LIVE: LAURA MARLING / ETHAN JONES – 12/03/2017

– ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER – Before the Albert Hall was one of Manchester’s best loved music venues it used to be a church, and for Laura Marling’s fourth stop on her Semper Femina tour this evening, you can feel that more than ever. Beneath the imposing stained glass church windows, which are allowing a flickering […]
– DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – Being a relatively new Wild Child listener, I’m hoping for bouncy beats and down-to-earth prosaic lyrics about everyday life, provided by the way of good-humoured derision. The teasing nature of the singing duo of Wild Child is amusing to listen to, but live I’m not entirely sure what I’m in […]

LIVE: WILD CHILD / MAYBE FRANK – 11/03/2017

LIVE: THE WAILERS / BY THE RIVERS – 10/03/2017

– ACADEMY 1, MANCHESTER – The happiness that emanates from The Wailers is astounding; from Donald Kinsey’s forever beaming smile to 86-year-old Alvin ‘Seeco’ Patterson ambling on stage with the help of a walking stick and an arm to cheers, there is so much love for this band that to not smile may mean you’re […]
What do Mary Berry, Mark Rothko, Benedictine monks, Bovis homes, Francis Bacon, photographer Richard Billingham and TV chef Rachel Khoo have in common? They are all victims in the equal-opportunity offence blitzkrieg from Idles frontman Joe Talbot on the Bristol band’s debut album, Brutalism. The record opens with an anonymous woman’s horrifying shriek of “NO […]

ALBUM: IDLES – BRUTALISM

LIVE: HAMILTON LEITHAUSER – 10/03/2017

– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – When you think of the New York City indie rock scene, you instantly recall bands like The Strokes, LCD Soundsystem, Interpol and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs surfacing in the first knockings of the new millennium. Before that Sonic Youth, The Velvet Underground and Blondie pioneered the movement in The Big Apple. […]
– THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER – New York-based musician Mitski’s first Manchester show was as recent as October last year at the Deaf Institute, but it seems she enjoyed herself as she’s back in town already. Daylight hours today were all clear-skied and spring-like, so maybe she made the most of the day with a […]

LIVE: MITSKI – 09/03/2017

LIVE: PEANESS – 08/03/2017

 – THE CASTLE HOTEL, MANCHESTER – As far as selling out your first Manchester headline show goes, it can only be a good thing. Even in a modestly sized venue such as The Castle, it’s an intimate setting to get to know your fans. Tonight, a few have travelled from Chester; the birthplace of Peaness. […]
– GULLIVERS, MANCHESTER – A wiser man than I once said, “writing about music is like dancing about architecture”, and although I don’t usually buy into this façade, nights like this make me think otherwise. In a poorly lit attic above a pub in the heart of the Northern Quarter, the future of British psychedelic […]

LIVE: DUSST / LAVENDER / WILD BIRDS OF BRITAIN – 06/03/2017

LIVE: FUN LOVIN’ CRIMINALS – 04/03/2017

– ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER – Incense smoke sneaks around the room, as though from the very pipes of the Albert Hall organ, maybe blown by some celestial keys man, working the heavenly pedals. Something smells pretty sweet, anyways. Look around and at first it seems somehow sacrilegious: that people would rave, silhouetted in front of […]
-THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER – Welcome to Henge. At this gig, you check your measly human earth life at the door. For the uninitiated, this band have come on a longer journey than most to be at the Ruby Lounge tonight – from the State of Mutagia, to be exact. If you’re not 100% clear […]

LIVE: HENGE – 03/03/2017