LIVE: TEMPLES – 06/12/2014

– THE RITZ, MANCHESTER – 2014 has been quite the year for Kettering rock band Temples. They were a surprise choice for Rough Trade’s album of the year, recipients of public blessing from both Johnny Marr and Noel Gallagher while sound tracking a ubiquitous summer Strongbow advert.  Little surprise then their sold out Ritz show […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – A couple of years back some big music industry cheese declared rock music dead. This year they declared it undead. Now, although the first statement was utterly ludicrous, I must admit that 2014 has been the year of the Riff! There’s been an influx of great rock bands across […]

LIVE: TURBOWOLF – 02/12/2014

LIVE: LOS CAMPESINOS! – 04/12/2014

– SOUND CONTROL, MANCHESTER – My mate Danny is a terrible influence on me. By the time we arrive at Sound Control he’s already five pints deep and complaining that it’s £2.50 more on the door than it was in advance. It’s worth it for Trust Fund though. I first saw them play at the […]
 – THE APOLLO, MANCHESTER – Generally I don’t know any of the music that is played before gigs – it’s just one of those things for me. The bands that I like all seem to play obscure indie that I have never heard of. But tonight is different; Rodrigo and Gabriela like rock music. The […]

LIVE: RODRIGO Y GABRIELA – 02/12/2014

LIVE: THE WYTCHES – 28/11/2014

– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – The Wytches are one of the hottest properties in the country with a dark, ominous sound as occultish as their name would suggest. They mix surf guitar and a grungy psych rock, breaking out the Ouija board and channelling the furious, restless spirit of a brutally murdered Dick Dale […]
– NIGHT AND DAY, MANCHESTER – Psych! A few years ago, if you’d asked me to define the genre, I’d have had an easier job. It seems the category now encompasses any new band that’s influenced by anything from the 60’s and early 70’s; no longer restricted to the output of those on hallucinogenic drugs, or who sought spiritual enlightenment… […]

LIVE: MANCHESTER PSYCH FEST II – 29/11/2014

Album Review: Trash Kit – Confidence

There’s an innate appeal in hearing bands who push boundaries and plough their own furrow. The interest for the listener in being at the edge of the musical map is there are fewer points of reference, no landmarks to keep us on track and provide comfortable orientation. For the bands performing in this space, there […]
– THE CASTLE HOTEL, MANCHESTER – Beyond being a two-club city obsessed with football, there are few similarities between Manchester and Madrid. The weather is possibly the most glaring contrast, not that it seemed to bother Deers, who stand outside a sold-out Castle Hotel in the Northern drizzle, laughing and joking with fans 900 miles […]

LIVE: DEERS – 25/11/2014

LIVE: PULLED APART BY HORSES – 21/11/2014

– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – I like Gorilla a lot, but I also like the Salisbury pub around the corner, which is why I miss the first support band Shinies: too busy propping up the bar with a pint of Old Peculiar while I wait for my mate to turn up. I’ve seen Shinies before a […]
– THE BRIDGEWATER HALL, MANCHESTER – Composing his reflective songs on piano or guitar, Jackson Browne has been exporting his music from California since the early 1970s. Regarded as classics, albums like Late for the Sky and The Pretender rightly stand alongside works of Laurel Canyon contemporaries like Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. In a […]

LIVE: JACKSON BROWNE – 18/11/2014