LIVE: OH SEES – 14/06/2017

– 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 […]
– ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER – Closed-eye hallucinations gift light where there is none. When blood-pressure drops and the visual field darkens, baptismal blackness paints stars across the ceiling of your skull – scars across the sky that surf the seam between reality and illusion. When we shut ourselves to the world, and begin to drift […]

LIVE: TYCHO – 07/06/2017

LIVE: DELIA DERBYSHIRE DAY – 10/06/2017

– BAND ON THE WALL, MANCHESTER – In the early hours of the morning at London’s Maida Vale Studios, Delia Derbyshire unravelled an entire reel of tape down the length of a long corridor. After finishing an almost-perfect track, she had identified a single note out of sync. The only way to correct it was […]
– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – A dark, incense filled basement crowded with goth types dressed in black doesn’t exactly scream pop music – this is a Molly Nilsson show though. Tonight she plays to a modest Soup Kitchen crowd, although her fan base is growing; she says the last time she played in Manchester it […]

LIVE: MOLLY NILSSON / APOSTILLE – 02/06/2017

LIVE: JULIEN BAKER / LAUREN DENITIZIO – 06/06/2017

– DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – The Deaf Institute is one of my favourite venues, it has a great setup and I have arrived early to finally get the chance at taking a proper seat on the comfy rear bleachers. It is definitely worth it as from the back of the room I can see everything: […]
– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – Under dimmed glows, a murmured haziness fills our surroundings. Four figures creep into the light and quietly get acquainted with their instruments. No-one applauds; no-one seems to notice. Much like their introduction tonight Oxford four-piece Low Island started gently in 2016, bending people’s ears with debut single ‘Anywhere’ on which […]

LIVE: LOW ISLAND – 06/06/2017

LIVE: MARIKA HACKMAN – 31/05/2017

– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – Kicking off her set with new, and at this point unheard, album tacks ‘Good Intentions’ and ‘Eastbound Train’, Marika Hackman’s sounding noisier than you might expect. Once proclaimed as a folk heroine, it seems she’s dusted off a distortion pedal and run with it to the finish line – […]
– Gullivers, Manchester – Before tonight’s show my friend texted me asking “is Manchester safe?” It took me aback. Going to watch live music is something nobody should ever have to worry about, but that’s the situation our city was thrown into after the tragic events of last night. On the way through the streets […]

LIVE: PRIESTS – 23/05/2017

LIVE: LUKE SITAL-SINGH – 22/05/2017

– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – Monday evening after another warm day, and the room in Manchester’s Deaf Institute is getting warmer by the minute, it is also, packed. Everybody here is ready to enjoy another night of great music, and great talent, and share together the collective joy, from a shared musical experience. It’s […]
– ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER – “This is a song about waiting for something to happen in your town,” Paul Smith announces to the hot, heaving crowd before the opening bars of ‘Graffiti’ build and smash over an electrified crowd. After also selling out the Albert Hall in 2015 with their A Certain Trigger tenth anniversary tour, […]

LIVE: MAXIMO PARK – 19/05/2017