LIVE: WHYTE HORSES – 26/11/2015

 – NIGHT & DAY CAFE, MANCHESTER – It’s hard to completely get a handle on Whyte Horses, and that, in itself is quite revitalising. There’s a definite mystique that surrounds them – a band with minimal online presence, having released a few songs over the past twelve months and live performances are also somewhat of […]
– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – There’s a crazy amount of great gigs to choose from in Manchester this month. Just tonight, there are two other bands that I would’ve also liked to have seen, but my fondness for Disappears’ 2012 album Pre-Language was enough to lure me to the Soup Kitchen basement. Amongst the various forms of […]

LIVE: DISAPPEARS – 24/11/2015

LIVE: KAGOULE – 20/11/2015

– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – Kagoule only played the Soup Kitchen a month ago as part of Carefully Planned festival and were the highlight of the entire weekend. This will come as no surprise to anyone who’s heard their recent album Urth, considering it’s probably the best debut album of the year. They kick off […]
 – GORILLA, MANCHESTER – Valkyriesque, thunderous background music foretells a rumbling horror show tonight at Manchester’s Gorilla. Straight from “Hell, Cambridge”, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats storm into stage. Lead singer and guitarist Kevin Starrs (K.R.) vaguely reminds me of that creepy Japanese little girl that comes out of a well and crosses the safe […]

LIVE: UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS – 19/11/2015

LIVE: NITIN SAWHNEY – 20/11/2015

 – GORILLA, MANCHESTER – I once heard a theory that it takes an average of seven years to master a trade or profession. Translated into musical instruments by this premise, Nitin Sawhney must be at least 300 years old. The impossibly talented singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, actor, screenwriter and in recent years radio show host, […]
 – THE RITZ, MANCHESTER – Kurt Viles’ music for the gentle outlaw is a soothing painkiller for these days of daze and outrage. Some kind of warm beneath your iced bones. The Ritz is packed and I can’t help smiling as in a happy-go-lucky TV commercial. It’s just great to see that we all gathered […]

LIVE: KURT VILE AND THE VIOLATORS – 18/11/2015

LIVE: PALMA VIOLETS – 18/11/2015

 – SOUND CONTROL, MANCHESTER – After the post-punk revival scene of the noughties was knocked six feet under by bands more emotionally-complex, Palma Violets have been praised for resurrecting venues all over the country with their energetic live performances. Tonight it’s Sound Control which graces their presence and a dividing line soon creates two camps: […]
– THE ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER –  This year has marked the tenth year anniversary for a lot of records that shaped my youth. 2005 saw me in my mid-teens, old enough to go to some gigs without a dad and finally earning a few more bob than the paper round so I could go and […]

LIVE: MAXIMO PARK – 18/11/2015

LIVE: MIKAL CRONIN – 19/11/2015

 – SOUND CONTROL, MANCHESTER – An immediate shock greets everybody that enters Sound Control tonight. The venue, utilised less and less by touring bands as its years drift by, has cordoned off its natural upstairs setting, and instead has compressed the night’s events into its downstairs bar area. Like others, my instinct is that this […]
– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – I first encountered the ‘Ezra Furman’ concept through this picture: feline sunglasses, pearls, lipstick, a falsely shy smile, sinuous pose and a Chanel-styled jacket from the 1960s certainly stolen from my mother. My subconscious went: Mum! My professional superego said: mmm, let’s check this musician out. Then the music came. It was […]

LIVE: EZRA FURMAN – 16/11/2015