TRACK OF THE DAY : James - Hank

Hank is the final track to be revealed from James' upcoming Better Than That EP, to be released on May 18 to coincide with a run of seven intimate shows to preview their fifteenth album due in July and two festival appearances. It's a scathing attack on Donald Trump and US society under his presidency and also represents a sonic departure for the band.

Déjà Vega - Northwich The Salty Dog - 14th May 2018

Déjà Vega opened up the North By Northwich Festival with an no-holds barred seven-song set in the Salty Dog on the town's pedestrianised High Street. An intimate setting for the Winsford band, they took the opportunity to win over new converts curious at the band hand-picked by The Charlatans as their semi-official support for their own show over the road at Memorial Court.

The Charlatans - Northwich Memorial Court - 14th May 2018

Returning home for a week-long festival to celebrate their hometown of Northwich, now called North By Northwich in honour of the Austin festival, The Charlatans played the first of four sold out nights at the town’s Memorial Court with a career spanning set from their debut album Some Friendly right through to two tracks from their forthcoming EP Totally Eclipsing, from which two tracks are debuted tonight.

TRACK BY TRACK : The Slow Readers Club - Build A Tower

The Slow Readers Club entered the UK album charts at number 18 with their third album Build A Tower this week. As part of the campaign, they released a series of videos to accompany the release where they walked through the history and meaning of some of the songs.

Neon Waltz - Dundee Beat Generator - 10th May 2018

Scotland's hardest working band bring their brand of 60s influenced pop tinged psych to a packed Dundee crowd and Stuart Ralston joins them.

The Slow Readers Club / SKIES - Nottingham Rock City - 12th May 2018

The seemingly unstoppable The Slow Readers Club bandwagon rolled into Nottingham and the iconic Rock City venue for the biggest show of their Build A Tower tour and the band took on the cavernous hall and made it feel intimate. Support came from SKIES.

The Slow Readers Club / SKIES - Hull Welly - 11th May 2018

With the announcement that Build A Tower had entered the album charts at number eighteen, a phenomenal success for not just The Slow Readers Club, but their growing army of loyal followers and every band that is playing the local circuit of their hometown starved of the attention of radio and media that has belief in what they're doing. A party atmosphere ensued in a hot, sweaty and packed to the rafters Welly Club in Hull.  Support came from SKIES.

The Slow Readers Club / Wild Front - Newcastle Riverside - 10th May 2018

The Slow Readers Club bandwagon rolled into Newcastle on Thursday night on their Build A Tower tour. A triumphant show saw them win over an initially cautious audience by the sheer power of their performance and discover their festival-slaying, radio-conquering moment in the process. Support came from Southampton's Wild Front.

EXCLUSIVE : TRACK OF THE DAY : Jess Kemp - On The Ground

We're delighted to exclusively reveal On The Ground, the first of two new singles from Jess Kemp ahead of her co-headline show at the Deaf Institute in Manchester next Friday (May 18).

David Ford - Animal Spirits

David Ford returns with his fifth studio album Animal Spirits, a collection of songs written about the concepts of macroeconomics applied to day to day situations. We asked long term fan Andy Sweeney to have a listen to the album and compose his thoughts.

The Slow Readers Club - Manchester HMV - 8th May 2018

The Slow Readers Club continued their campaign in support of their Build A Tower album, announced earlier as being number twelve in the midweek charts, with a hastily-arranged full band acoustic performance in the HMV store in Manchester Arndale. In front of a crowd of all ages, they played five songs - a mix of three from Build A Tower and two from their previous album Cavalcade.

Blossoms - Leeds O2 Academy - 7th May 2018

Blossoms are back on the road celebrating the chart success of their second album Cool Like Out. A sold-out Bank Holiday Monday crowd braved the sauna-like conditions within the O2 Academy to witness a mix of tracks from the new album and their number one self-titled debut in an atmosphere that never dipped below fever pitch for the hour and a quarter they were on stage.

Liverpool Sound City (Berries / Average Sex / Hey Charlie / Peaness / Dirty Laces / White Room / Dish Pit / Violet Youth / The Seamonsters) - Various Venues - 6th May 2018

Day two of Liverpool Sound City saw us avoid the big venues and headline acts and concentrate on some of the smaller stages and bands that have been on our must-see list for a while or those we'd missed when they were last in Manchester. Across another scorching hot day in Liverpool, we caught The Seamonsters, Violet Youth, Dishpit, White Room, Dirty Laces, Peaness, Hey Charlie, Average Sex and Berries.

Liverpool Sound City (The Slow Readers Club / Rews / Déjà Vega / Luvia / Calva Louise / Catholic Action) - Various Venues - 5th May 2018

A scorching hot summer's day isn't the ideal time to spend in indoor venues watching bands, yet that was the choice of thousands who flocked to Liverpool's Baltic Quarter for the first day of this year's Sound City Festival. Back in its spiritual home, the festival put on over a dozen stages championing the best in new music. We caught Catholic Action, Calva Louise, Luvia, Déjà Vega, Rews and The Slow Readers Club.

The Slow Readers Club / Bang Bang Romeo - Manchester Cathedral - 4th May 2018

On the day of release of their third album Build A Tower The Slow Readers Club played the iconic Manchester Cathedral, a show that sold out under an hour on presale alone. With a nineteen song set featuring all but one of the ten tracks off the album and a selection of old favourites, Manchester celebrated their newest favourite sons in style. Support came from Doncaster’s favourites Bang Bang Romeo.

LIINES - Stop - Start (Track By Track Commentary)

Stop - Start is LIINES' long-awaited debut album released today. To celebrate we asked guitarist and vocalist Zoe to walk us through the album track-by-track.

The Slow Readers Club - Manchester 20 Stories (XS Session) - 3rd May 2018

As Manchester's intent to build a skyscraper a hundred stories high hasn't yet come to fruition, 20 Stories, one of the newest and most talked about new bars and restaurants, seemed like a fitting place for local radio champions XS Manchester to invite The Slow Readers Club to play an intimate acoustic set with views overlooking the city to celebrate the impending release of their album Build A Tower.

Fuzzy Sun - Interview

Newly-signed to Blossoms' Very Clever Records and with their debut EP Want Love fresh out in the world, there's a huge buzz about Fuzzy Sun at the moment. Although they can count the number of gigs they've played on one hand so far, they're about to go out on tour with their label bosses and pop up a whole load of festivals this summer.  We caught up with them for a chat about who they are, how they formed and what to expect next from them.

Belly - Dove

Dove is the reformed Belly's first album since 1995's King. Self-released via a Pledge campaign that was set up following a successful reunion tour in mid 2016, the album draws from their two 1990s albums Star and King enough to make it very obviously a Belly album, but they've also given it a modern shine and with no pressure for commercial success and the band clearly having more fun than they ever did in the past as a result, it's the perfect comeback, greater than the sum of its parts and the expectations placed on it.

The Slow Readers Club - Build A Tower (alternate review)

The Slow Readers Club are a band on the rise. From the doom and gloom of their debut, arriving at a crossroads of disillusion and hope on their second album, to their third, and finest, most positive album yet.

TRACK OF THE DAY : James - Broken By The Hurt

Broken By The Hurt is the third track to be revealed from James' forthcoming Better Than That EP. According to tweets from Tim, this song is going to be exclusive to the EP and will not be included on their fifteenth studio album, currently unannounced but slated for a July release.

LIINES - Stop - Start

Stop - Start is a moment we've been waiting for since we first saw LIINES play to about ten people at a fanzine launch back in December 2014. Within seconds we knew they were a very special band, one that we had to champion. Fast forward three and a half years and we're proudly placing the needle down on a gorgeous slab of white vinyl and listening to ten songs that, like the album's title suggests, represent a battle to get this record out into the world. There might be scars, but the minute the bass and drums kick in and Zoe's trademark almost out of breath vocals start to give absolutely everything to the song, it all makes perfect sense.

James - Better Than That EP

James return with a new four-track EP, released on 10" and download with a CD version exclusive to their official store. Featuring two songs - Better Than That and Hank - from their forthcoming fifteenth studio album - and two others - Busted and Broken By The Hurt - that didn't make the cut for that record, the EP shows the band continuing to evolve, refusing to rest on their laurels or recreate what they've done before.

The Slow Readers Club - Live At Festival No.6

To accompany their third album Build A Tower, The Slow Readers Club are also releasing their performance with the Festival No.6 classical ensemble at last year's festival consisting of six songs chosen from their first two albums and arranged by Joe Duddell. With some rarely played tracks making an appearance and some old favourites given a radical makeover, it's a stunning companion piece to the album itself.

You Want Fox - Reverse The Curse

Reverse The Curse is the second album from Nottingham's You Want Fox. Filled with tales of love, deception and the subsequent emotions, it's a triumph of the band's independent spirit and their ability to fashion songs from bass and drums that both pack a punch and tender the wounds.

The Slow Readers Club - Leeds Brudenell Social Club - 28th April 2018

Ahead of the release of Build A Tower on Friday, The Slow Readers Club kicked off a UK tour this week, including a sold-out date in the main room of Leeds' famous Brudenell Social Club. Jason Wynne braved the trains across the Pennines to report back on a set that included nine of the album's ten songs, heard by many for the first time.

Ist Ist / Tindrumm - Manchester Deaf Institute - 28th April 2018

Another set of sold out signs greeted Ist Ist’s hometown EP launch at the Deaf Institute. The theatrical music hall setting could have been made for nights like this as the couple of hundred fans, here on the growing word of mouth around a band that eschews colourful videos, “bantz” and the lad culture of so many and relies solely on the power of their music.

High Hazels - Manchester Jimmy's - 27th April 2018

With a new single Days Of No One released a couple of months back, High Hazels made their long-awaited return to Manchester after nearly three years since their last headline show here with a packed out basement show at Jimmy's.

Blossoms - Manchester HMV - 27th April 2018

Blossoms celebrated the release of their second album Cool Like You with an intimate stripped-down performance of seven songs from the album plus a requested crowd favourite on the top floor of Manchester's HMV store on Friday evening.

TRACK OF THE DAY : LIINES - Cold

Cold is the latest single to be released from LIINES's debut album Stop / Start which is released next Friday, May 4. It's accompanied by an unsettling video, shot late at night in Manchester's Northern Quarter, featuring multiple Zoe's walking around oblivious to each other.

Trampolene - Manchester Night And Day - 26th April 2018

One of the nation's most unpredictable and underappreciated bands Trampolene returned to the Night And Day for the Manchester leg of their tour. A hot and sweaty crowd were treated to a mix of tracks from their debut album Swansea To Hornsey, a couple of covers and some impromptu old favourites.

TRACK OF THE DAY : Celestial North - Illuminate Yourself

Just a month after her first two songs (Winter Circle and Hey Volva), Celestial North has released a third, and the best yet, in Illuminate Yourself.

Kashmere - Interview

When I saw that Stockport-based four-piece, Kashmere, were playing a gig in my hometown of Leeds, I didn’t hesitate in going along to see them. Having watched them perform an electric, sell-out show at The Deaf Institute in Manchester just two months prior, I was keen to ask them all about the evident progress they had made in just one year, since I had first come across them playing at popular gig venue Jimmy’s, in The Northern Quarter of the same town.

Peter Hook And The Light - Hebden Bridge Trades Club - 24th April 2018

Ahead of their US tour playing the combined Substance albums of both Joy Division and New Order, the latest in the series of retrospective look back concerts from Peter Hook And The Light, led by the unmistakable one of founding fathers of both bands. Two hundred or so packed into the music room of the Trades Club at Hebden Bridge to celebrate some of the most iconic sounds of a generation.

TRACK OF THE DAY : Gypsyfingers - Half World

Half World is the new single from Gypsyfingers. It's a song that encapsulates a number of styles as it takes the listener on a four and a quarter minute journey through the band's restless creative minds touching on aspects of folk, rock and pop music and it's all set to a video that adds to the mystique of the song as if you're watching a short film rather than a music promo.

Lily-Jo - Unstoppable EP

Unstoppable is the new EP from Lily-Jo, the follow-up to last year's Good Enough. The EP has been written in the time she's not touring the world with LZ7 and building her mental health self-help resource The Lily-Jo Project, but many of the themes from the latter shine through brightly in this collection of five songs that are about making yourself feel unstoppable and knocking down the barriers, both internally and externally, that stop you achieving your goals and being happy.

The Big Peach - Interview

Back in September 2017, I was sitting in newly opened vinyl café, Honey Beat, in Altrincham, chatting to my friend Allan about music. He was excitedly recounting anecdotes of his new discovery: Cheshire based five-piece, The Big Peach. I didn’t think too much of it at the time, but fast forward to April 2018 and I saw Allan, once again, enthusiastically posting about this band on social media in the run-up to one of our favourite annual festivals: When in Manchester.

Blossoms - Cool Like You

Blossoms return with their second album Cool Like You, less than two years since their self-titled debut spent two weeks at number one in the charts. Recorded over the course of just twenty-two days on breaks from their endless touring schedule, it's drenched in the glorious pop gloss for large parts of the record but yet is more thematically consistent than its predecessor and sounds like a band that's prepared to make another step up.

Ist Ist - Berlin Rosi's - 20th April 2018

Ist Ist played their first show outside the UK with a nine-song set at Berlin's Rosi's club featuring tracks from their Spinning Rooms EP, old singles and a couple of new as-yet-unreleased tracks. Initially curious, the audience was won over as the set progressed.

VIDEO EXCLUSIVE : Matter Of Mind - Sanity

We're proud to reveal exclusively the new video for Matter Of Mind's single Sanity. The single was released a couple of weeks back, but the video to accompany their latest track, the first fruits of recording sessions for the follow-up to their Dead Apologies EP is now also available to watch.

TRACK OF THE DAY 2 : Shrine - Blue Weekend

Shrine appeared out of nowhere a month ago with their debut single You're A Stranger. Today, they release their second single Blue Weekend and prove that it was no flash in the plan. A little more subdued than their debut, it's more potent as a result, showing the wide realm of possibilities of this duo as they work on an EP for release in the next few months and prepare for live dates.

TRACK OF THE DAY 1 : Blanketman - The Long Arm Of Entrapment

The Long Arm Of Entrapment is the debut single from new four-piece post-punk band Blanketman. Despite not having released anything yet, they've already grabbed the attention of the likes of Brix Smith and they support her and The Extricated at the Ruby Lounge next Friday.

TRACKS OF THE DAY : Ethan And The Reformation - Fractaline Fantasies / Broken Guitar

When guitarist Mick Mac of Ethan and The Reformation got in touch with me, asking for a single review of his band’s latest release, I didn’t hesitate. Seemingly, having read a recent blogpost I had written, reminiscing about when I met and interviewed him and the rest of his bandmates a year ago, it prompted him to release a single after a period of inactivity. To say I was delighted is an understatement. And of the songs? They’re stunning. Hearing them now, after having heard them performed a year ago, brought back all the memories of the first time I heard them perform live, and the powerful and confident performance they achieved.

Desperate Journalist - Interview

Desperate Journalist have just released a new EP entitled You Get Used To It as a follow-up to last year's Grow Up album. We caught up with bass player Simon as he returned home from a European tour ahead of Friday's headline set at London's Oslo for a chat about the EP, their recording methods and their appeal in Germany and the rest of the continent.

TRACK OF THE DAY : James - Busted

James today revealed Busted, the second track to be taken from their Better Than That EP out on May 18th. Initially previewed in their summer shows in 2017, including Castlefield Bowl in Manchester, the song didn't make the cut for their as-yet-untitled album due later in the year, but deemed too good to be lost.

The Slow Readers Club - Build A Tower

The Slow Readers Club return with their third album Build A Tower on May 4th. Since the release of their last album their world has been turned upside down, touring with James at the band's request, selling out The Ritz and Albert Hall in Manchester months in advance as well as established venues across the country accompanied by their now customary "READERS" chant that follows them everywhere. Armed with a dedicated fan base, it's time for them to deliver new material for the first time since their star began to rise, and with Build A Tower, they've exceeded even the wildest expectations.

Sapho - Interview

At last year’s When In Manchester festival, I came across a band called Sapho for the very first time. If you saw them on the street, you would just think they were a young group of friends, there’s certainly nothing ostentatious or obvious about them, but on stage, they come alive in very powerful way. Only a simple three-piece, Sapho are school friends from St. Helens, and relatively new on the Rock scene. Having done their very first interview last year, I wanted to catch up with them a year on, to see what was new, what their plans were and how their performance compared to this time last year.

TRACK OF THE DAY : Echo Ladies - Bedroom

Bedroom is the lead track from Swedish trio Echo Ladies' forthcoming album Pink Noise, released through Sonic Cathedral at the start of June. Building on the success of their self-titled debut EP, Matilda, Joar and Mattis return with a gloriously modern-day take on fuzzy shoegaze.

When In Manchester Festival (Nimuah / Humbar / Gardenback / Sapho / Bedroom High Club / Cabezudos / Scarlet / The Big Peach / Nova Twins) - Manchester Northern Quarter - 14th April 2018

When In Manchester, one of the country's most exciting and diverse multi-venue urban festivals once again took over the Northern Quarter for the fourth instalment of the event that's now become a fixture on the Manchester music calendar. We caught Nimuah, Humbar, Gardenback, Sapho, Bedroom High Club, Cabezudos, Scarlet, The Big Peach and Nova Twins whilst rueing a list of clashes the length of our arm.