LIVE: CYMBALS EAT GUITARS – 08/02/2017

– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – Cymbals Eat Guitars (CEG for brevity’s sake) are an odd band, and odd bands, as we well know, are the best. Frontman Joseph D’Agostino has a voice that can best be described as sounding like a guy with a brilliant voice but who is suffering from laryngitis – a kind of […]
– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – To say I am excited for tonight is an understatement – I am thrilled to be going to watch Kate Nash at Gorilla in Manchester. Having not released any new material for some time, or an album in an even longer time, to see Kate Nash shimmy on stage in full length […]

LIVE: KATE NASH – 07/02/2017

LIVE: VAULTS – 06/02/2017

– DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – Vaults’ rise to fame is one that epitomises today’s musical landscape. The electronic trio first pricked the ears of listeners when they uploaded ‘Cry No More’ to Soundcloud. The viral hit soon amassed 100,000 plays in just one week and they were soon fielding calls to appear on the soundtrack […]
– AATMA, MANCHESTER – Death Valley Girls are a band who have steadily been attracting more and more attention over the last few years, securing key festival appearances as well as other extensive tour schedules across Europe; their presence in Manchester tonight is therefore much welcomed. Opening this evening at Aatma, the Northern Quarter’s best […]

LIVE: DEATH VALLEY GIRLS / THE 99 DEGREE – 04/02/2017

LIVE: CONOR OBERST – 02/02/2017

– ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER – I’ve always been intrigued by records that have a story behind them. When songwriting maverick Conor Oberst was advised to cancel the rest of a tour due to ill health back in 2015, he retreated to his home in Nebraska and out of boredom ended up writing a full length. After […]
When a family loses one of their own, it changes everyone in that family, for better or worse. The pain and grief can destroy them, or bring them closer together. Bands such as Led Zeppelin broke up after the tragic loss of John Bonham, but on the other side, bands like The Who and Rolling […]

ALBUM: SUFER BLOOD – SNOWDONIA

LIVE: MARTHA WAINWRIGHT – 28/01/2017

– RITZ, MANCHESTER – Imagine being so cold you could almost form icicle mists with every breath you take. Then take a night with Martha Wainwright, with a voice that sounds like it’s in need of some hot honey and lemon concoction. And you’re in for soul warming revelations. So you can say. Opening up […]
– DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – For a lot of people, the new year takes a few weeks to get properly started. But with the cobwebs cleared and the post-Christmas diets given up on, Trof and The Skinny have joined heads to get the 2017 live music year up and running for good. Following on from […]

LIVE: STAY FRESH FEST 2 – 28/01/2017

LIVE: OATHBREAKER – 27/01/2017

– STAR AND GARTER, MANCHESTER – Belgian post-metal expansionists Oathbreaker have been twisting the wrist of blackened, avant-garde metal since 2011’s Maelstrom, but have found themselves breaking the bones of the genre with what could be considered the band’s haunting, line-blurring masterpiece, 2016’s Rheia: a glacially vulnerable, boundary dissolving record that is as violently naked […]
– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – I’m pretty overjoyed that The Hotelier is my first gig of 2017, even on a Monday night (seriously, Monday night gigs should be banned…). The start of 2017 has been tainted by the swearing in of that monster in America, and even the heart swelling scenes of the millions joining in […]

LIVE: THE HOTELIER – 23/01/2017