ALBUM: JOHNNY MARR – CALL THE COMET

We all like time to catch up on the big stories of the day, but Johnny Marr has been absorbing the news and world events in new extremes, apparently via a screen projected on to a wall in the studio whilst ‘Call The Comet’ was being written and recorded. It’s the events of the last […]
Gloomy in the wind Ironically enough, the nice guys from The Wave Pictures bring us the brand new and rather melancholic album titled ‘Brushes With Happiness’ out tomorrow Friday 22nd June, under the wings of Moshi Moshi. Don’t be misled by the title then. Expect a bunch of songs that will very likely break your […]

ALBUM: THE WAVE PICTURES – BRUSHES WITH HAPPINESS

ALBUM: GIRLS NAMES – STAINS ON SILENCE

This Belfast three piece have already been nominated for the Irish music prize for their 2013 album, ‘The New Life’, and previously released singles on Brooklyn’s coolest indie label Captured Tracks (a former home to the likes of Thee Oh Sees, Mac De Marco and DIIV amongst others). Having shifted away from their earlier more […]
-DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER- It’s unusual for the lingering impression you are left with from a gig by a three-piece in a small music hall to be regarding the light and smoke settings. Entering the Deaf Institute tonight you are hit initially by the smell and then the choking intensity of synthetic smoke which makes it […]

LIVE: OMNI – 13/06/2017

LIVE: PARKLIFE 2018

-HEATON PARK, MANCHESTER- Parklife is a festival which has grown year upon year, I’ve witnessed this first hand as I remember the days when it was held in Platt Fields with only a few thousand people and an up and coming band Everything Everything! Fast forward to 2018, and I’m here at Heaton Park, a […]
-OLD TRAFFORD, MANCHESTER- Walking around Manchester on a gorgeously hot summer’s day, you’re greeted by tribes of people wearing the most iconic rock image in the world – the Rolling Stones’ red mouth is sticking its tongue out defiantly at everyone who dares to think The Stones are past it. By their own admission, they […]

LIVE: THE ROLLING STONES / RICHARD ASHCROFT – 05/06/2018

LIVE: BORN RUFFIANS – 08/06/2018

-SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER- Canadian band Born Ruffians have been releasing music since the early noughties and have toured the world, supporting the likes of Franz Ferdinand, Hot Chip and Caribou along the way. Now, having just released their fifth studio album Uncle, Duke and The Chief, they are nearing the end of their own headline […]
-ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER- Courtney Barnett chooses a brave route for the first half of the show, playing the whole new album, Tell Me How You Really Feel, in full. No smattering of previous hits to keep the crowd appeased. But it pays off. The new album is brilliant and well received. There is a greater […]

LIVE: COURTNEY BARNETT – 04/06/2018

LIVE: LCD SOUNDSYSTEM – 06/06/2018

-APOLLO, MANCHESTER- Having just returned from the World’s Greatest Festival(tm), Primavera, a day ago, I have to confess that I am not exactly massively up for this gig. I still have that festival ‘jet lag’ where everything is a little hazy, I feel like I haven’t slept for about 2 weeks, and even though LCD […]
-APOLLO, MANCHESTER- Tucked into the modest seats of the Apollo’s circle, and the second song in is a cover of ‘Paint in Black’ by The Rolling Stones. It’s an impromptu addition. Patti reads the lyrics from a sheet of paper and misses a vocal cue, having to re-join the song a few bars down the […]

LIVE: PATTI SMITH – 05/06/2018