LIVE: KAZE – 27/04/2018

-THE CASTLE HOTEL, MANCHESTER- A projectile courgette carves a path, like Gravity’s Rainbow, from the stage into the audience. This is music with menaces and only one of many signs that tonight is not the usual gig fare. When an artist is able to weaponise vegetables, you know they’re on to something. Kaze are the […]
-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- My only live experience of Sheffield-based Drenge prior to tonight was in a television studio in Kent, the band performing a couple of songs to promote its self-titled début album in 2013. At the time, Drenge was very much just youthful brothers Rory (drums) and Eoin (vocals and guitar). Watching them perform, one […]

LIVE: DRENGE – 02/05/2018

LIVE: METZ / MOANING – 02/05/2018

-SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER- Metz are an unstoppable machine. Since their formation in 2008, the Toronto trio have been hell bent on delivering the best noise punk going: whether it’s through their constantly reliable back catalog or their ear blitzing live shows, they have not slowed down. Due to the visceral nature of the band’s sound, […]
-ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER- Is there a word for that thing the Church does where they re-write the life of a Saint retrospectively? As in, St. Patrick probably was actually a really great guy, but he probably didn’t drive all the snakes out of Ireland. St. David (my namesake) probably did actually love leeks, but probably […]

LIVE: MEXRRISSEY – 27/04/2018

LIVE: NATALIE PRASS – 27/04/2018

-BAND ON THE WALL, MANCHESTER- Natalie Prass is familiar with the time it takes to release an album into the world. Her debut was ready to go in early 2012, but was shelved for some three years because her friend and label boss Matthew E. White was amidst the promotion of his own first album […]
-MANCHESTER ARENA- Manic Street Preachers are a band of mythologies. They were born as hard-line punks, so devoted to their ideology that their original bassist Flicker left because he felt the band were betraying their roots. That was in 1988. At times tonight, some three decades later, the Manics look and sound every bit a […]

LIVE: MANIC STREET PREACHERS – 28/04/2018

LIVE: BLACK DOLDRUMS / THE DEE VEES / THE PAPASHANGOS – 23/04/2018

-NIGHT PEOPLE, MANCHESTER- There is a nice little three band line up on at Manchester’s Night People for a Monday night, courtesy of Manchester Rocks. Boltonians The Papashangos open with an enthusiastic performance with props including customised money and ponchos that goes on just a little too long, but the limited audience seem to enjoy […]
-SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER- Record Store Day is a time for people to get together to celebrate their love of records, all the while supporting their local music stores. The Northern Quarter in Manchester is the hub where all the action takes place. As soon as I step off the bus in Shudehill I am met […]

LIVE: RECORD STORE DAY LIVE – VULGARIANS / MUTABASE / STRANGE FRIENDS – 21/04/2018

LIVE: HINDS – 17/04/2018

-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- It’s three days since I was last in exactly the same place, and four since I conked my head on, of all places, the floor. On my way in the bouncer also knocks his head, on the less ridiculous place of the brick arch he is standing under at the entrance to Gorilla. […]
-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- Disclaimer: yesterday I hit myself on the head embarrassingly forcefully. With that mild concussion in mind, I’ll be keeping this brief. The album sleeve for The Orielles’ Silver Dollar Moment is smears and dabs of bright colours. For myself, and maybe others, the record came along without warning. From nowhere, the chimes of […]

LIVE: THE ORIELLES – 14/04/2018