LIVE REVIEW – HARD LIFE: MANCHESTER ACADEMY – 06/11/2025

Is there anything as beautiful as a comeback? From this summer’s swaggeringly assured Oasis reunion, also known as Armistice Day for Adidas-wearers, to the slightly more unsteady reappearance of Catfish and The Bottlemen – a very slow-hatching but tardily rewarding cocoon – this last year has been all about musicians returning to the ring. The […]
It’s a mundane Monday, and the humdrum normality of everyday life is reaching out for some form of escapism. Seeking music as the solution, I, along with just over 2000 other people will congregate within the walls of Manchester Academy, where Rebecca Lucy Taylor (better known as Self Esteem) will perform for the third (sold-out) […]

LIVE REVIEW – SELF ESTEEM: MANCHESTER ACADEMY – 29/09/2025

Big Thief

LIVE: BIG THIEF – 24/02/2022

– Academy, Manchester – Magical bands do not come along that often. To be a magical band, you have to have an alchemy that is almost undefinable, a mysterious quality that’s all but impossible to put your finger on, something that no other combination of people could achieve, something not even an infinite amount of […]
Brix & The Extricated have revealed they will release their highly anticipated album Part 2 on Friday 22nd September 2017 on Blang Records, coinciding with their UK tour (see dates below). The band has – in the words of an old Fall lyric – something of a “track record”. Brix Smith-Start is a female rock icon […]

BRIX & THE EXTRICATED TO RELEASE NEW ALBUM ‘PART 2’ COINCIDING WITH THEIR UK TOUR

GHOSTPOET RETURNS WITH NEW SINGLE ‘IMMIGRANT BOOGIE’ PLUS UK TOUR DATES THIS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER

‘Immigrant Boogie’ marks the first new material from Ghostpoet since the release of his Mercury-nominated Shedding Skin third album back in 2015. The track also heralds news of a full UK tour in the Autumn – see below for tour dates. Ghostpoet aka Obaro Ejimiwe explains: “It’s a first person account of a difficult journey across […]
Thee Oh Sees: they’re back!! With new material from their latest album An Odd Entrances and new drummer Paul Quattrone. Catch them live. THEE OH SEES 2017 UK & FESTIVAL TOUR DATES Tue 16th May – Nottingham – Rock City Wed 17th May – Bexhill – The De La Warr Pavilion Sat 3rd June – […]

UPDATED TOUR DATES AND VENUES FOR THEE OH SEES

DOING THEIR DUTY PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING ANNOUNCE OCTOBER 2017 UK TOUR

Public Service Broadcasting have announced details of a major UK tour in October in support of new album, Every Valley (out Friday 7th July 2017). Stopping in twelve cities – including their biggest headline to date at London’s Eventim Apollo, plus a selection of some of the best live rooms across the country – the […]
The Jesus And Mary Chain will play Manchester Academy as part of their UK tour in March… Fronted by the Reid brothers Jim and William, The Jesus And Mary Chain first reformed to play the Coachella festival back in 2007. Despite regular touring – most notably a 2015 world tour which revisited their landmark album Psychocandy – […]

THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN RETURN TO MANCHESTER

LIVE: DAUGHTER – 24/10/2016

– THE ACADEMY, MANCHESTER – “I’m trying to get out // Find a subtle way out // Not just cross myself out // Not just disappear” Elena Tonra professes to us, midway through set opener ‘New Ways’. A mixed message from their latest cut Not to Disappear, which was released last year to critical acclaim and […]
UK Indie darlings Daughter release video for the rather odd track “No Care”, taken from their latest record ‘Not to Disappear’ (2016). When you first watch the video for “No Care” it comes across very 90s, probably due to its parts in black and white and flashing reds whilst the band perform. The music itself […]

DAUGHTER REALLY DON’T CARE