LIVE: GRANT-LEE PHILLIPS & HOWE GELB – 10/10/2014

– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER- Going from gig to gig around Britain with a guitar and a suitcase, a young Paul Simon once sat on a Cheshire railway station platform and wrote a lonely song about missing a home far, far away. Tonight, almost 50 years later, two other great American troubadours are in north-west […]
– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – In another world, Tom Vek probably deserves to be massive.  His recorded output is always unique and interesting: Plumbing the archives of electronic pop, he can achieve melodic dissonance, looped grunge and electro-wobble in the space of a single album, and this is enough to tempt me to Gorilla to see […]

LIVE: TOM VEK – 08/10/2014

LIVE: BILL RYDER-JONES WITH MANCHESTER CAMERATA – 09/10/2014

– MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL , MANCHESTER –  Manchester Cathedral plays host to the debut performance of Bill Ryder-Jones’s excellent debut album If…, recorded in 2011 as a hypothetical film score to the novel ‘If on a Winters Night a Traveler’, by Italo Calvino. The book itself is an experimental work, featuring ten chapters each of two […]
– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – A few years back, I had the pleasure of seeing Tall Ships play to a packed out crowd at Soup Kitchen, as part of the annual Carefully Planned Festival. I’ve been a big fan of Tall Ships for a while now, so I was delighted to hear they were coming […]

LIVE: TALL SHIPS – 08/10/2014

LIVE: FUTURE OF THE LEFT – 05/10/2014

– THE ROADHOUSE, MANCHESTER – Andrew ‘Falco’ Falkous is an angry man. The Future of the Left singer is not only responsible for some of the best straight up rock music this country has produced in the last decade, but also a misanthropic outpouring that could make Charlie Brooker blush. Tonight the welsh band hit […]
– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – I’ve spent the past few days downing lemsip, using all the toilet roll and refusing to take off my coat. Winter is here folks. Despite my immune system being at its weakest, there is something about this time of year that I love. There seem to be a few bands […]

LIVE: THE TWILIGHT SAD – 05/10/2014

LIVE: DRY THE RIVER – 04/10/2014

– ACADEMY 2, MANCHESTER – After an extended organ drone intro, Dry The River arrive on stage looking more like The Eagles than ever – all hair and plaid. Lead singer Peter Liddle is clad head-to-toe in white and looks like Gareth from The Office playing Jesus. They crack on with the title track of […]
– MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL, MANCHESTER – This is first time I’ve ever stepped foot in Manchester Cathedral full stop, never mind stepping in whilst drinking cans of Red Stripe and watching a gig. For tonight we are all here to worship at the alter of Jessie Ware, the sultry London songstress who first bewitched us with […]

LIVE: JESSIE WARE – 03/10/2014

LIVE: MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA / KEVIN DEVINE – 01/10/2014

– THE RITZ, MANCHESTER – Since this tour was announced I’ve been super excited. Firstly the fact that Atlanta rock band Manchester Orchestra are headlining The Ritz is a triumph in itself, but with Brooklyn songwriting maverick Kevin Devine in main support with his GodDamn Band backing him up? Thats pretty sweet! And then opening […]
– SOUND CONTROL, MANCHESTER – In an era when music is increasingly subjugated to seamless production, studio chicanery and the pursuit of a flawless product, it is refreshing to find a band who still celebrate the raw ebullience of a live performance, and find their triumph with the masses and not behind a studio mixing […]

LIVE: THE JIM JONES REVUE – 28/09/2014