SINGLE: THE SEAL CUB CLUBBING CLUB – MADE OF MAGIC

Formed on the Wirral, the posh side of Merseyside, TSCCC arrive with a new cut from forthcoming album “Royal Variety”. I guess with a title like that we can expect an appearance from the Queen, the cast from a Lloyd-Webber musical, Cliff Richard and a ventriloquist/magician. It would seem none of these appear on this […]
– ACADEMY 1, MANCHESTER – It’s St. Patrick’s Day, and Manchester is full of students taking their disgusted first slurps of Guinness, while those used to all the faux-Oirishness that March 17th entails have crammed into the Academy 1 en masse, and are mostly holding drinks with an amber hue. The clean shaven Chuck Ragan, […]

LIVE: FRANK TURNER/CHUCK RAGAN – 17/03/2010

ALBUM: Butler Williams – Save it for Someone Else EP

Butler Williams sound like a couple of nice guys.  Their voices are soothing and mellow and their parts merge so peacefully that it is often impossible to distinguish where one starts and the other one finishes. This is their second release to date and for two guys who are known for performances which give a bit […]
– THE APOLLO THEATRE, MANCHESTER – I used to like Editors. That is, I did until last night when they left me cold. In their defence, they weren’t awful, they were merely average. They start with a slow number from their third album ‘In This Light And On This Evening’ before opting for their more […]

LIVE: EDITORS – 16/03/2010

ALBUM: Laura Marling: I Speak Because I Can

Laura Marling’s first album, “Alas I Cannot Swim” was an impossibly brilliant debut. Released just after she turned 18 her lyrics combined a delicate shyness with a world-weary maturity that spoke of things with a level of understanding that few people reach in their lifetime, let alone while they are still in their teens. The […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – Everytime the Manchester music scene seems to be escaping the shackles of its past, a new club or indie night seems to raise it’s head offering the same kind of generic, pedestrian music and putting on bland ‘landfill indie’ acts. Thank goodness then for nights like Now Wave, who, […]

LIVE: ERRORS – 10/3/2010

LIVE: DELPHIC – 10/03/2010

– CLUB NIRVANA, WIGAN – Approaching Club Nirvana, I feel somewhat apprehensive, wondering what a Wednesday night in Wigan could possibly offer, a feeling which increases as I enter the half empty venue – or is that half full? A tiered, all standing venue, I manage to nab the best spot in the house, right […]
– THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER – Alan Sparhawk has had a relatively long and distinguished career as guitarist and frontman for Low. His more recent side project Retribution Gospel choir offer a very different musical proposition to the one he made his name with. While Lows trademark sound is slow, sombre and delicate with beautiful […]

LIVE: RETRIBUTION GOSPEL CHOIR – 11/03/2010

SINGLE: Paloma Faith – Upside Down

Paloma Faith has just released her forth single, entitled ‘Upside Down’ – and I like it! It’s jolly; it’s clever; it’s quirky – a lot like Ms Faith, one suspects. It’s also very catchy, but, then again, so too is syphilis. When it comes to Paloma Faith, the problem isn’t with her music – it’s with the musician […]
Some music defies description. Imagine listening to ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ when it was released in June 1967! Imagine being in Vienna’s Kärntnertortheater on 7 May 1824 for the premiere of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, conducted by the Maestro himself! Imagine a 1943 night flight over a glowing Dresden in a fully laden Lancaster with […]

SINGLE: The Phenomenal Handclap Band – Baby