LIVE: MARIACHI EL BRONX – 10/12/2015

– THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER – What a treat this week for Manchester fans of The Bronx! Not only is the punk band from LA playing at The Ruby Lounge tomorrow, but we also get to see a performance tonight, at the same venue, by its alter-ego, mariachi band Mariachi El Bronx. Gig-goers could either […]
– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – The Twilight Sad do not have a new album to flog, with Nobody Wants To Be Here and Nobody Wants To Leave coming out back in 2014. Still, they are doing a few dates in the UK because, well they can, and with no new LP in tow it means they […]

LIVE: THE TWILIGHT SAD – 10/12/2015

LIVE: DJANGO DJANGO – 06/12/2015

 – THE ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER – I saw (and reviewed) Django Django live in Manchester earlier this year at the Manchester Cathedral and the risk of repeating myself is high, so I’ll make a conscious effort to avoid that. The ‘problem’ is that they are simply brilliant, and at The Albert Hall – if possible […]
– BAND ON THE WALL, MANCHESTER – Releasing an album on the 11th December and touring it before it’s even out, doesn’t sound like a move learnt from the PR textbook. But judging by tonight’s crowd, such things don’t appear to matter if your Jenny Lee Lindberg of Warpaint fame. If you don’t know, she’s […]

LIVE: JENNYLEE – 08/12/2015

LIVE: DEMOB HAPPY – 04/12/2015

 – GULLIVER’S, MANCHESTER – It’s a rather windy night as I catch the train to the ever impressively bustling city of Manchester, looking forward to a gang of Geordies putting on a heavy, sweaty and no doubt exciting show. Accompanied by yet another beautiful female companion, I have no idea why she agreed to come […]
– SOUP KITCHEN,  MANCHESTER – Before the gig I repeat to myself ‘Sex Swing, Sex Swing, Sex Swing’ but what the frack does it mean, ‘Sex Swing’? Sounds good though, the sex, the swing. Anyway, I don’t remember if because I was looking for the band online or if I had had a brief epiphany […]

LIVE: SEX SWING / GROVES / BREAKING COLTS – 05/12/2015

LIVE: WOLFGANG FLUR – 04/12/2015

 – AATMA, MANCHESTER – Wolfgang Flür hails from Frankfurt, Germany and was a member of the illustrious and incredibly influential Kraftwerk from 1973 to 1987 where he played electronic percussion. Post-Kraftwerk, Flür founded Yamo in 1997 and released the album Time Pie, which was a collaboration with Mouse On Mars. In October this year, Flür […]
– THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER – Lanterns On The Lake are a moody Geordie band – doesn’t sound right, I know, but that oxymoron sort of sums up their sound, dramatic but never without a tinge of ever-present joy. The five-piece’s stellar new track ‘Faultlines’, the first single to be taken off their third album […]

LIVE: LANTERNS ON THE LAKE – 02/12/2015

LIVE: PEACHES – 03/12/2015

– FAT OUT’S BURROW (ISLINGTON MILL), SALFORD – As another underwhelming and frustrating day at work draws to a close the abbreviation “WWPD?” is whirling around my head. Because I know the lady I am going to see would not stand for this boring, crap job: yes, “What Would Peaches Do?” Peaches (real name Merill) would […]
 – FACTORY 251, MANCHESTER – “The new instrument for the new music”. That was the slogan for the synthetisers back in the early 70s. Shortly after, the American Minimoog set “an absolute turning point”, as Gordon Reid tells his ‘Incredibly Brief History of the Synthetisers’ speech to a packed Factory251. This is the Synth Symposium, […]

THE SYNTH SYMPOSIUM – 01/12/2015