ALBUM REVIEW: PINEGROVE – MARIGOLD

Easy listening music is often mocked by some music snobs who only accept the highest echelon of music enter their eardrums and nothing less than challenging is considered ‘good music’. Pinegrove is very much an easy listening band, as the term goes. Their formula of indie, country and folk with stripped down instrumentation is very […]
-THE RITZ, MANCHESTER- Playing their self-titled debut album in its entirety, The Futureheads have filled out the Ritz with an eager crowd of all ages. With an album that is as quick and snappy in length as the guitar riffs that fill it, it is a concern whether they will fill the evening. But, with […]

LIVE: THE FUTUREHEADS – 15/12/2019

LIVE: THE LIBERTINES – 10/12/2019

-VICTORIA WAREHOUSE, MANCHESTER- It’s that time of year again, The Libertines are on tour. It’s been the same program more or less for the last five years for the likely lads: a few festival slots during the summer and then a lovely tour of their home ground at the back end of the year. Last […]
-YES (THE BASEMENT), MANCHESTER- Locomotion across these fair Isles carries risks varied in quantity; the expense of purse, untimely demise (Ringo Starr’s narration would be of little use here), disorientation (route discernment failure typically), contributing to the coffers of the faceless conglomerates, and in the case of this narrative impeding one’s travel with the unfortunate […]

LIVE: MOLD / STARLIGHT MAGIC HOUR / BLANKETMAN – 13/12/2019

ALBUM REVIEW: G STANDS FOR GO-BETWEENS VOL 2

In an ideal world, The Go-Betweens should have been as big as REM – they had melodies bursting from their pores, and in the songwriting partnership of Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, two of the finest songsmiths around. They wrote tunes that shimmered with guitar riffs jangling, and tales of love won, lost and yearned […]
-YES, MANCHESTER- It’s beginning to feel a lot less like Christmas recently, I still feel dampened by the election results, but time to dry off in Manchester’s finest YES venues for a very special Boy Azooga Christmas Show. The night starts with the fantastic support act that is John Myrtle, his heavily humorous lyrics and […]

LIVE: BOY AZOOGA – 14/12/2019

LIVE: PATAWAWA / FOXGLOVE – 12/12/2019

-THE EAGLE INN, SALFORD- Opening act, Foxglove, showcase a variety of sounds in a short space of time. You can hear a mixture of influences and a collaboration of styles. Shimmering reverb guitars that have a post-rock feel to them, funk laden bass and smooth RnB vocals. They are everything from mellow vibes to punchy […]
-THE RITZ, MANCHESTER- (Insert: Opening statement about how, like everybody else, I discovered them through a certain viral hit that appeals to anyone with a sense of humour regarding inhaled narcotics.) The obvious appeal with this particular 3-piece is the straight forward, 3-chord mimicry of classic punk which is tied in with their Australian background […]

LIVE: THE CHATS – 10/12/2019

LIVE: WE WERE PROMISED JETPACKS – 06/12/2019

-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- After some unexpected problems on the door regarding the guest list, I finally take shelter from this cold Friday winter night in a packed Gorilla. Unfortunately, I have missed the first four tracks of this ten-year celebration of the band’s 2009 debut album These Four Walls. The opening four tracks contain two of […]
When David Bowie announced the end of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders Form Mars, live on stage at the end of the Ziggy tour in 1973, Bowie’s management company Mainman decided they needed to fill the Bowie sized gap in the music world, and Bowie’s guitarist in the Spiders From Mars, Mick Ronson was duly […]

ALBUM REVIEW: MICK RONSON – ONLY AFTER DARK – THE COMPLETE MAINMAN RECORDINGS