The Skinny North July/August 2017 by The Skinny

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July/August 2017 North Issue 45

The Long Goodbye A celebration of the North for our final issue

P.40 Art School Degree Shows

P.46 Okja

July/August 2017 I N D E P E N D E N T

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Issue 45, Jul/Aug 2017 ÂŠ Radge Media Ltd. Get in touch: E: hiya@theskinny.co.uk T: 0161 833 3124 P: The Skinny, Studio 104, Islington Mill, 1 James Street, Salford, M3 5HW The Skinny is distributing 38,000 copies across Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester, a wide range of advertising packages and affordable ways to promote your business are available. Get in touch to find out more.

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Editorial Film & Contributing Editor Jamie Dunn Jess Hardiman Events Editor Tallah Brash Music Editors Kamila Rymajdo Holly Rimmer-Tagoe Books Edy Hurst Comedy Kate Pasola Deviance Paul Mitchell Travel Production Production Manager Designer

Sarah Donley Kyle McPartlin

Sales Sales Executive

Issy Patience

Online Digital Editor Web Developer

Peter Simpson Stuart Spencer

Editor-in-Chief Publisher

Rosamund West Sophie Kyle

Printed on 100% recycled paper

Contents

THE SKINNY

Photo: Karl John

Photo: Sarah Donley

P.32 Grime Beyond Borders

Credit: Tara Collette

P.28 Traveling to New York

Contents

Public Service Broadcasting tackle the troubles and triumphs of South Wales’ mining communities with new album Every Valley.

Dan Croll on how he picked himself up and dusted himself off after a very difficult year.

Andy Stamatakis-Brown on how he has woven club sounds into Cottonopolis, his cotton mill-inspired Manchester Jazz Festival performance.

UP FRONT

06 Chat & Opinion: Welcome to the final

ever Skinny North. As we bow out with our ultimate issue, we ask some of our favourite people in the North to say a few words on what makes the region’s vibrant culture scene so special.

Heads Up: Four pages of cultural highlights for July and August.

40 A whistle stop tour of a quartet of de-

gree shows from the North’s best art schools.

EVENTS GUIDE

Art & Theatre: Artist Phil Collins on bringing Communist Manifesto coauthor Friedrich Engels back to his spiritual home. Plus your don’t miss exhibitions and theatre shows.

Ain’t Them Bodies Saints director David Lowery returns with a ghost story like you've never seen before.

The Big Sick, a quirky love story drawn from real life, is one of the year's funniest comedies. We speak to its director, Michael Showalter.

Korean director Bong Joon-ho will put you off meat for life with action-adventure movie Okja.

An English translation of Svetlana Alexievich’s The Unwomanly Face of War got us thinking about representations of women in wartime.

Jade Fearnley goes under our Comedy spotlight.

Film & Books: Ahead of the release of her new film The Beguiled, we sing the praises of Sofia Coppola’s dreamy cinema. Plus, our pick of bookish events and film screenings.

Coast to coast noir: Ryan Gattis takes us into the LA underworld with Safe, while Don Winslow’s The Force explores police corruption in the (rotten) Big Apple.

REVIEW

Gigs: The Black Angels on the merits of living the psychedelic life and Shadowlark talk synths, haunted recording studios and starting out right. Plus July’s must-attend gigs. Clubs: Kings of Manchester nightlife Mvson tell us the secret to throwing a good party. Plus, your don’t-miss club nights this season.

20 Comedy: Murder Inc. head honcho

LIFESTYLE

Food & Drink: A guide to ethical barbecuing; some tips on sake cocktails; hear about The TMRW Project’s Chefs of Tomorrow; plus all this month’s new in food.

Deviance: We investigate the safe(r) spaces of the music gig after two seemingly progressive bands betray their fans with sexual misconduct.

Travel: Travelling to New York has just got a whole lot cheaper with Norwegian Air – we try out this ridiculously cheap airway with a flying visit to the Big Apple.

Deviance: LGBT Pride remains a contentious issue – one writer explains why he had his doubts, and the moment that turned it all around...

Music: As they get ready to open Manchester Jazz Festival, the Riot Jazz Brass Band tell us their favourite festival vibe tracks. Plus, reviews of new records from Everything Everything, Dan Croll, Nadine Shah and more.

Clubs: We speak to the mighty DJ Paulette about her residency at The Haçienda and her return to Manchester ahead of an appearance at Manchester Pride this August.

Film: A dreamy David Lynch doc (The Art Life) arrives in cinemas, Terrence Malick’s Song to Song leaves us reeling and Sofia Coppola returns with a feminist remake of Clint Eastwood joint The Beguiled.

DVD: As Flying Lotus’ portmanteau comedy Kuso arrives on horror streaming platform Shudder, the music producer tells us how his feature film debut shocked Sundance, where it was proclaimed ‘the grossest movie ever’.

Books: Up for review this month – Sarah Winman’s Tin Man and Carmen Marcus’s How Saints Die. Plus all July’s poetry news.

Listings: A guide to what’s on in Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester throughout July and August.

FEATURES

Broken Social Scene are back together! And we’re more than thankful they’ve come out of hibernation.

We explore the impact of grime abroad through the lens of a Manchester-based cultural exchange programme.

We speak to some of the finest satirists on the scene to take the temperature of what our turbulent political landscape has meant for their comedy.

July/August 2017

Contents

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September/October 2016 North Issue 40

J O U R N A L I S M

June 2015 Liverpool and Manchester Issue 27

MUSIC Outfit Hudson Mohawke Africa Oyé Fist City BOOKS Eleanor Rees Ameena Atiq THEATRE Jackie Hagan COMEDY The Rise of the Weird Will Duggan

NORTHERN LIGHTS

CLUBS KMAH Festival Highlights FILM Slow West Listen Up Philip ¡Viva! Mexican Weekender FOOD AND DRINK The Real Junk Food Project

THE PRINT PROJECT, COWTOWN, PINK KINK SHIELD PATTERNS, PSYCH FEST, PEANESS

ART Sarah Eyre Oculist Witnesses Anthony Schrag FASHION LJMU: Graduating Class

Jenny Hval

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January/February 2017 North Issue 42

Music Hudson Mohawke Outfit Jenny Hval Catholic Action Fist City

Film Edinburgh Film Festival Peter Bogdanovich Walter Hill Mark Adams Alex Ross Perry

Art Anthony Schrag Dundee Degree Show Tim Dalzell Grace Schwindt

Books Dark Horse Poetry Louise Welsh Clubs Ezup Festivals Round-Up

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“The life of an artist is caught in a capitalist net”

PLUS: Charlotte Church, Hollie McNish, Angel Olsen, Detroit Swindle, Lou Barlow, Frankie Cosmos, Ron Rash, Super Furry Animals & loads more inside

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March/April 2017 North Issue 43

Comedy Edinburgh Magic Festival Dracula Zoo Nights

LA PRIMAVERA

or four years the Skinny North has been reporting on the vibrant cultural scenes from three of the most friendly, creative and righteous cities in the UK. This, dear readers, is our final missive. After August, people in Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds won’t find our beautifully designed magazines in the great indie venues, cafes and cultural institutions who’ve been kind enough to stock and support The Skinny during our four year journey. The reasons for our print cessation are myriad, and detailed on our website (theskinny. co.uk), but suffice to say the staff at The Skinny North are disappointed we’re no longer able to cover the North’s considerable talents and the vital events put on in the region. The chief reason being that the North and its amazing artists, bands, artisans, filmmakers, theatre-makers, comedians and venues deserve to be written about. A magazine doesn’t make a scene. Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds had it all going on long before The Skinny came to town, and no doubt the North’s arts scene will be lively and buzzing and full of innovation long after the last dog-eared copy of The Skinny is put in the recycling or shredded to hamster bedding. But the creativity of these

From SÓNAR TO SOUNDS FROM THE OTHER CITY via HULL’S UK CITY OF CULTURE CELEBRATIONS, we’ve got your year sorted

three cities and the North in general is so vital it deserves to be evaluated and championed. Without The Skinny around, it’s up to you, readers, to be even more vocal than you have been in the past. You need to be that little bit louder about the art and creativity you love in this region; shout the North’s talents from the rooftops, at least until another bunch of upstarts decide to put a magazine together in our wake. (Do it: it’s the best job in the world.) The Skinny North couldn’t have achieved what it has done without a lot of very talented people working long and hard to help put this together. Over the last four years, we’ve had the pleasure of working with some of the most gifted writers in the region. Many of them were ridiculously young greenhorns making their print debuts, but you’d never know it. Their adroit prose was matched by an unwavering enthusiasm, and it was a pleasure watching their writing improve with every issue. At the other end of the scale, we were also able to give space to veteran journalists of the North’s cultural scene who appreciated the rare opportunity to dig deeper into arts in the region than they might have been afforded at more mainstream

Fantastic Feasts THE FOOD & DRINK SURVEY 2017

Music Ones to Watch Henge Bruising HAARM Mark Eitzel Cloud Nothings

Film Manchester by the Sea Alternative Musicals Moonlight

Clubs Setaoc Mass Eastern Bloc’s Tips for 2017

Art The Archipelago

Comedy Hannah Platt Olga Wojtas

Books Amy Stewart Writing Advice Theatre PUSH Festival Ridiculusmus

Travel Living in Malmö Guilt and Self-Loathing in India

outlets. We, on the editorial team, didn’t say this to these writers enough: you are brilliant! We wish you all the very best in your futures. Thank you, too, to the venues that have stocked The Skinny North; you’ve become as much of a platform for rising talent and independent culture as anyone else. And thank you to all the brilliant artists, bands, filmmakers, comedians, theatre-makers and creatives who agreed to interviews over the years and invited us to their events – we hope our writing did you justice. Perhaps above all else, thank you to YOU, our wonderful readers, who are the passionate, culturally-hungry and open-minded figures that this world needs right now. Members of The Skinny team felt no greater thrill than heading for coffee

on Sunday morning or having a mid-week pint on Wednesday night and seeing someone with their nose in The Skinny. We made this magazine for you and we’re delighted you seemed to enjoy it – it made all the late nights writing on deadline and early morning proofing after three cups of coffee worthwhile. Join us on 14 Jul at Islington Mill for The Final Fling, a farewell party open to all that will celebrate not only our final issue, but also four years of being a kickarse magazine. We’ll have DJs and live music from local favourites like Chester’s indie-pop trio Peaness, making it a positive-minded (and probably very boozy) blowout that doffs a cap to the North that we love. See you there. Join the event guestlist at facebook.com/theskinnynorth

Apr 2014:

The Skinny 01

Sep 2014:

We celebrated turning one with live music, DJs and visuals at The Kazimier from Patterns, Ninetails, John McGrath, WYWH, Wet Play, Julian Shepard and Andy Ash from Scenery Records.

Feb 2016:

The Skinny Student Handbook

We acquire a part-time office dog

In September 2014 we launched our very first student handbook, a yearly publication packed full of our favourite venues in each city, student tips and more.

Often found lying at the feet of our Events Editor or scrounging chicken from our sympathetic Film Editor, part-time newshound Jas has earnt her stripes as our unofficial mascot .

Sep 2014 & Jul 2015:

Patterns

Apr 2013:

The Skinny North launches

Launching with parties at Manchester’s Twenty Twenty Two and Static Gallery in Liverpool, our first issue was an ode to the North.

Photo: Stu Moulding

The Skinny Comedy Spotlight Our Comedy ed, John Stansfield, put together two epic nights of the North’s brightest young stand-ups. The first was at The Kaz for Liverpool Comedy Festival; the second was at The King’s Arms for Greater Manchester Fringe Festival. We laughed, we cried, we were sick in tupperware.

May 2015:

#SFTOCSkinny launches Since launching it in 2015, we’ve seen some amazing entries in our annual photo competition at Salford's cherished grassroots festival Sounds From the Other City.

Post-deadline bevs Over the years, print deadline stresses have been eased with countless pints at the Old Pint Pot, Salford Arms, Bar Fringe, Common, Kosmonaut and Rudy’s Pizza, and for that we thank you!

Liam Pickford

THE SKINNY

Crystal Balls

Online Only

With Mystic Mark ARIES LIFE HACK: If you ring 911, the American police turn up. You can use this neat little trick to arrest any British police that might get in your way. I don’t know what the FBI hotline is, but it’s also worth a shot if the American cops stray beyond their jurisdiction or go rogue.

LIBRA You’re reassured that your government knows what it’s talking about when you look Brexit up in the dictionary to find: Brexit Pronunciation /ˈbrɛgzɪt/ Definition: Brexit. (See also: ‘Brexit’)

TAURUS After dying surrounded by loved ones and a kindly priest at your bedside, you’re furious to find your body being reassimilated into the earth and your cells reconstituted afresh in an ongoing and beautiful molecular symphony, far grander than the gilded paradise you were promised, with those everlasting dinner party orgies attended by Einstein, Babe Ruth and Marilyn Monroe as winged toddlers pour God’s blood into your groaning mouth.

SCORPIO The Old Testament tells us that the female skeleton is in fact just a giant rib with eye holes and a special groove for the mouth. It’s just a case of waiting for mainstream science to catch up. Christian scientists discovered recently all ribs are in fact a tiny unrealised human female, leading some pro-life activists to demand every rib on the planet is removed and developed into a full person.

EO L In many ways you’re like 350gsm artboard. Nice and thick. VIRGO Hosting swinger parties is difficult. There’s so much admin as you watch people being fucked every which way, tits doing air-circles as you reply to emails. It’s tough trying to compile spreadsheets through your jizz covered laptop screen, accidentally stapling a ballsack onto a stack of application forms.

CAPRICORN If we’re all one, then you’re filling us all up with Rustlers microwavable sandwiches. You’re the worst part of the Universe. AQUARIUS Funny how when you lose something it’s always in the last place you lost it.

Cowtown

Sep 2016 & Jan 2016:

Stay Fresh Fest

Following our collaborative student night in Sep 2015 with The Deaf Institute, the following year we launched Stay Fresh Fest to showcase rising bands from the North.

Sep 2016:

Expansion to Leeds

theskinny.co.uk/books Daniel Piper is the reigning Poetry Slam champion in Scotland, but how would he fare when facing poets from around the globe at the Slam's World Cup finals in Paris? There is, quite literally, only one way to find out.

Spot The Difference One Meow-llion Dollars Here are a pair of criminal masterminds; well, one mastermind, and one meow-stermind. One of them dreams of making millions (millions!), while the other would be happy with millions of Dreamies. They both plot day and night, planning for world domination one living room at a time. We know that at least one of them is wearing a cat-stume,

PISCES People think you don’t have enough in common with your husband, but you reassure them that a love of crisps, a fondness for the colour blue and having birthdays that are only three months apart is a reliable, fulfilling foundation for marriage.

We move to Islington Mill Our home of 12 months has not only provided the means for sunny team lunches in the courtyard, but is also a base for endless creative inspiration with an unrivalled community spirit.

theskinny.co.uk/film We talk emotions, Batman and dystopian futures with Matt Reeves, director of War for the Planet of the Apes. Marianna Palka discusses her latest directorial effort Bitch, and her role in Netflix wrestling drama GLOW.

SAGITTARIUS Going into hospital for your appendicitis, you’re introduced to your new 9-year-old surgeon who you’ve been assured is really really good at the Operation board game. NHS chiefs boast that despite complaints of understaffing these steely-gripped micro-surgeons can get all the crazy objects out of a man’s body without even once setting off his light-up nose alarm. The young anaesthetist then enters, asking you to spin round and round really fast until you get so dizzy you fall over.

Jul 2016:

theskinny.co.uk/festivals We reveal the programme for the Unbound strand of free, late-night events at Edinburgh International Book Festival this August. Expect nights from Dive Queer Party and Neu! Reekie!, one-off collaborations that span music and literature, and the author of The Gruffalo as you’ve never heard her before.

Photo: Tallah Brash

CANCER When the dinosaurs escape from your ill-considered and poorly-fenced park, you activate the contingency plan: take shelter in the kitchen beneath the pots and pans and pray that a heroic asteroid will come and save the day.

theskinny.co.uk/art As urban art specialists Recoat celebrate turning 10 with a 40-person exhibition in Glasgow, masterminds Amy Whiten and Alistair Wyllie assess the changing face of street art and design.

theskinny.co.uk/music Prodigal beatmaker and Anchor Point Records maestro Mura Masa discusses coming from the underground to make a pop album, and Waxahatchee's Katie Crutchfield talks us through her noisiest and most honest album to date Out in the Storm. Elsewhere, former Digable Planets emcee Ishmael Butler fills us in on the Quazarz mythology behind the pair of new albums by Shabazz Palaces, and Glasgow-based trio Breakfast Muff take on gender imbalance in the music industry and talk us through new album Eurgh!

but we can’t really work out which – that’s how devious they are. Let us know the difference between these two absolute fiends; best answer wins a copy of A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit, courtesy of our partners-in-crime over at Canongate.

Competition closes midnight Sun 30 Jul. The winner will be notified via email within two working days of closing and will be required to respond within 48 hours or the prize will be offered to another entrant. Our Ts&Cs can be found at theskinny.co.uk/about/terms

Photo: Jack Kirwin

GEMINI This month you finally commence what is sure to be heralded as your masterwork: a 358,000 page novelisation of Eastenders.

theskinny.co.uk/theatre Is crowdfunding the only realistic way to fund an Edinburgh Fringe show? Turns out that… yeah, pretty much.

Nov 2016 & Mar 2017: Quizlington Mill

We also introduced our super special pub quiz series raising money for Islington Mill’s roof fund, where quizmaster supremo John Stansfield took us through rounds of music trivia, crisp dust and more.

Partnerships Across our four-year run we’ve enjoyed some incredible partnerships with festivals, venues and events including (but by no means limited to!) Liverpool Biennial, Beacons, Manchester Literature Festival, Africa Oyé, ¡Viva!, Storyhouse, LightNight and Hull UK City of Culture.

Jul 2017:

The Skinny North closes …But not without a good send-off! Join us for our Final Fling at Islington Mill on Fri 14 Jul, where we’ll have Peaness and others seeing us out with a bang.

That there lovely Leeds has spawned some amazing partnerships and friendships with the likes of Leeds Indie Food, Leeds College of Art, I Like Press, Superfriendz and Northern Monk. Peaness

July/August 2017

Northern Soul The North’s finest. The Skinny North says a final farewell by asking some of our favourite people, what makes the North so special?

Bellgrave

or our final issue we spoke to some of our favourite people in the North; the creatives who put on great shows and bring innovation and talent to the region’s most lively venues. These are the cats who’ve made publishing The Skinny North a dream, and who make the great cities of Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool such vibrant and exciting places in which to live, play and create. We asked them two questions: 1) What makes the North’s cultural scene so special?

2) What’s your favourite cultural moment during the last four years (i.e. the time in which The Skinny North has been published)? Here’s what they had to say. Mark Carlin Director of Islington Mill, Salford; Don of the peerless Sounds from the Other City 1) I’m not sure I can speak for the whole of the North, but what I think makes Manchester and Salford really work is the fact that they have a lot of the attributes and feel of big cities but they feel small enough to let you make an impact, to get involved, to make a scene around you and help each other make things grow. We are also pretty lucky with the amount of touring shows that pass through here, particularly in music, so it means that there are a lot of avenues for inspiration! 2) Watching clubbers go down on bended knee to be furnished with beer at the bar/pit of The White Hotel. There is something glorious and debauched all in that one action, and it really sums up that place for me!

Leeds Food Feast

Jackie Hagan Fearless poet and stand-up 1) It’s adamantly unpretentious and knows that laughing at something doesn’t mean we’re not taking it seriously.

Rock and Northern Monk right now. No one. We sell a lot of beer at Belgrave and Headrow House, and from the horse’s mouth everyone testifies that the North has always had better beer. No debate needed.

2) Thatcher dying.

“ What makes the North’s culture scene so special is the chance to work together, to offer a helping hand and for cultural collaboration. It is a lovely thing”

False Advertising Kickarse Manchester-based grunge-pop trio 1) It’s chock full of different people and personalities who aren’t afraid to do things a bit differently, and nobody holds anything against you for trying to do your own thing. Given that we’re a band with a few unusual qualities, we certainly feel that our individuality has been welcomed in the North – and that’s the attitude that allows the best parts of the scene to be so wonderfully diverse. 2) The exceptional ability of the internet to create culture, and spread ideas and content directly to people has resonated with us the most over the last few years. Whether it was the Beyoncé shock release of her self-titled album back in 2013 with no promotion, Stormzy rising to the top of the charts by forging his own career on a DIY basis, or the miracle of grumpy cat. A free and unbiased internet can win everything. Ashley Kollakowski Co-owner of Leeds’ damn fine Belgrave Music Hall 1) It’s difficult to put into words what makes the North so great at the moment. There’s the beer thing. How many great breweries are in the North now? Cloudwater, Northern Monk, Magic Rock, Wylam, Track, Marble, Alphabet, Kirkstall, North Brew Co – the list is absolutely endless and keeps growing. Not being biased but there’s no one down south that can touch Cloudwater, Magic

Simon Fogal

2) It feels in the last few years that so many amazing things have happened up here that to choose one or two events would be unfair. The KAWS exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park was a real key moment in modern pop culture history; a world famous artist launching his giant sculptures in Yorkshire rather than New York or Paris or Barcelona was incredible. I went to the event and seeing people travelling from Tokyo and San Francisco to bloody Wakefield really brought it home.

Kiri Pritchard-Mclean Razor-sharp stand-up and member of inspired sketch troupe Gein’s Family Giftshop 1) I’m from North Wales and have lived in Manchester for ten years now, after three years in Liverpool. I feel such an affinity for the attitude up here. Gallows humour, matriarchal families and never feeling like you should apologise for not being part of a wealthy, London bubble. I think it’s hard to ignore the cultural heritage of the North, and why would you want to? The Beatles, The Smiths, The League of Gentlemen, John Cooper Clarke, Caroline Aherne, just incredible, genre-defining people. I think it’s because the cultural world is down in London we get left to it up here, which means there can be more room to innovate and it gives you a hunger. There’s nothing like feeling like your passion is ignored to light a fire under you. Just try and ignore us. 2) It’s hard to pick a highlight culturally but because I’m an egomaniac it would need to be something I’m involved in. In 2015 the Frog and Bucket comedy club – proper Manchester institution and birthplace to hundreds of comedy careers, mine included – turned 20. So, in April of that year they had a big anniversary with loads of amazing acts who’ve come through the club, top headliners, and me. I remember being insanely nervous, because it’s intimidating to try and hold your own on a stage with Dan Nightingale, Mick Ferry and Steve Shanyaski. But, as always, the Frog was amazing, the atmosphere was electric and I remember during my set feeling so made up that I got to be a part of this amazing scene. And that’s all I remember because they gave me loads of free wine and I was sick on my shoes as I got out the taxi later. Proper Northern stuff.

THE SKINNY

Thom Isom One third of inventive Liverpool collective Deep Hedonia; designer extraordinaire, formerly of The Skinny North 1) Deep Hedonia started back in 2012, just a year before The Skinny North. When you look back that far, it’s safe to see why the North’s cultural scene is so special. Its capacity to produce so many artists, producers and musicians is pretty inspiring. Looking back at one of our first shows is a great example of where all this talent can end up. It was back in 2013, and we hosted a show at the old Drop the Dumbells gallery on Slater street. The line-up was a mixture of mates and up-andcoming producers from Liverpool – most of whom were just starting out. Bantam Lions, Lunar Modular, Tomasu and Deep Hedonia co-founder Kepla all delivered live sets. Since then, they’ve all gone on to pretty big things: Bantam Lions went on to work with Scenery Records, which then released his first full length album Short Stories in late 2016. Scenery Records might be no more but they’ve now started a new label, Four Triangles, who are repping some of Liverpool’s best new producers. James Rand of Lunar Modular has set up shop down in London now, and his new project, God Colony, is showing promise; they’ve just finished an audio-visual series with NTS Radio. Tomasu later presented his live set at FutureEverything in 2015 and DJs throughout the city today. Kepla has had a busy few years, collaborating with Quantum Natives records and supporting Fis and William Basinski around the UK. Alongside all this he continues his work with Liverpool based Iranian MC Farhood – well worth a look in! 2) My favourite cultural moment: car on the dancefloor #COTDF13 [an event at Liverpool LightNight where Deep Hedonia literally brought a car on to Static Gallery’s dancefloor] Peaness Indie-pop trio from Chester and our favourite peas since Bird’s Eye 1) We love our home in the Northwest! We all grew up in more southern areas of the country but have been here for nearly 10 years. For us, the Northern cultural scene feels very supportive and very positive. There doesn’t seem to be any weird rivalries or jealousy from other bands that you sometimes get in London, and that’s especially so here in Chester. All the local bands support each other and help each other grow, whether that’s rocking a t-shirt, going to all the live shows or sharing news on social media; we’re all friends! And for us, to be accepted in Manchester, Liverpool and North Wales is just so lovely. It’s one big happy family showing London that we’re here and we’re working bloody hard. 2) Fave cultural moment in the last four years? For us it’s appearing at Manchester’s A Carefully Planned Festival in 2016. It’s that brilliant festival

July/August 2017

Dave McTague Tireless promoter with Mellowtone and director of One Fell Swoop 1) I don’t know what makes the North’s cultural scene so special; it’s a glorious melting pot of all sorts of things. I like the fact it’s a bit rough around the edges, and there isn’t the sense of entitlement – and by default the complacency – that often comes with a capital city. The urban centres here may not have the numbers or concentration of artists you find in the capital, but there’s a hunger, an aspiration, authenticity... and the rents are cheaper and there are some amazing spaces and amazing people, making it a fertile breeding ground for exciting new ideas. And besides, all the best bands are from the North! 2) My favourite cultural moment of the last four years was actually just last week: the celebration for Africa Oyé’s 25th Anniversary. The biggest and best Oyé yet! Seeing people of all ages, all colours and all backgrounds coming together in Sefton Park, and the British summer even made an appearance. Lots of smiles, no trouble. Good vibes and good times. With what’s going on in the world at the moment it was a much needed and most refreshing event; an inspiring and magical weekend. Simon Fogal Simon Fogal: director, I Like Press; drums, I Like Trains; man about town, Leeds 1) The gritty North. Over four years ago, we had a fairly different culture picture to the one we have now – so much has changed in my city [Leeds] in the last year, never mind the last four. Through various conversations it appears that some folk still have these myths that the different cities in the North are competing on a culture level. This may be true on some cultural activities, such as sport, but what makes the North’s culture scene so special is the chance to work together, to offer a helping hand and for cultural collaboration. It is a lovely thing.

Photo: Alexander Bell

2) Forgive me please, and regardless of how much you engage with our programme, I think it has to be acknowledged how important the capital building and support for organisations like HOME and Islington Mill is. It is vital that the ecology is strengthened and there’s a variety of places of experience and debate for artists and audiences alike, and during a very tough time politically. It is also imperative that there are places for production and commissioning (and as many as possible) to make Manchester an attractive place for artistic endeavour.

that links us with The Skinny North. We were featured in issue 40 a couple of times. That festival is indeed Carefully Planned and it was so cool being a part of it. We played to a max cap audience at Soup Kitchen and the response blew us away. We’re now great friends with Matt Boycott Garnett [ACP’s founder and promoter] and that show gave us the opportunity to become part of the gang in Manchester.

Sounds From the Other City

2) Having been involved in numerous amazing cultural moments, from Beacons Festival in the field to Live at Leeds to the inaugural Leeds International Festival, the one that sticks out the most is Leeds Indie Food. From concept to running three years solid and being a true celebration of independent food and drink, it is the one that has had the most challenges and therefore the most rewards. Over 20,000 people have attended a range of its events, from dining experiences, popup restaurants, wine fairs, beer tours, exhibitions, talks and much more. It helps shine a light on an industry some take for granted and tries to encourage people to try something new. It is quite hard to comprehend the difference it has made to Leeds too, with other city events trying out similar ways of working. Alex Clifton Director of Storyhouse and best smile in Chester 1) The people. We’re all ace! 2) Seeing 350 school children open Storyhouse and transfer thousands of books from the old library to the new one was pretty extraordinary. But the rise of the Barnaby festival in Macclesfield has been an awesome highlight: its spirit of creative anarchy and community celebration is wonderful. They make street art, theatre, storytelling, dance, science, music, crafts all available on the streets, community centres and private homes of Macclesfield.

Photo:Debbie Ellis

Sarah Perks Irrepressible art impresario and HOME’s director of visual art 1) HOME had a visiting artist last weekend who said: “Wow, everyone around here has a personality!” I think this ties into our spirit, an attitude of ‘just get on with it’ and not being afraid to have fun or only talk in intellectual clichés!

Peaness

With the arrival of summer comes a sunny smattering of joie de vivre – carpe diem the hell out of yours with a season of al fresco cinema screenings, music festivals, carnivals, Pride festivals and more

While Edinburgh will always hold the title as the UK's comedy epicentre, Manchester's also bringing the LOLs with the none-too-shabby Greater Manchester Fringe throughout July. Phill Jupitus presents his fifth poetry show and Greek comedian George Zach ponders ugly babies, while Rosie Fleeshman explores internet dating in Narcissist in the Mirror. Until 31 Jul

Another batch of balmy summer's eves welcomes a new season of Chester's Moonlight Flicks, screening La La Land, When Harry Met Sally, Singin' in the Rain, Grease and other favourites en plein air in the stunning Roman Gardens. 4 Jul26 Aug, Roman Gardens, Chester, times vary, £8.50

Phill Jupitus

La La Land

Bluedot Set in the cosmic grounds of Cheshire's Jodrell Bank obsevatory, Bluedot festival returns after its triumphant debut last year. This time round the three-dayer welcomes headliners Alt-J, Orbital and Pixies, with other highlights including Goldfrapp, Flamingods, Dream Wife and Gallops, plus a projection-mapped artwork by Daito Manabe and a Not Quite Light photography workshop. 7-9 Jul, Jodrell Bank, Cheshire, times vary, £59-£159

Flamingods

Immerse yourself in the world of unique handmade books, stories and illustrations, notebooks, prints, book sculptures, bindings and more at Liverpool Book Art Fair, a family-friendly two-dayer that highlights the long history and craft behind artists' books. 8-9 Jul, Liverpool Central Library, Liverpool, 10am, free

Leeds Tattoo Expo

Liverpool Book Art Fair

Class of 1997

Starship Troopers

Ain't nothing more summery – nor more British – than a refreshing sip on an ice-cold gin, eh? Get yourself doing precisely that with Liverpool's Gin Festival, returning to Lutyen's Crypt for a summer edition of the much-loved piss-up. Tickets include your very own copa balloon glass, with a single measure of gin, garnish and a FeverTree mixer coming in at £5 a pop. 27-30 Jul, Metropolitan Cathedral, Liverpool, times vary, £9.50

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Kirkstall Festival

British Style Collective Taking place across four Liverpool venues, The Clothes Show presents a weekend-long British Style Collective 2017 takeover, with designer catwalks, live music, industry fashion talks, vintage fashion, celebrities, beauty experts, designer showrooms, offers and promotions, workshops and an Alcatel Fashion Arena show. Très fash. 7-9 Jul, various venues and times, Liverpool, 7-9 Jul, £29-£42

British Style Collective

Chefs of Tomorrow

Ah, 1997. The year Harry Potter came into the world... and the year that Biggie left it. But, more importantly, also the year that found Austin Powers, Gross Pointe Blank, Boogie Nights and Starship Troopers all working that box office. Some 20 years later, you can catch them on the big screen once again with RAD Film Screenings' Class of 1997 film night. 16 Jul, Gorilla, Manchester, 12pm, £4-£12

Gin Festival

Taking place in the pituresque gardens of Kirkstall Abbey, Kirkstall Festival is a community event for all ages run entirely by volunteers. Expect over 160 stalls, live music and a Battle of the Bands contest, comedy, food and drink, a fairground, a tea dance and much more. Entry's free, with an optional £2 fee for a programme. 8 Jul, Kirkstall Abbey, Leeds, 11am, free

Liverpool Book Art Fair

International Leeds Tattoo Expo The fourth International Leeds Tattoo Expo sees the convention move to a new venue, set to house 160 top tattoo artists along with a market of boutique traders, live music and entertainment. See if any of your favourite artists will be there by browsing the full roster at leedstattooexpo. com/artists. 8-9 Jul, First Direct Arena, Leeds, times vary, £12-£24

Photo: Stuart Moulding

Kirkstall Festival

Credit: flickr.com/sicliff

Compiled by: Jess Hardiman

Chefs of Tomorrow is an initiative from The TMRW Project that showcases the talent of young chefs, and this month will foreground the work of four yet-to-be-announced Yorkshire chefs. A good chance to catch rising names at a decent price, with four courses and a welcome drink included in the cost of your ticket. 17 Jul, Le Cochon Aveugle, York, 6pm and 8pm, £35

Chefs of Tomorrow

Manchester Jazz Festival

Along with a Jazz on Film cinema programme at HOME and 11 free gigs in 11 hours from Northern artists in partnership with Jazz North, other Manchester Jazz Festival highlights include Andy Semickis Brown's Cottonopolis, an immersive jazz, video and dancemusic experience exploring Manchester's industrial past and dance music scene. 28 Jul-6 Aug, various venues, times and prices, Manchester

JULY

Andy Semickis Brown

THE SKINNY

Photo: Jo Mair

Heads Up

Moonlight Flicks

Greater Manchester Fringe

Taking over HOME, the Royal Exchange Theatre, Contact, The Lowry and the Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama, international festival of new theatre Flare Festival presents work from the UK and across Europe from companies including Dead Pig, Tin Can People and Nineties Productions. Browse what's on at flarefestival.com. 4-8 Jul, various venues, times and prices, Manchester

Flare Festival

Manifest Arts Festival

Liverpool Arab Arts

With over 30 events, 250 artists and ten open studios, the artist-curated biennial festival Manifest Arts Festival returns to shine a light on the Northwest's contemporary art scene. Catch a series of quick-fire presentations at Manifest Calling, take part in a Japanese floral art workshop, or simply have a nosy behind the scenes at some of the region's best studios. 8-9 Jul, various venues, times and prices, Manchester, Salford and Bolton

Showcasing contemporary and traditional Arab arts and culture, the Liverpool Arab Arts festival once again promises a packed programme of visual art, music, dance, film, theatre and literature. 2017 sees events centred on the theme of 'Summer of Love', with Wafaa Bilal’s 168:01 at FACT, dance piece Sacre Printemps at Open Eye and a family day at Sefton Park Palm House. 8-16 Jul, various venues, prices and times, Liverpool

Manifest Arts Festival

Liverpool Arab Arts

Cocoon in the Park

Silicon Dreams

Party it up in the park with Sven Väth, Adam Beyer, Joseph Capriati, Richy Ahmed, Alex & Digby, Annie Errez and Bobby O'Donnell, as Temple Newsam plays host to Cocoon in the Park for a day out dancing in the sticks. And if you've still got some juice left, you can head down to Mint Warehouse for the afterparty. 8 Jul, Temple Newsam, Leeds, 10am, £60

If you prefer your summer festivals a little more intimate, check out festival of electronica Silicon Dreams at the Phil's Music Room space, with Parralox, Avec Sans, Future Perfect, Berlyn Trilogy, Caroline McLavy and Voi Vang, plus DJs from the Pink Parrot and AnalogueTrash. Liverpool Philharmonic Music Room, Liverpool, 8 Jul, 6pm, £21.50

Silicon Dreams

Sven Väth

Central Manchester Vegan Fair

LightNight Liverpool

Credit: Andy Mckeown. Photo: Walker Photography

Crystal Fights, Kelis, Sleaford Mods, Trentemoller, Toots and the Maytals, Romare, Faithless, Milky Chance, Lee 'Scratch' Perry, David Rodigan, Jackmaster, The Sugarhill Gang, Jon Hopkins, Let's Eat Grandma, Henge and OH so much more on the cards for Beat-Herder this year. Get on it, kids! 14-16 Jul, Ribble Valley, Lancashire, £150

Join Great British Bake Off winner Candice Brown, 2016 MasterChef winner Jane Devonshire, ex-Corrie star Sean Wilson and others at Tatton Park's Foodies Festival, which packs one (hopefully) sunny July weekend with chef demos, live music, street food, an artisan producers' market, cider and Pimms, kids' cookery classes, a healthy living zone and more. 14-16 Jul, Tatton Park, Cheshire, 11am, £8-£20

Tramlines

Candice Brown - Foodies Festival

Intrigued by the increasingly popular vegan life? Go and find some plantbased, animal-friendly inspo from the Central Manchester Vegan Fair, with 30 stalls, a cafe and film screenings including From Farm to Fork and Hillside Animal Sanctuary DVDs, featuring their undercover filming at farms. 15 Jul, Cross Street Chapel, Manchester, 10am, £TBC

Indika

Liverpool International Music Festival

Sprawling across venues throughout Sheffield's city centre, along with The Folk Forest stage out in a forest glade in Endcliffe Park, at this summer's Tramlines bash you can catch The Libertines, Metronomy, Primal Scream, All Saints, Kano, The Coral, The Pharcyde, Loyle Carner, Twin Atlantic and more. 21-23 Jul, various venues, times and prices, Sheffield

Metronomy

LIMF celebrates its fifth anniversary this year with five specially-commissioned projects tying into the theme of 'Remember the Times' – Good Times with Norman Jay MBE, Garage Classical with DJ Spoony, Circus Year One with Yousef, Reminisce: 90s R&B with Trevor Nelson and No Sleep with Stretch Armstrong – and, of course, the focal LIMF Summer Jam with Gorgon City and others. 20-23 Jul, various venues, times and prices, Liverpool

Festwich

MCM Comic Con

The UK's biggest free tribute festival and Prestwich's flagship summer event Festwich enters its sixth year, this time with the likes of Antarctic Monkeys, Slipknowt, The Killerz, Mentallica, Kings Ov Leon, Pearl Scam, Happy Mondaze, Motorheadache and other such puntasically-named acts. 29-30 Jul, St Mary's Park, Prestwich, 11am, free

Don your Wonder Woman hotpants, Star Trek ray gun and finest steampunk accessories, as the wonderfully eclectic experience that is MCM Comic Con rolls into town with dealer stalls, celebrities and special guests, comics, a games expo, talks, presentations, costume repairs and so much more. 29-30 Jul, Manchester Central, Manchester, times vary, £11-£24

Illustration: Lucy Letherland

Foodies Festival

Beat-Herder

Indika is Europe's largest festival celebrating the very best in classical Indian music and dance, returning to Liverpool's Capstone Theatre this summer for a week of morning raga sessions, late night candlelit concerts, workshops, lectures and dance performances from the likes of Tarang, Pandit Tarun Bhattacharya and Abhishek Raghuram. 21-28 Jul, The Capstone, Liverpool, times and prices vary

Norman Jay MBE

MCM Comic Con

July/August 2017

JULY

Chat

Photo: Simon King

Flare Festival

Hope & Glory Festival

From the team behind Audio Farm comes One Tribe festival, a five-day experience with 24-hour music and a strong holistic core, with all profits going towards Green Paw Project. Bringing together 25 collectives across themed open air and forest stages, the bill features Detroit techno pioneer Juan Atkins among many, many others. 3-8 Aug, Cholmondeley Castle, Cheshire, times vary, £50-£145

Embracing the Victorian backdrop of Liverpool's St George's Quarter, Hope & Glory is a music festival boasting live music, sideshows, comedy and the weird and wonderful atmosphere of a Victoriana carnival, with a line-up of James, Hacienda Classical, Ocean Colour Scene, Razorlight, Public Service Broadcasting, Charlotte Church's Late Night Pop Dungeon and more. 5-6 Aug, various venues, Liverpool, 12pm, £89

One Tribe

One Tribe Festival

Rochdale Feel Good Festival

Mini festival Scene Better Days takes over Wharf Chambers for two days of live music, stalls and food, with post-punk locals (and firm Skinny favourites) Cowtown, Durhambased Onsind, DIY feminist vegan band Colour Me Wednesday, Glasgow's Kimberley Steaks, German punk/indie group The Deadnotes and riot grrrl lot Fight Rosa Fight just a snippet of what to expect. 1112 Aug, Wharf Chambers, Leeds, times vary, £9

Razorlight headline this year's free-entry Rochdale Feel Good Festival, which will also welcome Manc 11-piece Baked a La Ska, Inspiral Carpets tribute act The Karpets, Cheshire quartet Pacific, rising glam-soul/ post-funk outfit The Bright Black, Ethio-trad folk group Honeyfeet and others, along with a dedicated food court and market stalls. 11-12 Aug, various venues, Rochdale, 10am, free

Cowtown

Manchester Caribbean Carnival

More and more of you leisure-loving millennials are getting green-fingered these days, so why not go seek some botanical inspiration for that balcony windowbox of yours at the Southport Flower Show? There'll be some rad sand sculptures and a bee marquee too, if that sways ya. 17-20 Aug, Victoria Park, Southport, times vary, £19-£24 Manchester Caribbean Carnival

Southport Flower Show

Leeds Festival Get yr gnarliest rock horns out for Leeds' long-running summertime bash, Leeds Festival, this time with the likes of Kasabian, Muse, Liam Gallagher, Bastille, HAIM, Blossoms, You Me At Six and, bizarrely, Eminem, plus comedy from Simon Amstell, Jonathan Pie, Tape Face, Katherine Ryan and others. 25-27 Aug, Bramham Park, Leeds, times vary, £72-£205

Gilles Peterson

HAIM

Folk on the Dock

This Must be the Place is back for a second year, bringing a bevy of live acts like Alvvays, Parquet Courts, Beach Fossils, Ulrika Spacek, Cowtown, Menace Beach and Drahla to Belgrave Music Hall and Headrow House across the August bank holiday weekend. 26-27 Aug, various venues, Leeds, 2pm, £20-£35

Combining Liverpool's rich maritime heritage with its equally iconic musical history, Folk on the Dock is an acoustic and roots music festival set in the Albert Dock area, where you'll find everything from sea shanties through to folk rock from former The Coral guitarist Lee Southall, Anglo-Americana trio Wildwood Kin and more. 26-28 Aug, Albert Dock, Liverpool, times and prices vary

Parquet Courts

Chat

AUGUST

Photo: Stuart Moulding

This Must be the Place

Photo: Andrew AB

Southport Flower Show

Moovin Festival

Just a short drive from central Manchester, you'll find the eco-friendly haven of Whitebottom Farm – home to Moovin Festival, an eclectic weekend with appearances from Roy Ayers (he behind summer classic Everybody Loves the Sunshine), Black Grape, Roni Size, Gilles Peterson, Mr Scruff, Crazy P and Greg Wilson. Whitebottom Farm, Stockport, 25-27 Aug, times vary, £15-£75

The Bright Black

Lee Southall

THE SKINNY

Photo: Beth Chalmers

Once again Alexandra Park becomes a colourful melting pot of culture, music and good vibes as Manchester Caribbean Carnival rolls in for another weekend of sunny sounds, steel drums, spicy jerk chicken and the famous parade. Carry on after to Gorilla, where there's a Soca Madhouse afterparty running through 'til 5am. 12-13 Aug, Alexandra Park, Manchester, parade starts 1pm, free

Photo: C Faruolo

Scene Better Days Fest

Public Service Broadcasting

Photo: Dan Kendall

One Tribe

Leeds Pride Yorkshire's biggest celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans life, Leeds Pride will be getting August off to a colourful start. The main event takes place on 6 Aug and features a parade, over eight hours of free entertainment, a marketplace, funfair and more, though you'll also find lots during the week beforehand including Leeds Queer Film Festival and a panel discussion on LGBT families. 6 Aug, various venues, Leeds, 12pm, free

The Tetley

Cotton Clouds Festival

A three-day festival celebrating some of the region's many artists, makers and creatives while also marking 50 years since the Summer of Love, Artisans at St George's Hall kicks off with an artisanal night market on 11 Aug, before Saturday and Sunday embrace the theme with a family-friendly festival vibe. 11-13 Aug, St George's Hall, Liverpool, times vary, £2.50

Set against the picturesque vista of the Peak District National Park, brand new Saddleworth festival Cotton Clouds lurches in with sky-high ambitions, with The Coral, The Sugarhill Gang, The Whip and PINS all on the inaugural bill – along with a dedicated programme of rising talent such as Stillia, Hello Operator, The Sundowners, Proletariat and more. 12 Aug, Saddleworth Cricket Club, Oldham, 12pm, £39

PINS

Gin Festival

From its humble beginings back in the late 60s to becoming Europe's longest-running Caribbean carnival parade, this year marks 50 years of Leeds West Indian Carnival, celebrating the milestone with their biggest event yet. The core carnival day will take place on the bank holiday Monday (the parade leaves from Potternewton Park), but head to leedscarnival.co.uk to see what's programmed around that. 28 Aug, various venues, times and prices, Leeds

Manchester Tequila Festival

Without doubt one of Manchester's summer highlights, Manchester Pride is a celebration of the city's truly thriving LGBT scene, with the festival's flagship event, The Big Weekend, renowned for drawing in the crowds. This year will feature a parade and candlelit vigil, with performances from Clean Bandit, Melanie C and a Faithless DJ set. 25-28 Aug, various venues, times and prices, Manchester

Melanie C

July/August 2017

What better way tequila bit of time than by sampling everyone's favourite party drink? At the Manchester Tequila Festival there'll be over 30 different tequilas to try, along with cocktails, live music, DJs, tacos, fajitas, processions and pinatas. You'll also get a complimentary shot and a tequila bible with your ticket, making sure you're off to a good start. 26 Aug, Bowlers Exhibition Centre, Manchester, 1pm, £16

Manchester Tequila Festival

Left Bank Opera Festival

The Garden Party: Part 3 The Garden Party series culminates with a final bank holiday party at the Fav with headliner The Black Madonna, who also played at the event's 10th birthday bash back in 2015. Also on the cards for this year's last installment? Heidi, Ross From Friends, On Rotation and Love Muscle, plus residents Matt Long and Grainger. 27 Aug, The Faversham, Leeds, 1pm, £20-30

Photo: Marlene Marino

Manchester Pride

Leeds West Indian Carnival

Photo: Keith Pattison

Gin Festival

Credit: flickr.com/cyclonebill

After Liverpool gets its gin thirst quenched in July, it's Manchester's turn to welcome a Gin Festival. And a big one at that, being housed in the cavernous Victoria Warehouse for a day of trade stands, talks and presentations, cocktail demos, live entertainment and an indoor garden party atmosphere, with the afternoon slot running 125pm and the evening slot 6-11pm. 19 Aug, Victoria Warehouse, Manchester, , £13.50

Leeds West Indian Carnival

Credit: flickr.com/igracek-efko

St George's Hall

Photo: Ant Clausen

Artisans at St George’s Hall

Leeds Pride

The Garden party

Thought opera was just for toffs? Nope! Northern Opera Group presents a threeday opera festival that celebrates the art of the Great British opera – and, performed in a beautiful but relaxed setting, it couldn't be more accessible. The inaugural Left Bank Opera Festival will feature Alfred by Thomas Arne and Albert Herring by Benjamin Britten, all housed within the splendour of Left Bank Leeds. 2931 Aug, Left Bank, Leeds, times vary, £17.50-£30

AUGUST

Left Bank Opera Festival

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Photo: Yolanda De Vries

The Tetley's annual micro festival, the Tetley Weekender, combines art, sculpture, music, food, drink and family activities, this time also going in strong with a strand of performance pieces from artists hailing from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and the UK – the weekender itself will be a culmination of their work during the week, with an accompanying series of talks and open workshops. 5-6 Aug, The Tetley, Leeds, 10am, free

Photo: Mat Hay

Tetley Weekender

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Cultural Highlights

Portraying a Nation: Germany 1919-1933

Liverpool Philharmonic Hall Autumn/Winter season

Exploring one of European history’s most poignant examples of radical extremes and political and economic upheaval – which will no doubt resonate now more than ever – Portraying a Nation: Germany 1919-1933 takes visitors on a journey through Germany’s Weimar Republic, when the country introduced democratic rule in the aftermath of WWI. At a time where hedonistic cabaret culture, greed and seedy glamour sat alongside intense poverty and violent civilian rebellions, the period saw an increase in experimentation across the visual arts, with artists becoming more and more concerned with representing the tumultuous extremes of society that befell Germany in the wake of the new democratic state.

Liverpool’s flagship concert venue has unveiled a world-class autumn/winter season that’s as bold and captivating as the stunning Art Deco building itself, spanning music, comedy and film from artists hailing from across the globe. September kicks off with The Magnetic Fields (3 & 4 Sep, 8pm), a spectacular staging of songwriter Stephin Merritt’s new album 50 Song Memoir, before All or Nothing: The Mod Musical (8, 9 & 10 Sep, 7.30pm) celebrates the unique sound of the iconic Mod band, The Small Faces. Mike Oldfield’s classic album Tubular Bells gets given the live treatment by 28-piece brass band Tubular Brass (23 Sep, 7.30pm), performing a new score by acclaimed composer, conductor and arranger Sandy Smith.

Among these figures were painter Otto Dix (1891–1969) and photographer August Sander (1876–1964), whose work will be exhibited together for the first time at Tate Liverpool this summer. With over 300 paintings, drawings, prints and photographs, the exhibition showcases Dix’s harshly realistic depictions of German society and the brutality of war, alongside Sander’s photographic series documenting the German people. Tate Liverpool, 23 Jun-15 Oct 2017, £12 (£10 concessions; Under 25s go free every Monday in August)

Museum of Science and Industry: Power Up! Big kids, assemble! This summer, the Museum of Science and Industry’s popular interactive gaming event Power Up! is back for another celebration of cult video games from across the decades. From Pong and Pacman to Minecraft and Mario, you’ll find nostalgia among the classic games that your childhood used to revolve around, while also discovering new favourites that might have passed you by over the years. With over 160 consoles to unleash your skills on and an eclectic stock of hundreds of games from the past 40 years, you can either go for a full day pass for a straight-up gaming binge, or drop by for a 90-minute session – which at £5 won’t set you back much more than the cost of a pint.

On 18 and 25 Aug there are also adult-only evening sessions between 7pm and 10pm, serving up an alternative, retro night out after hours at MSI. Power Up! runs 11-28 August 2017, with daily 90-minute sessions at 10.15am, 12pm, 1.45pm and 3.30pm in addition to the adult-only evenings. Individual passes cost £5, £9 or £15 for 90-minute, half-day and full-day slots respectively, with family discounts also available

The Phil will also welcome returning visits from punk icon and activist Billy Bragg – whose Bridges Not Walls show (14 Nov, 7.30pm) will include many of the songs from across his 30+ year career alongside covers by some of his heroes and a batch of new songs about the state of the world – and fellow Phil favourite Kate Rusby, who’ll be back for the festive season, bringing her beautiful, emotive style to a special Christmas concert (9 Dec, 7.30pm). Head on over to liverpoolphil.com to have a browse of Liverpool Philharmonic’s full event listings, and to book tickets

Responding to a Rebel: Mark E. Smith Agent of Chaos Imperial War Museum North may be known for its special collections and thought-provoking exhibitions, but you’ll also find an intriguing series of one-off events – like Responding to a Rebel: Mark E. Smith Agent of Chaos this August. Part of Wyndham Lewis: Life, Art, War, an exhibition and events season about Britain’s original rebel artist, this exclusive performance sees Mark E. Smith draw on his experiences as the formidable frontman of seminal group The Fall to share his personal response to the work of Wyndham Lewis by leading a performance of speeches, poems and ramblings. Driven by roaring live percussion, cassette players and large-scale projections from IWM’s

archive, the evening will pair one of the art world’s most controversial figures, whose ideas, opinions, and personality enticed and repelled in equal measure, with a local hero that’s celebrated as much musically as he is for his sharp and ruthlessly forthright approach – all set in the dramatic Daniel Libeskind-designed IWM North. Imperial War Museum North, 2 Aug 2017, doors open 8pm, performance starts 9pm, £20; book now at iwm.org.uk/ WyndhamLewis

THE SKINNY

EV EN TS

Made in Manchester Friedrich Engels is coming home! Artist Phil Collins tells us why he’s dragged a Soviet-era statue of the Communist Manifesto co-author across Europe to be permanently installed in Manchester

erlin-based artist Phil Collins was born in Runcorn, but his outlook on politics and art was formed in Manchester. He moved to the city in the early 90s to study English and drama at Manchester University, and ended up working part-time as a cloakroom boy and pint-puller at the legendary Haçienda nightclub, where his eyes were opened to the power of pop. “I saw how pop culture could be a radical force for change,” the 46-year-old artist tells us. “Through acid house and the beginning of rave culture, it was something where you understood the propulsive nature of pop – it could literally change legal frameworks.” Collins is speaking to us by phone from an undisclosed location in Salford, where he’s working on his latest artwork, Ceremony, which will help bring down the curtain on this year’s Manchester International Festival. The artwork centres on another man, like Collins, whose life was significantly shaped by Manchester when he moved there in his early 20s: Friedrich Engels. The German writer and radical thinker came to the city as a 22-year-old in 1842 at the behest of his father, who felt the young Engels would find living and working in the world’s manufacturing epicentre to be a formative experience. Engels Sr. was bang on the money, although not in the way he had hoped. It’s reported that Engels Sr. thought a spell working in the management office of Weaste, the family’s cotton mill in Salford, would make his son reconsider some of his lefty opinions. It did quite the opposite. The city and its people helped radicalise Engels further, and inspired him to write his seminal chronicle The Condition of the Working Class in England, which was first published in 1845. Three years later he would co-author The Communist Manifesto with his friend Karl Marx. Engels is well known throughout Eastern Europe and Russia – “he’s such an icon people can draw him!” says Collins – but his legacy is less celebrated in the city that most inspired his philosophy on life. “That was part of the project,” says Collins. “More people should know that somebody changed the world from Weaste in Salford, which he oversaw for 19 years. That’s the basis of Under-

July/August 2017

while, is currently coming up with an anthem to inaugurate the statue. For Collins, who talks of his subject in the present tense throughout our chat, the Engels statue will feel right at home in the city. “The thing about Engels is that he was such a joyous figure,” says Collins. “He was a party animal, he loved a good time. He’s very Mancunian in lots of ways; he’s very much a German-born Manc.” The artist also reckons the statue will make a fine symbol for the city. “Engels embodies a lot of the great qualities of Manchester, I think. He is interested in the emancipation of the working classes, solidarity, and he’s loyal. He stood in the shadow of his best friend, Marx, throughout his life, and finishes the last two volumes of Capital from Marx’s notes but he never takes centre stage, which is something that is really admirable about him. He’s a really beautiful figure.” Ceremony takes place on 16 Jul as part of Manchester International Festival mif.co.uk/mif17-events/ceremony

Fatherland

Time: Arrivals and Departures

As part of the programming for Manchester International Festival, the Royal Exchange welcomes the world premiere of Fatherland, which uses words, music and movement to explore identity, nationality and masculinity. Created by Frantic Assembly’s Scott Graham, Karl Hyde from Underworld and playwright Simon Stephens, this bold and ambitious show is a deeply personal portrait of 21st-century England and contemporary fatherhood. 1-22 Jul, Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, times vary, £12-£39, mif.co.uk

Leeds Print Workshop has collaborated with printmakers at the Southwest School of Art in San Antonio, Texas, for an exhibition built around an international print exchange – where prints are sent to San Antonio, before a whole new set are sent back. The theme of the exchange is ‘Arrivals and Departures’, promising an eclectic range of printmaking techniques and concepts from the UK and across the pond. 7-21 Jul, 130 Vicar Lane, Leeds, free, leedsprintworkshop.org Coming Out: Sexuality, Gender and Identity

Coming Out: Sexuality, Gender and Identity

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Storyhouse’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream goes alfresco this summer, heading out into the open at Grosvenor Park’s open air theatre. Directed by Storyhouse’s Artistic Director Alex Clifton, Shakespeare’s cherished fantastical comedy becomes a carnival of colour and celebration – perfect timing for some summertime theatrics en plein air. 21 Jul-27 Aug, Storyhouse, Chester, times vary, £18.50-£45, grosvenorparkopenairtheatre.co.uk

after the author, and across Belarus, with no success, but he struck gold in the Ukraine. “There’s a decommunisation policy in place there since 2015, so you have to remove Soviet-era street names, statuary and motifs that identify with the Soviet Union, that’s by law. So I found our Engels in a tiny village near the Russian border. He was cut in half and hidden under two raffia bags.” Once procured, Collins took the bisected statue, which will be 3.5m tall and weigh three tonnes when reassembled, on a peripatetic trip across Europe. “It felt like a lifetime,” laughs Collins. “We took the statue on a flatbed truck through Kiev and Poland, and to some of his old haunts, including Berlin and Wuppertal, where he was born, on to Calais, Dover and round Manchester. It was great.” MIF will come to a close on 16 Jul with a ceremony to mark the installation of Engels in Tony Wilson Place, which will take the form of a live film scored by Mica Levi and Manchester electronic duo Demdike Stare. Gruff Rhys, mean-

Ceremony

Photo: Mark Carline

A Midsummer Night's Dream

standing Capital, because Engels takes those findings and delivers them to Marx, basically.” Another inspiration for the project was a short passage from Dave Haslam’s book Manchester, England. “There’s a bit in Dave’s book that talks about a woman called Christine Derbyshire,” explains Collins. “In the 1990s, as part of the Central Manchester Development Cooperation, she wanted to find a statue of Engels and bring him to Manchester, but she couldn’t find one.” Collins’ pitch to MIF was to complete Derbyshire’s proposal: find a Soviet-era statue of Engels, drive it across Europe via places close to Engels’ heart, and hold a ceremony to welcome him back to the heart of Manchester. Collins’ first problem in procuring a statue of Engels was that there were few monuments made of him on his own; he tends to be paired with his more celebrated co-author. “He’s pretty much always in the shadow of Marx, and that was also an inspiration for the project.” Collins’ search took him to Engels in Russia, the port city named

Interview: Jamie Dunn

Fatherland

Walker Art Gallery marks the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of male homosexual acts in England and Wales with Coming Out: Sexuality, Gender and Identity, featuring work by David Hockney, Steve McQueen, Linder, James Richards and Sarah Lucas, among others. Revealing hidden queer histories and institutional blind spots, it’ll no doubt serve as a timely reminder that we’ve still a long way to come… 28 Jul-5 Nov, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, free, liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker

ART / THEATRE

Screen Print, Kirstie Williams

Events Guide

Psychedelic Living As The Black Angels prepare to headline Liverpool Psych Fest in September, we speak to guitarist Christian Bland about their latest record Death Song and the merits of living the psychedelic life

Interview: Claire Francis

Sun O)))

the album] talks about kind of a different problem in life. Thinking back to the book 1984 by Orwell, how they spoke in doublespeak, that was kind of an idea for Death Song. The last song on the record is called Life Song because I wanted the entire album to end on a somewhat positive note. I mean, I don’t think that death’s negative, necessarily... if you reflect on death and you realise that it’s inevitable, then I think you’ll try to live life more fully.” Bland also confirms that taking a lengthy break in between the release of The Black Angels’ last record, 2013’s Indigo Meadow, and Death Song enabled the band to reinvigorate their songwriting process. “It allowed us to follow the song instead of us pushing the song along a path. I’ve always had this notion, that I like a lot of bands’ first albums the best. I can say that about Pink Floyd – Piper at the Gates of Dawn – and I prefer Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s first record. I think it’s hard to do what you did on first records, because that’s, you know, from the time that you’re born to the time that that record comes out, that’s your whole life up to that point. And then your next record comes out one or two years later, and

Events Guide

“ If you reflect on death and you realise that it’s inevitable, then I think you’ll try to live life more fully” Christian Bland

With The Black Angels’ upcoming headline show at Liverpool Psych Fest in mind, which Bland enthuses he’s “really excited” to be playing at – “my other band The Revelators got to play there in 2014,” he exclaims – the conversation turns to the ongoing global renaissance of psychedelic music.

“I think it’s the backlash against what’s going on [in the world],” Bland says of the genre’s popularity. “I mean, I think psychedelia is about breaking out of how we’re being programmed. And it’s people whose eyes are open, and their ears are hearing, and they’re aware of what’s going on. At the core of psychedelic music – not just psychedelic rock’n’roll – is that idea of deprogramming and getting away from what the media is forcing you to think about.” As for whether or not he takes a psychedelic approach to his own lifestyle, Bland sounds amused as he says: “I try to live by what we put in our album. On every album since [their 2008 release] Directions to See a Ghost we’ve had the quote that says ‘Question your preconceived notions, question authority, and seek alternative methods for surviving in this world.’” And with a laugh he concludes, “And I do believe that I’m doin’ that every day.” Death Song is out now via Partisan Records The Black Angels play Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia, 22-23 Sep theblackangels.com

Saul Williams

Holy Fuck

Although his debut album Amethyst Rock Star was released in 2001, American rapper, slam poet, writer and actor Saul Williams is as relevant as ever, with his criticism of Donald Trump and the war on terrorism appropriate subjects for discussion during these turbulent times. The outspoken artist will perform at Salford’s Islington Mill courtesy of the venue’s resident bookers Fat Out, with support coming from Manchester poet Michael O’Neill. 20 Jul, Islington Mill, 7.30pm, £13, @islingtonmill

After returning last May with Congrats, it seems time’s been kind to Canadian electronica band Holy Fuck, whose first album in six years proved their punk mentality had merely strengthened, thanks to a record that crammed “heart-racing, adrenaline-pumping club bangers into a blender” – according to our glowing four-star review at the time. If a white-knuckled ride into the bowels of electronica sounds up your street, as it does for us, then this one’s for you. 12 Aug, Belgrave Music Hall, Leeds, 8pm, £10, @Belgrave_Leeds

Pond

Sunn O))) Arguably the loudest live band on the planet, Seattle metal kings Sunn O))) have nearly 20 years of making music under their belt, their avant garde sound a heavy mix of noise rock, doom metal and drone. With seven studio albums to their name, they boast a rich back catalogue to showcase on a rare UK tour. As well as this Leeds date, you can catch them at MIF as part of the Mary Anne Hobbs-curated series Dark Matter a few days before on 15 Jul. 19 Jul, Leeds University Stylus, Leeds, 7pm, £22.50, @UniversityLeeds

it’s definitely not as much time [as went into] the first one!”

Photo: Matt Sav

s the guitarist and founding member of Austin psych-rock outfit The Black Angels, you would imagine that Christian Bland has had his fair share of psychedelic experiences. We ask him about his most mind-altering moment of this year so far, however, and the question has him stumped. “Of this year?” Bland responds. “Gosh… that’s a hard one. I’d really have to ponder that for a little bit.” After a few moments of musing, he finally replies, “the most psychedelic moment is probably when Trump took office,” adding with a laugh, “that was pretty mind-blowing!” The US election has also filtered into The Black Angels’ latest record, Death Song. Their sixth album was released in April and is being hailed by many critics as their finest effort to date. Bland explains that Trump’s campaign and last year’s election result wasn’t the initial motivation behind Death Song, but that it inevitably influenced the mood of the new album. “[It’s] probably the most political since Passover,” he affirms. “We were recording it during that process of the election, but we were writing it since 2014.” He continues, “So the election, that’s not necessarily where the lyrics and ideas came from, but I guess because of everything that was going on, when the record came out it’s easy to label it as that because of the situation going on in the world. Which I think is a cool thing, because it means that we were writing in kind of a timeless manner. That’s what we always try to do, and hope that in 2117 this record will still mean the same thing.” Much has also been made about the album title, Death Song, which completes the title of The Velvet Underground song – The Black Angel’s Death Song – from which the band took their name. Recounting the process of naming the record, Bland reveals that it actually materialised in a roundabout way. “That wasn’t going to be the original title [and it] didn’t dawn on me until I was in the middle of designing the record – I was working on the inside credits and our publishing company is called Death Song Publishing Company. And I thought, ‘well that’d be cool, The Black Angels – Death Song’, because you know, we’ve been together since 2004 yet still people ask, ‘where’d you get your name from?’” he laughs. “That question no longer needs to be asked! “But it means more than just The Black Angel’s Death Song for me,” he continues. “Each song [on

Pond

Saul Williams

Conceived by guitarist Nick Allbrook and drummer Jay Watson, two members of Tame Impala’s touring group, along with Joseph Orion and Jamie Terry, Aussie psychniks Pond are now onto their seventh studio album, The Weather. In celebration of its release earlier this year, they’ll be providing ample pre-Liverpool Psych Fest hype with a one-off Liverpool date this summer. 26 Aug, Invisible Wind Factory, Liverpool, 7pm, £15, @iwfactory

Music

Holy Fuck

THE SKINNY

Right On Time Ahead of their performance at Bluedot Festival, Shadowlark talk synths, haunted recording studios and starting out right

hose inaugural days of a new band are a heady time, and not least for Leeds-based Shadowlark, who’ve launched themselves with an impressive fervour. Comprised of Ellen Smith (vocals, synth, guitar), Chris Quick (bass and synth), and James Warrender (drums), the trio have gained a following for their 80s-synth-meets-modern-dayindie-pop. Already favoured by the likes of BBC Introducing and Live at Leeds, Shadowlark have also bagged slots at a string of high profile summer festivals including The Great Escape, Bluedot and Glastonbury. Although this sounds like a rise to success of meteoric proportions, the true story of Shadowlark has been bubbling under the surface for some time now. Having met while studying at Leeds College of Music over ten years ago, the threepiece have been part of numerous different bands both together and separately, covering ground within punk, indie, emo and folk. They started writing music together in their current guise about a year ago, carefully nurturing their sound until they felt it was time to share it with the world. So, now that the timing is right, just what

is it about them that has captured the attention of industry tastemakers? At the root of Shadowlark’s being is a sound that’s luscious, rich and synth-laden – and firstly we’re keen to find out what drives their fascination with 80s synths. “I’d been working on some songs and I just wasn’t really sure what to do with them,” explains Smith. “We were just sat in Chris’s bedroom messing around with old 80s Casio synths and got really into programming drums and trying lots of different sounds. “The synths sound kind of terrible if you don’t manipulate them in any way, but then we started putting them through guitar pedals and plug-ins on Pro Tools, which made them sound great. It was so experimental for us – it’s really the basis of our sound.” Warrender adds, “It was a bit of an accident in a way. We had one at first and it just sounded cool and then Chris started buying loads of them! When we first set out we were listening to things like Bat For Lashes and Lana Del Rey – records that we thought sounded lush and full and interesting, but where the vocal and melody were still king.”

Interview: Katharine Hartley

releasing something at the right time. In the past, we’ve received some good exposure for our bands, but it’s been far too early and we weren’t ready for it, and we weren’t capable of dealing with it. Getting your team around you in time is vital.”

In terms of their songwriting process, Smith often comes up with the initial idea for a song – lyrics and melody – which are then built upon. The process of who’s playing what is fairly fluid, leaving any artistic constraints at the door. “It’s nice to not be stuck on one instrument,” admits Quick. “Sometimes I’ll work on the bass part and Ellen will add ideas with synths – by the time we’re ready to record we often can’t remember who played what! It’s a really interesting process which keeps the songs evolving. There’s no egos over who’s playing which instrument, which is nice.” Shadowlark’s carefully crafted sound hasn’t gone unnoticed. For a band who haven’t played many live shows, the calibre of their appearances has been credible to say the least. One of their first gigs was at the industry-leading, metropolitan music festival Live at Leeds. Finding the right shows and impressive festival slots so early in your band’s career is no easy feat – so just what has been the secret behind Shadowlark’s success so far? “One of the most important lessons has been that timing is absolutely key,” Warrender explains. “Whether that’s turning up on time, or

“ It’s not like we had any conversations with the seven monks who are buried under the live room or anything” Chris Quick

Shadowlark have just finished a spate of recording at Vada Studios in Alcester – a residential studio based in a historic chapel founded in 1260. Building on material already recorded in their home sessions, the trio have been working at Vada with producer Dan Austin – an experience which they say has had an indelible impact. “It’s an inspiring place to be,” enthuses Smith, “and then working with Dan too – he really pushes us. We all work well together but the studio is an absolute bonus because it sounds fantastic, it’s a great place to be making music.” Quick goes on to tell us about the ethereal stories that come with a site of such historic stature – it’s based near an Iron Age fort where they found 250 bodies buried in the back garden, and the studio itself is haunted too – by a little girl apparently. Smith is swift to reassure us that it’s “nice haunted” – and it sounds as though the place is intriguing, full of other-worldly mystique, rather than bone-shakingly spooky. Quick concludes: “It’s not like we had any conversations with the seven monks who are buried under the live room or anything, they just left us alone. Perhaps they liked our sound.” Shadowlark play Bluedot Festival, Jodrell Bank Observatory, Cheshire, 7-8 Jul

Nas

After overcoming the hurdle of the difficult second album rather swiftly, by following up critically acclaimed debut Listen To Formation, Look For The Signs with this year’s Preservation, New Zealand folk singer Nadia Reid will tour what are already hailed as two sublime examples of deeply emotional lyricism. Comparisons to Joni Mitchell abound for the singer’s take on love, loss and self-discovery and she brings her rich vocals to Leeds’ Brudenell Social Club in August. 29 Aug, Brudenell Social Club, 7pm, £9, @HelloNadiaReid

When American hip-hop legend Nas tours the UK it feels like a great privilege. He follows concerts celebrating the 20th anniversary of his seminal Illmatic album with another string of European dates, this time to coincide with his much anticipated new LP, taking in several festivals on the Continent and a limited number of venues in the UK. He plays Liverpool’s Mountford Hall on 10 Jul and Leeds’ O2 Academy two days later – it wouldn’t even be indulgent to watch this uniquely gifted veteran of American rap twice. 10 Jul, Mountford Hall, Liverpool, 7pm, £35, @Nas

Main Source

King Ayisoba

Main Source Classic East Coast hip-hop heads Main Source are out celebrating 25 years since the release of their early 90s debut, Breaking Atoms – which also launched the career of rapper Nas (more on him in a bit). Another product of the golden age of hip hop, the group’s sound is jazz-influenced and dripping with sleek samples from classic soul tracks, making it the perfect positive-natured antidote to the world’s ongoing ills. 21 Aug, Sound Control, Manchester, 7pm, £15, @soundcontrolmcr

July/August 2017

King Ayisoba

Nadia Reid

Photo: Paul Bergen

Nadia Reid

Ghana’s King Ayisoba, aka Albert Apoozore, is a singer and kologo player, whose music blends traditional West African influences with hiplife – that’s the local fusion of hip-hop and highlife – and sharp-edged, gutteral vocals. And while he’s by no means a newcomer to the international circuit, it’s his newest album 1000 Can Die that’s thrusting him further into the limelight, with appearances from Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and even Nigerian afrobeat titan Orlando Julius. Another great booking from the Soup Kitchen stable. 3 Aug, Soup Kitchen, Manchester, 7.30pm, £7, @SoupKitchen_Mcr

Music

Nas

Events Guide

Photo: Colin Macdonald

facebook.com/shadowlarkmusic

Future Drops As their parties continue to sell out at record speed, we talk to Mvson about how they became the kings of Manchester nightlife

iorucci Made Me Hardcore, the 1999 Mark Leckey short film which cast a nostalgic gaze over 30 years of British clubbing, is itself a cultural artefact, and its continued celebration shows that nostalgia maintains its grip on club culture. It’s not surprising , then, that Manchester promoters Mvson’s sellout parties are a schooling in postmodernism. Case in point: their use of early noughties video game Vice City as a theme. The much-loved Grand Theft Auto release was itself a love letter to a bygone era – the 1980s. But as much as the Mvson brand buys into club culture’s obsession with looking back, the collective’s approach to producing events is a definite departure from the Manchester nightlife into which they launched five years ago. Breaking ranks with the received wisdom of their competitors, the three house and techno DJ/producers recently stopped booking big name headliners and their parties are more popular than ever.

Warehouse have become so popular that tickets are reselling for ten times their face value. “It’s become like a drop thing, you know like Palace and Supreme do,” explains Guedar. “We announce the date, we announce the time and if you get the ticket, you get the ticket. If you don’t, you don’t.” Having witnessed the collective negotiating with door staff to let their latecomer friends into their sold out event at the Grade II-listed London Road Fire Station, we know that Guedar isn’t exaggerating. Indeed, it was the trio’s ability to shift tickets that gifted them their first residency at iconic club Sankeys back in late 2012. “It was that time that you might not even get in, so to then do a night there and play there was just like a shock,” recalls Guedar. “And then ‘cause we smashed it over Christmas they were like, 'Do you want to take the venue off us?' But we obviously didn’t know about finance.” “We lost a lot of money at this time,” Suarez confirms. “Blair was studying business and economics,” Guedar adds. Turning to Suarez, he continues, laughing, “You should have stepped in and really told us.”

“ We announce the date, we announce the time and if you get the ticket, you get the ticket. If you don’t, you don’t”

Interview: Kamila Rymajdo Their bad fortune didn’t last long. As a residency at Hidden proved fruitful, in that the trio expanded their knowledge of music. “It developed us as artists as we were playing with artists that we didn’t really know about,” Guedar recalls. Suarez continues, “Hidden was a bit of an education for us. We did a show with Dungeon Meat – we had 400 people on one floor watching us, and about six people on the other floor watching the act. That was the real point where we thought, let’s maybe focus on a different side of it.” With each event, their themes are getting more inventive and the production values ever higher. Their last party, an ode to carnival culture called Favela City, featured dancers and street food stalls. “We put the effort in but the sickest thing is everybody else puts the effort in as well,” Guedar explains. “When you go to parties nowadays, a lot of parties, they’ll book an artist and they think this artist is going to run the party but it shouldn’t really be like that. You as a promoter should project your image and passion and art into the party so everybody can see what you’re thinking.” Along with third member Mase Milo, the

collective’s next move is to set up their own record label. The reception their music is getting at the parties is giving them the confidence to do so even though Guedar says “[their] sound isn’t really mainstream in the UK.” But their bass-like French rolling house has been embraced both by the Manc crowd and artists the trio respect. “When we got the feedback sheet, we had guys that we look up to like Richie Hawtin and Joseph Capriati playing our stuff.” Given how successful they’ve become, we’re surprised by how unfazed they seem. “Until we just sat here and said it I don’t think I realised it was such a big thing that we sell out in two days, ‘cause we’re always just doing it and having fun,” Suarez tells us. “It’s not like work, it’s just natural day-to-day life. We’ve not really been out of the circle to sit back and think we’re actually doing really well. Instead we’re thinking of the next one.” It seems their commitment to looking to the future, rather than the past, has been pivotal to Mvson’s success, and long may it continue. Mvson play Mantra Warehouse, Manchester, 29 Jul facebook.com/masoncollective

Omar Guedar

“We were encountering a problem in that we were spending thousands of pounds on booking an act and we’d warm up and everybody would be screaming and jumping up and down and then this act would come on and everyone would just be like, ‘when are you guys playing again?’” explains Blair Suarez. He’s joined in their manager’s Salford office by Omar Guedar, where we’re talking to them about their approach to promoting: “People will come to your party because it’s a good party,” Guedar adds, “not because this guy that you’ve just paid five grand for is going to be there.” Mvson’s events at 1000-capacity Mantra

Lost Control presents 12 Hours of Rave

Percolate presents DJ Koze

After moving around several Manchester spaces, technoloving rave Lost Control has finally found a permanent home at Salford’s The White Hotel, fast becoming the go-to venue for the city’s underground promoters. An event that favours more leftfield selectors and analogue artists, and where literally anything can happen, its annual 12-hour party will see DJs of similar sensibilities come together – with record label Tusk Wax’s main man Tusk and organiser of London cult party World Unknown Joe Hart just the beginning of the stellar line-up. 26 Aug, The White Hotel, Salford, 7pm, £10

London, Manchester and now Liverpool: Percolate is a four year old party offering the best in house and techno across carefully selected venues creating the biggest vibes. With a sellout debut show at Liverpool Underground back in April, they follow up by bringing Freeze Liverpool favourite DJ Koze back to the city for their second outing at the new clubbing space. 28 Jul, Underground Liverpool, Liverpool, 10pm, £14, @percolate_music Hidden Loft Helena Hauff

Hidden Loft Opening Party

The White Hotel

Events Guide

Photo: Lucy Blackledge

Dimensions Festival International Series: Helena Hauff The annual electronic music festival, which takes place in Croatia’s Fort Punta Christo at the tail-end of the summer, spends the months leading up to the big event spreading the Dimensions atmosphere through clubs around the world via its International Series. This year Leeds’ underground music-pushing Wire club sees Hamburg-hailing electro queen and late night BBC1 DJ Helena Hauff represent ahead of her festival performance. 15 Jul, Wire, Leeds, 11pm, £6/£8/£10, @wireleeds

CLUBS

DJ Koze

The determination to make Salford club Hidden the best it can be has been proven time and again by owners who are as passionate about their bookings as they are about their bespoke Void soundsystems. They continue by lovingly restoring the actual bricks and mortar of the building, now redeveloping the loft so it can be used for artist studios. But first up: a limited run of day and night parties as the upper space goes through the final phase of the warehouse’s impressive transformation, launching in early July just in time for summer. 8 Jul, Hidden, Salford, 4pm, £5/£8, @HiddenClubMCR

THE SKINNY

July/August 2017

Events Guide

Spotlight: Jade Fearnley Here at Spotlight we have a rep for providing a platform for some of the most exciting and unique acts in the North. We’ve rarely shone a torch on improv, however, and we should – Manchester has its own booming scene, and Jade Fearnley is at its heart Interview: Edy Hurst

his month’s Spotlight, Jade Fearnley, is a stand-up and improviser, head honcho of murder mystery night Murder Inc. and member of Frog and Bucket resident group the Discount Comedy Checkout. Influences? “To name but a few – Monty Python, Victoria Wood, Richard Pryor, Tina Fey, and most of all Sly Stallone.” First gig? “Short form improv, Meadow Bar at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival 08. I wasn’t doing stand-up yet and I don’t remember being nearly as scared when I eventually did do it. The show is a blur, but I remember just buzzing afterwards because I did a distinctly adequate job. Not bad for a first go!” Proudest gig? “Murder Inc. shows keep me consistently satisfied, but the most proud I’ve ever been was last year. We’d only been going for, say, six steady months and we suddenly had 70 people turn up for our Valentines special. That’s a big squish in the upstairs room at the Ape and Apple, and myself and Kate McCabe (co-manager) were quite taken aback. Getting an audience is obviously the agenda with every show, but an audience of this many on a Thursday night for Improv comedy? Amazing. “Now we sell out so often we have added an extra show each month at the venue. While off the back of the Valentine’s experience, we started a ticket link with an audience cap as to not break fire regulations! I can see the headlines now: ‘People Die in Murder Mystery.’” Hardest gig? “This is difficult because I am the ultimate optimist, so after every tough gig I have, I give myself a pep talk: ‘Don’t worry, they won’t remember you for it; your glasses covered some of your face. Just do better next time and stop eating like this while you’re in public.’ “Endurance-wise, I recently wore a full on furry puppet suit to do Jack Evans’ Control Panel show as his resident alien. Hot and hard work, but fun at any Fahrenheit.” What would you be doing if you weren’t doing stand-up? “Improv, and if I couldn’t do that I’d probably be trying to get a singing career off the ground. I’m destined to show off.” What’s the largest animal you think you could beat in a fight? No weapons. “Being scared of large animals – and of heights

Events Guide

– the thought of having to get high up enough to chin a giraffe makes me wince.” Favourite words? “‘Nincompoop’ has come back to me after many years and I’m enjoying it.” If you had to live in any other period of time, what would it be and why? “Without a doubt the 60s. Purely to be part of the soul music movement in its moment of magic.” You’re accused of murder! What item do you take on the run? Oh, and did you do it? “A pair of Skechers for the blissful comfort they provide when moving fast. I’m taking the rap for someone else, but I’m very cross about it.” What/who would be your sidekick? “Beyoncé. Get her out of the limelight for a bit; she’s knackered, bless her.” If you were to be famous for anything other than comedy, what would it be? “I used to be a life model, so perhaps I’d be immortalised in a famous piece of art: Jade’s sweet ass, in charcoal.” What’re you up to right now? “Getting rid of a cold.” Weapon of choice: “When in a high-octane conflict, stop everything and start singing the end song from Bugsy Malone... ‘We could have been anything that we wanted to be...’ I haven’t tried it myself, so let me know how you get on.” Who was the hardest in your year, and could you take them now? “He was a blob-headed little toerag and if I saw him now I’d femme fatale him into a seduced stupor, break his heart and leave him. Only to wind up seeing him again when we are old and frail, spending our final days in the same retirement home. We have a wise and meaningful reconciliation that helps us end our time on this earth peacefully, and when we hold hands to cross over into the afterlife together, I tell him, ‘I’m ready.’ Then, he dies first and I keep kicking it for a couple of months. That’ll show him, the pillock.” The next Discount Comedy Checkout at The Frog and Bucket, Manchester is 20 Aug For more information on upcoming Murder Inc. The Improvised Murder Mystery nights, head to www.facebook. com/crimeinvestigationimprov Twitter: @jaderino, @murderincMCR, @comedycheckout

COMEDY

THE SKINNY

To ennui, or not to ennui As Sofia Coppola’s new film The Beguiled comes to the UK, we look back at the dreamy filmmaking of this smart, compassionate director

Words: Jamie Dunn

he films of Sofia Coppola are like long, hot, lazy afternoons. You want to drink them in, luxuriate in them. Coppola’s first feature, The Virgin Suicides, plays out in such heady summer afternoons, and Edward Lachman's sun bleached cinematography adds to this blissed-out aesthetic. As debuts go, it’s extraordinary. Her celebrated director father, Francis Ford, had six film efforts before he made his mark on Hollywood with The Godfather. On her first attempt, Coppola Jr hits the ground running with a dreamy and intoxicating sensibility that arrives fully formed. The Virgin Suicides centres on five wistful sisters, the Lisbons, who find themselves suffocated by their buttoned-up, evangelical upbringing in suburban Detroit in the 1970s. It’s a film about the unknowability of teenage girls as told from the point-of-view of teen boys in the neighbourhood who worship these young women from afar. On its release, one reviewer sharply observed that the film “doesn’t so much unfold as waft off the screen, leaving behind a vapor trail of swoony, mysterious sadness.” As a description of Coppola’s aesthetic, we can’t think of anything better. It might suggest a style that’s languorous, but Coppola’s keen ear for music and eye for sharp editing (Sarah Flack is usually manning the Steenbeck) keeps the energy up and scenes crisp. Like all Coppola films, The Virgin Suicides is funny, but there’s none of the smirks or ironic winks we get from her bro peers (say Wes Anderson or Noah Baumbach). Her films are earnest and swimming in ennui, and such is her camera’s empathy, you get the sense that the director is feeling every emotion her characters are going through. When Cecilia Lisbon, the youngest of the sisters, tries to commit suicide at the start of the film, her doctor says to her, quite unhelpfully, “What are you doing here, honey? You’re not even old enough to know how bad life gets.” “Obviously, doctor, you’ve never been a 13-year-old girl,” is her tart reply, and we know Coppola concurs. Disaffected teens living at a remove to reality are also the subject of Coppola’s zippiest film, The Bling Ring. It’s the woozy true-life tale about a group of LA teens who would burgle Hollywood mansions of the rich and famous. Other directors might have turned the film into a satire of millennials’ obsession with celebrity culture, and there are hints of that in the form of Emma Watson’s

TMZ-obsessed Nikki, a wannabe actor and the most cartoonish of the film’s valley girls. But such is Coppola’s innate compassion for teens in turmoil, she can’t bring herself to condemn their self-obsessed antics. “I realised that what they did really took some ingenuity,” she told the Guardian in 2013. “These young people actually figured out how to do this thing and they had the guts to go through with it. I don’t know if an adult would have figured that out.” Coppola’s compassion stretches from haute couture crims to an even less sympathetic section of society: the sad celebrity. In the mid-00s she created a trio of knockout films on the ‘fame is hell’ theme, starting with her most celebrated and personal work, Lost in Translation. It follows Bill Murray as a sad-sack movie star in Tokyo shooting a whisky commercial, who befriends a young woman (Scarlett Johansson) who’s similarly at a loose end in the city. The story was inspired by Coppola’s own miserable trip to Japan with her husband at the time, fellow filmmaker Spike Jonze.

Despite being set in the world of the bored and wealthy, Lost in Translation really struck a chord, and confirmed Coppola as a major talent. “When I was writing it, I thought, nobody’s going to want to hear about an affluent girl who can’t find herself,” Coppola told Time recently. “It’s the most unrelatable thing ever… It’s always very surprising that other people connect to things that you find very small and specific.” Coppola’s privileged upbringing as part of Hollywood royalty also gave her an interesting angle on her next subject: Marie Antoinette. Her vivid 2006 biopic ignores the politics of the French Revolution and concentrates instead on the parties and pomp of Versailles. It’s an unabashed celebration of the luxurious lifestyle of the young queen (played by Kirsten Dunst), but it also asks us to feel sympathy for this teen girl who was used as a bargaining chip between France and Austria. The French hated it on its premiere at Cannes, not least for Coppola’s flagrant historical inaccuracies and ironic use of music (Marie’s

parties are soundtracked by the likes of The Strokes, Adam and the Ants, and Air). Looking back, it’s clearly a candy-coloured riot and sees Coppola at her most playful. Her ‘fame is hell’ cycle rounds off in a more melancholy mood in her masterpiece Somewhere. Like Lost in Translation, it’s the story of a depressed actor (Stephen Dorff) finding solace in the company of a young woman, in this case his estranged daughter (Elle Fanning). Here Coppola swaps her trademark pop montages for long takes and enigmatic zooms that call to mind Michelangelo Antonioni – the master of movie alienation – but with none of the pretension. The result is her most heartfelt movie. Coppola may make films about the feckless and the dispossessed, but you’d be hard pressed to find a sharper, more emotionally astute filmmaker working in Hollywood. Coppola herself puts it best: “Making a movie about someone who’s cut off and out to lunch doesn’t make me out to lunch.” The Beguiled is released 14 Jul by Universal

Tribute to Jonathan Demme

Jean-Pierre Melville season

Cinema lost one of its most compassionate filmmakers back in April when Jonathan Demme passed away aged 73. FACT honour the director with a screening of Stop Making Sense, the brilliant concert film he made for Talking Heads. It’s a joyous celebration of creativity, beginning with David Byrne alone with a boombox singing Psycho Killer and ending with a stage brimming with performers. The film is infectious; you’ll struggle to stay in your seat. 10 Aug, FACT, Liverpool, 8.45pm, fact.co.uk

Between the poetic realists of Renoir and Carné and the new wave of Godard and Truffaut, French cinema was dominated by Jean-Pierre Melville. Throughout August and September, HOME are screening some of his classics from freshly restored prints. The full season hasn’t been announced at the time of going to print, but expect the exquisite cool of Bob le Flambeur, the nail-biting tension of Army of Shadows and the existential chill of hitman masterpiece Le Samouraï. Aug-Sep, HOME, Manchester, homemcr.org/event/melville-essays-existentalism

Vanishing Point David Sedaris

Road Movies Season Road movies are a gift to cinema. Not only do they offer up a sense of adventure, each comes with a built in metaphor for life, taking you on both a physical and metaphysical journey. HOME are showing an eclectic mix of them throughout July and August, from Dorothy’s yellow brick trek in The Wizard of Oz to the existential cool of Vanishing Point. Wim Wenders’ soulful Road Trilogy also screens in an unmissable triple-bill. HOME, Manchester, homemcr.org/event/road-movies

July/August 2017

David Sedaris, reading from his diaries

Stop Making Sense

David Sedaris has long mined his life for laughs, but with new book Theft by Finding he switches his crystalline prose for raw diary entries going back decades. “Publishing a first draft of something you wrote when you were drunk and 21 — it took some getting used to,” he said. If you ever listen to his Radio 4 show, however, you’ll know Sedaris’ diary entries are just as witty as his essays. 12 Jul, Waterstones, Leeds, 6.30pm, waterstones.com

FILM / BOOKS

Le Samouraï

Events Guide

THE SKINNY

LI Y LE

Words: Jess Hardiman Illustration: Alexis Jang

Time to face up to the meaty monomania and wasteful ways behind one of our most coveted summer pastimes

The Great British Ethical BBQ

h, the good ol’ English barbie. Come rain or shine, we’re ready with a jug of Pimm’s and a packet of two-for-one burgers ready to incinerate. But what does the whole set-up mean for our eco footprint, we, er, don’t hear you cry? Not only a sure-fire way of feeding into our fixation with bulk-bought cheap meat, your average BBQ is also a place where convenience presides over conscience – where empty beer bottles are bunged into a bin liner at the end of the night along with the chicken bones and plastic hummus pots that are destined for the landfill site. But it’s not hard to make better BBQ decisions, even when you’re half-cut, slightly sunburnt and high on burgers... DON’T eat so much meat Turns out you don’t need a burger, a hot dog, two chicken drumsticks, a half rack of ribs and a lamb kofta kebab to get you through an evening of drinking shit lager in the sun. Spend a little more on well-sourced, free-range meats and just cook them really fucking well – spatchcock a whole chicken or some shit; do it justice. The meat industry’s negative impact on the environment is no secret, and while we’re not suggesting you give it up altogether, just be realistic about how much you really need. DON’T eat so much dairy In much the same way many of us have tried to cut down on meat for ethical and environmental reasons without going full veggie, why not take a leaf out of the vegan diet and cut down on your dairy? It’s not like mayonnaise and Greek yoghurt are renowned for their ability to sit in the sun, after all... DO pad things out with homemade sides Pad out the spread with salads and sides – but don’t reach for the pre-made supermarket tackle, most of which not only tastes like total ass, but also comes boxed up in layer upon layer of unnecessary plastic packaging (which you probably won’t wash out and recycle afterwards). Ditch the crap coleslaw and go for the DIY approach: dress cooked green beans in mustard, oil and white wine vinegar; toss courgette ribbons in lemon zest, lemon juice and olive oil; slice up some beef tomatoes, drizzle with olive oil and scatter capers over the top; BBQ tenderstem broccoli and top with pumpkin seeds or toasted hazelnuts; stir some parsley, lemon and Dijon mustard through some cooked pearl barley; roast a whole cauliflower with harissa and cumin and top with toasted flaked almonds and pine nuts. All faster than you can say ‘3 for 2 mix and match on our entire summer range (Cheapest product free. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotion or offer).’ DO shop locally and seasonally In short, shop well – especially if you’re going to be cutting down on meat and dairy. What you do buy, make sure it’s the good shit. Favour locally sourced stuff to cut down on air miles, which also means going for seasonal produce like courgettes, beetroot, broad beans, tomatoes, watercress, green beans, lettuce, new potatoes, peas, radishes and more. DON’T use disposable cutlery Plastic forks are for fucking two year olds. Wooden knives very literally just doesn’t cut it. Stop being so lazy and just wash up the cutlery you have in your kitchen drawers, or ask to borrow your neighbour’s if you’re the kind of weirdo that only owns three forks. DON’T use disposable plates You’d think it’s all well and good using recyclable paper plates, but once they’ve been soiled with grease and bespattered with tomato ketchup, they’re actually no longer recyclable. Either stock up on some melamine crockery to reuse each time BBQ season rolls around, or, better still, just

July/August 2017

FOOD AND DRINK

clamber in to the recesses of your cupboards and pull out what you’ve got – the chipped, the slightly-too-small, the downright ugly. Literally no one gives a fuck if they don’t match. DO use fabric napkins Controversial, eh, ditching them paper napkins that everyone takes but rarely actually uses before chucking? Get all Pinterest about it and use some material – doesn’t have to be anything special – and tie it up with string or twine. Shove a sprig of rosemary in there too if you’re feeling especially fancy. Then, here’s the magic bit: bung them in the washing machine and use again! Radical. DO set up a recycling bin People are inherently lazy, so you need to make it as easy as physically possible for them to recycle. Rather than relying on a black bin liner slumped in the corner of the garden, set up a dedicated recycling bin (hell, label it if you have to), with a smaller bin for general waste to try and urge people not to throw stuff away.

What to drink No BBQ is complete without some good stuff to wash it down with, but you’d be a fool to betlittle that gorgeous, ethicallyconscious spread of yours with a box of stubbies and some warm sauvignon blanc. Fortified wine Y’whaaa? That’s right, it’s all about fortified wine in all its forms, whether it’s sherry, marsala, white port (yep, indeed) or vermouth, adding a touch of European flair to your drinks table. Dry sherry and olives before the BBQ starts? You continental maven, you! Vermouth and tonic as the sun sets? Classy AF. Iced Tea Homemade iced tea is simpler to make than you might think, and makes a good alternative for those not on the hard stuff. Make the tea by pouring boiling water over five or six tea bags, add two tablespoons of sugar (or more, or less, depending on your sweet tooth) and leave to cool. Pour into a large jug with cubed ice and stir well. You’re then free to pimp it up however you please, with lemon, mint, strawberries, orange, fresh ginger or whatever feels right. Summer in a sip, bro. Verdita WTF’s a verdita? Well, it’s something that’ll genuinely revolutionise the way you drink tequila. A refreshing, summery blend of pineapple juice, chilli, coriander and mint, this Mexican chaser will be the best party piece you’ll ever serve up. But let’s not fuck about: be sure to get the good tequila in, made with no less than 100% agave. Local drinks In the same way you’re urged to shop locally when it comes to meat, fruit and veg, why not apply the same ethos to your drinks? The North’s now full of its own rivals to international products, with Manchester Three Rivers, Forest Gin or Liverpool Gin holding up the botanical front, Leventhorpe and Ryedale vineyards proving Yorkshire’s also good with a grape or two, and local breweries like Northern Monk, Cloudwater, Magic Rock and Alphabet providing tastier tinnies (with much more lovingly-designed labelling, too) than your average six-pack of Buds.

Lifestyle

The Future of Food We speak to The TMRW Project's Dan Doherty, Anna Sulan Masing and Emma Underwood about the importance of fostering rising talent in the North, and the region's ever-evolving food and drink scene Interview: Jess Hardiman

stablished to provide a platform for young chefs to grow, develop and connect with each other and others in the industry, Chefs of Tomorrow is an initiative that was launched back in 2015 – part of The TMRW Project, a collaborative project founded by chef Dan Doherty and writer Anna Sulan Masing that encompasses industry talks, dinners, front of house events and more. Creating a multi-directional link between chefs, restaurants and guests, CoT works as a series of ticketed dinners where four local chefs at Chef de Partie level or below each cook one course of the meal, while being mentored throughout the process. According to Dan, the reason the particular format is so positive for rising chefs is that it works on many levels. “It’s non-competitive so you don’t inherit all of the bullshit that comes with competition – egos, testosterone, negativity – and focuses on giving these guys a day-in-thelife experience. It gets the chefs thinking, cooking and connecting some kind of emotion to their food. Equally important, they work together to connect these dishes to a coherent menu and cook it for paying customers.” “The chefs get to work with others at the same/similar level to themselves, they network, they see outside their own kitchen,” adds Anna. “It gives them a reason to work closely with the senior members in their own kitchen to work on developing a new dish, and they get to meet the people who eat their food, interact and see the response. They also have to be interviewed by us, and learn how to articulate what they think of their food, how they see themselves in relation to the rest of the industry.” Rising of the North In highlighting the fact that great talent can be found across the length and breadth of the UK, CoT also seeks to prove that the capital isn’t the only place to find a flourishing career in food and drink, and recently Dan and Anna enlisted the help of Emma Underwood, General Manager at hailed Stockport restaurant Where the Light Gets In, to help focus on the North. “We have a really flourishing scene up here that’s growing all the time,” Emma says. “There’s more of a move away now from looking to London

as the benchmark for restaurants and instead looking to and celebrating our own regional style – particularly up in the North West, where the restaurant empires of Gary Usher and Michael O’Hare are expanding all the time. The guests, also, are very engaged as diners; they have a lovely sense of pride and ownership when they see the Northern restaurants do well on a national scale.” Emma credits restaurants and chefs like Usher, Paul Askew in Liverpool, and Adam Reid at The French for actively working with colleges and young chefs.

Le Cochon Aveugle

“ People have a lovely sense of pride and ownership when they see the Northern restaurants do well on a national scale” Emma Underwood

“Michael O’Hare’s Head Chef at Rabbit in the Moon is only 21,” Emma points out. “Kieran Bellerby, who cooked at the Hispi Chefs of Tomorrow dinner, is also extremely talented and I have watched him master every section of the kitchen with such ease – he has a wonderful career in front of him. Here at Where The Light Gets In we’re also fortunate to have an incredible pastry chef, Emma Tillyer, who cooks with such wonderful heart and passion.” Chefs of Tomorrow at Le Cochon Aveugle Following an event at Hispi in Manchester earlier this year, the next Chefs of Tomorrow dinner sees the initative move to York’s Le Cochon Aveugle, a small 30-cover resturant serving a ‘blind’ dailychanging tasting menu.

“Finding exceptional produce is at the forefront of the restaurant’s ethos,” explains Head Chef and co-owner Josh Overington, “which means we create our menus not just from seasonal products, but from what is best to eat each individual day.” In terms of the food and hospitality industry, Josh believes that York is in a massive transitional phase. Primarily a university and tourism-based city, historically it has struggled with restaurants focusing on volume rather than quality, but now he feels the city has a rapidly improving dining scene to be proud of. “In the North of England, you will find restaurants that are easily as good, if not better than a lot of the London scene,” Josh says. “The style of

the restaurants here vary hugely, as they’re located in everything from big cities through to incredible rural locations – they are a great representation of the terroir.” And for the upcoming dinner at Le Cochon Aveugle, Josh reckons you can expect eclectic styles from the new generation of Yorkshirebased talent. “We’ll be having four chefs from local restaurants each cooking a dish of their own during the menu, and each cooking in their own individual style. I’m looking forward to seeing what they will bring to the table – literally!” Chefs of Tomorrow takes place at Le Cochon Aveugle in York, Mon 17 Jul, 6pm & 8pm sittings, £35 per person chefsoftomorrow.co.uk

New in Food: Baltic Market, Fress & more Words: Jess Hardiman More for Cains Brewery in Liverpool Independent Liverpool’s long-awaited new project, the Baltic Market has finally taken flight at the Cains Brewery complex, where regularly-rotating food traders, a bar, live music, DJs, cinema screenings and more are given a home in an unintimidating, laid-back warehouse space. This not only reflects street food’s role in the prevalence of relaxed dining, but also our unappeasable need for exciting, multi-purpose venues. Open now, Cains Brewery, @BalticMarketLiv The old brewery has also just welcomed the arrival of two new spaces from gin haven The Botanical Garden, with huge drinking hall Dockleaf taking over Cains’ original quality control room and the intimate Kiosk – housed in what was

Lifestyle

once a security hut – serving seasonally-changing drinks and food menus for just 20 people. Open now, @DockleafBar Asian-inspired eats in Leeds Meanwile, over in Leeds the food and drink scene is looking to the East for inspiration, with the recent openings of Issho and Tattu – the former is D&D’s Japanese-inspired, 7,807 square-foot new venture, crowning the new Victoria Gate shopping centre with a restaurant and rooftop bar (open now, Victoria Gate); the latter a sultry contemporary Chinese restaurant joining its popular original sister site in Manchester’s Spinningfields district (open now, East Parade, @IsshoLDS / @TattuRestaurant).

Local coffee roasters North Star will launch their first ever retail location this month, ticking all the boxes with an on-site roastery, coffee shop, general store and dedicated coffee academy, bringing you lunch and a rotating weekend brunch menu alongside in-house bakes from the awardwinning Noisette Bakery. Opens 10 Jul, Leeds Dock, @NorthStarRoast Barrel-aged cocktails and modern Victoriana in Manchester Having been banging on about “an authentic taste of Ireland” for what’s felt like an epoch, King Street’s much-anticipated cocktail bar Roc and Rye finally opens its doors this July. Thankfully, it’s sounding worth the wait with a special on-site laboratory for in-house experiments and developments and

FOOD AND DRINK

a whiskey-centric menu, featuring signature barrelaged cocktail Lost at Sea, which combines Cooper’s Croze Jameson Whiskey, cherry and grapefruit shrub, cherry liqueur, smoky mezcal and sweet vermouth. Opens 7 Jul, King Street, @rocandrye A former Oldham Street newsagents has been transformed into Fress, which bills itself as a sophisticated yet relaxed modern Victorian-style restaurant and bar, kitted out with slick marble table tops and classic light fixtures. Named after the Yiddish word for eating like a pig, the independently-owned, 40-cover joint will be serving up seasonal food that harnesses continental and Middle Eastern influences, with head chef Sam Morgan (of the now-defunct vegetarian restaurant 1847) at the helm. Open now, Oldham Street, @FressRestaurant

THE SKINNY

Safe and Sound Bands like PWR BTTM and Cabbage capitalise on modern hunger for progressive icons and safe space – that’s why recent allegations of abuse and harassment are not only upsetting, they’re a betrayal of trust

ecently, two bands have disappointed – and disgusted – their fans. PWR BTTM, an American queer glam punk band, and Cabbage, a British indie-rock darling, are both under intense scrutiny after their lead singers have been accused of sexual misconduct. While celebrities abusing their status in this way is hardly a new phenomenon, these cases are particularly shocking because the public persona of each act was inextricably tied to ideas of social justice and safe spaces. These bands, and others like them, are part of a new wave which appeals to young, politically active people – often women, non-binary, and queer folk. The social justice demographic is a pool of money to be tapped into – something that many mainstream acts have often overlooked. It’s intoxicating to feel safe. I’m part of that demographic, and a few months ago, I went to see PWR BTTM in Glasgow. It was a jubilant gig, with all the hallmarks of a queer-as-heck night, from our furtively applying glitter on the train-ride over, to the newly applied gender-neutral bathroom stickers. These gigs were marketed as a safe(r) space; a place where we could be queer in harmony, without threat of violence. To that end, the band repeatedly reminded us not to mosh too hard, to make sure everyone around us was having a wonderful time. The songs appealed to both the glitz of gay life, and the pain and loneliness inflicted upon queer people by straight society. It was a glorious evening; one of those nights that leaves a taste in the mouth as sweet as butterscotch. That taste turned rancid a few weeks later, though, when allegations came to light that Ben Hopkins (one half of the PWR BTTM duo) had sexually abused and then harassed one or more of their fans. It started to feel as though all of PWR BTTM’s safe space bluster was part of the act. Similar stories are emerging about Cabbage, whose lead singer apparently has made aggressive sexual gestures and advances towards female

July/August 2017

fans part of his shtick – particularly disappointing from a band whose fanbase similarly adored their feminist-friendly, self-appointed ally status. Both bands deny reports of any sexual misdemeanours.

“Do right-wingers and safe space critics imagine that minorities grow up in cotton-wool, only meeting opposing views during freshers week?” These bands’ betrayals of their fanbase hurts so much because their followers have a desperate need for spaces where they can express themselves. In a world of straight, white, mediocre idols, we are desperate for heroes from our own communities who represent us – or claim to. I was definitely taken in – at that gig, I felt the sheer bliss that I imagine straight people feel most of the time. I finally felt accepted, in a place of my own. I can only wonder how the young girls at Cabbage gigs might have felt watching the performances of straight men they felt safe around, whose entire image was constructed around the premise ‘I’m not like those other guys, you can feel safe around me’. We’re eager for allies as well as emblems. We’re so often told that we need straight white men to defend us that it can be such a blessing and a relief to finally find men who seem harmless. It hurts all the more to find

out that this trust just gave them the opportunity to insidiously fuck you over at a later date. The safe space debate Debates rage in the press about university students’ demand for safe(r) spaces; aged left-wingers bemoan the transformation of radical young warriors into supposed weaklings, while fascists and their fans mock the ‘snowflake-ification’ of the millennial demographic. This is all pretty absurd, considering that the reaction of many Western right-wingers, when criticised for problematic behaviour, is to lash out and demand safe spaces of their own to spout bigotry freely. However, safe spaces aren’t just found on university campuses. While the name might sound new to an older generation especially, the basic rule of a safe space is the age-old etiquette of ‘just don’t be a dickhead’. A safe space is a place where people can be free to talk as themselves, without fear of reprimand or insult. The concept behind safe space is actually pretty normal to most people: you’d expect not to be laughed at when talking to your doctor about your warts, one hopes that your priest wouldn’t spit at you in the confessional booth, and your Alcoholics’ Anonymous meeting is unlikely to call you a faker who’s desperate for attention. Society is full of pockets of quiet, of trust, of safety. Without them we’d explode. Even so, the toxic response to any demand for a safe space is immediate and predictable: ‘You need to be confronted with other opinions, not coddled!’ Here’s the thing I don’t get: do right-wingers and safe space critics imagine that minorities grow up in cotton wool, only meeting opposing views during freshers week? The notion that oppressed folk are unfamiliar with the opinions of those opposed to our very existence is illogical. I learned that people are homophobic before I knew I was gay. If you think minorities don’t know about the way the world holds

DEVIANCE

Words: Toby Sharpe Illustration: Jacky Sheridan

contempt for us, you’re the ones with your eyes covered by a frosty lens of snowflakes. All we need to do is turn on the TV. Read the Daily Mail. Walk down the street alone at night and wonder if danger lurks. We are constantly reminded that the world isn’t safe for us. A safe space is brief respite, and when bands like PWR BTTM capitalise on this trust to make a buck, before abusing it to hurt us further, it gets all the more depressing. What’s the solution? Trust nobody? Fear all possible allies as fake? Close our hearts to hope? I think not – at least not totally. One of the things that’s wonderful about the queer community is that we hold ourselves to account rather better than our straight fellows. While Hollywood applauds accused abusers like Casey Affleck or Michael Fassbender, or Chris Brown inks yet another album deal, we got PWR BTTM ditched from their label pretty much immediately – although it seems like, with the help of lawyers, the band may still engender a renaissance. And while we’re pretty dope at pushing enemies off podiums, we’re also getting better at valorising good work: look at the successes of bands like MUNA, whose music combines radical vulnerability with blazing calls for love and dance, of singers like Mitski who appeal for a gentler, wiser way to make music and listen to it, or movements to make gigs better for women, or festivals a generally safer environment for staff, singers, and guests. The focus of our efforts shouldn’t be on building heroes or idols, or tearing people down at a moment’s notice, but somewhere in the middle. What matters in our communities is ensuring that queer people actually have a chance at a life where they can express themselves, where they can be happy, and where they can be safe. theskinny.co.uk/deviance

Lifestyle

A Flying Visit Visiting NYC from Edinburgh just got a whole lot more chilled thanks to new, crazy-cheap flight routes with Norwegian Air. We took a trip to The Big Apple to research the perfect low-pressure city break – here’s what we learned

t was only in the boarding queue for my flight to New York that I realised just how desperate I was to visit. For over 20 years I’d muted my eagerness to see the city in its glittering, foggy, rhythmic glory. I’d devoured its neon districts and steaming subways on sitcoms and perfume adverts, but always assumed it to be the territory of capitalhopping businesspeople, committed dreamchasers, competition winners or honeymooners. After all, it’s the billboard-filled, flashing capital of capitalism, and only found at the end of a long-haul flight. Hardly a realistic holiday destination for someone with student debt, a lovely job in the arts and an ironclad incapacity to save money. And then, just like that, Norwegian Airlines changed the game; announcing new, affordable flight routes between the UK and the USA. And we’re not talking slightly discounted, we’re talking eye-rubbing, thigh-slapping, cackling aloud in disbelief-type prices. At the time of writing you can nab a return from Edinburgh International to New York’s Stewart airport for £200. The airline kindly provided The Skinny with two return flights this June, allowing us to, er, ‘research’ the perfect NYC mini-break and give you, our readers, the 411 on the future of affordable long-hauls. Obviously, we obliged. Getting off the ground Disclaimer – it’s a budget flight. You’ll land upstate at Stewart Airport, which is an 80 minute bus journey from NYC (actually a pretty standard journey time in Big Apple airport terms). The seats are not lined with goose feather pillows and you’ll have to do some bodily origami to get some kip. We were brought a tasty veggie meal, as booked, on both flights, but were expected to buy bottled water if our thirst was not satiated by the one or two drinks provided at meal-time – a budget airline policy we hope will be readdressed for long haul. There’s on-board WiFi and an entertainment streaming service for your phone or tablet, but it was subject to teething problems in the new flight routes. That said, there’s a decent bus service between Stewart and NYC, and if you’re equipped with refreshments, downloaded distractions and readiness to sleep creatively, the corners cut are definitely worth it for the hefty savings. That’s tip number one right there.

that’ll leave you broke, knackered and devoid of the will to live (let alone fly home). Cheap flights = the prospect of a return visit. Knowing you can always go back – and that the godforsaken Hershey’s Chocolate World will still be there when you do – makes it a whole lot easier to spend some of the trip uncovering your very own hidden city treasures. We spent only four nights in NYC, and flexibility was the key to our success (tip number three, in case you’re keeping count). We listed every single must-see and must-eat, grouped them in blocks according to proximity and created a mix’n’match itinerary that could accommodate the hysterical weather. Didn’t stop it pissing down when we hit the Top of the Rock, but hey, you can’t have it all. Swapping photo-opps for one-offs Of course, we made pilgrimages to Grand Central and The Highline, MoMA and The Guggenheim, Times Square, Central Park and Ground Zero. But we also felt free to catch a subway to Williamsburg and stroll through the technicolour streets of party supply stores and pawn shops. Tip number four – don’t waste time on photo-opps you’re secretly not bothered about. We didn’t feel FOMO when resting our legs for an indulgent hour in the lesser-known McCarren Park, watching a cross-section of Brooklynites stroll round and round the sun-

warmed race track. We skipped Broadway and pretzels for yard sales and agonising over the toppings on our pressed juice ice creams – but it didn’t feel like a guilty trade-off. As evening fell on each of our days in the city, we felt fulfilled rather than frazzled (jetlag aside). Because our visit took place during Pride season, we also took a little time swooning over the rainbow flags which festooned the stoops and shop fronts in Greenwich Village and Hell’s Kitchen – two areas in Manhattan known for their progressive undercurrents. We made a quick beer stop at Rudy’s, a highly praised dive bar with a dusty ruby-red interior, amicable atmosphere and – most importantly for carnivore boozers – free hotdogs with your drinks. A tattooed, stocky dude with a radiant smile (who I’d assumed to be a Rudy’s bartender) brought over a stack of the promised hotdogs. When I declined due to my vegetarianism, he hot-footed out onto the street, returning minutes later with a generous bucket of blue cheese salad. The encouraging nods and knowing giggles of nearby punters – his friends – demonstrated that this was not a case of exceptional customer service, rather the friendliness of a New York local and classic Rudy’s regular. “This is what we do here – nobody goes without,” he told me, introducing himself as ‘Meatball’ and setting down a pitcher of cold beer.

Words: Kate Pasola Photos: Sarah Donley

For the next couple of hours we got to know Meatball and his gang over shots and beers; a few of the guys were skyscraper construction workers, and one guy, Max, was a journalist from the Village Voice – NYC’s answer to The Skinny. Though diverse in conversation and backgrounds, they were united in a single recommendation for the following day: Coney Island’s Mermaid Parade, an annual pride street party that’s exactly what it says on the tin. And that brings us to our final tip; listen to locals. Bitten by the spontaneity bug? Roll with it. Although, despite our fervent promises, we never made it to the Mermaid Parade. Apocalyptic storms and misplaced raincoats made the prospect of a day outdoors on Coney Island quite unattainable. Instead, we sheltered at Saigon Shack with a comforting bowl of pho, we drank beer in Stonewall, and we yelped with joy at Drag Queen Bingo. Nevertheless, I’ll remember the recommendation, Meatball’s baffling hospitality and that Rudy’s booth, full of bourbon and ebullience for years to come. And who knows, maybe we’ll make it next time? Flights provided courtesy of Norwegian Air. Find out more at norwegian.com/uk Futuristic robot hotel provided by yotel.com/en/hotels/ yotel-new-york Literary history hotel provided by algonquinhotel.com/

Accommodation We’re not going to pretend to have all the answers here. Where you stay totally depends on the type of experience you’re seeking. We were keen to tick a good few Manhattan must-sees off our list, so picked out a pair of contrasting haunts in the Midtown area. First up, the purple-hued oasis of efficiency and chicness that is Yotel. With an automated check-in system, a robot concierge, ingeniously designed rooms, comfy beds, a badass roof terrace and skyline views so marvellous you’ll feel like you’ve had a religious experience, it’s a good shout if you’re seeking simplicity and modernity. If you’d rather a quintessential New Yoik experience, complete with mahogany, mirrors and a romantically faded glamour, check in to The Algonquin, Autograph Collection. It’s a charming hotel steeped in literary history, from the conscientiously stocked newspaper stand, to the framed New Yorker covers, to their tradition of offering guests a complimentary book on the morning of their check-out. Bookish travellers, go bananas. On to the attractions Here’s our next tip – gone are the days of justifying a £700 return flight with a voracious itinerary

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TRAVEL

THE SKINNY

Here Comes the Pride LGBT Pride remains a contentious issue – one writer explains why he had his doubts, and a moment in Montréal that turned it all around...

ost large cities have a Pride: an event where queer people burst onto the street (and sometimes into song), prowl about together, and generally have a wicked ol’ time. Fun as it can be, Pride can be a controversial topic. On one hand, you’ve got your usual throng of bigots, homophobes and moralistic blowhards railing against it, claiming that Pride runs the risk of upsetting children with displays of adult sexuality. Those people don’t seem to have noticed how depictions of sex and sexuality are plastered all over modern society, from billboards advertising lingerie to commercials where an M&M is caught sleeping with a married woman. I think the public is pretty used to displays of human sexuality, as long as they’re aimed at straight people. On the other hand, many queer people express very legitimate concerns that some Pride festivals have become too corporate and too exclusive, becoming more of a tourist attraction for straight voyeurs than an easy-to-access, legitimate outpouring of queer joy. Similarly, there are disputes in some countries as to the roles that certain organisations should play in proceedings. Canadian Pride festivals are debating whether or not to allow police to have floats in the rallies, as many attendees feel the police represent the fascist powers that oppress many queer people, particularly those of colour. Meanwhile, Los Angeles’ equivalent has attracted criticism for having sold out, by rebranding as an expensive musical festival for straight millennials with money to spare. I have a pretty complicated relationship with Pride, as I’m sure many queer people do. Recently, one of those memories popped back into my brain. You’ll know the kind – you drop your groceries or spill milk everywhere after suddenly recollecting a moment of true cringe, and spend an hour or two just gawping at how much one person can resent their past self. That kind of memory. While talking about Pride with some friends, I suddenly flashed-back to being sixteen or so, and asked whether or not I’d attend London Pride. I’d been out as gay for a few years; self-consciously quirky and painfully eager to be accepted by literally anyone in earshot. I replied: “Me? Gay Pride? More like... GAY SHAME, amiright?!” The joke didn’t land too well. Even my straight friends were a little disgusted at how ready I was to hate on myself for a quick gag – to try to make it funnier, I continued to chat hot air about how gay people should just try to fit in with straights and “not go on about it all the time.” I hate thinking about that moment. It makes my skin crawl remembering how I’d internalised so much homophobia, how I was so keen to let my peers know that I was gay, sure, but I wasn’t like ‘those other gays.’ I really was brainwashed: I thought that gay people should shut up and be quiet about their sexualities, that screaming about gay politics was counterproductive, and that things weren’t really that bad. I was horribly wrong. The reality is that rights cannot be won in silence, and that what rights we have won are conditional and need defending; pretending to be copies of straight people won’t help us in the long run, and would be impossible for many queer people anyway. Pride is a place where we can be ourselves, openly and beautifully. There’s no pretence – rather, it’s an explosion of selfhood. Thankfully, I got to grips with gay politics pretty quickly after that, and managed to get a little distance from those views. Even so, I didn’t attend my first Pride for years after that. I was scared – of all kinds of things. I worried that I’d somehow

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Words: Toby Sharpe Illustration: Xenia Latii

be rejected from other queers, that I wouldn’t know what to do, that I’d be making myself a target for violence, and that I’d just be the kind of loud, stereotypical camp gay guy that straight people love to disparage, ignore, and persecute. My first Pride was in Montréal during the first days of my year abroad. Groggy, lonely, and confused in a hostel, I was awoken by banging and shouts. Stumbling outside, I saw Justin Trudeau walk past me (then just a floppy-haired MP with a tight butt, gay fans, and less ability to legalise weed or sell arms on a mass scale). He was followed by thousands of queer people. It was sensational, not because of Trudeau, but because I was suddenly immersed in a huge group of people who were kind to me, who made me feel at home, and whom I recognised as being like me. That’s the nuance I didn’t understand in my brief gay-self-hatred phase as a teen: the power of Pride, and other means of queer celebration, to make one feel validated and recognised. Especially if you’re lonely, or you’re in an unfriendly environment, or you’re struggling to come to terms with your identity, the need to connect to other queer people and feel wanted and included is incredible.

One can see the power of Pride after it ends: people peeling stickers off their cheeks, rubbing makeup away, resignedly putting carefully-chosen outfits back into bags as they switch back to regular clothing. People live joyfully in Pride, but then have to go back to the straight world, where they don’t always feel safe being themselves. I still have some reservations about some Prides because they’ve been painfully commercialised, and I don’t exactly feel like big banks accurately represent the queer revolution. Pride is still a political and contentious topic, but the importance of its existence in times like ours cannot be overstated. We’re living in times where Chechen authorities can purge gay men with zero accountability, when the White House removes guidelines on trans students from educational policy. Even as gay marriage photos appear more frequently on your Instagram feed, this is still not a good time to be queer. Many LGBT+ people across the globe do not feel safe, even in our supposed havens of Western democracy. We need to have a designated time to be ourselves: loudly, proudly, and happily. I wish my younger self had actually seen the wonder of Pride, the messy, silly joy of it. Maybe I would have seen how lucky I was to have a festival so close by, while other cities across the globe still struggle to run a festival without having it shut down by violence from authorities or protesters. Pride is so important. We need to relish the opportunity to be ourselves in the moments we can, and those moments where we can be together.

DEVIANCE

Lifestyle

THE SKINNY

Just Make it Classic The day following the Manchester terror attack we meet up with Broken Social Scene’s Brendan Canning, ahead of the band's show in the city that night, to talk about fifth album, Hug of Thunder, and why they’ve reformed

Interview: Joe Goggins

“Y

ou’re sitting having a beer, and all of a sudden, the memories flood back. ‘Hey, remember that time we were in Peterborough? Or Stoke-on-Trent?’” Today’s a turning point for Broken Social Scene. On the one hand, it marks the end of the long road back; they’re in Manchester to play their first full headline show, anywhere, since 2011. On the other, this’ll be the first gig of many. After having apparently called it quits six years ago, they’ve reconvened in fits and starts, with the odd TV appearance here and the occasional festival slot there. It’s not until now that they’ve found themselves with a reason to be on the road consistently: in July, they’ll release Hug of Thunder, their first full-length since 2010’s Forgiveness Rock Record. They wrapped up touring for that last album in November of 2011, in Rio de Janeiro. They tweeted shortly before the show that it’d be their last ever. In truth, few took them at their word; after all, fluidity has always been the operative word when it’s come to the Toronto outfit, who are of course less a band than they are a collective. Wikipedia lists 26 present members, many of whom are indie rock royalty in their own right – Leslie Feist, for example, or Jimmy Shaw and Emily Haines of Metric. Torquil Campbell of Stars is in there, too. The touring line-up, understandably, has fluctuated wildly, but it’s always been based around the central duo of Brendan Canning and Kevin Drew, who’ve taken the lion’s share of the songwriting credits over the years. Even with all the time that’s passed, and as laughable as this comparison would normally seem, Manchester doesn’t feel a million miles away from Rio today. It’s a balmy 26 degrees out, and sunlight streams through the floor-to-ceiling glass frontage at Albert’s Schloss, the yuppiefriendly German bar that occupies the ground floor of tonight’s venue. The atmosphere, though, is subdued. It’s less than 24 hours since the city’s arena – a mile down the road, at the other end of Deansgate – was rocked by a suicide bomb. For Broken Social Scene, there’s a considerable degree of uncomfortable irony that these should be the circumstances in which they finally return full-time; Drew’s on the record as saying that the group decided to reform after the 2015 attack on the Bataclan in Paris. “We felt that, for sure,” says Canning over coffee in the bar, “Charles [Spearin] and Kevin, especially. We know Eagles of Death Metal a little bit, and it just cut a little deeper, because we’d shared a stage with that band. To then come here, and you have the bombing last night – it seems terribly...” He trails off. “This is the reason we’re getting back together, and then a similar incident happens so close right as we’re starting up again. It casts a certain shadow, but there was never really any talk of cancelling. People have to come to work here tonight. Fuck, life goes on. We got text messages from home, everybody saying it must be crazy emotional over here. I guess nobody’s immune to tragedy.” The band – this iteration of it, anyway – arrived in town last night after a torturous journey from Heathrow, although still in plenty of time to while the evening away on the sun terrace at nearby Rain Bar. The individual members of the group kept plenty busy during their hiatus – Drew made a solo album and Canning two, for instance – but it was the frequency of finding themselves in those kinds of situations, just shooting the shit over a few beers, that ensured they never felt like they’d spent too long away from each other. “It’s less a collection of people than it is a collection of friendships,” Canning relates. “Every-

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body knows what’s going on in each other’s lives, even if that’s not as much the case as it was ten years ago. When you’ve survived all the industry bullshit – squabbling over where we should tour, or how often, or whether or not you should licence a song to Hummer – then there’s a certain resilience to the relationships within the band. Plus, it’s not a big deal that the line-up’s fluid – that’s how music should be. Look at the old jazz guys like Horace Silver, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Art Blakey – how many different groups they all played with. Some of the collaborations on this record came about because Jason Collett happened to be at a card game, or John Crossingham was in town at the right time to add a guitar lick.”

“ People have to come to work here tonight. Fuck, life goes on” Brendan Canning

That spirit of co-operation is palpable on Hug of Thunder; it feels like much more of a group effort than Forgiveness Rock Record, an album that met with a mixed response and suggestions from critics that perhaps Canning and Drew were wielding a little too much control over proceedings. Thunder’s reach for talent is a wide one – Feist is back to provide a stirring turn on the title track, while Haines takes the lead on Protest Song. All 15 original members have chipped in, and their individual tastes are well-represented without them ever really stepping on each others’ toes: we get soaring anthems alongside psychedelic

wigouts, and they prove strangely happy bedfellows. Even tonight’s line-up hints at a renewed harmony within the group – Haines and Shaw are back in the cut for this European jaunt for the first time in forever. “We had a lot of cooks in the kitchen, and everybody was hard at it,” explains Canning. “It wasn’t like You Forgot It in People, where it was a fresh experience for all of us and we were just looking to push down some walls. Some songs took forever to come together, some songs were really spontaneous, and some came out of late night sessions smoking weed, where it just felt like time to put vocals down at one in the morning. Not that we have the same appetite for that as we used to. You Forgot It in People was a fucking haze!” Plus, the band unanimously agreed that if they were going to make a go of this comeback – if they were going to really justify it – they were duty bound to put new material out. They’re in a different place now, 18 years down the line from when they first formed; Canning remembers having sneered at older bands on the reunion circuit back in the day, only to have found himself staring down the same barrel before Hug of Thunder started to come together. “Fuck, we just haven’t done enough to rest on our laurels! There was no Anderson .Paak when we were starting out, you know? It still feels like we’ve got to step up and earn our place.” He does, though, have a more sympathetic view of longstanding bands who no longer resemble their old selves anymore. “I remember what I thought about Deep Purple when I was 15, having been through all these different singers and band members, and that’s not how I feel any more. Honestly, being in a band is a miracle, and if you can continue over years and years and survive different phases and still have people buying tickets for this thing you built, then that’s amazing. You just have to keep pouring yourself

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into it.” Broken Social Scene’s best material has always had a timeless quality to it, and they know it, too; it’s the recognition of that fact that keeps them pushing to make it similarly true of their future output. “I have a friend back home, a guy called Kent Monkman who’s done really well in the fine art world,” says Canning. “Last summer, I remember him saying to me, ‘whatever you’ve got going, just make it classic.’ I think we’ve got a few classics on this record, and I think we’ve still got the knowledge to write songs that make people feel a certain way.” He’s cut off by the sound of sirens screeching past the window. On the next table, Drew, Shaw and Andrew Whiteman are discussing how best to address last night’s tragedy at the show. Drew tells me he’s hoping to keep the mood upbeat, but there’s a touch of unease in the crowd later that night ahead of the group taking the stage. When they do, Drew keeps his earlier word: he thanks the crowd for making it out, introduces one of the city’s favourite sons in Johnny Marr, and leads one of the band’s most illustrious ever casts into a spine-tingling rendition of Anthems For a Seventeen Year Old Girl. Old and new songs alike soar, if not in celebratory fashion then at least in a spirit that suggests defiant positivity. During the encore, Haines is front and centre on a gorgeous, stripped-back version of Backyards, on which the extended lullaby of a last chorus involves the line “It’s a hard parade, just be courageous” on a loop. You realise what Canning meant when he talked about the classics. It wasn’t self-satisfaction – just the quiet recognition of the fact that Broken Social Scene are capable of making people feel better. They picked a good time to come out of hibernation. Hug of Thunder is released on 7 Jul via Arts & Crafts brokensocialscene.ca

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For The Culture The ascent of grime Perhaps the surest sign of grime as a cultural force right now, but also the most surprising so far, is the Grime4Corbyn movement, which undoubtedly played a role in the mobilisation of young people to make their voices heard in the June general election. From Novelist and Stormzy to JME, AJ Tracey and Akala, grime artists urged their fans to register to vote and showed their support for the Labour party, with the success of their campaign demonstrating that grime is now a powerful tool of social engagement and not just a musical genre. Given that grime has been an underground movement for the majority of its two-decade long history, this is a huge achievement and one that even its closest observers didn’t see coming. This includes Danny ‘Falz’ Fahey, a former UK hip-hop and garage MC and now culture-maker, whose Manchester-based leadership programme for young men, Thirty Pound Gentleman, facilitates a grime exchange between MCs from the UK and abroad. “This time last year, if someone said to me ‘who’s gonna be the star of grime?’ I wouldn’t have said Stormzy,” Fahey tells us as we sit down for a chat in his Salford office, which is an homage to UK urban music as much as it is where Fahey works. Hattie Collins and Olivia Rose’s 2016 book This Is Grime lies on the coffee table, while a poster of Brixton musician GAIKA adorns the wall. “I think Stormzy’s an amazing MC, but I wouldn’t have thought that it would be him because the music industry and the media wasn’t ready,” Fahey continues. “But they’re not dictating this, the people are, and the people wanted Stormzy so that’s who you have.” In spite of its growing popularity, grime is still quite often misunderstood, especially abroad. “There are people in North America and other countries that will maybe cite Giggs (a UK Rap MC) as a grime artist,” explains Fahey. “But that’s because they don’t understand the nuances and the differences. They can’t always hear it and they can’t always feel it. I think that happens a lot and I think it’s to be expected. For some people they just expect that if you’re an artist from the UK and if you MC in your own accent at any tempo apart from a traditional hip-hop 85-95 BPM swing, you must be a grime artist.” Another misconception that often crops up is that grime evolved from American hip-hop. In actuality, grime is more closely linked with UK music genres such as jungle, drum‘n’bass, UK garage and Jamaican sound system culture. Typified by a DIY aesthetic, it was born in the early 2000s on pirate radio stations in East London council estates, where MCs would spit about the harsh realities of inner-city life. Its sound is therefore darker and colder than the music from which it evolved. Grime achieved a level of commercial success and music industry recognition during what some describe as its first wave, with Wiley, Dizzee Rascal, Kano and Lethal Bizzle doing especially well during this time. But with record deals came compromises, as music industry bosses pressured artists to dilute their sound to appeal to a wider demographic. Some artists found crossover appeal, but few careers lasted. Then, after nearly a decade of little commercial success, grime returned to the charts in 2014 when Meridian Dan released German Whip. Skepta soon followed with That’s Not Me, a back-to-basics sound and aesthetic which set the groundwork for the return of the pioneers and inspired a whole new generation of MCs. Seeing as at the centre of grime is an antiestablishment ethos and because it’s popular among young people, the music and culture are

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now often compared to punk. “People do that because it’s easy,” Fahey proposes, not wholeheartedly agreeing with such an association himself. “They do that because it’s fast, it’s aggressive, people jump up and down and it’s British. But maybe grime is the new jazz because while it has its place in the social and political sphere, it’s unashamedly black music.” It is precisely because grime is unashamedly black that despite there now being ever more successes to be celebrated, it’s still the subject of discrimination. Form 696, the controversial Metropolitan Police measure used to assess the risk of violence at music events by gathering the personal details of artists and promoters which historically applied to shut down grime raves, was back in the news this March. Culture Minister Matt Hancock sent London Mayor Sadiq Khan a letter raising the concern that the form singled out specific music genres, including grime, which suggests that despite grime’s success, it’s still a genre facing many prejudices.

“ Maybe grime is the new jazz because while it has its place in the social and political sphere, it’s unashamedly black music” Danny ‘Falz’ Fahey

The birth of Grime Beyond Borders However, it wasn’t because of grime’s success as a music genre, the culture’s impact on the political engagement of young people or indeed its discrimination at the hands of police that gave the Thirty Pound Gentleman director the idea for Grime Beyond Borders. Fahey decided to start the project after seeing the scene’s impact in Europe, and specifically, on Czech artist Smack. He discovered the MC while attending Czech festival Hip Hop Kemp in the summer of 2016, where the artist was performing. “Smack lives the culture,” Fahey tells us. “It shows in his flows, it shows in his dress sense, it shows in his attitude, it shows in his integrity as an artist. It made me really think about investigating and exploring what that means. How does a young MC from Prague 10 become so heavily influenced by this culture, this unashamedly black British culture so far away?” While Smack enjoys popularity in his own country, he’s also been recognised in the UK by gatekeepers such as the pioneering DVD series and now YouTube channel Risky Roadz as well as tastemakers Sir Spyro and Sian Anderson, he’s likely to remain on the periphery due to the fact that he spits in Czech. This aligns him with regional grime artists such as Manchester’s own Slay, who are still largely missing from the upper echelons of the UK grime scene. “The idea that people don’t want to support regional accents in MC culture is kind of fading away, but when you’re thinking of specifically grime artists who are really emerging there’s only one in the top tier,” Fahey says, referring to Manchester’s Bugzy Malone. Although regional grime artists have always existed and indeed, played their part in shaping grime culture from its inception, places like

Manchester are often mentioned with an air of nostalgia by grime’s biggest stars. For example, while telling journalist Hattie Collins during a 2015 Manchester Red Bull Music Academy lecture that he credits early career visits to Manchester and Liverpool with making him question his America-influenced dress sense, and in turn, his time spent in the north informed his all-black tracksuit aesthetic, Skepta struggles to name any Manchester grime artists he rates, opting instead to say he likes Trigga, an MC more closely linked with genres such as drum’n’bass and jungle. Similarly, Wiley is more likely to shout out Shifty at a Manchester show than any up-and-coming MCs from the city. This, even if non-intentional and perhaps understandable, lack of engagement with current regional scenes by artists on busy release schedules and touring internationally still suggests that Manchester’s best grime days are in the past. It could be argued this isn’t a problem given that music is made so diasporically these days, but grime has always been rooted in specific geographical regions and physical interaction, whether that’s sets on radio or clashes at raves. Thus a sense of place not only gives grime music its character and authenticity, but also creates an environment in which grime MCs can improve, gain respect from their peers and grow their fanbase. And although regional grime has many more fans than ever before, with the Guardian acknowledging the cultural impact of the Blackpool grime phenomenon in an article this May, there are still scant regional grime scenes to rival any of the boroughs in London or Birmingham. Rather, more common are singular regional grime artists or acts coming through from places such as Nottingham, Sheffield, Glasgow and Cardiff. These are the reasons why a scheme such as Grime Beyond Borders is so important for the north. Without a solid infrastructure, support networks and opportunities, artists from outside the capital will keep falling short of mainstream success. Fahey is positive this is about to change, however. “There’s other people (aside from Bugzy Malone) who are bubbling,” he says. “There’s people who are above the surface and just kind of ready to break through. Slay is one of those artists.”

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Interview: Kamila Rymajdo

As a teenager, Slay was a member of the Mayhem Crew, which was active during grime’s ‘first wave’, and it was during an EA Sports competition that Mayhem were taking part in and Fahey was judging that the two first met. After a period of time away from the scene, Slay told Fahey he was hungry to get back into music, which made him the perfect candidate for reaping the most benefits from the programme. Despite being an MC himself in the 1990s and 2000s, Fahey doesn’t cite his past experience as a musician as relevant to the project. “When grime was being born I as an artist was already enjoying success and doing dumb shit in clubs,” he explains. “I wasn’t anywhere near those pirate radio stations that harboured grime as a culture and I wasn’t in those little early on raves. I’m one of the people that observed grime being born rather than participate in it.” However, it was Fahey’s business Thirty Pound Gentleman that made the idea a reality, thanks to its unique operation. Although Grime Beyond Borders 1 was supported by the Arts Council England and the second installment is a collaboration with The Netherlands' Welcome to The Village festival, the programme is for the most part divorced from the way such institutions operate. “This is very organic,” Fahey says. “This is the kind of work that an organisation would probably tell a funder somewhere that they need hundreds of thousands of pounds for. Grime Beyond Borders is being done purely on passion and relationships that TPG has with people in other countries.” Indeed, although there are mentoring schemes within grime culture, with Skepta’s Levi’s community project a high profile example, there is usually a corporate or Arts organisation sponsor. We ask Fahey what the exchange looks like in practice. “There should be a studio session, a live performance and a collaborative brand new piece of work on both sides,” he says. “But some of the other aims and objectives are definitely about getting grime MCs from the UK, and at the moment specifically Manchester, to see more of the world and to understand the impact of their own talent and their own culture on other people in far away places, and go and explore those places too.”

Danny ‘Falz’ Fahey

THE SKINNY

Photo: Dec Place

We explore the impact of grime abroad through the lens of a Manchester-based cultural exchange programme

One word that keeps coming up as we discuss the project is ‘integrity’ – a word so associated with grime culture that it’s the name of JME’s 2015 album. “It’s not like I’m saying charities and NGOs don’t have integrity, but all of the focus here is on the artists and making the work happen, not core cost recovery and keeping other people in jobs,” Fahey explains. “A lot of cultural institutions produce work not because it’s work they’re particularly interested in or care about but because there’s funding available to do so, and TPG doesn’t operate like that. It’s for the culture, rather than it just being something we could do because we could get some funding to do it.”

“ I can go anywhere and shut it down” Slay

There are similarities to be found between what Fahey is doing and what Manchester’s Factory Records founder Tony Wilson did. Inspired by continental European philosophy and art, such as the Situationalist International movement, Wilson’s work can be seen as being anti-London and anti-American. While it’s debatable whether his career can be described as being successful, he certainly tried to make the north an autonomous region of equal cultural impact, and his method in doing so was by bypassing London and forging links with continental Europe. Fahey, in his bypassing of the south with Grime Beyond Borders, is certainly signalling a similar ambition. Such an assumption is further strengthened by the Grime Beyond Borders documentary, which was filmed during the first exchange, and includes performances and interviews with Smack and Slay. The 30-minute film, directed by Thirty Pound Gentleman close associate Mauro Camal features an anti-Brexit narrative arc. “Brexit is one of the things that made me choose Leeuwarden (in the Netherlands) as the partner [for the second Grime Beyond Borders],” Fahey tells us. “Leeuwarden is

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the 2018 European Capital of Culture, so it was important for me to do that, for there to be a truly European aspect, and European in the political sense, not in the geographical sense. It’s a bit of a middle finger with Brexit in mind.” The MCs and the exchange “The first time I went over there I was kind of a bit nervous as I was going on my own and I didn’t know what to expect,” recounts Slay of his trip to Prague when we catch up over the phone in early June. “It was my first time in Eastern Europe and even with that Danny likes to throw me in the deep end,” he laughs. Since re-entering the scene back in November, when the Trafford-hailing MC performed at a Levelz Warehouse Project takeover, Slay has gained in self-assurance thanks to the exchange. “The (Grime Beyond Borders) experience gave me a different confidence,” he agrees. “I can go anywhere and be seen to be on the same level as I am in Manchester. I can go anywhere and shut it down.” The success of the first exchange is also largely due to how well Slay and Smack got on. “The way we think, [our] mindset, is very alike,” Slay confirms in the Grime Beyond Borders documentary. “Me being from Manchester and grime being from another place, knowing that you have to work and be around for a long time, when sometimes it might have been easier to say, ‘you know what, forget it’, but just going through and doing it, in that sense, we’ve got a lot in common.” As soon as Slay landed in Prague, the two MCs made their way to the city’s Radio 1 for a set. “We went back-to-back and even though we were speaking different languages, I knew he wasn’t shit – he had the right energy. And then a few days after that I went to the studio and there was no awkwardness – we did it pretty quickly,” Slay says. Both MCs experienced very positive receptions for their respective performances. “The people really appreciate the music out there, whereas in the UK, if you’re not a big name or you’re not known it’s not always like that,” Slay tells me, while Smack’s Czech expat fans travelled from across the UK to see the artist perform in

Slay

Manchester. According to Fahey these kinds of live performances are vital for musicians at the early stages of their careers because for some, they really are the only way to get noticed. “There are so many challenges for artists now,” Fahey says. “Artists can release some music or a video and they give it to the internet which is a fucking graveyard – it just gets lost in a sea of other dogshit, whether it’s good or bad. That’s a new challenge for artists that are DIY in the business.” Sangy, who’s taking part in the second Grime Beyond Borders has more faith in the internet as a tool of building a fanbase, but believes Manchester-based channels just can’t rival the big and often London-centric platforms which host grime artists. “We haven’t got an SB.TV or a Link Up TV or a JDZ or a Grime Report or none of that here yet,” he says when we meet in Manchester a few weeks before his own exchange, which began in June. The Chorlton-based MC will be collaborating with Dutch artist Dona B for his exchange. “For me listening to vocal-based music I have to understand what they say, so I can’t put too much judgment on it, but it definitely sounds good,” he says of his exchange partner. “It will be interesting to meet up with people who are doing a similar type of thing to what people are doing here and see their interpretation of the culture,” he adds. Our work is never done While the Grime4Corbyn movement is only a few weeks in the past, grime artists are already making their voices heard on a new cause of social unrest, with several speaking out about the government’s failure to adequately respond to the Grenfell Tower fire. Of course, grime is not the first musical genre to highlight power relations and social inequality, but its unique DIY ethos, ability to capture the collective consciousness and mobilise people to action certainly gives hope that the political status quo is on shaky ground, that certain demographics can no longer be ignored. Fahey links the growth of grime and indeed MC culture as a whole, to recent political changes across the world. “Politics is shifting to the right

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and whenever that happens, whenever there’s unrest, artists always find their feet, whether they’re wordsmiths or painters or graffiti artists, as people seek out responders to the condition. But there is nobody more perfectly placed to respond to the condition of people than MCs.” It seems certain then, that grime will continue to grow as a culture that holds the political establishment to account, representing the feelings and opinions of ethnic minority groups and young people. But what a scheme such as Grime Beyond Borders facilitates is a more meaningful appreciation of grime, both for musicians and fans. Its ethos is aligned with that propagated by American philosopher Nelson Goodman, who argues that aesthetic experience is an epistemological experience, that our enjoyment of something increases with how much we know about it. Of course, the internet has democratised knowledge, and you can learn a lot about grime online. But there is a knowledge that cannot be learned through a screen. Some knowledge is embodied, felt in real space and time. By the virtues of its DNA, grime thrives in this kind of real, felt experience. And while it’s perhaps something of a paradox to say a genre such as grime, whose history is so much rooted in a specific place, will benefit from being taken out of its original context, now that it’s appreciated and imitated all over the world, it feels right that those who are its original creators enjoy some of the fruits of that labour. In Fahey’s own career, performing abroad was a pivotal moment. “As a young man, until I had the opportunity to travel and I realised how small the world is, but in a weird way also how fucking big it is, I didn’t truly realise my place in it and what I was capable of,” he says. With Grime Beyond Borders, he’s not only helping Manchester MCs understand what they are capable of, but by sending them overseas, he’s also helping fans outside the UK get a more authentic understanding of grime. Such an endeavour certainly is ‘for the culture’. thirtypoundgentleman.com

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Photo: Karl John

Photo: Robin Bery

Smack

Comedy in a time of political unrest Surprise referendum results, snap elections, political chaos. Has recent politics changed UK comedy? We speak to some of the finest satirists on the scene to take the temperature of what our turbulent political landscape has meant for their comedy

t the time of writing, the results of a snap election have just been announced, and it’s perhaps fair to say that politically the last few years have been eventful. From the shock of Brexit, the rise of Trump and more political tumult, it seems like Armando Iannucci might have gotten a job writing for real life. We’re living in a country that’s more divided in political opinion than it has been for a generation. And so, without a shadow of a doubt, the question on everyone’s mind surely must be, “Yes, but how is this affecting our local comedy scene?!” Well, fear not dear reader, for we got in touch with some of the latest additions to the world of political comedy. We went to see whether the political climate has led to change in the weather with audiences and nights. Political comedy is nothing new, and topical comedy is a mainstay of TV. While the bread and butter of many a television act’s career in the UK is panel shows, beyond Channel 4’s The Last Leg there hasn’t been much of a hunger for the Daily Show style of satire that dominates American comedy. This may be changing. Recently the BBC announced a commission from internet satire giants The Daily Mash to create their own up-tothe-minute satire show, with Nish Kumar presenting. As well as this, Viceland have been producing shows such as Hate Thy Neighbour with Jamali Maddix speaking with radical extremists across the world. So has the circuit changed because of this? Have comedians politicised in response? “Some of my material has actually become more relevant since Brexit,” says past Skinny Spotlighter Chris Kehoe. “I have started performing things differently as I am aware my view [politically left-leaning remainer] is now a minority view.” Kehoe has been performing a mix of political comedy in his act since he began a few years ago, but has always been mindful of maintaining a balance. “I have found that people on the right are more ready to laugh at themselves but then again they’re winning at the minute, so it’s easier for them.”

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Have audiences reacted significantly to these recent events? Last time there was a Conservative government the UK Alternative Comedy scene was born. Rahul Kohli, a stand-up who performs a mix of storytelling and political comedy, writing for the News Quiz and appearing on Radio 3 and 4, has yet to notice a significant shift in audiences. “It’s made the audience more receptive to political material,” he suggests, “just ‘cause politics is continuously what people are talking about now, especially Brexit.” Kohli treads a balance in his set between the anecdotal and social commentary, and performs for a variety of audiences, many of whom aren’t necessarily looking for political discussion. “I used to do loads of specific party politics when I first started,” Kohli says, “and I found very quickly the audience couldn’t care less.” This isn’t to say audiences aren’t politicised – they’re just less interested in the grey suits of Westminster. “I watched a lot of political comedians I like who’ve found mainstream success – Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock – and I’ve found they talked about politically charged issues, but from their life perspective, which is how I followed suit from then in my comedy.” This idea of making the political personal is definitely something that came up in a lot of discussions we had with interviewees. A movement away from lambasting headlines and towards the specifics of day-to-day life. This can be seen especially in Channel 4’s latest blaps series Outsiders, starring an international cast of Sofie Hagen, Jamali Maddix, Mae Martin, Pierre Novellie and Yasmine Akram. The short form series takes a look at the issues faced by a diverse cast of comedians in a way that isn’t overtly political. It’s also a route taken by Sheffield-based absurdist Sean Morley. “Sometimes I think there’s a lot more political content in someone talking about the actual material realities of their own life: their job, their mental health problems, their relationship with class or poverty or gender,” Morley says, but this doesn’t mean there’s absolutely no political element to his act.

His performances – which range from falling over on to the stage shaking everyone’s hands, to pretending he hasn’t turned up to the gig and trying to shut the show down – always seem to have a political edge. “I’m trying to embody someone arguing in bad faith because the position they’ve been put in doesn’t allow them to acknowledge any personal responsibility despite clearly being incompetent, which is absolutely inspired by politicians!” While his act doesn’t deal with specific party politics, Sean regularly runs Regather, a comedy night taking place in a Sheffield Co-operative. As you may imagine, this brings in a predominantly left-leaning crowd, something Sean is all too aware of: “I don’t think I’ve ever even seen a leave voter, but I hear rumours they’re nine feet tall and walk around dragging huge wooden clubs behind them, so it’s best not to rile them where possible.”

“ Brexit has made the audience more receptive to political material” Rahul Kohli

These acts all deal in the political, but it’s clear that a dissection of particular party policies have not become a staple of the circuit. “I think Brexit has made little to no impact on people’s appetite for political comedy, because austerity already switched people on to it,” Chris Coltrane suggests. Coltrane runs Lolitics, a London based political night that recently garnered the scorn of the Daily Mail. Here Chris provides a platform for comedians to perform political material in the heart of Camden, with each month’s show released as a podcast. Also an activist in the direct

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Interview: Edy Hurst Illustration: Sonny Ross

action group UK Uncut since 2011, Coltrane is certainly the most politically active of our interviewees, but he says he hasn’t noticed a discernible difference within audiences or reactions. Perhaps this is a result of “the gorgeous inclusive lefty bubble that I almost exclusively gig to,” notes Coltrane. He is clear on his focus: “I am good at taking people who agree with me politically but feel absolutely shattered inside from the truly dreadful state of the world, and giving them some smiles, and some hope, and restoring their soul a little bit.” In a similar way to the increasing political bubbles we live in on social media, it would seem that many of the political comedy nights discussed above are shaped in the same way. It appears, however, that this hasn’t been brought on immediately from Brexit, but rather the existing opposition to particular types of politics. So, ultimately, has recent politics changed the comedy scene? Possibly not yet, but it’s certainly given those already dealing with social and political issues a need to change gears and reconsider. Whether that’s increasing their visibility, or the way they address an audience, it’s still to be seen whether the comedy scene will change or reshape in response. One thing’s for sure: the next few months are set for even further change as comedians hurriedly tear up and rewrite their topical material on the road to Edinburgh. Chris Coltrane runs the monthly night Lolitics, podcasted at theloliticspodcast.com. His show Make Love and Smash Fascism is at the Edinburgh Fringe at Banshee Labyrinth, 5-27 Aug, 3.30pm Sean Morley runs Regather Comedy Club each month in Sheffield Rahul Kohli is performing two shows at the Edinburgh Fringe: Newcastle Brown Tales, Laughing Horse at Cabaret Voltaire, 4-27 Aug, 1pm; and A Not So Chubby, Brown, The Stand Comedy Club, 2-27 Aug, 7.05pm Chris Kehoe is performing Manologue at Gulliver’s, Manchester, 13 Jul, 7.30pm and The Second Coming of Chris at the Great Yorkshire Fringe, 23 Jul, 7pm

THE SKINNY

Sound of Progress J. Willgoose, Esq. walks The Skinny through the people, politics and picket lines that make up Public Service Broadcasting’s emotional third album Every Valley

Interview: Katie Hawthorne

Photo: Dan Kendall

heavy, but this one should break a few speakers, too, hopefully.” The emotional weight of Every Valley doesn’t make for an easy listen. Turn No More combines Welsh musical superhero James Dean Bradfield with the words of Idris Davies, a Depression-era miner turned poet affiliated with TS Eliot. “There’s this epic, Waste Land-type poem called Gwalia Deserta, and I found a few verses that had a great ring to them. Then [Bradfield] did an amazing job. Having someone like him working on something like this and placing that kind of trust in us… it says a lot,” Willgoose reflects, clearly touched. The ballad is turbulent and stormy, and Davies’ remarkable words ring with contemporary consequences. We try to avoid talking about the inevitable, but 30 minutes in, there it is: “Well, this was written during and after the vote to leave the EU, and during Mr Trump’s ascendance across the Atlantic,” Willgoose sighs. “In each case the only thing I could do was to stop reading the bloody internet and go and do some work.

ublic Service Broadcasting have already conquered Everest, dissected WWII, and rocketed through the Space Race. Now, for their third LP, the band has taken to heart the troubles and triumphs of South Wales’ mining communities with Every Valley, exploring the all-too-human cost of our drive to keep pushing forward. What does ‘progress’ mean? Who does it help, and who does it leave behind? Written, rehearsed and recorded on site, Every Valley broadcasts the tales of Ebbw Vale’s miners with compassion and blazing urgency. Willgoose laughs as he describes the bespectacled band – with a new ‘official’ member in long-term touring pal JF Abraham in addition to multi-instrumentalist Wrigglesworth – as “extremely geeky”. From another group, such a claim might be self-deprecation. Not here. Ever since PSB’s first EP, a rigorous process of archival research has informed the band’s sound, most notably through audio clips borrowed from dusty public service films. Every Valley’s title is borrowed from the 1957 documentary of the same name, but otherwise the band’s process has evolved tenfold. Built on a bedrock of face-to-face interviews, experts, museum visits and, most importantly, weeks spent within South Wales’ valleys, this album takes a particularly personal approach. “I didn’t want this feeling of cultural tourism, or to be vampires taking this story from afar and not grounding it properly,” Willgoose tells us. “Especially this kind of story; it didn’t feel right. Some people [tried] to persuade us to go to one of the big, plush residential studios but we said no, it doesn’t fit this album at all.” Instead, in early January, the band moved in to the Ebbw Vale Institute, a community project space that happens to have recording facilities, too. Throughout our conversation he emphasises the importance of “actually speaking to people, rather than bringing preconceived ideas of the story and of the kind of people involved.” These interviews inevitably shaped the narrative of the album, as first-hand testimonials assisted the band in

July 2017

talking about “complicated stuff in hopefully a more nuanced way.” The result is an astonishing, hugely emotional album. Over 11 tracks, Every Valley documents the rise and fall of the industry, as well as the power of policy changes and picket lines. Opening track The Valley shows us rock star miners at the forefront of the UK’s industrial power, as a voiceover proclaims ‘Every little boy’s ambition in my valley was to become a miner... They were the kings of the underworld!’ Then, gradually, Public Service Broadcasting begin to pick this world apart. People Will Always Need Coal shines with poignant optimism, but lead single Progress starts to unravel a sense of creeping change. The eerie refrain of ‘Machines will do the heavy work’ captures contemporary anxieties about robots making us all redundant, as well as acting as a reminder that knock-on effects from fast-moving technological developments have existed for decades, if not centuries. Camera Obscura’s Tracyanne Campbell provides haunting guest vocals – a collaboration that Willgoose spent “the best part of a year” searching for, and believes has resulted in “one of our best songs… I don’t want to blow my own trumpet, but it’s clever!” He elaborates: “Not only have you got the organic and the synthesised elements ultimately combining, but at the end of each chorus it moves up two semi-tones. Then the first chorus is one repetition, the second one is two… and it’s the first [time] we’ve had a sung refrain as a single. So yeah, I feel like [Progess] works on lots of levels.” The centrepiece of the album is All Out: a strike song which builds into palpable, dignified, righteous anger as a woman’s voice, calm but defiant, says: ‘What you see on the telly is nothing, what you see in the papers is nothing. I was brought up to respect police. I don’t respect them now.’ It’s the heaviest track PSB have ever recorded, and it is scorching. Willgoose reflects, “There’s quite a few [songs on the album] that are emotionally

“ The only thing I could do was to stop reading the bloody internet and go and do some work” J. Willgoose, Esq.

“It just makes it even more sad because, from an outsider’s perspective, this is the community and the workforce that bore incredible hardship and incredible danger for a very long period, and provided the materials that fuelled the ascendency of the country, fuelled it through the war efforts, twice, and while it did eventually get nationalisation and some kind of health and safety which for some reason these days is held up as a bad thing, but was mostly put in place by unions to save lives… for these [communities] to be basi-

cally wilfully destroyed, and to have it done by the very government they’ve trusted? It’s like, do you really think they care about this area and its people and its history? I find that a hard one to stomach. Ebbw Vale was one of the highest recipients of EU funding in the UK and it voted to leave. I think it’s a desperate situation, and a lot of people didn’t know what to do but stick two fingers up. “I wondered if somebody – an especially dim-witted journalist, maybe – might say, ‘Oh, so you’re calling for the mines to be re-opened, are you?’ No, we’re really not. It’s not our position to do so. We’re just drawing attention to the fact that these communities have been let down and betrayed once, and now they’re being abused and capitalised upon to elect these people whose interests really couldn’t be further from theirs.” His point is reinforced when, after our interview, the first of the so-called “Trump-Era mines” opened outside Pittsburgh in a blind attempt to prop up an increasingly unsustainable industry. The Guardian reported, two weeks later, that the “global demand for coal has fallen for the second consecutive year.” Willgoose describes the record as having a “residual sadness and anger” that’s as much a consequence of his wife’s recent battle with cancer as it is the political climate, but “there’s also a feeling of hope and defiance and togetherness.” Without prying further, or resorting to too much speculation, it’s possible he’s referring to You + Me, a beautiful, vulnerable ballad that features guest vocals from Lisa Jên Brown and a rare vocal turn from the band. Elsewhere, tracks like They Gave Me a Lamp ensure that the bravery and resilience of South Wales’ women are celebrated with as much vigour as the actions of the miners – it’s a full and important reminder that communities are built on unity, support and love – and on final track Take Me Home, the local Beaufort Male Choir are halted mid-take by their conductor, and reminded “more people will hear this than they’ve probably heard any other thing you’ve done.” Surely, hopefully, if the UK’s learned anything in these past 12 months, it’s that we’ve got to listen to each other. Every Valley is released on 7 Jul via Play It Again Sam Public Service Broadcasting play Barrowlands, Glasgow, 18 Oct publicservicebroadcasting.net

Going Underground: five empowering songs about unions Billy Bragg – There is Power in the Union Although this song was originally written by George Frederick Root, an American songwriter who found fame during the American Civil War, what would this playlist be without the gruff, rallying voice and unwavering political presence of our Billy? The Strawbs – Part of the Union It’s rumoured that this song might have been written to parody the power wielded by British trades unions, but its foot-stomping beat and cry of ‘It’s out brothers, out!’ meant that The Strawbs’ hit fast became an unofficial workers’ anthem in 1973. Florence Reece – Which Side Are You On? The incredible Florence Reece wrote this folk song in 1931 in response to the Harlan County War – a struggle for Kentucky miners’ rights.

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Her battle-cry “They’ll never keep us down!” has been covered by dozens of socially conscious musicians. Ken Loach has borrowed the title, and Bob Dylan refers to it in Desolation Row. Woody Guthrie – Union Burying Ground It’s hard to pick a particular up-the-workers number from Guthrie’s immeasurable vaults, but Union Burying Ground from his 1941 album Struggle is a bitter-sweet ode to the cost of putting your community first. Rosalie Sorrels – I Am a Union Woman Activist, educator, folklorist and musician Rosalie Sorrels died just a few weeks ago, in the middle of June. Her legacy lives in 60 years of powerful lyrics and community work, and this track which calls for support for the American National Mining Union is an apt example of her straight-talking poetry.

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THE SKINNY

Growing Up Dan Croll tells us how he picked himself up and dusted himself off after a very difficult year to release his new album Emerging Adulthood

Interview: Nadia Younes

“Up until I was about 17, my life was so dominated by sport and I think naturally playing that much competitive sport made me very competitive, not only with other people but with myself as well,” he says. “Once I had got over the immediate shock of it and I felt quite down, there was a real resurgence to compete with these people who I wanted to prove wrong and with myself to get back on my feet, so the competitive spirit kicked in.” By the time Emerging Adulthood had been given a release date, however, some of the singles taken from it were now over a year old: One of Us was first released in October 2015, second single Swim in August 2016. But since the album had already been recorded, Croll felt it was appropriate to keep things as they were. “They’ve been around for a bit longer than some of the other tracks but they still belong together in my eyes, on the same body of music,” he says.

“ I want to make pop music that can be played on the radio, but I want to come at it from more of an alternative angle”

Photo: Derek Santini

Dan Croll

he music industry can be a very cut-throat business at times, and Dan Croll has learned that the hard way. Last year he found himself dropped from his label, left with no management and stuck with the task of trying to find a way of releasing his second album Emerging Adulthood. “I had already pulled the trigger on the album,” says Croll. “I had released One of Us and started to release another single then found myself without any support around me, so I had to start again very quickly.”

July/August 2017

Luckily, Communion Records came to the rescue. The label had previously included Croll’s single Marion on their New Faces compilation album in 2012, alongside the likes of Michael Kiwanuka, Ben Howard and Gotye, so as fans, they agreed to release his new album. Croll had turned things around for himself very quickly, with it seems barely a minute spent to dwell on the situation. This he says is due to his competitive nature, born out of a childhood spent consumed by sport.

Given the success of his debut album Sweet Disarray and, particularly, its lead single From Nowhere, it may seem surprising that Croll found himself in this position. But achieving the same level of commercial success again was not his only concern. “Even when you take a step away from that and think to yourself ‘I want to do this for myself ’, for me that’s still not the case because I have to support seven of my closest friends,” he says. “Admittedly, it’s commercial music I want to make, pop music that can be played on the radio, but I want to come at it from more of an alternative angle.” The album was recorded in Maze Studios in Atlanta with producer Ben H. Allen, who won a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album for his contribution to Gnarls Barkley’s 2006 album St. Elsewhere. As well as writing all the tracks, Croll also set himself the challenge of playing every instrument on the album. “I really wanted a hard contrast from the first album where that was quite DIY in its approach,” he says. “When I approached it this time round, I wanted to do what people would consider the more professional way or the more appropriate way and try that out, where I gave myself a time limit. I wanted to write it in five months, record it in two months and I wanted to play every musical instrument on the album.” In the heat of Atlanta, however, this wasn’t always easy. The way in which Croll describes his drum recording sessions sounds reminiscent of a scene from Damien Chazelle’s Oscar-winning film Whiplash. “The room that I recorded drums in didn’t have any air conditioning so it was like recording in a sauna,” he says. But being as competitive as he is, Croll refused to give up and let anyone else step in, instead suffering the smouldering heat to finish the recordings.

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Croll’s music style is not exactly fitting though to the music scene in Atlanta, known as the birthplace of trap music, so it seems an odd choice of location to record his album. “It was quite tough to do an album there because there wasn’t a scene that I could engross myself in that was similar to my music,” he says. But what did impress him, was the dedication to and passion for live music. “What I really enjoyed the most out there was the local radio set-up,” he says. “There were hundreds of stations locally but they weren’t in radio stations or offices, they were the clubs themselves, so they would live broadcast the radio from the club. Everything was so live and energetic.” Croll himself is admittedly a bit of a live music snob. In the past, he has voiced his dislike for artists using backing tracks when performing live, something he says stems from going to gigs and noticing the corners being cut by certain artists. “I think it’s a bit of a muso thing,” he says. “But some gigs I went to where I loved the band’s album, you go and watch them and it was almost robotic how similar it was to the album and part of me thought that just felt like listening to the album.” Vowing to make his live shows a different experience to listening to the album, Croll and his band only use backing tracks when absolutely necessary. “While I use some elements of backing tracks myself, it is the absolute last resort and it’s only if me and my other four members physically can’t play that part but we need to have it there,” he says. “That to me is what makes the difference, that kind of last resort thing.” Engaging with his fans is very important to Croll and, with a predominantly young fan base, this means spending a lot of time communicating with them on social media. Despite managing and running all his own social media pages himself, he didn’t feel he was achieving the kind of engagement he desired. “There were some very heavy periods where I found myself on it a lot and after spending all of this time on it, I still felt like I was no closer to my fans than I was when I started,” he says. To combat this Croll launched a ‘Dial Dan’ hotline, a project where he releases his phone number to his fans over a week-long period and takes as many of their calls as he can. “My one rule is that I can’t hang up,” he says. “A lot of people rang me and I managed to take 258 calls in the first week.” Part of this engagement also involves him encouraging his younger fans to participate in politics. In the run up to the June General Election, Croll consistently posted on social media urging fans to vote, while not so subtly sharing his own personal voting preference. “I think everyone should be active in it, especially musicians and anyone who appeals to a younger age range because there is a very clear divide at the moment in our country of young and old,” he says. “Obviously it’s a fine line, you want to push people to vote or register and try and direct them to what you feel is good, also keeping them in mind, but you don’t want to be in people’s faces, so it’s trying to find that balance.” Croll’s dedicated fan base and his own competitive nature seem to have been the key factors in allowing him to get through a very tumultuous year. It seems apt then, given the circumstances, that his new album be called Emerging Adulthood because over the past 12 months, Dan Croll really has had to do a lot of growing up, and fast. Emerging Adulthood is released on 21 Jul via Communion Records dancroll.com

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Industrial Grooves Andy Stamatakis-Brown weaves club sounds into his cotton mill-inspired Manchester Jazz Festival performance

he press release for Cottonopolis, Andy Stamatakis-Brown’s project commissioned as part of the Irwin Mitchell mjf originals strand of Manchester Jazz Festival 2017, dubs the performance a celebration of “the city’s proud past”. It was somewhat fitting that we sat down with Stamatakis-Brown to discuss the composition on the morning after the horrifying bombing at Manchester Arena, surrounded by media reports of the city’s communal spirit in the face of devastating loss. Cottonopolis, a multimedia piece that draws on the industrial and musical history of the city, feels even more necessary in the wake of last night’s event. Cottonopolis is described as an audiovisual experience that explores “iconic aspects of Manchester’s colourful past; its role as the powerhouse of the industrial revolution, and as the happening heart-beat of the dance music scene.” A 12-piece jazz performance, the composition connects the lines between Manchester’s historical centrality to the cotton industry and the house and techno music of the city, as well as fellow postindustrial cities like Detroit and Chicago. The repetition in this dance music, initially inspired by the automaton sounds of factory assembly lines and work stations, is the key inspiration behind the concept. Stamatakis-Brown, a familiar face on the Manchester jazz circuit through his membership in Haçienda Classical, Gypsies of Bohemia and his own Andy Stamatakis-Brown Trio, applied for the commission after watching a video of the last work-

ing cotton factory at a museum in Burnley. Watching the looms spinning, which he notes was “an amazing spectacle”, he explains that he began to hear rhythmic patterns in the machines. “I immediately started going ‘Oh, there’s a groove going on there, and there…’ Kind of like industrial grooves. And then I made the link, ‘Oh, that’s where house and techno music came from,’ and the idea developed from there.” The idea was to combine the noise of a 19th century mill with the atmosphere of a contemporary club night through the prism of jazz composition. In recent years mjf originals has been a platform for much-lauded performances from artists such as Anton Hunter, Ben Cottrell, and John Ellis and Antony Barkworth-Knight, with StamatakisBrown stepping out of his comfort zone for his upcoming contribution to the series. When we ask him about the commission his first response is one of gratitude to mjf for awarding him the opportunity to make Cottonopolis a reality: “I’m really pleased. This is the highest profile thing I will have done under my own name; the festival has been really supportive and mjf is an amazing outlet for creative musicians in Manchester.” He is careful to note that he is first and foremost a jazz musician and fan, and that his background is not in house or techno. “I’ve never been into going clubbing, so there are elements of this project that are different from anything I have ever created before.” This might seem contradictory given that he’s developing a composition built on dance music’s relationship to industry, he

Interview: Michael Waugh

of his writing to date has been focused on the tighter backdrop that will “provide a platform for the other musicians to do their thing and be expressive.” He notes that, among the 12 musicians drawn from the Manchester Jazz Collective, there will be two drummers, emphasising the importance of rhythm to the piece. “I’d say that 80 percent of the time people could dance to it if they wanted to – I don’t know if they will! Some people might just want to listen to it.” There are multiple references to the industrial sounds of the cotton industry throughout the performance, both visually and in terms of the composition itself. “I’ve recorded a lot of source sounds at the Museum of Science and Industry, and they’ve fired up all of their looming cotton weaving equipment. They’ve got a loom with a shuttle that goes back and forth. All the sounds of those machines will be captured and played electronically. Some of those will be incorporated as actual drum sounds for drummers to play on an electronic kit.” Augmenting the club aesthetic will be DJs from Space Cassette and projections from founders of the now-defunct Norvun Devolution club night. Stamatakis-Brown aims to offset the music with visuals of people using the looms in the museum, inspired by witnessing a woman there visibly ‘playing’ her loom like an instrument. “There’s going to be a beautiful crossover of the source material projections of the looms working alongside a live stream of the musicians playing their instruments. So images of someone playing the keys on a saxophone or me on the piano will be overlaid with the looms working.” The concept of the night is a very literal experience of people dancing in a club to actual sampled sounds and images of working life. Stamatakis-Brown wants to replicate the experience of going clubbing and create sonic and visual connections between dance culture and the industrial workplace. He notes that “dance music is completely tied in with its cultural placement – friends of mine who are into dance music don’t listen to it at home. They listen to it when they go out,” and he is hopeful that the realisation of Cottonopolis as an immersive, multisensory event will reflect that. While the performance is not going to be a house or techno event in the traditional sense, Stamatakis-Brown tells us that “it should feel like an alternative club night; it won’t be like a banging Ibiza mega-party, but it should be quite fun,” and he has fittingly selected a venue (which, at this point, is being kept strictly under wraps) that “provides just the right balance between the workhouse and the club environment.” Although Stamatakis-Brown is focused primarily on Cottonopolis for the foreseeable future, he continues to tour with his other groups over the summer. What is most exciting, however, is his determination that if Cottonopolis is well received he will look to reproduce the event. “It will massively depend on the reception it gets, and how the musicians feel playing it, and how I feel about it, but I’ve put more hours into this project already than anything else for one gig, so being able to put it on again would be ideal.” Given its celebration of Manchester’s industrial history, and the importance of community reflected in its clubbing culture, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea at all.

but notes that his time as a member of Haçienda Classical has provided significant inspiration. “Haçienda Classical has been a big influence, in that I’ve started to play some dance music which I’ve never done before. Watching the crowd’s reaction at Haçienda Classical shows has given me insight into how people respond to that sort of music, and so the grooves that I heard in the cotton mill video will be a facet of the performance to a certain extent.”

“ It should feel like an alternative club night; it won’t be like a banging Ibiza mega-party, but it should be quite fun” Andy Stamatakis-Brown

Sonically, the composition combines these tight dance music-inspired grooves with the improvisation expected of a jazz gig, and when we speak Stamatakis-Brown explains that the majority

Cottonopolis will be performed at a mystery location, Manchester, 3 Aug

Photo: Jo Mair

The Manchester Jazz Festival runs at various venues in Manchester, 28 Jul-6 Aug

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manchesterjazz.com facebook.com/pg/andystamatakisbrown

THE SKINNY

July 2017

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Best in (Degree) Show Manchester School of Art degree show doesn’t mark the end for its final year students, but suggests a long and bright future for many of them in their chosen fields

his year, Manchester School of Art have titled their degree show You Made It. With branding designed by alumni design duo DR.ME, the title acts as both congratulations for the students and excellent signposting for prospective visitors; in bright fluorescent yellow and red, it is pretty hard to miss. Vibrant colours and fluorescent tones are the chosen pallets of Textile in Practice graduate Ibukunoluwa Jesusanmi, whose playful character-based illustrations of men and women have been digitally printed and made into bean bags. The characters, either slumped over one another or reclining flat on the floor have hand embroidered expressions of pure bliss. Florence Pinsent, similarly, uses colour, print, pattern and quilting to bring to life everyday scenarios; a bustling street scene and the comforting sight of dinner laid out on a floral tablecloth. Comfort is the starting point for Three Dimensional Design student Kitty Jones who has produced wearable items for adults that are socially acceptable objects used to soothe worries or anxieties. Magnets and ball bearings disguised in contemporary jewellery allow the wearer to discreetly interact with the jewellery, providing them with a sense of reassurance. Also from the course are Jahday Ford and Joseph Hillary, who have collaborated using both traditional craft methods and digital processes to produce beautiful glass vessels that are a visualisation of the craftsman’s breath as it travels down the iron blowpipe. Their individual work also deserves a mention. Hillary’s hand-marbled top tripod table combines contemporary living trends with the honesty of hand craftsmanship. And Ford’s angular glassworks in vibrant colours are quite unlike anything else we’ve seen. This year the curation of the Fashion showcase makes an impact. Garments from the

graduates’ final collections are hung on metal structures alongside neon strip lights mirroring the stage design for the graduate’s final collection show. Susan Forrest’s colourful sheepskin jacket and Bethan Currie’s use of faux fur and anti-nuclear protest slogans and imagery stand out particularly. Photography graduate Daniel Ariza takes the distinctive image of a lunar crater and uses it to cover the height of the Vertical Gallery wall. Broken into five hanging barriers, it is an image that is so familiar to all of us, yet most of us have never been there. Of course, nor has Ariza; he takes archive NASA documentary photography from the first moon landing and gives us the opportunity to have our first experience of the moon’s surface, up close. Over in the Grosvenor building Laura Southgate from Fine Art and Art History creates absurdist sculptures. The fleshy forms reach up out of the floor or down from a plinth, preening into mirrors with a pair of joggle eyes. These strange and unnerving forms have a familiarity to them: is it our own narcissism that we see reflected back in the mirror? Creative Practice graduate Lisa Baraona’s series of small stitched drawings on fabric in muted tones with rough edges show surreal scenarios and nude characters presented over seven panels. There’s an innocence to her pieces, which with the threads hanging loose from behind the panels seem to be an internal observation of these events, almost like pages in a diary. In the same room, Thomas Heaton’s mark-making and painterly gestures on MDF board are supported on a wooden structure allowing the viewer to walk around and observe all angles of the painting – inviting us to consider how an artwork is made up of more than just the paint on board. Upstairs, Ffion Taverner from Fine Art

presents an installation of fabric, earth, flowers and rope, which explores the materiality of each individual components. Placed together these elements reveal a process that is almost performative; a landscape admired becomes the palette for the artist, which in turn has become a painting that the viewer can move around and experience beyond just observing. Taking a more traditional approach to painting, Emily Straw uses collage techniques with an on trend colour palette to produce paintings that are very pleasing to the eye. Hair always has been a contested ground for women, and downstairs in the basement of the Grosvener building Tulani Hlalo explores the politics of black hair and conforming to beauty standards. Pink walls and a black and white checkerboard floor bring to mind the setting of a 50s beauty parlour and twelve identical straight blonde wigs sit on top of twelve identical casts of the artist’s head. In the corner a video plays showing a rural setting with twelve blonde wigs hung in the trees, gently blowing in the wind, highlighting

his year, Salford University presents its degree show in the impressive New Adelphi Building, showcasing not only the work of the graduating class, who have spent their first and final year in the building, but also their new facilities. Across two floors of the mint fresh building, visitors can explore an impressive array of work from the School of Arts and Media. Drawing inspiration from Wolfgang Tillmans, the photographs from the Fashion Image Making and Styling exhibition are hung in clusters on boards painted in a soft pink. Konstantino Zarveri presents images of masculine fragility through soft focus close up pictures. Ellen Roberts, meanwhile, disrupts our view by covering statues in sheets, bringing into question whether the way in which we present ourselves is who we really are. Curated by similarities in theme or colour rather than by the artist, the exhibition is an exploration of how image, visual culture and clothing can be used to convey a lifestyle and aesthetic identity. Culture and identity are also issues explored over in the Photography graduate showcase. Abigail Bleasdale draws focus on the representation of 21st century lesbians via portraits of women on Manchester’s Canal Street. Conversely, Joe Gregory chooses not to show his subjects but instead explores them through the staff of the private members club they attend, investigating what success looks like. By not revealing his subjects, Gregory maintains the hierarchy that naturally comes with wealth and success: between

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the staff who serve to look after the members, us – the viewer – as outsiders, and the subject, who are elevated high out of the photograph. Round in Visual Arts, Elliot Flanagan takes a look at Northern identity and the representation of the working class. His film, which takes the form of found archive film footage and video by the artist, is housed in a stage prop ginnel and successfully portrays a distinct portrait of Northernness. More introspectively, Helen Woolstencroft looks at her own past through family photographs, which are reproduced in a handmade book and screen-printed on to a child’s dress. The garment, a reproduction by the artist of a dress worn by her grandmother in one of the photos, acts as a totem: a symbol of the family’s migration and a narrative about how the artist sees herself as a mother, daughter and granddaughter. Similarly, Lubna Ali’s prints draw on her heritage using Islamic geometry to produce contemporary minimalist prints. The things we consume and the objects we own are also part of what forms our identity, but for Visual Art students Mark Backhouse and April Smith, objects have become part of their visual language. Discarded objects become mark-making tools for Blackhouse, which he uses to create fragmented reliefs. Smith, meanwhile, takes a softer approach by transforming items of clothing and fabric into tall bulking human-like forms. These strange but familiar shapes perhaps explore how our identities are formed through

just how unnatural these blonde wigs are. On the opposite side of the basement, Liam Fallon’s sculptural work takes centre stage. Fallon’s work uses materiality to explore queer culture and masculinity. A steel track bursts through a monolithic structure cracking the soft terracotta brick front to reveal a vivid blue interior. In creating this movement through the piece, Fallon invites the viewer to walk round to the rear of the sculpture and with your eyes follow the steel track up and out through the other side. The Manchester School of Art degree show certainly does not disappoint, and as always, it invites a second viewing to really appreciate the breadth of work on display. The 2017 graduates should be proud they’ve made it! With several prizes up for grabs, and opportunities for exhibitions and residencies after they have graduated, the degree show doesn’t mark the end – it signals the beginning. degreeshow.mmu.ac.uk

Emily Straw

A trip to Salford’s Create at Salford degree show reveals students with a strong visual language, and in the New Adelphi Building, a space in which these artists’ creativity has been allowed to thrive

Words: Ali Gunn

the things we consume. In the work of Claudia Alonso and Daniel Wiltshire, the construction – or deconstruction – of form is a process driven by materiality. For Alonso, her textile sculptures celebrate form and show an admiration for the material and process she uses. Whereas for Wiltshire, it is the deconstruction and abstraction of digital images that take centre stage, with glitching and bending data used to create a mesmerising video. Downstairs, Interior Design students look towards solutions for migration. Asia Aliwa has conceptualised the Hexad Shelter, an environmentally friendly, temporary dwelling for refugees displaced due to war or environmental disaster. Where Aliwa’s project looks at how to solve problems today, Eszter Romsics looks to the future, creating an accommodation pod to support human life on Mars. Using an emotional approach towards design, Romsics’ shelter draws on geometry found in nature to create a space that is fitting for its environment. Over in Graphic Design, Tara Collette uses words found on her course and presumably from her colleagues and tutors, and turns them into slogans and mantras. Lines of text Risograph printed on to fluorescent paper beam out at you, and you can almost hear someone saying it: ‘There’s more to life than Risograph and G.F Smith.’ Banners are traditional folk art used by marching trade unions, but here Collette uses them to lead her fellow students saying, ‘FUCK

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Words: Ali Gunn THE GRADE.’ Also exploring traditional craft in Graphic Design is Katie Riddle. Using needle felting she has produced a quilt featuring all the flags of the EU member countries; a sight of comfort amid the complete mess that is Brexit. Other standout work comes from Amrit Randhawa, who uses a DIY aesthetic to dismantle and reconstruct well known consumer logos, and Callum Dawes, who takes us down the rabbit hole with his reworked Alice in Wonderland book – the artist’s approach is to manipulate Lewis Carroll’s lines into surreal forms, making it almost impossible to read. It could have been disrupting for these students to move into new studios and workshops in their final year, but their work speaks volumes: they clearly took the upheaval in their stride. Throughout the artists demonstrate a strong visual language: they have shown themselves to be a determined cohort of creative practitioners. It will be exciting to see what the future holds for them. As a postscript, it will also be interesting to see how future students use the New Adelphi Building. Will all the students being under one roof help create a cross pollination of ideas and skills? Hopefully now the School of Art and Media has found a permanent home, it will only lead to good things.

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It’s that time of year again. Creeping up on the unsuspecting public it at once feels familiar, like the signal for summer to attempt to begin in earnest. June marks the beginning of degree show season up and down the UK for undergraduate students, with Leeds College of Art being no exception

itting comfortably mid-schedule between the degree shows of the other two academic institutions in the city – Leeds Beckett University and the University of Leeds – here the BA (Hons) Fine Art course at Leeds College of Art presents its collective contribution, Once More with Feeling. Taking over part of the ground floor of the College’s Blenheim Walk space the cavernous studios and workshops have been temporarily re-designed into a labyrinthine warren of stud walls, occasionally disrupted by a rogue sink in the corner of a room that reminds visitors of exactly where they are. Sinks aside, the rest of the temporary architectural interventions have seemingly been meticulously decided on to make the most of the building’s internal space, in turn providing students with an ample backdrop within and upon which to display their work. The title of the exhibition itself presents an ambiguously endearing challenge to both visitor and participant. Are the soon to be graduates inviting the public to their degree show on the promise of something different? Something to interrupt the monotony of the same themes being played and re-played throughout recent generations of students with only venues and aesthetic trends differing marginally? Are the students collectively challenging themselves to a last push before the ‘freedom’ of having full autonomy in the world outside of education, along with the difficult choices of how and if to continue their practice which most will undoubtedly face in the near future? Or does it in fact refer to the re-hangs that the College imposes on all students once assessments have taken place? As a provocative challenge to students, the institution allows them to install their work however they wish for their final assessment but then enforces multiple re-hangs before the degree show opens to the public. Although an overarching curatorial stricture many institutions practice, at the College it somehow feels different. There is a clear sense of purpose to the method. It is not just to make students refine their selection for the general public; it is to begin to make them think seriously about their practice for their post-

graduation existence. One student typifying this process is Aidan Qvinn, whose installation effuses a slick contemporaneity that would look at home in most gallery spaces, producing a cohesive display that draws the viewer in to investigate the individual components in greater depth. The placement of the work comprising videos, sound narration, cut MDF, plastic shapes and wall-mounted vinyl seems considered yet playful, exploring the increasingly blurred boundaries between the physical and digital worlds. The work exists in a flux of dialogue between these two worlds where they have begun to blend into an almost seamless whole, never truly being able to separate real from digital, facts from created fictions. From the playful and somewhat sardonic approach of Qvinn the use of narration as the

Words: James Schofield

grounding of a piece is no more explicitly apparent than in the work of Rachel South. Faint traces of a woman’s voice can be heard emanating from the canvas curtains draping the entrance to her installation, where once inside the viewer is confronted with an environment filled entirely of bulbous flesh coloured cushions. Enveloped in the womb-like surrounds the narrator’s voice can be heard recounting tales form multiple antagonists. As the narrator continues the autobiographical tales become increasingly more violent with a constant undertone of sexual energy and underlying aggression not far from the surface. What felt like a safe space suddenly takes on an unnerving quality as you are forced to listen to the excision of personal demons. The dark psychoanalytical content of South’s work relating to the formation of self and identity

Romily Walden

is aesthetically inverted a few metres away in the work of Romily Walden. Gone are the grimy hues, instead replaced by the dazzling warmth of peachy neon female forms sat atop polished concrete plinths. Although outwardly brighter upon closer inspection dialogues of gendered gaze, production value and Foucauldian power struggles quickly emerge, furthering the contemporaneous identity debates present within South’s work and that of others in their wider peer group. What initially appears an idealisation of the female form quickly becomes a deft blend of feminist theoretical concerns that doesn’t allow the viewer to ever become truly comfortable with what they are looking at. At times like this it would be disingenuous and daunting to praise a degree show or certain selection of its participants too highly, giving the soon to be graduates too much potential to live up to, especially given there are often such disparities between the theoretical and practical qualities of the works of the students themselves. Although there is a small group of undoubtedly more outwardly talented practitioners (as is the same with every year of students), it must be highlighted that there is a higher standard throughout this 2017 peer group than that of the other academic institutions of the city. The most interesting thing about degree shows however, and Once More with Feeling typifies this, is not whose work the visitors think is best but who in fact will continue to develop their practice and look back at this particular show as a departure point rather than the pinnacle of their practice to date. Once More with Feeling provides an honest overview of the 2017 Leeds College of Art student body, reflecting how the quality of teaching has informed and equipped the students to transition from an environment dedicated solely to learning to one where they will have to rely on their work ethic and drive to do so independently. Although it is no easy task for anyone, let alone soon to be former undergraduate students, the potential on show provides a healthy dose of optimism for the future.

Degree show season begins with Liverpool John Moores fine art show, which offers up transportative large-scale installations, screen-printed teepees and righteous fabric works, as well as pieces made using more traditional practices

e’re clambering up steps into a large wooden structure. Intrigued by the sound of trickling water, a peek into the darkness reveals a projection of babbling water and dripping paint; a hidden rock-pool nestled in the gallery. Immersive pieces like Rory Larbalestier’s Our Specimens are popular at this year’s LMJU Fine Art Degree Show. Many of the students have created affective environments drawing audiences into elaborate installations – some more successfully than others. Hannah Jenkins produces large-scale installations designed to transport audiences. Jenkins recreated a student flat – complete with gaudy sofa, naff flat-pack furniture and TV – which appears to critique the fashion industry. The installation as a whole is engaging and effective, however the many pages of fashion magazines adorning the walls and floor detracts from the most successful aspect of the piece – the video work looping on the TV and projection. A standout piece is My Shed, by Hannah Booth. A teepee-like structure built with delicately screen-printed fabric, beautifully animated by the breeze entering through the open doors and windows. My Shed attempts to alter and push

July/August 2017

the realms of traditional printmaking. The work, Booth explains, is “concerned with space and form, investigating possibilities of occupying and owning a space with print” and the result is incredibly playful, conjuring up memories of building dens as a child. Similarly, another great piece utilising movement and fabric – that’s causing quite the stir during our visit – is Katie Wilson’s Face Facts. Shimmering swathes of fabric hang from the ceiling emblazoned with text that documents feminist and misogynist quotes and phrases. Moving between the layers to read the handwritten and hand-stitched text, it becomes clear that the fabric is hung out like washing drying on the line. This reference to washing clothes – which is “historically and culturally understood as women’s work,” Wilson notes – is used to install and stage the work. But on closer inspection, viewers are met with texts that put “a range of views on subjects, like sexual violence and abortion, into dialogue with each other”. Worryingly, many of the texts are direct quotes from social and political leaders: “The rape thing does not excuse abortions;” “Women are ‘equally responsible’ for crimes committed against them”;

and “Women exist solely for the propagation of the species” are a few of the phrases. Face Facts does a great job of foregrounding difficult gender discourses in the public sphere, and watching the audience contemplate and discuss the statements prove the work successful – it got people talking. However, not all the pieces in the show are installations. Several artists showcase more traditional practices such as the work of Brice Krizoua and Luke George, who have both produced paintings. Krizoua’s paintings depict figures in vivid colour, while in complete contrast, George’s paintings are delicate pastel abstracts. In addition to the exhibition, the students have also produced ‘A Fine-Art Appendix’, which acts in lieu of a degree show catalogue. This piece, however, has been designed to accompany the exhibition, not ‘explain’ it. Through a series of seminars, each of the artists were invited to consider writing and publishing as an extension of their art works, resulting in a beautifully produced publication comprising of essays, poems and experimental texts. While the students’ unique take on the traditional catalogue is to be applauded, there’s not a lot in the exhibition to help

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Words: Jade French

audiences connect with the actual art work in the gallery; a real downside to the show is that much of the work can only be enjoyed on face value. Overall, however, this is an engaging and diverse showcase. The ambition of the students is impressive, not just for their many elaborate installations, but their willingness to explore difficult and thorny debates.

Katie Wilson

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Saints, Dragons & Spooks Ain’t Them Bodies Saints director David Lowery returns with a ghost story like you’ve never seen before

ou might imagine most directors coming from a large project would want to take some time off. Not David Lowery. Over the past five years, the Texas-based filmmaker has been directing non-stop. Two days after completing work on his heartfelt reboot of Disney film Pete’s Dragon, he went straight to work on a more personal feature, A Ghost Story, a profound meditation on the nature of loss, love and existence in a story where houses are haunted by ghosts draped in white sheets with holes for eyes, making them look something like a parent’s last ditch attempt at a Halloween costume. With A Ghost Story, Lowery is once again reunited with Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara, with whom he collaborated on the modernist Western Ain’t Them Bodies Saints. The story follows a 30something couple whose lives are transformed by tragedy when the enigmatically named ‘C’ (Affleck) is killed in a car accident a few feet from his home. He awakens on a hospital gurney draped in a sheet, gets up and sorrowfully wanders back to his home to find his girlfriend, ‘M’ (Mara). Wandering across a field in the early hours of the morning, he looks like the sort of cartoonish spook regularly pursued by the Mystery Inc. van. “I love Scooby-Doo ghosts!” begins Lowery excitedly. “I don’t know where the idea came from, but it has been bubbling in my mind for a long time.” When he says a long time, he means it. The 36-year-old director recounts old script and

July/August 2017

short film ideas from years ago that all contained a ‘sheet ghost’ of some sort. “I thought about making a very traditional horror movie, something like The Conjuring or Poltergeist – the idea would be to make it as scary as possible but there would be this sheet ghost in it.” His new film couldn’t be accused of being scary. You quickly learn that this ghost isn’t the bump-in-the-night, scare you out of your wits type. Instead, Lowery wanted to take the iconic sheet ghost image and produce something more brooding. “There is something about taking the image of the classic children’s costume and using it in a serious fashion that has always appealed to me.” Lowery is well aware that at first glance the central premise is pretty wacky. “It always made me laugh, we all recognised how goofy the idea was.” Goofy it may be, but how did the director convince Casey Affleck to take a role where he would be hidden for much of the movie? “I texted him saying, ‘Do you want to come to Texas and make this ghost movie where you will be under a sheet?’ and he just text back, ‘Okay’” – it’s an exchange that speaks volumes of the pair’s close working relationship. But directing an actor in a large white sheet with a couple of holes for eyes proved to be more of a challenge than Lowery had expected. “It’s a lot more akin to operating a puppet than directing an actor,” he says. In fact, Lowery ended up having to rein in Affleck’s performance. “I believed before we started shooting that we would see

Casey’s performance through the sheet, and that was what we pursued early on.” It didn’t work. “[I] had to strip back Casey’s performance. It came down to a great deal of technical specificity and almost zero emotional investment. I would say, ‘Move your head an inch to the left and then stand still for five minutes.’”

“ We all recognised how goofy the idea was” David Lowery

Central to the film is the theme of time passing. We see Affleck’s ghost sorrowfully watch as his girlfriend moves on and new residents move in and out of their old home; all the while he’s unable to affect what happens before his dead eyes. “I am fascinated by the idea that time is a physical dimension that we have the potential to transcend. The idea of breaking through that and being able to move in any direction fascinates me.” The director also wanted to make sure there was an emotional response to the grand ideas at the centre of the movie. “On an emotional level, it is incredibly resonant. I’m not fascinated in H.G. Wells’ time travel to change things, rather it is the idea – to use Kurt Vonnegut’s term ‘Unstuck in Time’

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Interview: Joseph Walsh

– to transcend the idea of linear progress or thought. I didn’t want to make a grand statement about those ideas, rather I just wanted to explore it.” For all A Ghost Story’s philosophical concepts, Lowery does inject a great deal of heart into the film. In part, it’s due to the choice of music, including the sorrowful single I Get Overwhelmed, by Dark Rooms, which is used in a lynchpin scene of heartbreaking beauty. “When I was working on Pete’s Dragon, Daniel Hart, who wrote the score for the film, played a song for me that he had just recorded for his band’s new album. It blew my mind. The lyrics of the song don’t really apply that much to the movie, but the tone of the song is exactly in line with what I wanted to do with the film, and I knew it would become a defining aspect of it.” Unsurprisingly, Lowery is already at work editing his next project, also featuring Casey Affleck. Based on David Grann’s New Yorker article Old Man and the Gun, it’s a film that is taking him in another direction. “It is different, it’s mostly a comedy, it’s light hearted,” explains Lowery. “When we were shooting it, I kept on wanting to go in the opposite direction of where my instincts wanted to take me. I wanted to see how far I could push myself out of my comfort zone. I still think that it will feel like one of my movies but it is different.” A Ghost Story is released 11 Aug by Picturehouse Entertainment

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Down with the Sickness The Big Sick, a quirky love story drawn from real life, is one of the year’s funniest comedies. Director Michael Showalter tells us about balancing laughs and drama for his third feature as director

“I

think the writing and directing is more natural for me; it’s a more comfortable place.” The Skinny is talking to Michael Showalter, the American comedian, actor, producer, writer and director, ahead of the international premiere of his latest directorial effort, The Big Sick, at the Sundance London film festival. “And I suppose,” he continues, “it’s just been a natural journey. As you get more serious about it, you sort of figure out what part of the process you like the most, and I really like being behind the camera the most. The writing process, the whole production side of it is really where I’ve found the most enjoyment.” Showalter first came to prominence in the mid-90s as a cast member on MTV sketch series The State, which he co-wrote and co-created alongside various other enduring figures of the American comedy scene – Michael Ian Black, Ken Marino, Thomas Lennon and Joe Lo Truglio among them. Considering that The State didn’t get much in the way of an airing outside the US, Showalter may be more recognisable to UK viewers for another cult comedy favourite from a few years later: Wet Hot American Summer, a 2001 send-up of 80s summer camp movies, featuring a stacked ensemble of talent that only gets more impressive with time – it features some of the earliest roles of Bradley Cooper and Elizabeth Banks. A critical and commercial failure upon release, the increasing fandom for Wet Hot American Summer saw it recently revived as a Netflix series, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, which brought back all the main cast for a prequel narrative, despite everyone (including Showalter himself) looking visibly older – well, except for Paul Rudd, that man never ages. A follow-up series, Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later, is on

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the way for later this year, with Showalter once again co-writing with director David Wain (Role Models, Wanderlust). “They’re involved a little bit,” Showalter says of Netflix, “they read the scripts and they come to our table reads and they’ll give us input, but they’re pretty hands off, which is great.” Showalter and Wain also collaborated on Wain’s last feature as a director: the glorious romantic comedy spoof They Came Together. Showalter’s own career as a director, now three theatrical features deep, has tended to favour romantic comedies, albeit on a more dramatic register than the skewering he helped write for They Came Together. The new film, The Big Sick, is one of the best entries in the genre in quite some time. This, however, is not a movie he wrote, with screenwriting duty instead assigned to married couple Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani, who bring to the screen a version of how their real-life relationship began. Zoe Kazan plays the film version of Emily, but Nanjiani, a stand-up comedian and one of the stars of HBO’s Silicon Valley, is the lead of the movie. We ask Showalter if there’s any strange element to directing the writer of the movie, who is also playing a version of himself? “Yeah,” he answers. “I mean I’ve done it myself – where I’ve had the added benefit of having played myself in things, too (directorial debut The Baxter). The interesting part would be where sometimes he’d say, ‘I’m feeling this way in the scene,’ and I’d say, ‘I think he’s feeling like this in the scene.’ And we would talk it out and have a conversation about it, but Kumail was very prepared, was working really hard on his performance on his own time; he’s very up to the challenge.” On the topic of Nanjiani playing himself,

Showalter assures us there was no case of shying away from an unflattering portrait: “I think we tried to take the true story of what really happened and who Kumail really is and shape it into something that would also work as entertainment. But I’m sure that there’s an extent to which you write a version of yourself that has certain qualities that maybe are the fulfilment of some aspiration of who you wanna be. But we tried to make sure his character was flawed and multi-dimensional and all those things.” First act spoilers ahoy for the following elaboration on the film’s true story source (it’s in the trailer, anyway): born in Pakistan, Nanjiani moved to the US when he was 18, and in the early 2000s started dating Caucasian American Gordon. Cultural differences, particularly the matter of arranged marriage in Pakistani culture, caused a rift in their relationship and they broke up. Not long after, Gordon ended up having to be put into a medically induced coma, courtesy of an unclear illness. Regretting their relationship’s fallout, Nanjiani ended up bonding with Gordon’s parents (played onscreen by Holly Hunter and Ray Romano) in the hospital. And for the rest of the story, you’ll have to see the movie. It’s a heavy premise for a comedy, but The Big Sick is consistently hilarious alongside being moving. “The movie was always written to be this sort of in-between place,” Showalter tells us of editing the film just right. “It always needed to be funny, and so it was never a problem of it being not dramatic enough. It was always a question of how to make it funnier, because the drama is so inherent because of what’s happening in the story. Editing goes on for months and you try this out and you try that out – hey, let’s go back and

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Interview: Josh Slater-Williams look at the scene and add in three more jokes here. [Producer] Judd Apatow really brings a lot of expertise around finding every possible moment to put a joke in.” Thematically, The Big Sick is a lot about difference and understanding each other, and also, in a way, about what America is – this melting pot of cultures. In light of the various disconcerting political developments over the last year, we ask Showalter if he feels anything about the film’s emotional core has changed in the wake of Trump’s America. “When I was working on the movie in preproduction, Obama was still the President and even then it felt very important, because there was this feeling – this swell of negative, anti-immigrant sentiment existed. And the election was ramping up and there was all of this rhetoric, this negative rhetoric coming, and it felt like an important statement to make.” He pauses. “Little did we know. “So everything that was important about it prior to now has just been amplified. It’s not new, it’s more just that instead of reinforcing a positive message, we’re actually making a positive message in a vacuum right now. So I’m really happy about that. I’m really proud that we’re doing that and that this movie is coming out when it is at a time where I think, hopefully, people need that. But I’m also sad that we’re where we are.” As our time wraps up, we figure it best to leave things on a lighter note. A film pitch, then: can we please get They Came Together: Ten Years Later? Showalter’s response: “Sure, that’s a great idea.” You can say that again. The Big Sick is released 28 Jul by StudioCanal

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July 2017

March of the Pigs Director Bong Joon-ho on genetic modification, Okja and that Netflix controversy

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omeone said it’s very difficult to define, this movie. For me, that is the biggest praise.” South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho is speaking of his latest project, but such a query of genre and tonal classification could easily be applied to most of his prior features as a director – from debut Barking Dogs Never Bite to Memories of Murder, The Host, Mother and Snowpiercer. With pretty much all of them, you think you know what you’re going to get based on a glance at the plot synopsis, only for a considerably different beast to emerge during viewing; sometimes multiple different beasts. Speaking of beasts, Bong’s new film, Okja, has one at its centre: a massive, genetically modified ‘super pig’ named Okja, who is the best friend of young Korean girl Mija (Ahn Seo-hyun). After ten idyllic years of caretaking and companionship on Mija’s grandfather’s farm in the mountains, the multinational conglomerate Mirando Corporation come calling for Okja as part of the finale of a decade-long publicity campaign, spearheaded by image-obsessed CEO Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton). The super pig is to be shipped off to New York for the big event, but also an eventual fate, alongside others of her kind, as a new delicacy for the food industry. Single-minded in intent, Mija sets out on a rescue mission to bring Okja home, crossing paths with a grotesque celebrity TV vet (Jake Gyllenhaal, channelling Sharlto Copley) and the Animal Liberation Front, led by Jay (Paul Dano), who also wants to save Okja and take down the Mirando Corporation. “Some people might think that it’s a Disney film or a children’s film at first,” Bong tells us of possible audience expectations, “and later find out it’s very gory and explicit. That might befuddle them quite some bit.” Indeed, though Okja would potentially be fine viewing for older children (the bad language is barely worse than in beloved 80s family classics), its moments of animal cruelty could prove nightmare fuel in a kid. And some adults, too, which seems to have been the inten-

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tion. “Usually in films, there are two ways that animals are dealt [with],” says Bong. “One is this pet-like animal, and the other category is explicitly showing the slaughtering and butchering of animals. What I wanted to do in this film was merge those two categories together. We can call this movie some kind of adventure, but at the same time, as Thierry Frémaux said at Cannes [where the film had its world premiere], it’s a very political movie at the same time.” The political element will come back up later, but first we want to ask Bong a little more about the piggy in the middle of his new movie. His 2006 film The Host was centred on a sea monster emerging from Seoul’s Han River and terrorising the local population. With Okja, he’s once again working with a new species created for a film, but the eponymous animal is no outlandish-looking creature of menace. Okja is a cute, shy critter; one whose look seems a plausible evolutionary step for animals already roaming the planet. We wonder if it’s any more difficult to design a creature of that kind, rather than something in the monster movie mould. “Yeah, the approach is very different,” Bong tells us. “The most important thing about this animal was that she was very innocent and being mistreated. What I wanted from the audience was to question why such an animal, who looks so kind-hearted and innocent, must suffer like this.” Design inspiration for Okja’s expressions came from a somewhat unlikely source: “We adapted the feeling of the face from manatees – it looks very calm and shy and looks introverted. Although manatees live underwater, I could almost imagine them sweating under the water – manatees feel like a person who never really did anything wrong but is always very guilty and sweating in the process.” This is followed by Bong doing an impression of a seemingly guilt-ridden manatee that will remain a personal interviewing highlight for this writer. Next comes the topic of Okja as a vision of

the future in a similar fashion to Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men: a hypothetical, plausible, very near future where the human race will have to face something that is unavoidable – in Okja’s case, the depletion of natural resources for capitalism to exploit. Bong suggests he never actually considered Okja as a sci-fi film, “because maybe in Canada, or the States, they already invented the GM salmon and they’re ready to launch products from these GM salmon. And, as you may know, GM corn has already dominated the world; it’s all over the world. And there’s a certain company that created this GM corn that Mirando is modelled after, although I cannot say it verbally because of legal issues.

“ We all love watching movies in the theatre, on Netflix, via Amazon, iTunes and cable TV and many things. It just all co-exists” Bong Joon-ho

“So I do feel like it’s very close to reality,” he elaborates, “so much so that it is now and it is reality. I feel that they’re going to move from GM crops to GM animals. I also, during the filmmaking process, met with people who studied and who experimented with GM animals. So when I was making the film, I expected maybe this kind of thing was going to be a big controversy, but instead of this, Netflix became the controversy.

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Interview: Josh Slater-Williams

But anyway, it’s good. The worst thing is indifference; I’m happy about all the attention.” Ah yes, the streaming elephant in the room. Okja is one of Netflix’s bigger titles to date when it comes to features the company is funding alongside distributing. It and Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories were the first Netflix titles to be up for the Palme d’Or, but ire from French cinema chains has seen Netflix films barred from main Cannes competition going forward. Thanks to a French law prohibiting films from streaming online for three years after their theatrical release, Netflix has opted not to release any of their original films in French cinemas. “The problem is me and Noah Baumbach never studied the French law of the theatres,” Bong jokes of the controversy. “Maybe we should have. The people in the government and the legal institutions and the distribution industries, it’s their job to figure that issue out. I think Netflix executives always watch movies on the big screen with their families on the weekend. I think, also, French theatre association people, they all have the Netflix account. We all love watching movies in the theatre, on Netflix, via Amazon, iTunes and cable TV and many things. It just all co-exists. But I do feel they should come up with a proper relationship and the regulations to sort them out. “As a writer and director,” he continues, “it’s just a very good other option, making movies with Netflix or Amazon. Especially the global directors who want to make films that are a little bit unique. For example, Okja – all the studios hesitated to support this film, finance this. And also some small, independent financiers loved the script a lot but, for them, the budget was too big. This kind of middle-sized budget, unique story movie, supported by Netflix, with 100% creative control – from the beginning they gave me director’s final cut. It’s amazing, I’m so lucky. It’s a great chance for filmmakers like us.” Okja is available to view on Netflix, and will also be shown in select Curzon cinemas across the UK

THE SKINNY

Women and War W

hen Svetlana Alexievich won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2015, she surprised Anglophone critics across the literary world. The Belarusian author writes in Russian, creating books that are “a monument to suffering and courage in our time,” according to the chair of the Swedish Academy who awarded Alexievich the highest award for literary endeavour. Her work overrides the limits of literary genre and weaves together fiction, testimony and reportage to chronicle stories from history’s disasters and traumas. The best example of her hybrid writing is perhaps Voices from Chernobyl, which brings the oral history of the environmental tragedy vividly to life and stays on your mind long after you turn the final page. Under the spotlight of her award win and the interested gaze of the literary glitterati, there is a rush to translate and publish Alexievich’s writing back catalogue. The next book in line is her longawaited The Unwomanly Face of War, a history of the women of World War Two that explores the role of women in war and the tangled relationship between violence and femininity. It’s easy to think that narratives about women and war merely focus on the home front and portray the devastating effects of violence on women at home. The familiar images of women taking the place of their male counterparts in the First and Second World Wars as ammunition factory workersandcarmechanicsareconjuredupwhenthinking about the position of British women during wartime. These stories are usually individualised

and personalised to show the ‘extraordinary’ ways in which women can break out of their domestic sphere when placed under unusual circumstances. Vera Brittain’s memoir Testament of Youth holds the marker as the go-to book for detailing the experience of British, middle-class women in the First World War. The popular and oft-repeated story of the young, future Queen (then Princess Elizabeth) joining the Auxiliary Territorial Service as a driver and mechanic during World War Two has similarly become a byword for the supposedly equalising and reorienting atmosphere of war. Cultural depictions of war often show the domain of war to be a decidedly masculine realm, where the male protector is forced to defend the nation state and the female members of society are forced to inhabit a helpless, secondary social position. Alternatively, women are allowed to temporarily reverse their subservient role to assist the war effort. In Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s searing novel about the Biafran war, Half of a Yellow Sun, the destructive impact of civil war forces the two protagonists, Olanna and Kainene, to leave their comfortable, professional lives and fight for survival amid poverty and the threat of rape in a lawless atmosphere of immense violence. They once again have to take primary responsibility for the family’s food supply and the children of the neighbourhood while their previous lives of university campuses and business deals seem very far away. The intelligence and economic status of Adichie’s protagonists helps them to endure

throughout the novel, but the outbreak of war moves them from a world of slow progress to a regressive place of social and gendered rigidity. While the masculine perception of war often separates men and women, the image of warrior women defending their country has always held a potent artistic currency. The story of Yazidi women and Kurds fighting ISIS gained lots of media coverage last year as the idea of IS fighters being scared of death by female hands sparked the interest of Western readers, whose idea of war is formed by the pictures of male-dominated TV military parades and fictitious superhero military characters like Captain America. The myths surrounding the bravery and brutality of figures like Joan of Arc, Queen Boudicca and Zenobia have long provided inspiration for artists and writers hoping to capture the exceptional circumstances in which women are allowed to transgress the female role assigned to them and become equal combatants to their male enemies. Mythic figures like Joan of Arc are unusual and notable as they break the idea of war as a male pursuit, but mythology about warrior women also tries to separate them from their femininity. Boudicca led a resistance to the forces of the Roman Empire and has been immortalised in stone with a statue near the Houses of Parliament in London. The story of Boudicca’s uprising provided inspiration for Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem Boadicea.

Words: Holly Rimmer-Tagoe

Tennyson’s poem makes the figure of Boudicca symbolic; her female body is unsexed and she comes to stand in for a sense of British defiance and resistance against tyranny. Her military prowess automatically makes her an unfeminine object, and she loses her womanhood and simply becomes a means to express vague notions of defiance and patriotism. Even as patriotic defenders, it seems that women are not allowed to be both female and successful. The role of women during wartime has always been a contested space where different ideas of femininity are played out. War re-establishes a gender hierarchy between the protector and protected, with women being used as bargaining tools and cast as helpless victims unable to defend themselves. However, the instability and fractures of war also turn the normal rules of gender upside down. The progress in female employment after the First and Second World Wars largely came about because so many asked why women couldn’t have jobs in peacetime if they were able to competently take on ‘male jobs’ during wartime. By telling the stories of women and war in their own words, Alexievich allows women to resist the portrayals placed upon them as helpless victims or mythic, manly defenders, and gives them a chance to define themselves. Svetlana Alexievich’s The Unwomanly Face of War is released on the 25 Jul, published by Penguin.

Women wartime firefighters

July/August 2017

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Credit: Creative Commons

An English translation of Svetlana Alexievich’s The Unwomanly Face of War got us thinking about representations of women in wartime

To Live & Die in LA Ryan Gattis’s Safe pulls readers once more into the violent slipstream of his LA riots novel All Involved, but in 2008 and the world has turned. The author talks safecracking, turf and the interpersonal skills of the LA underworld

ystopias are so in right now. So, you won’t have to cast your mind far to imagine Los Angeles engulfed in flames: the shrieking backdraft of violence this would suck through South Central. Roving armed gangs of guys with names like Big Fate, Apache and Trouble G, who might use the chaos as a vehicle for settling old scores – the consequences of past slights and underworld power plays spreading like wildfire and sticking like napalm. But remember, this was close to the reality of a rioting LA in 1992 – truth spun into fiction for Ryan Gattis’s kinetic unblinking masterpiece, All Involved. Gattis used the riots as a narrative map onto which he plotted intertwining lives: first-person viewpoints of nurses, firemen, and everyday citizens, but mainly the Latino gangbangers of Lynwood, who live by the rule that la clica es mi vida! (the gang is my life). Those such as the oh-so-loco Lil’ Creeper, who throws petrol (literally) on a city already ablaze, just to watch it burn. Or Watcher, the dead-eyed 12-year-old pusher and pimp, who when his lady is mistaken for his mother, spits back: “Fool, you better shut the fuck up… That’s my fresa, homes,” But All Involved hit shelves in 2015. So, now the problem. How can your follow-up outgun such a book? Answer: it can’t. So with the new novel, Safe, you zoom in, focus from All Involved’s 17 separate narrators down to two: Ghost, a DEA safecracker, who takes his skills off-grid to rob drug houses across South Central. And Glasses, the savvy yet conflicted gang lieutenant out to stop him and save his own neck from the cops and la clica. Even then, it’s not that simple. You still need fate to deal you a card: “I was actually researching a completely different book when I got a phone call one day,” explains Gattis, on the line from LA. “It changed my life, but it also gave me the idea for Safe.” A dramatic pause piques our curiosity: a phone call? “Yes sir,” he responds, formality punctuating his laid-back manner and betraying a Colorado military family background that’s a far different cultural rubric to the LA gangsters who populate his pages – those whom he befriended while researching his work. He tells the story: “Well I’ve stayed in contact with nearly everyone I did research and background with on All Involved, except for a couple of folks who passed away. So, I had a call one morning, a Sunday at about 6am, and I knew it was from a number I could not,” he pauses again, muses… “disregard.” Some nervous laughter. “I answer the phone, and the only question is ‘Hey, do you want to see a safe get cracked?’ The answer was obviously, yes!” So, he throws on clothes, drives to the address and knocks on the garage door. “I walked in, the door closed, and here I am, you know, standing in a garage with two safecrackers and a big safe. And I actually got to watch them work on it… it was basically understood that you can talk to us for the time we’re here and after that you’ll never see us again. “I asked no questions about where that safe was from, who owned it and where it was going… but I can tell you that both of those folks basically hold the job that Ghost held, as freelancers for a major government organisation. And the first question I asked was, do you ever get left alone?” His novelist’s intuition kicking in, a story already taking root. “Oh yeah, we get left alone,” they reply. “It’s a Hollywood myth that we never get left alone. We’re officers of the court, it’s normal.” So, Gattis

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Interview: Alan Bett Illustration: Xenia Latii

asks, does anyone ever come back to try and recover what’s in those safes – drugs, guns, cash? They tell him yeah, they do. And people pull guns to take back what’s theirs. Often? “Yeah, too many times to count.” And these safecrackers run through the psychology of talking somebody out of shooting them. “I put the other research aside and I started writing Safe that afternoon because I was so blown away by what they said.” While Safe moves from 1992 to 2008, and from wide lens to sharp focus, what remains constant is the turf the story is played upon. Lynwood, bordering on the better-known Compton, is where Gattis draws his characters and stories from – in the way that, as far as crime writing is concerned, Dennis Lehane is Boston and Richard Price is Jersey and New York.

“ The same things are true about fires in forests as in cities… It kills some things but it also provides opportunities for new things to grow” Ryan Gattis

“That’s a really interesting connection you’ve already made, simply with language.” Gattis offers back. “The concept of turf in the criminal community, especially in the LA gang community, is extremely important. Obviously, it was more important in the 80s and 90s where people would do some pretty despicable things simply in the name of territory. But I think, with crime, it’s always important to know the social background, I think crime writing of the highest order has a sense of the society in a given city, the problems, the history that’s presented in those scenarios.” The LA crime fraternity has a defined but evolving culture that, for authenticity, Gattis must study and know inside out. The way they look, talk and think, the interpersonal: “trying to catch the word choice, the sentence structure, the rhythm, the clauses… on top of that I would say, listening with my eyes… watching the language of gesture. The more and more time I spend with folks who have been gang affiliated and have lived in that world, there’s what they say, and what they communicate.” So, how does someone termed ‘a white-boy fiction writer from Colorado’ by those same exgangbangers, gain permission to tell their stories? His first connection to that world came through art. Gattis is part of the street art crew UGLAR, who years back had planned a mural, north of Downtown, in Lincoln Heights. “…that’s gang territory, and we actually had to talk to the folks in that particular gang in order to do that mural. That was a massive eye opener to me. We basically had a negotiation which was very professional… in terms of, hey this is what we’d like to do, is that OK?... The key is not to disrespect them in their own area. Cos we don’t live there, they do. They have to see that mural every day, so we have to be sure that it’s… something they can respect and not tag. And if it does get tagged we need

to go there and to be on it. We need to go fix it immediately to help send that message that we care about it and we care about you guys and your experience of it.” His second connection was through violence. “Lynwood…” he explains “it’s probably the place I’ve felt understood more than anywhere on Earth. That’s a weird thing to say unless I make it clear to people that I’m a survivor of violence.” When Gattis was 17 he was hit so hard by an American football player tripping on acid that his nose was actually ripped out. He had to endure two facial reconstruction surgeries and it was a year before he could taste and smell again. “My whole life, I tell people the story of what happened to me, I get pity or sympathy. Most of the time in Lynwood I get empathy. I’m with people who’ve been stabbed or shot. In some cases, stabbed and shot. And we connect as people who’ve been through grievous physical pain, it just builds such a bridge… it helps people introduce me to others, has me sit down with their families.” In both instances, the word is respect. Gattis tweeted out an LA Times story recently, suggesting that, 25 years since the last riot, a majority of citizens felt another was imminent. When I suggest fresh riots might be something the monstrous Lil’ Creeper would revel in, Gattis replies, maybe not,

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he might have changed in the intervening years. He sees, even in his most troubled character, the capacity for positive transformation – possibly an effect of dealing with reformed ex-gangbangers whose own lives form cathartic narrative arcs. “This notion of growth is so vital because I see it. You know, every single former gang member I spoke to for All Involved is definitely not the same person he or she was in the late 80s early 90s, no question. You know, life changes, and if you’re lucky you grow up and you keep living and you get better.” Some feel the city’s current renaissance has grown from the fertile ashes of ’92. “The same things are true about fires in forests as in cities… It kills some things but it also provides opportunities for new things to grow,” Gattis suggests, while acknowledging the complexity of the situation and unsure of which communities will actually benefit. But in his writing, he describes a resilient, phoenix-like city – possibly a metaphor for those interviewees and now friends, who escaped the inferno of gang life – that will ‘push right through the flames and come out the other side of them as something broken and pretty and new.' Safe publishes on 27 Jul, from Pan Macmillan, RRP £12.99 Ryan Gattis will be appearing at Edinburgh International Book Festival, 15 Aug, 2pm, 17 Aug, 7pm

THE SKINNY

New York State of Mind Crime epics are US author Don Winslow’s stock in trade. With his most recent, The Force, he moves the narrative from his well-trodden setting of the Mexican borderlands to New York, exploring police corruption in the rotten apple

here’s a certain symmetry to the two author interview that The Skinny conducted over the last week. Both US writers of violent, technicolour crime novels. One East, one West. Ryan Gattis came first, and his LA gangster tale Safe is reflected in Don Winslow’s New York cop epic The Force. Each novel an inverted negative of the other – both very much of and about their opposing cities. Gattis suggested that his work was informed by LA’s wide-open spaces – the narrative dictated by the need to drive. Winslow’s subject may be a more compact city, but his actual interview is informed by driving. He’s just come off a TV talk show set and hit the road to a book signing, chatting to The Skinny down the line from the back of a chauffeured car, cruising through the actual Harlem turf of the new book. That turf initially jars. Winslow admits he’s “pretty much known as a California guy and a California writer.” But he was born in New York, lived and worked there for years. His first book was set there, and his fifth. But no matter how thrilling those earlier works are, they live in the shadow of his more recent stone-cold borderlands classics, The Power of the Dog and The Cartel. The latter termed “the War and Peace of dopewar books” by James Ellroy. New York has changed since his days. The neighbourhood he lived in “was poor and troubled and violent.” Now nannies roll double strollers down the sidewalk for pampered middle-class parents. But then gentrification can be as terrifyingly disruptive a force as any criminal activity, no? A laugh that sounds like a shrug from Winslow: “In many ways it is.” Even five years ago, horror B-movie maestro Frank Henenlotter lamented to us that the city he loved doesn’t exist anymore, the New York of the early 80s. He described the sound effects under his feet when he walked down to the set of his film Braindead as “…either a gushy sound from stepping on a used condom or a crunching from crack vials.” Winslow offers a more poetic depiction of this time, when the city was broke in more ways than one: “Yeah, you know, I used to say it felt like walking on the beach, except it wasn’t seashells, it was crack vials. Listen, on an objective basis, things are certainly better, there’s really no question about that. Though there was a grittiness and a soulfulness about the city in those days that parts of me miss.” The character of that unrepentant New York still ingrains The Force, drawn at times from 70s cinema – classics such as Serpico and The French Connection. “Sure, I’ve been very influenced by film and I think it would be very disingenuous for any writer of my generation to say they weren’t.” The Force knowingly plays on those silver screen stereotypes, but evolves well beyond them. Its central character is Denny Malone, a bribe-taking, pill-popping, drug-dealing kinda cop, with his finger in every pie possible. And if you dare to accuse Winslow of exaggeration for dramatic effect, just watch the documentary Precinct Seven Five then apologise. What Winslow has done here is modernise. The city might have sanitised itself after the zero-tolerance approach of Mayor Giuliani, but there are complex new issues to face. This means that while Winslow has always wanted to write this book, it would have been a very different beast if penned at any other time. This is a post-Ferguson thriller, set against a backdrop of Black Lives Matter and bubbling racial tension. “In terms of current affairs, that’s the reason I wanted to write this book now. I felt that it could be relevant,” he says. As ever, his new work moulds the truth of newspaper

July/August 2017

headlines into the guise of a thriller. “Not one headline, but a number of them. It was police shootings, particularly of young American black men. But also, I just felt that the time was right for me… the Eric Garner case and some others led me to think this was the moment.” We pitch a Robert F Kennedy quote his way: “Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is equally true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on.” Winslow agrees only in part. “But here’s what I would say. We tend sometimes to look at police departments as if they’re separate from the society that creates them and surrounds them, and they’re not. They’re mirrors of that society. So, whether we get the ones we deserve or not is another issue, but I think we get the departments that look like us to a great extent.” And so, we ask, has a country that has built a legacy of foreign wars had that reflected in their law enforcement? “The real problem lies in training,” Winslow suggests. “You’ve got a lot of these smaller town departments that don’t have the funding for proper training, so they hire former military guys, usually young men, without a lot of experience in the real world, except for the military. They give them a couple of weeks training, they throw a uniform on them, give them a gun and say go to it. And then we’re surprised when bad things happen.”

that wants to return to this very simple sort of soundbite, law and order, lock-‘em-up throw away the key, justice system. To use [that term] loosely.” A vast border wall seems to wilfully misinterpret the history of a war, that after five decades has left drugs cheaper, more plentiful and more potent. His essay comes to the conclusion: “If that’s Trump’s idea of success, I’d hate to see his version of failure.” “It’s not the Mexican drug problem, it’s the American drug problem, it’s the European problem, but it’s Mexico and Central American countries that suffer the most from it.” But not only. The Force opens with a list of US Law Enforcement personnel killed during the time he wrote the book. It stretches to a sobering 2 and a half pages of names, many who would have died directly or indirectly as a result of drugs policy. The Cartel opens with a similar list. 131 men and women – journalists murdered or disappeared in Mexico during his work on that novel. Journalism should not be a profession where people die so readily in the line of duty. “Well, it shouldn’t be, but it sure is down in Mexico,” Winslow adds. “Since I wrote that book 39 more reporters have been murdered there covering the drug situation. I felt ethically bound to print those lists on both those books because I’m sitting safely behind my desk

Interview: Alan Bett Illustration: Xenia Latii

writing about this world and these issues, while these folks are out there dying. I thought that they needed to be acknowledged, and acknowledged by name.” Winslow has attracted his own unwanted attention. “Because of The Cartel, I now get death threats and all that kind of happy crap,” he told Newsweek recently. Possibly testament to the power of his work, but not a compliment you imagine would sit easy. The glare of publicity will only grow though, as adaptations of both The Force and The Cartel begin production for the screen with Ridley Scott attached to both. And after landing the director’s chair, James Mangold seems an ideal fit. His recent Wolverine outing Logan had obvious Western leanings, and The Force feels very much like an urban version of that same genre. “I think that all crime fiction has its origins in the Western,” Winslow ponders. “I think what happened is that the cowboy rode as far west as he could ride, hit the Pacific Ocean, turned around and became the cop and the private eye… Dirty Harry, instead of watching it as a cop film, watch it as Western. And by the way it has exactly the same ending as High Noon.” The Force is out now, published by Harper Collins, RRP £18.99 Go online to read our full extended version of this interview

“ I used to say it felt like walking on the beach, except it wasn’t seashells, it was crack vials” Don Winslow

A connection The Force makes with Winslow's borderlands books is the ‘war on drugs’. The Cartel is the tip of this pyramid, where vast quantities of cash and narcotics are exchanged by the game’s top players. The Force exists on ground level, where ill-advised government policy seeps down to poison those on the streets. “Yeah, absolutely,” Winslow agrees. “And this is no new story. You could write this in Greek or Latin or Hebrew, or carve it on cave walls. I mean it’s always the poorest people who suffer the most. And it’s why the alienation between police and minority communities is especially tragic, because they should be allies.” The author has been vocal in his challenge to the war on drugs, among the most dangerous issues affecting the world. “Without question… because it militarised the police. It turned the police into occupying armies and again did further damage between those communities and the police.” So he put his money where his mouth is, taking out a full-page ad in The New York Times, using a prose format the United States president understands, Twitter: “@realDonaldTrump wants to drag us back into one of the most catastrophic policies in this nation’s history: #TheWarOnDrugs”. Winslow also heavily criticised Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a recent essay on Time. com as being ‘either woefully or wilfully ignorant of the facts.’ “The problem is,” Winslow adds down the phone today “…now we have an administration

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RE V IE

Album of the Month

Mura Masa

Mura Masa [Anchor Point, 14 Jul]

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rrrrr Shite rrrrr Boring rrrrr Solid

Not all pop is manufactured, or made by men in suits with dollar signs in their eyes – sometimes an artist knows what makes a track wriggle into your brain and stay there for days. London-based youngling Alex Crossan might be too early in his career to have perfected that alchemy just yet, but coming from a bedroom in Guernsey with just Ableton and a web browser to guide his musical development, he’s goddamn close. Showing a clear progression from his 2014 Soundtrack to a Death mixtape and 2015’s Someday Somewhere EP, Mura Masa has finessed his style from scrappy hip-hop-inspired electronics to a surprising and self-aware pop record. Marked by a considered sonic vocabulary (marimba, music box, steel drums), this selfproduced, self-titled album bounces along with a breezy personality, with recent singles like 1 Night (feat. Charli XCX) and What If I Go? (feat. Bonzai) catching like instant classics. Always a student, rather than a passive consumer, of the music he finds, Crossan’s slipped in basslines from the funk playbook (Nugget / NOTHING ELSE! / helpline) and some mean guitar (Messy

Public Service Broadcasting

Every Valley [Play it Again Sam, 7 Jul]

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Public Service Broadcasting bring things back down to earth and then some with Every Valley, an emotionally and texturally rich record which digs into the history of the Welsh mining industry and reflects upon the legacy of deindustrialisation in Britain. Combining archive clips and interview snippets with a sweeping post-rock score, the band gives new meaning to the notion of aural history as they weave a loosely chronological narrative that charts the opening of the pits through to the miners’ strike and the subsequent mass redundancies. Raw, harsh, mechanical – this is how music inspired by heavy industry typically sounds. Every Valley however is lush and symphonic, more interested in expressing the human spirit of the mining communities than aestheticising the conditions in which they toiled. There’s certainly a degree of sentimentality afoot – with all the shimmering strings and twinkling xylophones there couldn’t not be – but the overall picture of the mining years is a nuanced one, a celebratory but critical overview of a pivotal period in British history. Progress, which features vocals from Camera Obscura’s Tracyanne Campbell, embodies this tension spectacularly and “I believe in progress” could easily have been portrayed cynically. Instead it’s utterly euphoric, seeming to say “yes, progress – but on our terms” and is a testament to the power not of coal, but people. [Andrew Gordon] Listen to: Progress, Every Valley

July/August 2017

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Love), easily filing them alongside the hip-hop of Love$ick or the muffled, near-drum‘n’bass breakdowns of Second 2 None. It’s a confident, competent step forwards from a sure-footed talent, earning its repeat listens through mature considerations. And there will be repeat listens – just you try not to. Coming from an EDM-neighbouring genre with a tendency to veer into ostentation, he’s graduated to more sincere, sensitive production. Thanks to Crossan’s knowing arrangements, his diverse squad of collabs – both big-name (Damon Albarn, Christine & The Queens, A$AP Rocky) and leftfield (Tom Tripp, Desiigner, A. K. Paul) – have the elbow room to flourish, complementing and defining the tracks they helm. It’s that ability to make the album as much about his guests as his own emerging sound that confirms Mura Masa as an intelligent producer with an exciting road ahead. [George Sully] Listen to: 1 Night, NOTHING ELSE!, Second 2 None

Broken Social Scene

Dan Croll

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Hug of Thunder [City Slang, 7 Jul]

Comebacks are almost de rigueur in indie rock these days, but still, some seem less likely than others. When Toronto’s Broken Social Scene played the ‘indefinite hiatus’ card in 2013, it seemed likely to be the last we’d ever hear from them. And yet! Here we are. Ostensible frontman Kevin Drew was inspired to bring some positivity into the world after the horror of 2015’s Paris attacks, and duly the record comes on like the warmest of family reunions with some utterly tremendous pop songs. The double whammy of Halfway Home and Protest Song is as strident a pair of anthems as they’ve ever written, with choruses exuding the confident swagger of a band that’s aiming beyond the stratosphere. Hug of Thunder ploughs through emotional highs and lows with an empathetic grace, sometimes decorating its more dramatic moments with swells of brass, ditto its out-and-out rock’n’roll cuts; elsewhere they just let everything hang loose on a light robo-funk groove. The highlight is the Leslie Feist-led title track – a Rubik’s cube of a subtle pop song, with mighty hooks unfolding through complex yet thoroughly rewarding logic – but in truth there’s nothing you’d call a low point. Perhaps realising what they nearly threw away, this is simply the sound of a band having the time of their lives. A delight. [Will Fitzpatrick] Listen to: Hug of Thunder, Halfway Home, Protest Song

Emerging Adulthood [Communion, 21 Jul]

Dan Croll could probably fill a small swimming pool with all the bells and whistles on Emerging Adulthood. His sophomore record is sticky with ear candy, every track jam-packed with diverting little nuggets of production wizardry and imaginative embellishment that grab your attention in an instant. The music he makes could broadly be called pop-rock, but such pigeonholing doesn’t do justice to the variety of styles he gleefully appends to familiar verse-chorus templates. Away From Today has the flavour of a spaghetti

Haim

Something To Tell You [Polydor, 7 Jul]

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Haim straddle the awkward middle-ground of pop and rock – a place where the scales are tipped heavily in the favour of ‘commercial’, rather than ‘critical’, success. It’s also the place where a lot of the most inoffensive, innocuous, casual fan-baiting material can be found. Haim’s sound is hopelessly derivative – new album, Something to Tell You, doubles down on what Days are Gone began – but they fully embrace it, diving headlong into 1970’s AM pop and updating it just enough to sound contemporary, while constantly harkening back to it.

RECORDS

Western showdown, while the chorus on Tokyo sounds like Van Halen’s Jump given an EDM update. Indeed, Croll is as much a curator of nifty sounds and gimmicks as he is a songwriter (perhaps even more so), and you often get the impression his words and melodies are merely an excuse to upend the musical toybox and have a good rummage around. Occasionally he lands on a flourish that expresses something specific, like the jarring MIDI-ish guitar tone on 24 which, in its anxious jaggedness, is an apt counterpart to the lyrics ‘Please don’t let it be a heart attack’. More often though, he’s happy to settle for novelty alone. And while that’s no crime, it’s unlikely to set your world on fire either. [Andrew Gordon] Listen to: Away From Today, Sometimes When I’m Lonely Lyrically, very little new ground is covered on this album (just look at the track titles); the songs have a feel of personal strife, but are so vague that they can fit into just about any explanation you care to apply to them. But these criticisms are unimportant when faced with the simple catchiness of the music. Haim have an ear for catchy melodies and big, crowd-pleasing choruses. Lead single Want You Back is a classic example – peppy guitars and sugary harmonies, leading to a stripped down, clap-along breakdown and the final explosive chorus. Maybe down the line they’ll get restless and experiment, but at this early stage it’s a lot more fun to enjoy yourself in the easygoing riffs than to criticise a lack of sonic innovation. [Lewis Wade] Listen to: Want You Back, Little of Your Love

Review

Siobhan Wilson

There Are No Saints [Song, by Toad, 14 Jul]

Elgin-born singer-songwriter Siobhan Wilson has been around a while under the guise Ella the Bird, but it’s under her own name she’s going to be famous. Mostly recorded live, There Are No Saints is a sparse, tender record tying English indie-folk with European classical music to spellbinding effect. The opening title track is an intriguing start, its choral harmonies and gentle piano demonstrating Wilson’s classical underpinnings after she spent her early adulthood studying in Paris. Whatever Helps is a different matter altogether, a slow-burning guitar strum in the Sharon Van Etten mould in which Wilson sings about being ‘beaten by the weight of a prayer, trying to move on’. It’s a muted, mesmerising song that has the discipline never to erupt, immediately making Saints a surprising listen. From then on Saints establishes itself as a sonically pure record that will work just as well on Classic FM as BBC 6 Music, marked by Wilson’s clear, delicate voice. The influence of five years’

Everything Everything

Fever Dream [RCA, 18 Aug]

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‘We didn’t think that it would happen and we never will,’ cries Jonathan Higgs on Ivory Tower, the most on-the-nose song on perhaps Everything Everything’s most pointedly political album to date. We find our Manchester futurists trapped in

Gallic existentialism is clear on Saints as Wilson uses her fluent French in three songs: the gorgeous, faith-questioning Dear God; the twinkly, yearning piano of J’attendrai (I Will Wait); and the understated Paris Est Blanche (Paris is White). Saints reaches its pinnacle with the bruised Disaster and Grace, its sparse piano and swelling strings captivating: ‘I saw the years in front of us unfold,’ Wilson coos, her heartbreak evident. Saints isn’t entirely austere though: ‘Don’t want to be a blackbird sitting alone on the top of your gravestone,’ Wilson sings determinedly to Incarnation’s distorted guitar, before Make You Mine sees her recounting a love story with the flirtatious soul of latter-era Jenny Lewis. She’s by no means the finished article yet – as the out-ofplace experiment of Dystopian Bach proves – but by the time There Are No Saints closes, Wilson has undoubtedly made her impression. [Chris Ogden] Listen to: Whatever Helps, Disaster and Grace, Incarnation

the present, living out our terrifying modern-day futures – an era where The Handmaid’s Tale is more documentary than drama, where Brexit looms and every attempted step forwards is met with grazed knees on the loose scree of divisive rhetoric. A Fever Dream is aptly named; this contemporary unreality feels like a diseased, intoxicated reverie, one we hope is ending soon while we anaesthetise ourselves with obstinate denial. The album delivers the band’s message via their consistently experimental approach to genre; rock‘n’roll at times (Run the Numbers), and

The Telescopes

The Last Dinosaur

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As Light Return [Tapete Records , 7 Jul] English space rock veterans The Telescopes emerged in the late 80s alongside Loop, Spacemen Three and My Bloody Valentine, and their ninth album adds fuel to the argument that they deserve their place among these luminaries as one of UK psych’s most important bands. As Light Return sees main man Stephen Lawrie revert back to the dark psychedelia of the group’s 1989 debut with noise and experimentation taking precedent over any notion of traditional song structure, and thick layers of distortion replacing chart-bound shoegaze soundscapes. It’s not an easy listen but it’s hard not to give into its dark and welcoming charms. If that’s your bag, As Light Return will be a thrilling ride. [Jamie Bowman] Listen to: You Can’t Reach What You Hunger

Review

Siobhan Wilson

The Nothing [Naim Records, 7 Jul]

The Last Dinosaur have recorded the most sublime, life-affirming album about death you’ll hear all year. Driven in part by a car accident back in 2005 that killed his best friend, The Nothing is frontman Jamie Cameron’s attempt to come to terms with terribleness and it’s as transcendent as the Flaming Lips’ Do You Realize? The Last Dinosaur have created an album of succeeding highs that spoils you for choice. From All My Faith’s repeated angelic swoops, to the Agnes Obel-like The Body Collapse and the minimal ambience of The Sea, The Nothing is the kind of record you could obsess about and force on friends, and is music you know you’ll be playing months from now. [Pete Wild]

Listen to: Grow, All My Faith, The Body Collapse

Crumbs

Mind Yr Manners [Everything Sucks Music, 28 Jul]

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It’s easy to characterise Leeds four-piece Crumbs as noisy upstarts; on the more boisterous moments of their debut record, the basslines are bouncy and the vocals downright bratty. To pigeonhole them completely, though, would be to play down the darker points on Mind Yr Manners, like the stormy reflection on mental health struggles that lead single Cha Cha Feels represents. Crumbs have carved out their own sound, and while the guitars switch between belligerent and melodic, they’re always pretty scuzzy. A slew of puntastic track titles – Chaka Can’t, Stockport Syndrome, Ciggy Stardust – belie the more taciturn nature of the actual lyrics. Mind Yr Manners isn’t overly original, but there’s enough of the band’s idiosyncrasies here to make it a worthwhile listen. [Joe Goggins] Listen to: Cha Cha Feels

ambient piano pop at others (Good Shot, Good Soldier, Put Me Together), A Fever Dream explores a broad, though familiar, aural space. Close second on the political scale is opening track Night of the Long Knives, whose title likens recent world-stage surges of right-wing ideologies to the notorious purge of political opponents of the Nazi regime. Musically, it rockets along, strapping Higgs’ distinctive falsetto to the nose of a rapid bassline and cocksure, offbeat synth hits. The leap from early records Arc and Man Alive to 2015’s remarkable Get to Heaven does,

however, dwarf that of the step to Fever Dream, whose vibrant artistry offers comparatively less novelty. And in the minesweeping of stylistic variation they’ve even ended up accidentally sounding like post-Absolution Muse on the harmoniesrich Desire. Despite this, there is still a wealth of texture and musical brio on offer here, framing the restrained development as a narrowing of the laser rather than a sign Everything Everything are hitting their limits. [George Sully] Listen to: Night of the Long Knives, Run the Numbers, Ivory Tower

Girl Ray

Japanese Breakfast

Nadine Shah

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Earl Grey [Moshi Moshi, 4 Aug] With a maturity far beyond their years, North London three-piece Girl Ray deliver a debut that’s witty and wistful in equal measure, capturing the uncertainty and intensity of the adolescent years where everything feels possible but nothing lives up to expectations. Typically enough for an album so rooted in adolescence, love and infatuation are recurring themes, with Stupid Things discussing the lengths we go to to feel intimate with someone and Cutting Shapes tackling the thorny subject of post-breakup blues. The combination of delicate melodies and introspective lyrics seem too carefully crafted to be produced in such a short incubation period – just two weeks of recording. Earl Grey delivers 11 thoughtful, quirky tracks which deserve to be listened to again and again. [Megan Wallace] Listen to: Just Like That

RECORDS

Soft Sounds from Another Planet [Dead Oceans, 14 Jul] The vivid melancholy of Michelle Zauner’s debut album, Psychopomp, was built on tragic circumstances, but despite its painful theme of loss Zauner was triumphant in juxtaposing the happy with the sad. In that respect not much has changed on Soft Sounds from Another Planet, and it’s good to hear Zauner’s love of melody and nuance is still intact. The hushed softness of Zauner’s voice counteracts brilliantly with the fuzzed-up, shimmery guitar lines on opener Diving Woman, and recalls the shoegaze epoch with refreshing conviction. But it’s the strained clarity of Zauner’s voice that makes this album so beautiful, particularly during the contemplative balladry of This House. Moving and inspired, Soft Sounds from Another Planet is yet another lesson in guitar pop perfection. [Hayley Scott] Listen to: Boyish, 12 Steps

Holiday Destination [1965, 25 Aug] Inspired by the daily horrors of recent and ongoing world affairs, Holiday Destination documents the plight of migrants, the fallout of Brexit, navigating the personal challenges of British nationality and Pakistani heritage. Out The Way explores the latter with brutal, choppy backing that recalls the switchback thrust of The Futureheads’ Decent Days and Nights. Nadine Shah’s rich musical palette smartly frames her lyrical acumen. Crisp horns colour Relief’s spartan groove. The closing Jolly Sailor, a lengthy and brooding examination of identity and displacement, tosses the map completely, its extended closing passages formed from spare keys and barely-there beats. A literate and courageous work, Holiday Destination faces down a fucked-up world with guile and with guts. [Gary Kaill] Listen to: Out The Way

THE SKINNY

Photo: Gaelle Beri

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Riot Jazz Brass Band: Guest Selector As they get ready to open Manchester Jazz Festival, the Riot Jazz Brass Band tell us their favourite festival vibe tracks Interview: Kamila Rymajdo

he start of Manchester Jazz Festival promises to get off to a rowdy start thanks to the Riot Jazz Brass Band’s opening night set. The group’s genre-blending back catalogue of jazz, hip-hop, dubstep and drum‘n’bass-infused tracks will ensure the festival’s 100-show-strong programme starts as it means to go on, while the band’s unique energy is the perfect way to introduce the new Albert Square Salon Perdu stage. Ahead of their performance at the 22nd edition of the ten day event, some members of the band present you with the tracks they love. What better way to get in the festival spirit? Tennyson – Like What “I love this track because of the huge variety of sounds and textures. It’s a piece of music which develops and grows through its changes in textures and instrumentation, which I think is a very classical technique. I love taking aspects of electronic / production music and using them in the live brass band environment, so hearing classical orchestration techniques in the electronic environment – as in this tune – is fascinating.” Steve Pycroft, drums No BS! Brass Band – 3am Bounce “My personal favourite of the brass bands operating out of the US at the moment, although not that widely known unfortunately! These guys are incredible brass players and I’m a big fan of their original stuff which is always played with serious groove!” Sam Warner, trumpet Fela Kuti – Water No Get Enemy (Jonny Miller Edit) “I made a rather late arrival to Fela Kuti’s music but I am ever thankful I did. The energy and life in his music is so powerful. The percussion really drives the songs and creates irresistible grooves. His music is really fun to enter a trance and solo over. This slightly uptempo rework makes a great end-of-the-night tune and contains an extremely catchy horn line.” Ed Horsey, trombone Count Basie Big Band – I Needs to Be Bee’d With (Live) “One of my favourite tracks from one of my favourite live albums (Live at the Sands (Before Frank)). Basie’s band always packs that punch you can only get from a good brass section. And there’s a killer Al Grey trombone solo too, what’s not to love!” Kieran McLeod, trombone

July/August 2017

Michael Brecker – Midnight Voyage “I loved this track from the first time I heard it in the late 90s. This simple, moody minor blues by Joey Calderazzo introduced me to Brecker’s music and this album remains one of my all time favourites.” Pete Robinson, sousaphone Chicago – Feelin’ Stronger Every Day “Chicago is my favourite band for many reasons, one of which is they do not label their music or limit themselves to a genre. This is something I personally value very highly, and something Riot Jazz does naturally. Their style is rather defined by their superb composition and arranging, horn-heavy texture, multi-layered vocal parts, and exceptional live performance. Feelin’ Stronger Every Day is a quintessential Chicago tune which combines all these elements into a gloriously energetic musical celebration. It never fails to make me happy whenever I listen to it.” Lucian Amos, trumpet Too Many Zooz – Warriors “This is probably one of the more chilled tracks to come out of this New York-based trio but it definitely packs a punch. They incorporate a lot of space into this tune with short repetitive lines from the two horns and fairly minimal percussion throughout which makes the drops feel like they have a big weight behind them. I’m always impressed by the energy these guys create live (videos of them busking and dancing in the subway are definitely worth checking out!), but this track has such a nice simplistic groove and easy sounding power that I always find myself coming back to it.” Rich Mcveigh, trombone Youngblood Brass Band – Camouflage “Youngblood are one of the best brass bands around, and a key influence of ours when getting the band up and running – they even coined the term ‘Riot Jazz’ from which we take our name. Camouflage is one of our favourite tracks of theirs, we used to cover this song in our sets and it would be guaranteed to go off every time!” Nick Walters, trumpet Riot Jazz Brass Band play Salon Perdu, Albert Square, Manchester, 28 Jul Manchester Jazz Festival takes place across various venues in Manchester, 28 Jul-6 Aug riotjazz.com manchesterjazz.com

MUSIC

Review

The Pride of Manchester We speak to DJ Paulette about her residency at The Haçienda and about her return to Manchester ahead of her appearance at Manchester Pride this August

t’s a known fact that women’s achievements have been consistently written out of history. DJ Paulette’s place in Manchester’s now-meticulously chronicled musical past is a prime example, and no one is more aware of it than Paulette herself. The 50-year-old DJ, whose career spans nearly three decades and features residencies at prestigious clubs such as Paris’s Queen and Mix Clubs, Frankfurt’s Cocoon and Ibiza Rocks, is now back in her hometown to put things right. Returning from the party island just over a year ago, Paulette has almost picked up where she left off, now playing the equivalents of Gaychester’s Paradise Factory, Manto and The Haçienda’s Flesh night, where she originally cut her teeth. We’re meeting over lunch to discuss Manchester Pride, which Paulette is playing for the second time this August, but first we jump back to those Haçienda days. “One of the things that I’m trying to do in being back here is actually making sure that people know that I did play there,” Paulette tells us. “I don’t know where the oversight comes from,” she says, citing Peter Hook’s The Haçienda: How Not to Run a Club and Paper Recordings’ Elliot Eastwick’s Haçienda Family Tree as cultural artefacts that have omitted her role in shaping the clubbing landscape at the time. “Me and Kath McDermott were the only two women who were residents at The Haçienda, ever. It’s a whole big men’s story but there were women there. It was probably one of the first places that ever employed female DJs. So I’m putting that right. I’m not saying they’ve done it out of any kind of maliciousness or spite and for me it’s coming from a very positive place – we did this and we are proud of it and we should be there with everyone else because it’s true. I’ve got the flyers, I don’t need to prove it. If they’d done a tiny bit of research they’d see. So that’s my thing. I’m going to correct it if it’s the last thing I do,” she says, then laughs.

Review

Paulette, dressed brightly in white and yellow, is warm – she kisses you hello and hugs you goodbye and she is philosophical about most things, dishing out advice like it’s second nature. Still, despite her positive outlook, she has no qualms in discussing the hardships she’s faced as a DJ, and especially a female one. Sexual harassment, mental illness and wage inequality are all prevalent downsides still, she confirms. “I’ve travelled three-quarters of the way around the world, very rarely with a tour manager, very rarely with a second person and for want of a better word, that’s put me in some really dangerous positions,” she tells us. “How I’ve continued to do my job after all that’s happened actually makes me feel like I’m a mental case. ‘Why are you doing a job that puts you in the frontline of being hurt by people?’ But I’m bloody minded, I love music, I love my job and I’m not going to let anything like that stop me from doing it.” Having spent so many years abroad, we’re curious to know how she’s finding Manchester this time around. “It’s put into perspective the last three years of being in Ibiza,” she says. “Since I’ve been back people have really helped me. I’ve been passed to and between people until I’ve started working. When I was in Ibiza that did not happen. I could hang out with them and go to the parties but when it actually came down to helping it was every man for himself. I don’t know if it’s a Manchester thing but something in me thinks people here are just like that. I know there’s competition, I’m not stupid, but I feel looked after here. So what I thought could have been quite hard has actually been the making of me and as a DJ. I’ve found my tribe.” If not the outlook, the geographical landscape of the city’s nightlife has changed since Paulette was last playing here and we appraise the current hotspots. She lists Hidden, Gorilla, The White Hotel, Antwerp Mansion and Refuge as some spaces she’s especially keen on, concluding

that in terms of going out as a punter, she’s enjoying herself as much as she was back in her 20s.

“ If you think of places like Tel Aviv or South Africa, people still party, or party more because they’ve got the mentality that if we’re going to die, we might as well die smiling” DJ Paulette

“I think I’m playing more music for everyone to enjoy rather than just a very small set of people who want to hear techno. I’ve gone back to doing what I really love – I like voices, I like songs, I like playing music for people who understand what the music is. If I played a disco, funk and rare groove set in Ibiza, they didn’t really get it, they didn’t get me, they just didn’t have that history, whereas in Manchester, people have that funk, soul, Northern soul – that soulfulness is embraced a lot more here than it is overseas.” Since being back in Manchester, Paulette has taken on a residency at Reform Radio and presents a show on Gaydio, a continuation from

CLUBS

Interview: Kamila Rymajdo Photo: Annapurna Mellor

Out and Proud – the first gay radio show on BBC Radio 1 – which Paulette presented with Boy George and which was recorded in Manchester. She’s played nights such as Handsome and become good friends with Homoelectric’s Jamie Bull and Will Tramp, so given her past and current association with the LGBTQ+ community, and that she’s played Pride events in London, Brighton, Paris, Marseille and Zurich, it’s surprising Paulette has appeared at Manchester Pride only once before. “When I left there wasn’t really a big gay pride thing, I don’t think they were making a big deal out of it in the early 90s,” she explains. We ask how she found last year’s proceedings. “I was halfway through my set when Josh Wink walked in,” she recounts. “He’d just been for something to eat and his friend said, ‘we should go in this tent, it’s really banging,’ and then he walked in and said, ‘it’s you!’ I’ve known him for years as I used to do his press when I was at Mercury Records and then Honey Dijon was on, so I thought, this is really cool, I’ve got Josh Wink and Honey Dijon in the house. I’m hoping for more of the same this time.” With the devastating attack on Manchester Arena just a few days behind us, we feel compelled to ask Paulette if she thinks there will be a lasting effect on how people approach going to bars, clubs and live music events. “If you think of places like Tel Aviv or South Africa, people still party, or party more because they’ve got the mentality that if we’re going to die, we might as well die smiling, connecting with someone rather than hiding in a hole. Get us when we’re enjoying it,” she says. Both in her response to recent events and as evidenced by her resilience within her career, Paulette is a DJ who Manchester should not only remember in the history books, but be proud of right now. DJ Paulette plays the Gaydio Dance Arena at Manchester Pride, 25-28 Aug

THE SKINNY

In Cinemas David Lynch: The Art Life

Director: Jon Nguyen Starring: David Lynch Released: 14 Jul Certificate: 15

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A Ghost Story

Director: David Lowery Starring: Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara, Will Oldham, Sonia Acevedo, Jonny Mars, Kesha Released: 11 Aug Certificate: TBC

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David Keith Lynch, a septuagenarian painter from Missoula, Montana, moves around his studio making a mess with resins and paints, plastic and metal and power tools. He chats with his tiny daughter, or sits before a microphone, smoking, talking in a polite, reserved manner about his early life and inspirations. His speech is quaint and wholesome, sprinkled with folksy apple-pie idioms and – for Pete’s sake – no cussing as he eulogises gently his parents (lovely but straightlaced) and the city of Philadelphia (scary but inspiring). If you didn’t know him already you’d never guess that this is one of the most disturbing and revolutionary visionary artists alive today, and one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. From the profoundly troubling nightmarelogic of Lost Highway or Inland Empire to the searing, fever-dream fantasia of Wild at Heart, Lynch’s visions seem dredged from an abyssal ocean layer of psyche most people can’t access in waking life. Like dreams, much of their power lies in their enigmatic quality: what makes them so compelling? What do they mean? Fans seeking a rare horse’s mouth insight into these mysteries will find slim pickings in The Art Life. Tracing a line from Lynch’s childhood to the shooting of his stunning debut feature Eraserhead, this portrait of the artist as both a young man and an old one misses the productive middle section of his life. This is a clever approach to the subject, but even within these confines, something seems held back. Narrating the film himself, Lynch is candid and forthcoming about those topics he wishes to discuss, but (perhaps unsurprisingly for such an uncompromising purist) he exercises strict control over what those topics are. Others are skirted around, or notable in their absence. It’s lovely to spend some time with the great man, but ultimately this portrait falls short of its promised intimacy. Then again, perhaps some things are better left unexplained. [Thomas Hughes] Released by Thunderbird Releasing

Following his breakthrough feature in 2013, the (sorta) neo-Western Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, director David Lowery took an unexpected career turn in helming a – very good – remake of Disney’s Pete’s Dragon last year. His next move after that is somehow even stranger. A Ghost Story confirms him as one of the trickier rising star American filmmakers to get a definitive hold on: bar recurring collaborators, one may struggle to find much in common with the filmmaking of A Ghost Story, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints and Pete’s Dragon. A Ghost Story is definitely an actual ghost story (no misleading title here), but, while it’s haunting, it’s certainly not a horror film. Instead, as its rather perfect poster tagline posits, it’s all about time. Casey Affleck (who was in Saints) plays a whitesheeted ghost (you’ll end up on board with the concept pretty quickly), who returns to his suburban home to keep an eye on and try to console his bereft wife (Roney Mara, also of Saints), only to find that his spectral state, having turned down an

A Ghost Story

entrance to an apparent afterlife, gets unstuck in time. As the woman he loves moves on, along with traces of the life he knew, he’s trapped in their home, forced through years of changes in inhabitants and eventually witness to the Texas land’s transformation in a near future. And then things, not to spoil anything, get... cosmic. A Ghost Story is quite a hard film to get a full grasp on with just one viewing, but to give a taste of its aesthetic sensibilities, think a blend

Song to Song

Hounds of Love

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Director: Terrence Malick Starring: Natalie Portman, Michael Fassbender, Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Haley Bennett Released: 7 Jul Certificate: 15 Originally titled Weightless, the new existential drama from writer-director Terrence Malick stars Rooney Mara, Ryan Gosling, Michael Fassbender and Natalie Portman as young-ish people balancing romance and ambition in the Texas rock music scene. That’s just the superficial narrative description, though: as ever, Malick is more concerned with gamboling gestures, scattered emotions and experimental techniques. With the moshpits of SxSW in the distance, and reflective cameos from past rock gods like Patti Smith, Iggy Pop and Johnny Rotten as bookmarks, Malick spends most of this epic of the heart drifting off with his cast to consider what love and life lessons might be in store for partying young people as they traverse a life of hedonism and temptation. Empty wealth, heartbreak and redemption are in the mix, seen in the cinematic style that Malick (and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki) have pioneered. In some ways it’s a more straightforward narrative than the intensely personal Knight of Cups, but just as blindingly beautiful and formally distinctive. [Ian Mantgani] Released by StudioCanal

of ghost fiction with Under the Skin, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the patient works of directors Chantal Akerman and Apichatpong Weerasethakul; all shot in the intimate 1.37:1 aspect ratio favoured, of late, by Andrea Arnold. So, y’know, don’t come to it expecting Affleck and Mara to go crazy with a pottery wheel and a Righteous Brothers soundtrack. [Josh Slater-Williams] Released by Picturehouse Entertainment

Director: Ben Young Starring: Emma Booth, Ashleigh Cummings, Stephen Curry, Susie Porter, Damian de Montemas, Harrison Gilbertson Released: 28 Jul Certificate: 18 Aside from sharing a title, thriller Hounds of Love has little obviously in common with the Kate Bush song and album of the same name, though it ends with another atmospheric 80s hit and is set during the same period. Perth, Australia is the location for Ben Young’s impressive, near-unrelentingly unnerving debut feature. A portrait of a serial killer couple, John (Curry) and Evelyn White (Booth), who stalk, torture and murder young girls – the slow-motion opening sequence provokes immediate uneasiness in its apparent leering on teens playing netball, revealed to be the voyeuristic perspective of the two predators, rather than a filmmaker’s clueless male gaze. The couple’s latest victim, Vicki (Cummings), is abducted on her way to a party, having just fought with her recently divorced mother (Porter). Chained to a bed, Vicki quickly susses the instability of her captors’ dynamic and tries to exploit the glimpses of Evelyn’s maternal instincts. Of the central trio of commendable performances, Booth, in particular, is mesmerising as Evelyn, oscillating between being vicious abuser and abused party herself. [Josh Slater-Williams] Released by Arrow Films

The Big Sick

The Beguiled

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Director: Michael Showalter Starring: Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, Ray Romano, Adeel Akhtar, Anupam Kher, Zenobia Sfiroff, Kurt Braunohler, Released: 28 Jul Certificate: 15

David Lynch: The Art Life

July/August 2017

Director: Sofia Coppola Starring: Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning Released: 14 Jul Certificate: 15

A regular writing collaborator of David Wain (on the likes of Wet Hot American Summer and The State), Michael Showalter’s own directorial efforts have tended to veer away from absurdist humour towards more grounded comedies with romantic-dramatic registers. He’s back in dramedy mode for The Big Sick, though writing duty is here left to Emily V Gordon and stand-up/actor Kumail Nanjiani (Silicon Valley), who bring to the screen a version of how their real-life relationships began: Pakistani man starts dating white American woman, with cultural differences and family disapproval causing a rift even before the latter ends up in a medically induced coma, courtesy of an unclear illness. Zoe Kazan plays the film version of Emily, but Nanjiani gets a star-making turn as, well, himself. Strong support comes from Holly Hunter and Ray Romano as Emily’s parents, begrudgingly bonding with their daughter’s ex as her fate remains uncertain. With Wain’s hilarious They Came Together, Showalter helped skewer the American romantic comedy; with The Big Sick, he’s gone and made one of the sweetest, funniest modern examples of the genre. [Josh Slater-Williams]

With her latest film, The Beguiled, Sofia Coppola skilfully inverts the gender politics of Don Siegel’s 1971 American Civil War drama to craft a tale of women in wartime who most certainly don’t need a man about the house. Set in an all-girls school located deep within a mossy Virginian wood, the film begins with a wounded Yankee deserter (Farrell) being discovered by one of the pupils and given sanctuary by the school’s Southern belle headmistress, Miss Farnsworth (Kidman). The man’s arrival sends the house into chaos and he soon learns that a woman (or rather women) scorned will only bring trouble. The principal cast offer daring, at times gleefully melodramatic, performances. Most notable is Kidman, who laces the no-nonsense Miss Farnsworth with gleeful moments of black comedy. Meanwhile, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning dazzle in roles brimming with sexuality and coquettish playfulness. What starts as an exercise in genteel restraint crescendos into a claustrophobic, Southern Gothic melodrama. Squarely putting women front and centre, Coppola’s playful use of mordant humour never loses focus in this exploration of female sexuality and jealousy. [Joseph Walsh]

Released by StudioCanal

Released by Universal

FILM

Review

Shock Waves Steven Ellison, better known as music producer Flying Lotus, gives us the lowdown on Kuso, his wild, inventive, moving, political and completely gross first feature film

o the best of our knowledge, Royal, the directorial debut by Flying Lotus, is the first film inspired by a GIF. The GIF in question was a black and white photo of Thom Yorke and FlyLo standing behind a DJ booth, which had been crudely animated with a fictitious conversation between the two musicians that imagined the latter dragging the disappointed Radiohead frontman from the turntables after a seven hour set (“Thom, we’re going home. It’s over”). “It was really silly, but it made me laugh for a long time,” says FlyLo aka Steven Ellison, “and I was thinking, man, I could make stuff like that.” We’re speaking to Ellison on his tour bus while he’s in the middle of his day job as a genius multigenre music producer, who’s currently on tour across Europe. But his side hustle has promise. A trip to Sundance convinced him filmmaking wasn’t a pipe dream. “I saw what won at Sundance that year and I was like, ‘OK, I can make a short film,’ so I went to New York straight after and wrote Royal in no time.” The result was a deliciously perverted story about a couple with some serious dermatological issues and an unconventional sex life. The short premiered in Sundance in 2016, and since then Ellison has expanded Royal to be part of a featurelength portmanteau called Kuso (Japanese for “shit”), which follows various stories from a future LA in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake. Kuso premiered at the following Sundance earlier this year, and Ellison’s inspired vision was met with reviews proclaiming it the “grossest movie ever”. Those headlines were not without merit. With Kuso, Ellison delivers a cavalcade of filthy sketches, each sicker than the last. The most inspired section, perhaps, involves a man who seeks a cure for his phobia of breasts from a Jack Russell-sized cockroach named Mr. Quiggle, who dispenses medical treatments from the rim of a doctor’s rectum, in which it seems to reside. Delightfully, the doctor is played by funk legend George Clinton. It’s a film designed to cause outrage; Ellison must have been delighted with the response. “Initially I loved it,” says Ellison, whose gentle speech is peppered with expletives and hearty laughter. “But then the stories kind of snowballed

Review

into things that weren’t true. And then they just started to piss me off.” The number of disgruntled punters at the premiere, for example, had been greatly exaggerated. “It wasn’t nearly as dramatic as they reported, with all the walkouts and all that shit. That was a big ass lie, and I’ve not had that experience before.” Ahead of Kuso’s wider release, Ellison is braced for more controversy. “I’ve never made a project that’s so divisive,” he confesses. “Some people are just going to fucking hate this movie. That’s fine, but I’m not ready for that yet.” He’s found filmnuts harder to satisfy than music fans. “You know, people can skip a track and still be like, ‘that album was cool.’ Even if you think it sucked it’s no big deal, you’ll check out my next record. But if you hate a movie, you fucking hate a movie. You’re passionate about that hate. You want to make a video about how much you hate this fucking movie. So I’m curious what’s going to happen.” Perhaps the reason Ellison is so apprehensive is that Kuso isn’t simply a gross-out lark: it’s a deeply personal movie. The apocalyptic, postearthquake LA he has imagined has deep resonance within his psyche. In 1994, when he was around ten, a huge quake hit the San Fernando Valley, and Ellison’s neighbourhood of Northridge was the epicentre. “I’d never experienced a big earthquake before,” he recalls. “I was a child and that shit shook my whole universe.” Like many Californians, Ellison lives in fear of ‘The Big One’: the earthquake to end all earthquakes. “It’s in our subconscious,” he says. “People will say to you, ‘I think today might be the day.’ We talk about that shit. You’ll hear lots of dogs barking in the distance one night and you’re like, ‘Maybe I’ll take this sculpture and put it on the floor.’ It’s just something in the back of my mind, and I wanted to put those fears in the movie.” We suspect Kuso’s reception is also important to Ellison because of what it might mean for black cinema. Black filmmakers have long had the weight of cultural representation on their shoulders; few have had the opportunities to make films as wild, inventive and offensive as Ellison’s debut feature. “It’s sad as fuck to me,” says Ellison when we mention these limitations put on black filmmakers.

“How many other black films are there like this? Get Out came out, and it’s huge, but to me it’s not doing anything too different. It’s like an In Living Color sketch. They’ve probably done something like that on Key and Peele anyway. But there are no black horror filmmakers. There are no black experimental filmmakers. There are a couple of cats, like Terence Nance (An Oversimplification of Her Beauty), he’s a great filmmaker and he’s on the come up, but it is kind of barren.”

“ If you hate a movie, you fucking hate a movie. You’re passionate about that hate” Steven Ellison

Donald Glover’s brilliant TV series Atlanta is one recent example of a black writer-director creating something utterly idiosyncratic. “Donald actually showed me the pilot of Atlanta, and I showed him Royal,” recalls Ellison when we bring up Glover. “And afterwards I was like ‘Do you want to be in Kuso?’ And he was like, ‘Let me think about it.’ All the while he’s got this big ass moustache, right, and I was like, ‘What the fuck is the moustache all about, bro?’ And he’s like, ‘Oh, well, I had it for an audition.’ ‘Oh yeah?’ ‘Yeah, it’s a big one.’ And I was like, ‘Lando! You’re him! You’re totally going to be him!’” What was Glover’s response? “He didn’t even answer me, but I knew. But I couldn’t believe I’d asked him to be in my movie right then. I told him, ‘You can’t do this movie now. You’re in the Oprah club.’” Glover would have given Kuso a bit of star power, but there are still plenty of familiar faces in the cast, including stand-up Hannibal Buress, Tim Heidecker of comedy duo Tim & Eric, and rapper Busdriver. We’re particularly keen to know

FILM

Interview: Jamie Dunn

how Ellison convinced George Clinton to take the role of the physician with a giant bug in his butt. Ellison doubles over laughing at the memory: “Man, I put it to him like this: ‘You want to be in my movie, George?’ He said, ‘Hell yeah!’ And I was like, ‘Would you mind showing your asshole on camera?’ He was like, ‘Huh?’” Incredibly, that pitch worked. “[George] was super cool, but he came to set the first day and he was like, ‘Hey man, you know I ain’t ever acted before, right?’ ‘Really, for real?’ I said. And then he was like, ‘Where’s the script, because I only know the monologue at the beginning.’ I was like, ‘Oh shit, George, we’re about to shoot right now.’ I shouted, ‘Can someone get George a script? Get him a script right now!’” It didn’t take the Parliament-Funkadelic frontman long to get into the swing of it, though. “George turned out to be amazing. We’d run scenes, and maybe it would take a second or third take, but George was always fucking genuine and interesting. I didn’t realise how much I was counting on him being as good as he was. I put a lot of faith in that situation, but I guess I just wanted him to be him, you know, and not hold back.” Beyond Clinton’s anus-dwelling cockroach, Kuso is a sharply political film. It has much to say about modern Los Angeles and America’s grim history of racism. And while it was conceived and made before Donald Trump made it into the White House, its apocalyptic vision of America feels even more pertinent with that buffoon in power. “It’s unfortunate that the movie has gained relevance,” sighs Ellison. “I was part of the optimistic left who were thinking Hilary just fucking had that shit. It was all fun and games, but at the end of the day, everyone was going to vote the right way. Now I’m just a cynical motherfucker. I hate all those politicians. It’s all a game to them…” He pauses. Something has just occurred to him: “Those lying motherfuckers should watch my movie.” While we doubt Kuso will ever make it into the White House screening room (Finding Dory is more The Donald’s speed), we’d love to be a fly on the wall if it did. Kuso is streaming on SHUDDER UK from 21 Jul

THE SKINNY

How Saints Die

By Carmen Marcus

RRRRR

Every Fox is a Rabid Fox

By Harry Gallon

RRRRR

Ellie is ten years old. She learns five new words a week and knows that stories can keep you from drowning. She doesn’t know where they have taken her mother, what ECT stands for, or how to keep her father safe. Her next door neighbour warns her fisherman father that the child is wild. Ellie knows about wildness. Carmen Marcus’ debut novel How Saints Die is a soaring success; beautiful and devastating. It is a simple story seen through the eyes of a young girl with a vivid imagination, trying to make sense of her mother’s absence and incomprehensible, easily-breakable social rules. In graceful prose, Marcus sketches an image of the North Yorkshire coast then adds the snap of the cold wind, the sting of sea spray, the hotness of welling tears. The book is stunningly evocative – of a time, of a place, of childhood, and of what it means not to fit in. As Ellie ‘flicks open her penknife to slice a limpet off the rock, suck and pop,’ so Marcus exposes what lies beneath – human cruelty and kindnesses, foibles, frailties and strengths. Ellie is observant; as a child she understands sometimes less and sometimes more: ‘She keeps her prayers precise; they are not wishes.’ Within Ellie’s world of gutting fish and playing dead and weaving noughts in nets, life is harsh and stories are powerful. This book is beautiful, from cover to core. [Ceris Aston]

Robert is an unintentional killer. Not only did he fatally elbow his twin sister out of their mother’s womb, he is also responsible for the death of his brother at a much later, unspecified age. In Harry Gallon’s second novel Every Fox is a Rabid Fox, we’re given a full tour of the inner workings of a deeply disturbed, sadistically inclined intellect as he struggles to deal with his turbulent upbringing. Equal parts Fight Club and The Wasp Factory, the novel attempts to be as harrowing and bewildering as both but ultimately lacks the power and originality of either of those classics. The free-flowing narrative style, which continually jumps back and forth in time and place, achieves the disorientating effect it sets out for, but potentially at the expense of reader enjoyment, and at times it seems as though Gallon is pressing a little too hard on the shock factor pedal. Having said that, the writer certainly has a lucid, eminently readable style and his dalliances with familial trauma (especially when using the tactic of the naïve narrator) are compelling and compassionate. It’s a worthy, mind-piquing read with loftily cynical sights which doesn’t always score a clean hit – but which may well be all the better off for the raggedness of its wounds. At its best, an overtly stylised and shocking exploration of a disturbed mind, from the exciting new publisher Dead Ink. [Jonny Sweet]

Out 13 Jul, published by Vintage, RRP £14.99

Out now, published by Dead Ink, RRP £8.99

Walls Come Tumbling Down

Typewriters, Bombs, Jellyfish

RRRRR

By Daniel Rachel

Walls Come Tumbling Down charts the formation of Rock Against Racism, 2 Tone and Red Wedge across two decades where artists and activists joined forces to make music that challenged the inequality around them. Written histories, even the most open-minded and widely-researched, have a natural inclination towards master narratives. They take the complexity and conflict of their given period and smooth it all down into a single, unambiguous storyline. Daniel Rachel’s book rebels against this by telling its tale solely through the testimony of those who were there: drawn from over a hundred interviews with artists, activists and politicians, every word comes straight from the frontlines. The result is a book that feels more like a documentary film, shot from the middle of the crowd rather than the vantage point of a distanced observer. Punk fought Thatcherism while struggling to deal with its own hard right appeal, reggae stood up to racism while awkwardly holding on to Rastafarian misogyny, rock stars sang anthems against discrimination without acknowledging the prevalent sexism within their own industry. These struggles were never clean cut battles but chaotic melées fought more with good intentions than any master plan and Rachel’s polyphonic style perfectly captures the fragmented, discordant nature of history as it’s really lived. Walls Come Tumbling Down takes moments that have been elevated into pop cultural mythos and drags them back down to street level. [Ross McIndoe] Out now, published by Pan Macmillan, RRP £12.99

By Tom McCarthy

Typewriters, Bombs, Jellyfish is the first collection of essays from Tom McCarthy, a novelist twice nominated for the Man Booker prize for C and Satin Island. A Marmite author, McCarthy has divided critics and readers; phoney and pretentious or a radical modern day Joyce? Previous readers of McCarthy’s novels will hardly be surprised by the essays’ subjects which provide a highlights reel of 20th century avantgarde culture. Joyce, Derrida, Foucault, Lynch, Ballard, and Kafka are names which repeatedly recur. Critical theorists are name dropped without explanation as it becomes apparent that McCarthy has a particular intended reader in mind, hardly surprising as Tristram Shandy was written as an introduction to Sterne’s novel and the Joyce essay was originally given as a university lecture. The book’s highpoint is Kathy Acker’s Infidel Heteroglossia, a piece which seamlessly intertwines jellyfish, the body, and language. The Acker essay almost makes up for the only other female-centred piece, the disastrous and porny short story about Patty Hearst. Almost. Despite being written over a ten-year span, McCarthy’s scope of subject matter is narrow and Anglo-American focused. Herein lies the book’s problem: despite being well executed and intellectually stimulating, the repetition of subject matter becomes, at best, frustrating, and, at worst, tedious. Read in isolation (as they were originally published), the individual essays are engaging pieces of criticism; however, as a collection, the essays become a self-congratulatory and impenetrable ivory tower of high art. [Katie Goh]

TLK 2 STDNTS #WeStandTogether Target 40,000 students across Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee.

BEE DESIGN BY ROB BAILE POSTER BY LIAMHEALY@ME.COM

The Skinny Student Handbook, published Sep 2017 To secure your advertising space or for more information call The Skinny sales team on 0131 467 4630 or email sales@ theskinny.co.uk

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Illustration: www.verbals-picks.com

Out now, published by the NYRB, RRP £10.99

July/August 2017

BOOKS

Review

Leeds Music Wed 05 Jul

ITOLDYOUIWOULDEATYOU (SIBLING) BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:30–22:30, £5

Seven-piece DIY emo-punk outfit. BLINK 182

FIRST DIRECT ARENA, 19:30–22:30, £22.04 - £50.60

The Californian punk rockers bring their 12-truck convoy to Liverpool, playing songs from current LP, California.

Thu 06 Jul

PEAKES (LAMINATE PET ANIMAL + LOUX + LUNA PINES)

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:30–22:30, £5

Leeds-based electronic/synth/ pop trio. RISING APPALACHIA

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:30–22:30, £15

A melange of folky elements, complex songwriting and textured harmonies. CHINWAG (KEVIN ROWLAND)

OUTLAWS YACHT CLUB, 19:00–22:00, £8 - £12

Casual Q&A session with the legendary front man of Dexys Midnight Runners.

Fri 07 Jul

JOYCE MANOR (MARTHA)

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:30–22:30, £10

Californian band hit the road in support of anticipated new album Cody.

FLESHTONES (THE SEE NO EVILS)

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:30–22:30, £10

American garage rock band formed in Queens, New York in 1976.

FOREVER CULT (AVALANCHE PARTY + DEAD NAKED HIPPIES + POLEVAULTER)

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:30–22:30, £6

Leeds-based grunge three-piece. HARDCORE DANCE NIGHT

THE FENTON, 20:00–00:00, £TBC

Hardcore dance.

Sat 08 Jul JESSE MALIN

BELGRAVE MUSIC HALL AND CANTEEN, 19:00–22:00, £15

New York singer-songwriter who began playing live at the tender age of twelve, in seminal hardcore band Heart Attack. DIRTBOX DISCO (LOADED 44 + GEOFFREY OI!COTT + HEADSTONE HORRORS + THE BLACK LAGOONS)

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:30–22:30, £10

Alternative rock/garage/glam confusion of a thing, who claimed to have been formed from the malfunction of a terrible musical laboratory experiment. PAT DAM SMYTH

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 18:00–22:00, £10

Pat Dam Smyth’s debut album The Great Divide was hailed as a modern masterpiece and received critical acclaim. His music falls somewhere between John Grant, Leonard Cohen, Father John Misty and Nick Cave.

Sun 09 Jul

THE SMITH STREET BAND

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:30–22:30, £12

Melbourne-hailing folk-punk quartet.

Mon 10 Jul

LEE FIELDS AND THE EXPRESSIONS

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:30–22:30, £15

Deeply soulful mix incorporating old and new sounds, with Carolina-born Lee Fields headering his instrument-heavy soul collective, The Expressions.

Wed 12 Jul THE GORIES

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:30–22:30, £15

American garage rock trio on the go since 1986.

Thu 13 Jul LEMURIA

HEADROW HOUSE, 20:00–23:00, £11

Buffalo-based indie rock trio, now three albums in.

BLOODSTAINS HARDCORE FESTIVAL (SCREAM + JADED EYES + OVERDOSE + SIDEKICK + LUGUBRIOUS CHILDREN + WELD + BITTER YOUTH + RAPTURE) TEMPLE OF BOOM, 18:00–23:00, £15 - £60

Fri 14 Jul

Tue 25 Jul

Temple of Boom brings you a four-day weekend festival with 45 bands across two stages.

THE WARDROBE, 19:30–01:00, £18.50

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:00–22:00, £28.50

Sat 05 Aug

TRISTAN + HESTON

Feel-good vintage acid jazz from Tristan and Heston Francis.

STANLEY CLARKE

Sat 15 Jul

The four-time Grammy Award winner tours the UK with four debut regional headline shows.

LEEDS TOWN HALL, 19:30–21:00, £7 - £14

Wed 26 Jul

ROCK UP AND SING

Over 300 voices from the Rock Up and Sing community choirs will be performing rock hits in support of St Gemma’s Hospice. STAGELIGHT PRESENTS THE CRIMSON BRIGADE

AFFAIRS

OPORTO, 19:30–23:00, £6

Manchester-based quintet peddling synth-based electro-pop rock.

THE FENTON, 20:00–00:00, £4 - £6

Thu 27 Jul

FULL OF HELL (UNYIELDING LOVE + FAMINE + GETS WORSE + LUGUBRIOUS CHILDREN + GROAK + LED BY THE THROAT + HEX + HOOF GLOVE + CHEAP SURGERY)

HOWARD ASSEMBLY ROOM, FROM 19:45, £16

Chesterfield metal lot.

TEMPLE OF BOOM, FROM 14:00, £10 - £12

Grindcore band from America.

GLASS CAVES (THE CALLS + OLIVER PINDER)

LENDING ROOM, 19:30–22:30, £8

A blend of alternative rock and indie rock.

Sun 16 Jul ROCK UP AND SING

LEEDS TOWN HALL, 14:00–15:30, £7 - £14

Over 300 voices from the Rock Up and Sing community choirs will be performing rock hits in support of St Gemma’s Hospice.

Wed 19 Jul

SOUNDS OF PALESTINE: NAI BARGHOUTI | MOHAMED NAJEM & FRIENDS

Moving seamlessly between Arabic music and jazz, two of the most exciting musicians to emerge from the cultural renaissance in Palestine take to the stage.

THE TIDY WAVES (CRAKE + CHLOE JULIETTE)

WHARF CHAMBERS, 19:30–23:00, £4 - £6

Wakefield band serving up jangly electric guitar, rumbling basslines and electronic beats to create melodic art-pop-rock songs with an edge.

THE SYMPHONIC SOUNDS OF BACK TO BASICS

Thu 20 Jul

Back to Basics celebrates an incredible 25 years at the forefront of UK club culture with a spectacular outdoor celebration in the heart of Leeds at Millennium Square.

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:30–22:30, £13

Sat 29 Jul

FOLK DEVILS + THE INCA BABIES

Folk Devils are joining forces with Manchester’s Inca Babies for a handful of summer dates around the UK. TURBOJUGEND LEEDS PRESENTS A NIGHT OF UNHOLY RIFFS!

THE FENTON, 20:00–00:00, £4

A night of insane riffs and great beers.

Fri 21 Jul

THE NEW MASTERSOUNDS (LITTLE VIOLET)

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:30–22:30, £12

Funky soul-jazz group formed in Leeds in 1999. BRAVADO CARTEL (REGIMENT + MUFFIN)

MILO BAR, 19:30–23:00, FREE

Scruff of the Neck welcome indie rock group Bravado Cartel.

Sat 22 Jul

THE METEORS + THE LEGENDARY RAW DEAL (SLAUGHTERHOUSE CATS + THE TEENAGE ZOMBIES + MAD JACK AND THE HATTERS + HOWLIN BONES)

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, FROM 14:00, £15

Charity all-dayer for Wlaking With Wounded. THE SUGARMAN 3

THE WARDROBE, 19:00–23:00, £8.75 - £17.50

The Daptone Records Boogaloo Combo hit the road with their first UK headline tour in over a decade. GRIEVED (ROUGH HANDS)

TEMPLE OF BOOM, 19:00–22:00, £6

Five piece hardcore punk band formed in Stockholm. DESPERATE JOURNALIST (THE BLACK DELTA MOVEMENT + TABLOIDS)

LENDING ROOM, 19:30–23:00, £6

A NIGHT AT THE OPERA

MILLENNIUM SQUARE, FROM 19:00, £11 - £22

Opera North dazzles with music from opera and the stage in an open-air summer celebration in the heart of Leeds at Millennium Square.

Sun 30 Jul

BACK TO THE FUTURE: IN CONCERT WITH THE ORCHESTRA OF OPERA NORTH

MILLENNIUM SQUARE, FROM 17:00, £9.75 - £19.50

Experience the thrill of Back to the Future like never before – on a big hi-def screen with a full symphony orchestra performing Alan Silvestri’s dazzling musical score live in synch with the movie.

Tue 01 Aug

CHEETAH CHROME AND JOHNNY BLITZ (THE KING CROWS + YALLA YALLAS)

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:30–22:30, £13

Celebrating 40 years of The Dead Boys’ album Young, Lound and Snotty. LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO

HOWARD ASSEMBLY ROOM, FROM 19:45, £35

Legendary choral group, marrying the intricate rhythms and harmonies of Zulu traditions to the sounds and sentiments of gospel music.

Thu 03 Aug

LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO

HOWARD ASSEMBLY ROOM, FROM 19:45, £35

Legendary choral group, marrying the intricate rhythms and harmonies of Zulu traditions to the sounds and sentiments of gospel music. SNAKE DAVIS BAND

CARRIAGEWORKS THEATRE, 20:00–23:00, £16 - £18

Blaring riffs, spiralling melodies and an inevitably sweaty live show.

Trumpeter Snake Davis performs as part of the JazzLeeds Festival.

Sun 23 Jul

THE REAL THING (HEATWAVE + JAKI GRAHAM)

WEDDING + IRMA VEP

HYDE PARK BOOK CLUB, 19:30–23:00, £6

Co-headline show for two Manchester-based faves.

TEMPLE OF BOOM, 13:30–23:00, £15 - £60

Temple of Boom brings you a four-day weekend festival with 45 bands across two stages.

Mon 07 Aug

BLOODSTAINS HARDCORE FESTIVAL (BURN + HIGHER POWER + FRAME OF MIND + LED BY THE THROAT + CHEAP SURGERY + SWEET VISION + SOCIAL ORDER + MORE) TEMPLE OF BOOM, 18:00–23:00, £15 - £60

Temple of Boom brings you a four-day weekend festival with 45 bands across two stages.

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:30–22:30, £22.50

MILLENNIUM SQUARE, FROM 19:15, £28

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:30–22:30, £9

BLOODSTAINS HARDCORE FESTIVAL (STALAG + FANG + CRUDE SS + THE VILE + ARMS RACE + ANTI-SOCIAL + BETA BLOCKERS + WHIPPING POST + MORE)

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:30–22:30, £6

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:30–22:30, £10

Californian punk rock icons return to what is allegedly their favourite venue in the UK.

Sun 06 Aug

Tue 08 Aug

YES LAD

…Nah lad.

THE DICKIES (IN EVIL HOUR)

TEMPLE OF BOOM, 13:30–23:00, £15 - £60

Temple of Boom brings you a four-day weekend festival with 45 bands across two stages.

Fri 28 Jul

MEATBODIES (JON JONES AND THE BEATNIKS MOVEMENT + MAGIC MOUNTAIN)

Trio from LA consisting of Kevin Boog, Chad Ubovich, and Patrick Nolan.

BLOODSTAINS HARDCORE FESTIVAL (ZERO BOYS + FUS +MDC + RATTUS + A PAGE OF PUNK + THE YOUNG HEARTS + YOUNG CONSERVATIVES + MANTILLA + WAR ALL THE TIME + MORE)

Fri 04 Aug

MILLENNIUM SQUARE, 19:30–23:30, £35

LAMBCHOP

Nashville-hailing alternative country types par excellence, armed with their collection of pleasingly peculiar and melancholy songwriting.

Thu 10 Aug

THE CREEPSHOW (SNAKERATTLERS + MAID OF ACE) BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:30–22:30, £11

Country-tinged psycho-punk rock ‘n’ roll group from Toronto.

Sat 12 Aug HOLY FUCK

BELGRAVE MUSIC HALL AND CANTEEN, 20:00–23:00, £10

Chaotic electronica of the highest order from the Canardian collective.

Tue 15 Aug COUGH

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:30–22:30, £10

Sludge/doom metal band from Richmond, Virginia.

Thu 17 Aug

FRANCOIS AND THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:30–22:30, £12

Saintes-born Francois Marry does his airy and understated thing under his François and the Atlas Mountains’ banner, all afro-beat sway and sweet indie-pop melodies.

Fri 18 Aug

Sat 26 Aug BAD MANNERS

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:30–23:00, £16

Ska band formed in 1976 in Stoke Newington. BIG COUNTRY

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:00–23:00, £22.50

Liverpool Music Sat 01 Jul THE RED SHOES

Mark Brzezicki and Bruce Watson continue to tour as Big Country, with new vocalist Simon Hough replacing Stuart Adamson.

LIVERPOOL EMPIRE THEATRE , FROM 19:30, £12 - £44

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:30–22:30, £16

LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC HALL, 19:30–22:30, £24.50 - £29.50

BAD MANNERS

Ska band formed in 1976 in Stoke Newington.

THIS MUST BE THE PLACE (ALVVAYS + BEACH FOSSILS + SORRY + OUR GIRL + CHEST PAINS) VARIOUS VENUES, FROM 14:00, £20

Bank holiday double-dayer at Belgrave Music Hall and Headrow House.

Kate Bush bangers from a dedicated tribute act. SONS OF PITCHES

A cappella lads, known for being winners of BBC2’s 2015 show The Naked Choir.

Sun 02 Jul TOM CLARKE

ARTS CLUB, 19:00–22:00, £SOLD OUT

SAM OUTLAW BAND

English multi-instrumentalist known as the lead vocalist of the British indie rock band The Enemy, acoustically celebrating 10 years of We’ll Live & Die in These Towns.

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:30–22:30, £12.50

Mon 03 Jul

Sun 27 Aug Out trailing new album Tenderheart.

THIS MUST BE THE PLACE (PARQUET COURTS + ULRIKA SPACEK + COWTOWN + MENACE BEACH + DRAHLA)

VARIOUS VENUES, FROM 14:00, £20

Bank holiday double-dayer at Belgrave Music Hall and Headrow House.

BILLY BRAGG: BRIDGES NOT WALLS

LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC MUSIC ROOM, 19:30–22:30, £7

Billy Bragg, in one-man Clash mode, will perform songs from his 30+ year career, some pertinent covers by his heroes and mentors and some freshly minted songs.

Tue 04 Jul

Tue 29 Aug

THE VALE OF CLWYD SINGERS: MADRIGALS AND MOTETS AT LUNCHTIME

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:30–22:30, £9

LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC MUSIC ROOM, FROM 13:00, £10

NADIA REID

With a richness of voice, a depth of emotion and wisdom beyond her years, New Zealand native Nadia Reid returns to UK shores.

Wed 30 Aug TRICOT

HEADROW HOUSE, 20:00–23:00, £12

Experimental math rock band from Kyoto, formed in 2010.

Thu 31 Aug CAR SEAT HEADREST

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:30–22:30, £15

American indie rock band from Virginia, now based in Seattle with latest album, Teens of Denial.

At Christmas time 2011, five friends came together to sing carols in pubs around Denbigh. The Vale of Clwyd Singers was born.

Wed 05 Jul

LIVERPOOL STRING QUARTET: AN AFTERNOON AT THE MOVIES

NORDIC CHURCH AND CULTURAL CENTRE, 15:00–16:45, £0 - £10

Join the Liverpool String Quartet to celebrate film music, performing arrangements from Psycho, The Pink Panther, Moon River, The Jungle Book, Superman and more.

Fri 07 Jul

LIVERPOOL NOISE PRESENTS… (DELIAH + THE DEBT STARS + SALT THE SNAIL + WEEKEND WARS + COLOUR) 24 KITCHEN STREET, 19:00–23:00, £3

Sun 20 Aug JANE MCDONALD

LEEDS GRAND THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £30.50 - £35.50

The former seafaring warbler takes another turn around the UK.

Wed 23 Aug

COURTNEY MARIE ANDREWS

BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:30–22:30, £10

Singer-songwriter hailing from Phoenix, Arizona, now touring latest album Honest Life.

DaDaFest develops young disabled and deaf artists by providing a platform for them to showcase their creative talent. This year’s show includes performances from Arden Rockers, Young DaDa Ensemble, Six For Tennis and Owen Jones.

THE ZANZIBAR PRESENTS… (THE DRIFTING CLASSROOM + BLACK MOUNTAIN LIGHTS + DANGEROUS BEANS + DASSLER JACKS)

THE ZANZIBAR CLUB, 19:30–00:30, £4

Local music showcase.

SILICON DREAMS FESTIVAL (PARRALOX + AVEC SANS + FUTURE PERFECT + BERLYN TRIOLOGY) LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC MUSIC ROOM, FROM 18:30, £21.50

A selection of the best new electronic pop comes to Liverpool for this premier boutique festival.

Sun 09 Jul JESSE MALIN

ARTS CLUB, 19:00–22:00, £15

HERMITAGE GREEN

Folksy types from the Emerald Isle.

Wed 12 Jul JON CLEARY

LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC MUSIC ROOM, 20:00–23:00, £15

The electro-pop pioneer presents a selection of tracks new and old. GUITAR LEGENDS

EPSTEIN THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £18

Gary Murphy and his band play through the sounds of some of history’s best loved guitar heroes, with narration from BBC Radio Merseyside’s Billy Butler. THE ROCK AND ROLL YEARS (GARY MURPHY’S GUITAR LEGENDS)

EPSTEIN THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £18

The show highlights many different guitar styles including rock, pop, jazz and country and has something for all ages.

ECHO ARENA, 19:00–22:00, £33 - £50.60

Single launch party.

The Californian punk rockers bring their 12-truck convoy to Liverpool, playing songs from current LP, California. JOOLS HOLLAND AND HIS RHYTHM AND BLUES ORCHESTRA

LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC HALL, 19:30–22:30, £37.50 - £45.50

Jools and his Orchestra return to Liverpool Philharmonic to dazzle with their exuberant live performance and featuring guest vocalists that deliver true rhythm and blues. REEM KELANI

LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC MUSIC ROOM, 20:00–23:00, £14

World renowned Palestinian singer, musicologist and broadcaster, Kelani’s reputation extends across the Arab and non-Arab worlds. THE ZANZIBAR PRESENTS… (THE MOODS + SILENT STATE + SAV AND THE DEMOCRACY)

THE ZANZIBAR CLUB, 19:30–00:30, £4

Local music showcase.

Sun 16 Jul

THE BILLY FURY YEARS

ECHO ARENA, 19:00–22:00, £27.50

An evening of live music commemorating one of the 1960s’ best-selling recording artists, whose hit singles totalled a staggering 332 weeks in the British charts. GREAT CHORAL CLASSICS

An evening of major choral classics from Liverpool Voice Choir.

Tue 18 Jul JOE MCELDERRY

LIVERPOOL EMPIRE THEATRE , 19:30–22:30, £22.90 - £43.40

The former X Factor winner heads out on tour in support of new single, Gloria. Yay.

Wed 19 Jul

ANNE-MARIE SANDERSON

LEAF, 20:00–23:00, FREE

STUDIO 2, 19:30–23:30, £4.50

Fri 28 Jul

BRIAN WILSON PRESENTS PET SOUNDS

ECHO ARENA, 19:00–22:00, £61.50 £71.50

See one of the most iconic albums of all time performed live by the great man himself, in celebration of Liverpool’s Summer of Love festivities.

Sun 30 Jul ENERGY

ARTS CLUB, 19:00–22:00, £8.50

Massachusetts five-piece embarking on a UK tour this summer with melancholy melodies and pop hooks.

Tue 01 Aug FRANKIE COSMOS

THE MAGNET , 19:00–23:00, £9

Greta Kline’s musical output as Frankie Cosmos exemplifies the generation of musicians born out of online self-releasing.

Thu 03 Aug

THE MARIO LANZA STORY

EPSTEIN THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £20

The life and story of Mario Lanza, performed by Victor Michael.

Mon 07 Aug REGINA SPEKTOR

LIVERPOOL EMPIRE THEATRE , FROM 19:00, £31.65 - £40.15

The anti-folk songstress showcases her latest album, Remember Us To Life, in a live setting.

Tue 08 Aug

TOOTS AND THE MAYTALS

OLYMPIA, 19:00–23:00, £28.50

Toots and the Maytals, originally called simply The Maytals, are considered legends of ska and reggae music. Their sound is a unique, original combination of gospel, ska, soul, reggae and rock.

Fri 11 Aug MY LIFE STORY

Live acoustic set from indie-folk singer-songwriter Anne-Marie Sanderson.

Orchestral indie pop lot still going strong after more than 20 years.

Fri 21 Jul

Sat 12 Aug

DEAN FRIEDMAN

LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC MUSIC ROOM, 20:00–23:00, £27.50

Singer and songwriter Friedman, known for chart-topping 70s hits Ariel, Lucky Stars, Lydia, and Woman of Mine performs songs from throughout his three-decade career.

Sat 22 Jul

THE ZANZIBAR PRESENTS… (BEDSIDERS + VELVET ECHOES + NEPTUNE VALLEY)

Thu 13 Jul

Four-piece tropical indie rock band based in Leeds.

THE MAGNET , 19:30–23:00, £15

Tue 25 Jul

American garage rock trio on the go since 1986.

GARY NUMAN

ECHO ARENA, 19:00–22:00, £33.50 - £42

LADIES (EDGAR JONES + THE SHUNT + THE SWEET CHILLI BAND)

BLINK 182

Beyond Cleary’s considerable skills as a tunesmith he is equally renowned around the globe as an accomplished keyboardist and guitarist, and a deeply soulful vocalist. THE GORIES

Thu 27 Jul

Sat 15 Jul

HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, 19:30–22:15, £7

THE ZANZIBAR CLUB, 18:30–23:00, £10

Texan alternative singer-songwriter, formerly of indie folk band Smile Smile, now also a member of People on Vacation.

YOUNG DADAFEST MUSIC

LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC MUSIC ROOM, FROM 18:30, £3 - £5

Sat 08 Jul

Sat 19 Aug BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, 19:30–22:30, £13.50

MAGUIRE’S PIZZA BAR, 19:00–23:15, £6

The “All-Singing All-Dancing Anything-Goes Mixed-Topping Slice-o-Rama” at Maguire’s.

Mon 17 Jul

Dark psychedlic pop hailing from Leeds. RYAN HAMILTON

PUNK ROCK PIZZA (BRASSICK + IN EVIL HOUR + FLAT BACK FOUR + MEDICTATION + SPOILERS)

Fundraising night for homeless charity The Whitechapel Centre.

New York singer-songwriter who began playing live at the tender age of twelve, in seminal hardcore band Heart Attack.

THE BOXING (IST IST + BROODERS)

MILO BAR, 19:30–23:00, FREE

Fri 14 Jul

THE ZANZIBAR CLUB, 19:30–00:30, £4

Local music showcase.

TIGER TWINS (FEZ + BEDELIA)

BUYERS CLUB, 19:30–23:00, £6

JACK LUKEMAN

ARTS CLUB, 19:00–22:00, £15

THE ZANZIBAR PRESENTS… (THE CLOUDED LIGHT + COMFORTABLE JUMPERS + MASTER THIEVES + BIG FAT ASTRONAUTS)

THE ZANZIBAR CLUB, 19:30–00:30, £4

Local music showcase.

Fri 18 Aug TOO MANY ZOOZ

INVISIBLE WIND FACTORY, 19:00–23:00, £19

New York brasshouse trio, who shot to fame after a video of them busking at Union Square subway station went viral.

BIG YOUTH AND THE UPPER CUT BAND (AFRICA OYE DJS) DISTRICT, 19:30–01:00, £15

The legendary DJ, toaster and recording artist is joined by one of the UK’s finest reggae backing bands.

LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC MUSIC ROOM, 20:00–23:00, £12

Respected and loved performer in Ireland, stopping by for a live show.

The Real Thing return with their mix of sweet soul music and disco.

THE SKINNY

Sat 19 Aug

SHOUT ABOUT IT LIVE (VICTORIA + SLY ANTICS + LUCA + BROTHERS OF MINE + THE CHEAP THRILLS + BLACK PULP + WILDFIRES + CAL RUDDY + THE BUFFALO RIOT + RIVIERA)

Manchester Music

DISTRICT, 12:00–23:00, £12

Hybrid festival of live music and photography.

Thu 24 Mar

Sun 20 Aug

THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:30–23:00, £6

SHOUT ABOUT IT LIVE (ELEANOR NELLY + SILENT CITIES + ASTLES + BLACK MOUNTAIN LIGHTS + DIAMONDS IN THE DARK) DISTRICT, 12:00–23:00, £10

Hybrid festival of live music and photography.

Fri 25 Aug THE VRYLL SOCIETY

THE MAGNET , 19:00–23:00, £5

Liverpool-based five-piece mixing in everything from Funkadelic to Aphrodites Child and krautrock.

Sat 26 Aug

THE ZANZIBAR PRESENTS… (CUECLICHE + BEAR TRAP + RED WINTER + BURN THE YEARBOOK) THE ZANZIBAR CLUB, 19:30–00:30, £4

Local music showcase.

Sun 27 Aug ALEX CAMERON

THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 19:30–23:00, £8

Aussie synth musician, who does the rounds with business partner and saxophonist Roy Molloy.

Mon 28 Aug

THE CAVERN 60TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC HALL, 20:00–23:00, £25 - £35

From 1957 to the present day, a live show performed by The Overtures and guests.

Wed 30 Aug JENS LEKMAN

LEAF, 20:00–23:00, £14.50

Time-honoured Swedish troubadour, back at it with a new batch of witty pop songs.

THE TAPESTRY

The local indie rockers play their final gig of 2015.

Fri 10 Feb THE AFTER HOURS

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–00:30, £5

Electro swing enthusiasts weaving 1920s New Orleans jazz, swing and Balkan tunes with modern dance styles.

Sat 01 Jul THE CASTAWAYS

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5

Ska, rocksteady, reggae and jazz from the Mel Howard-led group.

CABBAGE (THE BLINDERS + STRANGE BONES)

O2 RITZ, FROM 18:30, £12

Manchester-based five-piece serving up discordant post-punk. MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: NEW ORDER AND LIAM GILLICK - SO IT GOES…

OLD GRANADA STUDIOS, FROM 20:00, £SOLD OUT

New Order and visual artist Liam Gillick will deconstruct, rethink and rebuild a wealth of material from throughout the band’s career.

MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: THE WORLD WAS ONCE ALL MIRACLE BRIDGEWATER HALL, FROM 19:30, £12 - £38

Acclaimed composer Raymond Yiu has set text from six Burgess poems into a major symphonic song cycle, given its world premiere by baritone Roderick Williams and the BBC Philharmonic. MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: BONOBO

MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL, 19:30–22:30, £SOLD OUT

Brighton’s Bonobo (aka Simon Green) shows his face to follow up the January release of sixth LP, Migration. MATTHEW LOGAN VASQUEZ

THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:00–22:15, £7.50

California/Texas-hailing rock’n’roller signed to Dine Alone Records.

HAYDN: THE CREATION (CHETHAM’S SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA & CHORUS WITH MEMBERS OF GABRIELI)

THE STOLLER HALL AT CHETHAM’S, 19:30–21:30, £8.80 - £18

Paul McCreesh and a trio of special guest soloists join senior musicians from Chetham’s for a performance of Haydn’s masterpiece. CAMPFIRE SOCIAL (SOUTH ISLAND SON + ALTAR HANGLANDS)

THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:30–22:30, £6 - £8

MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: SANGAM 2017

North Wales five piece peddling incandescent, melodic songs.

THE LOWRY: LYRIC THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £12 - £45

Wed 05 Jul

An evening of Sufi music with Sanam Marvi and Harshdeep Kaur.

Sun 02 Jul

MANCHESTER BEER WEEK CLOSING PARTY (FT. GOOD FOXY / HUNROSA (SAM VICARY) / PYRAMIDS / LA MODE / MOLLY WARBURTON / JO ROSE / MELANIE KATE) BAND ON THE WALL, FROM 14:00, FREE

Band on the Wall and Blackjack Brewery present an all-dayer of live music and fine beers to bring this year’s Manchester Beer Week to a close! POPCAAN (D DOUBLE E)

O2 RITZ, 19:00–23:00, £30

Rising dancehall star.

Mon 03 Jul BLUES JAM

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE

Monthly night of blues, led by Franny Eubanks with Matt and Phred’s resident band. THE LIVING END

GORILLA, 19:00–23:00, £16

Aussie punk rock band formed in the mid 90s. KC AND THE SUNSHINE BAND

O2 RITZ, 19:00–23:00, £30

GLADYS KNIGHT

O2 APOLLO, FROM 19:00, £45 - £62.50

Goddess of soul and winner of seven (yes, SEVEN) Grammys Gladys Knight swings by the Festival Theatre. RADIOHEAD

MANCHESTER ARENA, 18:00–22:00, £55 - £75

They might be “pretty bleedin’ depressing” according to your Mum, but there’s no denying Radiohead taught our steely generation how to *feel* with their trailblazing art rock. Heading out on a European tour, they’ll stop by Manchester for two dates. BARRELHOUSE TRIO

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE

A trio who met at Leeds College of Music and bonded over a mutual love of the Sonny Rollins trio of the 50s/60s. MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: SAMPHA (PAULI)

ALBERT HALL, 19:30–22:30, £12 - £25

Sampha Sisay heads to Manchester for a one-off headline set for MIF, in the wake of the release of 2017 debut Process.

Positive-natured disco and funk from the 70s.

Thu 06 Jul

Tue 04 Jul

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE

ALEX CORNISH

GULLIVERS, 19:30–22:30, £10

Singer-songwriter from Dunbar who has produced five home-made albums to date, with his latest being Hang on the Word out in the summer of 2017. THE SONS OF PITCHES

THE LOWRY: LYRIC THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £28 - £33

A cappella lads, known for being winners of BBC2’s 2015 show The Naked Choir. RADIOHEAD

MANCHESTER ARENA, 18:00–22:00, £55 - £75

GORILLA, 19:30–23:00, £SOLD OUT

English multi-instrumentalist known as the lead vocalist of the British indie rock band The Enemy, acoustically celebrating 10 years of We’ll Live & Die in These Towns. B.D. LENZ

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE

American jazz guitarist, stepping on stage for Independence Day.

THE JEFFREY HEWER QUARTET

Leeds-based band exploring the limitless soundscapes of contemporary jazz. MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: NEW ORDER AND LIAM GILLICK - SO IT GOES…

OLD GRANADA STUDIOS, FROM 20:00, £SOLD OUT

New Order and visual artist Liam Gillick will deconstruct, rethink and rebuild a wealth of material from throughout the band’s career. MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: LAST AND FIRST MEN

BRIDGEWATER HALL, FROM 19:30, £15 - £30

A film and live score by Jóhann Jóhannsson, featuring the BBC Philharmonic. MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: PALEMAN

GORILLA, 19:00–22:00, £12 - £15

Part of Mary Anne Hobbs’ Dark Matter series for MIF. RNCM STUDENTFEST

ROYAL NORTHERN COLLEGE OF MUSIC RNCM, 11:00–22:00, £0 - £10

RNCM students take over the College to present a jam-packed programme of events, with every single element planned and managed by the students, and music spanning everything from gospel to folk, big band to string quartet.

THE SOUND OF HIS MUSIC: A CELEBRATION OF RICHARD RODGERS (CHETHAM’S CONCERT ORCHESTRA WITH STARS OF LONDON’S WEST END) THE STOLLER HALL AT CHETHAM’S, 19:30–21:30, £8.80 - £18

Leading West End performers and singers from the world’s greatest opera houses join Chetham’s stellar young musicians for an evening of classic songs from South Pacific, The Sound of Music and more.

SCRUFF OF THE NECK PRESENTS… (FOREVER CULT + JEKYLL + BOY GENIUS) THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:30–22:30, £6

Live sets from Blackpool alt/ melodic rock lot Jekyll and others. JOEL GARDNER

GULLIVERS, 19:30–22:30, £5 - £10

Launching his long-awaited EP, The Idea.

Fri 07 Jul

COLD WAR KIDS (GENGAHR + BAD SEA)

O2 RITZ, 19:00–23:00, £16.50

Sun 09 Jul STAX MUSIC ACADEMY

BAND ON THE WALL, 19:30–22:30, £12.50

In 1967, Stax Records sent its top artists on a first-ever tour of Europe. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of that milestone event, Stax Music Academy follow in their footsteps with its first-ever tour of France, England, and Ireland. PAT DAM SMYTH

JIMMY’S, 19:30–22:30, £6.50

THE STOLLER HALL AT CHETHAM’S, 19:30–22:00, £15 - £50

As part of the first Jewish Arts Festival For All (JAFFA) in Manchester, The Stoller Hall will host this Gala Concert featuring Greg Nogradi, David Ezra Okon?ar and the L’chaim Kapelye Klezmer Ensemble.

Mon 10 Jul JAZZ JAM

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE

California natives, making indie rock with those beachy wave vibes we all love.

Open jazz jam led by Johnny Hunter, inviting musicians to join the house band for an evening of impromptu sets.

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5

GULLIVERS, 19:30–22:30, £14

SPEAKEASY BOOTLEG

Hailing from New Orleans, this tin pan alley three piece bring the sounds of the turn of the 20thcentury to the Northwest. MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: THE HAXAN CLOAK

GORILLA, 19:00–22:00, £12 - £18

Part of Mary Anne Hobbs’ Dark Matter series for MIF. TOUTS (RORY WYNNE)

THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:00–22:15, £7

Derry trio peddling punk rock sounds.

MONOPHONICS (CROWD COMPANY)

BAND ON THE WALL, 19:30–22:30, £10

Following a sold out London show in 2016, Monophonics return to the UK. VICTORIES AT SEA

THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:30–22:30, £7

Birmingham lot signed to Static Caravan Records.

STUPID COSMONAUT (SICK TAPESTRY + HELVE) GULLIVERS, 19:30–22:30, £5

Bringing their astral transmissions to Gulliver’s for their first headline show in Manchester.

Sat 08 Jul THE VAMPS

MANCHESTER ACADEMY, 14:30–17:30, £12

Acoustic-driven British pop unit led by singer Brad Simpson. THE VAMPS

MANCHESTER ACADEMY, 19:00–22:00, £16

WILL HOGE

Nahsville country crooner.

Tue 11 Jul THE PEAS

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE

Upbeat, multi-talented duo playing using everything from kazoos and mouth trumpets to beat box and vocal synthesiser. MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: RIDE (SPECTRES)

O2 RITZ, 19:30–22:30, £12 - £25

BAND ON THE WALL, 19:30–22:30, £12

DARK MATTER: CLARK (AKKORD)

O2 RITZ, 19:00–22:30, £22

Curated by BBC 6 Radio Music tastemaker Mary Anne Hobbs, Dark Matter is a series of immersive shows as part of the programming for 2017’s Manchester International Festival.

EVIL HOOF PICNIC (VANILLA POD + PIZZATRAMP + THE CRASH MATS + HUMMER + RIGGOTS + INCISIONS + CLAYFACE + FLAT BACK FOUR + TIO RICO + AVAS + DON BLAKE + NOSEBLEED + WERECATS) GULLIVERS, 13:00–23:45, £5 - £7

Evil Music Live and Horn & Hoof Records combine forces to create a day of awesome music. MARUJA (CARNATION + QUEASY + BIGFOOT B2B COLE)

SOUP KITCHEN, 19:15–22:00, £5

EP launch gig for Manchester-based Maruja. GHAZAL BAHAAR

O2 APOLLO, 18:30–22:00, £25 - £100

Taking you back to the Golden Era of Bollywood, ghazals and poetry.

July/August 2017 Find full listings at theskinny.co.uk/whats-on

MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: COLIN STETSON GORILLA, 19:00–22:00, £12 - £20

Part of Mary Anne Hobbs’ Dark Matter series for MIF. PIERCE BROTHERS

THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:00–22:15, £10

Brothers Jack and Pat, who’ve taken their music from busking on the streets of Melbourne out into the world.

AGBEKO ALBUM LAUNCH PARTY (BETHLEHEM CASUALS + LYCHEE + STUTTER & TWITCH DJS) BAND ON THE WALL, 19:30–22:30, £7

Agbeko are a high-octane afrorock-funk-psych spectacular from Manchester WSTRN (KOJO FUNDS + FEKKY + LADY ICE + DJ LISH, +PROD)

O2 RITZ, 19:00–23:00, £15

West London-based collective consisting of Akelle Charles, Haile and Louis Rei.

MARK RADCLIFFE’S GALLEON BLAST

WATERSIDE ARTS CENTRE, 18:00–18:00, £11 - £15

Featuring banjos, whistles, accordions and fiddles from members of The Family Mahone, Full House, The Bad Shepherds, The Incredible String Band and Thea Gilmore. M.A.D PRESENTS… (GUG + STUPID IDIOT + TIGER MOTH + HELLO PEDRO)

GULLIVERS, 19:30–22:30, £4

With “whine rock” trio Stupid Idiot and more. RED LIGHT EFFECT

SOUP KITCHEN, 19:00–23:30, £7

Sat 15 Jul

JON CLEARY QUARTET

Wed 12 Jul

STUART MCCALLUM RESIDENCY

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE

Monthly experimental improv compositions from The Cinematic Orchestra’s Stuart McCallum.

Thu 13 Jul THE CHANTEUSE

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE

THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:30–22:30, £10

Joyce Sims is the multi-talented singer-songwriter behind many club classic soul anthems, and 2017 marks the 30th anniversary of Come Into My Life.

Leeds-based jazz musicians playing a mix of styles inspired by early jazz/swing music in New Orleans – which has surprisingly little to do with large reptilian-based stew.

BAND ON THE WALL, 19:30–22:30, £15.50

The New Orleans funk master Jon Cleary returns to the Band on the Wall stage to perform work from his new record Gogo Juice.

O2 RITZ, 19:00–22:00, £12 - £22

JOYCE SIMS

ALLIGATOR GUMBO

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5

After a hiatus from the live scene, Red Light Effect return for a headline slot to launch new single Full of Nothing.

Welcoming Lucy Hope, one of the UK’s leading exponents of French chanson, to the stage.

Part of Mary Anne Hobbs’ Dark Matter series for MIF.

The Californian punk rockers bring their 12-truck convoy to Liverpool, playing songs from current LP, California.

The Oxford quartet head our way with their first album in 20 years, produced by DJ, remixer and producer Erol Alkan.

Acoustic-driven British pop unit led by singer Brad Simpson. MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: CLARK

BLINK 182 CASTLEFIELD BOWL, FROM 17:30, £46

JACK LUKEMAN

Respected and loved performer in Ireland, stopping by for a live show. MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: NEW ORDER AND LIAM GILLICK - SO IT GOES…

OLD GRANADA STUDIOS, FROM 20:00, £SOLD OUT

New Order and visual artist Liam Gillick will deconstruct, rethink and rebuild a wealth of material from throughout the band’s career. MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: KOJEY RADICAL

GORILLA, 19:00–22:00, £12 - £15

Part of Mary Anne Hobbs’ Dark Matter series for MIF.

THE JAZZ TICKET (NU CIVILISATION ORCHESTRA)

ROYAL NORTHERN COLLEGE OF MUSIC RNCM, 19:15–21:30, £5

Award-winning pianist and composer, Peter Edwards leads the sensational Nu Civilisation Orchestra in an evening filled with exhilarating classic big band sounds and the sizzling new special commission.

Fri 14 Jul

RODRIGO Y GABRIELA

ALBERT HALL, 19:00–23:00, £25

The experimental Mexican acoustic duo tour in support of the release of the deluxe edition of their classic breakout album.

KYLA BROX

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5

The daughter of blues singer Victor Brox, with several albums to her name. KEY 103 SUMMER LIVE

MANCHESTER ARENA, FROM 19:30, £25 - £70

A big ol’ summery pop party courtesy of Key 103, who bring to the stage OneRepublic, Years and Years, Sigala, Craig David, Clean Bandit with Louisa Johnson, Sigma and Grace. MARCONI UNION (FT. FILM PROJECTIONS BY DOTCA)

BAND ON THE WALL, 19:00–22:00, £10.50

Ambient trio who’ve worked with the Marina Abramovic Institute, Jah Wobble and others, MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: NEW ORDER AND LIAM GILLICK - SO IT GOES…

OLD GRANADA STUDIOS, FROM 20:00, £SOLD OUT

New Order and visual artist Liam Gillick will deconstruct, rethink and rebuild a wealth of material from throughout the band’s career.

DARK MATTER: SUNN O))) + DEMDIKE STARE DJ SET

O2 RITZ, 19:00–23:00, £25

Mon 17 Jul

MR B THE GENTLEMAN RHYMER

GULLIVERS, 19:30–22:30, £10

Throwing his Manchester summer soiree. FULL OF HELL

SOUP KITCHEN, 19:00–22:00, £12

Grindcore band from America.

Wed 19 Jul THE GRAVY TRAIN TRIO

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE

Channelling the sounds of John Schofield, Melvin Sparks, Boogaloo Joe Jones and more.

Thu 20 Jul

JAMIE BROWNFIELD QUARTET

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE

Jazz four-piece headed by British Jazz Awards rising star, Jamie Brownfield.

SAUL WILLIAMS (MICHAEL O’NEILL + OUT OF QUIET)

ISLINGTON MILL, 19:30–23:00, £13

The incomparable poet, musician, actor and MC brings his multi-faceted performance style to the Mill. HORACE ANDY & MAFIA AND FLUXY BAND (MATIC HORNS + JOEY B + DJ SAMRAI)

BAND ON THE WALL, 19:30–22:30, £25

A legendary voice in reggae history, Jamaican roots legend and Massive Attack collaborator Horace Andy returns to Band on the Wall. YEAH BUDDY! PRESENTS... (SPQR + SWEET DEALS ON SURGERY + SALT THE SNAIL)

THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:30–22:30, £5

Yeah Buddy! are hosting our 2nd ever Manchester show, 3 years on from the first one,

DRY COUGH PRESENTS… (OMMADON + BISMUTH + WODE + RITUAL OBJECT) GULLIVERS, 19:30–22:30, £6

Fri 21 Jul

CATRIN FINCH & SECKOU KEITA

THE STOLLER HALL AT CHETHAM’S, 19:30–21:30, £17.50

A sublime and multi-award winning harp and kora collaboration between two acclaimed virtuosi. FRANNY EUBANKS’ BLUES BAND

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5

Fuelled by the blues of Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson.

KING PLEASURE & THE BISCUIT BOYS

WATERSIDE ARTS CENTRE, 18:00, £15

Celebrating 30 years on the road, having opened shows for B.B. King and Ray Charles, and toured with the Blues Brothers Band, King Pleasure & The Biscuit Boys promise a rocking night of swing, jazz and blues.

Sat 22 Jul REN HARVIEU

WATERSIDE ARTS CENTRE, 19:30–22:00, £14 - £16

Salford-born singer Ren Harvieu is an incredible talent, blending vintage soulful tones with sumptuous swing touches.

FREDDIE MCGREGOR (GAPPY RANKS + SANDRA CROSS + MIKE ANTHONY + KOFI + JOHN MCLEAN + FREDERICA TIBBS + EASI B + EMPRESS ASHA) MANCHESTER ACADEMY, FROM 22:00, £25 - £27.50

The reggae legend calls into town, pals in tow. THE PLIMP SOULS

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5

Raw funk and heavy soul vibes.

Curated by BBC 6 Radio Music tastemaker Mary Anne Hobbs, Dark Matter is a series of immersive shows as part of the programming for 2017’s Manchester International Festival.

THE LOWRY: LYRIC THEATRE, 19:30–22:30, £26.50 - £37.50

THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:30–22:30, £3 - £5

JACKOFHEARTS PRESENTS… (CEILING DEMONS + SHELTOR POINT + OYA PAPA + S^^K^^G)

ANALOGUETRACK PRESENTS… (SOFT RIOT + HAUSFRAU + DUCK)

A specially curated intimate event featuring some of the UK’s best and brightest alternative and electronic music acts. SWEET RELEASE (SUNDOWN HOUNDS + PURPLE MERLINS)

SOUP KITCHEN, 19:30–23:00, £6

Snarling and swaggering bluesdriven indie from Warrington.

Sun 16 Jul

TOPP PRESENTS… (TAPESTRY + AUTUMN DIET PLANS)

THE OLD PINT POT, 19:00–23:00, £TBC

For fans of emo, shoegaze, 90s fuzzy pop and sad vibes.

JOE MCELDERRY

The former X Factor winner heads out on tour in support of new single, Gloria. Yay.

THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:30–22:30, £TBC

With purveyors of obscure hip hop Ceiling Demons and more.

Sun 23 Jul

PUDDLE OF MUDD (TRAPT + THE FALLEN STATE)

GORILLA, 19:00–23:00, £19.50

The staggeringly popular Kansas City rockers return, with fiery frontman and only remaining fouding member Wes Scantlin still at the helm.

THE SUGARMAN 3 BAND ON THE WALL, 19:00–22:00, £17.50

The Daptone Records Boogaloo Combo hit the road with their first UK headline tour in over a decade.

Mon 24 Jul

MATT AND PHRED’S ALL STAR JAM (DREAMER) MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE

Mancunian funk, soul and disco group Dreamer host the monthly jam.

THE EDUARDO NIEBLA EXPERIENCE

WATERSIDE ARTS CENTRE, 19:30–21:30, £14 - £16

Virtuoso Spanish guitarist Eduardo Niebla is accompanied by guitarist Matthew Robinson and tabla player Dharmesh Parmar. DANNY GRUFF (CANDLE THIEVES + DAVE GILES)

THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:30–22:30, £8

Folk and pop artist, out on tour following the success of his 2016 ONTAW project (stands for One New Tune A Week).

Tue 25 Jul ZZ TOP

O2 APOLLO, FROM 19:00, £49.50 - £75

Bearded 70s blues rock outfit from Texas, and the only American rock band to stick with the same line-up for 30+ years. Props. THE HANSON AND SMITH DUO

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE

Mancunian twosome comprising Ben Smith on piano and vocals and Craig Hanson on drums and percussion. THE SHEE

WATERSIDE ARTS CENTRE, 19:30–21:30, £16 - £18

The Shee are an exceptional band, showcasing powerful and emotional vocal performances and instrumental prowess spanning folk, Gaelic and bluegrass music.

PUMPKIN RECORDS AND ANARCHISTIC UNDERTONES PRESENT… (ACCIDENTE + CRYWANK + WITCH FEVER + PARDON US) GULLIVERS, 19:30–22:30, £5

With Madrid punk rock lot Accidente, Manc anti-folk group Crywank and more.

Wed 26 Jul KYLA BROX

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE

The daughter of blues singer Victor Brox, with several albums to her name.

Thu 27 Jul

MR WILSON’S SECOND LINERS (FELIX HAGAIN AND THE FAMILY + DJ JAMIE BULL)

WATERSIDE ARTS CENTRE, 20:00–00:00, £10 - £12

A New Orleans style brass band, blending jazz with 90s club classics. THE JAZZ DEFENDERS

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE

Born out of a deep love for Blue Note Records, specifically the hard bop recordings of Horace Silver, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan and Art Blakely. LEKAN BABALOLA’S SACRED FUNK PROJECT

BAND ON THE WALL, 19:30–22:30, £12.50

Twice Grammy Award-winning Nigerian percussionist Lekan Babalola is well known for his innovative musical style, using his native Yoruba tongue infused with traditional music, Afrobeat and funky dance overtones. PORTABLE RADIO

THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:30–22:30, £5

Debut gig from Portable Radio, playing their brand of 70s pop - so lots of Rundgren, Beach Boys, ELO and Macca vibes.

Fri 28 Jul

MANCHESTER JAZZ FESTIVAL: NEW YORK BRASS BAND

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5

North Yorkshire’s only contemporary New Orleans-inspired brass band open Manchester Jazz Festival. ALASKA THUNDERFUCK (DIVINA DE CAMPO + JOE BLACK)

GORILLA, 19:00–22:00, £30

RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars winner Alaska Thunderfuck performs a show at Gorilla.

SHEER MAG

THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:30–23:00, £12

Power pop punk rockers from the USA.

Listings

BLOW TRIO (DJS JOE W + LOWELL W) BAND ON THE WALL, FROM 22:00, £8

Young Belgian band BLOW Trio are one of hottest new exports from the continent, fusing jazz, punk and dance music in their superbly enigmatic live stage shows. WEDDING + IRMA VEP

SOUP KITCHEN, 19:00–22:00, £6

Co-headline show for two Manchester-based faves. LOS PORCOS + ALDOUS RH

THE OLD PINT POT, 19:00–03:00, FREE

Local faves playing a free DJ set at The Old Pint Pot.

Sat 29 Jul

WONDERLAND TRIP (CAVVALIERS)

THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:30–22:30, £TBC

Official single launch for Lonely One Left Standing. MANCHESTER JAZZ FESTIVAL: THE HAGGIS HORNS

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5

Seven-piece Northern funk extravaganza, combining heavyweight jazz solos, breakbeats, soul, hip-hop and afrobeat. DAVE MARIC, PHRONESIS & ENGINES ORCHESTRA: DECADE ZERO (PHIL MEADOWS)

THE STOLLER HALL AT CHETHAM’S, 20:00–22:00, £18

Internationally acclaimed piano trio Phronesis are joined by an octet of string and woodwind players from the award-winning Engines Orchestra, conducted by Chetham’s alumnus Phil Meadows, to perform Decade Zero by composer Dave Maric. THE SANDELLS (SHAKING CHAINS + FACTORY ACTS)

GULLIVERS, 19:00–22:00, £5

Album launch show.

TO CHECHNYA WITH LOVE (DANIEL LAND + DORCHA + ACADEMY OF SUN + ILL)

SOUP KITCHEN, 19:00–22:00, £5

Amps for Equality presents a benefit gig for Chechnya’s LGBTQ+ community.

Sun 30 Jul YES LAD

THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:30–23:00, £6

…Nah lad.

COLLOCUTOR

BAND ON THE WALL, 19:30–22:30, £14

Collocutor are the 7-piece brainchild of saxophonist Tamar Osborn. THE DEMON BARBERS

WATERSIDE ARTS CENTRE, 19:30–21:30, £10 - £17.50

Following their sell out performances of The Lock In, The Demon Barbers return with new repertoire, extra band members and a modern twist to their multi-award winning Roadshow. ST JUDE THE OBSCURE (SOUND OF THIEVES + ASTLES )

THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:30–22:30, £6

First headline show from the new eletronic art pop duo.

Mon 31 Jul FANTASTIC NEGRITO

BAND ON THE WALL, 19:30–22:30, £15.50

Fantastic Negrito is a man’s truth told in the form of black roots music. MANCHESTER JAZZ FESTIVAL: LOCKING HORNS BRASS JAM MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–00:30, FREE

Club favourite Henry Botham presents a brand new brass jam mixing a whole host of styles, from blues to funk to old-time jazz.

Tue 01 Aug

MANCHESTER JAZZ FESTIVAL: LOUD NOISES BRASS

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–00:30, £5

Fiesty four-piece spinning a twist on traditional jazz tunes. THE AFRICAN SALSA ORCHESTRA

BAND ON THE WALL, 18:00–22:00, £17.50

The African Salsa Orchestra, from Benin and Cuba and led by Michel Pinheiro, is a dancing machine that makes you walk from Cotonou to Cuba.

Wed 02 Aug SILVER APPLES

BAND ON THE WALL, 19:30–22:30, £13.50

Formed in 1967 as an electronic rock duo featuring Dan Taylor on drums and Simeon on a homemade synthesizer, Silver Apples quickly gained a reputation as New York’s leading underground musical expression.

Thu 03 Aug KING AYISOBA

SOUP KITCHEN, 19:30–23:00, £7

Playing traditional Kologo music from the upper east region of Ghana, King Ayisoba mixes it with the energy and flavour of the modern Ghanaian dance scene. TWIN RED

THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:00–22:00, £TBC

Hanover-based emo band.

Fri 04 Aug

KATE NASH (SKATING POLLY)

O2 RITZ, 18:30–22:00, £18

Ms Nash keeps it reliably chirpy with her vocally-loose melodic ramblings on her Made Of Bricks 10th anniversary tour.

FRANKIE COSMOS (WITH TRUST FUND)

BAND ON THE WALL, 19:00–22:00, £10

Greta Kline’s musical output as Frankie Cosmos exemplifies the generation of musicians born out of online self-releasing.

MANCHESTER JAZZ FESTIVAL: JOSHUA REDMAN - STILL DREAMING (JOSHUA REDMAN’S STILL DREAMING QUARTET) ROYAL NORTHERN COLLEGE OF MUSIC RNCM, 19:30–22:00, £25

World-renowned saxophonist Joshua Redman’s new group, the Still Dreaming quartet, features three of the most imaginative voices in contemporary jazz. CHASE CITY (LA LUNETTE + SOLLO + KARENA)

GULLIVERS, 19:30–22:30, £7

Aussie indie lot. PEANESS

SOUP KITCHEN, 19:00–22:15, £3

Chester indie-pop trio, Skinny favourites and all-round good eggs, Peaness play their biggest Manchester show to date in support of new single Ugly Veg.

Sat 05 Aug HANNAH NICHOLSON

THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:30–22:30, £6

Launching her debut EP.

Sun 06 Aug

B*WITCHED + BIG BROVAZ + BLAZIN’ SQUAD

O2 RITZ, 19:00–23:00, £20 - £25

A triple bill of nostalgia.

Mon 07 Aug BLUES JAM

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE

Monthly night of blues, led by Franny Eubanks with Matt and Phred’s resident band.

Tue 08 Aug

ELDER (KING BUFFALO + IRON WITCH + KUROKUMA) SOUP KITCHEN, 18:30–23:00, £13

Heavy psych band from Boston founded by long-time friends Nicholas DiSalvo, Jack Donovan and Matt Couto. MONKFISH

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE

Mike Mellor, Stu Morrison and Gordy Bowyer blend gypsy jazz with bop, Latin groove and blues.

Wed 09 Aug

STUART MCCALLUM RESIDENCY

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE

Monthly experimental improv compositions from The Cinematic Orchestra’s Stuart McCallum.

Thu 10 Aug

SUBLIME WITH ROME (SPECIAL GUESTS)

O2 RITZ, FROM 19:00, £22.50

Musical collab between Eric Wilson, formerly of ska-punk outfit Sublime, and singer/guitarist Rome Ramirez MOBIUS LOOP

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE

Gypsy folk stories fusing world music and conscious rap with free form dance.

Fri 11 Aug THE 7:45S

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5

Except groovy soul and funky disco originals, plus a smattering of select covers that inspired the band’s formation. HOLY FUCK

SOUP KITCHEN, 19:00–22:00, £11

Chaotic electronica of the highest order from the Canardian collective.

Sat 12 Aug

A PAGE OF PUNK (COWTOWN + HOLIDAY + GROTBAGS)

SOUP KITCHEN, 18:00–21:00, £6

Japanese fun and fast punk rock.

KASHMERE (NEW YORK TOURISTS + CULTURES)

GORILLA, 19:30–23:00, £8

Stockport-based indie rock foursome. CIRCUS WOLVES

GULLIVERS, 19:30–22:30, £6

Melodic indie rock and roll reminiscent of the late 90s/early 00s boom.

Mon 14 Aug JAZZ JAM

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE

Open jazz jam led by Johnny Hunter, inviting musicians to join the house band for an evening of impromptu sets.

Wed 16 Aug BLIND MONK TRIO

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE

THE COMPLETE BEETHOVEN CONCERTOS (CHETHAM’S INTERNATIONAL PIANO SUMMER SCHOOL) THE STOLLER HALL AT CHETHAM’S, 19:00–22:00, £12 - £15

Stockport Symphony Orchestra perform the complete Beethoven concertos over two nights, with Leon McCawley, Noriko Ogawa, Peter Frankl, Dmitri Alexeev, Murray McLachlan, Leslie Howard and St George’s Singers. CHETHAM’S PIANO SUMMER SCHOOL RECITAL SERIES (PETER DONOHOE + JOHN LENEHAN + CRAIG SHEPPARD + ASHLEY WASS)

THE STOLLER HALL AT CHETHAM’S, 19:00–00:00, £8 - £15

Nightly recitals by some of the world’s leading pianists, from classical and contemporary works to late night jazz. PROLETARIAT (KING KARTEL + BERRIES)

SOUP KITCHEN, 19:30–23:00, £6

Mossley quartet channelling the energy of the 70s punk movement.

The classic sax, bass and drums trio format is updated with elements of everything from alt-rock to Eastern folk.

Sun 20 Aug

THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:30–22:30, £7

THE STOLLER HALL AT CHETHAM’S, 19:00–22:00, £12 - £15

ADAM TORRES

Singer-songwriter signed to Fat Possum.

Thu 17 Aug

NEIL C YOUNG QUARTET

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE

The Neil C Young-fronted four-piece play original works alongside tracks from Cannonball Adderley, Randy Crawford, Alice in Chains and Daniel Johnson. STEEL PAN FUSION EXPERIENCE

BAND ON THE WALL, 19:30–22:30, £12

London’s Steel Pan Fusion kick off their UK summer tour after the successful launch of their debut album Melting Pot late last year.

CHETHAM’S PIANO SUMMER SCHOOL RECITAL SERIES (PETER DONOHOE + JOHN LENEHAN + CRAIG SHEPPARD + ASHLEY WASS)

THE STOLLER HALL AT CHETHAM’S, 19:00–00:00, £8 - £15

Nightly recitals by some of the world’s leading pianists, from classical and contemporary works to late night jazz.

Fri 18 Aug ULTIMATE POWER

O2 RITZ, 22:30–03:00, £8

Club night.

CHETHAM’S PIANO SUMMER SCHOOL RECITAL SERIES (PETER DONOHOE + JOHN LENEHAN + CRAIG SHEPPARD + ASHLEY WASS)

THE STOLLER HALL AT CHETHAM’S, 19:00–00:00, £8 - £15

Nightly recitals by some of the world’s leading pianists, from classical and contemporary works to late night jazz. SUGARSPUN (THE RECREATION + CARNATION + SCHOEPFER)

THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:30–22:30, £5

Five-piece promising to give you “the time of your life”. DIRTY LACES (ROACHES + THEM STARVED ARTISTS )

GULLIVERS, 19:30–22:30, £4

Dirty Laces play their debut headline performance.

Sat 19 Aug

STAR SHAPED FESTIVAL (THE BLUETONES + SPACE + DODGY + MY LIFE STORY + SALAD)

O2 RITZ, 15:00–22:00, £30 - £36

Returning after its inaugural bash last year. MIRANDA LAMBERT

O2 APOLLO, FROM 19:00, £47.50 - £55

American country music singer and songwriter who’s also a member of the Pistol Annies alongside Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley.

THE BURROW’S FINAL SMOKE-OUT (DAN SABBATH + ACTION BEAT + KLAUS KINSKI + GO LEBANON + GUTTERSNIPE + KERRIE + YADAVA + HIGH HOOPS + LAKE OF SNAKES + GROTBAGS + LOCEAN + PATTY HEARST + HOTSHORTS + THIS CITY IS OURS + MIND ON FIRE) ISLINGTON MILL, 20:00–08:00, £5 - £8

The final party from Islingon Mill programmers Fat Out Till You Pass Out, with live music, DJs and pizza.

THE COMPLETE BEETHOVEN CONCERTOS (CHETHAM’S INTERNATIONAL PIANO SUMMER SCHOOL)

THE STOLLER HALL AT CHETHAM’S, 19:00–00:00, £8 - £15

Thu 24 Aug

FRANK TURNER (FELIX HAGAN & THE FAMILY + OUR FOLD + CLINT BOON)

O2 RITZ, 19:00–23:00, £27

The former Million Dead singer turned folk troubadour does his thing – full of his usual rockabilly charm. JAMIE BROWNFIELD QUARTET

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE

Jazz four-piece headed by British Jazz Awards rising star, Jamie Brownfield. COURTNEY MARIE ANDREWS

THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:30–22:15, £11

Singer-songwriter hailing from Phoenix, Arizona, now touring latest album Honest Life. CHETHAM’S PIANO SUMMER SCHOOL RECITAL SERIES (PETER DONOHOE + JOHN LENEHAN + CRAIG SHEPPARD + ASHLEY WASS)

THE STOLLER HALL AT CHETHAM’S, 19:00–00:00, £8 - £15

Nightly recitals by some of the world’s leading pianists, from classical and contemporary works to late night jazz.

Fri 25 Aug

THE NIGHTCREATURES

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5

Instrumental funk four-piece from near Liverpool.

CHETHAM’S PIANO SUMMER SCHOOL RECITAL SERIES (PETER DONOHOE + JOHN LENEHAN + CRAIG SHEPPARD + ASHLEY WASS)

THE STOLLER HALL AT CHETHAM’S, 19:00–00:00, £8 - £15

Nightly recitals by some of the world’s leading pianists, from classical and contemporary works to late night jazz. NUN’S COURT FESTIVAL

THE OLD PINT POT, FROM 16:00, £7 - £15

Nightly recitals by some of the world’s leading pianists, from classical and contemporary works to late night jazz.

The return of the Pint Pot’s festival of live local music, promising “3 days of frigid frolics” in the riverside space that once played host to nuns’ netball games.

Mon 21 Aug

Sat 26 Aug

CHETHAM’S PIANO SUMMER SCHOOL RECITAL SERIES (PETER DONOHOE + JOHN LENEHAN + CRAIG SHEPPARD + ASHLEY WASS)

THE STOLLER HALL AT CHETHAM’S, 19:00–00:00, £8 - £15

Nightly recitals by some of the world’s leading pianists, from classical and contemporary works to late night jazz.

Tue 22 Aug THE DIRTY BOMB

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE

Instrumental funk four-piece from near Liverpool. ROB CROW’S GLOOMY PLACE

THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:30–22:15, £10

New band from the co-founder of Pinback. DREAMCAR

GORILLA, 19:00–23:00, £17.50

American new wave supergroup featuring No Doubt alumni and AFI’s Davey Havok.

CHETHAM’S PIANO SUMMER SCHOOL RECITAL SERIES (PETER DONOHOE + JOHN LENEHAN + CRAIG SHEPPARD + ASHLEY WASS)

THE STOLLER HALL AT CHETHAM’S, 19:00–00:00, £8 - £15

Nightly recitals by some of the world’s leading pianists, from classical and contemporary works to late night jazz. THE SHINS

MANCHESTER ACADEMY, 19:00–22:00, £25

The Albuquerque indie lot continue to ride out of those murky wildnerness years of the late 00s with new album Heartworms.

Wed 23 Aug MADDIE & TAE

O2 RITZ, FROM 19:00, £18.50

Country music duo. TIGERS JAW

THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:00–23:00, £14

Rock duo from Scranton, Pennsylvania.

CHETHAM’S PIANO SUMMER SCHOOL RECITAL SERIES (PETER DONOHOE + JOHN LENEHAN + CRAIG SHEPPARD + ASHLEY WASS)

THE STOLLER HALL AT CHETHAM’S, 19:00–00:00, £8 - £15

Nightly recitals by some of the world’s leading pianists, from classical and contemporary works to late night jazz.

CHARLIE COOPER AND THE CCS

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5

Vintage soul headed up the deep, husky tones of Charlie Cooper, who’s joined by a band that channels their inner Booker T and the MGs.

CHETHAM’S PIANO SUMMER SCHOOL RECITAL SERIES (PETER DONOHOE + JOHN LENEHAN + CRAIG SHEPPARD + ASHLEY WASS)

THE STOLLER HALL AT CHETHAM’S, 19:00–00:00, £8 - £15

Nightly recitals by some of the world’s leading pianists, from classical and contemporary works to late night jazz. NUN’S COURT FESTIVAL

THE OLD PINT POT, FROM 16:00, £7 - £15

The return of the Pint Pot’s festival of live local music, promising “3 days of frigid frolics” in the riverside space that once played host to nuns’ netball games. HOUSEWIVES

SOUP KITCHEN, 19:00–22:00, £6

Grey Lantern and Interior present the return of new Rocket Recordings signings Housewives.

Sun 27 Aug

U-ROY & THE ROBOTIKS BAND

BAND ON THE WALL, 19:30–22:30, £22.50

U-Roy, the man who invented the modern DJ rap style by toasting on King Tubby’s sound system during the late 60s, rocks up to Band on the Wall with The Robotics Band and Sister Aisha. CHETHAM’S PIANO SUMMER SCHOOL RECITAL SERIES (PETER DONOHOE + JOHN LENEHAN + CRAIG SHEPPARD + ASHLEY WASS)

THE STOLLER HALL AT CHETHAM’S, 19:00–00:00, £8 - £15

Nightly recitals by some of the world’s leading pianists, from classical and contemporary works to late night jazz. MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL CONCERTO COMPETITION FOR YOUNG PIANISTS (CHETHAM’S INTERNATIONAL PIANO SUMMER SCHOOL)

THE STOLLER HALL AT CHETHAM’S, 19:00–22:30, £12 - £15

The finals of Chetham’s Piano Competition, as the world’s most briliant young players perform for judges with Manchester Camerata. GOSPELBEACH (MIRANDA LEE RICHARDS)

THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:30–22:30, £8

Californian folk-pop.

Listings

NUN’S COURT FESTIVAL THE OLD PINT POT, FROM 16:00, £7 - £15

The return of the Pint Pot’s festival of live local music, promising “3 days of frigid frolics” in the riverside space that once played host to nuns’ netball games.

Mon 28 Aug JENS LEKMAN

BAND ON THE WALL, 19:00–22:00, £15

Time-honoured Swedish troubadour, back at it with a new batch of witty pop songs.

MATT AND PHRED’S ALL STAR JAM (DREAMER)

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE

Mancunian funk, soul and disco group Dreamer host the monthly jam. CHETHAM’S PIANO SUMMER SCHOOL RECITAL SERIES (PETER DONOHOE + JOHN LENEHAN + CRAIG SHEPPARD + ASHLEY WASS)

Clubs Find listings below for weekly and monthly fixtures at clubs across Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester. For regularly updated listings including one-off club nights and the best parties from independent promoters, head to theskinny.co.uk/whats-on

THE STOLLER HALL AT CHETHAM’S, 19:00–00:00, £8 - £15

THE STOLLER HALL AT CHETHAM’S, 19:00–22:30, £12 - £15

The finals of Chetham’s Piano Competition, as the world’s most briliant young players perform for judges with Manchester Camerata.

Tue 29 Aug MDOU MOCTAR

BAND ON THE WALL, 19:30–22:30, £15

One of the few original singer/ songwriters willing to experiment and push the boundaries of the genre, Mdou Moctar’s unconventional styles have won him accolades both in Niger and abroad. THE JAZZ SINGERS

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE

Bi-monthly gig with backing music from the Dave Luvin Group.

Wed 30 Aug KYLA BROX

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE

The daughter of blues singer Victor Brox, with several albums to her name. CAR SEAT HEADREST

O2 RITZ, FROM 19:00, £15

American indie rock band from Virginia, now based in Seattle with latest album, Teens of Denial.

Thu 31 Aug NADIA REID

THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:30–23:00, £11

With a richness of voice, a depth of emotion and wisdom beyond her years, New Zealand native Nadia Reid returns to UK shores. PERPETUAL MOTION MACHINE

MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE

Six-piece group fusing rock, freeimprov, spoken word and bebop. BIRDCLOUD (MISHKA SHUBALY)

THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:30–22:30, £10

Nashville duo.

Leeds Clubs Liverpool Clubs O2 Academy SATURDAYS

PROJEKT, 22:00-04:00, £5

An 2700-capacity indoor festival vibe each week, with Co2 jets, confetti cannons, pyrotechnics and dancers, with residents PBH and Harley Sanders playing deep house, future house and classic club anthems.

Attic

SATURDAYS

PROPAGANDA’S ATTIC, 22:30-04:00, £4-£5

Long-running indie night, serving 28 cities across the UK, Ireland and Australia; expect The Libertines, The Fratellis, Kate Nash and such.

Arts Club FRIDAYS

MEDICATION, 23:00-04:00, £6

Weekly student dance night, known to regulars and cool kids as ‘Med’.

Brooklyn Mixer WEDNESDAYS

NO-WAVE SOCIAL CLUB, 22:00-03:00, FREE

Join the No-Wave DJs as they play hip hop, r’n’b, funk, soul and indie each week.

Canal Mills

Camp and Furnace

BONGO’S BINGO, 18:00-23:30, £5

WEDNESDAYS

THURSDAYS

A bingo rave with DJs, dance-offs and, of course, bingo.

HiFi

LEAF

MOVEONUP, 23:00-LATE, £3-£4

SPOTIFY WEDNESDAY, 20:00-LATE, FREE

WEDNESDAYS

20 years of weekly soul – and counting – with DJ Matt Bolton. THURSDAYS

GIN & JUICE, 23:00-LATE, £TBC

Resident DJs drop the biggest hip hop beats and breaks of the last 30 years.

FRIDAYS (EVERY FOURTH OF THE MONTH)

SOUL CONTROL, 23:00-LATE, £TBC

Residents’ party playing an eclectic mix of sounds from across the dance spectrum. THURSDAYS (EVERY FOURTH OF THE MONTH)

CLARKS, 23:00-LATE, £4

A heady cocktail of dancehall, soca and R'n'B.

FRIDAYS (EVERY FIRST OF THE MONTH)

FSN, 23:00-LATE, £TBC

Playing everything from house and disco to global beats, with past guests including Romare, Awesome Tapes From Africa, Onra and Horse Meat Disco. FRIDAYS (EVERY THIRD OF THE MONTH)

DANCEHALL SCIENCE, 23:00-LATE, £TBC

Step into the laboratory of dub. From the team that bring you SubSub and Outlook Festival (Disrupt Live). SATURDAYS (EVERY FOURTH OF THE MONTH)

APPLEBUM, 23:00-LATE, £4-£8

A celebration of hip hop and R'n'B culture.

Sheaf Street Cafeteria FRIDAYS

THE FRIDAY RESIDENCY, 17:00-00:00, FREE

Weekly after-work sesh featuring everything from ‘post-Drake’ hip hop, trap and grime to neo soul, Afro/Latin and future beats.

The Warehouse FRIDAYS

WEDNESDAYS

Every Wednesday LEAF lets you indulge in some of your favourite tracks, old and new, via the most contemporary of all the world’s jukeboxes, Spotify. THURSDAYS

CRACKLE AND DUST, 17:00-21:00, FREE

A vinyl-only analog excursion into hip hop, boogie, electronica, funk and disco.

Level

WEDNESDAYS

LOVE WEDNESDAYS, 22:00-04:00, £TBC

Billing itself as Liverpool’s biggest weekly student event, with three levels of house, r’n’b, hip hop, party anthems and guilty pleasures. FRIDAYS

#HASHTAG, 22:00-04:00, £TBC

Three levels of nostalgic pop, dance anthems, r’n’b and hip hop, topped off with stilt walkers, dancers and trapeze artists. SATURDAYS

LEVEL SATURDAYS, 22:00-04:00, £TBC

Laser shows, trapeze artists, acrobatics, fire eaters and more complement the EDM, dance, progressive house and pop anthem soundtracks from the past and present.

Modo SATURDAYS

STYLE SATURDAYS, UNTIL 04:00, FREE

Two floors, three DJs and a whole lotta, er, style – allegedly.

The Attic

FRIDAYS (EVERY LAST OF THE MONTH)

4MATION, 22:00-03:00, FREE

4Mation returns with a free night of underground house and tech house.

STICKY FEET, 23:00-02:00, £TBC

Leeds’ biggest weekly bass night, powered through monstrous Funktion One dance stacks.

The White Rabbit SATURDAYS (EVERY FIRST OF THE MONTH)

JUICEBOX, 21:00-02:00, FREE

Indie night spanning alt rock, 60s, Northern Soul,

Wire

THURSDAYS

FUZZY LOGIC, 23:00-LATE, £2-£4

Leeds’ favourite indie night, playing dance floor anthems all night long.

THE SKINNY

Manchester Clubs Albert Hall TUESDAYS

BONGO’S BINGO, 18:30-23:00, £5

A bingo rave with DJs, dance-offs and, of course, bingo.

Band on the Wall SATURDAYS (EVERY FIRST OF THE MONTH)

MR SCRUFF KEEP IT UNREAL, 22:00-03:00, £12

No less than a DJ mastermind, known for playing marathon sets, mixing a junk-shop bag of sounds and bringing his beats to life with squiggly, scribbled animations.

Black Dog Ballroom NQ FRIDAYS

LOVE FRIDAYS, 22:00-03:00, £2-£3

Hark back to the Soul Train and Studio 54 days with chic disco and grooves. SATURDAYS

SATURDAYS AT BLACK DOG, 22:00-03:00, FREE-£3

Black Dog’s resident DJs spin everything from disco and house to hip hop and chart smashers.

Black Dog Ballroom NWS MONDAYS

MONDAY CLUB, UNTIL 4AM, £TBC

Party hip hop, grime, r’n’b, dancehall and much more down in Black Dog’s downstairs club, UnderDog.

SATURDAYS FUNKADEMIA, 22:30-04:00, £5-£6

Mancunian nightclub institution – delivering a chronological history of soul on a weekly basis, courtesy of their DJ collective.

Night and Day Cafe FRIDAYS (EVERY THIRD OF THE MONTH)

ELECTRIC JUG, 23:00-03:00, £3

Serving up the best of the 60s, ranging from psych and rock'n'roll to Britpop and soul. SATURDAYS (EVERY LAST OF THE MONTH)

THIS FEELING, 20:00-03:00, £5

Indie club night featuring tunes from Arctic Monkeys, Blur, Courteeners, David Bowie, The Smiths and much more.

FRIDAYS/SATURDAYS (EVERY SECOND OF THE MONTH)

ANTIX, 23:00-03:00, £3

Cult indie, electronica, psychedelia, retro anthems and more from the Antics residents and guest DJs. SATURDAYS (EVERY LAST OF THE MONTH)

CADILLAC, 23:00-04:00, FREE-£3

DJs spin funk, disco, boogie, soul and groove into the small hours.

O2 Ritz

FRIDAYS (EVERY THIRD OR LAST OF THE MONTH)

ULTIMATE POWER, 22:30-03:00, £8

Club night sweeping the nation, offering up nothing but power ballads. It's like one big communal karaoke night. SATURDAYS

FRIDAYS

Projekt, 23:00-03:30, £4-£8 Indoor festival atmosphere with stage entertainment, pyrotechnic displays, Co2 jets, confetti cannons and more, and deep house, future house and big room anthems from the main stage.

FIZZ FACE FRIDAY, 17:00-04:00, FREE BEFORE 11PM

Rebellion

TUESDAYS

INFERNO TUESDAYS, UNTIL 4AM, £TBC

Party vibes aplenty with Co2 cannons, confetti guns and balloons, all soundtracked by r’n’b, bass and house tunes.

Black Dog's weekly club night, which sees the end-of week thirst of Manchester's 9-5ers quenched by £12 bottles/£3 glasses of Prosecco.

Eastern Bloc FRIDAYS AND SATURDAYS

EASTERN BLOC IN-STORES, TIMES VARY, FREE

Every Friday and Saturday the well-loved record store becomes an intimate setting for local club nights, record labels, guests and residents.

Factory 251 MONDAYS

QUIDS IN, 23:00-04:00, £1-£2

Cheap as chips Monday student night, where the price of various drinks match the alluring entry fee (which rises to £2 after midnight, btw). THURSDAYS

F//CK TH//RSDAY, 22:30-05:00, 99P-£5

Student Thursday-nighter, with resident DJs Steve Davies, Bill Murray's Rock n Soul club and Nicola Bear serving up anything from retro classics to electro mashups across three rooms. FRIDAYS

#FRI251, 22:30-05:00, 99P BEFORE MIDNIGHT

Student Friday-nighter, with mashups in room one, indie, funk and Motown in room two, and electro house in room three. SATURDAYS

THE BIG WEEKENDER, 23:00-4:00, £2 BEFORE MIDNIGHT

Three rooms of commercial dance, indie and deep house, powered by Funktion One Sound.

Hidden MONDAYS

SUNKEN MONDAYS, 22:00-04:00, £1-£15

A weekly student night playing the very best in house and techno.

LEAF FRIDAYS

CRACKLE AND DUST, 17:00-21:00, FREE

An evening of rare vinyl records brought to you by the best local DJs, who’ll take you on an analog excursion into hip hop, boogie, electronica, funk and disco.

Mint Lounge FRIDAYS

TOP OF THE POPS, 22:30-04:00, £4

Get your weekend off to a great start with this healthy mix of dancefloor fillers and guilty pleasures served up by residents and guest DJs.

SATURDAYS

The Deaf Institute TUESDAYS

FINE WINE, 22:00-03:00, £2-£5

Playing treats from the UK’s underground alongside flavours from across the globe, including dancehall, reggaeton, afropop, r’n’b, hip hop and trap, all spread out across Deaf’s two floors.

CarriageWorks Theatre

The Thirsty Scholar

Leeds Youth Opera bring Giuseppe Verdi’s character-led and action-packed score alive on the Carriageworks stage.

TOTALLY WIRED, 20:00, FREE

DJ Rob Gordon spins the best new wave, post-punk, Madchester and Britpop.

THURSDAYS (EVERY SECOND OF THE MONTH)

REGGAE THURSDAYS, 20:00-01:30, FREE

With originals and rarities, dubplate and up-to-date.

The Ruby Lounge SATURDAYS (EVERY FIRST OF THE MONTH)

REMAKE REMODEL, 23:00-03:30, £4

A night of alternative rock'n'roll shenanigans.

FRIDAYS (EVERY FIRST AND THIRD OF THE MONTH)

DEADBOLT, 23:00-03:00, £5

Ruby Lounge regular, often seen throwing special themed parties.

FRIDAYS (BIMONTHLY; EVERY LAST OF THE MONTH)

PEEPSHOW, 23:00-03:00, £12

Cabaret-themed night of avantgarde and alternative entertainment. SATURDAYS (EVERY SECOND OF THE MONTH)

BREAK STUFF, 23:00-03:00, £3

Power ballads and dad rock anthems, from AC/DC to ZZ Top.

REVOLT, 23:00-03:30, £3

FRIDAYS

The 60s soul and Motown-centric night returns for another outing, serving up even more Northern soul and funk courtesy of the Howling Rhythm residents.

GET DOWN, 23:00-03:30, £2-£3

Funk, indie, Motown, soft rock, alt anthems, pop punk and pyahhh guilty pleasures.

Sacred Trinity Church

FRIDAYS (EVERY FOURTH OF THE MONTH)

ARA, 21:00-02:00, £5

Clubbing in a church? FOR REALZ? Better believe, honey: ArA is Manchester's alternative club night event in a 17th-century church, with the best in goth/metal/EBM/punk/80s. It’s BYOB, too.

Soup Kitchen MONDAYS

REMAKE REMODEL, 23:00-03:00, £2-£4

A night of alternative rock'n'roll shenanigans.

SATURDAYS (EVERY THIRD OF THE MONTH)

SWING TWING, 23:00-03:30, £5

Always summery vibes from the Swing Ting boys, pushing their street and soundsystem numbers.

Texture SATURDAYS

SECLUDED, UNTIL 03:00, FREE

Anthemic house music from the Secluded residents, Kirk Paten, Fi La Funk, Lee Freeland, Francois Jean, Jake Angelo and Diana McNally.

Twenty Twenty Two FRIDAYS

LEE MAJORS AND BAD OSIRIS, UNTIL 04:00, FREE-£3

Residents Lee Majors and Bad Osiris spin hip hop, r’n’b, disco, garage and house throughout the night. SATURDAYS

STYLUS, KLEPTO & GUESTS, UNTIL 04:00, FREE-£3

Hip hop, r’n’b, house and ping pong going strong until 4am.

Leeds Theatre

Pink lady cocktails, disco balls, glitz and glamour – a club night where you're free to let your inner 80s child loose.

THURSDAYS (EVERY THIRD OF THE MONTH)

HOWLING RHYTHM, 23:00-03:00, £5

SATURDAYS (EVERY LAST OF THE MONTH)

ABSOLUTE SHITE, 23:00-03:00, £4

Proudly one of the worst nights in Manchester; expect some of the worst tunes known to humankind.

LIVERPOOL ARAB ARTS FESTIVAL: SACRE PRINTEMPS!

9-9 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

SATURDAYS

GIRLS ON FILM, 22:00-03:00, £3-£6

SATURDAYS (EVERY THIRD OF THE MONTH)

A night of rock and metal with beer pong matches all night.

Theatre

Open Eye Gallery

A MASKED BALL

5-8 JUL, 7:30PM, £9 - £19

Yorkshire Sculpture Park A SUMMER EVENING OF POETRY WITH JACKIE KAY

27 JUL, 7:00PM – 8:30PM, £6 - £8

Join acclaimed poet and Scottish Makar Jackie Kay for a wonderful summer evening of words and poetry, written in response to works featured in the YSP exhibition Tread Softly in the Bothy Gallery.

The story of a person who stammers and the many who struggle to be themselves, throwing light on a much misunderstood problem. Saturday matinee also available.

Liverpool Theatre

A NIGHT AT THE PROMS

22-22 JUL, TIMES VARY, £17 - £29

Epstein Theatre

WHAT PEOPLE THINK

7-8 JUL, TIMES VARY, £15 - £17

SLP Junior Academy present a dance night at the Proms. 29 JUL, TIMES VARY, £6 - £8

A witty and revealing original production by the Carriageworks Young Theatre Makers on the theme of embarassment and why we care what people think.

Leeds Grand Theatre

DREAMBOATS AND PETTICOATS

10 JUL-5 AUG, 7:30PM, PRICES VARY

60s-set musical singalong which finds two young musicians competing for the love of a certain lady. Matinee performances also available. CRAZY FOR YOU

29 AUG-2 SEP, 7:30PM, £21.50 - £43.50

The all-singing, all-dancing Gerschwin musical is given a new lease of life by Strictly Come Dancing winners Tom Chambers and Caroline Flack. Matinee performances available. DIRTY DANCING

18-29 JUL, 7:30PM, PRICES VARY

The cult 80s film revamped for the stage – cue Baby and Johnny, sexy dancing and a good dose of hungry eyes. Matinee performances also available. THE WEDDING SINGER

22-26 AUG, 7:30PM, £16.50 - £35

Stage adaptation of the Adam Sandler-starring film about the New Jersey wedding singer, Robbie Hart who loses his love of matrimony after being left at the alter… Matinees available. MAMMA MIA

UNTIL 8 JUL, 7:30PM, £25 - £58.50

One of the biggest grossing musicals of ever returns, featuring the songs of everyone’s favourite Swedish pop group, Abba. Matinees also available.

West Yorkshire Playhouse THE GRUFFALO

25-30 JUL, TIMES VARY, £12.50

Live theatre adaptation of Julia Donaldson’s picture book, featuring a cute mouse and a big and (not so) bad Grufallo. THE GRAPES OF WRATH

6 JUL-6 OCT, 7:30PM, £13.50 - £30

A timely new production of John Steinbeck’s classic novel, telling the tale of survival, equality and justice as the Joad family hit the road in search of work. Matinees available. FURNACE:SCRATCH

6 JUL, 8:00PM, £3

Informal showcase of raw and untested performance ideas, with artists from all disciplines and at every stage of their careers . BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES

12-29 JUL, 7:45PM, £13.50 - £30

A generously funny, heart-warming and insightful new play set in Johannesburg, Harare, Kampala, Lagos, Accra and London, inspired in part by the story of a Leeds barber. Matinees available.

July/August 2017 Find full listings at theskinny.co.uk/whats-on

LIVERPOOL ARAB ARTS FESTIVAL: ANCIENT MODERNITY

9 JUL, 3:00PM, FREE

Dancers Aly Khamees and Zosia Jo will present a short extract from Zosia Jo’s Ancient Modernity, which will be performed in full at Liverpool World Museum on Saturday 15 July.

The Bluecoat

UNSPOKEN

5-8 JUL, 7:45PM, £9 - £12

Choreographers Aïcha M’Barek and Hafiz Dhaou create a visceral streetscape of today’s Tunisia, inspired by the pressures of building a new society.

LEGALLY BLONDE

All-singing, all-dancing musical adaptation of the hit movie featuring teen queen Elle and her trusty chihuahua, Bruiser. WIGAN AND LEIGH COLLEGE END OF YEAR SHOWCASE

5 JUL, 6:30PM, £8

End of year Performing Arts showcase featuring a varied selection of contemporary and lyrical dance, acting pieces, vocalists and music theatre numbers.

LIVERPOOL ARAB ARTS FESTIVAL: LITERATURES FROM BANNED COUNTRIES

13 JUL, 7:00PM, £4 - £5

In association with Comma Press and the Poetry Translation Centre.

Unity Theatre SCRATCH NIGHT

4 JUL, 8:00PM – 10:00PM, £0 - £12

Brand new shows in development from local and national companies. THE DAMNED UNITED

25 JUL, 8:00PM – 9:30PM, £12.00

Adapted from David Peace’s ingenious novel, The Damned United takes you inside the tortured mind of a genius slamming up against his limits, and brings to life the beauty and brutality of football, the working man’s ballet. LIVERPOOL ARAB ARTS FESTIVAL: AND HERE I AM

10-12 JUL, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

The Heath Perform and LIPA 4:19 return with their end of year musical theatre and dramatic showcase.

Based on Ahmed Tobasi’s personal coming of age story, this is an epic voyage of identity and self discovery combining fact and fantasy, tragedy and comedy.

4 AUG, 8PM, £18

6-7 JUL, 8:00PM – 9:30PM, £10.00

SPECTACULAR

9 JUL, 5:30PM, £9.50 - £10.50

THE BALL OF FIRE

The life and times of Alan Ball, played out through a dramatisation that recounts his early struffled on the road to becoming a professional footballer. TREAD 10TH ANNIVERSARY SHOWCASE

16 JUL, 6:00PM, £15

TREAD, providers of theatre, representation, entertainment, acting schools and dramaworks, presents a showcase of work from their past 10 years.

Everyman Theatre

YOUNG DADAFEST: PERFORM

13 JUL, 6:30PM, £3 - £5

Offshoot event of DaDaFest, which develops young disabled and deaf artists, including performances from YEP, The Champions, Collective Ideas, Like U Group, Bankview, Wolfprint and Katie Daley.

MOMENTOS

This is a powerful representation of a deeply moving story that takes you on a journey of struggle, hope, fear and determination, highlighting critical moments that changed the nation of Chile. LIVERPOOL ARAB ARTS FESTIVAL: THE CROWS PLUCKED YOUR SINEWS

11 JUL, 8:00PM – 9:30PM, £12.00

May 2011: A young Somali woman sits in the dark of a Woolwich council house watching the assassination of Osama Bin Laden unfold on TV. Upstairs her ailing grandmother is talking to ghosts. HORNY HANDED TONS OF SOIL

13-15 JUL, 8:00PM – 9:30PM, £14.00

Lizzie Nunnery, Martin Smith, Martin Heslop and Vidar Norheim will combine poetry, live music, storytelling and film by Tim Brunsden to create a new work inspired by The Mersey Sound.

Liverpool Empire Theatre

St Helen's Theatre Royal

10 JUL-5 AUG, 7:30PM, PRICES VARY

3 AUG, 7PM, £8-£12

DREAMBOATS AND PETTICOATS

60s-set musical singalong which finds two young musicians competing for the love of a certain lady. Matinee performances also available. LA CAGE AUX FOLLES

4-29 JUL, 7:30PM, PRICES VARY

An award-winning tale centring on eccentric gay couple, Geogres and Albin.

THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME

25-29 JUL, 7:30PM, £13 - £39.40

Stage adaptation of Mark Haddon’s award-winning novel, about a young boy who is exceptional at maths while ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. Matinee performances also available. FAME

18-19 AUG, 7:30PM, £13 - £22.15

New singalong production of the stage musical, based on the classic 80s film of the same name. Matinees available. BOWIE EXPERIENCE

30 MAR, 7:30PM – 10:30PM, £27.50

Celebrating the music of the world’s greatest icon. CHICAGO BLUES BROTHERS

THE BALL OF FIRE

The life and times of Alan Ball, played out through a dramatisation that recounts his early struffled on the road to becoming a professional footballer.

Manchester Theatre 53two

THE HOMECOMING

12-15 JUL, 7:00PM – 9:00PM, £8 - £10

Supported by Stephen Fry and Judi Dench, The Homecoming is the bleak and comic story of a visit by Teddy and his wife to his father’s domineering East End family home. THE MARRIAGE OF KIM K

3-17 JUL, TIMES VARY, £8 - £10

Kim Kardashian’s 72-day marriage to basketballer Kris Humphries features in a hilarious and ambitious retelling of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. Genre-bending musical featuring classical, pop and electronic music.

Contact Theatre FLARE FESTIVAL: DOUBLE BILL GRAND APPLAUSE AND BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

5 JUL, 8:00PM, £8 - £12

Contact hosts a night of groundbreaking international performance as part of the return of Flare International Festival of New Theatre. CONTACT YOUNG COMPANY: 15 MINUTES

26-29 JUL, 7:30PM, £7 - £13

A Warhol-fuelled journey into the world of pop art and cultural icons. Using live performance, video and sound the awardwinning Contact Young Company find out if Warhol was right about everyone’s 15 minutes of fame.

Gorilla NEIL HILBORN

28 AUG, 7:30PM – 11:00PM, £10

Slam poet and best-selling author Neil Hilborn stops by.

HOME

MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: RETURNING TO REIMS

THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE TRAGIC LIFE AND TRIUMPHANT DEATH OF JULIA PASTRANA, THE UGLIEST WOMAN IN THE WORLD 3-9 JUL, 7:30PM, £12

Watershed Productions present a revival of the original production of this unique theatrical entertainment, presented in absolute darkness. Earlier performances also available. SALFORD BELLES

17-22 JUL, 7:30PM, £14

Living on the breadline in the backstreets of Salford was never destined to be glamorous but after a lifetime of cooking, cleaning, caring and conspiring, Queenie, Mary and Martha are at their wits end.

Mayfield Depot

MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: WHAT IF WOMEN RULED THE WORLD?

5-8 JUL, 8:00PM, £12 - £25

A timely and electrifying new art experiment pondering one of contemporary life’s great questions: what if women ruled the world? MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: 10000 GESTURES

13-15 JUL, 8:00PM, £25

One of Europe’s most daring and exciting choreographers, Boris Charmatz, opens opening his newest work at MIF.

Museum of Science and Industry

MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: THE WELCOMING PARTY

4-16 JUL, TIMES VARY, £15

A beautiful blend of puppetry, performance, dance and live music for both children and family audiences, The Welcoming Party invites you to think about what it means to feel different.

Octagon Theatre Bolton TALKING HEADS

UNTIL 8 JUL, 7:30PM, £11 - £27.50

Adapted from Didier Eribon’s bestselling memoir by Thomas Ostermeier, Returning to Reims is an urgent reflection on the new world order.

Poignant and wonderfully observant, Alan Bennett’s masterful collection of monologues are beloved by many, and this is a rare oportunity to see A Chip in the Sugar, Lady of Letters and A Cream Cracker under the Settee live on stage.

4-5 JUL, 8:00PM, £8 - £12

Opera House

5-14 JUL, 7:30PM, £12 - £32

FLARE17: ONE + LEOPOLD MURDERS

A FLARE festival double bill featuring an award-winning solo by Lisa Verbelen and K.U.R.S.K’s controversial story of a radical politician, speech writer, Nazi SS officer and peace activist. FLARE17: BAARDEMAN + CASTLE ROCK

6-7 JUL, 8:00PM, £8 - £12

A double bill of Simon de Winne and Tibaldus’ Baardeman and Massive Owl’s Castle Rock - the latter of which is a “distortion of the film Stand By Me”. FLARE17: MOORE BACON! + CHARLIE AND THE BUKOWSKIES

8 JUL, 8:00PM, £8 - £12

A double bill as part of FLARE festival, featuring an awardwinning show by Bosse Provoost and Kobe Chielens and Nineties Productions’ story about a tribute band whose songs are based on the work of Charles Bukowski. GUTTED

19-22 JUL, 7:45PM, £10.50 - £12.50

Based on solo performer Liz Richardson’s real life experiences as a twenty-something living with ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease.

Hope Mill Theatre

ALL I WANT IS ONE NIGHT

2-9 JUL, TIMES VARY, £15 - £16

Watershed Productions, in association with The Royal Exchange Theatre, present an intoxicating new play with songs about the life and music of 1930s gay cabaret sensation Suzy Solidor. Matinees available.

SHOUT! THE MOD MUSICAL

1 JUL, 7:30PM, £SOLD OUT

Using letters to an advice columnist, true confessions, quizzes and advertisements as the frame for new arrangements of soulful pop anthems and ballads of the Swinging 60s.

Palace Theatre DIRTY DANCING

18-29 JUL, 7:30PM, PRICES VARY

The cult 80s film revamped for the stage – cue Baby and Johnny, sexy dancing and a good dose of hungry eyes. Matinee performances also available. SISTER ACT

24-29 JUL, 7:30PM, £16.50 - £55

Theatrical re-telling of the hit movie, in full singalong glory with original music by eight-time Oscar winner Alan Menken. Matinee performances also available. MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: AVAILABLE LIGHT

6-8 JUL, 8:00PM, £12 - £40

Bringing together three giants of post-war American culture: choreographer Lucinda Childs, composer John Adams and architect Frank Gehry.

Royal Exchange Theatre PERSUASION

6 JUL-6 NOV, 7:30PM, £5 - £39

A bold new adaptation of Jane Austen’s persuasion for its bicentenary year, where the novel’s wit is brought to life on stage - without a bonnet in sight. Matinees available.

21 JUL, 7:30PM, £27.75

All your favourite Blues Brothers classics and some, as the touring show continues its reign.

Listings

MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: FATHERLAND 7 JUL-7 DEC, 7:30PM, £16.50 - £39

A bold, ambitious show about contemporary fatherhood in all its complexities and contradictions created by Frantic Assembly’s Scott Graham, Karl Hyde from Underworld and playwright Simon Stephens. Matinees available. MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: FATHERLAND

1-22 JUL, 7:30PM, £12 - £39

A bold, ambitious show about contemporary fatherhood in all its complexities and contradictions, told through songs and stories from a forgotten England. Matinees available.

Sackville Gardens WOOD

4 JUL, 7:00PM – 8:00PM, FREE

A group of students decide to go camping for Spring Break, which is all fun and games, until one of them dies. The audience is then whisked through a whirlwind of Nick’s life, exploring his sexuality and the relationships he had.

Centenary Building & Old Adelphi Building

MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: PARTY SKILLS FOR THE END OF THE WORLD

UNTIL 16 JUL, 7:30PM, £12 - £30

Created by Nigel Barrett and Louise Mari of the acclaimed Shunt Collective, Party Skills for the End of the World is the perfect tonic for the modern age. Matinees available.

The King’s Arms NO SCRIPTS ALLOWED

THE ADDAMS FAMILY 29 AUG-9 SEP, 7:30PM, £29.50 - £44.50

All-new musical comedy tale based on the characters of The Addams Family, in which Wednesday Addams falls in love with a sweet young man from a respectable family.

THE B WORD

4-8 JUL, TIMES VARY, £6.50

A playful late-night confessional set in Manchester Airport.

The Lowry: Aldridge Studio AND HERE I AM

10-12 JUL, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

Based on Ahmed Tobasi’s personal coming of age story, this is an epic voyage of identity and self discovery combining fact and fantasy, tragedy and comedy. FLUID

16 JUL, 8:00PM, £3 - £5

Audio-visual performance by three internationally renowned artists, exploring ideas around what connects us together. SARAH KENDALL

22 JUL, 8:00PM, £10 - £12

Sarah Kendall returns with the Edinburgh preview of OneSeventeen, promising a blistering hour of storytelling. HOW TIME FLIES

22-23 JUL, TIMES VARY, £5.50 - £8.50

HandMade Theatre presents an original and quirky show inspired by the wonderful and intriguing world of archaeology.

The Lowry: Compass Room FLARE FESTIVAL: DOUBLE BILL TOM CASSANI AND ALICIA JANE TURNER

7 JUL, 8:00PM, £8 - £12

A double bill of new work curated by Flare International Festival of New Theatre.

The Lowry: Lyric Theatre FANTASTIC MR FOX

5-9 JUL, 7:00PM, £14.50 - £22.50

Mr Fox is smart, clever and rather fantastic, but he doesn’t realise how determined the farmers are to get revenge. Can he hatch a plan to save his family and friends? Matinees available.

Listings

UNDER MILK WOOD

23 JUL, 2:30PM – 4:30PM, £13 - £15

An uplifting theatrical version of the much-loved children’s book by E. Nesbit.

All 69 ebullient inhabitants in Dylan Thomas’ timeless masterpiece are hilariously recreated in an amazing feat of memory and virtuosity. Complemented by a stunning original soundscape, it’s bawdy and beautiful, sad and sensual.

11-15 JUL, 7:30PM, £28.50 - £45.50

25 JUL, 7:00PM – 8:00PM, £10.50 £12.50

THE RAILWAY CHILDREN

4-30 JUL, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

MATTHEW BOURNE’S THE RED SHOES

Magical new adaptation of the legendary Powell and Pressburger film, reuniting the team behind New Adventures’ worldwide hit, Sleeping Beauty. Matinees available. SHOWCASE 2017 FOR THE CHRISTIE

16 JUL, 7:15PM, £17.50

Musical theatre companies come together for their annual celebration of Broadway and The West End, raising funds for a cause close to their hearts.

The Lowry: Quays Theatre THE MIKADO

25-29 JUL, 7:30PM, £19.50 - £29.50

One of the most famous and celebrated Gilbert and Sullivan operattas, re-imagined by Sasha Regan. Matinees available.

SCL SCHOOL OF DANCE SHOWCASE

2 JUL, TIMES VARY, £7 - £8

Annual Schools Dance Competition 2016, which sees Salford schools battle it out for the trophy. THE RED SHED

2 JUL-2 AUG, 8:00PM, £15 - £17

The third part of a trilogy of shows written and performed by Mark Thomas and directed by Joe Douglas.

31 JUL, 7:30PM – 9:00PM, £5

Following the success of Manchester ADP’s Scripts Aloud, this one’s an evening of four devised pieces, four teams of actors and directors, stretching their creative muscles to devise a short play, in just one day.

Waterside Arts Centre

WAITING FOR GOD 3-8 JUL, 7:30PM, £19.50 - £30.50

All the favourite characters from the original series are reimagined for 2017, facing the challenges that come with growing old disgracefully in the era of the silver surfer. Matinees available. THE DRAMA MOB SHOWCASE

9 JUL, 8:00PM, £11

Showcase of the Manchesterbased drama school, which offers classes for children aged 4-16. THE LOWRY CAT PERFORMANCE

15-16 JUL, 8:00PM, £TBC

The culmination performance from the 8th year of The Lowry Centre for Advanced Training in Dance.

WILLOWS MEMORIES SHOWCASE

30 JUL, 7:15PM, £5 - £20

Live show using the real memories and reflections of fans of Salford RLFC and the Variety Centre during its illustrious history in Weaste between 1901 and 2011 when it sadly closed its doors for the final time.

Upper Campfield Market Hall

STUFF

Lead clown for Cirque du Soleil, Sean Kempton, mixes comedy, mime, clowning and the odd bit of dance in this absurdist show about love. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

1 AUG, 7:30PM – 9:30PM, £13 - £15

Take a step back in time to meet Elizabeth Bennet, Jane Austen’s most loveable heroine, in a brand-new adaptation celebrating the 200th Anniversary of Jane Austen’s death. ANYDAY

26 JUL, 7:00PM – 8:00PM, £11 - £13

Comedy

Leeds Comedy Attic FRIDAYS

JONGLEURS, 20:00-22:00, £15.50-£16.50

Four top comedians come together for one night of solid laughs. SATURDAYS

Four top comedians come together for one night of solid laughs.

28 JUL, 8:00PM – 9:00PM, £8 - £10

FRIDAYS (EVERY FIRST OF THE MONTH)

Puppetry, physical theatre and animation combine to tell the story of one man as he treads the fine line between genius and insanity.

The Kings Arms THE DEAD, LIVE

5 JUL, 9:00PM - 10:00PM, £7 - £8

Lawrence Dodds is a popular ‘psychic’ medium who knows he’s a fake, but the world of Spirit may have some shocks in store for him when someone unexpected attends one of his live shows. An unusual and eerie new drama.

Tribeca Bar THE DEAD, LIVE

9-18 JUL, TIMES VARY, £7 - £8

JONGLEURS, 20:00-22:00, £16.50-£17.50

Headrow House GROUP THERAPY COMEDY CLUB, 19:0022:00, £12

The North’s favourite comedy night, always bringing stellar guests from the national and international circuits.

HiFi

SATURDAYS

COMEDY SESSIONS, 20:00-23:00, £10-£12

The HiFi’s weekly evening of funny stuff.

The Fenton

SATURDAYS & SUNDAYS (EVERY FIRST OF THE MONTH)

DISCOUNT COMEDY CHECKOUT, 19:30, FREE

An evening of 100% raw improvisation comedy, taking inspiration from the weird and wonderful minds of its audience.

The Wardrobe

REGULAR TUESDAYS/WEDNESDAYS

THE NOT SO LATE SHOW, 19:30-23:00, £6-£7

The UK’s finest alternative comedy TV-style chat show, with special guests, sketches, short films, music and all-round fun.

Verve TUESDAYS

FREE COMEDY TUESDAYS, 20:00-23:00, FREE

Serving well at doing exactly what it says on the tin, with weekly free comedy to ease you into the week.

Liverpool Comedy

MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: COTTON PANIC!

Baby Blue

8-15 JUL, TIMES VARY, £12 - £25

LIVERPOOL COMEDY CENTRAL, 18:0022:00, £15

Industrial music drama by Jane Horrocks, Nick Vivian and Wrangler, telling the story of the catastrophe that befell the North and its people, all thanks to events that took place thousands of miles away.

Various Venues HAZARD 2016

10 JUL, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

Taking place in and around St Anne’s Square, expect cheeky, thought-provoking sprees of eccentricity that blur the boundaries between art and activism.

Leeds Art

Find listings below for weekly and monthly fixtures at comedy clubs across Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester. For regularly updated listings including one-off shows and the best nights from independent promoters, head to theskinny. co.uk/whats-on

Follow two friends in their funny, bouncing daily routine, with breath-taking trampoline skills and hilarious clowning, in a brilliant and unique new show. MELANCHOLY

Art

THURSDAYS, FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS

Regular triple headline show, with three comics lined up to tickle your funny bone.

Camp and Furnace

MONDAYS (EVERY FIRST OF THE MONTH)

STAND UP FOR MONDAYS, 19:30-22:15, £6

All-female stand-up night with great headliners fresh from Edinburgh and beyond. SATURDAYS

LIVERPOOL COMEDY CLUB, 19:30-23:00, £13.50

Promising the cream of the international comedy crop.

The Holiday Inn, Lime St FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS

HOT WATER COMEDY CLUB: BOILING POINT, 20:00-23:00, £10-£15

New and established comics take to the stage, for an evening of chuckles with their resident compere leading the way.

SUNDAYS

FRIDAYS

HOT WATER COMEDY CLUB: TESTING THE WATER, 20:00-23:00, £1.50-£3

BARREL OF LAUGHS, 19:00-23:00, £13-£19

The Jacaranda

Pepper your weekend with laughs from four top class comics, sat comfortably at a table while enjoying your comedy with food and drinks, followed by Frog and Bucket's classic cheesy disco until late.

NEW MATERIAL, 7PM, FREE

BARREL OF LAUGHS, 19:00-23:00, £15-£22

Showcase night for up-and-comers and undiscovered stars, offering a great value night out if you don't mind being a comedy guinea pig. WEDNESDAYS

Hot Water Comedy Club take to The Jac with new material from pro comedians from across the UK.

The Magnet SATURDAYS

LIVERPOOL COMEDY CELLAR, 20:30-23:30, £13.50

The Liverpool Comedy Cellar features the cream of the international comedy circuit “up close and personal” every Saturday.

The Slaughterhouse WEDNESDAYS (MONTHLY)

THE LAUGHTER FACTOR, 20:00-23:00, £3-£5

A monthly event giving comics the chance to try out new material before the weekend shows – it helps if you think of yourself as a comedic guinea pig.

SATURDAYS

Pepper your weekend with laughs from four top class comics, sat comfortably at a table while enjoying your comedy with food and drinks, followed by Frog and Bucket's classic cheesy disco until late. SUNDAYS (EVERY FIRST OF THE MONTH)

LAFF TIL YA FART, 20:00-23:00, £7

Trevor Lynch presents the latest in a series of comedy nights, aptly titled Laff 'til Ya Fart. SUNDAYS (EVERY THIRD OF THE MONTH)

THE DISCOUNT COMEDY CHECKOUT, 19:0022:30, £5

100% raw and unscripted improvisation is on the menu, as weird and wonderful suggestions are taken from the audience.

FRIDAYS

SUNDAYS (EVERY LAST OF THE MONTH)

LAUGHTERHOUSE, 20:00-23:00, £10-£15

LAUGHING COWS, £7

Triple headline show with a delightfully hilarious line-up of circuit funny-folk. SATURDAYS

LAUGHTERHOUSE, 20:00-23:00, £17.50

Triple headline show with a delightfully hilarious line-up of circuit funny-folk.

Manchester Comedy Ape and Apple

THURSDAYS (EVERY FIRST OF THE MONTH)

MURDER INC. IMPROV, 20:00-22:30, £5

Improvised murder mystery comedy show that the audience helps solve. With free pizza!

Frog and Bucket Comedy Club MONDAYS

BEAT THE FROG, 19:00-23:00, FREE-£3

All-female line-up of comics from the Laughing Cow bunch; a group that has helped the likes of Sarah Milllican and Jo Brand launch their careers.

Gorilla

SATURDAYS (EVERY FIRST OF THE MONTH)

GROUP THERAPY COMEDY CLUB, 19:0022:00, £10-£12

Manchester’s much-loved monthly comedy club, known for bringing in the big guns of the national and international circuit.

Gullivers

WEDNESDAYS (EVERY THIRD OF THE MONTH)

THE DELIGHTFUL SAUSAGE, 19:45, £4

The Delightful Sausage brings together the finest names in alternative comedy for an evening of silly, surreal fun. Already building a cult following.

Solomons

TUESDAYS (EVERY SECOND OF THE MONTH)

TRAPDOOR COMEDY, 19:30, £5

A ten-act long heckle-fest inviting a handful of amateurs to take to the stage and try to Beat the Frog, and the audience decides who stays – brutal!

Literal underground comedy night with stellar line-ups.

LIP SYNCIN’ BATTLE, 20:30-23:00, £3-£6

A-grade gags from the Sham Bodie crew and local and touring comedians, bound together by live music and hotdogs.

WEDNESDAYS (EVERY SECOND OF THE MONTH)

The Comedy Store

TUESDAYS (EVERY LAST OF THE MONTH)

Comics, guest celebrities and the general public all battle to become the best Lip Sync in the city. WORK IN PROGRESS, 20:30-23:00, £3-£5

Headline comedians treat us to brand spanking new material. Not for the cupboard-lover comedy fan, this night showcases material which is most definitely a work in progress. THURSDAYS

THURSDAY NIGHT LIVE, 19:00-23:00, £7-£13

Watch four top class comics, sat comfortably at a table while enjoying your comedy with food and drinks.

Soup Kitchen

THURSDAYS (EVERY FIRST OR SECOND OF THE MONTH)

SHAM BODIE, 19:30-22:00, £5

THURSDAYS

STAND UP THURSDAY, 20:00-23:00, £8-£12

Regular night of standup with a line-up of five top circuit comedians. FRIDAYS

THE BEST IN STAND UP, 20:00-23:00, £12-£18

Regular night of standup with a line-up of five top circuit comedians.

Abbey House Museum FAIRY TALES AND FANTASY

UNTIL TBC, TIMES VARY, FREE

SUNDAYS (EVERY FIRST OF THE MONTH) KING GONG, 19:30-22:30, £4-£6

An immersive world of magic and mystery, showcasing some familiar fairy tales including Aladdin, Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella, as well as traditional fables from around the world.

A night of standup from some fresh-faced comics trying to break on to the circuit – be nice.

Gallery at Munro House

NEW STUFF, 19:30-22:30, £2-£4

Turkey-based Leeds College of Art graduate Maria Brozozwska presents her first solo show, a collection of works depicting scenes where reality and fantasy merge, creating a whole new world of magical realism.

SUNDAYS (EVERY SECOND AND LAST OF THE MONTH)

MC Toby Hadoke presents a showcase of new, never seen before material from established acts of the circuit. SUNDAYS (EVERY THIRD OF THE MONTH)

NEW COMEDIANS, 19:30-22:30, £2-£4

Alex Boardman's New Comedians series continues.

The Dancehouse FRIDAYS (EVERY FIRST OF THE MONTH)

D.A.F.T, 20:00-23:00, £8

Comedy's strangest and strongest acts come together for an evening of silliness hosted by Randolph Tempest (Phoenix Nights, Ideal, The Detectorists).

The King’s Arms TUESDAYS (EVERY SECOND AND LAST OF THE MONTH)

THE WORST COMEDY CLUB IN SALFORD, 20:00-23:00, FREE

Keeping expectations low with this night of open mic standup, opening up the stage to anyone willing to give it go.

The Old Monkey WEDNESDAYS (EVERY SECOND OF THE MONTH)

TRAPDOOR COMEDY, 19:30, £3-£5

One of the North’s favourite comedy clubs.

The Pub/Zoo TUESDAYS

XS MALARKEY, 19:00-22:00, £3-£5

The rather ace comedy night continues with its usual Tuesday night shenanigans.

The Railway

MONDAYS (EVERY SECOND OF THE MONTH)

TRAPDOOR COMEDY, 19:30, £5

Big acts, small price, tiny room. Bosh.

Waterside Arts Centre

SATURDAYS (EVERY THIRD OF THE MONTH)

BEST OF BUZZ COMEDY, 20:00-00:00, £10-£12

The Waterside's regular comedy night, featuring one of the UK comedy circuit's up and coming stars. SATURDAYS (EVERY LAST OF THE MONTH)

COMEDYSPORTZ, 19:30, £5-£7

Comedy improv show with two teams battling it out for the biggest laughs, serving up sketches, songs and scenes with audience participation playing a k

THE ILLUSTRATOR

UNTIL 12 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

Henry Moore Institute BECOMING HENRY MOORE

UNTIL 22 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

To coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Henry Moore Institute founding, this exhibition gives an insight into the influences at play in the mind of Britain’s foremost modern sculptor during his formative years. GHISHA KOENIG: MACHINES RESTRICT THEIR MOVEMENT

UNTIL13 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

This exhibition brings together drawings and sculptures made between 1951 and 1985 to explore Koenig’s commitment to sculpting industrial labour in South-East England around St. Mary Cray, one of the first housing estates built outside of London.

Leeds City Museum FOR ALL SEASONS

UNTIL 27 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exploration into how the world around us changes with the seasons, from storing food away for a long winter to packing clothes to keep you cool while on your summer jollies. DYING MATTERS

UNTIL 30 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

A community display featuring objects related to death from a range of cultures, as part of the national Dying Matters initiative, which promotes public awareness of dying, death and bereavement.

Leeds College of Art: Blenheim Walk Gallery ANN O’DONNELL: MODERNIST JEWELLER

UNTIL 27 JUL, 10:00AM – 4:00PM, FREE

Exhibition of work by Leeds-based jewellery designer Ann O’Donnell, who previously studied and taught at the College during the Harry Thubron era. Her work is motivated by an interest in ancient Roman glass, gemmology, archaeological and geological finds.

Leeds Industrial Museum WOMEN, WORK AND WAR

UNTIL 24 SEP, TIMES VARY, £3 - £3.80

Honouring the vital role women played in the First World War, through stories of women working in the city’s munitions manufacturing - which began in Armley and expanded to the Barnbow site in East Leeds.

SATURDAYS

THE BEST IN STAND UP, 19:00-21:30, £16-£22

Regular night of standup with a line-up of five top circuit comedians.

THE SKINNY

Left Bank Leeds JOURNEY TO ABSTRACTION

3 AUG-28 SEP, 10:00AM – 4:00PM, FREE

An exhibition by artist Rachel Hinds, showcasing her experiments with the painting process. With expressive gestural brushstrokes, drips and strong colours, this series of work suggests imaginary landscapes and turbulent seas inspired by natural phenomena and British history.

Lotherton Hall FASHIONABLE YORKSHIRE

UNTIL TBC, 10:00AM – 4:00PM, £4.40 - £5.50

Explore the history of fashion through the clothes and personal stories of a selection of Yorkshire women, from an art student of the 1970s to a rich merchant’s daughter in the 1600s. POTS AND PEOPLE

UNTIL 31 DEC, 10:00AM – 4:00PM, £4.40 - £5.50

Discover how Yorkshire ceramics have changed and adapted to serve different uses, tastes and parts of society, with historic examples displayed along contemporary equivalents from the likes of Rebecca Appleby, Loretta Braganza and James Oughtibridge.

Temple Newsam SILVER CENTREPIECES

UNTIL 29 OCT, 10:30AM – 5:00PM, £5

Showcasing the continuation and reinvention of traditional silversmithing techniques, while also celebrating women in silver as both makers and owners.

The Bowery Gallery

CHRIS CAMPBELL: THE LANDSCAPE IS CHANGING

UNTIL 21 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Exhibition of work by Chris Campbell, who graduated with a Fine Art degree from Leeds Metropolitan University in 1998 and moved to London for 10 years, before returning to Leeds in 2009.

The Hepworth Wakefield

A CONTEMPORARY COLLECTION

UNTIL 30 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Continuing Wakefield’s tradition of supporting contemporary artists through exhibitions and acquisitions, and of the legacy founded in 1923 with The Wakefield Permanent Art Collection, which sought to champion those who used art to reflect contemporary experience. HOWARD HODGKIN: PAINTING INDIA

UNTIL 8 OCT, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

The first comprehensive exhibition to explore the enduring influence of India on Hodgkin’s work, a place he returned to almost annually, since his first trip to the country in 1964, over 50 years ago. BARBARA HEPWORTH

UNTIL 31 DEC, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

This Barbara Hepworth exhibition features over 30 works from our collection, tracing the artist’s whole career. Examining Hepworth’s early life in Wakefield, her training and the early carvings of the 1920s-30s, right through to the iconic stringed forms emerging during the 1940s and her later, large-scale marble sculptures. HENRY MOORE

UNTIL 31 DEC, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

In 1977, Moore disovered that Wakefield was fundraising to buy one print from his series Stonehenge (1973) and promptly donated a complete set to the collection. This series can be seen in its entirety in the exhibition. GYÖRGY GORDON: FROM HUNGARY TO YORKSHIRE, 1924-2005

UNTIL 31 DEC, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

The Hungarian-born artist György Gordon became a refugee after fleeing the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. He resettled in Wakefield in 1964 where he became a lecturer in Graphic Design and the leader of the painting department at Wakefield College of Art.

The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery

KENNETH ARMITAGE: SCULPTURE AND DRAWING OF THE 1950S

UNTIL 15 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

A selection of works by Kenneth Armitage, one of Britain’s most important post-war sculptors, taken from the centenary retrospective at the Victoria Art Gallery, Bath in 2016.

The Tetley

REFINDING: JESSIE FLOOD-PADDOCK WITH KENNETH ARMITAGE

UNTIL 30 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Bringing together new and recent works by London-based artist Jessie Flood-Paddock, with the Oak Tree series of sculptures, drawings and prints by the celebrated 20th century sculptor, the late Kenneth Armitage.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

TONY CRAGG: A RARE CATEGORY OF OBJECTS

UNTIL 3 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

New sculptures, drawings and works drawn from nearly five decades of Cragg’s practice will survey and demonstrate the artist’s pioneering and continued mastery of materials. TREASURES REVEALED: FROM THE NATIONAL ARTS EDUCATION ARCHIVE

UNTIL 3 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

In celebration of YSP’s 40th anniversary in 2017, artists, supporters and volunteers have chosen 40 inspirational objects, collections and ideas from the National Arts Education Archive (NAEA).

ZAK OVÉ: BLACK AND BLUE: THE INVISIBLE MAN AND THE MASQUE OF BLACKNESS

UNTIL 3 JUN 18, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

An extraordinary assembly of 80 sculptures by British-Trinidadian artist Zak Ové, a mass of identical two-metre-tall figures facing forward to confront the viewer en masse. ALICE PATTULLO: OF HOUSE AND HOME

UNTIL 17 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Of House and Home includes 60 new screen-printed editions, referencing Pattullo’s fascination with superstitions and folklore.

OCCASIONAL GEOMETRIES: RANA BEGUM CURATES THE ARTS COUNCIL COLLECTION

15 JUL - 29 OCT, 10:00AM – 4:00PM, FREE

Begum has established a practice creating abstract installations activated by light and movement of the viewer, challenging the distinction between two and three-dimensional practice, sculpture and painting.

Liverpool Art FACT

THE NEW OBSERVATORY

UNTIL 1 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

The New Observatory transforms FACT into an observatory, bringing together an international group of artists whose work explores new and alternative modes of measuring, predicting, and sensing the world today.

Huyton Central Library

PAUL ROMANO: THE BEGINNING OF A GREAT ADVENTURE

UNTIL 29 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

A colourful solo exhibition of work by Liverpool-based artist Paul Romano, who sites his main inspirations as graffiti art and things that “just spill out of my head”.

Lady Lever Art Gallery EDO POP: JAPANESE PRINTS

UNTIL 24 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Fifty vibrant woodblock prints reveal the popular culture of 19th century Edo (now Tokyo). Explore an intriguing world of urban celebrities, actors, sports champions, fashion icons and villains.

Museum of Liverpool

REEL STORIES: LIVERPOOL AND THE SILVER SCREEN

UNTIL 3 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

As the UK’s most-filmed city outside of London, this exhibition shines the light on Liverpool’s cinematic history through around 40 original film posters from the 1950s and beyond.

Open Eye Gallery

OPEN 3: AFFECTING CHANGE

7 JUL-17 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Liverpool’s rising young photographers are the driving force behind Open Eye Gallery’s latest exhibition, investigating how, in 2017, real societal change is brought about.

LIVERPOOL ARAB ARTS FESTIVAL: ALI SAEID ASHOUR & RACHEL GADSDEN

9 JUL, 1:45PM – 2:45PM, FREE

Internationally renowned visual artist Rachel Gadsden and Ali Saeid Ashour, guest Palestinian mural and calligraphy artist from Hebron, will invite audiences to observe them as they create large-scale artwork live on site.

Tate Liverpool

TRACEY EMIN AND WILLIAM BLAKE IN FOCUS

UNTIL 3 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Tate Liverpool directs its focus to the work of Tracey Emin and William Blake to reveal surprising links between the two famed artists, including a shared concern with spirituality, birth and death. The exhibition will welcome – for the first time in the North of England – Emin’s My Bed (1998), the unflinching self-portrait told through stained sheets and detritus that was to become the controversial and iconic artwork she’s most known for. My Bed, along with drawings by Emin from the Tate collection, will be presented alongside pieces by visionary British poet and artist William Blake, including The Blasphemer (c.1800) and The Crucifixion: Behold Thy Mother (c.1805).

PORTRAYING A NATION: GERMANY 1919–1933 UNTIL 15 OCT, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, £12

Presenting the faces of Germany between the two world wars told through the eyes of painter Otto Dix (1891–1969) and photographer August Sander (1876–1964) - two artists whose works document the radical extremes of the country in this period.

ALEKSANDRA MIR: SPACE TAPESTRY UNTIL 15 OCT, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry and the anonymous artists who depicted Halley’s Comet in 1066, Space Tapestry: Faraway Missions is a large-scale wall hanging made by artist Aleksandra Mir (b. 1967) and 25 collaborators, aged 18-24.

The Atkinson

GOLF AND GLAMOUR: FASHION ON THE FAIRWAY FROM THE NINETEENTH CENTURY TO TODAY

UNTIL 28 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

Exploring the ever-changing styles of the sportswear that has showcased on the famous Fairway from the blazers, top hats, corsets, and bonnets of the late nineteenth century to the more functional fashion of the present day. WHY LOOK AT ANIMALS?

UNTIL 11 MAR 18, TIMES VARY, FREE

Looking at our relationship with animals at a time when we tend to think of them only as zoo creatures, pets or a food source. JOHN ARMSTRONG: DREAM AND REALITY

UNTIL 3 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

Diverse work shows the influence of Surrealism on John Armstrong, who was never a Surrealist himself, instead forging a very personal style that attacked conventional ideas and beliefs with ironic wit and personal symbolism. HOLE IN ONE!

UNTIL 28 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

A chance to browse (and buy) unique golfing cartoon artwork from some well-loved illustrators, including William Heath Robinson, Louis Wain and Lawson Wood.

The Bluecoat

SIOBHAN DAVIES DANCE: MATERIAL / REARRANGED / TO / BE UNTIL 9 JUL, TIMES VARY, £3 - £4

London-based investigative arts organisation Siobhan Davies Dance brings a new performance installation featuring a performance from Davies herself. ABACUS

21 JUL-1 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

An interactive exhibition that encourages visitors of all ages to break the traditional rules of a contemporary art space. Artists from Liverpool and beyond have designed art works to inspire you to watch, draw, read and make.

The World Museum

LIVERPOOL ARAB ARTS AT THE WORLD MUSEUM

15 JUL, 1:00PM – 4:00PM, FREE

Liverpool Arab Arts Festival takeover.

Victoria Gallery and Museum BEYOND DREDD AND WATCHMEN: THE ART OF JOHN HIGGINS

UNTIL 31 OCT, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

The first major retrospective of the work of Liverpool-born artist John Higgins, who found global success as a comic book artist and writer for 2000AD, DC and Marvel.

Walker Art Gallery

FASHION ICONS: CELEBRATING GAY DESIGNERS

UNTIL 1 JUL 18, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Celebrating the work of some of the best-known fashion designers including Christian Dior, Yves St Laurent, John Galliano, Karl Lagerfeld and Dolce & Gabbana, some of whom were forced to hide their sexuality in order to protect their careers. ALPHONSE MUCHA: IN QUEST OF BEAUTY

UNTIL 29 OCT, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, £0 - £7

A major touring exhibition about Czech-born Art Noueau artist Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939), exploring explores the work of the artist around the theme of beauty – the core principle underlying his artistic philosophy.

July/August 2017 Find full listings at theskinny.co.uk/whats-on

Manchester Art Castlefield Gallery

LINDSEY BULL AND PLASTIQUE FANTASTIQUE

UNTIL 6 AUG, 1:00PM – 6:00PM, FREE

A new body of work by Manchester-based painter Lindsey Bull, displayed alongside a new mixed media installation and performance by London-based collective Plastique Fantastique.

Centre For Chinese Contemporary Art

MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: ONE OF TWO STORIES, OR BOTH

7-16 JUL, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

A multichannel sound and visual installation following on from a five-part radio series created as part of MIF. FROM OCEAN TO HORIZON

7 JUL-29 OCT, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

A group exhibition featuring established and emerging creative talents from Hong Kong, most of whom have previously never exhibited in the UK, presenting unique perspectives on living and working in present-day Hong Kong.

Common

TENDER COMPULSIONS

UNTIL 5 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition of new work by Brighton-based illustrator Lucy Sherston, whose pieces have been specially created for the bar-cumart space: “I wanted the theme to reflect the communal environment of Common, a space to gather and connect.” The exhibition will include prints, textiles and wooden pieces, using soft colours and tactile processes.

Contact Theatre 11 MILLION REASONS TO DANCE UNTIL 29 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Emerging photographer Sean Goldthorpe was commissioned to create 20 images inspired by iconic dance moments from film, with a vision to positively profile deaf, sight impaired and disabled people who dance.

Gallery of Costume

MARY QUANT: FASHION ICON

UNTIL 5 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

Featuring 22 outfits dating from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, illustrating how Quant’s designs exemplified a shift in fashion’s focus and inspiration to a younger consumer through bold mini dresses, PVC, patterned tights and more.

HOME LA MOVIDA

UNTIL 16 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

This pioneering contemporary visual art group exhibition takes the artistic and socio-cultural movement La Movida (literally “the movement”) of post-Franco Spain as its thematic heart. EDEN KÖTTING: FORGOTTEN THE QUEEN

UNTIL 30 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Paintings and collages inspired by HOME’s Edith Walks project, which itself was inspired by the life of Edith Swan Neck, the visionary and hand-fast maiden to the King Harold of 1066. ANONYMOUS BOSCH: EDITH PINHOLES

UNTIL 30 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Fulfilling the important post-medieval role of witness/chronicler to Andrew Kötting’s troubadour band on their long march in the spectral footsteps of King Harold, from one grave in Waltham Abbey via another in Battle to a sculpture at St Leonards-on-Sea (during production of Kötting’s latest film-essay, Edith Walks).

Manchester Art Gallery JAI REDMAN: PARADISE LOST

UNTIL -24 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

A selection of new and existing oil paintings and watercolours, which function as contemporary interventions within the historic collections, from Jai Redman, whose work combines modern materials with a passion for traditional painting techniques. SHIRLEY BAKER: WOMEN AND CHILDREN; AND LOITERING MEN

UNTIL -28 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

Baker’s photography documented the poverty and resilience of communities under siege while conveying her compassionate affection, empathy and indignation for the plight of her subjects. TRUE FAITH

UNTIL -3 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

Curated by Matthew Higgs, Director of White Columns, New York and author and film-maker Jon Savage with archivist Johan Kugelberg, True Faith explores the ongoing significance and legacy of New Order and Joy Division through the wealth of visual art their music has inspired. MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: TRUE FAITH

UNTIL -3 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

Bringing together work by some of the world’s most notable artists, True Faith explores the ongoing significance and legacy of New Order and Joy Division through the wealth of visual art their music has inspired. SOUTH ASIAN DESIGN

UNTIL 27 MAY 18, TIMES VARY, FREE

Exploring how South Asian traditional crafts are inspiring exciting contemporary art, design and fashion.

Manchester Craft and Design Centre ATHLETICALLY PLEASING: EXPLORING THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN DESIGN AND SPORT

UNTIL 2 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:30PM, FREE

A showcase of products exploring how craft, design and innovative technology are being used to enhance both athletic performance and aesthetic appeal in sport.

Manchester Museum AFTER THE BEES

UNTIL 1 JUL, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

A series of artworks exploring a poignant narrative of loss, responding to Einstein’s chilling words: ‘If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left.’

National Football Museum

PELÉ: ART, LIFE, FOOTBALL

UNTIL 4 MAR 18, TIMES VARY, FREE

Looking at the stages of the Brazilian footballing icon’s life, from Santos to New York via four World Cups, through the eyes of artists and photographers around the world.

People’s History Museum NEVER GOING UNDERGROUND: THE FIGHT FOR LGBT+ RIGHTS

UNTIL 3 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Curated by members of the local LGBT+ community, detailing the development of an LGBT+ movement, showing the internal and external struggles, the different party political approaches to equality and the social and historical context of the last 60 years of activism. QUEER NOISE

UNTIL 10 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

A community exhibition based on Manchester Digital Music Archive’s crowd-sourced online project of the same name, telling the story of how proudly queer musicians and clubbers in Greater Manchester helped to redefine attitudes towards sexuality across the city and beyond.

CONTINUUM: FRAMING TRANS LIVES IN 21ST CENTURY BRITAIN

MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: TOGATHER

UNTIL 3 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

UNTIL 16 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

One of the first large scale group shows in the UK dedicated to promoting trans art, moving beyond the public scrutiny, medical textbooks, daytime chat shows and hate crime statistics and sensationalism surrounding trans identities and bodies.

Susan Hefuna’s timely, poetic work addresses some of the most potent issues of our time: migration, movement and sensations of separation, coming together in this wide-ranging exhibition also featuring public performances.

UNTIL 28 AUG, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Director Graham Eatough and artist Stephen Sutcliffe pay tribute to one of Manchester’s most original minds in this unique installation, which blends visual art and film drama in homage to the great Anthony Burgess.

BRITISH COMMUNISM’S CULTURE WARS

The Communist Party of Great Britain was formed three years after the 1917 Russian Revolution and dissolved itself in 1991 as the Soviet Bloc disintegrated. Discover the history of communism’s cultural work, and how it related to the party’s political project with this exhibition.

The International 3 WANDERLUST

5-14 JUL, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

Exploring the practice of three artists whose work is bound up with ideas of voyeurism, omitted context, ambiguous journeys and seeing the world from a veiled or altered perspective, revealing our inherent desire to let our imagination ‘fill in the gaps’ whilst exposing the allure of obscurity.

The Lowry

MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: HOME1947

UNTIL 9 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

A new work by Sharmeen ObaidChinoy, centred on a series of short films featuring families in India and Pakistan, who were among more than 10 million people displaced by Partition. LOWRY AT HOME: SALFORD 1966

UNTIL 24 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

Previously unseen photographs by one of the world’s most celebrated international photographers, Clive Arrowsmith, who photographed LS Lowry at home, in his garden and on nearby streets, providing a uniquely domestic portrait of an artist renowned for guarding his privacy.

MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: NO END TO ENDERBY

UNTIL 17 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

BEYOND BORDERS

UNTIL 3 JUN 18, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exploration of South Asian textiles, bringing together four artists - based in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and England - working on issues around post-colonial identity, ruptured spaces, authenticity, displacement and belonging, experimenting with a range of media such as textiles, fibres, embroidery, film, photography and performance. COZENS AND COZENS

UNTIL 16 JUN 18, TIMES VARY, FREE

Showcasing the Whitworth’s collection of works by father and son, Alexander and John Robert Cozens, who were influential watercolour painters of the 18th century. CORNELIA PARKER: VERSO

UNTIL 5 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

Cornelia Parker has always been attracted to the backs and undersides of things, and for Verso, she has photographed the backs of hand sewn button cards that are part of the Manchester Galleries’ collection, capturing the abstract drawings in the haphazard cotton threads. RAQIB SHAW

UNTIL 1 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

A solo exhibition by contemporary artist Raqib Shaw, examining real and imagined spaces between the East and West.

The Portico Library

CUT CLOTH: CONTEMPORARY TEXTILES AND FEMINISM

UNTIL 5 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Sarah-Joy Ford’s exhibition and publication Cut Cloth celebrates and critically examines the shifting role of textiles within contemporary feminist practices, also incorporating lectures, workshops and more.

Waterside Arts Centre ONE YEAR ON

UNTIL 29 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Showcasing the best of new and recent works from the Waterside’s 2016 Open Prize winners Effie Jessop, Sarah Malone, Peter Davis, Sandra Robinson and Steph Shipley.

Whitworth Art Gallery BARBARA BROWN

UNTIL TBCC, TIMES VARY, FREE

In partnership with Design Manchester, Manchester Modernist Society and the Friends of the Whitworth, the Whitworth welcomes the first major solo exhibition of the work of Barbara Brown, deemed the ‘golden girl’ of Heal Fabrics in the 1960s and early 70s. JOHN AKOMFRAH

UNTIL 28 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

Vertigo Sea, a three-screen film, first seen at the 56th Venice Biennale as part of Okwui Enwezor’s All the World’s Futures exhibition, is a sensual, poetic and cohesive meditation on man’s relationship with the sea and exploration of its role in the history of slavery, migration, and conflict. SOONI TARAPOREVALA

UNTIL TBC, TIMES VARY, FREE

The first UK solo exhibition of photographer Sooni Taraporevala.

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