LIVE: (DR) JOHN COOPER CLARKE – 10/06/2016

– ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER – That’s Dr John Cooper Clarke, to you, son.  The bard of Salford sewers, now elevated to the rarified realms of the academy; his romancing of the gutter now held in the same esteem as, who knows… Keats ? But that’s for later.  Because before the long-haired dark lord of the […]
– BAND ON THE WALL, MANCHESTER – I’m not letting the first-world trauma of an apparent loss of 36GB of music in a file-transfer debacle half an hour ago diminish my anticipation as I make the trip over to Band on the Wall to see Spring King. Live music’s where it’s at anyway, I tell […]

LIVE: SPRING KING (ALBUM LAUNCH) – 10/06/2016

LIVE: THE STAIRS – 03/06/2016

– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – “Thanks for coming down. Sorry for being so long about it,’ given that it’s been over twenty years for some since they had last seen The Stairs, the announcement from Edgar Summertyme when he takes to the stage is something of an understatement. The band is back after a long hiatus […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – What strikes me most about Kate Stables of This Is The Kit, is just how charismatic she is. Every person in The Deaf Institute here would love to be her friend. I want to be her friend. She effortlessly chats between songs. Tells jokes while tuning up. Bad ones, […]

LIVE: THIS IS THE KIT – 03/06/2016

ALBUM REVIEW: YAK – ALAS SALVATION

When I saw Yak a few months ago at Gulliver’s, they were good but at the time, the support acts were much more interesting to me. However, with their debut album Alas Salvation, Yak produce some dirty, distorted rock ‘n’ roll with surprising worth and impact on a bland musical scene. Opening track ‘Victorious (The […]
– VARIOUS VENUES, MANCHESTER – Manchester is host to a different kind of marathon tonight although it has similar traits to that of a running marathon; it will be extensive, exhausting, and sweaty. It will raise our heartbeats, make us search out water at some point, we’ll probably get lost, and eventually we’ll be stumbling […]

LIVE: DOT TO DOT 2016 – 27/05/2016

LIVE: FÖLLAKZOID – 26/05/2016

– ISLINGTON MILL, SALFORD – The atmosphere is sparse and restrained in the copper snake-pit of The Islington Mill – bound by bare brick and lamp-light. In a moment, I went from feeling evening sun on my back to being buried 4-feet below the surface, and now, unable to make out nothing more than the shape […]
– ACADEMY 1, MANCHESTER – The idea is a simple one, take a number of bands that emerged in the same era and build a festival around them. Although, this is not merely a nostalgia trip, as all the bands on show have reformed with new material to perform alongside their fan favourites. This is […]

LIVE: GIGANTIC INDIE ALL DAYER VOLUME III – 28/05/2016

LIVE: LIVERPOOL SOUND CITY – 28-29/05/2016

– BRAMLEY-MOORE DOCK, LIVERPOOL – The Merseyside festival is back and it seems to have cemented itself a place as one of the more popular smaller festivals – just a year after its relocation to Bramley-Moore dock.  Last year’s festival saw three days of talent whereas this year saw just the two days of live […]
– GULLIVERS, MANCHESTER – Mothers are a difficult band to pin down. Hailing from Athens in Georgia (home to such indie alumni as REM and B-52s), it started out as a personal project for Kristine Leschper before she recruited a full band to record their excellent debut album When You Walk A Distance Way You […]

LIVE: MOTHERS – 25/05/2016