ALBUM: The Chameleons – What Does Anything Mean? Basically

The Chameleons have long been relegated to the position of footnote in the history of Manchester music, despite being the greatest band to ever emerge from Middleton.  They have become the Gaugin to the Stone Roses Van Gough, the Salieri to the Smiths Mozart.  With this reissue of the seminal 1985 album ‘What Does Anything […]
– THE BRITISH LEGION, WIGAN – It’s cold and dark and I’m walking down a street just on the outskirts of Wigan town centre looking for the British Legion. Now I know you might be wondering what the hell I’m doing spending my Friday night at the Legion, well it’s not because I’m meeting up […]

LIVE: SIDEBURN LAUNCH PARTY – 26/03/2010

ALBUM: We Have Band – WHB

I’m still not too sure whether I want to be friends with We Have Band. He (she, whatever) is a little bit pretentious. He sings like a version of Guy Garvey who hasn’t spent his life drinking beer and eating cigarettes in The Temple or Big Hands. There are chasms of hidden depth, but there’s […]
– THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER – Blessed with chunky frames and even chunkier beards, Glaswegian monsters, Take A Worm For A Walk Week, pick up the grooves of Clutch and add a dram of caledonian insouciance. That the quartet don’t take themselves at all seriously is a boon – their début album, ‘The Monroe Transfer’ […]

LIVE: THE TWIGHLIGHT SAD – 25/03/2010

LIVE: THE SCREENING – 25/03/2010

– THE NIGHT & DAY CAFE, MANCHESTER – In the reliably low-lit surroundings of Night & Day Café there is always the chance of seeing something special, even on a washed-out Thursday evening of the kind that levels all hope spring might, just might, be arriving. This was one such occasion, with any thoughts of […]
– BAND ON THE WALL, MANCHESTER – The sound system was rubbish. That MC wouldn’t shut up. The bar was too expensive. I had to go in a portaloo. That DJ didn’t have a clue. These disgruntled statements and more along the same lines are all that I’ve been met with from Drum & Bass […]

LIVE: SOUL:UTION – 26/03/2010

LIVE: KARIMA FRANCIS – 24/03/2010

– BAND ON THE WALL, MANCHESTER – It is clear that I am not a regular to the newly refurbished Band On the Wall, when I turn up at the Frog and Bucket, to claim my place on the guest list, which, I insist exists, despite clearly being at the wrong venue. It is only […]
Many country bumpkins who have now moved to the city will be familiar with the feeling of one’s first loan stroll about the city.  In a town everyone tends to know each others business but in a city you will rarely find people in the street who have the time for you or your story.  […]

SINGLE: The Miserable Rich – Somerhill

SINGLE: fun. – Walking The Dog/Be Calm

If people throw food at each other for fun, Fun throw genres, styles and influences at each other just for kicks, and because they can. These guys are massively playful and extremely talented. Walking The Dog is a joyful combination of Vampire Weekend, The Beach Boys and Wheezer. However (and it’s a big one), Fun […]
– ACADEMY 2, MANCHESTER – Dan Le Sac and Scroobius Pip bring together two things I fell out of love with a long time ago, hip hop and poetry. Actually half of that is a lie; I never did in fact fall in love with poetry. It would be fair to say that growing up […]

LIVE: DAN LE SAC VS SCROOBIUS PIP – 22/03/2010