SKIES - Manchester Retro - 12th September 2021

A wet dreary Sunday night with the promise of a long week at work was brightened up by the presence of SKIES, all the way from Kent, with a seven-song set that felt more appropriate for a big festival stage than it did a dark Manchester basement.

LIINES / Desperate Journalist / Facades - Manchester Bread Shed - 11th September 2021

To celebrate the release of their new single Keep on Going, LIINES played their biggest hometown headline show to date at Manchester's Bread Shed on Saturday night supported by Desperate Journalist and The Facades. A seventeen-song set comprised of tracks from their debut Stop-Start and their unreleased follow-up delighted a passionate and supportive crowd.

The Murder Capital / VLURE - Glasgow McChuills - 10th September 2021

 

The sweaty hot back room of McChuills bar in the East End of Glasgow is the setting for two of the most vital bands of our time to play an intimate Transmit Festival aftershow party for Yala Records. We make the pilgrimage north of the border to experience the sort of night that we've been robbed of for the last eighteen months - a reminder of why music, lived and breathed with like-minded souls, is the best medicine and the cure for so many ills.

TRACK OF THE DAY : The Slow Readers Club - Tell No Lies

The Slow Readers Club return with Tell No Lies, a brand new single to follow up the top 10 album The Joy Of The Return and 91 Days In Isolation, both released during lockdown ahead of their UK tour that kicks off at Hebden Bridge Trades Club next week. An upbeat stomper of a track, it's accompanied by a video featuring Line Of Duty's Craig Parkinson.

TRACK OF THE DAY : VLURE - Show Me How To Live Again

VLURE return with their second single, and their first since signing to So Young Records, with live favourite and call-to-arms Show Me How To Live Again. It's set to the thrilling wall of synth and guitar sounds that the band create and anyone that has witnessed their few live outings to date will well recognise.

Billy Nomates / LIINES / The Red Stains / bdrmm / The Watchmakers / Happy Couple / Mynk / The Lounge Society / Loose Articles / The Goa Express - Manchester Psych Fest - 4th September 2021

The very long delayed Manchester Psychfest took place on Saturday along the Oxford Road corridor with an expanded line-up of artists, many of whom have outgrown their original bookings giving the audience an opportunity to catch them in rooms they're unlikely to play in again. We caught bands from Goa Express's opening set in the Ritz to Billy Nomates' Deaf Institute (reviews by Jason Wynne up to and including bdrmm)

The Murder Capital - Tunbridge Wells Forum - 2nd September 2021

Tunbridge Wells Forum witnessed the unforgettable return of The Murder Capital as the band steamrollered through a blistering set of old and new songs on an emotionally charged evening.

TRACK OF THE DAY 2 : LIINES - Keep On Going

LIINES return with a new single, Keep On Going, already an established live favourite, taken from their disrupted recording sessions from their second album. The single precedes a couple of headline dates in Manchester and London as well as festival appearances in September.

TRACK OF THE DAY 1 : Ist Ist - It Stops Where It Starts

Ist Ist have today revealed It Stops Where It Starts, the first track to be taken from their forthcoming second album The Art Of Lying, released on a limited edition 7" single, streaming and download and accompanied by a video that might surprise long-term watchers of the band.

James - Lancaster Williamson Park - 2nd September 2021

Set in the imposing shadow of the Ashton Memorial in Williamson Park, Lancaster's Highest Point Festival is one of the newer additions to the calendar, but already feels like an established well-organised and well-run festival.  James headline the first night of four for 2021 with a set that strikes a fantastic balance between their new material and old favourites with a few surprises and which is full of the spontaneous energy that symbolises their live experience even close to forty years into their career.

Inhaler / Blondes - London Hoxton Colours - 19th August 2021

Inhaler completed the first week of their rescheduled launch shows with an intimate hour-long show at Colours in Hoxton in London to an excited crowd of hardcore fans ready to throw themselves fully into a celebration of the band's debut album It Won't Always Be Like This that reached number one in the UK charts.

James / Torrin - Oxford O2 Academy - 17th August 2021

James played their first show since September 2019 in a celebratory packed Oxford O2 Academy, mixing tracks from their sixteenth studio album, the top three All The Colours Of You, with a series of their best known hit singles ahead of their late summer festival season.

Section 25 - Jams From The Bardo

Fresh from their universally acclaimed Record Store Day reissue of their groundbreaking From The Hip album, Section 25 delve deep into their archives to deliver an incredible collection of improvisations and jams, recorded between 1978 and 1981.

Sea Fever - Manchester Night And Day Cafe - 13th August 2021

Seafever are what used to be called a supergroup, comprised of Iwan Gronow of Haven and Johnny Marr's band, Beth Cassidy from Section 25, New Order's Tom Chapman and Phil Cunningham with Elliot Barlow on drums. This was meant to be a celebration of the launch of their album Folding Lines, but the inevitable pressing plant delays have shifted that to October so this evening takes on the role of an intimate first ever gig preview of nine of the ten songs from the record.

Proletariat / Leon The Pig Farmer - Salford Eagle Inn - 12th August 2021

Proletariat made their long-awaited return to the live stage after three years away with an invite-only intimate show at the Eagle Inn in Salford. Cheered on by a partisan crowd they revealed their new line-up to an audience for the first time as well as some exciting new material and reinvigorated old favourites. Support came from poet Leon The Pig Farmer.

FOR JOHN (The Blackheart Orchestra / Jon Coley / Seamus McLoughlin / James Holt / Granfalloon / Anna McLuckie / Maddy Storm) - Salford Sacred Trinity - 11th August 2021

Wednesday night saw an intimate fundraising gig for The John Hall Stage foundation featuring many of John's favourite artists and friends in the inspiring surroundings of Salford's Sacred Trinity Church. Headlined by The Blackheart Orchestra's electronic folk and supported by five solo artists and a duo, the audience were treated to a different side of John's love and support of music in Manchester and further afield.

Springfield Elementary / Soup! / Salt The Snail - Levenshulme The Talleyrand - 7th August 2021

Saturday night and we venture out of the city centre to Levenshulme for a three-band bill of Springfield Elementary, Soup! and Salt The Snail, each providing their own take on punk, both complementing yet contrasting in their approaches and impressing each other's sets of fans in the process.

Katherine Priddy - Manchester Homeground - 7th August 2021

On a wet Manchester Saturday afternoon the rain clouds cleared for forty-five minutes as if in time for Katherine Priddy's long-awaited return to the city to perform at Manchester Folk Festival's takeover of Homeground. The set featured tracks from her early EP Wolf, her critically acclaimed debut album The Eternal Rocks Beneath as well as a number of new songs with delightful explanations of each song between them. 

Ist Ist / The Goa Express / Abbie Ozard / Julia Bardo - Manchester Night And Day Cafe - 5th August 2021

The first of a new series of BBC Introducing showcases at Manchester's Night And Day Cafe saw headliners and hometown heroes Ist Ist play their first non-distanced show in the city since June 2019 with an impressive supporting cast of Introducing favourites The Goa Express, Abbie Ozard and Julia Bardo in a sold-out venue of music lovers making their first excited tentative steps back out into the world of gigging again.

TRACK OF THE DAY : Fountain Head - Heart Like A Landslide

Heart Like A Landslide is the second track from Liam Frost's new project Fountain Head, the follow-up to last year's debut In Chrysalis. Accompanied by stunning vocals by Blanid that complement and contrast with Liam's familiar tones, Heart Like A Landslide is a gorgeous extravagant dream pop song that will delight and surprise long-term followers of Liam and appeal to new listeners.

Fontaines D.C. - Leeds Brudenell Social Club - 1st August 2021

One year and one day after releasing A Hero’s Death we returned to the iconic Brudenell Social Club to witness a blistering eleven song set by Dublin rockers Fontaines D.C.

A Concert For John (Peter Hook And The Light, LIINES, The Blinders, Cabbage, Dirty Laces, The Mysterines, Purple Heart Parade, Déjà Vega, Loose Articles, Scuttlers, Inland Taipan, Gardenback, Hey Bulldog, The Big Peach, La Mode) - Manchester Ritz - 1st August 2021

You'll know John Hall. If you're the type of person who likes to talk while the band are on, he'll have cast you a disbelieving stare across the room. If you're a real dickhead, like one man in Rawtenstall at a Liam Frost gig, I might have stood between the two of you at some point. If you love live music videos on You Tube, you'll have seen his wonderful Manc Music channel of films of songs recorded across Manchester's music venues, you'll probably be in one of them as he loves to show the audience reaction. If you've ever sat in the secret garden at the back of the Castle or the Rose And Monkey you'll definitely have met him. There isn't a bigger champion of new music in Manchester than John Hall. Many people might claim that title, bollocks that it is, as their own. But there's no I in John Hall, just a love of music, an extravagant flounce, a wicked laugh, a bag of pills and the biggest heart.

TRACK OF THE DAY - Hates Talking - Keep Me Going (All Night)

Keep Me Going (All Night) is the debut single from Manchester four-piece Hates Talking. Fronted by Sam Carson, formerly of Lunar, the band have spent lockdown honing their sound for an assault on the Manchester scene and further afield and announce their presence with this earworm of a first public reveal.

Stephen Fretwell - Manchester Night And Day Cafe - 24th July 2021

To many people the Night And Day Cafe is a second home. For Stephen Fretwell. For us at Even The Stars. It's fitting that this is the place for his Manchester album launch for his first album in fourteen years, the top 40 Busy Guy, and for our first restriction-free show for sixteen months. Performing a sizeable chunk of Busy Guy and a few old favourites to a dedicated crowd of Mancunians and those who'd travelled from further afield, for forty-five minutes we lost ourselves in music.

Granfalloon / James Holt / Clouds And Errors / Pageant Mum - Bolton Right To Roam Festival - 17th July 2021

Day two of Bolton's new Right To Roam festival saw an outdoor stage in the town centre as well as at the Octagon, Alma and Vaults. We caught the last two local bands outside - Pageant Mum and Clouds And Errors - before heading to the Octagon for local boy James Holt and Granfalloon revealing tracks from his forthcoming Positive Songs album.

Ist Ist / Gravediggers Union / Clouds And Errors - Bolton Right To Roam Festival - 16th July 2021

Right To Roam is a new two-day festival around a number of venues in Bolton town centre, part of an ambition plan of local music lovers and venues to inject some life into scene that gets dwarfed by the bright lights of Manchester down the road. We visited the main stage in the town's newly refurbished and impressive Octagon Theatre to catch Ist Ist, Gravediggers Union and locals Clouds And Errors.

John Bramwell / HJM Bradshaw - Hebden Bridge Trades Club - 15th July 2021

John Bramwell concluded his Hebden Bridge Trades Club residency with the third sold-out night of the run of socially-distanced shows accompanied and supported by Harriet Bradshaw on cello. He delighted a rapt audience with a set of I Am Kloot classics stripped down and reinvented as well as tracks from his forthcoming Full Harmonic Band record The Light Fantastic.

Julia Bardo - Manchester International Festival - 14th July 2021

A sunny Manchester mid-afternoon felt like a perfect introduction to Julia Bardo's forthcoming Bauhaus L'Appartamento album as she played a seven-song set of tracks taken from the album with her five-piece band on the main stage in Manchester International Festival's Cathedral Square hub.

Blanketman / The Lounge Society - Manchester International Festival - 12th July 2021

One of the highlights of the Manchester International Festival for us is the free series of live performances that take place across the city. Moved across from the Town Hall due to the ongoing works there, Cathedral Square is home to this year's hub and on a wet Monday night, Dave Haslam has curated two of the North West's most talked-about young bands in The Lounge Society and Blanketman.

TRACK OF THE DAY : Odd Morris - The Once Was Enough

It’s easy to lose yourself in the songs of Dublin four piece Odd Morris. New track The Once Was Enough, a taster from their forthcoming EP Cityscape The Ballet due later this year, follows in the same vein. It’s dreamy and haunting with brooding sonic landscapes full of intent and sentiment that tug at the heartstrings.

Mark Morriss / Nigel Clark / Chris Helme / Neeve Zahra - Altrincham The Bowdon Rooms - 8th July 2021

The Seahorses, Dodgy and The Bluetones were three of the more recognisable names in the mid 1990s Britpop explosion and these days their front men are out on the solo tour circuit, delivering a dose of old favourites whilst writing new materials. Having struck up friendships, this socially distanced show not only has all three of them performing on their own but one of their first ever live performances of their new MCH (Morriss, Clark, Helme) super-group in the picturesque Bowdon Rooms in Altrincham.

TRACK OF THE DAY : Little Sparrow - Alone

Little Sparrow's new single Alone, taken from her forthcoming second album Feather Moon, continues the more dramatic path her music has taken since the release of her debut Wishing Tree - but with her unmistakable vocals very much taking centre stage.

After All Festival - SKIES / The Elephant Trees / INEGO / The Last Clouds / Jay Page / Billy Morrissey / Leon The Pig Farmer - Manchester Tribeca - 1st July 2021

Whilst festivals are being cancelled around our ears, Manchester's After All Festival continued in a socially distanced format on Thursday night - a sold-out event at Manchester's Tribeca combining a range of different styles of music and urban poetry to an appreciative crowd that had been starved of live music for sixteen months.

Jake Hardman - Describe Yourself In 50 Words

Manchester-based musician and songwriter Jake Hardman's debut album is the joyous sound of an open-minded individual who appears to have absorbed the very best of British music from the last forty years and channelled it all into thirteen excellent predominantly upbeat compositions that radiate freshness, talent, intelligence and humour. Andy Sweeney was suitably impressed by Jake's debut - read on to discover why.

Stephen Fretwell - Salford Eagle Inn - 25th June 2021

"Where's Fretwell?" has been a catchphrase in the corners of the internet that remembered the unique charms of the Manchester-via-Scunthorpe songwriter Stephen Fretwell from the middle of the 2000s when he released two much-loved but commercially-ignored albums Magpie and Man On The Roof. After twelve years in the wilderness, he's about to return with a new album Busy Guy - and we were fortunate enough to be in the twenty-five strong socially distanced crowd at Salford Eagle's Inn for just his second comeback show.

The Blinders - Manchester Rose And Monkey - 24th June 2021

With their forthcoming July dates falling victim to the latest extension of UK restrictions that seem to apply to music and other arts venues and not a great deal else, The Blinders decided to sate their desire to play live with two last-minute intimate shows at their favourite local boozer The Rose And Monkey in Manchester's Northern Quarter. An hour-long set captured highlights of their two albums to date in the stripped down Lounge Lizard format, which they plan to give a formal release in a few weeks.

TRACK OF THE DAY : SKIES - It's Not The End Of The World

SKIES return with It's Not The End Of The World, the first product of a series of songs they recorded when they shut themselves away in a cottage during the Winter months to record new material and broadcast their weekday daily live streams at the height of lockdown.

John Bramwell / HJM Bradshaw - Manchester Rose And Monkey - 20th June 2021

 John Bramwell brought his socially-distanced tour to the familiar surroundings of the Rose And Monkey's beer garden on Sunday afternoon with a mix of old I Am Kloot favourites and tracks taken from his new Full Harmonic Convergence project. Accompanied by HJM (Harriet) Bradshaw on cello and supported by her own six-song set, John delighted an audience full of familiar faces.

VLURE / Document - Manchester Yes - 19th June 2021

VLURE completed their short tour of England with another sold-out socially-distanced gig in the Pink Room of Yes in Manchester. Once again they delivered a set that blew away those who had an inkling of what to expect as well as those catching them for the first time. Support came from an intense performance by Manchester's own Document, playing their first show for sixteen months.

The Red Stains / Sick Ducks - Manchester Aatma - 17th June 2021

The Red Stains made their much-anticipated return to the live stage with their first show in eighteen months at a socially-distanced sold-out show at Aatma on Thursday night supported by Sick Ducks. As unpredictable as ever, they demonstrated that absence had definitely made the audience's hearts grow fonder.

VLURE / Zee Davine - Birkenhead Future Yard - 15th June 2021

Birkenhead witnessed VLURE's first live show since last spring; a euphoric emotional return to the stage - a band emerging from the cocoon of lockdown and spreading their wings like the most beautiful of creatures.

Shame - Birkenhead Future Yard - 1st June 2021 (2nd show)

Thank you Shame! Tonight we were made to feel alive again. Bringing a mate to his first gig in fifteen months was always going to be emotional but tonight’s show by the raucous outfit Shame at the wonderful, and brand new, three hundred and fifty capacity space Future Yard in Birkenhead confirmed what we already knew - music is good for the soul and live music even more so.

James - All The Colours Of You

As they approach forty years as a band James are still going strong, selling more gig tickets than at any time in their history and continuing to challenge both themselves and their audience by developing and stretching their sound with each album. Their sixteenth studio album All The Colours Of You asks questions of the world around them, in their line of sight the mutation of the extraordinary times of their last album into social revolution, pandemic and personal loss, unafraid to challenge whilst pushing their playful side to the fore. Weird, but accessible, it's possibly the most accurate snapshot of the real essence of James that they've ever released.

TRACK OF THE DAY : Some Remain - Walk Away

Sligo-based Some Remain are the latest outfit creating waves across the Irish Sea. The alternative four piece mix rawness and high energy creating a post-punk feel that immediately grabs your attention and we’re predicting bigger and better things for them in the not to distant future.

Ist Ist / Gravediggers Union - Manchester Academy 1 - 22nd May 2021

Live music. The buzz, the thud of the bass drum that mirrors your heartbeat, faster and faster as the energy in the room rises and the adrenaline starts to pump. It's a feeling that you don't get elsewhere, your aural senses triggering a reaction that enables to lose yourself in the creativity of others. Fuck, we've missed it for the past fifteen months. Ist Ist and Gravediggers Union provide us with a first trip down the road to what music lovers among us love the most.

LIVESTREAM : The Slow Readers Club - SoundON Session Bury Met - 21st May 2021

The Slow Readers Club's SoundON session was a homecoming of sorts, returning to the Derby Hall in Bury Met, which also hosts the Edwin Street studios where they recorded their albums Cavalcade, Build A Tower and 91 Days In Isolation. Featuring seven songs that felt like a mini Greatest Hits set and showcasing a harder edge to their sound without losing their uplifting melodies, they whet the appetite for their long-delayed return to the live arena.

TRACK OF THE DAY : Martyn Walsh And Simon Lyon - Afterglow

Not content with his roles as a living legend, a figurehead of Manchester's music scene and the creative industries guru in residence for British Libraries, Inspiral Carpets bassist Martyn Walsh has been busy over the past year creating new music. The Afterglow EP is his collaboration with Simon Lyon and his second new release, following on from his ¡La Ruta! project at the end of last year.

TRACK OF THE DAY : The Lovegods - Stand

The Lovegods were back between 2003 and 2006 one of the most exciting new bands in the country, building a strong dedicated following until it all fell apart when Australian lead singer Deah was refused entry back into the UK and had to move to France. Fifteen years on, they've revealed a video to accompany the release of a lost Peel Session of an unreleased track called Stand, a reminder of what a great band they were and how the UK immigration service robbed them and us of what they might have achieved.

Blossoms / The Lathums / Zuzu - Liverpool Sefton Park - 2nd May 2021

Live music returned at the weekend with Blossoms headlining a 5,000 capacity tent in Sefton Park in Liverpool alongside local heroine Zuzu and Wigan's up-and-coming The Lathums. Our friends Maarit and Harriet from the At Most One Tour Twitter account were among them and give a fan's eye perspective on the most important live show of the year.

TRACK OF THE DAY : James - Recover

James today release Recover, the third single to be taken from their forthcoming album All The Colours Of You, a deeply personal track that seeks to find optimism out of the most horrible of personal experiences - the death of a loved one.