LIVE: ALVVAYS – 19/02/2018

-ACADEMY 2, MANCHESTER- Alvvays (actually pronounced ‘always’), are a 5 piece band fronted by singer Molly Rankin, formed back in 2011 in Toronto. Since then they have released two studio albums: their debut Alvvays, released in 2014, saw them compared musically to the likes of The Cranberries and catapulted them into a world of live […]
-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- You must have to be a right arsehole not to like The Go! Team. Like, the type of person who voted for Brexit, then emigrated to America, especially to vote for Trump and followed it up with a really, badly worded comment on a Daily Mail website article about immigration. One of them, […]

LIVE: THE GO! TEAM – 17/02/2018

LIVE: THE LOVELY EGGS / PORKY THE POET / MR. BEN AND THE BENS – 17/02/2018

-BAND ON THE WALL, MANCHESTER- The circus is in town tonight. Lancaster’s two best bands, miles apart in style but united in ethos, have come to the end of a ten date sold-out nationwide tour, climaxing at Band on the Wall for what will turn out to be a memorable blow-off. The Lovely Eggs are […]
-DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER- Nina Violet is the first artist to play this evening at the Deaf Institute. The room is more than half filled, with no more space available on the bleacher style seats, and the floor space populated part way to the stage. No one is yet venturing too close to the front, and […]

LIVE: WILLY MASON / NINA VIOLET – 15/02/2018

LIVE: WILD BEASTS – 16/02/2018

-APOLLO, MANCHESTER- Wild Beasts: A Love Letter Ah Wild Beasts, you broke my heart. Being one of my favourite bands of the last decade, releasing two all time classic albums (Two Dancers and Smother, fact fans), you decided to call it a day and go your separate ways. Having emerged in a storm of theatrics […]
-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- Perspective is an important thing. I’m at the front of Gorilla with my friend Eve, waiting for the support act to come on for tonight’s GoGo Penguin gig, and am trying to take my notepad out of my bag so I can remember things for this review (which you’re reading now, bloody hell […]

LIVE: GOGO PENGUIN / JENS KUROSS – 10/02/2018

ALBUM: WILD BEASTS – LAST NIGHT MY DREAMS CAME TRUE

In late 2017 Wild beasts (the 4-piece indie band from Kendal) announced that they would sadly be ending their journey after 14 years together, in which time they have released four studio albums. After their first album 2008’s enthusiastic, fresh sounding Limbo, Panto, they seemed to really polish their sound and refine their direction, defining […]
Belle and Sebastian have always produced the kind of music which is delicate on the eardrums, yet with a feisty rock n roll streak tearing through its core. They’re one of those bands who you think you’ve got figured out, then they go off and do something unexpected. Live, their gigs transform into a communal […]

ALBUM: BELLE AND SEBASTIAN – HOW TO SOLVE OUR HUMAN PROBLEMS

LIVE: A. SAVAGE / JACK COOPER – 01/02/2018

-SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER- Arriving early, I dawdle at the unmanned merch stand. Jack Cooper’s debut solo record Sandgrown is for sale. The cover is black and white and carries the effect of a woodblock print. A drawing of a straight-faced Cooper with his eyes closed foregrounds the silhouettes of key Blackpool architecture, notably the tower. […]
-THE EAGLE INN, SALFORD- Just two weeks after the release of their third album The Official Body, dance-punk trio Shopping are in town and tonight is a sell-out in the Eagle Inn – it seems we are in some need of some retail therapy and everyone who made it in tonight has bagged a bargain. […]

LIVE: SHOPPING – 03/02/2018