Monday 31 July 2017

Taylor And The Mason / Izzie Walsh - Manchester Jimmy's - 30th July 2017


To celebrate the launch of their new video for single Midas Touch, Taylor And The Mason threw a Sunday night party at Jimmy's featuring a set from themselves and the stunning Tennessee influenced sounds of Izzie Walsh and her band.

James / Peter Hook And The Light / Milburn / Wild Front - Newcastle Times Square - 29th July 2017


 

James' season of summer shows moved to Newcastle and the city centre Times Square accompanied by Peter Hook And The Light, with whom they performed a special one-off collaboration, Milburn and Wild Front.

Sunday 30 July 2017

Track Of The Day : Taylor And The Mason - Midas Touch


Midas Touch is the new single from Taylor And The Mason, taken from their self-titled debut album. The video for the single was filmed at Manchester's Albert Hall on one DSLR camera by Bill Mohin and edited by Laura Bryant.

Friday 28 July 2017

Track Of The Day : SKIES - Green


SKIES release their new single Green accompanied by a simple but fun video. The Folkestone two-piece are set to return to the North for a Head For The Hills festival preview show at Bury Met on August 5th before playing the festival itself in Ramsbottom on 15-17th September.

Thursday 27 July 2017

Track Of The Day : The Duke Spirit - In Breath


In Breath is the second single from The Duke Spirit's forthcoming fifth album Sky Is Mine due for release on August 18th as the follow-up to last year's Kin.

Tuesday 25 July 2017

James : Justhipper - The Complete Sire & Blanco Y Negro Recordings 1986-1988


Justhipper is a collection from Cherry Red of the first two James album, Stutter and Strip-Mine, released in 1986 and 1988 respectively after signing from Factory Records. By the release of Strip-Mine, the band were on their uppers, having to do medical experiments to pay for rehearsal time and borrowing £10k to release their own live album One Man Clapping and escaping Sire / Blanco Y Negro's clutches on a legal technicality that the contract had to be renewed in writing six months after the final masters of Strip-Mine were delivered. Justhipper documents the two albums and the associated b-sides from the singles.

Monday 24 July 2017

Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott - Manchester HMV - 24th July 2017


To celebrate the launch of their third album Crooked Calypso last Friday, currently sitting at number one in the midweek charts, Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott performed a six-song set, split equally between new songs and favourites from The Beautiful South, to a crowd crammed between the CD shelves at Manchester's HMV store.

Tuesday 18 July 2017

Control Of The Going - Interview


Control Of The Going are a band that we've covered since their very earliest days as they've grown from a fledgling band into one of Manchester's most powerful live outfits. We spoke to Liam, Ste and Ash as they put the finishing touches to their debut album, due out later this year, and curate their own stage at this year's Blackthorn Festival following the release of their debut 7" single She / Wildflower earlier in the year.

Sunday 16 July 2017

James - London Kew Gardens - 15th July 2017


James joined Passenger, Razorlight, All Saints and Mary J Blige as headliners of this year’s Kew The Music festival week in the picturesque surroundings of Kew Gardens in London. Despite a sound level that would struggle to fill our living room and an audience that in the most part were more interested in their hampers and protecting their picnic blanket than they were about a rock concert, James refused to compromise and deliver the greatest hits set that the evening’s compere promised.

Thursday 13 July 2017

Mercury Rev / Hazel Wilde (Lanterns On The Lake) - Gateshead Sage - 12th July 2017


As part of the celebration of the 20th birthday of iconic independent label Bella Union, Mercury Rev announced three special dates with the celebrated Royal Northern Sinfonia. We caught their show at Gateshead Sage, home of the Sinfonia, a mix of tracks from across their career with a bit of Disney and Dusty Springfield for good measure. Support came from Hazel Wilde of Lanterns On The Lake playing her first ever solo show and revealing four new songs.

Wednesday 12 July 2017

Ride / Spectres - Manchester Ritz - 11th July 2017


Ride released their first album in twenty one years last month in Weather Diaries and announced this one-off Manchester International Festival show at The Ritz. An expectant audience were treated to a set that got the balance between new and old spot on and revealed them to be one of the few bands that have reformed to match, and at points exceed, former glories. Support came from Spectres.

Sunday 9 July 2017

Blossoms / The Coral / Rory Wynne / Touts - Manchester Castlefield Bowl - 8th July 2017



There has always been a sense of inevitability in the last three years that Blossoms' path would this summer lead them to Castlefield Bowl. Having supported both James and The Charlatans here in previous years and a year on from their number one debut album, it's a fitting way to bring to a close the first phase of their journey to be mentioned in the same breath as those aforementioned legends of the local music scene.

Saturday 8 July 2017

James / The Slow Readers Club - Manchester Castlefield Bowl - 7th July 2017


James made a triumphant return to their hometown of Manchester last night in front of an 8,000 crowd that braved the rain as some of the city's favourite sons ran through a career spanning set full of surprises, reinventions and curveballs as well as some of their best known and best loved songs towards the end of a two-hour set. Support came from Manchester's newest local heroes The Slow Readers Club who won over even more admirers with a forty-five minute set full of the kind of anthems that made the headliners name for them.

Thursday 6 July 2017

James - Leicester O2 Academy - 5th July 2017


James played Leicester O2 Academy for the first time ever as a warm-up for their summer of festival headlines and, true to form, gave us a set of the weird and wonderful, the new and the old with the odd curveball and some, but not all, of their biggest hits as well as debuting two new songs Busted and Overdose.

Wednesday 5 July 2017

Track Of The Day : Carousel Clouds - Invisible Lines


Invisible Lines is the debut single by Carousel Clouds that is released on Friday with a launch gig at Salford's Eagle Inn. It's a beautifully haunting tense song that builds slowly, simmering and then shimmering into glorious life with layered vocals and intricate instrumentation.

Radiohead - Old Trafford Cricket Ground - 4th July 2017


Radiohead's two Manchester Arena shows had been combined into one after the tragic events of May 22nd and moved to Old Trafford Cricket Ground, a very different setting as most of the show was performed before dark and with noise restrictions imposed to protect local residents. Despite this and a set that provided a stern challenge to the attention span of the casual fan, the quality of the musicianship and their unflinching desire to not play by the standard rules of the stadium gig.

Monday 3 July 2017

Hazel Wilde (Lanterns On The Lake) - Interview


Anyone familiar with the blog will know of our love of Lanterns On The Lake. Their Live With Royal Northern Sinfonia walked away with our album of the year in 2016 and whilst the band are taking a year out to write and record new material, we were excited to discover that their front woman Hazel Wilde is playing a solo set supporting Mercury Rev at Gateshead Sage next Wednesday (12th July). We had a chat with her about that show, new Lanterns material and a possible solo album.

Track Of The Day : Trip To Dover - Fade Into Gold


"A pianist fell in love with a punk girl" reads the intro to the PR. That type of description often disappoints when you listen to the music, but when you listen to Trip To Dover's Fade Into Gold, the title track of their album, you get something much more than you'd expect.

Cabbage / The Blinders - Manchester Ritz - 1st July 2017


Cabbage's biggest headline show to date came on Saturday at a sold-out Ritz in Manchester in front of a hometown crowd.

LIINES / Scarlet / Katie O'Malley - Manchester Gullivers - 2nd July 2017



Sonder Fest took place last weekend over three nights in Manchester's Northern Quarter. We headed to Gulliver's on Sunday night to catch three very contrasting but excellent performances by Katie O'Malley, LIINES and Scarlet.