ALBUM: JON SPENCER – SPENCER SINGS THE HITS

Would you like some raw rock n’ roll guitar energy blasting into your eardrums this autumn? Jon Spencer is back in a different form, but still not a million miles away from his previous musical incarnations with The Blues Explosion, Boss Hog or Heavy Trash, which is no bad thing. This is Spencer solo though, […]
-THE WHITE HOTEL, SALFORD- I enter to Croww, who I know to be on label Death of Rave and for his debut, Prosthetics, highly constituted of snippets from a Slipknot sample pack. His hood is down over his cap, the hoody reads Customer. We’ve arrived to the set underway, with samples that sound like they’re […]

LIVE: WILLIAM BASINSKI / CROWW – 24/10/2018

LIVE: MUTUAL BENEFIT – 31/10/2018

-YES, MANCHESTER- Mutual Benefit is the child of singer-songwriter Jordan Lee, who has been the one constant through the band’s journey, a band whose line-up has seen multiple changes with various musicians contributing to both records and live performances. Back in 2013, they received critical acclaim from the likes of Pitchfork and The Guardian, being […]
-THE BRIDGEWATER HALL, MANCHESTER- The sirens blare. A voice comes through the speakers. This is one way to start a show. Now just for the lights to go out and they walk on stage. Or not… The sirens keep going while occasionally being interrupted by the concerning “This is an emergency, please evacuate the building.” […]

LIVE: ALT-J – 28/10/2018

LIVE: LUCY DACUS – 27/10/2018

-YES, MANCHESTER- And so this is it; the conclusion of my ‘mother of all things holy how damn good are women at music at the moment’ series, which, if you’ve been following closely (OF COURSE YOU HAVE), has basically been a load of love letters to some absolutely brilliant young female musicians who have been […]
-YES, MANCHESTER- Tonight in Manchester’s hottest new venue, Yes, comes a rather tasty line up from promoters Strange Days. Opening is Autumns, a one-man noise machine who is currently on a run of nine dates with headliners The KVB (high praise indeed!). The brain child of Christian Donaghey, originally from Derry, offers up a heady […]

LIVE: THE KVB / AUTUMNS – 27/10/2018

LIVE: SNAIL MAIL – 25/10/2018

-YES, MANCHESTER- Oh you know the drill by now…I could basically just put the heart eyes emoji here and have done with it, but that would be lazy (although very accurate), so instead, here’s 500 words that basically add up to several heart eye emojis in a row. You see, over the last few months […]
-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- A slightly subdued start to the evening at Gorilla this evening – Swedish rockers Birthday Girl don’t have the same following as the headliner tonight so the venue isn’t filling up right away but as soon as the first chord hits people are round from the bar, surging forward and paying attention. The […]

LIVE: GLASVEGAS / BIRTHDAY GIRL – 22/10/2018

LIVE: JANE WEAVER – 21/10/2018

-ROYAL EXCHANGE THEATRE, MANCHESTER- Not much about tonight feels of this world and that’s OK. Normal is over-rated. Normal is terra firma and not is more about a kind of astral ascendency. This is music in the round. The music with interstellar soundscapes and outer space imagery. This is kosmic. So it’s Sunday evening for […]
-ACADEMY, MANCHESTER- Toots and the Maytals cured my knee! Well almost. After years of gigging, my left knee has seen better days. But peace, love, a bit of dancing and one incredible voice took away this pain for a few hours. Toots Hibbert emerges from the rafters dressed almost like a Rastafarian Pearly King. Styling […]

LIVE: TOOTS & THE MAYTALS – 19/10/2018