LIVE: I LIKE TRAINS – 28/02/2014

– ST. PHILIP’S CHURCH, SALFORD – To celebrate their 10th anniversary as a band, everyone’s favourite Leeds-based epic post rockers I Like Trains (they’ve dropped the ridiculously structured iLiKETRAiNS thankfully) are doing a jaunt around the UK playing their debut EP Progress Reform in full. Their Manchester stop (actually in Salford), is the beautiful St Philip’s […]
– KRAAK GALLERY, MANCHESTER – Hidden away almost as though it’s meant to be a secret, Kraak Gallery is a strange little venue, but it has a level of charm. The bill for this evening has 5 acts, unfortunately my arrival is delayed and I only catch the last three of these. The first of […]

LIVE: GERARD AND THE WATCHMEN – 26/02/2014

LIVE: JOHN MURRY – 26/02/2014

– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – Phew! It’s warm in The Deaf Institute again tonight. What’s the deal with that? I was here last week for a gig and was actually quite pleased when a lad carrying a couple of beers overhead through the crowd accidentally tipped half of one down my back. Never has […]
The image of the Sony Warehouse after it was torched in 2011’s London Riots is a lasting one; plumes of black cloud are seen billowing out of the roof, while the right-hand side of the building where the large blue-lettered Sony sign was emblazoned is slumped, like a fallen giant. Around this time, a folk […]

INTERVIEW: HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER

LIVE: MIDLAKE: 20/02/2014

– THE RITZ, MANCHESTER – “I know I haven’t said much, Manchester’, says Midlake frontman Eric Pulido.  And you know what… he hasn’t. We’re a good few tracks into their set at a respectfully packed Ritz and yes, it would be good to hear more from the hirsute bear-like character, newly crowned Daddy Bear to […]
“To be honest, I didn’t know what I was going to do. So I threw a lot of irons into the fire”. Since the break-up of the Bluetones in 2011, a band with an enviable career span that largely managed to avoid the Britpop roll call of the 90s, front man Mark Morriss has been […]

Album Review: Mark Morriss – A Flash of Darkness

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION: A TOUR OF LIVERPOOL SOUND CITY 2014

For any and every avid music lover, music festivals are not to be missed. But how do you decide which to go to out of the dozens of choices? If you’ve heard of Liverpool Sound City (even better, if you’ve been to Sound City), then congratulations, you well-informed individual with impeccable taste in music festivals! […]
– THE RITZ, MANCHESTER – It seems that Jake Bugg is becoming, if not already, a household name. Everyone appears to know at least a couple of his catchy songs, and rightfully so. It is almost still surprising to know that he is about to reach his 20th birthday, and yet his voice and songwriting […]

LIVE: JAKE BUGG – 23/02/2014

LIVE: OF MONTREAL – 19/02/2014

– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – Entering the room for tonight’s gig at Gorilla I’m struck by how smoky the place is, I think someone has just had an accident with the smoke machine. Thankfully the smoke clears quickly, the room fills up and we get to the time for of Montreal to enter the stage. Five […]
– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – Opening acts are often overlooked, sometimes even skipped. But boy, am I glad that I caught Thumpers when they pumped up the stage for Chvrches last October. The London-based duo consists of Marcus Pepperell and John Hamson Jr., who have been friends since secondary school. A cast of supporting musicians […]

LIVE: THUMPERS – 17/02/2014