LIVE: MOON DUO – 01/02/2018

-THE WHITE HOTEL, SALFORD- Far from the Northern Quarter, the beating heart of Manchester’s thriving indie scene, lies a desolate industrial complex. Surrounded by scrap tips and disused lock up garages, in the arse end of Salford, stands the equally desolate looking White Hotel. However this desolate exterior hides a much darker secret inside… As […]
-DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER- Drawing their name from the Margaret Greaves children’s book Little Jacko and the Wolf People, Wolf People are a psychedelic quartet formed in 2005 in Bedfordshire. Tonight, they play Deaf Institute in Manchester. As the disco ball dangling above the crowd shoots amber and violet hues across the room, four unassuming thirty […]

LIVE: WOLF PEOPLE – 27/01/2018

LIVE: WAND / EAST SISTER – 26/01/2018

-SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER- The modern psychedelic scene is known for its ingenuity, originality and prolificness, and with an abundance of bands like King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and Thee Oh Sees who produce fresh, hard hitting, tripped-out anthems that draw from the heyday of psychedelia whilst still managing to sound fresh and organic, it […]
-DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER- “I love L.A.” darks-out of frontwoman Arrow de Wilde’s mouth. Although restrained, the statement speaks to an unchained relationship with glamour and the grotesque that colours the 18-year-old’s presence, and when released, the words don’t simply fall, but are supercharged by an accompanying quarter-pint of blood that spills from Wilde’s lips and […]

LIVE: STARCRAWLER – 17/01/2018

LIVE: LEE FIELDS & THE EXPRESSIONS – 24/01/2018

-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- What strikes me as I watch Lee Fields strut onto the stage, in his brilliantly blue gold toned brocade jacket, is just how brilliantly bouncy he is. Like a man half his age, his energy is infectious with most of the crowd bouncing along with him as the night goes on. I actually […]
-NIGHT AND DAY CAFE, MANCHESTER- It’s the first gig after the Christmas break and it’s great to be back in Manchester for an evening of live music. Tonight’s entertainers are Liverpool band The Probes, made up of Jack Greene (vocals, guitar), Ray Badger (guitar), Justin Forman (bass) and Elliot Ferguson (drums). Arriving at Oldham Street’s […]

LIVE: THE PROBES / BABYLON / PLEASURES / MARK PRATT – 12/01/2018

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 […]
-SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER- Due to unforeseen circumstances on my way to the event, the first support act I get to see tonight is Jaye Jayle, comprising of Evan Patterson and backing band. They appear in the cavernous basement of the Soup Kitchen, illuminated only by soft orange light, emitted by two lonely bulbs, one flickering […]

LIVE: EMMA RUTH RUNDLE / JAYE JAYLE – 15/12/2017

LIVE: EVERYTHING EVERYTHING – 12/12/2017

-BAND ON THE WALL, MANCHESTER- What an opportunity: the chance to see one of Britain’s most highly regarded bands playing in a tiny venue like Band on the Wall when they’re usually selling out multiple nights at somewhere like the Apollo. It’s almost too good to believe. Maybe there’s another band called Everything Everything who […]
-DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER- It’s already bleak December, but we may have a new festival favourite to watch in 2018. Usually that’s a precipitous view; what, dear reader, can align for the soft whiff of cow fields and the clink of tinnies in a rucksack whilst winter is still nipping our bones? Well, personally, it’s the […]

LIVE: THE ORIELLES / BOY AZOOGA / ILAND TAIPAN – 08/12/2017