LIVE: HALF MOON RUN – 22/11/2013

 THE ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER – There’s much excitement and lure around the newly reopened Albert Hall as to the Canadian four-piece Half Moon Run. At least for me. Since a short run of shows for MIF, I’ve been keen to see a live performance here and it’s incredible. Like a gilded frame; bands perform against […]
– ACADEMY 2, MANCHESTER – Unexpected, crazy, eclectic – are just several of the adjectives that describe Crystal Fighters’ gig at Academy 2. The five-piece come from London and are known for the mad live shows they throw. It’s almost half-carnival, half-rave. The band plays a total of 16 songs from Star of Love and […]

LIVE: CRYSTAL FIGHTERS – 23/11/2013

LIVE: QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE – 20/11/2013

– PHONES 4U ARENA, MANCHESTER – Though in recent years we may see Josh Homme hidden under the radar as a family man with his two children and rock prom queen Brody Dalle by his side, most of us dreamt of the day we would see ‘Ginger Elvis’ take the stage again. True Rock n’ […]
With the expensive Italian suits, perfectly trimmed beard and collection of exotic girlfriends (and even more exotic cars), it’s perhaps easy to fall into a trap, forgetting that Clapton was once one extremely cool bluesman.  As the graffiti put it: ‘Clapton is God’.  For a while it seemed the celestial one had indeed returned, and […]

Album Review: Eric Clapton – Give Me Strength

LIVE: WHITE DENIM – 19/11/2013

– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – It’s actually impossible to categorise White Denim, which is what makes them such an uncompromisingly brilliant live band. I saw a tweet from someone who had been to their London gig which said ‘White Denim are without doubt the finest rock-soul-jazz-punk-AOR-funk-garage-prog band I’ve ever seen.’ This is about as accurate a […]
THE ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER The Albert Hall is certainly an apt venue for an evening of conversation with one of the most admired alternative music figures over the last 20 years, and more. Black Francis / Frank Black or Charles Thompson is an icon of the alternative music, yet there is still so much to […]

ISSUES & TISSUES: AN EVENING WITH BLACK FRANCIS AND DAVE HASLAM – 20/11/2013

LIVE: STRFKR – 17/11/2013

– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – STRFKR and I go way, way back – to my college days, to be exact. ‘Julius’ was one of the many anthems blasting through my car speakers at half six in the morning and four in the evening. The electronic band hails from Portland, Oregon and started off as […]
– THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER – These guys haven’t had it bad supporting some of the UK’s finest musicians Miles Kane and Jake Bugg earlier this year. But this trio have their own stuff to offer, three brothers from Bath, hanging out playing rock. It is as simple as that, but their sound is something […]

LIVE: THE FAMILY RAIN – 18/11/2013

Single Review: The Black Waterside – Cold Night, Dark Ground

Best-suited to the underground dive bars of New York or overground blues/rockabilly Nashville backdrops, this gritty Kent-based revival of rock ‘n’ roll is an interesting one. The Black Waterside is a five-piece band hailing, surprisingly, from the ‘Garden of England’, yet their sound is something unexpected. The band are tight, the instrumentation and the vibe […]
– THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER – Quadron, although it sounds like an experienced campaigner’s Xbox Live username, is actually the name of a crystal-clean pastiche soul act who have more star supporters than you can shake a stick at, see Prince, James Murphy, Pharrell and Jay-Z. Stranger than that, the Danish duo, with two extremely […]

LIVE: QUADRON – 13/11/2013