MURMUR // Issue 20 // June 2019
Manchester’s monthly newsletter
MURMUR
Illustration: Kat Frost
Editors: Olivia Havercroft, Nicole Peeters Huw Spencer, Tom Waring & George Odysseos Design: Lisa Lorenz Print: Team Trident Press
Kat likes making things and talking to people. She is curious about the disparity between isolation and solitude.
hello@murmurmcr.com
Welcome to MURMUR, Manchester’s monthly guide to radical, independent & inclusive goings-on. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive a digital copy of MURMUR, extended articles, reviews on gigs, zines, places to eat and some literary surprises. www.murmurmcr.com
L I S T E N SAT 01 06 Ana da Silva + Phew @ The White Hotel
Post-punk pioneer Ana da Silva (of The Raincoats) and electronic improviser Phew (of Aunt Sally) will be performing songs from their collaborative album Island – dark, spellbinding electronica with hypnotic drones and a pulsating bass. Each song feels like a conversation, playful and dynamic, with voices fading in and out speaking to each other in the other’s native language (Japanese and Portuguese). You’ll be left magnetised! P.S.: Support from Rattle (!!!) £10, 7 - 10pm
TUE 04 06 Sweaty Palms, Sonny Bliss & Mambo Jones @ Fuel Cafe Bar
Garage punk rockers from Glasgow, Sweaty Palms, will be playing Fuel before they embark on their first ever European tour. Curated by brand new label Anubyss Records, they’ll be supported by Manchester’s Sonny Bliss and Mambo Jones (first full band gig!). £3, 7 - 11pm
issue twenty // June 2019
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FRI 07 06 Half Hour At The Hilton Zine & Single Launch @ Rare Mags
Rare Mags hold their first in-store zine launch with music from Half Hour At The Hilton. Expect joy and tranquility from the band who describe themselves as »making snow angels in the ashes of vaporwave«. Join in with a beer in Rare Mags’ yard also! FREE, 8 - 11pm
SAT 08 06 Box Records All Dayer @ The White Hotel
Newcastle DIY label Box Records is celebrating its 10th birthday with the likes of ILL, Luminous Bodies, Casual Nun and Girl Sweat. Expect noise, weirdness and one hell of a party! £12.50, 1 - 11pm
THU & FRI 13 —14 06 Funhaus #1 & #2 @ The Peer Hat & Aatma
Funhaus is a new DIY gig and practice space in the making and it needs your support! These two fundraisers both have amazing line-ups: Funhaus #1 on Friday at the Peer Hat features Us & It, currentmoodgirl, Bunny Hoova (DJ set) and Algernon Cornelius, whereas Funhaus #2 on Saturday at Aatma welcomes Garden Centre, Unpaid Intern, Early Mornings, Jeuce and Husk and Chris. All proceeds go to the new venue. £5, 8pm - 3am
SAT 22 06 Paradise Lost @ The White Hotel
The last part of an incredible series of classical and modern music performed by the outstanding Manchester Collective in collaboration with electronic musicians, DJs, and experimental performance artists. Paradise Lost reunites musicians and composers Rakhi Singh and Sebastian Gainsborough who together create a collision piece, where anti-pole fireworks welcome you to their own dystopian fantasy. £8/10, 9 - 11pm
D A N C E SAT 01 06 Pheromone: The Awakening @ Aatma
The first instalment to Manchester’s newest LGBTQ disco/house and techno night, bringing up-and-coming musicians and artists to deliver a unique atmosphere and a fresh perspective to the raving scene. This night is a charity event with profits going towards the National Aids Trust. £5, 11pm - 4am
SAT 01 06 Partisan Day Party #8 UK Garage Special @ Partisan
It does what it says on the label! Garage bangers played by your favourite local DJs all DAY long. Well aware we sound like a broken record: the atmosphere at these day parties is special! Welcoming and warm, wholesome and honest, fills up your batteries instead of leaving you drained. Table tennis, pop-up record shop, This’n’That curry and a kids friendly early-day Garage session hosted by 80 Decibels round it all up and leave you swaying home to a 4/4 rhythm. FREE members/£5, midday - midnight
SAT 08 06 Into The Groove @ Plant Shop
Your favourite leafy spot in Stockport is holding a late night opening with music that will make your branches swing. Who would say no to a little boogie with a monstera? FREE, 7 11pm
FRI 28 06 Making Faces @ The White Hotel
Taking no hostages Making Faces bring you the EBM heroine, postpunk, italo, house, coldwave selector legend that is DEBONAIR (!), White Hotel regular Jon K, and Scottish Powerhouse 12th Isle.
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As a sticky-sweet, break-your-milktooth glazed cherry on top Godspeed You Peter Andre! will raise the roof of Room 1 (yes, there’s another room) for your unholy pleasure. £7/10, 11.59pm - 6am
D O SAT 01 06 The Student House Stories Takeover @ The Whitworth
Mould, slugs, spiralling rental costs and exploitative landlords - they seem like issues we almost take for granted renting a house in Manchester, but how acceptable is it really? Get It Done and Shelter are taking over the Whitworth to address the current student housing crisis. As well as getting the opportunity to talk to several housing charities, you will be able to participate in creative workshops in which you draw your own utopian house or vent about your letting agency. FREE, noon - 4pm
SAT 01 06 Follow the Money: Development Walking Tour @ Methodist Hall
Money is being pumped into Manchester, the »Northern Powerhouse«, yet homelessness and poverty are at peak levels. What can we do to fight against unaffordable housing and state-led gentrification? Starting at the Methodist Hall on Oldham Street, urban geographer Dr Jon Silver will take you on a tour of Ancoats & the Northern Quarter to talk you through and question the pace in which our city is changing. FREE/£5, 12.30 - 2pm
SAT 01 06 Reimagined Cities @ The Birley, Preston
Part of the nationwide Anarchist Festival 2019, this event brings you a day packed with talks and discussions taking inspiration from anarchist philosophy and related theories. Engage with Aimee Hudson’s talk on mental health in relation to capitalism, discuss with Craig Andrew Hammond about possible education systems and engage with David Hayes’ theories on punishment and humanitarian social change - just to name a few! FREE, 11am - 6pm
SAT 01 06 Freedom Matters: The Welcome Party @ Niamos
Freedom matters and to remind us, Niamos is hosting a fundraiser for human rights organisation RAPAR, who support refugees seeking asylum; the Gaskell Garden Project, which provides free permaculture and recreational workshops for refugees and asylum seekers; and a third charity to be confirmed. There will be a day of music, poetry, film, workshops and live art to celebrate the diversity of the people in Manchester. Everyone is welcome, from whatever culture, colour, class or age you are! £5/10, 3pm - 2am
THU 06 06 Rare Mags Pop Up @ Beermoth
Join Rare Mags for their pop-up at independent beer giant Beermoth, running the first Thursday of every second month, selling hand-selected magazines, books and prints from their collection. Expect rare, hard to get hold of products, limited releases and more. We <3 Rare Mags - check them out at this event if you don’t get to Stockport much! FREE, 5 - 9pm
SAT 08 06 The Gothic 1980s: The Decade That Scared Us @ Geoffrey Manton Building
Proven by the success of retro-Gothic TV shows such as Stranger Things and remakes of films like IT, it seems like we’re nostalgic for the dark and divisive 80s. This symposium organised by the MMU explores the decade that brought us The Cure, Ghostbusters and the Adam Walsh abduction case, and its legacy in contemporary culture. After a day of lectures, there will be a screening of 80s classic The Lost Boys to close the symposium. £5/10, 9am - 9pm
SAT 08 06 Farewell Festival @ LGBT+ Centre
Celebrate 31 years of love, commitment and incredible support, and wave goodbye to the UK’s only purpose-build LGBT+ Centre before it is being torn down and rebuilt with more space and for even more ambitious projects. This community day welcomes all of us and has lots on offer, listen to audio memories, eat, listen to music, and meet old and new friends. The event is free but booking required. Get your tickets quick! FREE, 3 - 6pm
A R T FRI 07 - 19 06 Everything Starts From Something @ Manchester School of Art
In every end there’s a beginning. Get inspired by the works of hundreds of great minds graduating from the Art School this summer. The passion and collaborative spirit of these young minds continues to amaze us and we’re looking forward to see how they will shape our cultural environment. Congratulations to all graduates! Private View: Friday 5.30pm - 9pm; FREE, Sat/Sun 10am – 4pm; Mon – Fri 10am – 6pm
THURS 20 06 Sick of Being Patient @ Partisan
Partisan are officially launching their access fund to make their building and events accessible to all. The launch night brings you the North West debut of Sick of Being Patient, a series of solo and collaborative projects by artist and disability activist Charlie Fitz. Fitz wants to challenge the viewer’s expectation of what it means to be sick to uncover a societal system failing the chronically ill and disabled. Donations, 6 - 10pm
W A T C H SAT 01 06 Doc’n Roll MCR - Stories From The She Punks +Q&A @ HOME
Get inspired by stories of the 70s She Punks and find out how bands like the Slits, the Raincoats and the Au Pairs took matters into their own hands and claimed their space in a predominantly male environment. Directors Gina Birch (the Raincoats) and Helen Reddington (the Chefs) will be answering questions in a Q&A after the screening. £5/9.50, 6 - 8pm
SAT 01 06 Legacy in the Dust @ Partisan
A documentary telling the story of the legendary Four Aces Club, birthplace and incubator for music genres which would shape the future of music. Open since 1966, the venue was a haven for artists and a cultural weapon against social injustice, the rise of racism and failure of government in the 1970s and 1980s. ☛
Become MURMUR patron and support our mission. Find out how at ☞ murmurmcr.bigcartel.com murmurmurmurmurmurmurmurmurmurmurmurmurmurmurmurmurmur
It continued to attract trailblazers of innovation like Prodigy in its later years up until its closure in 1999. Learn all about The Four Aces in this film extraordinaire! £4/6, 6.30 - 9pm
W O R D FRI 07 06 - SUN 09 06 Weekend of Words @ Victoria Baths
A great excuse to pay a visit to Manchester’s most exquisite building! All weekend there will be live literature, poetry, theatre, storytelling and writing workshops to enjoy. Some of the highlights include readings by Yvonne BattleFelton, Naomi Kruger and Jonathan Swinton, an indie book fair, 6 specially commissioned short stories performed against a backdrop of magical projections (Re/Place(s)), and 4 short plays performed in the pool (Victorian Women in Bed). FREE/£5, various times
ODE TO STOCKPORT MURMUR have enjoyed venturing to Stockport a few times over the last year, and it gets better and better every time. Here’s our selection of a few things and people to pay a visit while you’re there!
RARE MAGS 17 Lower Hillgate SK1 1JQ
A regular feature in MURMUR, Rare Mags is a fairly new addition to Stockport. They recently had their 1st birthday, which - despite the horizontal rain - was a sunny haven. Rare Mags is a mustvisit for print aficionados, selling lovingly selected mags, books, zines, prints, and more. When someone loves what they do it shows, and Rare Mags not only provide rarities but also support local publications to help launch their work. Rare Mags have been nothing but supportive to us, too so here is a public thank you!
Tues, Wed, Fri, Sat: 10am - 6pm Thurs: 10am - 7pm, Sun: 10am - 4pm
THURS 13 06 Murmur #9 @ Common
This Translation Special gifts itself to the right honourable audience in the form of cross-atlantic transmissions, three outstanding female poets: Sophie Collins is editor Currently & Emotion, a poetry anthology exploring contemporary poetry translation; French performance artist, writer, editor Iris Colomb is also part of interdisciplinary collective No Such Thing (google her!); Mónica de la Torre is currently based in New York, works in-between languages, and will be digitally present. FREE, 7 - 9pm
WEDS 19 06 New Matter #2 @ The Castle
If the second part of this series of new commissioned work by No Matter is only half as good as the inaugural New Matter last month it will still be the nutella on your bread, the flake in your flurry, sharpest pencil in your pencil case - allegorically speaking in regards to the highlights of your
NIGHT IN THE STAFFROOM at Where the Light Gets In 7 Rostron Brow SK1 1JY
Two of the MURMUR team spent a night at Where the Light Gets In in 2017 and it was one of the most wonderful experiences EVER! However, if you’re looking for something more low-key but just as special, head to their Night in the Staffroom, held sporadically throughout the year. You get some incredible wines, some cheese, crispbreads and charcuterie, all soundtracked by carefully selected vinyl, we had Stop Making Sense soundtracking. A perfect way to start the weekend off, with some lovely and talented people. Check their website for details:
www.wtlgi.co
WINE BOY Indoor Market SK1 1ES
Keeping on the wine theme, after our foray into the Staffroom, we bumped into the wonderful Wine Boy, who runs a highquality, gorgeous wine stall in the Stockport Market. A lovely person with an amazing selection of wines!
week. The edition brings you: Lisa Robertson (watch her 47th Poetry International Festival Rotterdam performance), Harry Josephine Giles (check their Drone Gets A Cat vid) and Lila Matsumotu (find her Enemies Project recording). FREE, 7.30 - 11.30pm
THURS 20 06 A Sting in the Tale No.3 @ FUEL
If you haven’t experienced traditional storytelling you have not lived! It’s in our human nature to tell stories, listen, share, fantasize to make sense of our instincts and emotions. The past two instalments have left the audience speechless, made them burst with laughter and shiver with excitement. Don’t expect anything less from their third edition when Colin Rowan takes the lead and you by the hand to foreign lands and longago-times. As usual there will be some open-mic slots, go start practicing your favourite tellings and become a storyteller yourself. £5/7, 7 pm - late
SK1 RECORDS 17 Little Underbank SK1 1LA
SK1 records has created a record shop for the 21st century, presenting some of the most exciting and caringly selected contemporary music with a side of coffee and cake. July 5/6/7 they will be holding their first music/ art festival, with a weekend ticket only £25! We need places like SK1 Records, who unwaveringly support the local scene. Check them out!
Tue, Thu, Fri, Sat: 10am - 5pm, Sun: 10am - 4pm PLANT SHOP 8 Mealhouse Brow SK1 1JP
As well as the most wonderful and unusual selection of greenery in the city, Plant Shop also hold workshops and regular music nights where you can drink and dance amongst the fronds. Breathe it in! Because your lungs and heart will never feel as pure as when you’re in this store.
Tue - Fri: noon - 5pm; Sat: 11am - 5pm; Sun: midday - 4pm
Tue, Thu, Fri, Sat: 9am - 4.30pm
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