With a hectic summer of dates underway, James brought their headline show to the scenic Lincoln Castle. Backed by The K’s and Tom A. Smith - both seasoned tour mates of the Manchester icons - the night was a perfect blend of history, atmosphere, and exceptional live music.
Basia Bulat returned to Manchester for the first time in nine years as she reaches the end of a three-week European tour. A sold-out Yes Basement was utterly charmed and captivated by songs taken from across her career right up to recent album Basia's Palace as she moved effortlessly from acoustic guitar to keys to autoharp and performing a solo encore on the ukulele.
James opened up for Catfish And The Bottlemen at their massive outdoor show at Heaton Park in Manchester on Friday night. With front man Tim Booth nobbled by an ankle injury they delivered a hit-heavy set to a crowd many of whom were too young to remember them reforming yet alone their 90s chart peak.
Saturday night saw James complete their two-night run of sold-out shows in the glorious surroundings of Halifax’s Piece Hall. With the threatened torrential downpours holding off they took us through a career spanning set full of improvisation and surprises amongst most of their biggest songs.
James opened The Piece Hall in Halifax's impressive summer season with the first of two sold out nights at the beautiful Grade I listed eighteenth century cloth hall. With a set that touched on most periods in their forty-year plus career, they delighted a crowd with hits, deep cuts and curveballs as the rains came down and Tim Booth crowd surfed on a sea of wet raised arms lost in the moment.
Inspiral Carpets concluded their four-day weekend of shows with a visit to the wonderful Lowther Pavilion in Lytham to perform a mix of hits and deep cuts to a bank holiday Sunday audience. With Martyn Walsh back in the saddle on bass, they rolled back the years and reminded us why we fell in love with them in the first place.
Neighbourhood Weekender took a break in 2024, but it returned in style this year, with James headlining Saturday night. The band last topped the bill in 2021, stepping in for Ian Brown after he dropped out over COVID-19 vaccination requirements. With no Manchester date on their current tour, the Warrington-based festival served as the closest thing to a hometown show - and it certainly felt like one.
Pixies concluded their UK tour in support of their most recent album When The Zombies Came with a sold-out show at Manchester's Apollo Theatre. Featuring tracks from the album alongside many of the classics with which they made their name in the late 1980s and early 1990s they delighted a fan base of young and old over the course of an hour and three quarters.
Inspiral Carpets have been out on the road this week on a mini UK tour, calling in at some of their favourite venues in Scotland, England and Wales. The opening night – at Carlisle's Old Fire Station – celebrates the 10th anniversary of the venue. Stuart Ralston enjoyed a phenomenal twenty song set and an impressive opening performance from new 4 piece Malcom.
Mark Hoyle - front man of the legendary Dub Sex - has just released his biography Swerve and to promote it, he’s in the beautiful Rossendale arts centre Horse And Bamboo with a strong supporting cast; Martin Coogan from The Mock Turtles is spinning some classics in the bar before we take our seats in the splendidly decorated auditorium to hear Mark superbly interviewed by another Manc legend; singer, songwriter, actress and writer Stella Grundy.
James warmed up for their Neighbourhood Weekender headline slot on Saturday with an intimate sweaty warm-up show at Edinburgh’s Corn Exchange. Mixing tracks from last year’s number one album Yummy and tracks from the albums that preceded it with some of their biggest hits they delighted a Scottish crowd that took some to get going but which finished one joyful bouncing mass.
Ist Ist made their debut performance in Stoke on Friday night at the legendary Sugarmill venue. A band on a roll on the back of a successful 2024 that saw them breach the top 30 album chart with their fourth album Light A Bigger Fire and sold out shows across the UK and continental Europe. Performing favourites from across their career as well as showcasing two new songs, they demonstrated what a powerful and compelling live act they are.
The second night of The Murder Capital’s UK tour in support of their third album Blindness rolled into town on Good Friday with a show at Manchester’s New Century Hall playing most of Blindness alongside old favourites.
John Bramwell continued his never-ending solo travels around the UK with an intimate sold-out show at the Horse And Bamboo in Waterfoot on Thursday night. Mixing classics from his days with I Am Kloot and material from his solo albums as well as a blast from the past, he charmed the audience with stories, humour as well as some of the finest songwriting this country has produced since the turn of the century.
It's been four years since we heard new music from Little Sparrow, but she's out of hibernation today with a brand new single Moondust. It's a change in direction that Katie (aka Little Sparrow) describes as "space folk" but with old friends in collaboration with her.
The Man From Delmonte's unexpected reunion continued apace on Saturday night with a sold-out show at Academy 2 in Manchester. Thirty-five years on from their split they brought memories of misspent youth flooding back with a glorious seventy-five minute set.
slab celebrated the release of their debut album Taut with a packed out show in the basement of The Peer Hat in Manchester on Friday night delighting the crowd with their dark heavily instrumental brooding soundtrack.
Divorce brought their sold-out tour in support of their debut album Drive To Goldenhammer to Manchester's Gorilla on Thursday night. Supported by newly-signed Dublin duo Dug, they delighted a packed crowd by performing their album in full alongside tracks from their early EPs.
Thus Love continued their relentless touring schedule with a packed out show at Salford's White Hotel on Saturday night with a set taken from their two albums to date Memorial and last year's All Pleasure in front of an appreciative crowd. Support came from heavily-backed newcomers Ain't.
The hottest name in town, Westside Cowboy, took two sold-out nights at Gullivers in their stride as they played their biggest headline shows to date in what felt like a significant undersell. Over forty-five minutes the four-piece justified the mounting hype around them.
Ist Ist prepared for their upcoming European and UK tours with a sold-out packed warm-up show at The Ferret in Preston. Mixing songs from their back catalogue celebrating ten years as a band with tracks from their top 25 album Light A Bigger Fire and giving a three-song insight into the writing sessions for their fifth album, they delighted the fervent crowd with a mammoth twenty-two song set.
Tom A Smith called in at Manchester's Night And Day Cafe on Wednesday night for the first of two shows on a short tour with Southampton's The Manatees promoted by The Rock Revival. Over the course of fourteen songs he got the audience singing along to every word of old favourites whilst revealing new music from one of the country's most prolific young songwriters expanding his musical palette still further.
As part of the campaign for the release this week of their seventh album Out Of A Dream, The Slow Readers Club headed to Headrow House in Leeds for two shows in conjunction with Crash Records playing the album in full plus four tracks from their substantial back catalogue repertoire.
Whitehorse opened their debut UK tour with a ten-song set at a packed sold-out Rat And Pigeon in Manchester on Thursday night. Despite only having one released song to their name - Doesn't Come Close - they held the audience's attention with a set full of ambitious rock songs heavier than frontman Thomas Haywood's previous work delivered with power and passion by his new bandmates.
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The Slow Readers Club release their seventh studio album Out Of A Dream today. The self-released album is one of their strongest bodies of work to date as yet as evidenced at their preview shows in Bury and Manchester a couple of weeks ago. We caught up with the band after soundcheck for their Manchester Gorilla show to chat about the recording of the album and where The Slow Readers Club stand today.
Divorce celebrated the release of their debut album Drive To Goldenhammer with an intimate stripped-back Saturday evening performance in the Wax And Beans record shop in Bury to an attentive and appreciative crowd and the backdrop of Saturday night passers-by looking through the windows bemused at such a cool event in their town.
When cult heroes The Man From Delmonte announced last year that they were reforming to play shows in Manchester and London, there was immediate excitement and the shows quickly sold out. Having last played in 1990, the social media campaign to get the four piece to reunite paid off and following last night's rousing show at Band On The Wall, The Man From Delmonte moved twenty miles north to play the more intimate Later@ show in Waterfoot's Horse & Bamboo.
With the imminent launch of their seventh album Out Of A Dream, The Slow Readers Club have taken to the campaign trail this weekend with a couple of intimate preview shows, performing the album plus selected back catalogue highlights in full. On Sunday night they played a hometown show at Gorilla revealing the ten new songs from the record to a loyal and dedicated fanbase.
Tim Burgess joined forces with Helen O'Hara and The RNCM Session Orchestra for a couple of special evenings in the RNCM's main theatre on Friday and Saturday. Performing tracks from Tim's career with The Charlatans and his solo projects as well as a couple from Helen's time with Dexy's Midnight Runners, the RNCM Session Orchestra reinvented and reinvigorated old favourites and shed new light on Tim's solo work.
It's thirty-five years since The Man From Delmonte departed the world without a single studio album to their name, but a trail of wonderful EPs and thrilling live shows continued to live on in the memories of those fortunate enough to have caught this off-kilter four-piece who flitted around the outskirts of the Madchester explosion despite being an ill fit to the hedonistic flower-power of the time. Whilst most of the big names of that time split and reformed, The Man From Delmonte coming back really only existed in the heads of a few fans who'd set up a Facebook tribute group. Led by Iain Lee, the momentum gathered pace, front man Mike West's kids started to research their Dad's band and slowly the seeds were sown for one of the most unlikely reunions of recent times. Five-hundred people crammed into The Band On The Wall on Wednesday night to relive their teenage years to the sound of gender-fluid, confused songs about being twenty-two and being in love with everyone.
The Murder Capital's release week trip around the UK's record stores in support of their third album Blindness continued on Monday night with an hour-long set in the venue space at Rough Trade's new store in Liverpool. Performing the whole of Blindness plus three old favourites, the five-piece brought Blindness to vivid life.
It's that time to reveal our mostly unsurprising list of our top ten favourite albums of 2024
Blossoms completed the most successful year of their career to date with a show at Diecast in Manchester sponsored by Spotify and Budweiser. Playing an hour set that spanned their four albums they delighted a crowd of hardcore fans and Instagram wannabes.
The Slow Readers Club returned to Glasgow for the first time since their triumphant Barrowland Ballroom gig (opening for Shed Seven) last autumn for a more intimate affair. Stuart Ralston went back home for the evening and was blown away.
The Slow Readers Club's short Winter tour rolled into their hometown of Manchester on Thursday night for a sold-out months in advance show. A mix of new songs from their forthcoming album Out Of A Dream and fan favourites from their exceptional extensive back catalogue delighted a partisan crowd.
It’s been a long time since we’ve been genuinely excited about the possibilities of a new band. COVID killed a lot of nascent bands stone dead as they couldn’t get into a room together and only now is the scene starting to fully recover. A couple of weeks ago, we were in The Ritz early for the English Teacher headline and the opening band Westside Cowboy struck as one to find out more about. They’re Manchester-based and had their own headline show for their debut single launch at The Castle Hotel. So here we are two weeks later.
Blossoms concluded their five-night stand of Manchester venues they'd headlined previously in their career with a final sold-out show at the Apollo, scene of their four-night residency in 2022. A captivated Saturday night audience dance and sung along to a mix of their greatest hits and tracks from their most recent number one album Gary. Support came from The Lottery Winners and The Guest List.
Blossoms' five night stand of Manchester's mid-sized venues in support of their fourth number one album Gary. Performing tracks from across their career they brought the big arena show vibe to the intimate surroundings of the Ritz.
“Four best friends playing The Paradiso” bassist Andy Keating tells the thousand and a half crowd in front of him half way through the set in the Grote Zaal (Big Room) of the legendary Amsterdam venue. That Ist Ist don’t at any point look or sound out of place on one of the world’s best known stages is testament to how far they’ve come as they approach their tenth anniversary.
Blossoms played their traditional album launch hometown show at Stockport's grand Plaza on Sunday. Performing both matinee and evening sets which included their recent number one album Gary in full plus six classic tracks from their first three albums, they delighted two seated 1,300 crowds with a performance that demonstrated just how far they've come and how they've developed as showmen.
