LIVE: BODEGA / GONG GONG GONG – 17/02/2019

-YES, MANCHESTER- Gong Gong Gong Probably the first foreign (not that it matters really) music act I have reviewed, this duo of but bass and guitar invoke deliberate repetition in their playing style; unusual I suppose. The vocals, adequate in their delivery as the set progresses, are sung in Cantonese lyrics; while I am fond […]
-THE PEER HAT, MANCHESTER- Thee Windom Earles In the congested, oddly lit confines we all know as the Peer Hat basement, a band that evidently borrows from the 1950s emerges… albeit with a more spirited approach to guitar playing and drumming that probably wouldn’t have existed in that particular timeframe (Who likes pizza?). The alternating […]

LIVE: SNAKERATTLERS / BONES SHAKE / THEE WINDOM EARLES – 15/02/2019

ALBUM REVIEW: CELLAR DOORS – CELLAR DOORS

Hippies running wild with far away glazed eyes, flowers being handed out on every street corner and a sniff of revolution in the air, if that’s what San Francisco psychedelia used to conjure up, then Cellar Doors are here to give it a bit of a kick up the arse. This Californian trio have created […]
YES (THE BASEMENT), MANCHESTER- First of all: what a name for a project. Imagine all the songs in the world that have ‘lala’ in them, then thinking ‘I’m going to call my band that’ and sticking another ‘lala’ on the end of it and thinking ‘my work here is done’, and you’d be right in […]

LIVE: LALA LALA – 19/02/2019

LIVE: WHITE DENIM – 15/02/2019

-ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER- Walking into the Albert Hall I have always felt mixed levels of excitement. I’ve seen David Gray there at an all seated event, feeling like the youngest person in there, and then King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard in the middle of summer, probably the sweatiest gig I’ve ever attended. So, as […]
-YES, MANCHESTER- The last time I saw Toy was when I reviewed them for Silent Radio back in 2012. A lot has happened since then, but I still remember their instrumental wonders filling all corners of the Soup Kitchen. Tonight, they’re playing at Yes. I’ve yet to see a gig here and I’m excited to […]

LIVE: TOY – 15/02/2019

LIVE: MOLD / SWEATY PALMS / EMOTIONAL OLYMPICS – 14/02/2019

-SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER- Emotional Olympics Curiously we start with a one-man-guitar show; the other Olympians were sadly trapped in the confines of the capital. He somehow manages to turn the dismembering sensation of lacking a full band into a melancholic exhibition that displayed some capable vocal abilities, featuring a bright falsetto, humming in the low […]
-ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER- Neneh Cherry is the absolute boss. Here she is on stage at the Albert Hall, absolutely killing it in support of her recent Four Tet and 3D (of Massive Attack fame) produced album Broken Politics, an album that has rocketed her to the kind of critical acclaim that came with her seminal […]

LIVE: NENEH CHERRY – 13/02/2019

LIVE: FUR / HONEY MOON – 12/02/2019

-THE CASTLE HOTEL, MANCHESTER- A glimpse of summer is brought to us during this harsh winter with edgy-on-the-outside/soft-on-the-inside aesthetic from supporting band Honey Moon; familiar to that sensation you get from a lemon soother, settling your cold down, even if it’s just for a little bit. When I first saw the name of the support, […]
-YES, MANCHESTER- Wild Nothing are a group hellbent on melting my insides via extreme doses of summertime nostalgia and as they step onto the stage, I anticipate an epic singalong where only I will be vocal. That’s right, the dickhead in the Carhartt with his arms in the air all night is me, what you […]

LIVE: WILD NOTHING / J FERNANDEZ – 11/02/2019