LIVE: PLACEBO – 11/10/2017

-ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER- Placebo were due to play the Empress Ballroom in Blackpool until worries about the venue’s roof meant it was forced to close. Due to some last minute changes of plan, the closest similarly sized venue was the Albert Hall in Manchester. It might not be that close (proximity-wise) to Blackpool but it’s […]
-ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER- Slowdive formed way back in 1989 and released their first album Just a Day in 1991. Two subsequent albums shortly followed before various members departed, going on to work on various projects including the band Mojave 3. Their last record was released a whole 22 years ago, yet unlike many other bands […]

LIVE: SLOWDIVE / BLANCK MASS – 10/10/2017

LIVE: ULRIKA SPACEK – 10/10/2017

– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER-  Back from a tour of Europe, Reading’s Ulrika Spacek are back in Manchester with a second album under their belts, Modern English Decoration. A more polished article than their first album – guitars are beautifully woven together with gentle vocals, similar to Deerhunter, with gritty guitars and relentlessly addictive beats. White […]
-ST. ANNE’S CHURCH, MANCHESTER- Tonight, I’m seeing Andy McKee for the second time in Manchester. The first being at Gorilla late last year, in which Andy advised he may not be back for a while in order to work on a new album. I’m glad that plan seems to have changed and I’m able to […]

LIVE: ANDY McKEE – 03/10/2017

LIVE: VESSELS – 05/10/2017

-SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER- I remember really getting into math and post rock in 2008 which was when Leeds outfit Vessels released their debut album. It was a perfect marriage of the two sub-genres and naturally I thought it was ace. Fast forward a few years and I went to see the quintet at a festival, […]
-THE EAGLE INN, SALFORD- Tonight is the first time I’ll be seeing Jen Cloher, the first time Jen Cloher will play in Manchester and the first time I’ll be attending a gig at the Eagle Inn in Salford. It’s good to try new things, especially when it comes to music. However, Jen is anything but […]

LIVE: JEN CLOHER / CABLE TIES – 29/09/2017

LIVE – LIVERPOOL INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF PSYCHEDELIA 2017

There’s still time to fit in another festival this year, isn’t there? This ‘summer’ has been like an extended autumn anyhow, so it doesn’t really make a difference. Spending the weekend in an industrial estate not far from Liverpool city centre and the docks has become an annual ritual for me, and a must – […]
-MANCHESTER ARENA- There’s a part near the beginning of the recent Nick Cave documentary, which charts the making of Skeleton Tree, his latest album with the Bad Seeds, in which he says: “Isn’t it the invisible things, the lost things, that have so much mass? And are as big as the universe?” Cave has recently suffered […]

LIVE: NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS – 25/09/2017

LIVE: THE NATIONAL – 22/09/2017

-APOLLO, MANCHESTER- I first listened to The National’s music at my brother’s place in Leeds not long after the band’s third album Alligator had come out. Heading out afterwards into that Saturday afternoon’s bright sunlight I couldn’t stop singing the “sunglasses” line from the record’s opening track ‘Secret Meeting’. And that’s how it is with […]
-DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER- For a harmonica-playing psych-enthusiast, Melbourne band The Murlocs were essentially a dream come true.  I immediately fell for Ambrose Kenny-Smith’s snarling vocals and classic bluesman swagger, and the garage guitars. They were also my introduction to the wonderful Flightless record label – an introduction that led me to King Gizzard and the […]

LIVE: THE MURLOCS – 20/09/2017