LIVE: KING KARTEL / NARROW MARGIN / GLOBAL – 04/10/2019

-BAND ON THE WALL, MANCHESTER- After spending the summer abroad and finally having returned, seeing King Kartel will be my first gig back in Manchester. The Mancunian band hailing from Northern Ireland (mostly) are playing Band On The Wall with support from local bands Global and Narrow Margin. As soon as we enter, we see […]
-NIGHT AND DAY CAFE, MANCHESTER- New York’s The Mystery Lights grace Manchester’s Night and Day Café on a brisk evening signifying the end of the summer but the kick start to the usual autumn plethora of gigs around the city. They are currently mid-way through a mammoth two-month tour of Europe that’ll conclude at the […]

LIVE: THE MYSTERY LIGHTS – 01/10/2019

LIVE: CAMP COPE – 25/09/2019

-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- “Thanks for coming out guys, we haven’t really done much since last time so we really appreciate it!” says Camp Cope leader Georgia McDonald in her distinctive Aussie drawl, to much whooping from the crowd. People don’t care that the band haven’t released any new music since their brilliant 2018 LP How To […]
I’ve spent many a happy hour in a Dinosaur Jr moshpit. From Reading Festival (yes I am that old!) to Manc Academy in the 90’s, and still like to get involved in some ferocious head nodding / arms in the air kind of activity whenever I see them live these days too, although my mosh […]

ALBUM REVIEWS: DINOSAUR JR – GREEN MIND, WHERE YOU BEEN, WITHOUT A SOUND, HAND IT OVER

LIVE: NATALIE EVANS / BONNIESONGS – 22/09/2019

-THE CASTLE HOTEL, MANCHESTER- There is a dreamlike start to Bonniesongs’ set. An array of ethereal layered vocals are intertwined. It is vast, especially for a singular artist on stage. It is like a Sigur Ros track, transporting you to a tundra, or mountain top but wrapping you warm in the expanse with Bonnie’s enticing, […]
When the Pixies reformed back in 2004 I was leaping around like a deranged idiot with excitement, the gigs were great, then after a long wait, the comeback album ‘Indie Cindy’ was surprisingly good too, so fifteen years since reforming it seems like business as usual in terms of releasing new material, although no one […]

ALBUM REVIEW: PIXIES – BENEATH THE EYRIE

ALBUM REVIEW: BELLE & SEBASTIAN – DAYS OF THE BAGNOLD SUMMER

Having recently performed in a cruise ship as part of their ‘Boaty Weekender’ festival, the ever evolving Scots band release their second film soundtrack album. Sadly I didn’t take the indie rock n’ roll cruise, but apparently there were people there for the bands (Belle and Sebastian, Teenage Fanclub and tons more) plus bizarrely enough, […]
– ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER – “Don’t think twice ‘bout whatever keeps you itchin’. Ice water, flyswatter gonna get you through the day.” Lyrics I could not relate to anymore, after a summer of working in a pub in the middle of nowhere, getting bitten by insects daily. Flyswatter is the first of the band’s original […]

LIVE: EELS – 15/09/19

LIVE: MODERN NATURE – 17/09/2019

– YES BASEMENT, MANCHESTER – Modern Nature who take their name from the late film director Derek Jarman’s garden diaries arrive at Manchester’s Yes venue on the back of their recently released debut album ‘How to Live’. A flowing and at time meditative record which is destined to feature in many end of year critic […]
-GULLIVERS, MANCHESTER- Tin Mole Experimental is a label difficult to define, but it appears Deco have rummaged the attic for a few of the more warped figurines you’d be wise to inspect before touching. Dominated by menacing bass lines, Tin Mole succumb to the irresistibility of synthesisers as they purge onward, almost as though a […]

LIVE: TANGERINECAT / SLOW KNIFE / FACTORY ACTS / TIN MOLE – 07/09/2019