GIGS OF 2024

As ever, north-west England and especially Manchester has been well-served for great gigs in 2024. Here, in no particular order, are some of the top shows enjoyed by Silent Radio’s writers during this year: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Adrienne Lenker The Breeders The Zutons Paul McCartney Magnetic Fields The Unthanks Cumgirl8 Still House […]
    Our album of 2024 comes from Kim Deal. Her solo debut, ‘Nobody Loves You More’ is quintessentially Kim with her distinctive vocals and bass sounds, yet the songs here manage to incorporate electronic beats, strings and brass sections, and range from beautifully warped indie lounge tunes to pounding electronica with plenty of melodic […]

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2024

LIVE REVIEW – CUMGIRL8: YES BASEMENT – 10/12/2024

I intend for you to leave this review wishing you were at the gig I attended with a pal of mine on December 10th at YES Basement. At the very least, I hope you feel intrigued enough to check out cumgirl8 and Arch Femmesis – headline and support acts respectively – who each dominated the […]
Following a number one album in the UK with TANGK, Idles bring their manic and quite frankly insane energy to Manchester’s O2 Apollo this Friday, on a cold, damp and miserable day, frontman Joe Talbot still somehow finds a way to light up that crowd and have everyone in his control right in the palm […]

LIVE REVIEW – IDLES: MANCHESTER APOLLO – 06/12/24

ALBUM ROUNDUP DECEMBER 2024

As new releases dwindle at year end, we have bundled together all the December releases in one monthly package. Saint Etienne                The Night         Their twelfth album delivers an ambient escape from the chaos of daily life, capturing the essence of the after-hours. The album takes listeners through layered tranquillity, offering calm to restless minds and […]
It is a night that defines winter in a north-west coastal town: dreary, bleak and blustery, one that is far from the Hollywood picture postcard vision of crisply snowy Christmas. Visibility is so poor that is hard to locate the relevant bus stop and the entrance to Lowther Gardens is unlit and easily missed. Leafy […]

LIVE REVIEW: THE UNTHANKS – LYTHAM LOWTHER PAVILION: 04/12/24

ALBUM REVIEW – BEN FOLDS: SLEIGHER

‘Sleigher’ must surely be the best title ever for a Christmas album. While it provokes mischievous ideas as to what a festive album by the thrash metal titans might sound like (try to imagine pummelling versions of ‘White Christmas’), Ben Folds’ take on the genre is more traditional but well thought through. It is a […]
In a small alternative universe populated by erudite pop classicists, Robert Forster and Grant McLennan are revered alongside Lennon and McCartney as songwriters of the highest order. For unfathomable reasons, the songs they wrote as The Go-Betweens never entered the public consciousness in the way that their champions anticipated. Since McLennon’s tragic sudden death in […]

ALBUM REVIEW: THE GO-BETWEENS – G STANDS FOR GO-BETWEENS: VOLUME 3 2000-2006

LIVE REVIEW: FONTAINES D.C. – MANCHESTER AVIVA STUDIOS: 29/11/24

Wild and ferocious, the boys from the better land carved ‘Dublin City’ into the heart of Manchester as they debuted their three-night residency. Fans venture from every inch of the map as the capacity of Aviva Studio reaches its limit. Feeding the 5,000, this crowd came with an appetite starving for a show. It’s clear […]
If there’s one thing you know going into a Full of Hell record, it’s that the bar has been set high for extremity. As one of the most formidable extreme metal outfits out there, the band has consistently been the standard bearers for putrid, gnarly extremity for the better part of 15 years. Scraping The […]

ALBUM REVIEW – FULL OF HELL + ANDREW NOLAN: SCRAPING THE DEVINE