

LIVE: GROOVE ARMADA – 02/03/2010

– THE RITZ BALLROOM, MANCHESTER – When it was rumoured that Groove Armada’s latest album, Black Light, was a homage to the 80s, I feared the worst. As one of Thatcher’s children, born in 1975, I hated the 80s and I’m finding it pretty hard to stomach all this nostalgia, especially from bands that I […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – 2009 was a good year for California based act, Girls. The tragic story of main man Christopher Owens’ upbringing in a cult, and his subsequent change of fortune when he was taken under the wing of a rich benefactor and moved to San Francisco where he formed Girls in […]

LIVE: GIRLS – 02/03/2010

LIVE: NOISETTES – 02/03/2010

– ACADEMY 1, MANCHESTER – “If you like yoghurt then you might know this one”, announces Shingai Shoniwa before the second song of the evening, ‘Wild Young Hearts’, and judging by the reaction of the crowd, a lot of people like yoghurt. Two of the Noisettes songs have been used in adverts, most notably the […]
– THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER – My friend warned me that last time he saw Kong, they were almost criminally loud. That in mind, I’ve brought some earplugs just in case. When I arrive, Trojan Horses are ignoring the audience and playing whatever it is that they play. The band looks like a weird face-off […]

LIVE: KONG – 28/02/2010

LIVE: FIELD MUSIC – 26/02/2010

– ISLINGTON MILL, SALFORD – It’s another dark and rainy night in the back streets of Salford. Islington Mill is packed, Marc Riley (#saveBBC6music) is here and there’s a buzzing atmosphere. The filler CD fades down and is replaced by what sounds like a secret sample recording from an empty concert hall. A note is […]
– The Ruby Lounge, Manchester – David Thomas Broughton quietly takes the stage at the Ruby Lounge aided only by an acoustic guitar and gently begins strumming. The majority of the Wednesday night Ruby Lounge crowd are initially not even aware that the PA has stopped and the performance has begun. Making use of some […]

LIVE: David Thomas Broughton – 24/02/2010

LIVE: SHEARWATER – 24/02/2010

– THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER – Shearwater arrive on a cold February night in Manchester off the back of their latest release, ‘The Golden Archipelago’. The five band members take up their designated positions on stage and the show begins – lead singer Jonathan Meiburg stands centre stage with a fixed and purposeful intensity and […]
– ACADEMY 3, MANCHESTER – Javelin’s bizarre intro – which I can only describe as ‘cosmic’ – segues straight into the main body of their set, which is stuck somewhere between very chilled and very dancy – with fat beats, floaty synths and falsetto vocals. The slightly everyday-sounding, yet ambitious lyrics mark this apart from […]

LIVE: YEASAYER/JAVELIN – 21/02/2010