Sound Check // Ten Acts To Check Out At Dot To Dot Festival 2019 Tri-city urban festival Dot To Dot arrives into Manchester on Friday 24th May, for their 15th year, before heading to Bristol and Nottingham for the rest of the weekend. Each year, the festival puts on numerous... Read More...
Sound Check // The Return Of Neighbourhood Weekender Music Festival Festival-goers will be heading to Warrington this weekend to attend the much-loved music festival Neighbourhood, taking place on the 25th and 26th May. A collective of artists is performing at the festival with... Read More...
In The Bag // December-January 2016/17 With Christmas out the way, we're ready once again to grind through the business end of winter. Thankfully this month's BagThing is full of Manchester's best offerings over the next couple of months to keep us ... Read More...
Weekly Preview // Literature, Carols & Festive Manchester Event Picks // 12.12-18.12 "Is this literature?" asks Bob Dylan rhetorically. Where do we draw the lines for these things? Implicit in the Woody Guthrie copycat's Nobel acceptance speech in absentia was the idea that perhaps Dylan himsel... Read More...
Weekly Preview // Play Your Clinton Cards Right With Manchester’s Musical Top Trumps // 07.11-13.11 Even for what is ostensibly a music blog in a city without voting power, it's difficult to avoid the headline-grabbing democratic circus that is the US election on the eve of its climax. But its two ringleaders... Read More...
Weekly Preview // Knockin’ On Manchester’s Live Music & Events Door // 24.10-30.10 What's the noble thing to do when a world renowned prize, funded by an arms dealer who is credited with inventing dynamite, is thrust upon a song and dance man whose thinly veiled lyrical messages point to paci... Read More...
Weekly Preview // Never Mind The Buzz Bands, Here’s The Week’s Event Picks // 03.10-09.10 This week sees the Manchester leg of TV game show moniker lending punks The Buzzcocks' 40th anniversary tour. It's debatable whether Pete Shelley and the gang ever looked into their crystal plectrums back in th... Read More...
Weekly Preview // Tributes, Album Covers & Manchester’s Gigs // 26.09-02.10 Each week we see a breadth of musicianship from hip young riff slingers to yesterday's news clinging onto former glories. One example of the latter is Spencer Eldon, who's back in the news not for his musical r... Read More...
Event News // Roosevelt’s Sleek Disco Heading For Manchester’s Night & Day Cafe Words by Tom Frodsham. There’s a fresh batch of indie disco singer-songwriters releasing a new wave of disco music. People like Rinse, Jara and Rush Midnight to name a few. One artist in this fresh batch ... Read More...
Event News // Prog Rock Titans Magma Arrive for Double-Header At Band On The Wall Words by Matthew Tulloch. Put on your concentration hat and dust off your Kobaïan to English dictionary, because French progressive rock titans and Steve Davis favourites Magma are coming to town. The gro... Read More...
Weekly Preview // Imitation Games, Manchester Gigs & What Listeners Want // 12.09-18.09 They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but presumably the first person to say that is now cowering in a corner, sincerely feeling flattered about the cyclical aping unleashed every time the ... Read More...
Interview // Bellatrix On Beatboxing, Crowdfunding And Candlelit Jams In a relatively short music career to date, West Country vocal sculptor, beatboxer and double bassist Bellatrix has explored more individual styles and embarked on more collaborations than many will attempt acr... Read More...
Weekly Preview // Pop Groupers & Big Tunas In Manchester // 05.09-11.09 As regular readers may know, this column is introduced each week by an offbeat story pretty much entirely unrelated to the event preview that follows. This week, the fishiest offering goes to Theresa May's clos... Read More...
Review // Bank Holiday Monofest Words by Ged Camera. A string of instrument-laden musicians with bemused looks on their faces, and questions such as "Is this it?" or "How will we get our gear in here?" written across their foreheads wander... Read More...
Weekly Preview // Stars & Verbal Spars // 29.08-04.09 With the nights slowly starting to draw back in, September beckons and with it a ram-packed musical and cultural calendar across Manchester. We're on the cusp of some serious stargazing later in the month, with... Read More...
Weekly Preview // Manchester Bank Holiday Live Music, Clubs And Festivals // 22.08-28.08 In the presence of a burgeoning summer festival calendar and departing holiday-makers, the local gigs options is still subdued through August, but those touring and nearby acts who do play can still be the crea... Read More...
Event News // The Whitworth’s Upcoming Thursday Lates Programme Features Creativity Across The Arts Intended to bring art, people and ideas together, the free-entry Thursday Lates programme at The Whitworth continues to be a great platform for a variety of creative pursuits in Manchester. Among its forthco... Read More...
Weekly Preview // Olympic Records & Winning Events // 15.08-21.08 It won't have escaped your attentions that the Olympics is now in full flow, usurped only by the self-proclaimed 'best league in the world' Premier League's circus redoing its rounds. They're not offering much ... Read More...
In The Bag // August-September 2016 We're still enjoying the summer sunshine and the autumn gigging calendar is already taking shape, with this month's BagThing bag bursting at the seams with great quality events. In the nearer future, there a... Read More...
Weekly Preview // Manchester And Beyond // 25.07-31.07 There's an abundance of jazz in town this week thanks to Manchester Jazz Festival, whose central pavilion stage on Albert Square features plenty of free events (check out our shortlist here or the full programm... Read More...
Weekly Preview // Music, Film, Comedy And BBQs // 18.07-24.07 If you didn't take your chance to prise open the rusty old barby this weekend, then there might be a day or two this week to catch the rays while posing with your tongs in front of burning flesh. Speaking of wh... Read More...
