LIVE: METRONOMY – 09/11/2019

-ACADEMY, MANCHESTER- Devonshire’s Metronomy have released a whopping six albums. One steady string running throughout is their eccentric, envelope-pushing electric pop. What has changed however is their relationship with music. Their latest release, Metronomy Forever, has hints of the previous decades, the colossal 17 tracker adding whole song instrumentals for good measure. Metronomy’s recent blurring of identity […]
Originally released in the late 1980s, ‘The Early EPs’ include ‘Freaky Dancin’ and ‘The Egg’- both released from the Factory/London Records vault. In 2019, the songs may no longer be relevant in popular culture but the tracks are re-introduced to a new generation of people. Also with their ‘Greatest Hits’ tour happening as we speak, […]

ALBUM REVIEW: HAPPY MONDAYS -THE EARLY EPS

LIVE: OMD – 01/11/2019

– The Apollo, Manchester – There’s a giddy atmosphere from the moment you step into the Apollo tonight, a sense that there’s a party about to unfold, but OMD celebrating forty years of being a band is much more than just a nostalgia trip. Make no mistake, this is a band that are still capable […]
– The Dancehouse Theatre, Manchester – Meeting my friend for pre gig pizzas and drinks, thinking we had plenty of time for a natter, our pizzas have to be hastily chomped down upon reading an intriguing message about the gig – ‘the band were on early, no support due to the massive light show’. A […]

LIVE REVIEW: MOON DUO – 29/10/2019

LIVE: MUSH / SPRINGFIELD ELEMENTARY – 30/10/2019

– Yes, Manchester – Having only ever played two gigs in my entire 23 years I’m not best qualified to dish out advice to aspiring bands but there are a few musical truisms that even I’m aware of. One of these is that if your drummer counts in by shouting ‘1 2 3 4!’ and […]
-Yes, Manchester – Young people matter, young people matter, young people matter… Walking into the pink room tonight at Yes, I look around and the place is full of them, young people. Leather jackets, dungarees and even a couple of mullets, LIFE have a voice for our generation and it’s relentless. Straight off the back […]

LIVE: LIFE – 27/10/2019

LIVE: WEYES BLOOD – 29/10/2019

– Club Academy, Manchester – Natalie Mering, commonly known as Weyes Blood, has made one of the very best albums of the year in Titanic Rising. On the cover of this extraordinary album, Mering floats underwater in a what looks like her teenage bedroom, an otherworldly, slightly unsettling image as she looks directly at us […]
The Queens Of The Stoneage frontman has once again put together a fine band of musicians for his Desert Sessions project – from ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, to Matt Berry, Stella Mogzawa from Warpaint to Jake Shears from the Scissor Sisters. What started off as Josh Homme having a few days away at the Rancho […]

ALBUM REVIEW: DESERT SESSIONS VOL 11 & 12

LIVE: SUNN O))) – 27/10/2019

– Albert Hall, Manchester – Upon entry, I walk upstairs through a building that could pass as a mental idealisation of a natural history museum; the high ceilings and dated decorum compliment the main hall which itself could easily house a selection of skeletal theropods; reinforcing my abstract visualisation. The seated area has a vague […]
– Soup Kitchen, Manchester – It’s Monday night and after touring for nearly a week, Everyone You Know have arrived in Manchester. The band, consisting of two half-brothers, has recently released their second EP ‘Look After Your Pennies’ and started their first proper headline tour on 22nd October. I haven’t seen a gig at Soup […]

LIVE: EVERYONE YOU KNOW – 28/10/2019