LIVE: ALDOUS HARDING – 19/11/2017

-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- Recently crowned as having made the best album of the year by Rough Trade, New Zealand’s Aldous Harding is at a sold out Gorilla tonight for a victory lap of that very fine album, Party. It’s her second full length effort, and is appearing left, right and centre across other early album of […]
-APOLLO, MANCHESTER- “I know what it is, and I ride it out,” speaks Adam Granduciel, who records as The War on Drugs, of the slow-exploding anxiety that eventually led an already obsessive relationship with sound into an all-consuming crutch. Spear-headed by self-masochism, Granduciel’s wide-scope vision avoids preying on nostalgia – shamelessly pulling the past into […]

LIVE: THE WAR ON DRUGS – 12/11/2017

LIVE: BLONDIE – 11/11/2017

-APOLLO, MANCHESTER- Around forty years after they originally emerged, Blondie return with their latest album since 2014’s Ghost of Download; the all new Pollinator. Featuring tracks with guest vocals and co-writing from the likes of The Strokes’ Nick Valensi, Johnny Marr, Charlie XCX and many others, Blondie give the illusion that they have never aged. As someone […]
-THE PRINCIPAL HOTEL, MANCHESTER- Recent years have brought changes to the top of Oxford Road. The Cornerhouse is now a university building and The Palace hotel has become The Principal. As I pass the legendary former cinema en route to this weekend’s Louder Than Words festival just across the road, on the strange alternate-reality scale […]

LIVE: LOUDER THAN WORDS: ROBERT FORSTER IN CONVERSATION – 12/11/2017

LIVE: THE LEMON TWIGS – 10/11/2017

-THE RITZ, MANCHESTER- The Lemon Twigs couldn’t care less about what you think is cool. The objectionably young brothers Michael and Brian D’Addario have evidently been force fed the uber-melodic AOR 70s rock of ELO, Supertramp, Todd Rundgren and Wings since the dawn of their ability to absorb sound, and have been churning it over […]
-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- It’s hard to believe Julia Jacklin is from the Blue Mountains in Australia; it’s much easier to believe that she’s from Nashville or Austin, or anywhere in the deep South of America. You see, Jacklin is a bit of an alt-country superstar, and when she sings she sounds for all the money in […]

LIVE: JULIA JACKLIN – 07/11/2017

LIVE: BIG THIEF – 03/11/2017

-DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER- When Donald Trump’s twitter account was recently disabled and the leader of the free world found himself with nothing to do, I’d like to imagine he took the opportunity to have a few minutes, just for himself. That he sent his aides away, went into the Oval Office and closed the door, […]
-ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER- “The gatekeepers gazed upon their kingdom and declared that it was good. Meanwhile, so many of us were locked out, staring at all that gold from the outside in,” speaks Efrim Menuck of the bleak political zeitgeist. Although generally voiceless, Godspeed You! Black Emperor have provided a heaven-pointing soundtrack to this very […]

LIVE: GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR – 28/10/2017

LIVE: PERFUME GENIUS – 03/11/2017

-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a stunning transformation. Back in 2012, I went to the much cherished and much missed ATP Festival at Camber Sands, the edition that was curated by The National. Early on in the first evening I took my mate to see Perfume Genius, kind of against […]
-SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER- Night Flowers open tonight at Soup Kitchen. Their sound is soft and honeyed. It reminds me of a teen movie soundtrack. They do keep the crowd enthralled and are very enjoyable to listen to as they play, but a lot of songs begin to sound very similar. Overall, their tone is poppy […]

LIVE: JAPANESE BREAKFAST / NIGHT FLOWERS – 03/11/2017