Manchester’s monthly newsletter
MURMUR
issue fifteen // January 2019
Editors: Olivia Havercroft, Nicole Peeters Huw Spencer, Tom Waring & George Odysseos Design: Lisa Lorenz Print: Team Trident Press
A “doodler” currently based in Leeds, Herfa likes to draw in various media, exploring vulnerabilities in human relationships, mythology, dance & memories through a bright palette.
murmurmanchester@gmail.com
Welcome to MURMUR: Your alternative guide to Manchester’s independent, radical & inclusive events
L I S T E N 5 January Free Vibes: Mama Racho, Sequin Sally, Yang & Bleach Body @ Band on the Wall
To oust those January blues, enjoy this free party at Band on the Wall curated in partnership with MCR Live. With Cumbia rhythms from Mama Racho, trippy electro-pop from Sequin Sally, dreamy electronics from Yang and post-garage punk from Bleach Body. FREE, 7.30 - 11pm
5 January A Francis Lung Glitter Party @ Gullivers NQ
Francis Lung aka Tom McClung (formerly from Wu Lyf) has just launched a Xmas EP and it looks like his winter festivities aren’t over yet! Come and have a dance at the Francis Lung Glitter Party and enjoy great bands, free records and prizes for those who dress according to the theme. £5, 7pm - 12am
12 January Squeeze: The Cosmics & The Early Mornings @ Big Hands
There’s something exciting brewing in the middle of Oxford road! This monthly music night brings you 100% juicy Psych, Garage, Blues from the North West. Never from concentrate. The Early Mornings have rounded off our 2018 gig year in December
Illustration: Herfa Thompson
Insta: @herfaaaaa
and have certainly blown our socks off with their cheeky charm and energetic simplicity. MURMUR’s must-listen for 2019. £3/4, 9pm - 3am
22 January Warm Drag & Fruit Tones @ Night People
Two-piece Warm Drag is Oh Sees / !!! / K-Holes reincarnated in synthy electro drag. This performance is certainly going to chase away the cool winds of January, with a cherry on top. £11, 7 - 11pm
24 January FAT FREE: Fofoulah, Trianglecuts, Errant Monks, Sarah Yaseen & Locean @ Band on the Wall
FAT FREE is the brainchild of Band on the Wall and Fat Out to showcase emerging artists that deserve some extra love. With an eclectic line-up spanning electronica with Sabar drumming (Fofoulah), Sufi songwriting (Sarah Yaseen), postpunk electronica (Trianglecuts), experimental psychedelica (Errant Monks) and improvised poetry over heavy guitar drones (Locean), you’re in for a treat. FREE, 7.30 - 11pm
26 January Irma Vep & Band w/ Handle @ Gullivers NQ
Made in Wales, shaped by Manchester, now based in Scotland, melancholia melanchthon Irma Vep brings us new romanticist guitar distortion with support from local D.U.D.S. and B.E.T.H spin-off Handle. Brought to you by audio-quality-spotters Comfortable on a Tightrope. £7, 7.30 - 10.30pm
D A N C E 1 January Wet Play x Microdosing @ Partisan Collective
If celebrating endings is not your thing this day party might just do the trick for you! Cuddles and hugs guaranteed (if you want them), delicious soul-warming treats from local curry-casanovas This’n’That delivered right into your gobs, legendary tunes by soaked party drenchers, and weird films from lands East of West Germany. Curated escapism into a collectively created alternative universe. £8, 2pm - midnight
5 January Half Edge w/ Significant Other @ Eastern Bloc
Not quite done with dancing after New Year’s? Half Edge has you covered with instore techno/ambient/genrebending dance music that will keep you bouncing until the early hours. FREE, 7pm - 1am
18 January BLOOM X PPG: Karen Gwyer, object blue, Danielle @ The White Hotel Beautiful Ladies Organising Orgasmic
Music and Pretty Pretty Good join forces to bring you the best of experimental club music from their infinite cohorts of talented friends. Our favourite techno-night-out tip of January powered by womxn from start to finish. £10, 11.59pm - 6am
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26 January Ad Hoc & Sprechen Launch @ YES Basement
New year, new (respective release) parties. Ad Hoc & Sprechen emulsify to bring warm tune showers to heat your blood. So Flute co-founder Yadava and beat machine Tommy Tickle aka Meles Meles have dropped some hotness for you to get smothered in. £3, 11pm - 3am
26 January Off The Record w/Peverelist & Bake @ The White Hotel
We love it when promoters make an effort to give back to the community. Off The Record lead by example with their fundraiser party for mental health charity Mind in Cambridge last year. This January they are back in Manchester with polyrhythmic minimal Bristolian Peverelist and one third of All Caps, Bake at our favourite icy den in Salford. £6/11, 11.59pm - 6am
D O 4 January Mxer @ LGBT Foundation
Mxer is your friendliest-of-them-all local non-binary social, happening every first Friday of the month. Bring along your console (or just show up with yourself) for their Video Games Night. Coming up next in February: a wholesome zine eve. Open to all nonbinary peeps 18+, including those who are questioning. FREE, 6 - 8pm
9 January Manchester Sound Women Network @ Partisan Collective
that are important to you on the third Friday of the month. Come along if you identify as lesbian, bisexual, queer or questioning, all or part of the time, including trans, older, disabled/ neurodivergent people and those of all faiths and backgrounds, and transfeminine people. FREE, 6 - 8pm
LEARN
19 January Queer Craft Club @ Partisan Collective
@ Nexus Art Café 2nd & 4th Tuesday of the Month
Friendly sessions for 18+ people in the city’s quirkiest underground café. Please remember to bring your own drawing supplies. £5, 7 - 9pm
@ Sandbar 1st & 3rd Sunday of the Month
20 January The Haçienda Years @ HOME Cinema
Drawing boards and lovely models provided in artistica atmosphere. Obligatory, heavy red theatre curtains block the views of curious pedestrians. £4, 4.30 - 7pm
Manchester Music Tours’ classic walking excursion to the depths of Mancunian music history. Recommended for locals and visitors alike this trip to the past will connect many of the paths you walk in the everyday with anecdotes of the legends of days gone. Manchester (still) so much to answer for. £10.50, 2.30 - 4.15pm
21 - 30 January SexWithoutShame: Queer Women’s Takeover @ LGBT Foundation, LEAF // Thoughtworks & Pioneer Coffee
New year, new you! MCR Sound Women Network is a collaborative project where all womxn and nonbinary peeps can take have their say. Discuss your ideas, ask/share advice with fellow soundsters. Let’s improve diversity and representation of womxn in sound in 2019! FREE, 4pm - 6pm
18 January They/Them/Us @ LGBT Foundation
30 January ACORN MCR QGM @ Methodist Hall
Join MCR’s Tenant’s Union for their first quarterly general meeting. This is not your usual GM though. Expect talks by inspirational
SOMETHING:
LIFE DRAWING
This relaxed, safe, hands-on event welcomes anyone who self-identifies as LGBTQIA+ and their friends. Organisers Pen Fight Distro can help find a buddy for you if you feel shy or nervous to attend solo. This is a low-pressure drop-in event you can join and leave at any time. Just bring yourself, your pal, and/or a dish to add to the communal pot luck which makes this wholesome afternoon complete. FREE, 1 - 4pm
A series of workshops and discussions for lesbian, bi and queer women to talk openly about sex and pleasure in a free and safe environment over the course of 10 days. Talks include consent and boundaries, kink, masturbation and alternative relationships. All lesbian, bi and queer women welcome, including trans, BAME, disabled and non-binary, but 16+ (Sexual Pleasure Workshop 18+). FREE, timings vary
They/Them/Us is a support and activities group run by and for genderfluid and non-binary people. Meet new friends and discuss issues
speakers, food and live music to get your activism juices flowing. FREE, 6.45 - 8.30pm
A R T 15/17/22/23 January Interruptions: C P Daniels Raz Ullah & Sam Meech Kevin Craig // Jenny Baines @ Holden Gallery
Daniels’ screening will open the Interruptions series with experimental documentation exploring themes of community and memory. Ullah and Meech invite the viewers to indulge in their collaborative AV live performance bridging the gap between analogue and digital. Craig’s audio-visual presentations orbit themes of mysticism and existentialism, whereas Baines takes us to the past utilising traditional 16mm film screening techniques, repetition and double-screening. FREE, 6 - 8pm
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17 - 26 January Distorted Constellations: Nwando Ebizie @ Caustic Coastal
Push Festival presents Distorted Constellations, an immersive exhibition by Nwando Ebizie that is inspired by neurodivergence and the rare perceptual disorder Visual Snow in which people see white or black dots on their visual fields. Over the course of the exhibition, there will be workshops and lectures as well as a series of interactive visual performances to question the reliability of our senses. (Thu-Sun) Exhibition: FREE, 1 - 5pm Events: £5/20, 7.30 - 10pm
18 January The Ground Beneath Your Feet @ Castlefield Gallery
Art should look down as well as up. There lies the thinking behind Castlefield Field gallery’s next LunchTime Tour. Film, sculpture, political campaigns and luminous fungi - all packed into your lunch break. Bring sandwiches and sink your teeth into a creative world far removed from the 9 til’ 5. FREE, 1.15 - 1.35pm
31 January Fancy Pants @ The Portico Library
This free exhibition explores the relationship between costume and dress with ritual, play, morality and resistance. Four visual artists (Leonce Raphael Agbodjelou, Ruby Kirby, Lindsey Mendick & Camille Smithwick) will give their own interpretation to the subject and present striking photographs, costumes, sculptures and illustrations. FREE, 6 - 8pm
W A T C H 6 January Yorgos Lanthimos Double Bill @ YES Pink Room
If you’ve seen Lanthimos’ Dogtooth you know what’s in for you in this Greek director’s feast for our little brains. Above the Line bring his two preceding highly acclaimed films The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) and The Lobster (2015) to chime us in for his newest cinematic trick period drama The Favourite (2019) screening in cinemas in the U.K. from 1st January. FREE, 5.30 - 10pm
15 January RAD Screenings: Josie & the Pussycats (2001) @ Manchester Central Library
RAD’s first instalment of cinematic gold classics brings you the tale of a fantastic feline pop band. Josie and the Pussycats is a fun noir-ish take on the capitalist tricks of the music industry, friendship and Girrrl power - naturally. £4/5, 5.30 - 8pm
18 January The Greek (Rehearsed Reading) @ The Kings Arms Salford
Get an exclusive glimpse of this new play in progress by Lewis Charlesworth about Brexit, British identity, race and family. Charlesworth was nominated for Best Comedy Play at the Greater Manchester Fringe in 2018 so expect heavy topics with a light-hearted approach. £5, 7.30pm start
Art Space Spotlight: Waterside Arts Sale 1 Waterside Plaza, Sale, Trafford M33 7ZF
This year, keep an eye on the programme of Waterside, an arts venue in the heart of Sale dishing up a potpourri of local talent with a hawks-eye on quality comedy, interactive workshops, affordable theatre and monthly changing free exhibitions in three gallery spaces.
Currently showing until 12th January is “First Time: In Equal Parts”, a communityled, collaborative exhibition responding to HIV and inspired by Nathaniel Hall’s play First Time. Mon - Sat 10am - 5pm
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W O R D 7 January Propel - #HOMEinspires @ HOMEmcr
Part of PUSH Festival 2019, a festival celebrating the North West’s best emerging artists, Propel provides a platform to voices that usually remain unheard. Featuring comedy by seniors from Chorlton and Whalley Range, songs & stories from the tower blocks in Gorton and Hulme, readings from women recovering from cancer and more. £6/7, 7.30pm start
17 January CASH/SEX: a poetry launch @ Gullivers NQ
Outstanding local wordians present you phrases of truth and revelations of great benevolence in their newest pamphlet which can be bought with money (not sex) on the night. Readings by Bryony Bates, Joey Frances, Nell Osbourne, Alastair Gold shall persuade you if this genuine advertisement hasn’t already. FREE, 7 - 10pm
19 January Angels: A Celebration of Charli XCX @ HOMEmcr
Immersive theatre interpretations by YESYESNONO, Pink Freud Theatre, James Varney, Ben Kulvichit, Nat Norland, Charlotte Fraser and Ava Wong Davies exploring one of today’s most important female pop influencers & producers - Charli XCX - one song at a time. £10/12, 9 - 10pm
19 January Victorian Book Group @ Elizabeth Gaskell House
If your busy timetable allows it and you adore Victorian lit, we highly recommend this this monthly reading group. Each month a classic will be dissected, interpreted and spun up by vic-thusiastic bibliophiles. You could be one of them! £5/6, 1 - 2.15pm
24 January Poetry Pop Jukebox Co-op #2 @ Gullivers NQ
A handful of MCR’s finest poets are reciting snippets from their own work, work by their favourite writers, and song lyrics that have inspired them. The line-up includes Ella Enemé Otomewo, Jae Lythgoe, Emily Oldfield, Maz Hedgehog and awardwinning Andrew McMillan who will be reading from his new collection playtime. TBC, 7 - 10.30pm