Dirty Laces celebrated the release of their new single Midnight Mile on Saturday night at Manchester Academy 3. An hour plus set of old favourites and new material confirmed their transformation from an archetypal Manchester lads band to a much more powerful and compelling sound.
Advertised as their "first final reunion show" Mold made a one-off return to the live stage on Friday night headlining the monthly Entertainment Club "Multi-Genre Hell Cabaret" event in the beautiful theatre of the Kings Arms in Salford.
It's an impressive feat that Desperate Journalist and The Empty Page have sold out Night And Day in an environment where gig attendances are through the floor and a significant element of the Manchester gig going community are on their annual pilgrimage to the Lakes for Kendal Calling where Desperate Journalist are playing the following day. The Night And Day is consequently a sweat box with a fan on stage for the headliner to keep it barely manageable for them, but once the music started people were oblivious to it.
Formed in London in 1986, The House of Love were one of the most respected and revered bands of the late 80s and early 90s. Starting their career on Creation, at a time when the label wasn’t really big enough to take bands like The House of Love into the charts, they signed to a major in 1989 and chart success soon followed. This impressive box set takes us through that period and leaves no stone unturned. This is a mightily impressive collection and fans new and old should cherish it. Starting with their self titled 1990 album before moving on to Babe Rainbow (1992), Audience With The Mind (1993) and a whole host of studio and live extras across eight discs, with over 130 tracks included.
Melbourne sisters Charm Of Finches' long European tour is drawing to a close and Sunday night saw them pay their first ever visit to Manchester for a ninety-minute set in the ballroom above Gullivers pub in the Northern Quarter where Mabel and Ivy held an audience's attention captive for an hour and a half. Support came from closer to home in the form of Megan Dixon-Hood.
The Murder Capital have released Only Good Things, the first taste of their forthcoming second album. The song represents a significant departure from the dark sound of their debut When I Have Fears focusing on celebrating those that are still with us rather than those we have lost.
Pixies' shows in Manchester in the late 1980s at the International and International II are the stuff of legend and we never believed we'd see them in such intimate surroundings again. However, a 9am Monday morning alert set up their smallest show anywhere in years on the hottest day of the year in the five-hundred capacity Band On The Wall packed with devotees who reveled in a forty-one song two-hour career spanning set that will be talked about for years.
One of the things that separates James from other bands is that we, the audience, never ever know what we are going to get when we go and see them. To celebrate their 40th year, James announced two special gigs; last month’s Edinburgh show was a celebration of a Barrowland "Best Of" era gig (from 1998) and then at the wonderful Castlefield Bowl tonight. We knew exactly what we were going to get - twenty-two songs from the massive 1992 Alton Towers show that made for a curious evening. The band pulled out all the stops, truly testing themselves by revisiting some songs they haven’t played in decades. What followed was a truly stunning performance.
Stephen Fretwell is coming to the end of the second of his tours around his very long-awaited comeback album Busy Guy. A sold-out Trades Club stood bewitched by his spell as he ran through a marathon twenty-three song set taken from all three of his albums interspersed with irreverent chat, audience participation and a wit that made it into a truly special evening.
Spud Cannon brought their short UK tour to a close on Tuesday night in the intimate surroundings of The Peer Hat in Manchester. With three albums already under their belt they delivered a fourteen song forty five minute set of three minute gems that touched all bases to an audience that they had eating out the palms of their hands by the end of the night.
It's not often you catch a band that was involved in a chart battle at the very top end of the album charts in a small venue, but Monday night saw Yard Act hit Warrington and the intimate surroundings of Friars Court for a special set featuring tracks from that album The Overload as well as a few crowd favourites and a special guest appearance.
John Bramwell brought his Full Harmonic Convergence to the picturesque and unique setting of the Devil’s Arse Peak Cavern in Castleton for an exceptionally special long-delayed two hour set primarily featuring songs from their upcoming album The Light Fantastic interspersed with tracks from his Leave Alone The Empty Spaces solo album and his I Am Kloot back catalogue.
Momma are about to release their third album Household Name on July 1st and this Manchester show, as part of the ongoing Mood Swings events, is the final stop on a whistlestop tour that coincided with The Great Escape in Brighton and the release of Speeding 72, the third single to be taken from the album.
