LIVE: FESTIVAL NO. 6

THE ULTIMATE MIDDLECLASS FUCKFEST Arriving on a gloomy Friday morning in the land of dragons, sheep and people who hiss, Festival No. 6 instantly comes across as the sort of festival I shouldn’t be at. The quirky signs welcome you in as the weight of 20 cans teases a crippling crush on my struggling wrists, […]
– GULLIVERS, MANCHESTER – “I love camaraderie” asserts Danny George Wilson. Attending a live show with his fantastic band (The Champions of the World, no need to be humble at this point) is enough to prove his point. The always warm and cosy venue at Northern Quarter’s Gullivers is quite packed, mostly with a nice […]

LIVE: DANNY AND THE CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD – 06/09/2016

LIVE: TOOTS AND THE MAYTALS – 10/09/2016

– ACADEMY, MANCHESTER – Ska is sadly mourning when Toots & The Maytals arrive at Manchester’s Academy. Prince Buster has just died and a vivid legend is born. What a better way to pay tribute than with a superb performance by ‘Toots’ and Co.? This is a special show for another reason too: it’s the […]
– THE RITZ, MANCHESTER – It seems like barely a day goes by without us at Silent Radio extolling the virtues of the Psych revival. This is not by design; Manchester and seemingly everywhere else is aboard a kaleidoscopic juggernaut unable and unwilling to stop it. Both floors of The Ritz are in use for […]

LIVE: STRANGE WAVES PRESENTS KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD – 09/09/2016

LIVE: SUNFLOWER BEAN – 10/09/2016

– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – New York’s Sunflower Bean became one of the hottest tip bands after their release of their debut album earlier this year. A potent mix of attitude and great songs, it made for a listen that harked back to days long gone yet still managed to look forward with an […]
– THE CASTLE HOTEL, MANCHESTER – I’ve never looked at someone and thought ‘definite Klaus Johann Grobe’ fan but tonight I’m surrounded by people eulogising about their supposedly intense live show. A band from Switzerland with a German name, nothing really makes sense about this band as Kraftwerk sounds merge with disco and straight out […]

LIVE: KLAUS JOHANN GROBE – 07/09/2016

LIVE: LISTENER – 30/08/2016

– GULLIVERS, MANCHESTER – The band lay bare their emotions and feelings right from the very start tonight.  Entering the stage they begin with their pre-show pep talk with the crowd as witness, hugging in a circle, laughing, warming up and getting in the mood.  I have never seen this before, usually done out of […]
– RNCM, MANCHESTER – It’s like stepping through an upper-middle-class portal tonight, as the Royal Northern College of Music’s or RNCM for short, has its patrons ushered and halted and directed through doors and hallways. Holding wine in their hands, the RNCMs patrons, no more than utter a whisper throughout the performance, as Sam Beam […]

LIVE: SAM BEAM AND JESCA HOOP – 31/08/2016

LIVE: M. WARD – 01/09/2016

– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – It dawned on me in about 2004 that several of my favourite bands and musicians were signed to the same label, Merge Records, so I decided to splash out on the then-recent 3-CD compilation Old Enough To Know Better: 15 Years of Merge Records. As a kid I’d been given a […]
– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – Whispers about Brooklyn’s Big Thief seem to have echoed across America; Npr music’s Bob Boilen, the man who saw 666 gigs last year, hailed them as a band ‘bound by big songs’ calling their album’ title track ‘Masterpiece’ “one of the best songs of the year”, while Pitchfork said songs on […]

LIVE: BIG THIEF – 01/09/2016