ALBUM REVIEW: FAUST – 1971-1974 50 JAHRE FAUST BOXSET

Celebrating fifty years since they formed, German experimental pioneers Faust have released a seven album compilation of their recordings between 1971-74. This includes the mythical long lost fifth album ‘Punkt’ recorded in 1971 but never released until this box set. They were recording it for Virgin Records but having not consulted the label first, spent […]
– RNCM, Manchester – Let’s get it out of the way up front. Yes, this is my first ‘proper’ post-covid-restrictions gig back in a full capacity venue (Squid at a sparsely populated, socially distanced Stoller Hall in Summer does not count), and yes it feels absolutely thrilling to be sharing a communal experience with actual […]
Rival Consoles

LIVE: RIVAL CONSOLES – 10/10/2021

Maximo Park

LIVE: MAXIMO PARK / PEANESS – 10/10/2021

– Ritz, Manchester – In support of their seventh studio album ‘Nature Always Wins’, released earlier this year, Maximo Park are tonight playing at Manchester’s Ritz. I seem to have lost track of the band’s album releases somewhere along the way, pretty sure I haven’t heard all of them despite being a fan when they […]
– Academy 2, Manchester – Back in 2015, Black Honey headlined the first gig I reviewed in my thirties. They were playing a free show, to only a handful of people, at Manchester’s Castle Hotel. In the six years since they’ve hugely grown their fanbase, a prediction it was not hard to make in my […]
Black Honey Live at Manchester Academy 2

LIVE: BLACK HONEY / PHOEBE GREEN / ARXX – 08/10/2021

ALBUM REVIEW: THE MAGIC ROUNDABOUT – UP

Released on Jack White’s Third Man Records, ‘Up’ is a swirling psychedelic gothic blast of an album, originally recorded in 1987 but only getting a release now after thirty three years. Formed in Manchester in 1986, and taking their cues from The Velvet Underground, The Fall and Buzzcocks, they had a guitar driven squalling soundscape […]
Over the past twenty years, Jesse Malin has managed to craft some of the best americana, verging from more mainstream rock to laid back heartbreak  tunes. A sound that takes in Tom Petty, Springsteen, with a twist of Husker Du and Wilco. On his latest album, ‘Sad and Beautiful World’, he’s been inspired by the […]

ALBUM REVIEW: JESSE MALIN – SAD AND BEAUTIFUL WORLD

ALBUM REVIEW: BALLAKE SISSOKO – A TOUMA

In a sense, I have always had a prejudice against “world music” as being the sort of quirky but forgettable background to lunch in a vegetarian cafe – but on the other hand I really take offence at the arrogance of the sections of British music industry that pigeon-hole anything that isn’t English-speaking western-style music […]
The Chameleons, part of Manchester’s musical tapestry and post punk pioneers, may never have received the accolades many felt they deserved in the eighties, but since their split in 1987, followed by frontman and bassist Mark Burgess resurrecting them in various forms from 2000 onwards, their legacy has only expanded. Now touring again as The […]

ALBUM REVIEW: THE CHAMELEONS – ELEVATED LIVING:LIVE IN MANCHESTER, LONDON & SPAIN

Isle of Wight Festival 2021

I FIRST SAW THEM AT ISLE OF WIGHT FESTIVAL 2021

I like going to music festivals very much. Not a particularly controversial statement I know, but after twenty-seven months without attending one, I’m pleased I made a last minute decision to travel to the Isle of Wight Festival 2021. The event felt a lot like other large festivals I’ve been to over the years, more […]
It’s amazing what you can learn these days, the fact you can’t get mushy peas from chip shops in Australia, is my newly acquired fact of the day. As Amyl And The Sniffers guitarist, Dec Martens, waits for his chippy order in Melbourne, by the magic of zoom we’re all together on screen to discuss […]

INTERVIEW: AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS – THEY’VE CREATED ONE OF THE BEST ALBUMS YOU’LL HEAR ALL YEAR….