LIVE: LORELLE MEETS THE OBSOLETE / SILVER VIALS – 10/01/2019

-SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER- 2019 is upon us and it’s the first gig of the year for your reviewer, and there are genuinely not many better ways to kick off than with tonight’s line up. Opening we have Silver Vials, a psych-tinged electronic duo whose changing line up and set up keeps fans and novices guessing […]
-ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER- Back from late 2000s mega success, MGMT provide tonight the Albert Hall mandem a chance to relive honking hot summers of 08-09, FIFA soundtracks and Made In Chelsea “coming next” segments. Braving the Northern chill, I venture to Manchester full of excitement. Although back in the day I didn’t immediately latch on […]

LIVE: MGMT – 17/12/2018

LIVE: AIDAN MOFFAT & RM HUBBERT – 14/12/2018

-SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER- As far as well respected Scottish artists go, you can’t get more loved than Aidan Moffat and RM Hubbert, so the news of the two collaborating together for an album brought joy to the ears of many. And as it happens, the album did the same thing. Released through Rock Action Records […]
-ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER- When indie-rock mavericks The Maccabees played their final shows last summer, I did wonder if we’d hear from any of them again. But it was only a matter of months before frontman Orlando Weeks announced a project he’d been working on for quite some time, The Gritterman. Starting life from a song, […]

LIVE: ORLANDO WEEKS – 12/12/2018

LIVE: PURPLE HEART PARADE / BLANKETMAN – 08/12/2018

-NIGHT PEOPLE, MANCHESTER- More often than not, when a band attempts to surgically graft differing influences together, the difficulty in pulling it off can present a scenario of grave inconsistency. Typically, the final product emerges as a badly rearranged skeletal entity, the kind of which would be best left in some remote, poorly lit cave […]
-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- Julia Holter is incredible. The LA-based musician is just 33 years of age, and she released her fifth (5th!) astonishing album Aviary to much acclaim last month, a 90 minute magnum opus that dazzles with its range of styles from atonal experimental noise to some of the best pop songs she’s composed so […]

LIVE: JULIA HOLTER – 06/12/2018

LIVE: THE FIELD – 28/11/2018

-YES, MANCHESTER- Axel Willner, AKA The Field, is an absolute dude. He’s probably the coolest person in Manchester at this very moment, despite the high hipster quotient currently in Yes waiting for him to come on and do his ambient, minimal techno thing. You see, Willner is Swedish, which immediately makes him cool, but now […]
-YES, MANCHESTER- YES. YES. YES. I am confused as I enter the new music venue in Manchester. I mean, I’ve been in venues where the local drunk is propping up the bar with a crowd of around 20 people. But walking into a pizzeria bar hybrid is something bizarre… After being ushered up the stairs […]

LIVE: ISAAC GRACIE – 19/11/2018

LIVE: MILES KANE / CABBAGE – 23/11/2018

-ACADEMY, MANCHESTER- When it comes to deciding on a support band, Miles Kane couldn’t have gone for a better choice than Manchester’s own Cabbage – especially in a Mancunian venue in which their energetic, self-proclaimed ‘semi punk’ performance has the crowd on each other’s shoulders and pitting within two songs of their set. Somehow they […]
-YES, MANCHESTER- Manchester’s YES is the hottest new venue in the North West, drawing attention with its unique 4 floor experience. It therefore comes as no surprise that its Basement room has been chosen by the promotion coalition of Band on the Wall x Grey Lantern x Manchester Psych Fest for tonight’s show. Opening are […]

LIVE: THE HOLYDRUG COUPLE / ECHO LADIES – 19/11/2018