LIVE: DRENGE – 15/10/2013

– THE ROADHOUSE,  MANCHESTER – Let’s not ‘fuckabout’…Drenge totally, completely, 100 percent rule tonight. The Loveless brothers (amazing name) from Castleton tear through their debut album, imaginatively titled Drenge, with all the exuberance that youth brings at The Roadhouse, a fitting venue for their down and dirty music. The room is packed to the rafters, […]
The Growlers are one of those rare bands that just don’t give a shit; they play the kind of music they want to play and do it in their own way. Any band that has a record called Greatest Shits and a single named ‘Gay Thoughts’ is destined for stardom in my eyes. Made up […]

EP Review: The Growlers – Not. Psych!

Album Review: Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip – Repent, Replenish, Repeat

For those of you who don’t know, Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip (or dlsvsSP, as I will incorrectly refer to them) are a pair of lads from Essex, who collaborate to make some form of urban. The ignorance at the end of the last sentence is only partly feigned, though there is enough spoken […]
– THE ROADHOUSE, MANCHESTER – During the opening dramatic instrumental which shakes yet innocently chimes around The Roadhouse, it is clear what the audience are thinking; “Any minute now those green-tracksuit clad, roller-skating guys are going to dash enthusiastically on stage.” A thought which takes on deeper significance when ‘The Heat’ begins to jive around […]

LIVE: JUNGLE – 10/10/2013

LIVE: NO AGE – 10/10/2013

– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – I am prepared for a No Age show. Or at least I think I am. I have heard about their ferocious live reputation, Dean Spunt and Randy Randall melting the eardrums of everyone in attendance with their incredibly loud drums /guitar combo, sending punters home covered in sweat and […]
– CLUB ACADEMY, MANCHESTER – Promoting his new album Country Mile, Johnny Flynn & The Sussex Wit return to Manchester after a two year interlude from, where he has been delving into the delights of theatre. Support was provided by the delectable Marika Hackman and Cosmo Sheldrake. Manchester’s Club Academy; that drab, slimy host, the Uncle who […]

LIVE: JOHNNY FLYNN & THE SUSSEX WIT – 7/10/2013

LIVE: CAVFEST – 21/09/13

– CAVENDISH PRIMARY SCHOOL, MANCHESTER – Now normally when primary schools have fundraisers, the most exotic it gets is throwing soggy sponges at the headmaster in the playing fields outside.  However, this is Manchester and at Cavendish Primary in Didsbury, they do things a little differently.  The school site manager was once a guitarist in […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER –  Many things were lost in the noise of Britpop and grunge – bands that otherwise would have stood out as special were overlooked in the search for the next Oasis, the next Nirvana. Spacehog are a band who straddled the Atlantic with a toe in each of these scenes, […]

LIVE: SPACEHOG – 6/10/2013

LIVE: SCHOLARS – 4/10/2013

– SOUND CONTROL, MANCHESTER – The last time Watford based outfit Scholars hit Manchester was back in April at The Roadhouse just as they were about to drop their long awaited debut album Always Lead, Never Follow. Business has been pretty normal since then as the band have pretty much been constantly on the road, […]
I recall a pub conversation with a friend at Christmas time. I believe the year was 2011, and we were each naming our favourite gig of the year and attempting to explain what it was that we liked so much about it. I think I used the words “hands down” in declaring that Calvi’s gig […]

Album Review: Anna Calvi – One Breath