ALBUM: CIGARETTES AFTER SEX – CIGARETTES AFTER SEX

A crap name need not necessarily hold a band back. Coldplay are doing OK, U2 have shifted quite a few units. Still, unless you are completely without prejudice, you can be put off. I once skipped an early Manchester appearance by Vampire Weekend because I did not like their name – a truly regrettable decision. […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – Kicking off her set with new, and at this point unheard, album tacks ‘Good Intentions’ and ‘Eastbound Train’, Marika Hackman’s sounding noisier than you might expect. Once proclaimed as a folk heroine, it seems she’s dusted off a distortion pedal and run with it to the finish line – […]

LIVE: MARIKA HACKMAN – 31/05/2017

LIVE: PRIESTS – 23/05/2017

– Gullivers, Manchester – Before tonight’s show my friend texted me asking “is Manchester safe?” It took me aback. Going to watch live music is something nobody should ever have to worry about, but that’s the situation our city was thrown into after the tragic events of last night. On the way through the streets […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – Monday evening after another warm day, and the room in Manchester’s Deaf Institute is getting warmer by the minute, it is also, packed. Everybody here is ready to enjoy another night of great music, and great talent, and share together the collective joy, from a shared musical experience. It’s […]

LIVE: LUKE SITAL-SINGH – 22/05/2017

LIVE: MAXIMO PARK – 19/05/2017

– ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER – “This is a song about waiting for something to happen in your town,” Paul Smith announces to the hot, heaving crowd before the opening bars of ‘Graffiti’ build and smash over an electrified crowd. After also selling out the Albert Hall in 2015 with their A Certain Trigger tenth anniversary tour, […]
– BAND ON THE WALL, MANCHESTER – It’s a beaming Friday night and I’m goose-stepping through the Northern Quarter’s recent proliferation of makeshift outdoor drinking spaces, giddy as a kipper for the launch party of Jane Weaver’s outstanding new LP, Modern Kosmology. Adding to the excitement is a recent personal revelation that Band on the […]

LIVE: JANE WEAVER – 19/05/2017

LIVE: FOLLAKZOID / SILVER VIALS – 18/05/2017

– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – Tonight, its back to the Soup Kitchen basement for another stunning line up from the joint minds of The Beauty Witch and Grey Lantern. Opening we have Silver Vials, a trio from Manchester who use basic elements to create intense, drone laden space rock. ‘Vultures’ uses krautrock influences in its […]
– ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER – Metronomy are a band that I’ve been slightly offhand with since their fourth album Love Letters; but, they’re in the Albert Hall tonight touring last year’s effort Summer ’08. The new album sees Metronomy take a more rhythmic, danceable, electronic route, a là LCD Soundsystem. Ironically, it’s since then they’ve […]

LIVE: METRONOMY – 17/05/2017

LIVE: JAPANDROIDS – 04/05/2017

– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – Some bands find their earlier years to be their most challenging, striving for recognition with unspectacular debuts, later hitting the big time with a breakthrough album (Prince, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Sonic Youth, Blur etc.). Many more make an astounding debut, then sink without a trace after the dreaded second album […]
– THE EAGLE INN, SALFORD – The Eagle Inn might be Manchester/Salford’s most informal gig venue. Tonight, the landlady rings a bell when it’s time for the first act to take the stage, and the hundred or so folks in the building grab their drinks and head to the back room where the magic happens. […]

LIVE: MEURSAULT – 11/05/2017