LIVE: DEMOB HAPPY – 04/12/2015

 – GULLIVER’S, MANCHESTER – It’s a rather windy night as I catch the train to the ever impressively bustling city of Manchester, looking forward to a gang of Geordies putting on a heavy, sweaty and no doubt exciting show. Accompanied by yet another beautiful female companion, I have no idea why she agreed to come […]
– SOUP KITCHEN,  MANCHESTER – Before the gig I repeat to myself ‘Sex Swing, Sex Swing, Sex Swing’ but what the frack does it mean, ‘Sex Swing’? Sounds good though, the sex, the swing. Anyway, I don’t remember if because I was looking for the band online or if I had had a brief epiphany […]

LIVE: SEX SWING / GROVES / BREAKING COLTS – 05/12/2015

LIVE: WOLFGANG FLUR – 04/12/2015

 – AATMA, MANCHESTER – Wolfgang Flür hails from Frankfurt, Germany and was a member of the illustrious and incredibly influential Kraftwerk from 1973 to 1987 where he played electronic percussion. Post-Kraftwerk, Flür founded Yamo in 1997 and released the album Time Pie, which was a collaboration with Mouse On Mars. In October this year, Flür […]
– THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER – Lanterns On The Lake are a moody Geordie band – doesn’t sound right, I know, but that oxymoron sort of sums up their sound, dramatic but never without a tinge of ever-present joy. The five-piece’s stellar new track ‘Faultlines’, the first single to be taken off their third album […]

LIVE: LANTERNS ON THE LAKE – 02/12/2015

LIVE: PEACHES – 03/12/2015

– FAT OUT’S BURROW (ISLINGTON MILL), SALFORD – As another underwhelming and frustrating day at work draws to a close the abbreviation “WWPD?” is whirling around my head. Because I know the lady I am going to see would not stand for this boring, crap job: yes, “What Would Peaches Do?” Peaches (real name Merill) would […]
 – FACTORY 251, MANCHESTER – “The new instrument for the new music”. That was the slogan for the synthetisers back in the early 70s. Shortly after, the American Minimoog set “an absolute turning point”, as Gordon Reid tells his ‘Incredibly Brief History of the Synthetisers’ speech to a packed Factory251. This is the Synth Symposium, […]

THE SYNTH SYMPOSIUM – 01/12/2015

LIVE: BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE – 01/12/2015

 – THE LOWRY, SALFORD QUAYS – In an age of dreary X Factor hopefuls and manufactured pop acts, it’s always easy to forget the existence of raw talent in the music industry. Benjamin Clementine represents a refreshing alternative to the norm. Having been born in London, he plied his trade by busking on the Metros of […]
The first time I picked up Lanterns on the Lake’s début full-lengther Gracious Tide, Take Me Home it was for embarrassingly superficial reasons – the band’s unusual, starry-eyed name, a cover designed like a battered old book – it all seemed to give off an independent, DIY impression I hoped would reflect in their sound. Thankfully […]

Album Review: Lanterns on the Lake – Beings

LIVE: COURTNEY BARNETT – 30/11/2015

  -THE O2 RITZ, MANCHESTER – As the year draws to a close, Courtney Barnett can look back on it as being something of a successful one. The last twelve months has seen the release of her latest album Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit and the acclaim on the back […]
 – MANCHESTER CENTRAL, MANCHESTER – Alt-J & Manchester Central – a duo that is definitely up there on the matches made in heaven list, alongside peanut butter & banana or Courtney Love & Kurt Cobain. Festival speakers hang from each side of the stage and an impressive catenary curved roof spans over the wave of […]

LIVE: ALT-J – 29/11/2015