LIVE: ALBERT HAMMOND JR. – 07/05/2014

– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – Albert Hammond Jr. – Seemingly the happiest man in music today. The question is, who can blame him? Having kicked the drug habit, the latter months of 2013 saw him marry the gorgeous Justyna Sroka, as well as put out his third release as a solo artist – the superb five […]
Fight Like Apes, or simply FLApes if you prefer, will release their first record since 2011 on Monday (May 12).  Hailing from Dublin, the band have already released two albums.  Both were nominated for the Choice Music Prize, the Irish equivalent of the Mercury Music Prize, awarded for album of the year.  They launched a […]

EP REVIEW: FIGHT LIKE APES – THE WHIGFIELD SEX TAPE

LIVE: THE HOLD STEADY – 07/05/2014

– ACADEMY 3, MANCHESTER – The Hold Steady, a five-piece band based in Brooklyn, has brought its rock and roll show to Academy 3 tonight. When tickets first went on sale, I decided to head down to the student union the next working day to pick some up. Mistake. The gig was sold out by […]
– KRAAK, MANCHESTER – I’ve been to Kraak Gallery quite a lot recently, and I’m really pleased this is the case as it’s one of Manchester’s finer small venues and it’s great that more bands are stopping by to play here! Tonight we have quite a diverse line up on our hands but the focus […]

LIVE: BIG UPS – 06/05/2014

INTERVIEW & REVIEW: THE TWILIGHT SAD – 02/05/2014

– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – Backstage at The Deaf Institute, The Twilight Sad frontman James Graham leads me to a tiny room containing three bunk beds and room for nothing else. “It is like when you were wee and your pal came to play PlayStation” he says with a smile. Hailing from Glasgow, The […]
The chorus of ‘The World Could Turn’ – the fifth track on Cherry Ghost’s third studio album Herd Runners – sums up its underlining tone perfectly: “Haven’t you heard, in a heartbeat, the world could turn. For every end there’s a beginning, what’s a life if not for living, you see the way it just keeps on […]

Album Review: Cherry Ghost – Herd Runners

LIVE: DUM DUM GIRLS / PINS – 03/05/2014

– THE ROADHOUSE, MANCHESTER – “Are you waiting for us? I didn’t get the memo.”  The opening words as PINS begin their co-headline show with Dum Dum Girls at the Roadhouse.  The room is packed, so much so that it is difficult to see the band on stage from only a few rows back. The […]
– ISLINGTON MILL, SALFORD – I’ve been waiting to see Factory Floor for a while now having missed their last Manchester gig due to being stuck on a train for 7 hours after a wedding in December. So when I found out they were putting on a night at the brilliant Islington Mill, I made […]

LIVE: FACTORY FLOOR – 03/05/2014

LIVE: BLOOD RED SHOES – 28/04/2014

– CLUB ACADEMY, MANCHESTER – Having given their most recent album a few spins, and hearing who had been lined up as the support for their UK Tour, I’m really looking forward to this gig. Support comes in the way of DZ Deathrays (who I miss, sadly) and Slaves, who I’m very fortunate to catch. […]
 – THE RITZ, MANCHESTER – The mothership has landed, mo fo’s. Yep, George Clinton – one of the originators of funk music and general interstellar space oddity – is back on the road, taking his message of funk to believers across the lands. From the 1960s, Clinton has created some of low-down seediest and irresistible […]

LIVE: GEORGE CLINTON & P-FUNK – 17/04/2014