LIVE: STEPHEN MORRIS IN CONVERSATION WITH DAVE HASLAM – 11/05/2019

– THE DANCEHOUSE THEATRE, MANCHESTER- Launching his autobiography by having a chat with local writer and DJ Dave Haslam, Joy Division and New Order’s drumming legend Stephen Morris is in fine form. Although guitarist and frontman Bernard Sumner and former bassist Peter Hook have already released their autobiographies, Morris states that this is “his side” […]
-YES, MANCHESTER- C33’s A rather up-tempo opener provides the spectators with a redux to classic punk, energetic yet rather simplistic, perhaps a little too much so. The noise they emit certainly earns them notice, but their inability to actually innovate beyond a string of Ramones-inspired tantrums does little to warm me to them. The drums […]

LIVE: DRAHLA / SNAKE EATERS / C33’S – 07/05/2019

LIVE: FAT WHITE FAMILY – 04/05/2019

-THE RITZ, MANCHESTER- Fat White Family’s performance at Manchester’s glorious Ritz offers an insight into the wild minds of its members, who, seemingly possessed by seedy, dark forces, are as ever electric and uncompromising. Rifling through delicious tracks from their small yet juicy back catalogue, FWF seem to have a real connection with the Manchester […]
-REGENTS TRADING ESTATE, SALFORD- This is Sounds from the Other City’s birthday and to celebrate they’re throwing a quindecennial party. To save you a trip to your pocket e-dictionary, that means they’re fifteen years old, a hell of an achievement for an annual one-day music festival. For this one-off occasion, they’re throwing their usual format […]

LIVE: SOUNDS FROM THE OTHER CITY FESTIVAL – 05/05/2019

LIVE: THE BLINDERS – 27/04/2019

-THE RITZ, MANCHESTER- If you’ve had any interest in guitar music over the past eighteen months, you’ll have heard their name, they’ve made it sure as hell that everybody who needs to know, knows. The Blinders have been of interest to many, especially this past year, after the release of their debut album, Columbia, to great praise […]
-BAND ON THE WALL, MANCHESTER- Tonight is special for BC Camplight. He’s too cool ever to say so, but it is clear. After everything he’s been through over the last decade, to have an intimate solo show like this in the city that has become his home and has offered him the opportunities that he […]

LIVE: BC CAMPLIGHT – SOLO SHOW & Q&A – 30/04/2019

LIVE: CABBAGE – 25/04/2019

-YES, MANCHESTER- After listening to Cabbage over the past couple of years or so, I knew there was something I was personally missing. Certain music press were raving about them being the band we needed, pushing a political mess into people’s faces. For myself, just hearing their recordings, I wasn’t completely on board the “Cabbage […]
-THE DANCEHOUSE THEATRE, MANCHESTER- Of the many venues that an indie-folk band could play, one that doesn’t immediately come to mind is the Dancehouse. Plain and simple, it’s a theatre, but perhaps the setting of the gig reveals intention – to bring something different, to celebrate the album in question by placing it in the […]

LIVE: THE ANTLERS – 20/04/2019

LIVE: HEIR / HAYES & Y – 17/04/2019

-GULLIVERS, MANCHESTER- Here’s the thing….Manchester is very proud of its music scene (and rightly so), not to mention intent on giving burgeoning artists the opportunity to showcase their talents, to the extent that it will squeeze a gig in anywhere it can! Tonight proves to be no exception when Gullivers plays host to the fantastically […]
-DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER- Chaos. Total and utter chaos. That is what unfolds tonight at Deaf (an absolutely apt name for a venue where this band is concerned, sweet Jesus it’s LOUD tonight), the mayhem orchestrated by Daughters’ extraordinary frontman Alexis S.F. Marshall who is quite unlike anyone I’ve seen perform. An absolute whirling dervish of […]

LIVE: DAUGHTERS – 17/04/2019