LIVE: WILLY MASON / NINA VIOLET – 15/02/2018

-DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER- Nina Violet is the first artist to play this evening at the Deaf Institute. The room is more than half filled, with no more space available on the bleacher style seats, and the floor space populated part way to the stage. No one is yet venturing too close to the front, and […]
-APOLLO, MANCHESTER- Wild Beasts: A Love Letter Ah Wild Beasts, you broke my heart. Being one of my favourite bands of the last decade, releasing two all time classic albums (Two Dancers and Smother, fact fans), you decided to call it a day and go your separate ways. Having emerged in a storm of theatrics […]

LIVE: WILD BEASTS – 16/02/2018

LIVE: GOGO PENGUIN / JENS KUROSS – 10/02/2018

-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- Perspective is an important thing. I’m at the front of Gorilla with my friend Eve, waiting for the support act to come on for tonight’s GoGo Penguin gig, and am trying to take my notepad out of my bag so I can remember things for this review (which you’re reading now, bloody hell […]
In late 2017 Wild beasts (the 4-piece indie band from Kendal) announced that they would sadly be ending their journey after 14 years together, in which time they have released four studio albums. After their first album 2008’s enthusiastic, fresh sounding Limbo, Panto, they seemed to really polish their sound and refine their direction, defining […]

ALBUM: WILD BEASTS – LAST NIGHT MY DREAMS CAME TRUE

ALBUM: BELLE AND SEBASTIAN – HOW TO SOLVE OUR HUMAN PROBLEMS

Belle and Sebastian have always produced the kind of music which is delicate on the eardrums, yet with a feisty rock n roll streak tearing through its core. They’re one of those bands who you think you’ve got figured out, then they go off and do something unexpected. Live, their gigs transform into a communal […]
-SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER- Arriving early, I dawdle at the unmanned merch stand. Jack Cooper’s debut solo record Sandgrown is for sale. The cover is black and white and carries the effect of a woodblock print. A drawing of a straight-faced Cooper with his eyes closed foregrounds the silhouettes of key Blackpool architecture, notably the tower. […]

LIVE: A. SAVAGE / JACK COOPER – 01/02/2018

LIVE: SHOPPING – 03/02/2018

-THE EAGLE INN, SALFORD- Just two weeks after the release of their third album The Official Body, dance-punk trio Shopping are in town and tonight is a sell-out in the Eagle Inn – it seems we are in some need of some retail therapy and everyone who made it in tonight has bagged a bargain. […]
-GULLIVERS, MANCHESTER- Meat Wave do not mess around. The Chicago-based three piece are a road hungry band that have been going non-stop since the release of their superb LP The Incessant pretty much a year ago. I managed to catch the band last summer in Leeds and it was a fully pumping rock show. Therefore, I […]

LIVE: MEAT WAVE – 07/02/2018

LIVE: THE BLINDERS / STRANGE BONES – 03/02/2018

-DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER- It’s Saturday night in blustery Manchester and it’s time for something loud, aggressive yet infectious all the same. Tonight’s supper is a run in with Doncaster’s latest and probably best export (because let’s face it the football team isn’t anything to write home about) which comes in the shape of a psych/punk […]
-ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER- Certain bands have an air of anticipation affixed to their name. You don’t always expect glitzy, show-stopping stunts but you know you’re going to be in for a treat in some way. Mogwai is one such band. Having graced the prog-rock scene for well over two decades, their two nights at Manchester’s […]

LIVE: MOGWAI / BEAK / MUGSTAR – 04/02/2018