LIVE: SUEDE – 09/02/2016

 – THE ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER – Thunder rolls over Manchester’s Albert Hall from behind a sky sized silver-screen. The whirring thrashes and builds until the sounds of post-millennial paranoia are greeted with silence. The floor-to-ceiling sheet is finally filled with oceanic endlessness, and from behind the separation an incredible otherness cuts through the waves in […]
Plastic Animals have been slaving over Pictures From The Blackout, their debut album, for two years now. It all starts very promisingly, ‘Ghosts’ is ‘Knives Out’-style Radiohead, all urgency and fuzzy chords and heading off down a woozy rabbit hole halfway through before blossoming into a noisy crescendo. It’s followed by a whisper of feedback […]

ALBUM REVIEW: PLASTIC ANIMALS – PICTURES FROM THE BLACKOUT

ALBUM REVIEW: BLOC PARTY – HYMNS

Remember last year when Bloc Party lost some of its original members, Gordon Moakes and Matt Tong? Well, according to lead singer Kele Okereke you can blame that on ‘someone doing cocaine and someone not being into it’.  But it doesn’t seem as though the 4- piece band are losing out with the new, yet […]
 – GULLIVERS, MANCHESTER – Swedish Death Candy for me stole the show. I’m sorry Yak, but their psychedelic musings were a lot more stimulating tonight than your visceral 2 minute “songs”. And Rory Wynne, I like that Heart Of Stone song you played at the end and your comment about how “amazing” we were as […]

LIVE: YAK / SWEDISH DEATH CANDY – 03/02/2016

LIVE: DANIEL KNOX – 25/01/2016

– THE CASTLE HOTEL, MANCHESTER – ‘This is a song about germs,’ breathes Daniel Knox. A few beads of sweat drip down his forehead as he introduces ‘Don’t Touch Me’. This starkly titled song taken from his self-titled latest album, he tells us beforehand, is about his germophobic tendencies narrated with a slight sense of […]
 – ACADEMY 2, MANCHESTER – Great and wild Phil Campbell has this voice, so manly, so pleasantly throaty, that one could be watching his performance for countless hours. Even if he’s just singing a prosaic “Yeah-yeaaah-Naah-Na-ah-ah!”, in a hypnotic loop. Manchester’s Academy 2 is packed with fans of all range, from kids to those who […]

LIVE: THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT – 24/01/2016

LIVE: JASON ISBELL – 23/01/2016

– THE RITZ, MANCHESTER – It’s an early start at The Ritz tonight. Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit, to give the evening’s main act its full name, is working to a 10pm curfew to allow time for the venue to put on its Light Boxx club night afterwards. Appearing in front of us with […]
 – THE CASTLE HOTEL, MANCHESTER – This naughty boy from another planet (although it is said he comes from Kirkby, Liverpool) causes a real mess here at The Castle Hotel. Judging by his appearance, it seems he has never hurt a fly, but his look inevitably betrays him. “Yes, it was me and I’d do […]

LIVE: LOUIS BERRY – 22/01/2016

LIVE: THE LIBERTINES – 23/01/2016

– MANCHESTER ARENA, MANCHESTER – There’s a sense of nostalgia is the air tonight as fans pour into the Manchester Arena. For many, The Libertines meant a sense of freedom in their most influential years – the teens. They gave us drug and alcohol fuelled rock anthems with lyrics that were catchy, and better sung slurred […]
– THE ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER – No matter what genres of music you like to think you are generally affiliated to, some bands are just so good at what they do, it’s impossible to ignore them. I admit that the world of Indie folk isn’t something that I’ve been delving into of late, so I […]

LIVE: DAUGHTER – 21/01/2016