LIVE: OPTIONAL WALLACE – 18/07/2009

– ACADEMY 1, MANCHESTER – The usual step up from headlining your own small intimate gigs will see you generally filling the support slots for bigger names. The main change will be that you now know the audience are not there to see you and have in all honesty, probably never heard of you. Even […]
I was quite excited for the album ‘About Love’ by Plastiscines;a quartet of “super-extra-hot French girls” who promised to take us by the scruff of our necks and force-feed us French grunge. By the time I’d reached track three, my illusions of this band being a part of ‘Girl Power’ 2010 were shattered, and I was […]

ALBUM: Plastiscines – About Love

LIVE: KITSUNE MAISON PARTY WITH CHEW LIPS / AUTOKRATZ – 17/06/2009

– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – To celebrate the seventh instalment of the much acclaimed Kitsune Maison compilation series, this ultra cool label have taken on a month long tour to spread the word. Starting and Paris and ending in Hamburg, it shall cover the U.K, Europe and even as far afield as Japan. Ever […]
– FUEL CAFE, MANCHESTER – Upstairs in this tiny venue, sees the opening night of a six day UK tour. In these six days there shall be no fewer than nine shows, which will include appearances in bars, charity shops and even one on a beach. As the three girls that make up Manchester’s very […]

LIVE: THE LOVELY EGGS / HOTPANTS ROMANCE – 01/06/2009

LIVE: LITTLE BOOTS – 13/05/2009

– CLUB ACADEMY, MANCHESTER – At the tail end of last year, 130 of the UK’s leading music critics and broadcasters came together to compile the BBC’s Sound of 2009. The final list included many acts that you will have heard day after day over the airwaves, such as La Roux, White Lies and Lady […]
– THE NIGHT & DAY CAFE, MANCHESTER – I am betting there are not many occasions when the P.A. system at the Night and Day Café has had church organ music piped through it. But tonight this is the case, as Reverend Ted Chippington graces the stage with his presence. It is almost three decades […]

LIVE: THE NIGHTINGALES / TED CHIPPINGTON – 27/04/2009

LIVE: THE DAYS – 21/04/2009

– THE NIGHT & DAY CAFE, MANCHESTER – Slightly later than originally advertised (seven weeks and one day to be precise), the boys from Devon finally make it to Manchester on their 13-date UK headlining tour. Fresh from completing 25 shows with Scouting For Girls and releasing a single on Atlantic Records back in January of this year, […]
As Eamon slurs through smoke-shredded throat, “Well I got myself a drinking problem now, but I blame it on the town,” during the jagged and shadowy ‘Desperation, Alberta’, you’ll get butterflies and register that this album is superb. This Canadian fella has only just hit his twenties, that’s the scary thing. He sounds like he has […]

ALBUM: Eamon McGrath – 13 Songs of Whiskey and Light

LIVE: THE LEISURE SOCIETY – 10/04/2009

– THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER – Tonight is one of those nights when there are two gigs on at two different venues that you don’t want to miss. Fortunately for me, the first band I wanted to see is due to play at eight fifteen and the second at nine thirty. So I am glad […]
– JABEZ CLEGG, MANCHESTER – Looking around the upstairs room at tonight’s venue, I am sad to say, the numbers are very low. I find this all the more shocking, as I have had the joy of seeing Kid Carpet on two other previous occasions, both of which were packed out. The first two bands […]

LIVE: KID CARPET – 02/04/2009