LIVE: HAPPY MONDAYS – 21/11/2019

-ACADEMY, MANCHESTER- Happy Mondays played the Manchester Academy on Thursday evening. For me, the only thing that overshadowed their performance were the disabled facilities. The gig took place in Manchester Academy – a venue that is not altogether unfamiliar to a Happy Mondays gig, with them having played there on greatest hits tours for the […]

all photos courtesy of Ric Harris (aka @landwomble) -ACADEMY, MANCHESTER- What can we say about Sleaford Mods that hasn’t been said already? I think we’re all on the same page really. There’s no one quite like them and we bloody love them for it. The tenacious twosome from Nottingham haven’t really stopped since their formation […]

LIVE: SLEAFORD MODS – 15/03/2019

LIVE: TOOTS & THE MAYTALS – 19/10/2018

-ACADEMY, MANCHESTER- Toots and the Maytals cured my knee! Well almost. After years of gigging, my left knee has seen better days. But peace, love, a bit of dancing and one incredible voice took away this pain for a few hours. Toots Hibbert emerges from the rafters dressed almost like a Rastafarian Pearly King. Styling […]

-ACADEMY, MANCHESTER- Frank will always be one of my favourites so heading down to Manchester Academy on Friday night it feels like I’m coming home, and I bounce in to the delightful sounds of The Homeless Gospel Choir, much to my ear’s delight. The ironic satire of Derek Zanetti is reminiscent of early Tenacious D, […]

LIVE: FRANK TURNER & THE SLEEPING SOULS / ARKELLS / THE HOMELESS GOSPEL CHOIR – 13/04/2018

LIVE: HAPPY MONDAYS – 13/12/2017

-ACADEMY 1, MANCHESTER- As chants of “Manchester lalala” echo round Manchester Academy, an ailing yet constantly gyrating 40-something-year-old man lets out a roar. “This is how we fucking do it Manchester!” Just like the prodigal son, the Happy Mondays are home, and they bring with them a back catalogue of floor fillers that can be […]

-ACADEMY 1, MANCHESTER- Rock royalty such as Black Rebel Motorcycle Club will always do things how they want. About to smash into their 20th year (can you believe they started in 1998?! Me neither…), the now three-piece announced a new album in September. Releasing just a couple of tracks off Wrong Creatures to whet people’s […]

LIVE: BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB / RESTAVRANT – 27/10/2017

LIVE: THE PIGEON DETECTIVES – 19/10/2017

-ACADEMY 1, MANCHESTER- I remember my first Wait For Me album encounter. It was in a pound shop. Kerching! In a time when my sixteen-year-old-self just wanted 2007 indie tunes banging in my lobes constantly, not the rants from my driving instructor, nor the career advice from my sixth form tutors. Just give me a […]

-ACADEMY 1, MANCHESTER- The night opens with a public service broadcast of our own. A light-hearted message about not using your phones as “the video and sound won’t be any good anyway”. I agree, enjoy the gig and don’t stick a phone in front of any other gig-goer’s view! Although I’m up in the lofty […]

LIVE: PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING – 16/10/2017

LIVE: SUNDARA KARMA – 12/10/2017

-ACADEMY 1, MANCHESTER- After releasing their highly anticipated debut album, Youth Is Only Ever Fun in Retrospect, at the beginning of this year, Sundara Karma – a group of four lads from Reading – have been touring pretty much non-stop. Stopping off in the UK and USA with tons of festival dates over the summer, they’ve […]

– ACADEMY 1, MANCHESTER – “I lie awake until I sleep, I see the sky tear, and then it weeps,” sings the dangerously prolific bird-of-prey John Dwyer, as sheets of blood-sucking black rainbow arch over Manchester’s Academy 1 and suffocate. The founding-member and primary songwriter of Thee Oh Sees – now simply Oh Sees following […]