LIVE: RYAN ADAMS – 14/09/2017

-APOLLO, MANCHESTER- WARNING: I am a Ryan Adams fan boy, so this review will mainly be a gushing fan letter to one of the greatest songwriters of the last 20 years. With that out the way, and you duly forewarned, let’s continue… I love Ryan Adams. There, I said it. He came into my life […]
-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- On the eve of the release of their second album ‘Antisocialites’, Canadian dream-poppers Alvvays (pronounced “Always”, as you would imagine) are stopping off at the wonderful Gorilla to give us a preview of their new material. Not having heard anything from the new LP but the couple of singles they’ve released over the […]

LIVE: ALVVAYS – 07/09/2017

ALBUM: L.A. WITCH – L.A. WITCH

Los Angeles three-piece LA Witch’s initial aspirations were humble: “We never really thought we would or could release an album, we were really just finding each other and finding our sound.” But following touring non-stop for the last three-years and a slew of singles on underground labels, their eponymous debut has now arrived and a […]
-ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER- New York City in 2002 and Interpol released their debut album, Turn on The Bright Lights. I wasn’t there. It’s hardly surprising considering I was eight at the time and over three thousand miles away. Say what you will about anniversary tours, but it gives fans like me a chance to see something we’d […]

LIVE: INTERPOL – 03/09/2017

LIVE: DEAP VALLY / PINS – 30/08/2017

-THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER- One hundred days on from the Manchester Arena Attack, which tragically took the lives of many music fans, the Ruby Lounge plays host to a band who epitomise the comeback music in this city has made. Since the bombing, gigs and live music events have continued without issue and show a […]
-THE RITZ, MANCHESTER- Walking into any building to see Ultimate Painting tuning up, and knowing you’ve got five hours of great music ahead of you, is enough to get even the most dour Mancunian hack excited, and that was what we were in for on Saturday Night. Strange Waves II, a festival hosted at The […]

LIVE: STRANGE WAVES II (PARQUET COURTS, OMNI, BEACH FOSSILS, DEAD PRETTIES, ROLLING BLACKOUTS COASTAL FEVER, ULTIMATE PAINTING) – 02/09/2017

LIVE: NADIA REID – 31/08/2017

-DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER- Nadia Reid is one of a string of female folk artists, think Julie Byrne, Julia Jacklin, and Aldous Harding, that have broken through this year. The distinct silence that meets Nadia’s question of how many people were at her last Manchester concert in February just shows how quick her rise has been. […]
-DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER- “Living on the road, my friend, was gonna keep you free and clean/But now you wear your skin like iron and your breath’s as hard as kerosene.” Townes Van Zandt – ‘Pancho and Lefty’ If Courtney Marie Andrews’ admiration of Van Zandt’s records goes back far enough, to when she was 16, […]

LIVE: COURTNEY MARIE ANDREWS – 24/08/2017

LIVE: FRANK TURNER / FELIX HAGAN & THE FAMILY / OUR FOLD – 24/08/2017

-THE RITZ, MANCHESTER- Scrolling through tweets when I get home from the bang that was the Big Issue North Street Noise, I find a post that sums it up perfectly. The body of the tweet said something like “Yeah a quiet acoustic Frank Turner gig, that’ll be nice and chill.” Embedded in the post, a […]
-DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER- The artwork adorning the Culture Abuse T-shirts and hoodies for sale at the merch table depicts harsh wire fences, but the San Francisco Bay Area five-piece is at heart a party band, and the price list placed alongside the merch states that booze and weed are accepted methods of payment. Second of […]

LIVE: CULTURE ABUSE – 23/08/2017