.CO.UK
Saturday 12 April
UB40 MANCHESTER ACADEMY
Sunday 02 March
PUP + SLAVES SOUP KITCHEN
Saturday 08 February
POLIÇA THE RITZ
Saturday 08 February
THE BOXER REBELLION SOUND CONTROL Monday 10 February
SHY NATURE* THE CASTLE
Wednesday 12 February
LILY & MADELEINE THE CASTLE
Thursday 13 February
SATELLITE STORIES SOUP KITCHEN Saturday 15 February
HATCHAM SOCIAL SOUP KITCHEN
Monday 17 February
THUMPERS SOUP KITCHEN
Thursday 20 February
DAMIEN DEMPSEY GORILLA Friday 21 February
ST VINCENT MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL Tuesday 25 February
PAPER AEROPLANES THE DEAF INSTITUTE Wednesday 26 February
J RODDY WALSTON & THE BUSINESS NIGHT AND DAY Wednesday 26 February
JOHN MURRY THE DEAF INSTITUTE
Friday 28 February
CROWBAR SOUND CONTROL
Saturday 01 March
PIXEL FIX* THE CASTLE
WILDFLOWERS THE CASTLE
Friday 18 April
A PLASTIC ROSE THE CASTLE
Sunday 09 March
MØ THE DEAF INSTITUTE
Wednesday 23 April
4
Contents
SCOTT MATTHEWS GORILLA
Wednesday 19 March
MATT NATHANSON NIGHT & DAY
P.12 Mogwai
Friday 25 April
P.33 Ciara Clark
LUCERO THE DEAF INSTITUTE
Friday 21 March
AS ELEPHANTS ARE* THE CASTLE
Sunday 27 April
EVERLAST GORILLA
Friday 21 March
BILLY LOCKETT SOUND CONTROL
Friday 02 May
THE TWILIGHT SAD THE DEAF INSTITUTE
Saturday 22 March
THIS IS THE KIT GULLIVERS
Sunday 04 May
THE RIFLES THE RITZ
Sunday 23 March
SAINT RAYMOND THE RUBY LOUNGE
Thursday 15 May
THE FALL MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL
Tuesday 25 March
STU LARSEN SOUND CONTROL
Friday 16 May
DENAI MOORE THE CASTLE
February 2014
Wednesday 28 May
THE WAR ON DRUGS MANCHESTER ACADEMY2
Wednesday 26 March
WILD BEASTS ALBERT HALL
Thursday 25 September
RHODES THE CASTLE
PETER HOOK & THE LIGHT THE RITZ
Thursday 03 April
27th & 28th November
Sunday 30 March
I N D E P E N D E N T
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Saturday 29 November
Saturday 05 April
C U LT U R A L
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P.46 Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks
P.34 Josephine Hicks: Pyramid (2013)
BELINDA CARLISLE MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL
Tuesday 25 March
alt-ticke THE SKINNY_126X314_February.indd 1
AUGUSTINES ACADEMY 2
Wednesday 05 March
Photo: Valeria Farinella
Friday 07 February
Wednesday 16 April
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Editorial Northwest Editor Film & Deputy Editor Events Editor Music Editor Books Editor Clubs Editor Comedy Editor Deviance Editor Fashion Editor Food Editor News Editor Travel Editor
Lauren Strain Jamie Dunn Laura Howarth Dave Kerr Ryan Rushton Daniel Jones John Stansfield Ana Hine Alexandra Fiddes Jamie Faulkner Bram E. Gieben Paul Mitchell
Production Production Manager Designer Sub Editor
Amy Minto Thom Isom Kristian Doyle
Sales/Accounts Northwest Sales & Marketing Manager Sales Executive
Caroline Harleaux Issy Patience
Lead Designer
Maeve Redmond
Company PA
Kyla Hall
Editor-in-Chief Sales Director Publisher
Rosamund West Lara Moloney Sophie Kyle
27/01/2014 16:10
THE SKINNY
Photo: Elinor Jones
KEVIN DEVINE SOUP KITCHEN
THE HEAD & THE HEART GORILLA
Photo: Ross Gilmore
Thursday 06 February
Contents Up Front 06
Opinion: Skinny on Tour; Shot of the Month; Hero Worship; BALLS.; Stop the Presses; Online Only, and this month’s comic, courtesy Glasgow League of Writers.
31
Lifestyle 32
08 Heads Up: To paraphrase some trainer ads or other, Just Do All of It!
Features 10
12
15
16
18
Wild Beasts’ Hayden Thorpe and Tom Fleming discuss the meticulous process and altered worldview behind their refined fourth album, Present Tense. Stuart Braithwaite and Barry Burns of Mogwai on the making of Rave Tapes, and why they are in favour of Scottish independence.
Alex Millar, winner of The Skinny Award at RSA New Contemporaries 2013, reveals he doesn’t want to be known as “the aubergine artist” ahead of his new exhibition; and Slovenian author Miha Mazzini considers his best-seller Crumbs in terms of the UK’s possible breaking of the union.
19
Taking inspiration from Raymond Williams’ book of the same name, a new exhibition at Tate Liverpool, Keywords, encourages us to consider the relationship between art and language. Exhibition co-curator Gavin Delahunty sheds light.
21
As they prepare to drop long-awaited debut album DEAD, we speak to Young Fathers in their top-secret lair.
22
25
26
28
Deviance: With Valentine’s Day upon us, one writer reminds us that it’s OK if we never find Prince Charming; plus we hear some break-up survival advice. Fashion: Ciara Clark’s bold jewellery utilising acrylic and resin makes a statement, and we also want all of it.
34
Showcase: Liverpool-based artist Josephine Hicks uses digital, handdrawn and photographic stencils to produce her delicate, colourful works.
37
Food and Drink: We’ve a bumper Food News, Phagomania attempts to solve the mystery of the Chinese salad pictures, and our Food ed meets the owners of a new pop-up coffee concept.
39
Competitions: Win a Golden Pass to the entire ¡Viva! Spanish and Latin American Film Festival; weekend tickets for Threshold Festival; a night of ping pong at Twenty Twenty Two, and a night’s stay for two at Caprices Snow Festival.
41
Music: Stephen Malkmus grapples with the role of the critic in this month’s Dirty Dozen and we survey the gigs ahead, plus the latest album reviews including Neneh Cherry, Augustines, Wild Beasts and Broken Bells.
47
Clubs: Moss Side boy-done-good A Guy Called Gerald looks forward to his homecoming gig, Legowelt chooses five prime cuts in DJ Chart, and Bugged Out!’s organisers relate the nascence of their tip top electronic/dance fest, which comes to Southport in March. Art: Reviews of Edward Chell at The Bluecoat and Time & Motion at FACT.
The Lantern Theatre hosts a new play, Project XXX, on a thought-provoking topic, and viral video mash-up pranksters Cassetteboy try to explain their notoriously difficult to explain shows.
52
Film: Jim Jarmusch takes a stab at the vampire movie (Only Lovers Left Alive), Claire Denis goes film noir (Bastards) and Spike Jonze show us the future of human-computer relations (Her).
French filmmaker Alain Guiraudie talks about the sex, passion and the copious shots of male anatomy in his new Hitchcockian thriller Stranger by the Lake.
53
DVD/Books: Two of 2013’s best films, The Selfish Giant and The Stuart Hall Project, come to home video; William McIlvanney classic Docherty is rereleased in Books, plus reviews of graphic novel Winter’s Tale and V.E. Schwab’s sci-fi thriller Vicious.
We try to get under Jonathan Glazer’s skin ahead of the release of his deliriously sexy sci-fi movie set in Glasgow, called, er, Under the Skin. A very tired Jonny Bell reflects on the influences of Crystal Antlers’ latest album, Nothing Is Real, ahead of the California band’s UK tour. agony aunt column in town, and its name is Ask Fred.
Katy B discusses her influences, including Lauryn Hill, Ms Dynamite, and Nicki Minaj.
February 2014
MARCH 14 THE WARLOCKS the wardrobe, leeds w/ bam!bam!bam!
FEBRUARY 11 CATE LE BON leaf 13 THE WYTCHES the shipping forecast
20 TRANS the shipping forecast
19 CHEATAHS east village arts club
28 THE MEN east village arts club
26 KELLEY STOLTZ the shipping forecast w/ bam!bam!bam!
28 FRANCOIS & THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS leaf
27 EAGULLS the shipping forecasT
APRIL 11 PEGGY SUE leaf
28 GEORGE EZRA leaf sold out
JUNE 06 - EINDHOVEN PSYCH LAB - 07 effenaar, eindhoven the netherlands
MARCH 13 THE WARLOCKS & MUGSTAR the kazimier w/ bam!bam!bam!
SEPTEMBER 26 - L’POOL INTERNATIONAL - 27 FESTIVAL OF PSYCHEDELIA camp and furnace
Review
51
29 Step aside Dear Deidre, there’s a new
30
33
Hoya:Hoya head, in-demand producer and Ninja Tune new blood Ryan Hunn aka Illum Sphere discusses his debut album, Ghosts of Then and Now. Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård reveals that his friend and director Lars von Trier gave him the soft sell on their new collaboration Nymphomaniac.
Moderat and Modeselektor’s Sebastian Szary talks technique, performance and inspiration.
54
Theatre: Previews and reviews galore, including How To Be Immortal at the Unity Theatre and Blindsided at the Royal Exchange.
55
Comedy: Why slightly awry sketch troupe Gein’s Family Giftshop are the name on everyone’s lips.
56
Listings: ALL OF THE THINGS.
63
Out Back: Our New Blood this month, French up-and-comers Sudden Death of Stars, see us out of another issue. Until March!
tickets available online: ticketweb / seetickets / ticketline in person: probe records (school ln) & the brink (parr st) The Skinny January 2014_Layout 1 28/01/2014 16:17 Page 1 follow on twitter: @harvest_sun @lpoolpsychfest
NEW EVENTS NOW ON SALE BETH NIELSEN CHAPMAN
TOM PAXTON & JANIS IAN
Friday 7 March 8pm £14 –
WILL POUND BAND
plus Red Sky July Together at last Monday 17 February 7.30pm (with Robin Bullock) £19.50-£29.50 Saturday 22 March 7.30pm – £26.50, £32.50 – DAR WILLIAMS
MICHAEL MCGOLDRICK, JOHN MCUSKER & JOHN DOYLE
Saturday 8 March 7.30pm St George’s Hall Concert Room
£16 –
MILES HUNT & ERICA NOCKALLS Wednesday 12 March 8pm £12
Saturday 22 March 8pm £13 –
RACHEL SERMANNI Sunday 23 March 8pm £12 –
INDETERMINACY BY JOHN CAGE with STEWART LEE Friday 28 March 8pm £12
Box Office 0151 709 3789 liverpoolphil.com Image: Rachel Sermani
Contents
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Editorial
S
omething must be in the air, because despite ignoring Valentine’s day pretty much altogether – aside from Deviance’s look at the Disneyfication of love and some sound break-up advice – we’ve inadvertently made our steamiest issue yet. In Film, Stellan Skarsgård spares no detail in relating how he came to be involved in Lars von Trier’s hotly – sorry – anticipated (and debated) Nymphomaniac; Alain Guiraudie discusses a passion fuelled and augmented by danger in his suspenseful new work, Stranger By the Lake, and Jonathan Glazer lets us in to the mind of his new movie Under the Skin’s alien femme fatale (played by Scarlett Johansson), who seduces and then lures men to a quietly horrifying end. Theatre ponders the ambitious but intriguing premise of a new production coming to Liverpool and the Northwest – to open up conversations surrounding teenage relationships and sex on film – and elsewhere, well, there’s basically just a lot of frank talking and a slightly higher than average rate of dick jokes. Hooray. As the line-ups of one point five million festivals begin to be announced, we follow suit with a bumper Music section taking in Wild Beasts on their really rather gorgeous new album Present Tense; a visit to the secret studio of determined rap trio Young Fathers; energising words from a righteous, politicised Mogwai (on the cover of our Scotland sister paper this month); Katy B on her favourite no-nonsense albums by female MCs, and Crystal Antlers on their similarly fuss-free latest. Hell, we even recruited Stephen Malkmus as a reviewer, and popped over to Rennes to speak to French psych-poppers signed to Tjinder Singh’s Ample Play label, Sudden Death of Stars. Clubs also went the extra mile, hearing from Sebastian Szary of Moderat why their new formation is so much more than the sum of Modeselektor and Apparat, and speaking to Manchester blood old and new, bass master A Guy Called Gerald and young man-of-the-moment Illum Sphere, who releases his spellbinding, longgestating debut Ghosts of Then and Now on Ninja Tune this month.
Liverpool’s Tate and Josephine Hicks go under the microscope in Art and this month’s Showcase: the former’s new exhibition, Keywords, presents works from 1980s Britain alongside evocative words that we may or may not use to describe them (and asks why); the latter gives us a glimpse of her playful, colourful practice spanning screen print, painting and collage. We also hear from the winner of The Skinny Award at RSA New Contemporaries, Alex Millar, on the eve of the exhibition that forms part of his prize, and find there’s beauty even by the wayside in a trip to the Bluecoat to see Edward Chell’s show, Soft Estate. Ciara Clark’s laser-cut pieces are the order of the day in Fashion, Books quizzes Miha Mazzini on the subject of independence, Food investigates crowdfunding and the Mystery of the Chinese Salad (yeah, you know, the Mystery of the Chinese Salad), and Comedy, as it should, brings the LOLs: masked mash-up mischief-makers Cassetteboy tell us exactly how they propose to carve a clubnight out of their viral vids and why they don’t plan to do a Bake Off anytime soon; Gein’s Family Giftshop prove why everyone’s namedropping them right, left and centre, and, errr, what else do we have? Oh! Yeah. We got ourselves an Agony Uncle. Quills at the ready. This edition of The Skinny was brought to you by the people who make it. We hope you find something inside to help abate the winter blues. [Lauren Strain] ON THE COVER: Wild Beasts, by Nuria Rius Born in Barcelona, photographer Nuria Rius is now London-based, currently working freelance and specialising in portraiture and fashion. She has worked as Editor-in-Chief and Photo Editor for a Spanish magazine about art, fashion, design and music for nearly eight years. www.nuriarius.com www.nuriarius.blogspot.com
Shot of the Month
Connan Mockasin at Soup Kitchen, Manchester, Fri 24 Jan, by Alexander Bell
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Online Only
Eyes to the website
†††
"Is it a cult? Is it Christian? Is it Satanic? You don't really know. I love that” – Ex-Far guitarist Shaun Lopez and Deftones frontman Chino Moreno embrace the ambiguity of their new gothic electronica project, ††† (Crosses to your gran). Just don’t call it witch house. www.theskinny.co.uk/music Once again The Skinny will be at Glasgow Film Festival for the CineSkinny, our daily guide to GFF published throughout the festival. Look out for first-look reviews of the new films from Wes Anderson, David Mackenzie, Jonathan Glazer, Terry Gilliam, Joanna Hogg, Michel Gondry, and many more. Plus we’ll be catching up with the
filmmakers visiting the festival and giving you the lowdown on GFF’s wide and varied pop up screenings. www.theskinny.co.uk/film Laura Yuile is our sister paper’s Showcase artist. www.theskinny.co.uk/art Read the extended edit of our chat with Cassetteboy, a bunch of reviews and more at www.theskinny.co.uk/comedy Hear more from Legowelt and find out what tracks stand the test of time for Johnno from Bugged Out! at www.theskinny.co.uk/clubs
Hero Worship: Mogwai No stranger to their tinnitus inducing might, Chino Moreno of Deftones, ††† and Palms tips his hat to Scotland’s electro-guitar wizards
I
went to see Mogwai at The Fillmore in San Francisco back in 2001, and to this day, it’s both the loudest and quietest show I’ve seen in my life. I was so impressed by the dynamics. At one moment it was so quiet. Everyone in the venue would be silent. You could hear a pin drop. Then the next moment my chest was caving in because of the noise. That is one thing I always look for in music – dynamics – and they’re one of the most extreme examples of marrying violence and beauty into
a song I’ve ever heard. They sent me something during the Happy Songs for Happy People period, and I never got around to working on it – it just kind of fell through the cracks. I just got their new record Rave Tapes, and I love it. I’ve always been a huge fan, and I’d love to collaborate at some point. If they’re reading this: what’s your number, Mogwai? Call me up! Crosses by ††† is released on 10 Feb via Sumerian Records www.crossesmusic.com
The Skinny on Tour
While the rains keep falling and some Northwest residents consider fashioning arks from their Ikea furniture to make it through to spring, one smart Skinny reader has jumped on a plane to much warmer (and most importantly drier) climes. This country may be best known in the West for its bloody Khmer Rouge period, but today it’s one of Asia’s most prosperous economies. For your chance of winning The Last Werewolf Trilogy by Glen Duncan (that’s three books – The
Last Werewolf, Talulla Rising, and By Blood We Live), courtesy of our pals over at Canongate, just head over to www.theskinny.co.uk/about/competitions and tell us where you think this Skinny reader is holidaying. Competition closes midnight Sun 2 Mar. Winners will be notified via email within two working days of closing and will be required to respond within one week or the prize will be offered to another entrant. Full T&Cs can be found at www. theskinny.co.uk/about/terms
THE SKINNY
FACT Liverpool's programme for 2014 focuses on communication, engagement, and our digital lives. First up, Science Fiction: New Death, opening 22 Mar, will explore the science fiction that pervades our lives today, turning the exhibition into a film of sorts as the curator becomes the director, the artists become actors, and the gallery becomes a set, with collaborators The Kazimier crafting the scene. www.fact.co.uk.
The lineup for the 19th FUTUREEVERYTHING festival has been revealed. Confirmed are Skinny favourites Nicolas Jaar (in the guise of DARKSIDE, his new live project with Dave Harrington) and Evian Christ (pictured), as well as Tim Hecker, Mika Vainio, Miwa Matreyek, Martin Messier and Longplayer. Also announced is a Project: Mooncircle label showcase and a brand new multi-sensory installation piece from Emmanuel Biard (EMN) and David Leonard. Takes place 27 Mar–1 Apr in venues across Manchester. Full lineup and more deets at futureeverything.org.
PLEASE COME TO THE SHOW, a new exhibition at Liverpool’s Exhibition Research Centre, features paraphernalia artists have used over the years to entice the public along to their events. New York’s MoMA Library’s collection has been raided for innovative printed invitations, small posters, and flyers from circa 1960 to the present day, and they’ve been lovingly curated to form this show. Opens 13 Feb, 6-8pm, Exhibition Research Centre, Liverpool, www.erc-ljmu.org.
On the day of going to print, PARKLIFE revealed the first wave of acts for its ever-expanding weekend in June, and we’re happy to see it includes recent Skinny cover stars East India Youth, Daniel Avery, Gold Panda and Mount Kimbie. Some of the rest: Snoop Dogg (!), Flying Lotus, Foals, Katy B (read about some of her influences on page 30), lllum Sphere (read our interview page 15), Seth Troxler, Moderat (see page 31), Duke Dumont, Disclosure, Kendrick Lamar, Danny Brown, Justin Robertson, Jon Hopkins, and Warpaint. Takes place 7-8 Jun, Heaton Park, Manchester, for the rest of the initial line-up announcement and to purchase tickets go to www.parklife.uk.com.
Manchester’s 2022NQ relaunched as TWENTY TWENTY TWO at the end of January with longer opening hours, new weekly club nights, and, best
LIVERPOOL SOUND CITY (1-3 May) has divulged some of its 2014 line-up, with Kodaline, Super Furry Animals man Gruff Rhys and Fuck Buttons
BALLS.
GEMINI After vowing vengeance on robin that shat on your new Armani the jacket, using state-of-the-art aeronautic technology you find the bastard twittering smugly on a branch as if nothing happened. Stealthily you manoeuvre your airship above the tree and with gritted teeth discharge a devastatingly precise human turd onto its tiny head and body, killing it dead.
with Mystic Mark ARIES Landing a finance job at Canary the yellow-eyed intern showing Wharf you around the office habitat boasts about the “heat mats under each floor.� Tugging at your collar beneath the powerful red bulbs, you crunch along the gravel to your desk past the shedded skins of fellow executives. Gazing out at the surrounding skyscrapers you notice they look like high-rise reptile tanks before catching your reflection in the glass as your tongue flicks out to clean your eyeball.
TAURUS The only guests at your birthday party are the crabs that live in your groin. And they leave halfway through.
February 2014
CANCER Mayonnaise is not only a sexy alternative to lube, it’s also delicious.
LEO After getting the heart he always wanted from the Wizard of Oz, the Tin Man goes into cardiac arrest, having failed to request the brain, lungs, liver or circulatory system also necessary to keep the heart alive. The tin idiot.
VIRGO Your new charitable foundation Comic Hand Relief is surprisingly successful.
heading up the names revealed so far – look out for more in the coming weeks www.liverpoolsoundcity.co.uk. Fuck Buttons and Kodaline also make it on to the LIVE AT LEEDS line-up (2-5 May, www.liveatleeds.com), along with Albert Hammond Jr, Los Campesinos! and Pulled Apart By Horses. Back to Liverpool and the X & Y Festival (11 Jul) has announced its headliner as Montreal-based rockers Half Moon Run. Early bird tickets are now at www.bandtrail.com. More festival news! In association with Liverpool’s AFRICA OYÉ (the UK's largest free
celebration of African music and culture), dancehall pioneers Yellowman and Dillinger will be touring the UK in the spring, including dates in Liverpool (District, 1 Mar) and Manchester (Band on the Wall, 8 Mar). Between them, this reggae doubleheader has a combined career spanning nearly 75 years. Africa OyĂŠ takes place 21-22 Jun in Sefton Park, Liverpool: www.africaoye.com. GET THE SKINNY DELIVERED direct to your door so you never miss an issue. Subscriptions start from ÂŁ7.99. Go to www.theskinny.co.uk/subscribe to find out more
Evian Christ
LIBRA Getting ahead with a bit of nude pre-spring cleaning, while wiping your Time Machine entrance you accidentally press the START button. The metal doors slam shut on your penis and teleport the severed helmet aeons into the past and the picosecond prior to the creation of the Universe. The introduction of your time-travelling glans causes a space-time energy fluctuation which kickstarts the Big Bang. It turns out God was a bell-end after all.
SCORPIO Your mouth is really just an absence of face.
SAGITTARIUS Despite being assured that kissing the frog would turn it into a handsome prince, you’re left frustrated when nothing happens. The only logical step is to go all the way, but despite your best efforts there’s still no change. Undeterred, you find yourself engaging in double penetration with two frogs while sucking off a newt. Everybody lives happily ever after.
CAPRICORN This month you squeeze your entire body into a holdall, zip and padlock it shut on the outside from inside before cleverly squirming into the bathtub. To your surprise you hear leather-gloved applause from a team of MI5 agents in your hallway.
AQUARIUS It’s a shame Jesus wasn’t real. I bet he’d have been great.
PISCES You perform every activity as if it were a crime, carefully wiping away fingerprints and vacuuming up all hair and skin in your wake. It’s a chore, but you never know when you might want to begin murdering.
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7
Photo: Andrew Ellis
of all, a permanent ping pong room. Check it out at www.twentytwentytwo.co.uk.
Ever wondered how numbers can seem crunchy, and colours can have temperature? No, we're not having a collective trip, we're talking about synaesthesia, the condition of one sensation evoking another. Synaesthesia Feast: Project Zero promises a smorgasbord for the senses, as a five-course meal is matched with sound and visuals. Camp and Furnace, Liverpool, 7pm, £30
Synaesthesia Feast: Project Zero
Young Fathers
Tue 11 Feb
Poleroid Theatre's Write It : Mic It night is heading North for the Manchester edition of the Londonbased literary event, offering a platform for quirky young voices. Writers, poets, actors, comedians and sketch troupes are all invited to give it a bash, making quite the entertaining night for anyone just observing. The Castle Hotel, Manchester, 8pm, £3
Ray Redmond hosts an anarchic evening of sketch and stand-up comedy, fittingly titled Sketch, Drugs and Rock'n'Roll and inviting Legion of Doom, Imodium Nitrate, Peter Brush and Randolph Tempest to locate and then tickle your funny bone. Sandbar, Manchester, 8pm, £donation
Quirky-casual Welsh singer/songwriter Cate Le Bon tours her latest offering, Mug Museum, showcasing her rich vocal style and ability to toe the fine line of lightly weird alternative folk (she's basically singing songs focusing on the harrowing topic of pet deaths). Leaf, Liverpool, 7.30pm, £10
Write It : Mic It
Sketch, Drugs and Rock'n'Roll
Sat 15 Feb
Sun 16 Feb
The Bristol-based bloggers and seasoned party-throwers Eton Messy land in Liverpool for the spring leg of their tour, bringing their popular YouTube channel concept to a live setting. Fans of as-yet-unheard electronic and bass sounds will likely flock to worship at their altar as they continue their upward trajectory. The Shipping Forecast, Liverpool, 10pm, £8
In advance of his performance at the Edinburgh festival later this year, stand-up comic Tom Wrigglesworth presents his latest show, Utterly at Odds with the Universe, exploring the profound relationship with his grandfather through twisted storytelling and anecdotes relayed with an elegant flourish. The Lowry Studio, Salford, 8pm, £12
Photo: Lauren Patterson
Mon 10 Feb
Photo: Chris Mann
Sun 9 Feb
Cate Le Bon
Tom Wrigglesworth
Eton Messy
Sat 22 Feb
Recently seen gracing the cover of our sister publication's 100th issue, Warpaint return to the Northwest following their appearance in November, this time with last month's self-titled release in tow. Before they traverse the art-rock template with their flowing vocals, support will come from the equally transfixing All We Are. O2 Academy, Liverpool, 7pm, £15
Catch an extended, 'all night' set from the blogging duo behind Feel My Bicep, a portal of discovery for hard-tofind and undiscovered boogie disco. Andy and Matt, aka Bicep, will be flexing their love for all things analogue and taking in classic Italo, Detroit techno and Chicago house as they go. Gorilla, Manchester, 11pm, £8
The Ted Hughes Awardwinning poet Kate Tempest presents her take on the epic, framing it in an everyday scene with the people around her playing the roles of the gods; hence such inspired lines as 'Winged sandal tearing up the pavement'. See her endlessly praised piece Brand New Ancients performed alongside a full live score. Contact, Manchester, Fri 21-Sat 22 Feb, 8pm, £12 (£7)
Bicep
Photo: Nick Bojdo
Fri 21 Feb
Photo: Daniel Harris
Thur 20 Feb
Warpaint
Kate Tempest
Fri 28 Feb
Legendary Italian progressive rock outfit Goblin – chiefly known for their luridly engrossing soundtracks to Dario Argento classics, including Profondo Rosso (1975) and Suspiria (1977) – perform a live AV show in their incarnation as Claudio Simmonetti's Goblin, a must-see for all fans of classic soundtracks. Gorilla, Manchester, 7.30pm, £20
While we can't promise a Night at the Museum sort of experience, this opportunity to poke around the Manchester Museum after hours is one we could hardly ignore. Visitors will have the chance to get handsy with the the Coral: Something Rich and Strange exhibition, and crochet a coral reef with artist Lucy Burscough. Manchester Museum, 6.30pm, Free
If you narrowly missed out on tickets to his now sold-out show at the Albert Hall – or if you simply maintain the belief that there's no such thing as too much Bonobo – make tracks to the Roadhouse after the show to catch an intimate DJ set with the master of atmospheric grooves. Roadhouse, Manchester, 11pm, £10
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Night at the Museum
Photo: Paul Cliff
Thu 27 Feb
Photo: Crimson Glow
Web 26 Feb
Goblin
Photo: Jessica Doyle
Despite being a characteristically short month, February is still packing a punch on the events side o’ things as we look forward to a gig or ten (think: Cate Le Bon, Warpaint and The Stranglers), the club kids get their kicks with SMS, Eton Messy and Bicep, and there's a screening of The Royal Tenenbaums.
Returning to the city following an explosive performance at FestEvol in 2013, post-modern rappers Young Fathers, of Liberian, Nigerian and Scottish heritage, take to Manchester the day after their new LP Dead drops – mixing tribal rhythms with harmonised R'n'B hooklines, quickfire couplets, and grinding synth and bass. The Deaf Institute, Manchester, 7pm, £8.50
Photo: Piper Ferguson
Compiled by: Laura Howarth
Wed 5 Feb
Bonobo
THE SKINNY
Photo: Katherine Leedale
Heads Up
Tue 4 Feb
Thu 6 Feb
Fri 7 Feb
Sat 8 Feb
As part of the Mashed Up North festival, playwrights are given the chance to put a brave new spin on the classics. Design 4 Life, a re-working of Noel Coward's comedy Design for Living, follows three twenty-somethings living in a Greater Manchester high-rise as they navigate their existential crises and lust triangles. The King's Arms, Salford, see listings for full details
Newly relaunched with a dedicated ping pong space and art programme, Northern Quarter venue Twenty Twenty Two sets forth to provide beats for your semi-athletic table tennis sessions with two new free clubnights – head back to the 90s with Boombox on Fridays, and enjoy Beats, Bats & Beers on Saturdays. Twenty Twenty Two, Manchester, see listings for full details
Fresh from touring with Mogwai, Liverpool's son of haunted sound Matthew Barnes takes the stage under his Forest Swords guise, likely delivering tracks from his succession of unsettling, involving releases, including EP Dagger Paths (2010) and last year's debut LP Engravings. The Deaf Institute, Manchester, 7pm, £10.50
Twenty Twenty Two
Forest Swords
Web 12 Feb
Thu 13 Feb
Fri 14 Feb
We all have something to hide – be it a lingering love for Avril Lavigne or a late-night cheesy chips habit (guilty, Your Honour). Hidden, a darkly comic play by Black Toffee and Harrogate Theatre, places the subject under the microscope and explores the lives of six individuals with a slew of secrets destined to unravel. Octagon, Bolton, until 13 Jan, 7.30pm, £10 (£8)
Joining the Stop Making Sense boys in their woodchip booth for a special edition of their weekly clubnight, Modern Love's Rainer Veil – Liam Morley and Dan Valentine – will be celebrating the launch of their latest EP, New Brutalism, with some bass-heavy beats likely to move heads and feet. Common, Manchester, 9pm, Free
If you're feeling romantically challenged this year – or just don't fancy noshing French grub in a crowded restaurant – consider giving your heart to Milk’s line-up of rock’n’roll heartthrobs for the, uh, Let's Fuck showcase. Jimmy and the Revolvers, Vandettes, Kavalier and more make up for the fact that no one loves you – saddo. District, Liverpool, 8.30pm, £5
Vandettes
Rainer Veil
Mon 17 Feb
Tue 18 Feb
Wed 19 Feb
Giving oddballs the chance to have characters assigned to them, Sex and the City-style, since 2001 (you're such a Margot with a Richie streak), The Royal Tenenbaums enjoys a big screen airing, just in time for us to collectively remember how much we all love Wes Anderson when we catch his latest offering, The Grand Budapest Hotel. FACT, Liverpool, 8.45pm, £9.50 (£8.50)
In response to Albert Camus' 1942 novel The Stranger, Proto-type Theater present The Good, The God and the Guillotine, a collaborative performance with the Manchester Metropolitan University Laptop Ensemble borrowing bits and pieces from the traditional set-ups of a gig, an opera and a recital, and providing a feast for the mind and eyes. Contact, Manchester, 8pm, £11 (£6)
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Good, the God and the Guillotine
New York-residing underground hip hop artist Pharoahe Monch has taken steps to firmly cement himself in our hearts throughout his 20-year career, both as part of Organized Konfusion and as a solo artist. Now he makes his Liverpool debut, marrying intricate wordplay on politics and social justice to an intelligent and critical eye. The Kazimier, Liverpool, 7pm, £12.50
Pharoahe Monch
Sun 23 Feb
Mon 24 Feb
Tue 25 Feb
The latest Launch Pad exhibition from Castlefield Gallery sees Jenny Core as curator, with The Drawing Project focusing on the development of drawing through a considered look at Core's own work alongside that of six other artists: Sophia Crilly, Hondartza Fraga, Mary Griffiths, Lesley Halliwell, Jenny Steele and Claire Weetman. Castlefield Gallery, 14-23 Feb, Free
The Marmite of krautrock, TOY arrive in Manchester, inevitably inviting some polarising opinions, with few sitting on the fence between 'that's so derivative' and 'but it's good, innit?' Including members of the disbanded group Joe Lean & The Jing Jang Jong, they're almost certainly fueled entirely by motorik rhythm. Gorilla, Manchester, 7.30pm, £10
Anya Reiss – a graduate of the Royal Court's Young Writers Programme who saw her first play, Spur of the Moment, written at age 17, open at the Royal Court Theatre – presents her re-imagining of Chekhov's The Seagull, intimately exploring emotion, creativity and romantic conflict. The Lowry Quays Theatre, Salford, Fri 21 Feb-Sat 8 Mar, from £12
Jenny Steele: When Buildings Stand Up, When Buildings Fall Down (2013)
TOY
The Seagull
Sun 2 Mar
Mon 3 Mar
Performing together in Liverpool for the first time, Yellowman and Dillinger bring their combined 75 years of experience to the city. The duo of Jamaica natives – one brought up in an orphanage, the other around Dennis Alcapone's El Paso sound system – both found their sound in the finest dancehall, much to every reggae fan's delight. District, Liverpool, 8pm, £12.50
Following the Lights Up parade on Saturday (1 Mar), the new Everyman flings open its doors and invites us all in to make ourselves at home for their Housewarming party. Starting a new chapter in a new home, Everyman's inaugural season will see Twelfth Night, Hope Place and Dead Dog in A Suitcase (and other love songs) taking to their fancy new stage. Everyman, Liverpool
Now in their 40th year – jeezo! – of being the long-standing punk-rockers from Surrey, The Stranglers take to the road once more, marking their anniversary with dates up and down the country and carting all 17 albums' worth of tracks along for the ride. Cue Golden Brown sing-a-long. O2 Academy, Liverpool, 7pm, £23
Yellowman
February 2014
Everyman
Photo: Steve Aland
Sat 1 Mar
The Stranglers
Chat
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Photo: Ana Cunha
Hidden
Photo: Jenny Hardcore
Design 4 Life
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THE SKINNY
Human Conditions Conscientious and contemplative, Wild Beasts’ fourth album reads like a coming of age. Vocalists Hayden Thorpe and Tom Fleming discuss selflessness and the practised art of marrying simplicity to detail Interview: Lauren Strain Photography: Nuria Rius
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hen in mid-January the first single from Wild Beasts in two years, Wanderlust, appeared online, a thousand outcasts’ hearts hurt. As its video’s four ‘stock’ characters – The Thief, The Good Lady, The Quarterback, The Girl – ran urgently against a scrolling darkness, then came to a halt, they seemed to do so not out of exhaustion but defiance, the redhead in her party dress mouthing the song’s disarming coda: “Don’t confuse me with someone who gives a fuck.” Calmly delivered in Hayden Thorpe’s quilted tenor and borne aloft on a cresting wave of synths and processed chorales, the refrain is an unexpected summation of a track that celebrates the exhilaration to be found in not becoming the person society wants you to be. It’s also a succinct introduction to a fourth LP, Present Tense, that repeatedly returns to a sense of self-acceptance; of finally figuring out who the hell you are, and being okay with it. “The video does have a sense of end-ofdays in a way,” Thorpe says, clasping a latte in a Deptford deli close to one of the locations in which Present Tense was written. “It’s supposed to seem apocalyptic in a sense because it’s suggesting, ‘All these things we strive for and spend so much time and attention trying to attain, what’s it worth at the end of the day?’” It’s a conceit that he quickly extends to the process and purpose of making music, observing that “when you’re making art you can go to great lengths and morph yourself into something entirely warped to try and attain these supposedly useful things – like Shazam hits or something – but you denature yourself, you become kind of far removed from that initial pure idea that you had. I think this album is definitely a case of trying to get back to knowing what that idea was, because it gets lost in the mist. We realised after four days together writing this record that that was the longest we’d spent together in years, just the four of us in a room.” In contrast to the frenzied eight-week period – two weeks writing, six weeks recording – that birthed the band’s previous record, 2011’s lustily claustrophobic Smother, the making of Present Tense could almost be seen as languorous. Pieced together segment by segment, initially on computer – the first time the band had worked so heavily in this way – and then taken out into the room over a period totalling nearly a year, its process afforded the four childhood friends (Thorpe, co-vocalist Tom Fleming, Chris Talbot and Ben Little) the opportunity to analyse every aspect of their method. The idea of peeling away layers of expectation and artifice to identify the ‘real’ impulse behind creating art is something that Thorpe and Fleming revisit throughout their conversation. Indeed, this ideal of locating an “inner beauty,” a simplicity in both intent and execution, seems mirrored in the songs themselves, which, though sonically emboldened by electronics,
February 2014
are structurally their most pared-down to date. After the frescoed excesses of Limbo, Panto and the Mercury Prize-nominated Two Dancers, and, latterly, the sore physicality of Smother, Present Tense is certain and stately, even restrained. It still sounds like Wild Beasts, of course – Thorpe’s vocals the silk to Fleming’s velvet, Talbot’s drums as nuanced as to be almost corporeal. But where their first two LPs flounced and flicked Vs, and where Smother gasped with intimacies explored in exacting, explicit detail, there’s a collectedness to Present Tense that clearly comes from having achieved a personal as well as musical peace. “Our lives are far more intact this time around than they were last record,” Thorpe offers. “Smother represented a lot of solace, a lot of comfort, and it sonically played out that way. This record, we’re far more grounded, more settled as people, and more confident in a way. We also felt kind of galvanised by the fact that we could put out as bruising and vulnerable a record as Smother, and for it to do the things it did... I think we felt reassured that we can actually do anything. It instils a lot of belief in you.”
“There’s a real futility in thinking about yourself as an island” Tom Fleming
“Smother was quite an insular and inwardlooking record,” says Fleming. “As you get a bit older you start to feel a bit guilty, because you realise your life is very much me me me, and music is me me me, and I think this record was a slight attempt to have a different perspective on the world, like, maybe we shouldn’t just be talking about our feelings, maybe we should be looking around a bit and seeing things in a context.” “There’s an acceptance of the fragilities of being human, and accepting that we are imperfect beings,” Thorpe continues. “You think if you achieve certain things... you will as a result not feel these things anymore, or be this different person. If you’ve lived longer you kind of realise, ‘I still feel like this regardless of what I’ve been through or achieved or where I’ve been.’ We still always have to take ourselves along.” Acquiescence does not necessarily equate to contentedness, however. Present Tense is an emotional album that, as much as its title suggests an attitude of living in the present, refers frequently to moments passed and feelings lost – and, in the ominous, processional Daughters, imagines the questionable future we
have created for our children. (“There’s a real futility in thinking about yourself as an island,” Fleming says of the track.) The brute ardour of Smother reappears in Fleming’s smug, strutting Nature Boy; and, as his character goads the man he’s cuckolded (‘I am the thing you fenced in / I’m ten men’), the song matches Wanderlust in its fierce fuck-you to all the men in suits who’ll never really know what it means to live. Elsewhere, Mecca seems to suggest that, despite coming to terms with our histories, we retain the wish to relive the best parts of them; and that, on our basest level, we are governed by instincts too ingrained to control (‘All we want is to feel that feeling again,’ ‘We move in fear or we move in desire’). Perhaps most notably there is an express awareness that we are neither new nor unique in our loves and pains, that whatever we’re going through has gone before us, and will come after us (‘You’re the shrine to / All the lovers that loved before us and breathed in this ether’; ‘All we want is to know the vivid moment / How we feel now was felt by the ancients.’) “There’s a realisation that you’re not the first to do this; you won’t be the last and you won’t be the first,” Fleming says. “And also that people won’t learn; just as you haven’t learnt the lessons of people before you, they’re gonna make the same mistakes. There’s allusions to that all over the record. I think it’s a really interesting idea, it’s part of what being a human is about, that kind of uncertainty in the future. Well no, sorry – uncertainty is the wrong word, it’s actually certainty. You know, the absolute knowledge that this is going to come to an end. That absolute knowledge.” In spite of its precision stitching, Present Tense breathes as perhaps none of its predecessors did; it’s difficult to believe these songs were first constructed through patchworking and programming, rather than played through from the outset. “That was kind of the holy grail,” Thorpe says. “For something to sound effortless and like it always was requires a huge amount of meticulous and detailed work. I think we always felt that it was something intrinsic in the piece of music; that it just kind of happened. There was a realisation that it’s not. It’s something you really have to strive for.” All the preparation and patching, however, could only take them so far – and it wasn’t until the band left Homerton (“we partly got evicted and partly threw ourselves out”) and were reunited with Talbot that the blood began to course through Present Tense’s intricately mapped interior. “Rhythm and beats are the most primal and physical aspect of music,” Thorpe says, and “when Chris wasn’t involved initially I think we probably lost quite a bit of our mojo”; the band also frequently point to the importance of the spaces on the record. (Most emotive are A Dog’s Life and New Life, where yawning voids allow for upswells of shimmering surf, and feel a far cry from early singles like The Devil’s Crayon or
MUSIC
the ballsy, busy wheeze of Brave, Bulging, Buoyant Clairvoyants.) “You should hear the process,” Fleming says of leaving some things unpolished. “What does it tell you about that time, and the person who made it at that time? We’re not saying our other records are perfect, but we got used to the idea of imperfection with Smother, and for it to age... I think that’s kind of what we were left with with this record. We tried to pare stuff down, but we didn’t clean up everything. There’s some element of accident – I think you can still hear decisions being made on the record. I hope.” With a fourth album that, as much as it’s a cliché to say so, feels like a coming of age – and with their fears as to whether, as Chris laughs, “the three people who cared are still interested” allayed by the reception to Wanderlust (“There was 24 hours where we felt like we’d won the internet,” jokes Tom) – Wild Beasts are something of a rarity among so-called UK ‘guitar’ bands, occupying a position perhaps matched only by Foals in terms of enjoying the luxury to work and develop at, relatively speaking, their own pace (though they “did think we’d probably be in a penthouse by now,” Thorpe deadpans). Their longevity is due in no small part to the strength of their togetherness: an almost audible sixth sense to their group musicality derives from friendships formed as teenagers in Kendal (Limbo, Panto was released when they were just 21) that have lasted through “tumultuous,” “transformatory” times. Thorpe describes the group as a “liferaft,” and notes that “this record is definitely about our kind of shared history.” “There’s a shared consciousness, definitely, that can’t be replicated,” he says. “I think always in a weird way it was really important to us that we all came from the same town; it kind of felt, for this to make sense internally, you needed to have the same reference points. And y’know, we’ve seen so many people fall by the wayside because of not having that kind of unity, and not maybe having the care in terms of someone to look out for them, be it tough love or just love. And I think it comes through in the music unavoidably, that collectiveness. I think we always feel that a piece of music is kind of finished and right if it has been through our four brains and come out the other side. “It’s kind of beyond friends, in a way, because you’re making work together,” he considers. “But it’s a strange thing,” he pauses, looking up from his cup, eyes lit, “because it doesn’t make you a better person. I think the great myth of art is that if you create a beautiful piece of work, it makes you a beautiful person, and it’s not true. You know, it doesn’t count for shit on reallevel terms. You just are in a lucky position to be able to – maybe – create something of beauty.” Present Tense is released on 24 Feb via Domino. Wild Beasts play Manchester Albert Hall on 26 Mar www.wild-beasts.co.uk
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Indy Rock With new LP Rave Tapes out now on the band’s own Rock Action label, Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite and Barry Burns explain why, democratically speaking, five is a magic number
Interview: Chris Buckle Photography: Ross Gilmore
Mogwai
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n the day that Thatcher died, Mogwai’s Barry Burns was in his adopted home of Berlin, missing out on the George Square Thatcher Death Party his band had prophesised on seventh LP Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will. Flying the Gwai flag was band-mate John Cummings, snapped at the Glasgow landmark next to Walter Scott’s pigeon cack-stained statue, clad in an Argentine Football Association top. “I was in Germany and saw the photograph of him, with a big smile on his face,” Barry laughs. “He’s a psychopath…” Stuart Braithwaite, meanwhile, was having dinner with his girlfriend’s family. “I brought a bottle of champagne” he smiles, “and someone said ‘oh, is it somebody’s birthday?’” His smile becomes a laugh. “I just announced how happy I was. And it went down really well actually.” Barry worries aloud that it “almost” feels horrible to be overjoyed by someone’s passing, but Stuart has his caveat sorted. “I think she’s the only person whose death I’d feel happy about… It’s got to be exceptional circumstances. Only exceptional bastards can have their deaths celebrated.” Last year was a busy one for Mogwai. In addition to toasting the Iron Lady’s demise, it encompassed zombies and Zidane (more on both later), as well as the writing and recording of Rave Tapes, released late last month. Their eighth studio LP subtly expands their sound’s parameters, with modular synths evoking an epic brand of retro-futurism, and uncluttered melodies speaking to the band’s poise and restraint. The resulting atmosphere mixes insidious foreboding with lump-in-throat wonder; it’s clear that almost 20 years in, Mogwai are far from coasting. Work on Rave Tapes began sometime in February, when the band’s UK-based members (Stuart, John, Dominic Aitchison and Martin Bulloch) got together to start throwing ideas around. Barry – who has lived in Berlin since 2009, co-running a bar in the city’s Neukölln district – came into the process a little later, thanks to a minor logistical hiccup. “I couldn’t get a studio,” he explains, sat with Stuart in Glasgow’s Stereo bar after a day spent rehearsing. “Well, I
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had a little room in Berlin, but it took so long to get it ready. I got really panicky about it – it felt like I had just a month to write some songs. But it was fine, we managed. I just like to panic – I like that feeling of terror. It’s pretty much like when you play football as a child – that feeling where you’re chasing a ball, terrified.” Across the table, Stuart nods. “He likes to feel like he’s getting chased.” After one listen to the stalking soundscapes of Remurdered, it’s easy to capture a similar feeling of nervy pursuit. Barry offers a straightforward rationale for the album’s distinct palette. “We bought some new synthesisers, and so some of it’s just us trying to make use of them,” he explains. “I think that’s happened with a lot of our records – like when we got the Kaoss Pad for Rock Action; it’s on probably every song cos we were like ‘oh aye, that’s amazing!’ And the vocoder as well… So yeah, it sounds obvious to say it but the tools you’re using have a big influence on the sound, maybe more so than the music you’re listening to at the time. Although,” he adds, “there’s quite a lot of John Carpenter-esque things on this record…” Stuart jokes that the auteur – whose scores for the likes of Halloween, Assault on Precinct 13 and The Fog are arguably as influential and celebrated as his directorial work – is “after them,” as a result of the sonic similarities. “He’s after us, is he?” laughs Barry. “Oh well, he must be getting on by now, fuck him.” On the subject of soundtracks, Mogwai’s 2013 featured a brace of them: their score for French-language zombie drama Les Revenants, released in February; and 2006’s Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, revisited last July for a short run of live shows. “It doesn’t feel like there was much space between doing that and doing the album,” says Barry of the latter, referencing a bottleneck that saw their Rave Tapes prep-time squeezed by Zidane rehearsals. “Yeah, it was a very busy summer,” agrees Stuart. “Zidane was written on the hoof, so rehearsing for that was like learning new music. It was a great experience though – it made me think more about how some of our more abstract things work. Certainly I felt
more confident going into this record after doing it.” Barry concurs. “We said at the time, it was the most we ever practiced for something. It was a lot of work, but it really was brilliant. I still remember the feeling of relief after that first gig [at the Manchester International Festival], because it had worked really well and people seemed to enjoy it.” Were they not disappointed, then, to only get to perform it a handful more times? “Yeah, I think we kind of expected that a lot more people would ask us to do it,” Barry admits. “We were expecting a cluster of gigs, not just two or three. The requests will probably all start coming in now,” he rues, “when we can’t do them…”
“Only exceptional bastards can have their deaths celebrated” Stuart Braithwaite
again! But yeah, it was nice that he asked us. It’s something that seems quite natural for us to do.” But with the Zidane shows in the past and Les Revenants’ second season yet to come (“we’re talking about it just now,” Stuart confirms), Mogwai’s present is firmly focused on Rave Tapes (which made Mogwai’s highest ever album chart entry at number 10 on its week of release). Recorded and mixed at the band’s own Castle of Doom studio, it saw former Delgado Paul Savage return to the producer’s chair having previously worked on Hardcore Will Never Die and Young Team. Despite the tight scheduling, the band ended up with “more than enough songs”; consequently, Stuart deadpans, “every single member of the band hates the songs that are actually on the album.” The final consensus/compromise, Barry explains, was reached via “a hilarious spreadsheet” and producer Paul, who acted as “a kind of referee” whenever there were conflicting opinions. “And then,” adds Stuart, “it gets even more complicated because I always want more songs on the record than everyone else.” Barry jokes that, if Stuart had his way, all their albums would be spread across triple vinyl. “I do like a long record,” Stuart confirms, “but anyway: that milk has long since been spilled…” Just how long do these tracklisting disputes tend to last? He grins. “Oh not long, but the bitterness – it lingers eternally.” “It’s going to make us die young,” laughs Barry. “I used to sometimes play in The Delgados, and I remember being in one of their rehearsals years and years ago and they would argue about the slightest thing – you know, have a big conversation about a single note.” And yet now they have one-time Delgado Paul Savage acting as adjudicator? “See, their mistake was having four people in the band,” Stuart argues. “If you’ve got five then there’s always a winner. You might have two profoundly upset people, but they just have to deal with it.” Were there any tracks that he’d have been adamant about including no matter what? “Nah, because you just go with what everybody says, and then write it in your personal file of ‘Reasons why Barry, Dominic, Martin and John are fucking idiots.’” “That’s a big tome, that,” Barry interjects, prompting Stuart to sigh with faux-exasperation. “It’s this shite democracy we have, that’s what it is. It’s terrible.” Speaking of big tomes and democracy – our interview takes place the day before the release of ‘Scotland’s Future,’ the 670-page white paper laying out the Scottish government’s case for a Yes vote in September’s referendum. While the whole band is in favour of an independent Scotland, Stuart has been a particularly prominent and passionate advocate, making the case via television appearances and public discussions. The conversation turns to some of the more unusual anti-independence arguments aired thus far – for instance, an article in the Sunday Times ‘cautioning’ Scots that the Queen might visit Balmoral less often should the Union split. “But my favourite,” says Stuart, “was Alistair Darling saying that British music will not belong to us anymore.” He stops to ponder the implications of the Better Together chairman’s monition. “I tell you what, if someone came and took my Joy Division records away I’d maybe think about changing my mind,” he decides, “but I somehow find that unlikely.” Independently minded in every sense, Mogwai ain’t for turning.
One request that couldn’t have been better timed, however, was Les Revenants. An existing fan of their work, creator Fabrice Gobert got in touch back in 2012, and the band were suitably intrigued by the pitch: a return-of-the-livingdead tale with an existentialist edge, in which a town’s dearly departed re-appear and attempt to pick up their lives where they left off. A fresh take on zombie lore, its dread-laced ambience owed much to Mogwai’s majestic score. “I think he’d had a Sonic Youth soundtrack for one of his things before,” says Barry, alluding to Gobert’s 2010 film Lights Out, named after a song from the New York band’s Rather Ripped, “so I think he just didn’t want to have bulk-standard strings and choral stuff, you know? A lot of people Rave Tapes is out now via Rock Action are doing that now.” He pauses. “Which means www.mogwai.co.uk it will probably get the arse kicked out of it and people will go back to strings and choral stuff
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THE SKINNY
RNCM Skinny quarter Feb 14 AW.pdf
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The Bay Horse 35-37 Thomas Street Every Week Northern Quarter Live Performances & DJ Sets:
thebayhorsepub.co.uk twitter@TheBayHorsePub facebook.com/thebayhorseMCR
Any bands wanting to play at Free Gig Friday contact Yvonne on bayhorsegigs@gmail.com
Free Gig Friday At The Bay Horse from 9pm
FRIDAY 7TH FEBRUARY:
THE RIVETEURS & GUESTS
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FRIDAY 14TH FEBRUARY:
VALENTINES DAY WITH PSYCHEDELIC PIRATES FRIDAY 21ST FEBRUARY:
LOVECHILD & WARN THE PEOPLE
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WHAT’S ON IN FEBRUARY HAPPY MONDAYS Every Monday enjoy any food from our menu for HALF PRICE! TUESDAYS HORSE PARTY QUIZ
Our weekly quiz with Michael Clapham, 7.30pm start. £1 entry per person. Winning team keep the kitty & The Bay Horse matches the kitty EVERY week for our special rollover question.
EVERY WEDNESDAY OPEN MIC Every Wednesday with Matt & Edwin. if you want to play Contact them on Facebook Open Mic Nights @ The Bay Horse – Manchester, or just pop down on the night
THURSDAY BASEMENT GIG 27TH
FRIDAY 28TH FEBRUARY:
MULTIPLIER, THIEVES LIKE US & GRAHAM DOMAIN
From Another Place presents Dead Sea Apes & Sun Wolf
EXHIBITION 6th Exhibition Launch ‘10’ from Leftfield Creative
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35-37 Thomas Street, Northern Quarter, M4 1NA PHONE : 0161 661 1041 twitter@TheBayHorsePub facebook.com/thebayhorseMCR Any bands wanting to play at The Bay Horse contact Yvonne on bayhorsegigs@gmail.com
TOP OF THE POPS 1ST TRANARCHY 8TH MARK HOGG 15TH NICKS PICKS 22ND
SUNDAYS PHONOGRAPHY Peter Jay and guest DJs playing VINYL ONLY from 4pm
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Saturday 5 April, 7.30pm The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester John Storgårds Conductor Håkan Hardenberger Trumpet Manchester Chamber Choir
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John McCabe Fire at Durilgai
Sir Harrison Birtwistle Endless Parade
Holst
The Planets
Inspiration with every note bridgewater-hall.co.uk | 0844 907 9000
Feburary 2014
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Short courses in English and Creative Writing at MMU Delivered by research-active staff, widely published writers and industry-standard journalists. Journalism Skills for Creative Writers, 15–17th April 2014 Apply journalistic techniques in creative writing practice, and gain research skills useful to both creative writers and journalists. Includes sessions on gaining commissions, self-promotion and social media. Teaching Creative Writing Workshop, 22–24th April 2014 Explore creative writing teaching ideas for prose, poetry, journalism, drama and art that can have an immediate impact in the classroom. This course will be of particular interest to teachers who will be involved in the delivery of the new A-Level in Creative Writing. Reading and Writing Crime Fiction, 27–29th May 2014 Suitable for those who enjoy reading widely, wish to expand their knowledge of crime fiction (including Nordic, inter-war and international crime fiction) and would like to write their own short crime stories under the supervision of novelists and guest critics. Cost of attendance: £300 per course. For a further fee, students can go on to complete assessed coursework and gain MA-level credits. For further details, or to apply, go to www.mmu.ac.uk/english or contact James Draper: +44 (0) 161 247 1787 j.draper@mmu.ac.uk
www.macdonaldhotels.co.uk
Manchester Children’s Book Festival 26 June - 6 July 2014
Most Haunted At the helm of one of the UK’s most respected clubnights, Illum Sphere already has a reputation as a producer and remixer. Now, he talks us through the dark cinematics and archival sounds of his debut LP, due to land this month
Interview: Thomas Short Photography: Richard Manning
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espite recently signing to Ninja Tune and being feted by critics and DJs alike as one of the UK’s most promising up and coming artists, Ryan Hunn – aka Illum Sphere – is anything but arrogant. “I felt out of my depth,” he says, describing the lengthy process of recording his debut album, Ghosts of Then and Now, and explaining with refreshing candour the difficulties that come with the switch from producing mostly singles to a longer format. “It’s been four and a half years since my first record, quite a long time. A lot of people seem to do a couple of releases and then they’ve got an album ready.” Fortunately, Ninja Tune were more than sympathetic to Hunn’s pace, and his flair for producing haunting, otherworldly tracks that make a virtue of their not exactly being ‘club friendly’ has come up trumps – and while the recording process was painful at times, he hasn’t been put off by the experience. “I already feel like I can make another one, in a kind of focused way,” he says. Starting out with a dubstep-tinged style, Hunn’s music has evolved along with the frantic pace of UK bass culture, drawing influence from LA label Brainfeeder’s futuristic beat-freakery and, more recently, Detroit techno. Throughout, however, he has remained fiercely original, eclectic and, as more than one critic has labelled him, ‘adventurous’ – a description that, with typical self-deprecation, he puts down to his technical shortcomings. “I don’t think I’m particularly good at making a certain genre of music,” he admits. “That’s a totally different art form.” Renowned for DJ sets that flit effortlessly from Turkish rock to 80s boogie by way of punishing grime instrumentals, Hunn’s music is equally diverse, often shifting from dark, uneasy synth workouts to uplifting, psychedelic codas, as on the album’s lead single Sleeprunner. It soon becomes apparent that the true reason for this anything-goes approach is his restless imagination, rather than amateurism. He cites cult hip hop producer Dabrye’s album Two/Three as a chief influence. “It was the first electronic album that I really attached myself to,” he recalls. “I remember hearing it and thinking it was like nothing I’d ever heard before. I think that it, in one sense, broke a lot rules. It was essentially a hip hop album but there were so many things that would happen like once in a track. I think it was the first album that gave my brain imagery. That might have a massive influence on how I make stuff.” What with the noirish, atmospheric motifs used throughout Ghosts of Then and Now and its sci-fi track titles like Lights Out / In Shinjuku, there is a strikingly visual quality to Hunn’s music. Have any films had an influence on the record? “There isn’t one that I could pick out as being a direct inspiration,” he considers, “But I guess I quite like setting a mood, or little jolts, or endings not being what you think they should be. So there’s definitely a cinematic influence in there somewhere.” Other influences include releases on Finders Keepers, the legendary archival label that puts out trippy lost records from around Europe and the Middle-East – though Hunn protests that his muse is anything but acid. “I’m not a heavy drug user. I’m pretty boring actually! A lot of the times when I make music it’s in a certain mind frame; you push yourself to make music that’s weirder than you think it is.” A background in more guitar-based music may have provoked Hunn’s inclination for the idiosyncratic – which is matched by an admirable tendency to forgo samples in favour of more organic sounds, a theme that extends to his
February 2014
Illum Sphere
unusual use of interfaces. Much of the album is dominated by live instruments, including Hunn’s self-penned bass guitar licks, Shigeto’s drumming and a rather unlikely collaboration on penultimate track Near the End. “There’s a keys solo on it, done by my flatmate’s dad; he’s a music teacher. He actually did it on his dinner break and sent the piano roll back as a MIDI file. It sounds like it’s been recorded. I suppose that’s cheating a bit really!” he laughs.
“I like endings not being what you think they should be” Ryan Hunn
Hunn indicates that we’ll be hearing a lot more of these live-sounding arrangements in his future releases. “I wanna do a lot more genrefied stuff,” he reveals, “whether it’s under other names or whatever, some stuff being purely instruments, some analogue stuff.” A number of successful remixes for acts such as The Invisible, MONEY and, most notably, Radiohead have given
him an audience of indie kids who wouldn’t otherwise have come across his music, and he suggests that he’d like to move into producing for bands “if the right thing came along.” The producer’s other duty of running clubnight Hoya:Hoya with co-founder Jonny Dub has enabled him to construct a tight-knit crew, playing, promoting and remixing each other’s records. Conceived of as a monthly session with secret guests, but for the price of a luxury kebab, the night is acclaimed as one of the best in the UK, due in no small part to its residents’ commitment to “dropping odd numbers.” The motto of “having a really good party but never relying on the buzz tunes that you would hear elsewhere” is directly inherited from Hunn’s favourite DJ and fellow resident Jon K’s former night Eyes Down. Now approaching their sixth anniversary, the Hoya team are enjoying a bit of a purple patch, what with Éclair Fifi joining the BBC’s ‘In New DJ’s We Trust’ roster, Krystal Klear working with Nile Rodgers, and Lone putting out a critically acclaimed album. “I think it’s better now musically than it’s ever been,” Hunn agrees. “A lot of us are hitting a point where we have to make career changes. In terms of my DJing, there was a time when the adventurous side of it came from being a bit scatty, almost trying too much really. But in the last six months or year it’s come to be noticeably more refined and mature. You tend not to worry, you tend to spend a bit less time noticing what you’re not really into.”
CLUBS
While the Hoya crew have been making waves around the country and abroad, Hunn is keen to point out that the night hasn’t lost its identity. “It’s definitely changed, but it’s not changed to fit a trend,” he stresses. “We haven’t booked a lot of people who’ve been very trendy, there’ve been people who have been interested in playing and we’ve not really seen them being the right fit.” With this in mind, 2014 will see the night make a number of changes to its secret guest line-ups. “We’re going to run a series of specific events that are more to do with where it came from and the people who inspired us, instead of just booking guys who we know can work as secret guests.” The same discerning attitude applies to releases on the Hoya label: “We don’t like to release for the sake of the release, I’d much rather wait for the right thing.” And what next from Hunn after the album drops? Apparently a tour is in the works, along with more fresh material – “I’ll probably do an EP as Illum Sphere and maybe some music under a few other names.” With a stunning record that is sure to be on the lips of many critics this month, and with his crew in extremely rude health, 2014 is shaping up quite nicely for Hunn. Whisper it, but he may even have a few reasons to be confident this year. Ghosts of Then and Now is out 10 Feb on Ninja Tune. Illum Sphere plays The Yard, London, 21 Feb www.soundcloud.com/illum-sphere
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Soft Porn
Lars von Trier’s favourite leading man Stellan Skarsgård tells us about working with the Danish enfant terrible and discusses their latest collaboration, Nymphomaniac
Interview: Tom Seymour
Nymphomaniac
S
tellan Skarsgård is describing how he first heard about Nymphomaniac. “Lars [von Trier] called me up,” he says before mimicking the director’s strangled Danish voice. “He said: ‘Stellan, my next film is a porn film and you will play the lead in it. But you will not get to fuck. But you will show your dick at the end and it will be very floppy.’” Such is the world of Lars von Trier, the cofounder – with Thomas Vinterberg – of the Dogme 95 movement, a director made great by being fantastically serious about being fantastically provocative. Nymphomaniac is Von Trier’s first film since his ‘vow of silence,’ taken after the controversy at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival when he tried to joke about sympathising with Adolf Hitler. “I was there in Cannes when he said that,” Skarsgård says, his voice rising on the phone. “It was horrible, because the journalists understand him and know he is absolutely the opposite to a racist. He tries to tell a joke, muddles the punch line and gets a little confused. Then he reads all over the world he is a Nazi. His kids were getting bullied at school about it. That misinformation is brutal. He’s a very vulnerable man. The fucking cowards at Cannes asked him to apologise, he apologised, and then they banned him. It was almost certainly to do with the festival’s sponsors.” The version of Nymphomaniac released in UK cinemas is an ‘abridged and censored’ jaw-dropper of a film; the unrelenting story of one woman’s need for all kinds of sex more than a few times a day. “Fill all my holes, please,” is a request heard with regularity throughout Nymphomaniac’s four-and-a-half-hour runtime. This is the sixth time Skarsgård has starred in a Von Trier film, their relationship spanning over 20 years. On how it first began, Skarsgård says: “I flew to Copenhagen to meet him after he offered me [the 1996 feature] Breaking the Waves. He was living with his previous wife at the time,
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and when he opened his front door the first thing he says to me was” – that mimicked voice again – “‘I don’t like physical contact.’ So of course I immediately hugged him and held him until he stopped shaking.” As his reaction to the Cannes controversy suggests, Skarsgård is deeply supportive of his collaborator. “He has to make films to survive as a human being,” he says. But he’s also open about Von Trier’s human faults, at one point comparing him to the Swedish iconoclast August Strindberg. “Von Trier is totally honest and open about everything. He has no agenda,” he says. “He is of course very intelligent, but he is an anguish-ridden man. He has become better with actors – he has had to become better. He has learned to hug people.” I ask Skarsgård whether he thinks that Von Trier, like Michael Haneke, is driven by quantifiable ideas, or if he is just out to provoke, to prompt, to prank. “Lars’ first films were technically so skilful; micro-managed, overly controlled, but with a lack of life in them,” he says. “He never talks about his themes, rather scenes he would like to see, but I think he is interested in working through collisions; the difficulties not just of life, but of storytelling, communication, everything. His first films are as controlled as Michael Haneke’s films, even if they aren’t as skilled. But now he lets in enough of chance, enough of the actors, to create undercurrents that aren’t naturally Lars von Trier, that come from elsewhere but become one entirety.” In Nymphomaniac, Skarsgård plays the gentle, monk-like Seligman, who finds the titular nymphomaniac, Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg), beaten, bloodied and abandoned on the pavement. After she refuses an ambulance, he takes her back to his sparse, shabby flat, tucks her up in bed, brews a cup of tea and carefully encourages her to detail her entire sexual history. “It will be long and moral, I’m afraid,” Joe says. Then: “I discovered my cunt at age two” (Joe always uses
that term to describe her own body, on top of using the N-word when describing a ‘sandwich’ with two black men), before moving on to an impassioned defence of repressed paedophilia. Skarsgård’s Seligman listens to her attentively, leaping in to comment unabashedly and intelligently on how certain chapters of Joe’s long sexual history remind him variously of fly fishing, mountaineering, mathematical equations, religious iconography, Johann Bach and Edgar Allan Poe – with Von Trier montaging such diversions with stock archival footage, diagrams, and mockup descriptive scenes.
“Lars has become better with actors. He has learned to hug people” Stellan Skarsgård
In his review of the film, critic Anton Bitel suggests Seligman and Joe are ‘both, in their different ways, figures for Von Trier himself.’ It’s a fascinating idea – this lonely man prone to intellectualism but unable to understand feelings, and this lonely woman, prone to sexualisation but unable to properly control her impulses, as mouthpieces for this most contradictory of directors. It’s as if Von Trier has decided that this duologue is a way of interpreting his own creations, using Skarsgård’s Seligman as a kind of on-screen film critic, replete with his own very floppy dick. Skarsgård isn’t drawn on such an idea, however. Describing how he developed such a charged, strange, compelling dynamic with
FILM
Gainsbourg’s Joe, he says: “We didn’t rehearse anything, we didn’t even block the scenes, and we didn’t analyse the text much. We had 90 pages of text to get through in a week, so there was a lot to learn, a lot to do. It was very intensive. We just sat down and he rolled his camera. But when you work with good actors, the chemistry tends to just happen.” Von Trier never tells his actors how to interpret a character, how to act a scene. If they want to do something, he lets them. Scenes can be told in radically different ways, from one take to the next: “It’s because his writing is so good,” Skarsgård says. “So it allows him to be so loose and leave so much to chance in the way he produces the films. There’s a really solid bone structure there so the flesh is allowed to wobble around. Although the flesh is ours, obviously.” As Von Trier alluded when he first approached Skarsgård about playing Seligman, the character is not all that he seems. For all his worldliness and intelligence, he has made the most simple and crucial of misunderstandings: that women, all women, are always in charge, always in control, always the mistress of their own decisions, even women as vulnerable to their desires as Joe. “I tried to understand him psychologically,” Skarsgård says of Seligman’s reveal. “But I couldn’t really approach that final turn in an intellectual way, that was hard for me. So I tried to show what was happening inside Seligman, to describe the journey that led him to...” – the line goes quiet for a moment – ”to err… pull out his dick.” Skarsgård, with that beautifully memorable voice, laughs at his own turn of phrase. “But of course, I need to tell you, you don’t see the actors’ genitals in the film,” he says. “What you see are porn stars’ genitalia. But this was different; the floppy dick you see at the end is not mine – it is Lars’.” Nymphomaniac is released 22 Feb by Artificial Eye
THE SKINNY
The Shiny Flivver
Winner of The Skinny Award at RSA New Contemporaries 2013, Alex Millar discusses his evolving practice ahead of his exhibition in Glasgow’s CCA Interview: Rosamund West
“I
t’s difficult to say precisely what my practice is as an artist now, but I think that’s quite a natural thing, a healthy thing quite early on in my career.” So says Alex Millar, wisely, under close questioning on what will be revealed in his exhibition this month. The winner of last year’s The Skinny & CCA Award at RSA New Contemporaries has his prize of a solo show opening in CCA’s Intermedia gallery on 7 February. Offered the opportunity to present work a further year on from the 2013 graduate show, Millar has been beavering away developing his visual language at high velocity. “I’m still open to using anything really in my work. It’s changing very quickly.” The installation displayed in 2013 in Edinburgh’s RSA galleries offered an intriguing arrangement of elements, including film, photography, neon light, and materials ranging from metal to wood to the humble aubergine. The lightness with which he presents his theme is one of the true beauties of Millar’s work – he doesn’t overload with a determined meaning; the elusive space both physical and intellectual between the elements of the installation offered a tantalising challenge to define meaning, and rendered the viewing and exploration of the piece a creative process. It’s difficult to avoid the question, though – why the aubergine? “I use it because in terms
of its material – on one level it’s sort of alien, it’s kind of an amorphous object in a way; it’s stupid, it’s kind of simple, but it’s similar [formally] in a lot of ways to Modernist sculpture, to something like Brancusi. The tall piece of aubergines I had in the RSA is not dissimilar to something like that. A lot of Brancusi’s work dealt with nature in the forms of his age.” The ‘tall piece,’ the vegetables impaled on a metal spike and left to rot over the course of the show, degrading from their pristine formal beauty and withering in a riot of colour, introduced the memento mori to the work, the conventions of the still life explored in physical form reminding the viewer of the fragile beauty of mortality. Millar elaborates, “Another reference would be Fischli + Weiss, where it’s very precariously balanced objects that they photograph just before they collapse.” Their work, Equilibres, is subtitled ‘Balance is most beautiful just before it collapses.’ That seemingly silly aubergine betrays a deep engagement with the fine art canon lying at the core of Millar’s practice. The new exhibition, entitled Novella, expands on the multimedia elements of his work, presenting film, sound and kinetic sculpture. Subtitled What Happened To The Shiny Flivver, the installation is based around a mysterious metal object. “I found this piece of metal from a Ford car, but it’s not particularly certain what
A Literature of Independence C
rumbs is the best-ever selling novel in Yugoslavia, particularly noteworthy for being lauded by both the controlling governmental forces when it was first published in 1987, and the opposition movement who sought an independent Slovenia. The story follows the keenly intelligent Egon, as he seeks to escape not the poverty of the unnamed foundry town he inhabits, but an existence without his beloved and expensive fragrance of choice, Cartier Pour Homme. Forging alliances among the ethnically and religiously diverse population of the town, Egon works schemes and swindles the unfortunate as he boozes and womanises his way to another bottle of fragrance, while in the background a nation is on the cusp of self-determination. His friends, Salem and Ibro, work at the factory and, almost 30 years on, it is Salem’s story – the worker’s story – Mazzini wants to focus upon when we speak to him. Reflecting on the book now, do you think you can pinpoint why it struck such a chord? “It’s a story about an immigrant worker who goes to the cinema and falls in love with the film star. He knows he’s nobody and he must get famous to approach her. Rereading it now, it struck me how contemporary the story still is. Yearning for a status is built in us and, while a peasant in the Middle Ages knew the world is set and unchangeable and he will never be royalty, nowadays our status sensors are getting more and more frustrated. Celebrities are the new royalty and they’re everywhere around us, and how they became what they are, it’s not exactly clear. There are no set rules how to get famous; we can’t even
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Novella
its function is. Basically, [the work is] referencing Henry Ford, and Brave New World. There’s a poem in there, a ritual of obedience the characters all recite about Ford, and the shiny flivver. The flivver is a slang term used in America for a type of car, and it was also a project that Ford had for a plane that never actually took off – it was called the flivver plane.” That elusive piece of metal becomes a totem of industrialisation, perhaps, and an allusion to the hubristic dreams of our wealthy overlords. A recent residency in Marseille saw Millar learning new technical skills, working with computer programming and electronics to expand into the kinetic realm, while also examining that narrative space in his work. “I was reading up quite a lot of theory to do with narrative – narrative deficiency with regard to the objects and
the way they allude to a kind of absent narrative in the space. They’re always trying to aspire to a history and also a more complex relationship between elements within the space; but also the way I use them is often humorous so that undercuts its sense of purpose in that regard.” As evidenced by the aubergines, now fallen by the wayside as part of his visual language. “I doubt that I’ll be using them again; I don’t want to be known as that aubergine artist!” he explains, later. It would be entirely wrong to define Alex Millar by a single material. The rate of evolution of his practice makes it difficult to define exactly what will be in Intermedia ahead of time; a meditation on industrialism and its dystopian consequences awaits – all we know for certain is it will contain movement, rhythm and a shiny flivver. Novella: What Happened to the Shiny Flivver, Intermedia, CCA, Glasgow, 8-23 Feb, Free
The republication of Miha Mazzini’s Crumbs, a novel about individual pursuits set against the backdrop of a nation driving for independence, could prove more timely than ever. We speak to the author about navigating self-determination
remember for most of the celebrities how they did it. Fame is split from the deed, a wondrous achievement.” For someone relatively ignorant of the history of Slovenia and Yugoslavia, the novel feels like a window into a world we know so little about. We want to feel the town of the story is representative of that mixed culture at that point in time. Would you agree with that? “They built the factory, imported workers from everywhere and put them in those ugly blocks of apartments, the dispersed great grey walls still standing all over ex-socialistic countries. The cultures were mixed, but there was no melting pot in the works, because there was nothing to melt into. With economic troubles everything started falling apart, because there was no unifying culture to bond the nations. When I was writing this novel, I didn’t intend to paint a bigger scene; but somehow, if the story is good, you always do (it took me years to realise this).” Egon is one of those characters the reader is immediately on board with. Just like the women in his life, we are charmed by his casual detachment and wit in the face of some grim realities. Was there an element of wish fulfilment in that, both for yourself and for young people in Slovenia at the time? “Egon is the man who arranges things – a manipulator – and I wanted him exactly like that. Yes, wish fulfilment for sure, but that was the ideal of the time and place: the system wanted to take care of everything but in reality didn’t provide for anything. You have to arrange for just everything,
starting with your morning coffee (smuggled from Austria or Italy). Egon wants a perfume, but not just buying it, he wants to manipulate the people to buy it for him – a bastard.”
“Being under foreign rule for a long time leaves every nation with some universal traits” Miha Mazzini
The other inhabitants of the town are just as fascinating – filled with humour and melancholy, stifled ambition, thrown around by history. Looking back on writing the book now, what did these characters mean to you? “I was taking small pieces of reality, of real people and real events and I was combining it into something new. I didn’t want to offend anybody and I was extremely cautious not to make the story autobiographical in any sense. So, I made up most of the events and persons. Years after the publication, I went to my hometown and I was sitting
ART / BOOKS
Interview: Ryan Rushton
at the small bar where we used to sit (and those guys were still there, and probably still are) and people around me were reminiscing about the events I was sure I invented. My face must have been so surprised that one of them whispered in my ear: ‘Don’t worry. It didn’t happen. We just took Crumbs and made it our own glorious past to tell to the younger generations.’” Do you feel there are any parallels to be drawn between Scotland, which is pondering a greater degree of self-determination, and the Slovenia you depict in the book? “Being under foreign rule for a long time leaves every nation with some universal traits, I think. First, probably, is at least slightly higher narcissism: ‘What could we have done if there would be no [put the name of the foreign rulers here]?’ Second: the convenient scapegoat is always at hand: ‘It would work out fine if those stupid [put the name here] wouldn’t fuck everything up.’ “After the country gains independence, there comes a time of interregnum – one ruler gone, the other still not fully functioning. It’s a dangerous time because the newly independent nation must answer a very important question: were the rules, the law, etc., made by our previous rulers something that belongs to them and of no worth for us now, or should we still obey them? It’s time for the Wolves of Wall Street to go wild and, if the government lets them (or they become the government), the country will be in deep shit for a long time.” Crumbs is published on 24 Feb, by Freight, RRP £8.99
THE SKINNY
The Medium and the Message A new exhibition at Tate Liverpool, Keywords: Art, Culture and Society in 1980s Britain, encourages us to consider the relationship between art and language. Co-curator Gavin Delahunty comments on a turbulent decade and the works it produced
I
n 1976, a book was published that offered a new way of understanding and using language, defining and interpreting familiar and inter-related words such as culture, art, revolution, family and society. Written by cultural theorist Raymond Williams, Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society is a social, historical and cultural guide to the evolution and meaning of everyday words we often take for granted. Taking Williams’ Keywords as its starting point, a new exhibition at Tate Liverpool continues the debate he sparked around language more than three decades ago. Artworks from the 1980s, the decade in which the book’s ideas found particular resonance among a generation of artists responding to upheavals in society, are juxtaposed with a selection of words from the book in a specially designed exhibition space by artists Luca Frei and Will Holder. Aiming to
February 2014
and what they meant for him and his time, which provides a tool and filter for people to understand the world around them.” The exhibition uses artwork and language to present a very complex and diverse moment in both British history and British art. “It was an extraordinary decade where there were so many shifts in culture and society that continue to have an impact today,” explains Delahunty. It was also a confusing time. On the one hand, there was the affluence of the City of London; but elsewhere in the country, miners’ strikes, the Liverpool riots and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament were taking place. “A whole raft of social issues were bubbling to the fore,” says Delahunty. “The old histories were being dissolved and disintegrated, creating a fragmented moment which we have tried to capture in the exhibition.” Keywords also aims to showcase the work and ideas of artists – such as the painter, writer and curator Lubaina Himid – and those who did not necessarily receive widespread recognition at the time, but reflected the increasing plurality of voices in the art world. Through provocative and challenging visual and performative acts, these artists helped change not just ideas around what belonged in the art gallery but also the vocabulary with which such ideas were described. “In the 1980s one of the huge changes was that new voices were starting to be introduced into the art world, often drawn from what had previously been seen as marginalised communities,” Delahunty says. “Artists were immersed within powerful new movements based around Second Wave feminism, race, sexuality and ethnicity, and wanted to point out the historical and social imbalance, which wasn’t representative of the diversity of the UK.” To help the audience engage with the work and the messages on display, the curators went through the whole of Keywords and chose 13 words to show alongside the artworks, looking for both their frequency and their resonance today. Among the words chosen was ‘materialism’, which Delahunty points out “was associated with the 1980s catchphrase ‘greed is good’, but is also a word that is in people’s conversation at the moment and is linked to our understanding of the world and morality.” Another is ‘criticism’, which Delahunty links to the critical approach artists used to protest gender stereotypes and the invisibility of black and female artists in the 1980s. One word that was quickly agreed on was ‘liberation’, which Delahunty says is related Rose Finn-Kelcey - One For to the development of identity politics. “A Sorrow, Two For Joy whole generation of artists were making art addressing questions of ethnicity, gender and enhance the visual and conceptual legibility of sexuality, against a backdrop of the horrors of the artworks, the installation seeks to encourage the British colonial past,” he explains. “There visitors to ponder the complex and often charged was a whole new generation of artists who were relationship between what they see and the lantouched by that.” guage that can be used to describe it. The energy of the 1980s and the desire “The impetus of the exhibition came from for artists to tell their stories comes across conversations we had about the book with artists strongly in the exhibition in a series of powermaking work in the 1980s, who said that, at the ful visual statements. As part of the show, the time, they were beginning to be influenced by curators asked artists active in the 1980s which the growing field of cultural studies and by books artworks they considered to be game-changing such as Keywords as much as by art history,” at the time – and although several of the artists explains Gavin Delahunty, Head of Exhibitions and they came up with are not household names, and Displays at Tate Liverpool and co-curator – with though some of the artworks in the exhibition Grant Watson of Iniva Institute of Visual Arts, haven’t been on display in decades, they have London – of Keywords: Art, Culture and Society nonetheless held enduring influence in the art in 1980s Britain. “Keywords is a good read and an world. They include work by socialist feminist easy, not over-academic way for people to engage artists such as Rose Finn-Kelcey, as well as Helen with key ideas about culture and society. It is one Chadwick’s provocative Carcass (1986), a work individual’s attempt to unpack complex words Delahunty says has “stimulated and inspired so
ART
Interview: Natalie Bradbury
many artists.” Displaying Carcass is a logistical feat – it comprises a column filled with food waste, which will transform into a living sculpture as nature takes its course over the lifespan of the exhibition. Another key work is Sunil Gupta’s London Gay Switchboard (1980), which is grounded in the near-hysteria of the 1980s AIDS climate. The work, initially shown on a slide projector but now transferred to a digital format, depicts the central information point that helped thousands of men and women access expert information on the virus. “It had a huge impact,” explains Delahunty. “It shows the day-to-day aspects of the work at the gay switchboard as well as people going out socialising. It demonstrates how, in a time of confusion and fear, people still had time to hang out and be friends and get on with life.”
“We live in a world with a strong desire to contain life within language, but artworks can’t be reduced to single words” Gavin Delahunty
If one work sums up the exhibition, it is perhaps Donald Rodney’s multimedia sculpture Visceral Canker (1990), which uses coats of arms depicting aspects of slavery, bloodlines and former colonies to speak of Britain’s colonial past. It is important to note that the keywords incorporated into the show do not necessarily directly correlate with or illustrate the artworks, but rather provide a ‘jumping-off point’ and stimulus for thought and discussion. They encourage us to ask questions such as, ‘Could you apply the word “violence” to this artwork, or are they worlds apart?’ As Delahunty explains, “The exhibition is more about slippages of language and how it changes over time, just as artworks evolve over time.” He adds: “We live in a world with a strong desire to contain life within language, but artworks can’t be reduced to single words. They are complex, nuanced and textured, and constantly changing and mutating.” Both Delahunty’s statement and the exhibition at the Tate are very much in the spirit of what Raymond Williams intended to show with the publication of Keywords; he hoped that the book would provide a starting point for discussion, and prompt further collections of words and meanings. Keywords has been reprinted to coincide with the exhibition, and is as relevant today as ever, as language continues to evolve to meet new times and new contexts. As Delahunty says, “The book is so open-ended it still allows the freedom to have conversations about what words are, how we use them and how we make sense of them in everyday situations.” Keywords: Art, Culture and Society in 1980s Britain, Tate Liverpool, 28 Feb–11 May, 10am–5pm, £8.80 (£6.60) www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-liverpool
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Getting Back to Business Edinburgh hip-hop trio Young Fathers looked a good bet to take over the world five years ago. So why has it taken them until now to release their remarkable debut album? The Skinny finds them in the studio
Interview: Chris McCall
hey do funerals differently in New Orleans. Rather than mourn the death, they celebrate the life of the deceased. A brass band leads a procession to and from church, and following behind are the dancing mourners collectively known as the Second Line. Young Fathers’ Graham ‘G’ Hastings came across Second Lining on YouTube during breaks in recording the Edinburgh trio’s long-awaited debut album, Dead. It struck a chord as he reflected on the years it had taken his group to progress from promising new band to fully fledged recording artists. “It’s a glorious occasion, walking through the streets with brass music. It’s fucking beautiful,” he explains. “That’s what the whole record feels like to me now. It has that feeling of something sad has happened, but it’s nothing to be down about; especially as I have arrived at the end. To me, the album sounds like one of those processions – it’s quite a glorious thing.” Young Fathers might have taken a bass – rather than a brass – direction for their album, but their desire to celebrate in the face of adversity would be fully understood down Bourbon Street. Alloysious Massaquoi, Kayus Bankole and Hastings have been friends since the age of 14 when they met at an under-16s hip-hop night at Edinburgh’s Bongo Club, back when it was housed in the Scottish capital’s Holyrood Road. They began recording their own compositions shortly after and were barely out of their teens when they secured their first management deal. Media attention quickly followed, thanks to songs like Straight Back On It that hinted this was a fresh, free-spirited rap group with a pop twist. A ‘psychedelic hip-hop boyband’ as they sometimes called themselves, a tag that fitted with the choreographed dance moves they pulled off on stage. TV appearances and festival shows quickly came and went, suggesting that Young Fathers were fast on their way to nationwide exposure and a potentially lucrative career. A debut album was talked about – but never appeared. That was five years ago. So where have they been since? It’s a question that the trio have been asked regularly, but the short answer is they have never been away; continuing to write and record new material with enviable frequency. “If we hadn’t done all the stuff before, when we first started in the studio, we wouldn’t still be doing it now,” states Massaquoi. “It’s part of the journey, it’s part of the whole Young Fathers story, and that’s fine.” Don’t expect to hear any of their early material performed when Young Fathers begin their UK tour this month. “I find it harder than the boys to listen to that stuff, I get kinda funny about it,” Hastings intones. “But, because of what has happened since then, I’m not angry in any sense. I actually enjoy the story now, what happened, and it feels like it’s brought us here. It’s hard to be angry, because we’re still here and we’re much happier.” Since quitting their previous management deal in 2011, much of their time has been spent in a small private recording studio in Leith belonging to producer Timothy London. There, Young Fathers rediscovered their focus and started planning a new way forward. The studio is their sanctuary, where they are free to record in their own experimental style – and it makes it the natural place to meet them for an interview. Upon arrival, The Skinny is asked politely to refrain from revealing its precise whereabouts. It was here in this basement room that they
February 2014
Young Fathers
recorded Dead, and the two EPs that preceded it. The first, Tape One, signalled a sea change for Young Fathers; the lyrics were darker and the bass much heavier than anything they had attempted before. “There was a lot of frustration after getting bad advice from other people and listening to the wrong voices,” says Bankole. “Our intentions when we put Tape One out as a free download was just do it, just have something out there. We wanted to get a record out because before that time we never had any.”
“We have no shame in saying that we want to be huge” Graham Hastings
Hastings is in no doubt as to the importance of their first EP. “It was a complete fucking release for us. After everything, we decided to release it by the end of the week – no matter what the fuck happened. And we did it, and proved that we could do it on our own. It was so much easier to the way we were thinking before. All that shit about proper recording techniques just went out the window.” “People make out that they have the knowhow in the music business,” adds Massaquoi. “They make out that they are the best thing since fucking sliced bread; and because you think you don’t have the know-how, they say your hands are tied and then they’re asking you for X-amount. But then you think: ‘let’s just do it ourselves’ – and you soon realise that you enjoy it that way. There’s no excuse, you’re happier if it doesn’t work out. You sleep better at night.”
For Bankole, it was a similarly liberating experience. “The power of having no fear had a very significant part to play. The instantaneous nature of it just made it feel right.” After attracting some impressive reviews, Tape One was heard by Shaun Koplow of LA-based label Anticon. Emails were exchanged, Skype conversations entered into and eventually a meeting was arranged at the 2013 SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. The advantages of signing such a deal were obvious to Hastings. “It was like, they’re American, they’re in America and America is big.” Anticon re-released Tape One in December 2012 on both sides of the pond, and Tape Two followed in June last year. Each attracted almost universally positive reviews. For the second time in their short career, Young Fathers found themselves being talked about as a group with a big future. It seemed natural that an album would quickly follow, but the trio didn’t see it that way. “It wasn’t planned,” Hastings points out. “The way we work, we always come in and let things happen. We always try to finish a song by the end of the day, but we’ll record for weeks without listening back – and then we’ll come back and listen to everything in a oner. But the thing is just to bang it out and bang it out. And with Dead, that’s what it feels like. It was banged out – it could have been Tape Three.” It was soon apparent to Young Fathers that they had an album on their hands. “When we listened back it sounded like a whole cohesive thing,” Massaquoi enthuses. “Like straight away, you could just tell. It’s the first thing that’s really come out (in a physical format) since we started doing music, so in that regard it’s exciting, but at the same time it means everything and nothing – because we have more work and we’re just getting back to business, really.” In the time Young Fathers have been making music, the general perception of hip-hop produced in Scotland has slowly evolved from
MUSIC
outright mockery to growing acceptance. When the group met at those under-16s nights at The Bongo, they would return to school the following Monday to be asked if they were ‘wannabe gangsters’ by other pupils with little comprehension of what rap was or could be. But the trio have never viewed themselves as a straight hip-hop group or part of any wider Scottish rap scene. “With the world becoming a smaller place, it’s not weird to have hip-hop from Finland or Scotland,” explains Hastings. “Hip-hop is everywhere. It’s the biggest fucking genre. It’s taken over the world, so it’s not a big deal. We’ve never really been part of the hip-hop scene, because we just dip into things and leave. We’re as much part of the folk scene,” he grins. A global perspective is important to Young Fathers. Massaquoi was born in Liberia, and Bankole’s family is Nigerian. Edinburgh might be the city that brought the group together, but they would have no qualms of relocating if the right situation demanded it. “We’re not of anywhere, we’re not from anywhere,” Massaquoi states. “We haven’t taken our blood and signed allegiance to anywhere,” continues Bankole. “I’ve travelled, my parents are both Nigerian, English is not my first language, it’s one of those things. The world is such a small place, people are travelling so much and are into different things, that it’s hard to pin things down any more. Why would you want to?” Hastings sums it up. “We just want everything, we want the world. We have no shame in saying that we want to be huge. We don’t want to hold back. What was it The Jesus and Mary Chain said? ‘We have ambition, we want to be as big as Culture Club.’ It’s like that mentality. That’s what we’ve always been about.” Dead is released on 3 Feb via Big Dada. Young Fathers play the Deaf Institute, Manchester, on 4 Feb and East Village Arts Club, Liverpool, on 5 Feb www.young-fathers.com
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Photo: Daniel Harris
T
Up Close A new play touring the Northwest attempts to open up the conversation surrounding teenage sex, and sex on film. Kim Wiltshire explains the idea behind Project XXX
A
my is angry. Angry, confused and downright pissed off. She has good reason to be – her boyfriend filmed something that should have been kept a tad more private. Now the video’s gone viral, and Amy’s been sent off to a nameless, northern seaside town for the rest of her summer. Project XXX, written by Kim Wiltshire and Paul Hine, is the story of Amy coming to terms with what’s happened, how she feels about it, and what she really thinks of sex, love and growing up. It also goes some way towards examining the taboo that still surrounds talking about how young people experience sex and porn. “It looks at the confusions around love, and emotion, and sex, and porn,” says Wiltshire, as she explains the origins of the idea for the production. “We had worked with a lot of young people on various projects, and we just realised one day that they’ve all got porn on their phones. We were chatting about how things have changed, and the more we talked about it, the more the idea just kept niggling away in our brains.”
Amy confides to childhood crush and older man Callum that she wants to lose her virginity on her 16th birthday – and that she wants to film it. The play then follows the messy relationship, romance and romantic ideals of this unlikely pair, along with multimedia input from Callum’s fantasy, old-school porn star Jaze. From media sensationalism to parents in denial, the conspiracies surrounding young people watching porn – or making porn for that matter – are plentiful, but rarely given serious fair discussion. Wiltshire and Hine hoped to take a more honest, open approach. “We worked with young people’s groups across the Northwest,” Wiltshire says. “I would say pretty much 95% of what’s in the play comes from stories those young people told us – obviously we fictionalised it, though.” Project XXX allows the opportunity to talk about serious issues but, at the same time, also tells the individual and very human coming-of-age story of a young girl figuring out who she is – as well as who she wants to be. Amy is, as Wiltshire
Project XXX
describes her, “quite feisty… but at the same time, at the age of 15, 16 – well, it’s a confusing time. We tried to have a strong character but, like any good character, someone who’s got flaws, who isn’t completely confident and who’s going through quite a hard time.” According to Wiltshire, the play has already divided opinion – even caused offence. Teenagers and sex is inevitably a controversial topic – and reservations surrounding how an adult might go about writing a play about an issue that concerns teenagers while avoiding the pitfalls of patronising, lecturing, or out-and-out moral panic are valid. However, Wiltshire insists she and Hine
Photo: Michael Healey
Interview: Conori Bell-Bhuiyan
are making an effort not to be condescending towards the young people whose stories they are borrowing, and that this is just about “something that needs discussing.” Hopefully, with a production that asks questions without demanding answers, and examines problems without taking a moral high ground, they can spark a discussion while still achieving an entertaining and enjoyable piece of theatre. Project XXX, The Lantern Theatre, Liverpool, 8 Feb, £6.50 (£5.50); also at Bury Met Studio, 5 Feb, £6 (£4.50), and Bolton Octagon Studio, 6-7 Feb, £8 (£6) www.lanterntheatreliverpool.co.uk
Last Night a VJ Saved My Life Viral mash-up pranksters Cassetteboy explain how they pull off the difficult concept of a ‘comedy disco’ when they’re not watching endless footage of Jamie Oliver
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early 20 years ago, a couple of friends started making cassette compilations for their social group, with little bits of comedy thrown in for good measure between songs. Gradually, the ‘bits of comedy’ began to take over, but the name of the near-forgotten musical playback medium remained – and Cassetteboy was born. Releasing their first album, The Parker Tapes, in 2002, the duo then teamed up with DJ Rubbish in 2003, beginning a partnership akin to Lennon and McCartney – but for topical musical comedy – releasing Inside A Whale’s Cock Vol 1 and continuing to gig and perform at festivals incognito, dressed as chimps, politicians or soap characters. It was in 2008 that they realised there was a future in cutting videos as well as tapes, and taught themselves some Final Cut techniques to apply to clips of then-prime minister Gordon Brown. Their next attempt – with Nigella Lawson as subject – gained thousands of views in just a few days, before being removed for copyright infringement. The next video was The Bloody Apprentice, which is still Cassetteboy’s biggest hit with over five million views, and since then they have skewed MasterChef, The One Show, Jamie Oliver, Barack Obama, James Bond and TOWIE. They now return their attentions to live comedy, with their promise to crash a show into a club, and dance on the wreckage. We spoke to Mike from Cassetteboy about what the hell any of it all means, and how they aim to get people dancing at a comedy show.
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Your shows are notoriously difficult to explain to people, so with that in mind, can you please explain your show to everyone. Thanks. “I’m glad it’s hard to explain, because that means it’s not like any other night out. That said, you can sum it up in two words – comedy disco. We play party tunes and pop music, mixed in with people off the telly like Alan Sugar. There are funny pictures on the screens, and Cassetteboy wear some really stupid outfits. DJ Rubbish is on the mic, instigating silly dancing and giving out sweets to anyone who’s really going for it. We want people to dance their socks off and laugh their arses off. After each show we spend an hour picking up socks and arses.” You recently did a gig at Liverpool’s Leaf; how was that? “It was really good. Leaf is a nice venue, and the Liverpool crowd were definitely up for it. Basically they laid down a challenge to the people of Manchester, and we’re looking forward to seeing who can have it the most.” When did you start the live performances? “One of our first gigs was at the 333 Club in London in 1999 or 2000. We literally just played a cassette tape for 30 minutes while we stood there, both dressed as Pat Butcher from EastEnders.” It always seems to be the quite trashy, popular shows that you skew; why not do one on Game
Cassetteboy
of Thrones or House of Cards so at least then you could watch quite a lot of good TV as well? “Harry Hill said that the best programmes to feature in TV Burp were those made on the cheap and in a hurry, and I think the same is true of Cassetteboy. Dramas are much harder to cut up than other genres, as the cast and the locations are so varied. With something like The Apprentice or MasterChef you’ve got hours of the same people talking in the same room, which is ideal.” Do you get many requests? “People do suggest suitable shows quite often, but we generally don’t end up doing them. Our videos take a long time, so when we do find the time to make a new one we generally already have an idea of our own that we’d like to try. We might try Bake Off at some point, but my gut feeling
THEATRE / COMEDY
is that it would be quite difficult, as there are two hosts and two judges – that’s a much more complicated dynamic than Alan Sugar shouting at people over a desk. We have done Paul Hollywood’s Bread show – let’s just say once we’d finished with him, it wasn’t dough he was kneading (it was his penis).” What do you do in downtime to get away from TV? Ice fishing? Big game hunting? Paragliding? “Mainly I sit in silence, staring at the wall, trying not to think about Jeremy Kyle, Jamie Oliver or Alan Sugar.” Cassetteboy play Club Academy, Manchester, 6 Feb, 10pm, £10 Read the full interview online at theskinny.co.uk/comedy www.youtube.com/user/cassetteboy
THE SKINNY
Photo: Steve Ullathorne
Interview: John Stansfield
LIVERPOOL’S INTERNATIONAL ARTS VENUE
WHAT’S ON www.thecapstonetheatre.com Spring Season 2014
Thursday 6th February, 7.30pm, £11.50
POWERPLANT
welcome to your theatre. How To Be Immortal
Friday 21st February, 7.30pm, £10
Fri 7 - Sat 8 Feb Clare Perkins (Ava Hartman in EastEnders) stars in this bold show about life, death and DNA.
JASON REBELLO
Ae ria l
Thursday 27th February, 7.30pm, £17.50
Th ea tre
GUITARS AND OTHER MACHINES
Fri 21 - Sat 22 Feb
27/02 - 02/03 2014
An aerial theatre show about legendary pirate Anne Bonny and her trial and demise!
Friday 28th February, 7.30pm, £17.50
THE IMPOSSIBLE GENTLEMEN
The Tryals Of Anne Bonny
For Their Own Good
27/02 - 02/03 2014
Tue 4 Mar Saturday 1st March, 7.30pm, £15
“Brilliant … Breathlessly inventive” THE OBSERVER “A theatrical hand grenade” THE GUARDIAN
Sunday 2nd March, 7.30pm, £15
GET THE BLESSING
Pr em ie re
27/02 - 02/03 2014
W or ld
BLUE TOUCH PAPER
Darkly comic theatre. Two men find the pitfalls of being high up the evolutionary chain.
I Am A Voice Thu 6 - Fri 7 Mar Beautiful spoken word, song and storytelling exploring the hardships of women everywhere.
27/02 - 02/03 2014
Ballad Of The Burning Star
Friday 7th March, 7.30pm, £10
MILAPFEST PRESENTS SWADESH
Tue 11 - Wed 12 Mar
Friday 14th March, 7.30pm, £10
Sunday 23rd March, 7.30pm, £11.50
M as k
Th ea tre
LOKA/PADDY STEER
The Scotsman Edinburgh Guide Broadway Baby British Theatre Guide The Skinny
Finding Joy Thu 13 - Fri 14 Mar
MARTIN TAYLOR Saturday 12th April, 7.30pm, £15
PEATBOG FAERIES BOX OFFICE 0844 8000 410 www.ticketquarter.co.uk Tue 11 & Wed 12 February
A beautiful mask show about creativity, affection and love in the face of memory loss.
Liverpool Acoustic Festival Fri 21 - Sat 22 Mar Headlined by Ian McNabb, Robert Vincent, Anna Corcoran & Thomas J Speight.
/unitytheatre
/unitytheatre
unitytheatreliverpool.co.uk 1 Hope Place, Liverpool box office: 0844 873 2888
thelowry.com/burningstar | 0843 208 6007 Ballad of the Burning Star was co-produced with Tara Arts, Redbridge Drama Centre, The Lowry, and supported by Arts Council England, Theatre Bench and Bush Theatre.
February 2014
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20/01/2014 15:40
THE SKINNY
Stranger Danger Alain Guiraudie’s latest is a seductive tale concerned with sex and murder set within the milieu of an idyllic gay cruising spot. The French filmmaker reveals his influences and explains why he wanted to keep the cock in this Hitchcockian thriller
Interview: Philip Concannon
S
tranger by the Lake is a film that takes place in a single location and is populated by just a handful of characters – but from these meagre ingredients director Alain Guiraudie has crafted one of the most taut and pulse-quickening thrillers in recent years. The lake in question is a beautiful spot, hidden away from prying eyes, where gay men can go to relax in the sun or to hook up and have casual sex in the forest that cuts them off from the rest of the world. Guiraudie immerses us in this community, making a film that is both explicit, in terms of its frequent sex scenes, and implicit, in the way it explores a darker side of homosexual desire. All of this may make Stranger by the Lake sound like an unlikely candidate for a crossover hit, but ever since it premiered at Cannes last year the film has quickly become Guiraudie’s most successful feature. This has come as a particular surprise to the 49-year-old director, who saw his sixth feature as an opportunity to confront his own sexuality for the first time. “In The King of Escape, sexuality and homosexuality isn’t really addressed,” Guiraudie explains, referencing his last film. “Passion, even less so – and neither is what it means to have someone get under one’s skin.”
Stranger by the Lake
“In love, we explore, we transgress, we go as far as possible with our partner without worrying about the risk we incur” Alain Guiraudie
The film’s central relationship occurs between Franck (Pierre Deladonchamps) and Michael (Christophe Paou), the man Franck becomes obsessed with despite watching him murder a previous lover. The association of an erotic charge with a sense of danger seems intended as a comment on the risk inherent in cruising for sex, but Guiraudie insists that his intention is to make something more universal. “Franck is not especially attracted by danger, even if danger eroticises the relationship a bit more,” he argues. “The film is more rooted in a romantic tradition which means that, in love, we explore, we transgress, we go as far as possible with our partner without worrying about the risk we incur.” Guiraudie depicts this in Stranger by the Lake partly through an uncompromising series of sexual encounters that leave nothing to the imagination. But these scenes don’t feel like they have been inserted for titillation or shock value. Instead, they become integral to our understanding of the story and the complex relationships within it. “Yes it’s true that those scenes take up a lot of space,” the director admits. “Let’s say that for me, sex is an integral part of love and it’s time to show the organs as well as the loving embraces. Furthermore, because we’re always so
Feburary 2014
Franck and Michel by the lake
scared of sex, it’s also an element of tension in the film.” One cinematic predecessor that Stranger by the Lake’s blend of eroticism and tension recalls is Jean Genet’s extraordinary short Un chant d’amour, but the most common comparison that the film has drawn so far is to the work of Alfred Hitchcock. It’s easy to see why, with the expertly modulated thriller narrative tightening its grip with every minute that passes, but the director demurs when asked about this influence. “I didn’t really think of Hitchcock when I was making the film, but he’s so important in cinema that it’s hard not to be a little influenced by him,” he says. “I don’t have a particular connection to film noir as a genre. I do like it, but just as I like westerns or films with capes and swords in them.” Instead, Guiraudie drew inspiration from a much more eclectic range of sources. “I talked about Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives by Weerasethakul, because of its subtleties in the treatment of the twilight scenes, and about Wang Bing’s The Ditch, for the sensuality and the
naturalism of his daylight. Night of the Hunter was an influence, and I showed Martin Parr photos and Jeff Wall’s ones too.” The film’s visual scheme is key to its potency. Cinematographer Claire Mathon uses the lake as both a glistening backdrop and a metaphor for the hidden dangers that lurk under the film’s gorgeous, placid surface. So much of the tension that Guiraudie generates comes through his expert composition, the gradual darkening of the image as night falls, and the evocative sound design. But the director was determined to let the location do much of the work. “Everything was shot in natural light,” he says, “except the night scenes with the cars, where we used little battery operated projectors. Roy Genty, the artistic director of the film, was instrumental in this process, and we approached the sound design in the same way as the visuals. We wanted to work with what nature would give us there on the spot.” The result of this skilled craftsmanship is a film that quietly seduces us before grabbing our nerves and refusing to let go, right up to its
FILM
stunning climax. Stranger by the Lake is a film that deserves to find a large audience, and although the hardcore sex it contains would normally restrict its chances of success, the reception it has received has been surprisingly mature. Indeed, the film earned the showcase of a gala screening at last year’s London Film Festival alongside Blue Is the Warmest Colour, another film that suggests we might be seeing a new wave of movies that can emerge from the LGBTQ film festival ghetto and connect with a wider audience. “Yes, I think that modern times have driven us to that,” Guiraudie agrees, “but it’s not straightforward. The film still needs to leave the confines of the simple gay story to be able to ask more universal questions around desire, love and passion.” That, in essence, is the secret of Stranger by the Lake’s provocative and lingering power. Stranger by the Lake is released by Peccadillo Pictures on 21 Feb www.peccapics.com
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Alien Surveillance It’s been ten long years since Jonathan Glazer’s last feature. His jaw-dropping new film, the Scarlett Johansson-starring Under the Skin, shows there’s no sign of ring rust. The director talks surreptitious filmmaking and challenging audience expectation
Interview: Jamie Dunn
Under the Skin
I
t’s always reductive to glibly compare one filmmaker to another, but if I were to commit that cardinal sin for Sexy Beast director Jonathan Glazer I would evoke the late, great Stanley Kubrick. Glazer has literally cribbed from Kubrick in the past (see his Clockwork Orange-inspired promo for Blur’s The Universal), but more subtly the pair share a steely control over their images. This is most clearly seen in Glazer’s 2004 masterpiece Birth, which calls to mind the likes of Eyes Wide Shut and The Shining in the way its camera glides around the Manhattan home of the wealthy family at the heart of the film. Unfortunately for fans of his work, Glazer also seems to have developed Kubrick’s production snail’s pace. His third film, Under the Skin, has been over a decade in the making. When I speak to Glazer by phone ahead of the film’s long-awaited release, the 48-year-old is in a London editing suite. “I’m cutting a TV commercial,” he says sheepishly. “Paying the rent, you know.” If he sounds embarrassed about his involvement in the advertising game he shouldn’t be. It is Glazer’s bracingly inventive commercials of the late 90s and early 00s that have most effectively seared his distinct vision on to our collective consciousness. Think of his Guinness ad in which surfers tackle a giant squall of stampeding white horses, his Levi’s ad in which a young man and woman demonstrate the jeans’ flexibility by running at breakneck speed through walls, and his Sony TV ad that features candy-coloured globs of paint exploding all over Glasgow tower blocks. Under the Skin sees Glazer back in Glasgow with a very loose adaptation of Michel Faber’s 2000 novel of the same name, in which an alien disguised as a female motorist abducts strapping male hitchhikers. From the moment he read the darkly comic novel he was “absolutely struck” that he wanted to make it into a movie. So why’d
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it take so long to get to the screen? “When you’re doing it you don’t think of it in those terms,” he explains, “you’re just in it and it takes what it takes.” A large reason for this extended pre-production was Glazer’s figuring out how to visualise the material. “There were ingredients to it that were very powerful to me,” he says, “and I needed to find out what they were, and once I understood those, that’s the film I wrote and made.” The chief ingredient became the psyche of the alien. “I suppose that was the molten core of it all: the idea of being really in her point of view and seeing human beings from her angle.” Through her eyes, Glazer paints the human race as grotesque and perplexing. When she drives around the streets of Glasgow in her Transit van scouting for prey, it’s the chain-smoking, mobilephone-obsessed natives who look alien. The casting of Scarlett Johansson in the lead adds credence to this fish out of water scenario. In Faber’s novel, there are tell-tale signs that his protagonist is not of this world – massive eyes hidden behind spectacles with milk-bottle lenses, long thin fingers and a short torso. In Glazer’s version, Johansson’s glamour is equally conspicuous: “There’s something exotic about [Johansson] there,” explains Glazer. “I used to think of her like an exotic insect on the wrong continent. Like her character, she stood out but she was desperately trying to blend in at the same time.” This friction is accentuated by the sly techniques Glazer used while filming. Many of the men whom Johansson’s character approaches to pick up in her van were unaware at the time that they were flirting with a Hollywood A-lister and performing in a sci-fi film. Using a combination of hidden cameras and distant camera crews with long lenses, Glazer observes Johansson as she walks and drives the streets of No Mean City interacting with its oblivious inhabitants.
“We were concerned about whether Scarlett would be recognised,” explains Glazer about his approach. “If your cover’s blown then it all collapses. But we got away with it.” This system of filming gives a freshness to the interactions, but Glazer’s singular form also mirrors the themes of the film. “The idea, really, is about surveillance: her being this kind of operative who is watching us undetected, and undetectable,” explains Glazer. “It made perfect sense to film it that way – once we understood that then everything really served that objective.”
“The booing and clapping combination is, to my ear, a phenomenal sound” Jonathan Glazer
From its very first image, Under the Skin confounds. It opens on an expressionistic light show – which calls to mind the final section of 2001: A Space Odyssey – that slowly takes the form of a human eye. Things only get weirder from there. With barely a handful of lines in the entire film, Glazer blends sleek visuals with the grainy images of Glasgow he shot on the hoof to create a feverish audiovisual assault. When I ask him about some of the jaw-dropping imagery in the film, Glazer, like Under the Skin, doesn’t give
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up his mysteries easily. “You don’t really start off with something schematic: I just immerse myself in the world of it and then the ideas and the themes come through trying to find a specific atmosphere and visual language. It’s always in flux: you put down markers but they soon become superseded by new thoughts.” This approach, however, hasn’t been to everyone’s taste. When the lights went up at its premiere screening at the Venice Film Festival, Under the Skin became the last in a long line of masterpieces (from Antonioni’s L’Avventura to Malick’s Tree of Life, and Glazer’s own Birth) to receive boos from the pack of small-minded critics who haunt the international festival circuit. Not that these cat-calling Statlers and Waldorfs bothered Glazer any. “I was at that screening and I thought that sound was great,” he says when I bring up his film’s notorious press screening on the Lido. “The booing and clapping combination is, to my ear, a phenomenal sound. I’ll never forget it,” he says, before pausing to recall his previous feature’s reception on the Lido: “Well, actually, it’s the second time I’ve heard it,” he laughs. Why does he think his last two films have divided audiences so? “When I make a film I’m very locked into the idea of what does come next, rather than what should come next,” Glazer observes. “In other words: when I make a film, I don’t sit down and think, ‘what would an audience like here?’” Certainly Under the Skin defies expectation, but while the protagonist’s backstory remains opaque, Glazer’s dream-like imagery, Johansson’s mesmerizing performance and its nerve-shredding score (by Mica Levi) render the alien’s loneliness and curiosity with our world in bold, lucid brushstrokes. Glazer doesn’t need reams of expository dialogue or a soundtrack peppered with Mumford & Sons to create narrative or character empathy – he uses cinema. “I like the fact that you can watch something and think at the same time,” he says. “You don’t have to do one or the other. I try and make films that respect an audience; I think a film should talk to an audience, not talk down to or up to an audience but to them. I think there are some people who just don’t like that – they go in with a preconception about what they think they’re going to see and if they don’t see it it pisses them off.” One audience it will be interesting to gauge while watching the film is a Glaswegian one. The city, and the western Highlands, where much of the second half of the film takes place, is rendered in a way that’s unlikely to please the Scottish Tourist Board. Glazer will find out for himself when Under the Skin closes the Glasgow Film Festival in February. He isn’t too apprehensive about its reception, however. “I didn’t want to shoot like a tourist,” he explains. “I wanted to feel like I was really showing the city through her eyes, as she finds it, and obviously the film is made by whatever we happened to pass in that moment – who she spoke to or walked past – and that was the film, that was the city. There’s obviously much more to Glasgow and Scotland than what we captured, but what we were lucky enough to photograph up there was – I think – very powerful.” Judge for yourself when Under the Skin is released on 14 March. Under the Skin is released 14 Mar by StudioCanal and closes the Glasgow Film Festival 2 Mar
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T EMA EL. 0161 VISIT IL. CE 661 4 . WW NMA 201 W.M N@C ANC ERVA HEST NTE ER.C S.ES ERVA NTES .ES THE 12TH BUXTON FESTIVAL OF LIVE MUSIC SAT 15 TO SAT 22 FEB BRAND NEW HEAVIES KIKI DEE & CARMELO LUGGERI TOPLOADER SONS OF CREAM ALEXANDER O’NEAL THE BLOW MONKEYS TOYAH JAHMENE DOUGLAS GRAEME CLARKE THE IDLE HANDS TRIO VALORE THE SOUTH CHRIS CORCORAN TRIO
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BUXTON OPERA HOUSE & PAVILION ARTS CENTRE January 2014
The Skinny 28 January 2014 13:48:53
CALL: 0845 127 2190 BUXTONOPERAHOUSE.ORG.UK 27
Crystal Clear Jonny Bell reflects on punk, chaos and skateboards, and how they all helped shape Crystal Antlers’ rollicking latest album Nothing Is Real
Interview: Will Fitzpatrick
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nderstandably, Jonny Bell sounds tired. It’s midday in Southern California when he picks up the phone, and we appear to have caught the Crystal Antlers frontman during a break from his construction day job. “It’s, like, 80 degrees today,” he sighs when The Skinny enquires as to how he’s doing today. It’s a bit colder here in the UK, we advise, and he chuckles wistfully. “Yeah, it’s colder everywhere else!” Grey-weather feebs that we are, we can only marvel at his endurance – but this isn’t about extreme working conditions. This is about his band’s latest album, a sterling collection of pulsating, sweat-drenched moshpit anthems. It’ll send your temperature soaring. Back in October, Crystal Antlers released Nothing Is Real, their third long-player and their first since stripping down to a three-piece (completed by drummer Kevin Stuart and guitarist Andrew King). Whereas previous albums have skronked noisily and manically in the vein of acidpsychsters Comets On Fire, this latest effort seems much less complicated. In fact, you might even feel comfortable calling it an ‘indie rock’ record (the real deal, not the fucking Kaiser Chiefs) – there are riffs reminiscent of Archers of Loaf’s caustic melodicism, while Jonny’s sandpaper holler brings up bruises in all the right places. This new straightforward approach certainly suits them. “We always planned on it being that way,” he agrees. “But during the process of actually making the record it ended up being a lot weirder than we actually intended it to be.” Indeed, the sprawling chaos of earlier works seems much more controlled this time round, so the few moments that appear genuinely unhinged (the flailing sax that splutters wildly during the triumphant Licorice Pizza, for instance) feel like exhilarating explosions. “The funny thing is that on some of the earlier records, the bits that seem chaotic were the most planned out. But the band has always been in a state of flux; we’ve always kept changing things round.” It seems that reducing the ranks to a core trio – rather than, say, the sextet behind the band’s 2009 debut Tentacles – was something of a boon to the creative process.“We prefer to write as a three-piece – everybody can pay a little more attention to each other. When you start playing with six people, it’s difficult to have clarity. We just had all of us playing solos at the same time…!” It also provided an opportunity for the three friends to come to terms with their collective musical identity: “It’s only at the end that you see the bigger picture. With each record, and especially with this one, we’ve allowed a lot more of the picture to be seen.” The indie rock tag doesn’t sit entirely comfortably with Jonny. “Growing up, we really didn’t listen to those kinds of bands. I was into either classic rock or metal, and punk was quite prevalent, living in California. But now, in retrospect, it’s been a joy to go and discover these bands that I had foolishly overlooked as a teenager, when I was only listening to Black Flag.” The overall sound of Nothing Is Real, however, means there will inevitably be comparisons to the US indie rock boom of twenty years hence. “That’s something that we hear quite a bit,” he muses. “People compare us to 90s indie and grunge, and it probably comes from the fact that what we listen to was the stuff those bands listened to. We’re sort of stuck in the past; we listen to a lot of older music.” Now in his element, Jonny’s enthusiasm is
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audible when it comes to discussing his youthful musical endeavours. Bearing in mind the more complex sounds he makes today, does he view punk rock as a phase to be outgrown? He pauses. “No… but I don’t think punk bands exist any more. That’s just some kind of word that people can identify with. Punk is something that happened in the late 70s, early 80s.” But regardless of the sound or the initial impact, surely DIY is punk’s legacy? “I think that predates punk; that’s just part of being an artist. The more control we have over the product, the better the art we create. I can’t understand why some bands don’t seem interested in that – the packaging, the artwork, or just what it means to create that. I mean, is there a difference between a 7” cover that’s been spray-painted by hand by the band, and one that’s just made in a factory somewhere? I recognise the difference, and I know that when I was growing up I always appreciated when the band had some involvement in that. “ It’s this dedication to the process that led them to hook up with C.R. Stecyk III, whose handiwork adorns Nothing Is Real’s striking sleeve. “He’s had a big impact on the culture of California,” explains Jonny. “He’s famous for a lot of things, but some of the main ones are tied in with surf and skateboard culture… he was part of Jeff Ho Surfboards, which was pretty revolutionary.” Indeed, Ho’s Zephyr Surf Team spawned a skateboarding team which proved hugely
significant in popularising the latter sport as we know it today. It’s a pastime that continues to be very dear to Crystal Antlers’ hearts: “Growing up in southern California it’s kind of hard to avoid it. We all grew up skateboarding, it’s something that we like to do, especially on tour. And I surf almost every day.”
“It’s only at the end that you see the bigger picture” Jonny Bell
Having worked with Black Flag artist Raymond Pettibon on an earlier LP cover, there was huge appeal in harnessing Stecyk’s unique approach to graphics for their latest. “Raymond shaped the aesthetic of legendary SoCal punk label SST and the punk rock scene, and Stecyk did the same for skateboarding and surf culture, and I think that is how we’d like to be perceived to some degree. We were really conscious that it should be something new, and not just a rehash. We didn’t want just a Black Flag cover from Raymond, and we didn’t want Nothing Is Real to look like a surfboard. These are people that we
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respect greatly, and we admire their approach to creativity.” The record itself certainly feels darker than previous efforts, from the opening couplet of I pray for rain / I wait in vain” to closer Prisoner Song, with its bitter lament of lost my legs and my will to live”. Jonny ponders this for a moment. “There’s a lot of things that are very grim… I try not to be too didactic about it, try not to speak too directly. I’ve had people write about lyrics to tell me there’s some sort of meaning that they’ve drawn from them, and it’s completely different from what I meant. But that’s really great, that’s sort of the intention of writing that way. Like, Pray is about my growing up in the Mormon church – it’s something I can laugh about, but you know, at the same time it’s nice to have something cathartic to let rip.” Very suddenly, Jonny realises he has to return to work, bringing our telephone conversation to a rather abrupt halt – rock’n’roll, it seems, is not the glamorous career choice it once was. But whether fame and fortune are pipedreams or merely irrelevant to Crystal Antlers’ outlook, we still wonder about the point of all this cathartic noise. The answer is earnest and beautifully simple. “I’d like people to feel inspired in some way.” Nothing Is Real, then, is a pretty good place to start. Crystal Antlers play Roadhouse, Manchester, 27 Feb www.crystalantlers.com
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Ask Fred: Language When deciding which writer was best qualified to kick the crap out of our readers’ problems, there really was only one man for the job
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he Skinny hired me to do two things: review crap that no one else would touch, and drunkenly interview David Hasselhoff. Three years later, I’m reviewing lizards on the Royal Mile and they’ve stopped trying to reboot Knightrider. Now, I’ve been tasked with an even more important job – fixing the broken lives of you, readers. I don’t hold a PhD in knowing-exactly-whichDisney-to-have-sex-to, NOT to tell you how to sort shit out. (SPOILER: it’s Chip ‘n’ Dale Rescue Rangers) This month’s column will focus on ‘language,’ since language is complicated. For every wellspoken monologue there’s a French man gibbering at you while you steal his bicycle. But, it’s amazing. It gives us cultural identity and allows us to convey complex feelings in the comments section of a fat-woman-falling-off-a-mechanicalbull video. Speech affords us a wider range of possible expressions than any known system of animal communication; which is probably why only 9% of YouTube commenters are walruses. Human language is unique because it has the properties of productivity, recursivity, and displacement; it relies entirely on social convention and learning, which is good news up until the point you realise our species is zoologically classified as ‘kinda shitlords.’ Dear Fred, ’m a fifty-nine year old stand-up from South East London, and I’ve recently been accused of being a racist. My material stems from astute childhood cultural observations that today’s society finds offensive. I grew up with uncles and aunties who would say, “Here, you been to Woolwich? It gets dark at half past two in the afternoon” – but that was never racist. Racism didn’t quite exist when I was younger. It was cartoon racism, affectionately mocking black people; it was the type of stuff you’d do in front of a load of black people; you know like with gay people – sometimes they like to be called puffs and sometimes they don’t... it’s all in the Protected Species Act nowadays... Anyways, I’m getting flack for my material. I make jokes like those pointing out what everyone else is thinking. I also do impressions of a West Indian guy; I put on a stupid accent
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Words: Fred Fletch Illustration: Zhang Liang
and make him lovable. I think I’m actually aiding people in accepting different races. But no – I’m accused of being racist. And sexist too! There was a rather large woman on TV moaning about women’s rights, about all these… pop videos, and how they’re sexist because they’re showing their bodies in a sexy way and used as sex items, and I thought, “Well you’ve got no fucking danger of that, have you?” HELP! This is threatening my career. I’ve given up drinking and drugs, and even turned to the Bible, but people keep harking on about me being a racist. Am I out of order? Sincerely, JD
you. As a species we survived blue Smarties and The Wizard of Oz – I think we can deal with immigration and a naturally-occurring skin colour. Also, I admit, feminism can be complex to understand, but you’ll be glad to know that statements like “fat girls can’t be feminists because I wouldn’t fuck them” is exactly the sort of thing Emily Davison would say if she was both drunk and a space monster. Using upbringing as a defense for current behaviour is weak. In the 1700s Marie-Angélique Memmie Le Blanc spent ten years in the forests of France, living with wolves. Once discovered, she returned to non-jungle-cat society, and somehow managed to reintegrate herself into the world without eating people’s faces. If she managed to do it, so can you. For fuck’s sake, she was hanks for the letter JD, I can see why you’re an unkillable werewolf – your uncle just thought worried. “Am I a racist” is a tricky question The Adventures of Tarzan was Newsnight. to answer, but turn to the nearest mirror, look Although I appreciate your honesty, all yourself straight in the eye and say, “Yes. Fucking you’ve really done is prove that racists are asvery.” How can one man misunderstand multicul- sholes, and I’m pretty sure I don’t have to put a turalism and ethnic sensitivity so hard? I can’t spoiler warning on that. If you want to stop being help but wonder if you were forced to watch accused of racism, stop being such a fucking episodes of Captain Planet in a cage filled with racist. spiders and punches. For the love of fuck, man, Good luck with the ‘religion’ thing. Be sure to people with different coloured skin or sexual highlight the part in the Bible where Jesus points preferences aren’t a ‘species.’ How do you tell out that ‘some black people have big lips,’ you jokes over the constant stream of howling locusts shitlord. flowing from your mouth? ‘Cartoon racism’ died out around about the time Hanna-Barbera cancelled the KKK Mystery Dear Fred, ’m a young singer from Middlesbrough who won Hour, but if cartoon racists did exist – and were a piss-poor television talent contest. My pedestrying to decide exactly how racist to be – they’d buy tickets for your show and say, “Way less than trian singing career was going great until I called a rapper who was mean to me a “fucking queer.” this.” I know this may come as a shock, but minor- Apparently this was ‘a homophobic slur,’ and now ity groups have a history of victimisation and everyone hates me. That meant something else abuse. Complaining that some of them unfairly where I grew up – but no-one believes me. He find oppression offensive is like supervillains made me look stupid and I think he wants to stick complaining that some people they shoot at his stinky dick in me. What should I do? aren’t Robocop. Satire is difficult to deliver, and Yours sadly, even harder to explain, but as a rule of thumb, JA if your cutting-edge humour starts and stops somewhere between “ha-ha black man” and “shoe hanks for writing, JA. Problems can arise polish,” you’re a fucking idiot. when communicating feelings. You see, I know the colour of things can take some the English language is smart and constantly getting used to, but we’ve had several thousand developing – but it’s also a tricky bastard. years to deal with the fact that your postman’s Linguistically, it’s like the kid who brings a Zimbabwean and may be a better dancer than
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hilarious tub of peanuts to school that’s actually full of snakes. The Oxford English Dictionary contains around 800,000 words (including around 140,000 words that only people undergoing a stroke and/or gangsters from the 50s use) and of these, over a quarter have multiple meanings. This allows for flexible communication and keeps Bruce Forsyth in delightful word-play comedy for as long as his Egyptian Curse permits. Without homonyms, we’d never know what elephants pack to go on holiday, or why otolaryngologists get called out to examine pony throats. These delightful double meanings keep us laughing and are grammatically approved as both appropriate and whimsical. Sadly though, language is not restricted to dictionaries alone; there’s a constantly evolving black market for words making everyone think Robin Thicke wants to rape them. Our vocabulary is increasing each year and some of these co-opt on previously established words and their meanings, leading to confusion, and in some cases, hurt feelings. And dumbassery.
“If you want to stop being accused of racism, stop being such a fucking racist” I understand that ‘queer’ once meant ‘strange’ or ‘unusual,’ and assuming you grew up in a 1920s detective novel, the rapper quite possibly was ‘queer’ (depending on exactly how sick his beats were and/or how often he mentioned ‘booty’). Today, ‘queer’ can be a derogatory phrase for homosexuals, and that’s not cool. Your clever “different meaning” defence falls apart around the point that you suggest the rapper “wants to stick his stinky dick in me,” but I guess that means something else too. Like how “pop star” can also mean “dip-shit who doesn’t know how to shut-the-fuck-up.” Don’t stress. Stick with the homonym excuse. Perhaps claim some of your best friends are homonyms too.
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Under the Influence: Katy B From Lauryn Hill to Lil’ Kim, the first lady of neosoul rifles through her record collection to pull out ten LPs by a few of her favourite female rappers
6. Queen Latifah – All Hail The Queen (1989) I remember watching this documentary on her, an MTV thing called When I Was 17. It told the whole story about how she got signed and how her friends were her dance crew back then – somebody spotted her talent after she made them a mixtape. She was really young at this point and had so much to say. Her lyrical message was pretty clear, you know: ‘I’m going to stand up for myself and no-one, no-one, is going to bring me down, or make me feel I need to give in.’ She’s basically saying ‘respect me, because I deserve to be respected.’ So I bought this album and I remember maybe a week later some guy touched my bum in a club and I got really rowdy back at him. My friends had to get me to calm down, and I thought ‘errr... Katy, you’ve been listening to too much Queen Latifah.’ But it felt good! 7. Lady of Rage – Necessary Roughness (1997) I used to be in this hip-hop band when I was 18. We were called the Illersapiens. I didn’t rap but I was the singer. I was listening to a lot of hip-hop around this time. I used to run this night in Brixton, a lot of musicians would come down, we’d have a guest and our band would always play. We made a lot of music together – everybody on the bill – bassists, drummers, turntablists and rappers. One of the guest DJs broke out this tune when we were playing once and I had to ask ‘what is this?’ He was playing a Lady of Rage track called Rough Rugged & Raw. She just sounds so tough.
Katy B
1. Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998) Obviously this is one of the best albums ever created in the world. I remember when I was trying to write my first album, wondering to myself ‘what kind of environment can I write this in?’ I had to find out where she wrote it; how she wrote it, how long it took – I really wanted to learn her process because it feels so natural. It’s kind of magic, almost. Almost every girl I know, and some guys, have told me they can relate to these lyrics, it’s uplifting but at the same time there’s sorrow in it. It’s the joy of finding strength. That’s what I get from it. It’s empowering. 2. Bahamadia – Kollage (1996) I love this woman – she’s the most chilled out person but she’s still got so much attitude. Her voice sounds like velvet over the beats here throughout. On this album she had production from DJ Premier, The Roots and Guru – loads of producers I really love and
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after Under Construction, so she was moving quickly and working really hard. I remember being at Brit School and all the break dancers would be making up routines to these songs and 3. Ms. Dynamite – A Little doing backflips in the canteen. It’s such energetic Deeper (2002) music, but at the same time it had depth. Then She was 19 when she won the Mercury for this album, and to me there was that sense of humour in her lyrics – her that’s one of the biggest achieve- talking about sex toys and her weave. I’d have to ments in urban music. The things turn it down in my room, like ‘oh god, I don’t want she talks about on this, they’re very deep and my dad to hear this!’ personal. I can cry listening to this album. After buying it I remember being on the bus home, 5. Salt-n-Pepa – Very Necessary reading the lyrics and they got to me before (1993) I’d even played a note of it. She was already so I couldn’t do a female rap list mature and had something to say. She’s been a without putting them in there. big influence on me and has always been really They’ve done so much for the supportive ever since I started out in music. Even movement throughout all their when I see her now I’ll have a big smile on my face. records and they’re still performing now. They were at Bloc Weekend a few years ago but I 4. Missy Elliott – This Is Not a couldn’t stay to watch, which I was really upset Test! (2003) about. My friends did and said they were amazing. I remember waiting for this They’re a lot of fun but they had something to say. album to come out. This is the And of course, this record has Whatta Man on it soundtrack to my teenage years, with En Vogue. You can’t mess with that. like 14-15. This was just a year admire, which is the icing on the cake. I just think she’s wicked.
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8. Foxy Brown – Ill Na Na (1996) Foxy Brown, to me, is just New York. When I hear her I think of a New York girl personified. Hearing all the rappers now, like Nicki Minaj, Azealia Banks and all these others coming up in the last few years – I can definitely hear a Foxy influence and think she might be the one they look to. I like her club records and the stuff she’s done with Jay-Z. She’s quite sexy but still classy and cool. 9. Nicki Minaj – Pink Friday (2010) I was pretty excited about this coming out. She’d featured on so many other people’s records beforehand; I couldn’t get enough. Her wordplay is everything, she’s a really intelligent girl. When I heard this I thought ‘wow, I probably need to think about my lyrics more.’ Even though this album’s more poppier than her others, I’d still say she started the whole resurgence of girl rappers in recent years. Big props to her. 10. Lil Kim – Hard Core (1996) This was in 1996, I wasn’t listening to it then, but I’d start to hear her over the years and think ‘she’s so raw.’ She doesn’t care. She’d talk about the things guys more often tend to talk about. She’d talk about enjoying sex the way men talk about that sometimes. And why can’t she speak like that if everyone else can? I’ve got respect for Lil Kim, she’s not scared. Katy B’s new album Little Red is released on 10 Feb via Columbia. She plays Manchester Academy 2 on 29 Mar www.katyonamission.com
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Open Antennas in a Complex Network Moderat’s Sebastian Szary discusses the group’s evolution, their cinematic live tour and the merits of Slayer
t’s like when you learn a language. You might not speak this language for a while, but when you come back to it, it’s still there.” Mulling over the events surrounding the fivemonth gap in Moderat’s world tour, Sebastian Szary sounds reassuringly positive on the phone as he prepares for the group’s final rehearsal session before recommencing their mammoth run of shows. The break in momentum for Szary and partners, Gernot Bronsert and Sascha Ring, came in September of last year when Ring suffered a multiple leg fracture following a motorcycle crash in Berlin. Szary speaks of the “deep depression” that engulfed those involved with the tour, which was only a month old when the accident abruptly put things on hold. Almost half a year down the line though, having worked hard to get back on track, there seems to be a renewed sense of purpose behind the group, whose shared language is one rooted in deeply emotive electronic music and painstakingly well-coordinated live shows. “It’s interesting to see how, when we started the rehearsals again this week, the processes of the live set are still there in our heads. It’s like we can begin to play blind again.” The increasingly cohesive bond between Szary and Bronsert (who make up techno behemoth Modeselektor) and Ring, who produces his own work as Apparat, is one that was forged over ten years ago and has continued to gestate organically ever since. “Do you have the time?” jokes Szary when asked to ponder Moderat’s decadelong evolution from jamming and playing low key festivals in Germany to travelling the world with their sprawling live production. He recounts familiar tales of how the Modeselektor duo were at first fascinated by Sascha’s gear and technical setup, and how they became more drawn to his music before deciding to hook up and share ideas from unfinished songs the trio had stored on their computers. “We played a few funny shows and it was very confusing,” he admits. “It was like electronic jazz with drum loops and we would sometimes play for two hours at a time. Sometimes we lost the concept during the set and we had to finish and start again.” Yet, even back in those formative days, the trio recognised the potential in melding various elements of their respective projects and their debut record, Auf Kosten Der Gesundheit, on Ellen Allien’s BPitch Control label, provided a formal introduction to their sound. This largely instrumental offering was sparse and spacious but contained early glimpses of that epic quality which they have since honed to perfection through their self-titled debut album and last year’s follow up, simply titled II. With the introduction of more of Ring’s soaring and earnest vocals in recent work, it is tempting to define the project as a simple marriage of Apparat’s poppy melodic traits with the power of Modeselektor’s pulsing basslines and thumping drum loops. Not quite so, explains Szary. “Now it’s more like three guys – Sascha, Szary and Gernot – making music together; not Apparat and Modeselektor.” He reveals how the beat for the 2013 single, Bad Kingdom, was laid down by Sascha and that all three members’ roles are interchangeable on any given track. “Everybody can contribute different elements – we are divided from our own projects. It’s like we are taking a holiday from our own projects.” That Sebastian and Gernot are able to juggle so efficiently their work as Modeselektor, the running of two labels (Monkeytown and 50 Weapons) and their “holiday” project with
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Apparat, alongside their commitments to their respective partners and children, is impressive to say the least. Do their increasing responsibilities and more settled family lives have an impact on the kind of work they produce in tandem or as part of Moderat? “No,” Szary insists. “We see it as two different universes, but sometimes they do overlap”. Certainly there seems to be no likelihood of the duo departing completely from Modeselektor’s boisterous brand of dancefloordriven techno any time soon. “Right at this moment I have on my computer a Modeselektor track which has to be finished by tomorrow,” says Szary. “It’s a club burner which Gernot gave to me and we have been working on some ideas for it. So, Modeselektor is still there!”
“The aim is to send the crowd on a trip; to create the feeling you have while watching a really nice movie – it’s like a soundtrack on tour” Sebastian Szary
Where things have perhaps changed a little for Szary is in the realm of time management, and he explains that the trio have to make the most of the influences they encounter amid their busy work and personal schedules. “We have less time to put our antennas into the receive mode,” he admits. “Inspiration is the most important thing and to receive new ideas you have to check out different media from the internet, radio, record stores – anything you can listen to or watch.” Yet no single influence seems to seep in more than any other and Moderat’s sound remains incredibly distinctive in its own right – an often grand synthesis of melody, emotion and atmosphere set amid penetrating percussion and sample-laden soundscapes. It seems Moderat represents the unrestrained collaboration of three artists who refuse to focus on any one strand of the music forms that excite them. “Influences come from everywhere,” Szary affirms. “It can be really strong pop music – chart smashers like Kanye West or whatever – but it can also be abstract, neo-classic modern music or it can just be silence. Our antennas are very open to receive a lot of things and we are not strictly into one genre of music. “I remember, two years ago, we travelled with Modeselektor to Brighton. From the airport to the venue, I was listening to Slayer in my headphones – the Reign in Blood album. I’m not a big metal fan, but I find it very interesting to listen to. To discover new structures in this music was a key moment for me – so a Slayer album can also be really nice.” Would he go as far as drawing any parallels between the work of the thrash metal pioneers and his own? “Maybe in terms of sound,” he
Moderat
suggests. “[In modern music production] you have this over-compressed dynamic and I hate it. That Slayer album is from 1986 – it’s almost 30 years old – and I think Rick Rubin produced it very carefully. It’s not over-the-top compressed. You can hear the elements. That’s what we also did for the recent Moderat album.” He stresses the importance of knowing when to hand the work over to someone else to master instead of repeatedly “mixing the track to death.” Encouragingly, rather than through a blending of specific musical influences, the trio seem to draw most of their inspiration from the process of making music itself – “from the feeling you have in the studio, or maybe later, when producing a track. We always think about it later. Then in the studio we have this movie moment – a soundtrack moment – and that’s perfect. Moderat is a very cinematic project so most of the sounds have a movie-esque feel for us.” This cinematic quality is something the group have worked hard to incorporate into their live shows and, as with their previous tour, they consider the design collective Pfadfinderei to be a vital component of the current setup. “It’s a very important part of our work to have an audiovisual context and the visual element is 50% of the show,” Szary explains. Pfadfinderei’s contribution to the Moderat world spans minimalist motion-capturing videos filled with captivating shapes and shadows, to vibrant animated storyboards of the type found in the video for Bad Kingdom. Having these visual elements carefully harmonised with their live performances is as crucial to the project as anything else for Szary. “The aim is to send the crowd on a trip; to create the feeling you have while watching a really nice movie – it’s like a soundtrack on tour.” With such a coordinated live setup, one wonders if they are afforded the opportunity for experimentation and off-the-cuff improvisation on stage. “We approach the show like a timeline
CLUBS
and some parts are synchronised with the lights and visuals,” explains Szary. “It’s a complex network from computer to computer and we send [loops] from the stage to a light operator and a video operator. But there are a lot of things we can do in between. We can make parts longer and we mix things differently each time. There is enough space for that and there has to be. We will definitely do things differently from show to show.” Perhaps most importantly, the shows themselves produce ideas that the trio may work with when they find time to seek the solace of the studio once more. When prompted on the prospect of more material emerging from Moderat, Szary is at first measured in his response. “Let me say...” He pauses. “We are talking about it.” Yet any hesitance he has in discussing the potential for more studio work soon fades as he considers the notion out loud. “For Sascha and us it’s quality time – to hang out, not just as partners but as friends. I really enjoy the studio time with Moderat. I also enjoy it with Modeselektor, but with a three-pole construction it’s sometimes more interesting.” Having reminded himself of the joys of the process of collaboration, even for its own sake, Szary seems to become more certain that there is more to come from Moderat. “I think we will get ideas on tour, so you can be sure we will go back,” he decides. For the time being at least, Moderat’s complex network of sounds and images seems set to develop further beyond the notion that they are merely the juxtaposition of two separate electronic music projects. Given the fervour surrounding their current tour, it would seem our antennas remain as receptive as theirs. Moderat play Albert Hall, Manchester, 7 Feb www.moderat.fm
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Photo: Samuel John Butt
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Interview: Ronan Martin
Disney Lied to You Valentine’s Day: the one day in the year dedicated to making all the people with partners feel grateful, and everyone else feel isolated, unwanted and miserable Words: Matthew Bobbu Illustration: Studio Doeke
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ur obsession with finding love – or at least, with not being single – goes back centuries. Plato, famed ancient Greek philosopher, wrote that humans once had four arms, four legs, and two heads. Also a rather weightier body, one assumes. He claimed that the gods split humans in two out of jealousy for their happiness, so that we would forever have to search the world for our other half. Nowadays, the guardians of our romantic myths are a rather different breed of storyteller. Rather than the fable-spouting philosophers of old, today’s love-centric fairy tales are propagated by the makers of movies, the authors of novels, the writers of soap operas, and the writers of TV dramas. Even greetings cards and magazines are heavily geared towards enforcing the notion that we are incomplete without someone to call our ‘other half.’ Disney has told us with every princess story that we must rely on finding a partner to fix our problems: be they ever-lasting sleep or a beastly transformation, we must find someone to love us or we shall be forever broken. Even Brave, much lauded for finally being a Disney film that passes the Bechdel test, stops short of moving far from this idea. Sure, Merida is given time to find her own choice of partner; unlike every other princess who simply falls for the first glamorous prince to creep up on her in her own garden. But she is still expected, at some point, to pick herself a husband. My, what social progress; that this princess no longer has to marry a particular prince against her will! All this media, all these social pressures to find someone to somehow prove that you are a worthwhile person create so much fear and insecurity. How many unhealthy relationships have been born out of the desire not to become the crazy spinster, the mad cat lady, the 40-year-old virgin, or the sad old man still living with their parent?
We are a married-or-bust culture. We only need to look at where human rights campaigns have taken us: gay marriage has been the topic of the decade so far. The right of same-sex people to marry is, without a doubt, a huge step towards acceptance for non-heterosexuals in society. But why is that? Why are we so preoccupied with making sure that everyone can get the same legal recognition that they have finally found someone to value them?
“Disney has told us with every princess story that we must rely on finding a partner to fix our problems” I say screw that. I say that we are all worthwhile. Not as part of a pair, not as half of an incomplete person, but as an individual in our own right. Being single is nothing to be afraid of, nor ashamed of. In fact, it is better to be single and happy than married and miserable. So this Valentine’s Day, whether you are spending the day in the arms of someone you love or curled up in front of the TV with a bucket of ice cream, remember that despite what all the movies, songs and books tell us, you can be happy being by yourself. After all, humans never actually had four arms.
Break-up Survival Guide T
he worst part about a break-up is the cold. Living with someone is like being inside a cloud of warm, fluffy insulation. You are protected against your fears and insecurities. Are you scared that something about you is fundamentally unlovable? That you are too ornery and neurotic to sustain a lasting relationship? That your friends secretly think you look like the one off The Muppets who lives in a bin? A relationship can help! It gives you an answer to all the nasty voices in your head that come out at 4am after too many vodkas. Somebody loves you enough to overlook your awful sense of humour and your deadly foot odour. There is someone in the world who has seen you at your worst, and still wants to share their bathroom with you. Someone who is not your mum. Coming out of a relationship, especially if you thought you were going to spend the rest of your life in it, can feel like being dropped in the Arctic in your pyjamas. It doesn’t matter how
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independent you are, how capable you are of explaining the offside rule, fixing your own boiler or facing down a wild bear. You are still not prepared for this shit. The best thing to do is leave the country. I’m serious. If you can, get far away from this horrible bullshit. If there is something stopping you (no money, a mortgage, a crushing fear of boats/ aeroplanes, or a sense that you cannot solve all of life’s problems by leaving town whenever something goes seriously wrong) then the second-best solution is to hope like hell your ex had this idea first. If this doesn’t work out, I would strongly recommend NOT TALKING TO THEM AT ALL. For, like, three months. Minimum. I don’t care how much you love them and think they’re your best friend and your fluffy comfort blanket... those days are gone. It sucks, but while you’re in the midst of the Arctic phase when everything hurts, you can only drag each other down. Don’t. Make your excuses and sever all contact.
The next thing to do is to figure out what you want. It is overwhelmingly tempting to spend all your time thinking about your ex. If you are the dumped, you can obsess over the reasons why ’til all your friends start to sidle away nervously whenever you approach. If you are the dumper, you can flog yourself with guilt, or try to come up with ingenious forgiveness schemes. The best thing to do is put all the gut-wrenching misery to one side for a second and try to think about how you’d like your life to look. I know it’s a tattered wreck right now and you’re like the ancient mariner, fixing strangers with your crazy eyeball while you tell them all about what went wrong, but forget it. How would you like your life to be? Where would you like to live? What would you like to do with your time? Whom would you like to spend it with? Try to come up with answers that are achievable, because “I want to lose six stone and write a famous memoir that is hailed by all as a modern
DEVIANCE
Words: Miriam Prosser
classic” will only make you feel like a failure. There are probably loads of things you want for yourself that you didn’t pursue while you were inside your fluffy relationship blanket. Being in love is a wonderful distraction. You don’t have to think about yourself or who you are if you can focus all your energy on someone else and be comfortable basking in their affection. The break-up Arctic sucks balls, but once you’ve had all that comfy stuff stripped away from you, there’s only you left. Kill a polar bear and make a badass winter coat. Learn to do that awesome belly-slide that penguins do. Be an explorer of yourself. And, when it’s Valentine’s Day, think of something awesome you want to do, and make it happen. Failing that, if you can’t find the energy to face all the hearts and flowers this year, consider an actual trip to the non-metaphorical Arctic. If nothing else, that should give you perspective.
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Photo: Valeria Farinella
Piece by Piece Bold, modern and wearable, Ciara Clark’s jewellery makes a statement
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pecialising in pieces made from acrylics, resins and non-precious materials that aren’t usually associated with traditional jewellery design, Ciara Clark’s work is innovative and pushes the potential of the materials and concept to produce extremely wearable but extremely striking jewellery – a hugely appealing combination. The Manchester-born-and-raised designer has always been artistic. Clark explains: “Since I can remember I have enjoyed designing and making things. When I started I really didn’t think too much about a career. I guess it has always been an option for me. “After working for a number of years in various uninspiring jobs, I decided that I wanted to go back to college and study,” she continues. “I have always enjoyed building and making things so a HND in 3D Design sounded like something I would enjoy, plus the prospectus said the course had a laser cutter, which I thought sounded very cool and high tech!” She adds, playfully, that “I never actually got round to finishing that degree… maybe I will one day!” Clark’s interest in technology certainly seems to have continued, though: “As well as material experimentation, new technology in design also really inspires me,” she says. “I currently create a lot of my work in 2D programs in Illustrator. I have just enrolled on a course to do
February 2014
Interview: Alexandra Fiddes
3D CAD [computer-aided design], though, and we have a 3D printer – I cannot wait to learn the possibilities of it.” When it comes to the inception of a design, however, Clark explains that she also uses more traditional processes: “I love making mood boards,” she enthuses. “That is generally where the initial ideas start, followed by sketch book work. Material research which is followed by more sketch book work! It’s only then when the elements that require laser cutting will be drawn up on Illustrator, cut and assembled.” Her combination of the technical with her creative eye for colour, choice of material and final composition seems to work perfectly in Clark’s pieces – all clean lines, bold shapes and often industrial details. Is she influenced by the cityscape that surrounds her? “Maybe not consciously, but I have always liked the architecture and the heritage of Manchester, and I do think that this translates into my work,” she comments. Clark’s latest collection introduces her “new current obsessions: iridescence and transparent materials” in the form of oversized hoops, shard drop earrings, and fragment-like rings. One of our favourite pieces is the holographiclooking choker neckpiece – which feels slightly space-age, but slightly tribal too. Clark’s Spring/ Summer 14 collection also comprises regallooking headpieces, pieces juxtaposing matt and
shiny finishes, and a new, softer texture in the form of fluffy pom poms and tassels – a perfect contrast to the minimal perspex and resin. She tells us: “I am currently exploring Corian (a blend of minerals and acrylic that creates a stonehard surface), concrete and textiles. This type of material exploration is such an exciting aspect of the design process for me.” The designer has (very) recently set up We_Are_Kin studio in Manchester city centre along with two photographers, Marta Julve and Megan Goodwin. Clark says that it’s currently under construction, but will house a photography studio as well as work spaces. This studio space will allow each of those involved to work individually, together and also with clients. “I love to collaborate. One of the main objectives of our new studio space is to encourage collaborative projects and work between ourselves and others,” Clark explains. This love of collaboration and the fusing of different disciplines are clear within Clark’s work – and she has also begun working as a set-designer and stylist. She tells us: “I have a huge interest in and [desire] to explore props and installation pieces. I believe a lot of the techniques that I use in jewellery can be applied to other big scale projects.” The We_Are_Kin collective aims to “offer all aspects of print and design services for
FASHION
businesses and individuals,” including set design, styling, photography and editing, specialising in creating imagery for look books, campaigns, press packs, product photography and catalogues. With all the up-and-coming design talent coming out of the Northwest at the moment, the studio and collective will surely prove a valuable resource for local creatives. On Saturday 1 March from 7-10pm, We_Are_ Kin are hosting an opening, where visitors will be shown around the new space and its facilities. The work of the three founders will be on display and there will also be the chance to get involved in a live and interactive photoshoot (with a prize for the best photo). If that wasn’t enough, there will be “booze, music and free goodie bags for everyone that comes along.” Sounds pretty good to us. If you can’t make it to the We_Are_Kin studio event on the night, you can keep up to date by keeping an eye on their Facebook page. To see more of Ciara Clark’s jewellery, check out her website (which will soon have an online shop); you can also buy her work from the Manchester Craft and Design Centre and e-boutique Lavish Alice. www.ciaraclark.co.uk We_Are_Kin opening, Studio 2.5, 2nd floor, Thornley Brow, M2 2AE, Manchester, 1 Mar, 7-10pm www.studio25nq.wordpress.com
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Floor to Ceiling (2013)
Spectators (2013)
Josephine Hicks S
traddling the brackets of design, illustration and contemporary print, Liverpool-based artist Josephine Hicks has been honing her craft through experimental DIY screen print home studios, exploring the possibilities of digital, handdrawn and photographic stencils. “The post-graduation years after art school are a strange and lost time for many. Often it is make or break time, questioning how/if you want to continue making art and what it means to you. “I have always had a need to make, create and produce some kind of work, whether it be drawing, collage, painting, sewing – it’s the physical act of producing tangible objects and images that’s kept me going and pushing forward my visual style. “Themes and inspiration behind my practice include flight, balance and a defiance of gravity, and becoming interested in the evolution of human flight and the many inventors who paved the way through failed design and even death. Recent
exhibitions have included A Small Selection of Lofty Ambitions and The Flying Tailor. “I collect and source archival photography from forgotten times, finding inspiration and beauty in the recycling of lost images and creating new narratives. Collaging layers through screen print creates the textured and layered elements to my work, which are integral to its unique playful appearance, suggesting movement and an appearance of being multidimensional on a 2D surface.” Josephine works from her studio in The Royal Standard creating work for exhibitions/ print fairs, as well as specialising in short editions and bespoke print commissions involving fabric, repeat printing and unique large format prints. Check out more of Josephine’s work and online shop at: www.josephinehicks.com www.the-royal-standard.com Dusktree (2012)
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SHOWCASE
THE SKINNY
Octo (2013)
Makeshift (2013)
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“spread love
it’s the brooklyn way BrooklynMixer SeelSt Liverpool
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Food News Having been rudely usurped by last month’s Food and Drink Survey, our rolling reportage is back with a bang. Here’s all the stuff we haven’t been telling you about, from beer fests in Liverpool and Prestwich to a Godfather-themed banquet in Wigan
Words: Jamie Faulkner Illustration: Jayde Perkin
it’s mid-January and I’m currently fixated on an image of a brisket-filled hoagie). We’re talking: a Pit Burger with pulled pork and brisket, 24 hour dry-rubbed baby-back ribs smoked over hickory and fruit woods, beef shortribs, Texas smoked sausage... unashamedly meaty. Their site makes some bold claims; the proof will be in the eating. Opens end of February, 22 Lloyd Street, Albert Square (formerly Livebait), truebarbecue.com MAKE FRIENDS AND EAT WITH PEOPLE Next, we’ll counter the established with the not-so-established: The Baltic Social opened in Liverpool at the tail-end of last year and we’ll wager it’s not yet etched itself into our collective consciousness. It’s the sibling of the popular Onion Deli, meaning their pedigree is up to scratch, and it’s located on the ground floor of the creative hub that is Elevator Studios, meaning its hip credentials are sorted. Think old cinema seats, mismatched and colourful reclaimed furniture, and unpretentious food (judging by their Twitter photos at least), and you’ll get a good idea of the vibe. 25-29 Parliament Street, L8 5RN
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or a lot of us, January went by with a subtext of abstinence, penitence and general absence from society. Now, like some slogan for a divorcee dating site, we’re telling you: you’ve got to get back out there! Don’t worry, we’re not advocating speed-dating (yet), just some new openings to enjoy and a couple of those festival thingies. FEAST YOUR SENSES We’ll start with a modernist culinary adventure in Liverpool. If the words Synaesthesia Feast: Project Zero conjure up images of food and art exhibitions, then well done, you’re pretty much on the right track. Synaesthesia is often described as a ‘union of senses’, so, fittingly, the organisers of this feast – held at Camp and Furnace, Liverpool’s premiere food-event space – have supplemented a five-course meal with music from the likes of Singing Bowl Orchestra’s Alex Rami Smith and visuals from artists Jess Doyle and John Late. The menu, created by Gina Tsang, is wholly vegetarian and courses have evocative titles like more than the sum and habitat. If you actually ‘suffer’ from synaesthesia, we’re guessing the experience will either be intensely pleasurable or akin to an acid trip gone wrong. Camp and Furnace, Liverpool, 5 Feb, 7pm, £30 (plus £1.40 booking fee) from Eventbrite, synaesthesiafeast.tumblr.com
Smiths. 27 Feb–1 Mar, £3-£12 (£30 for the VIP event), prestwichbeerfestival.co.uk While we’re on the topic, February also sees the Liverpool & Districts CAMRA Beer Festival come to town. It really would be above and beyond to give all the details about this one, save to say it’s happening, there’ll be 200-plus beers, and a healthy supply of anoraks no doubt. Online tickets were sold out at the time of going to press, but there is potential for spaces to become available so keep an eye on it. 20-22 Feb, £7.50 (plus £0.84 booking fee) from Eventbrite, liverpoolcamra.org.uk/lbf
baking classes, bread-making classes, how-tocook-the-perfect-steak classes, events like The Godfather Banquet Part III and The Pudding Club, and the local leg of the Chilli Cook Off. 27 Feb–9 Mar, £2-£49.95 depending on event, wlct.org/ wigan/whats-on/food
GET THE BARBIE OUT Red’s True Barbecue (or should we say their PR guys) win this month’s prize for the most unintentionally insulting press release, the opening gambit of which included the immortal lines: ‘in February 2014, Manchester will be saved from bad barbecue’. First of all, there aren’t really that BAKE LIKE MAD many BBQ joints in the city; and the traders who If the mere mention of The Great British Bake Off do create something very close to the genuine precipitates anecdotes about multi-tiered suarticle – think Fire & Salt BBQ – do a damned percakes or nightmares about a marauding Paul good job. They’re also bringing ‘culinary salvaHollywood quiff, then you know you’ve got it bad. tion to the Northwest’: barbecue will save your You’re also probably a little bit in love with the af- souls, heathens! If you look on their website, the fable John Whaite, the law grad turned 2012 Bake religious overtones continue, so we’re thinking Off winner. Well, Wigan Food and Drink Festival this is all simply branding – be that as it may, the caps off the month, and if you head along, he’ll be Leeds-based restaurant are opening their new making an appearance in his home town for a very eaterie on Albert Square, aka by the town hall, special afternoon tea. So that’s the main draw and the thought of gorging on their food is keepout of the way, but what else is there? There are ing this Food editor going (at the time of writing,
PAY YOUR RESPECTS Finally, like the cheesy translation of Andrea Bocelli’s Con te Partiro, it’s Time to Say Goodbye. The lack of Food News in January meant that we omitted to bid farewell to two much-loved Mancunian institutions. The Lass O’Gowrie’s closure (as we knew it) shows just how much fortunes can change in a year; and is an unfortunate side effect of the BBC’s departure to MediaCity. Voted Best Pub in Britain in 2012, the Lass was deemed to be underperforming by owners Greene King, and landlord Gareth Kavanagh stepped down. The Mark Addy (again, as we knew it) also bowed out amid mounting repair costs. Despite the inconveniently placed men’s bogs and mouldering interior, on a good day the Addy could claim to do the best British grub in the city. Their former Executive Head Chef Robert Owen-Brown is reportedly moving on to focus on events catering – last year he was hiring out his creative cooking to events as diverse as Salford’s Biospheric Project and the odd wedding, flogging some kebabs that were prett-ay, prett-ay, prettay good. Both establishments will return, but we’ll have to wait and see in what shape.
DRINK SOME BEER It often feels like North Manchester gets somewhat neglected when it comes to surveying the culinary landscape (something this neighbourhood reporter and many of his ilk are guilty of). While the city centre and yuppie/boho southern suburbs garner praise and – sometimes – acclaim, places north of Ancoats rarely get a mention. With the notable exception of Aumbry, Prestwich suffers this fate. But, at the end of the month, Prestwich Beer Festival is hoping to attract some new blood to the area. It would be superfluous of us to point out how such festivals work (drink beer, have a good time), however there are a couple of pointers to be made: a VIP event at the aforementioned Aumbry will feature a tapas-style menu matched with TicketyBrew beers, an after-dinner talk by Simon Rimmer, and comedy from Justin Moorhouse. Elsewhere, there’s music from Manc band The Marivaux and a set from Mike Joyce, former drummer with The
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Crowdfunding Coffee From cafes that charge for your time rather than your beverages, to increasingly complex ‘third-wave’ bars, concepts are ten-a-penny on today’s coffeeshop scene. Our Food editor checks out the latest: a crowdfunded pop-up Interview: Jamie Faulkner Illustration: Will Ballance
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f you were passing by Manchester Cathedral on 23 January, and happened to look southwards over the Irwell, shielding your eyes from the drizzle, you might have witnessed a peculiar sight: a wooden, prefabricated cabin being deposited by crane on to Greengate Square. Grindsmith had, quite literally, landed. No relation to the short-lived syphon-coffee shop in Ancoats, Grindsmith is the brainchild of Peter Gibson and Luke Tomlinson, two coffee aficionados who met while the latter was running a mobile coffee business at the bus station of Manchester’s Trafford Centre. More than three years down the line and following some savvy fundraising, we have the ‘pod’, as they’ve dubbed it, which will house the duo’s diminutive espresso brewbar. The pair used Kickstarter as their crowdsourcing platform, and 89 backers pledging a total of £10,155 allowed them to realise their dream. However, Gibson explains that crowdsourcing isn’t simply about raising money: “We were looking at how we could initially raise a bit of capital but also let everyone know we were going to be there if they’re interested. Keeping it Manchester and getting everybody involved, that’s the sense
that we want to run through the whole project. If they’re giving towards it then they might feel part of it.” The shop’s bar-front will feature a founder’s wall engraved with the names of all those who pledged more than £35 to the business. Grindsmith kept their backers and the rest of the public informed about their progress through social media, tweeting since early 2013 to build awareness. Their approach seems indicative of modern entrepreneurship – an embracing not only of different ways of raising capital but also of starting and running a business in general. With their combination of the flexibility of a popup market stall and the feel of a traditional bricks and mortar-type business, are Grindsmith almost disaster-proof? “If it doesn’t work here, say we got it all wrong and we never sell a coffee, well we can put it [the pod] on the back of a van and take it somewhere else, if they’ll have us!” says Gibson. Grindsmith also want to keep their options open in terms of the coffee they sell and the methods they use, but still stay true to their roots: “We want to keep our espresso Manchester-based, so we’re using James [Guard] at Coffee Circle. It’s important to us that we’re using a Manchester roaster, that we’re not
heading down to London. James is roasting in the back of his shed at the bottom of his garden. He supplies [Gatley-based coffeeshop] Coffee Fix and we’ve got a strong connection with those guys.” Gibson’s background is in outdoor education and he seems keen to bring pedagogy to the coffee world: “We want to mix up brewing methods; when people ask for a filter they’re not specifically going to get the same method every time... we also need to make it simple enough that if you don’t have a clue, hopefully within a couple of
coffees’ time you’ll suddenly start that journey of really experiencing what coffee can be.” Grindsmith’s opening date is ‘pencilled in’ as 8 February and will be running extended opening hours (7.30am-7pm). There’ll be food – paninis and soups – and the team are planning a varied events calendar when things settle down (pingpong tables, live music, and rooftop artwork are among the real and potential ideas being floated); a certain level of guaranteed interest lends itself to ambition, it seems.
Phagomania: The Chinese Salad Mystery This month, Phagomania comes over all ScoobyDoo as we try to solve the mystery of the Chinese salad pictures. Try being the operative word Words: Lewis MacDonald
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alad?’ we hear you cry. ‘For Phagomania? Salad’s alright, but it’s no bacon-fried-bacon or burger in the shape of a deer’s head.’ Luckily for you, this is no ordinary salad, as you can presumably already see. Towering like edible high rises and more baffling than a book of Escher drawings thrown directly at your face, what you see before you are the efforts of Chinese Pizza Hut customers. Showing true national spirit by building ostentatious but egalitarian monoliths to your five-a-day, these individuals have shown acuity and courage to overcome the rule of ‘one plate per visit’ at their local chain pizza restaurant’s salad buffet. Bravely putting dexterity and craftsmanship before good sense and appetite (after all, they surely can’t have eaten all that having put in so much work), these photos started making an appearance on obscure message boards and forums in the far east several years back.
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Establishing their provenance was all but impossible, as was the task of parsing the odd messages that go alongside each image. Messages such as “Our aim is stacked salad. There is no maximum, only better!” and “We eat Pizza Hut’s goal is to ‘eat Pizza Hut collapse!’” After a thorough search and extensive contact with our friends in the salad underworld, no-one has been able to track down the artists behind these fine… things. One video on YouTube filmed in a Chinese Pizza Hut documents the finer details of the process, showing how devoid of scruples those stacking their various fruit, vegetables and dressings are. Amid all this mystery, one thing’s for sure – you need good technique to get to the top (without being crushed to death by a pile of lettuce). Learn the tricks of the salad trade at tinyurl.com/ saladbuffet; tinyurl.com/saladbuffet2; tinyurl.com/ saladbuffet3
THE SKINNY
WIN A PAIR OF GOLDEN PASSES TO ¡VIVA! FILM FESTIVAL
Menú degustaciót
From 7 to 23 March, Manchester’s Cornerhouse will be celebrating its 20th ¡Viva! Spanish and Latin American Film Festival, with another stunning selection of cinema from Spain and Spanish-speaking Latin America. The programme will feature the best new Spanish-language comedies, dramas and documentaries, many of them UK premieres or accompanied by exclusive events, as well as diverse activities for film fans and language learners. The festival goes on sale on 6 February to Cornerhouse Members and 13 February to everyone else – visit www.cornerhouse.org/viva2014 for full information. One lucky Skinny reader can win a pair of Golden Passes to the entire ¡Viva! festival including the opening gala, when director Gabriel Nesci will fly in from Buenos Aires to present his film Días de vinilo (Days of Vinyl). This feel-good Argentinian comedy tells the tale of four record-obsessed 30-somethings struggling to grow up, and will set the bar high for over two weeks of Spanish cinematic celebration.
WIN WEEKEND TICKETS TO THRESHOLD FESTIVAL
Días de vinilo
Catalan director Roger Gual will appear at the festival on 21 March to talk about his third feature, Menú degustació (Tasting Menu). What is the name of his last film, shown at ¡Viva! 2007? Threshold Festival
A) Remade B) Remake C) Retake Competition closes midnight Sun 23 Feb. Entrants must be 18 or over. Winners 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. Full T&Cs can be found at www.theskinny.co.uk/ about/terms For more information about ¡Viva!: www.cornerhouse.org/viva2014
This year the fourth annual Threshold Festival of Music & Arts will take over the Baltic Triangle of Liverpool on 28-30 Mar, with a whole manner of creative offerings, including music from Dub Mafia, Broken Men, The Fire Beneath The Sea, Gideon Conn, Abi Wade, Natalie McCool, Etches, The Mono LPs, The Wild Eyes and many more to still be announced. Taking place in HAUS, District, Baltic Social, Unit 51, 24 Kitchen Street, Arena Gallery, Baltic Bakehouse, Siren and Lantern Theatre, the event will also showcase visual and performance arts from the burgeoning grassroots Liverpool scene. We have three pairs of Weekend Tickets for Threshold Festival 2014 to give away. Each of the three winners will also receive a limited edition poster from the event.
To be in with a chance of winning, simply head over to www.theskinny.co.uk/about/competitions and correctly answer the following question:
To be in with a chance of winning a pair, simply head over to www.theskinny.co.uk/about/competitions and correctly answer the following question: From which UK city do Threshold Festival headliners Dub Mafia hail? A) B) B)
Bristol London Birmingham
Competition closes midnight Sun 9 Mar. Entrants must be 18 or over. Winners 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 T&Cs can be found at www.theskinny.co.uk/ about/terms For more information about Threshold Festival of Music & Arts and tickets: www.thresholdfestival.co.uk
WIN A NIGHT OF PING PONG AND WIN FESTIVAL AND SKI PASSES BAR TAB AT TWENTY TWENTY FOR CAPRICES SNOW FESTIVAL TWO
Twenty Twenty Two, the music and arts space in the heart of the Northern Quarter, Manchester, now has a Ping Pong Room. Four ping pong tables will be permanently out, allowing revelers to hire the tables for some bats and beers. The venue has also bolstered its resident DJ collective with David Dunne and Andy Daniels taking charge of Fridays and Bucky controlling Saturdays. Exhibitions are still a big part of Twenty Twenty Two and the first exhibition of 2014 launches on 6 Feb. Pong Ping is an exhibition of ping pong themed design, art and illustration from a handpicked selection of international and local creatives showing ping pong related paraphernalia being used in everyday life. To celebrate the relaunch of Twenty Twenty Two, we have a great prize to give away to one lucky winner, comprising exclusive use of one table tennis table all night, a £100 bar tab, an exclusively designed ping pong bat, and a set of Twenty Twenty Two ping pong balls
February 2014
NB Prize valid on any Thursday night in March. To be in with a chance of winning, simply head over to www.theskinny.co.uk/about/competitions and correctly answer the following question: In which area of Manchester is Twenty Twenty Two located? A) Northern Quarter B) Southern Quarter C) Western Quarter Competition closes midnight Fri 28 Feb. Entrants must be 18 or over. Winners 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 T&Cs can be found at www.theskinny.co.uk/ about/terms For more information about Twenty Twenty Two: www.twentytwentytwo.co.uk Follow Twenty Twenty Two on Twitter: @TTTMCR The venue is open Tuesday-Thursday 4pm-12am, and Friday-Saturday 4pm-3am
Carl Cox
The Caprices Music Festival celebrates three days of electronic music enchantment (11-13 Apr) and three days of funk/reggae/Balkan pop/ rap (17-19 Apr) with an unmissable line up: Carl Cox, Jeff Mills, George Clinton, Keziah Jones, and more. With a panorama extending 200km, Crans Montana offers visitors a variety of runs within its 140km ski area. One lucky winner will receive a night’s stay for two between 11 and 13 April in Crans Montana plus one-day ski and one-day festival passes. There are short flying times from the UK, and short transfers from Geneva to the resort with a range of accommodation packages. To be in with a chance of winning, simply head over to www.theskinny.co.uk/about/competitions and correctly answer the following question:
Which legendary artist will entertain the audience with his characteristic psychedelic funk on 19 April? A) Bill Clinton B) George Clinton B) Hillary Clinton Competition closes midnight Sun 23 Feb. Winners 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 T&Cs can be found at www. theskinny.co.uk/about/terms Additional T&Cs: Winners will be accommodated for one night with bed and breakfast in Crans Montana and provided with a one day ski pass and one day festival pass, courtesy of the Caprices Festival organisers. Prize does not include travel to Crans Montana. Prize will need to be taken up between 11-13 Apr, 2014. No part of the prize is exchangeable for cash or any other prize. Accommodation in a 3 or 4 star hotel dependent on availability. For more information about Caprices Music Festival: www.caprices.ch
COMPETITIONS
Lifestyle
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THE SKINNY
Gig Highlights It might be a cliché, but there is actually genuinely something for everyone this month, as Pharoahe Monch and Warpaint beguile Liverpool, and Manchester hosts Dead Prez and of Montreal
Words: Will Fitzpatrick
A
s the ever-miserable month of January finally fades into little more than an unpleasant memory, it’s time to congratulate ourselves. WE MADE IT, GUYS! It’s all in the past! We’re free to spend, and to live, and to love! Our pitiful finances will allow us to eat, or indeed drink, again! Today is a joyous day. So how shall we celebrate? Well, we could always go and watch some bands or something. Shall we see who’s on? Yes, let’s… First of all, it is imperative that we begin our party by checking out Edinburgh-based hip-hoppers Young Fathers, who appear in both Manchester and Liverpool this month (the Deaf Institute on the 4th, and East Village Arts Club on the 5th). Their heads-down groove twists and turns around some pretty dark corners, but they’re more California than Caledonia: glistening future-pop to light up these winter months. On a more seasonally appropriate tip, Forest Swords’ chilling dub soundscapes also make an appearance at the Deaf Institute (8 Feb), doubtless leaving everyone discomfited but thoroughly thrilled. Elsewhere, our old friends at Harvest Sun have yet another intensive month planned, starting with the unique stylings of Cate Le Bon (Leaf, Liverpool, 11 Feb – she’s also at the Deaf Institute on the 15th). Psyched-out riff monsters The Wytches make a welcome return to The Shipping Forecast (13 Feb) before Cheatahs’ 90sindebted slackerisms bring out plaid shirts in numbers at East Village Arts Club (19th), and Bristol’s own blues-tinged folkie George Ezra lights up Leaf (28th – also at the Deaf Institute, 24th). Liverpool continues to offer variety this month, with the O2 Academy hosting everything from the goffier end of 90s frat-rock in the form of comedy cover veterans Me First and the Gimme Gimmes (2 Mar) to the wondrously ethereal Warpaint on the 20th; even East Village Arts Club seems to be getting in on the game, with reunited goons The Presidents of the United States of America playing their 20-yearold hits on the 24th, bringing along the lamentably named but rather ace Front Bottoms along with ‘em. Who knows what this means for the shape of punk to come in 2014? Hmmm. Best just go check out Big Ups’ angular posthardcore at The Shipping Forecast in any case (25 Feb); your ears will thank you for it. In Manchester, fans of all-conquering metal titans might be pleased to learn that they can check out Brazilian legends Sepultura (5 Feb, The Ritz) and their former frontman Max
Cate Le Bon
Cavalera’s Soulfly outfit (Sound Control, 26th), which doesn’t happen every day – but if it’s noisy guitars you’re after, then the exquisite pairing of Speedy Ortiz and Joanna Gruesome should see you right (16 Feb, The Deaf Institute). The former’s math-centric Massachusetts guitar mangling promises to sit well with the furious fuzz of their Cardiff tourmates – a genuine treat for fans of twisted noisepop. A busy month at Gorilla sees visits from cult hip-hop leftists Dead Prez (10 Feb) and shoegaze-drenched psychedelicists TOY (24 Feb – they also visit Liverpool’s East Village Arts Club on 28 Feb), but it’s Athens, Georgia’s favourite day-glo lunatics of Montreal (19th) that should really twist minds. Previous live shows have mixed trashy electro-glam with a surreal take on vaudeville theatre, but with recent album Lousy with Sylvianbriar paring down their more outré
sensibilities, it’s anybody’s guess as to how they’ll choose to present it. Best go anyway, just to be sure. And if you prefer your rock thrills more chaotic in nature, you may as well check out Crystal Antlers at the Roadhouse for good measure (27 Feb). The Night & Day may be fighting noise abatement notices at the time of writing, but they ain’t no slouches when it comes to packing ‘em in. Take your pick from local lo-fi noiseniks Sex Hands with support from MiSTOA POLTSA (6 Feb), hotly-tipped anthemic types The Orwells (27th) or up’n’coming punkas Radkey (3 Mar). There are no such problems over at Soup Kitchen, so why not indulge in Thumpers’ soaring melodies (17 Feb)? In fact, just make a note in your diary for Circa Waves (21st), if only to see whether Liverpool’s new favourite sons really can breathe new life into poor old indie. (They
also join Interpol, Temples and Royal Blood to play Manchester Academy and Liverpool’s O2 Academy as part of the NME Awards Tour in March – that’s the 20th in Manchester, and the 22nd in Liverpool.) One of the month’s absolute highlights comes in the form of NYC’s own Pharoahe Monch, who brings his ultra-complex rhymes and tight grooves to Liverpool’s Kazimier on 19 Feb – and let’s just say you’d better have a darn good excuse for missing out. The Sundays-esque whispers of Paper Aeroplanes (25 Feb at the Deaf Institute, 26th at the Kazimier) seem as good a way as any to bring this month’s guide to a close, so we hope you’ve been taking notes. After all, it’s not like it’s every month that we’re as spoiled for choice as this… what’s that? It is? Right. May have just figured out why we’ve been so bloody skint.
Eagulls + Salem Rages + Mind Mountain + Autobahn The Shipping Forecast, Liverpool, 27 Feb
I
t’s been a relatively quiet year for Leeds’ postpunk heroes Eagulls. Following 2012’s sterling self-titled EP, they’ve spent the last 12 months playing out with the likes of Fucked Up and Parquet Courts, working diligently and mysteriously on their long-awaited debut album. With that record finally due to see the light of day via New York’s Partisan Records on 3 March, they hit the road for a headlining tour that should cement their reputation as one the UK’s best live acts. Drawing from the post-punk of Killing Joke and PiL, there’s an undercurrent of dark humour
February 2014
running through their best songs that calls to mind the indie foundations laid down by the Pixies – take frontman George’s manic insistence that ‘I don’t think I have a problem, I just think I like to feel I’m possessed.’ That particular track (the understandably titled Possessed) emerges red-eyed and woozy with the world’s dizziest guitar line, while retaining the hardcore-derived energy that sets the band apart from contemporaries dabbling in FX-laden noisepop – basically, they’re loud as hell, and they don’t care who knows it. Support comes from like-minded souls Autobahn, horror-punks Salem Rages, and motorik headfucksters Mind Mountain, ensuring there’s more than enough bang for your buck. Eagulls
MUSIC
Preview
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Photo: Richard Manning
Do Not Miss
Album of the Month
Neneh Cherry
Blank Project [Smalltown Supersound, 24 Feb]
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Anyone tempted to write off Neneh Cherry as a mainstream pop artist needs to check their history – having worked with a selection of the most respected producers and bands over the past 25 years, including The The, Michael Stipe, Bobby Womack, and notably 3D and Mushroom of Massive Attack, she’s been a muse, an inspiration and a vital collaborator in the margins of UK pop, urban music and beyond since the late 80s. In many ways, this understated, stripped return to the fray is long overdue – and it’s no surprise to find her seeking out collaborators with a vital underground pedigree, namely Kieran Hebden
Illum Sphere
Kristian Harting
CEO
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Ghosts of Then and Now [Ninja Tune, 10 Feb] Manchester’s Illum Sphere has been making waves for some time now, as founder of the Hoya:Hoya club nights, winning the BBC Radio 1Xtra Urban Music Award in 2010, and releasing a string of critically-acclaimed EPs and 12”s on labels like Fat City, Tectonic, 3024 and Young Turks. For Ghosts of Then and Now, he broadens his sonic palette to reflect the diversity of his new home on Ninja Tune, incorporating lush broken beats, understated atmospheric hip-hop, and aesthetic flourishes which borrow from the LA beat scene, 90s underground electronica and UK soul. The spectral 2-step of At Night, with vocals from Mai Nestor, nods to the understated UK bass sounds of producers like Ikonika; first single Sleeprunner plays with a retro-futuristic synth arpeggio; The Road, one of three cuts featuring vocalist Shadowbox, investigates the template of ghostly 2-step to profound effect. Elsewhere, flashes of electronic folk and muted house, and washes of delicate post-dubstep round out an ambitious and rewarding debut. [Bram E. Gieben]
Kristian Harting may be well-versed in noise rock and thrash metal, but the Danish singersongwriter puts the past aside, favouring personal acoustic music on his debut solo release. The material is mostly minimal, ranging from simple, strummed melodies to more drone-based, effectsdriven pieces. There’s a weariness flowing through from beginning to end; even the more childlike songs are underpinned by a creeping sense of dread and emotional turmoil. Feathered Ghosts has Harting sounding both nervous and confident – there’s something fascinating about his ability to display both sweetness and mild panic at the same time. Float ’s more ambitious moments are often its strongest: Queen of the Highway’s sickening desert rock dirge makes some of the other cuts look pedestrian by comparison. The muted, minimalist nature of these recordings will perhaps leave some yearning for more layers of sound to get lost in, but this is still an accomplished work of soul-bearing solemnity. [Ross Watson]
Wonderland Modular, 3 Feb This is an incredibly strange record. The experimentation with polished pop and avant garde electronics recalls Canada’s Doldrums, but where Doldrums transfigured a diverse stew of influences into anthemic psychrock techno jams, CEO instead briefly occupy bizarre, ill-considered sonic realms. Glam rock drums meet cheesy synth-pop and twisted lyrics on WHOREHOUSE; HARAKIRI is expansive new age elevator music; while decadent R’n’B and hip-hop rhythms are blended with twee K-Pop melodies on MIRAGE. Which, on paper, sounds kind of awesome. However, this record is a mess – both under-written and over-crowded, with CEO’s CEO Eric Berglund seemingly determined to fit a series of square pegs into round holes. At its most abstract – the woozy orchestration and ‘la la la’ lyrics of IN A BUBBLE ON A STREAM – it is almost tolerable, but when the chipmunk vocals of the near-unlistenably overworked title track kick in, you’ll be ready to switch off. [Bram E. Gieben]
Keel Her
Lo-Fang
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Garage rock, psych and lo-fi stoner rock aesthetics collide on the new album by Mexican husband-and-wife duo Lorelle Meets The Obsolete, and it’s difficult to credit how the pair have managed to achieve such a well-rounded, expansive sound with just two players. The much-touted lead single What’s Holding You? sets the pace with caterwauling guitars, tweaked-out organ sounds and shuffling, clattering drums, and the vocals of Lorena (aka Lorelle). A shoegaze influence can be heard on The Myth of the Wise and Music For Dozens, attributable in part to the presence of Spacemen 3’s Sonic Boom, who produces the record. Alberto (The Obsolete) takes vocal duties on a few tracks, bringing rasping blues chords and dazed, muted murmurings to I Can’t Feel The Outside. Chambers is a record that, while offering little groundbreaking or earth-shattering, is impeccably written and played, with a washed-out lo-fi aesthetic that elevates it to the essential. [Bram E. Gieben]
Keel Her [Critical Heights, 10 Feb] While this self-titled collection is officially Keel Her’s debut album, Rose Keeler-Schäffeler is no debutante. Since 2011, the Brighton-based songwriter has shared songs online seemingly as fast as she can finish them – faster, in fact, with myriad works-in-progress amongst the EPs and compilations. Her DIY inventiveness has already won admiration from kindred spirit R. Stevie Moore (among others), and for those who haven’t been following her evolution in real-time, these 18 tracks present the perfect entry point. Underwritten by an inherent understanding that lo-fi needn’t be limiting, Keel Her never deigns to settle on single, clear style. Reflecting its creator’s raw curiosity, the album’s free-roaming aesthetic ventures from the scratchy post-punk of Go to the dense synth swirls of In My Head; the piercing fuzz-pop of Riot Grrl to the echo chamber fog of Pussywhipped. And best of all, should this economical taster menu appeal, there’s a buffet-load more where it came from. [Chris Buckle]
Blue Film [4AD, 24 Feb] The debut album by LA’s Matthew Hemerlein, aka Lo-Fang, sits comfortably alongside the neo-soul of James Blake, the spectral, ethereal hip-hop/R’n’B of Twin Shadow and How To Dress Well, and the quirky synth-pop experiments of Matthew Dear. His voice ranges from a burnished croon recalling Ninja Tune’s Fink (on the darkly-hued, string-led ballad Boris) to a smooth, soaring falsetto (on the magnificent opener Look Away), elevated considerably by conversational, lovelorn lyrics. The lithe, stop-start beats of Light Year and the euphoric electro of album highlight Animal Urges show he has considerable chops as a producer. As a classically trained multi-instrumentalist, he fills Blue Film with interesting compositional approaches and orchestral flourishes, while retaining a sparse, roomy minimalism. Although, occasionally, there is a blandness to both his subject matter and his delivery, there are enough glimmers of originality and invention to make this a rewarding listen, and a promising debut. [Bram E. Gieben]
Echaskech
Vulkano
Augustines
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Origin [Just Music, 24 Feb] With Origin, Hackney’s Echaskech return to the more beat-driven, stargazing material of their first two albums, incorporating a wealth of new analogue studio gear, live percussion, and densely textural field recordings. The new tracks have as much in common with the genre-disregarding electronic experiments of Planet Mu artists like Machinedrum and Kuedo as they do with the beat-driven, post-rock soundscapes of Fuck Buttons or even Mogwai; a sense of exploration pervades, and although no astonishingly new vistas are revealed, a great many peaks are conquered. There are spectral shoegaze guitars and layered synths on widescreen opener Scanners; spare, crunching post-dubstep on Metic, and Paper Scissors (which finishes in glorious static, like an offcut from the Black Mill Tapes by Pye Corner Audio). There is slowly coalescing breakbeat on Telomere; and finally, looped, cosmic techno and reverb-laced piano and guitars on Anomie. The album flows impressively, and while it might meander once or twice, it’s easy to be swept away. [Bram E. Gieben]
Review
Float [Exile On Mainstream, 3 Feb]
Lorelle Meets The Obsolete
Chambers [Sonic Cathedral / Captcha, 17 Feb]
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and his regular allies RocketNumberNine. From the stripped drums of opener Across the Water, Hebden positions Cherry’s bold, adventurous, poetic vocals at the luminous heart of a production style that nods to jazz, hip-hop and post-rock; her lyrical concerns addressing motherhood, spirituality and mortality. Blank Project ’s title track plays with distorted, Death Gripslike bass hits and driving percussion, Cherry emoting powerfully over the top. Naked’s atmospheric trip-hop harks back to her 80s heyday without sounding dated, Hebden’s lush instrumental bridge adding a weight to the stop-start beats. Then there are the urgent, chopped guitar riffs of Weightless; the drifting psychedelic R’n’B of 422; the frantic techno beats of Dossier; and the infectious pop of Out of the Black, featuring counterpoint vocals from Robyn. Nothing short of a triumph. [Bram E. Gieben]
Live Wild Die Free [Vulkano, 3 Feb] This Swedish duo’s overdriven garage-pop sounds something like a more cutesy, melodic take on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ sound, its relentless energy channelled through pounding percussion, sharp guitar hooks and organ arpeggios. Cissi Efraimson’s vocals veer drunkenly between breathy whispers, gasps and yelps, and the lyrics range across scifi, mythology and the paranormal; on infectious closer Wizard of Odd, she insists that ‘aliens from outer space’ are ‘all around us... eating your hate.’ Vulkano’s trick – an effective one – is generally to blend these elements within riff-driven songs at a frantic tempo (Choir of Wolves, 2 Young 2 Die); on slower pieces like Trolls, the sparseness of the arrangements can feel like a limitation, rather than a conscious decision to streamline their sound. In terms of its sonic palette, there’s nothing particularly fresh about Live Wild Die Free, but its idiosyncratic themes save it from generic blandness. [Sam Wiseman]
RECORDS
Augustines [Caroline Records, 3 Feb]
‘Earnestness’ has almost become a dirty word when applied to music. But on their debut album, Augustines managed to tread the tightrope successfully, producing a lovely set of power indie that fell just on the right side of clichè. On their eponymous second outing, however, they don’t strike nearly so lucky. Augustines is a half-baked eulogy to stadia the world over, which slides steadily downhill after the interesting Afrobeat twangs of first track ‘proper,’ Cruel City. The formula is so simple, it could’ve been kicked out of an Excel spreadsheet: start slow, introduce a kickdrum, gradually escalate to roof-raising crescendo, complete with choral harmonies, repeat. After a few listens, the sound of an advancing 4/4 in the distance will help you realise that even the most promising tracks (Walkabout, This Ain’t Me) are doomed: destined as they are to be swept away by the merciless tourbillon of schmaltz. [Finbarr Bermingham]
THE SKINNY
Temples
Broken Bells
Katy B
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Sun Structures [Heavenly Recordings, 10 Feb] Psychedelic. There, it’s been said. This record is so unmistakably of the genre and of an era that you can’t avoid the word, but Temples’ hotly tipped debut is by no means dated or lacking innovation. They’ve got rhythm, damn it, by the sandcastle-shaped bucketful. Four floppy-haired lads from Kettering have managed to self-produce an LP with confident, tasteful charm; Sun Structures sways and breathes with all the warmth and colour the name depicts, its dozen tracks proving a savvy synthesis of the influences they so transparently parade. From the woozy sleaze of the title track, to the dusty bravado of Sand Dance, to the cheekily self-aware chorus of Test of Time (‘standing the test of time,’ are we, boys?), to the hypnotic Colours To Life; frontman James Bagshaw’s curls have imbued him with an ear for the timeless. Heavenly in both signing and vibe, Temples are a band worthy of a little worship. [George Sully]
After The Disco [Columbia, 3 Feb] The first Broken Bells record should’ve been a breeze – the moment where Brian ‘Danger Mouse’ Burton’s potent spark would prompt Shins frontman James Mercer’s fading fires to burst back into flame – but sadly it felt like little more than the sum of its (admittedly very pleasant) parts. Mercer’s songs would change our lives, Natalie Portman promised us in Garden State. It seems an awfully long time ago. Sensibly, this sophomore effort refocuses the spotlight and pushes Danger Mouse’s pristine production into the foreground, as per the taut groove of The Changing Light. There’s more sass in Holding On for Life alone than the whole of that 2010 debut, while the sumptuous backdrop feels like Hall & Oates given an indie makeover. Coupled with Mercer’s strongest set of tunes in years, After The Disco justifies flipping the adage: if it’s broke, fix it. [Will Fitzpatrick]
Nina Persson
Let’s Wrestle
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Animal Heart [Lojinx Records, 10 Feb] With A Camp having last borne fruit in 2009 and The Cardigans’ recording hiatus ongoing, Nina Persson’s debut solo record qualifies as something of a comeback: the first sign of her dulcet voice in half a decade, guest appearances notwithstanding. Her vocal performances remain disarmingly superb, with a seductive huskiness having crept in somewhere in the interim to add depth to her erstwhile carefree croon. But a singer’s nothing without a song worthy of their talents, and in this regard, Persson’s return falls short. Throughout, Animal Heart plays things dispiritingly safe, with tasteful-but-tepid arrangements and blandly accomplished songwriting that tries on a range of hats (mild electro-pop on the title track; Disney Princess ballad on Dreaming of Houses; country lament on The Grand Destruction Game), none of which really fit. Here’s hoping that, whichever one of her outlets it comes from, Persson’s next outing furnishes her with material more befitting her vocal abilities. [Chris Buckle]
Little Red [Columbia, 10 Feb] A whopping 17 tracks on this, the second album from the Brit School graduate, offers value but, as is increasingly the case with major label releases, puts quantity before quality. Coming three years after refreshing debut On a Mission, an extended running time contributes to a certain lack of spark and misses the genre-crossing exploration that suggested Kathleen Brien had identity beyond the ‘feat. Katy B’ credits that had kick-started her career. Take the shears to Little Red and there’s a wily mix of beats (Next Thing) and smart pop (Blue Eyes) elbowing their way to the front. But it’s the more by-number moments (the predictable balladry of Tumbling Down and Emotions) that weaken the whole. That voice, its earthy burr becoming oddly reminiscent of Rihanna, is a marvel. It’s just a shame the material doesn’t do it justice more consistently than here. [Gary Kaill]
Poemss
Let’s Wrestle [Fortuna POP!, 17 Feb] After two full doses of rewardingly ramshackle indie-rock (2009’s In the Court of the Wrestling Let’s and 2011’s Nursing Home), Let’s Wrestle’s self-titled third album sees the band tuck in their shirts and leave dishevelled adolescence behind them. The transformation is pronounced, with the scruffy guitars of yore given a jingle-jangle refit and horns and strings creating a notably fuller, richer sound. But while the results are unerringly pleasant, if feels as if too many of the band’s youthful assets have ended up jettisoned or muted in the name of maturation. One thing Wesley Patrick Gonzalez and his cohorts haven’t misplaced is their knack for crafting catchy hooks, and tracks like Rain Ruins Revolution and Pull Through For You (featuring Veronica Falls’ Roxanne Clifford) are effective examples of the band’s sonic facelift. But the likes of Care For You’s B-list Britpop let the side down, rendering Let’s Wrestle uncharacteristically underwhelming. [Chris Buckle]
Poemss [Planet Mu, 10 Feb]
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Showing a different side of Planet Mu mainstay Aaron Funk, better known as Venetian Snares, this collaboration with Toronto producer and vocalist Joanne Pollock has none of the brutalist, high-impact weirdness which is Venetian Snares’ trademark, instead combining languid avant garde synth-pop with modern production flourishes and bizarre, fantastical, sometimes whimsical lyrics. ‘I hereby present you with this hair follicle of an ancient pony, who was once known to save the children in distress,’ Funk intones in a pitch-bent voice on opener Ancient Pony. This sets the tone; the deeply strange Heads On Heads sounds like a mixture of early Human League produced by Aphex Twin. Moviescapes offers beatless synth washes and a gentle ballad. Pollock’s Liz Fraser-esque vocal contributions, on their own, might have felt ephemeral, but tied to the obscure intonations of Funk, something beautiful and unique emerges, a synthesised phantasmagoria peopled by mythical creatures, full of imagery both menacing and cloyingly sweet. [Bram E. Gieben]
Angel Olsen
Tomorrow We Sail
The Notwist
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Burn Your Fire For No Witness [Jagjaguwar, 17 Feb] Four songs into her exquisite second LP, Angel Olsen’s deeply expressive voice alights upon the album’s title. ‘If you’ve still got some light in you then go before it’s gone,’ she whispers over skeletal arpeggios, ‘and burn your fire for no witness, it’s the only way to die.’ Suddenly, a phrase that in isolation suggested defiance becomes profoundly sad; just one example of Olsen’s acute lyrical gifts. The song in question (White Fire) is a fragile solo performance, and thus harks back to Olsen’s delicate debut Half Way Home. But elsewhere, Burn Your Fire For No Witness proves a bolder, more assertive expression of the Missouri-born songwriter’s talents, with Forgiven/Forgotten delivering crunchy, Breeders-like guitars and Hi-Five dressing its country crooning in distorting fuzz. Furthermore, upping the volume in this way renders the remaining quiet moments all the more intimate, with Windows a starkly emotional conclusion to an album of true beauty. [Chris Buckle]
Young Fathers Dead [Big Dada, 3 Feb]
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Releasing your debut album can be a nervewracking experience for any artist, but expectation levels are increased to gargantuan proportions when you’ve been tipped as ‘ones to watch’ for the past five years. Young Fathers were being hyped as long as ago as 2009, but this, their first album proper, is poles apart from the pop-leaning songs that first gained them attention. Dead continues the bass heavy, free-form direction that the Edinburgh trio explored on well-received EPs Tape One and Tape Two. No two songs sound the same; this is an album full of playful inventiveness. Alloysious Massaquoi and Kayus Bankole sing as much as they rap on stand out tracks No Way and WAR, with Graham Hastings’ production charting a unique course through drone-like synths and thunderous bass. Songs like Get Up show they’ve not completely shed those pop sensibilities, but ultimately Dead requires repeat visits before the extent of its powers are fully unveiled. [Chris McCall]
February 2014
For Those Who Caught the Sun in Flight [Gizeh Records, 10 Feb] Gizeh Records is a paragon of consistency, not only in terms of the quality of its output but in the overlaps and similarities between those on its roster. With post-rock, slowcore and neoclassical the key genres shaping For Those Who Caught the Sun in Flight, it’s fair to say that Tomorrow We Sail are a comfortable fit for the Manchester label – perhaps even too comfortable, since there’s little here that admirers of these gentle arts won’t have heard in some form before. Yet, demonstrating that familiarity need not breed contempt, the Leeds seven-piece trigger shivers at all the right moments, crafting heavenly symphonies by turns sombre and soaring. It’s taken them five years to get to this debut, and their unhurried diligence is reflected in the careful precision of every slicing violin, solemn vocal and bristling crescendo, and while it may not break new ground, it treads the already turned earth with exceptional grace. [Chris Buckle]
Wild Beasts
Present Tense [Domino, 24 Feb]
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Wild Beasts’ fourth album finds the Kendal quartet comfortable in their own skin, yet choosing to funnel that confidence into a development of their sound, rather than rest on their laurels. And what a sound it is: oxygenated by clean synths and carried by Chris Talbot’s sentient percussion, Present Tense is an exercise in delivering impact through seemingly minimal means. ‘Seemingly’, because for all the record’s block-colour electronics (Wanderlust, Sweet Spot) and tight lyrical vignettes (A Dog’s Life), there is exquisite detail here, not least on Nature Boy, co-vocalist Tom Fleming’s sinister show-stealer, in which his lupine baritone flexes and seizes above an interplay of piano, disgruntled frequencies and timid, tensile guitar. At points, you can almost taste the dust disturbed from the chalky skein of Talbot’s hand drums. Hayden Thorpe’s vocals, meanwhile, tend to be the gold to Fleming’s coal – Mecca showcasing their aerial acrobatics to the fullest, album-closer and unabashed love song Palace giving them wings. [Lauren Strain]
RECORDS
Close to the Glass [Sub Pop, 24 Feb] Where some bands trade in vitriol, The Notwist prefer icy chill. Their sound is clinical and emotionally lobotomised – you can imagine it being produced, drip by drip, in a bright white laboratory somewhere deep under the ground. Close to the Glass is the German band’s first record since 2008’s excellent The Devil, You + Me, and is more varied and ambitious, with the pitfall being that it’s at times less cohesive. 7-Hour-Drive is the most jarring track the band have produced in over a decade, but it lives briefly in the memory, given the quality of the rest of the album. There’s a sense of eeriness when the disembodied voice of Markus Acher sings, on Signals, ‘We want to be you / We want to be like you’, that returns, notably, on Run, Run, Run. But it’s the production that steals the show: the back five tracks, particularly the sublime instrumental Lineri, are a wonderful reminder that despite their frequent and long hiatuses, nobody makes music quite like The Notwist. [Finbarr Bermingham]
The Top Five 1 2 3 4 5
Neneh Cherry
Blank Project
The Notwist
Close to the Glass
Wild Beasts
Present Tense
Young Fathers
Dead
Illum Sphere
Ghosts of Then and Now
Review
43
The Dirty Dozen Interview: Gary Kaill Photography: Elinor Jones
Never shy of a withering put-down in song, in the flesh we find February’s guest singles surveyor Stephen Malkmus grappling with the role of the critic
Louise Rutkowski – Bedtime Story [from the album Diary of a Lost Girl, released 14 Feb via Jock Records] Stephen Malkmus: It sounds like she’s trying to be a little Kate Bush but it’s too much of a pop tune. It’s dramatic. It’s in a minor key and stuff. Her name is very… long. It sounds Polish. It’s like the name of a Holocaust survivor. I hope her fans don’t feel like that when they listen to her. It says she was in This Mortal Coil. Really? They were on 4AD, right? If the Cocteau Twins were The Sex Pistols, This Mortal Coil were like the Wire of the 4AD sound. This is so-so. Rare Monk – Splice [single released 18 Feb via B3SCI Records] SM: Mmm. It’s well recorded and stuff. I can’t hear what they’re saying – I’m trying to hear the words. It’s a little… It’s okay, you know? They’re kinda cool. I don’t wanna make them feel bad. I’m not dismissing it. It can’t be easy being a critic. People are spending a lot of time doing this, you know? They’re spending their lives on it. What do I know? Lacrosse – 50% of Your Love [from the album Are You Thinking of Me Every Minute of Every Day, out now via Tapete] SM: They’re called Lacrosse? That’s crazy. That’s just the craziest name for a band. When I had Sirius radio in my car, they’d play this band called Tennis. Non-stop Tennis. (Ponders.) Golf… I don’t know what they mean by calling themselves that. It’s a rough game but played by posh kids. Preppy guys from Maryland. The Skinny: Ever play? SM: Yeah! Well, I tried. Cos I was a bit of a nouveau riche preppy guy for a while when I was 17. But I was way too skinny. That was always the downfall for me – for every sport. Too skinny. The Skinny: What were you like at that age? SM: (laughs) I was just a… young California asshole. The Skinny: Not a fan of Lacrosse, then? The band. SM: (shakes head)
supposed to like John Martyn but I never did. The Skinny: Same here. I could never find a way in. SM: Yeah, I don’t know why cos I love Fairport Convention and Nick Drake. It’s hard. I mean this guy’s 23. I could never have done this at 23. He sounds like he’s 37. I guess it’s a little conservative but some conservative music is good. The Skinny: Like what? SM: I don’t know! Gordon Lightfoot? McCartney? I like McCartney – well, some. Even Elton John sometimes. Well not always. Not often. Rufus – Desert Night [single, out now via Sweat It Out] SM: This is on a major label, Columbia. (Reads promo sheet.) The Huffington Post like this. Mmm. That’s an odd place to get your quotes from. The production and rhythm is a little bit ham and eggs. I’m trying to imagine it making it to pop radio in the US. I can’t see it. I can see it being bigger here, in Europe. It’s a bit ‘bedroom artist’ but it’s not as good as, say, Lorde. I saw her play a radio show on Portland. It was abusively loud, super-bass loud. She’s good. She’s got zero charisma. But she’s 18, you know? Her wardrobe consists of just this one black shirt and these really blocky shoes she shouldn’t wear. If I’m the one saying she needs a makeover, there’s a problem. The Skinny: There’s not a lot to say about Rufus, evidently. SM: No, there isn’t. Doug Tuttle – Turn This Love [from the album Doug Tuttle, out now via Trouble In Mind] SM: I like the album cover. His sound’s got an obvious 60s influence. A little Beatles. It’s got like a blown-out sound. It’s just fine you know? I’m a little bit tired of that kind of music but it’s not that it’s bad. Who knows, maybe it goes further. That might be the poppy first song to pull you in. It’s totally fine. It’s sunshine pop.
Night Beats – Love Ain’t Strange [from the album Sonic Bloom, out now via Reverberation Appreciation] SM: There’s a lot of ‘Night’ bands. My drummer’s in a band called Street Nights. He wanted to be called Night Moves but then he found out there was another Night Moves. It’s supposed to be really cheesy, kinda 80s. The Skinny: Do you know Night Beats? SM: No, I don’t. It says they’re from Tacoma. That’s a small town. It’s like the asshole of Seattle. But this is good. I like that, that twangy guitar. This is more in the vein of The Sonics or 13th Floor Elevators. This would be popular at home in Portland. This would be more fun to see played live. The New Mendicants – Follow You Down [from the album Into the Lime, out now via One Little Indian] SM: Oh this has Norman Blake from Teenage Fanclub. He’s the main guy, right? And the guy from the Pernice Brothers. It’s going on a definite lo-fi kick. Maybe even four track. Okay, sounds like the guy’s really far away from the mic. But that toy piano isn’t far away. It’s got a lot of atmosphere – was that a car driving by? The Skinny: Norman’s holding up a glockenspiel on the cover. SM: Yeah ok. You’re right. It was a glock. Yeah, it’s like early Simon and Garfunkel. They’re good singers. I like it. It’s pretty. Merchandise – Begging For Your Life [single, out now via 4AD] SM: They’re from Florida? That’s cool. Is that horns? I’ll give them credit for that, in a weird way. Is it saxophones? It’s kinda confusing sounding, which I sort of like, but I think if I heard it a few times it might not sound so confusing. At first it was a bit ‘where’s the tune?’, which is a good sign, but then I’m worried if I heard it more I’d realise it was just this straight beat with weird horns. I’m not sure, but you know…
Helms Alee – Pleasure Center [from the album Sleepwalking Sailors, out 10 Feb via Sargent House] SM: There’s this band from Portland called Red Fang and they’re a real ‘Rock Band’, you know? And I can hear them in this a little. Okay. Not bad. Not my kind of music. But then they probably wouldn’t like my band, either. The Skinny: You can tell they’re from Seattle – it’s a little Alice in Chains. SM: Yeah. It could have been very Seattle – you know, the singer could have come in and been all “aaaaarghhhh!” but that singer was really melodic. I liked Alice in Chains. They were one of those spooky, heroin-sounding bands. That guy there did have a little Staley in his singing and that’s a good thing. But I don’t listen to that kind of music much around the house. (Looks across at Eli, The Skinny’s photographer, who’s been quietly taking his picture throughout.) Do you? You do? Sometimes? No? Something a little more, I don’t know, doom-y? Yeah? OK. That’s cool. The Skinny: Do you listen to your own music? SM: My own? No! The Skinny: Not even a sneaky listen to Pavement? SM: (laughs) Yeah, imagine me critiquing that: “Well that was pretty slow and apathetic...” TRACK OF THE MONTH Augustines – Nothing To Lose But Your Head [from the album Augustines, released 3 Feb via Caroline International] SM: Yeah, bit of U2 in there. I don’t know if there’s an audience for this, but if there is, they’ll like this. The Skinny: You should be their manager. SM: (laughs) I should! It’s got an anthemic feel to it and a communal quality. I don’t have a problem with that. That’s alright with me. You’re serving the people. ‘People music.’ It doesn’t make me so mad. No, it’s good. I like it. Like the singer with that big voice. This is the best. Yeah, it’s good.
Young Fathers – Low [single, out now via Big Dada/Anticon] SM: Young Fathers. That’s a funny name. I like that name. (Listens to first few bars.) They’re not a funny band, though. They got a real singer. Yeah, I could hear this on the radio. Is that a good thing? It could almost be Macklemore, you know? He’s like this lad rapper. My kids listen to him. It’s low stakes rap or whatever, but at least it’s trying to be politically fresh, maybe. But this doesn’t seem to have very high stakes either. It’s more like pop, really. I like the idea of rap, though. I’m more forgiving to rappers than I am to most indie rockers. Adam Holmes – Oh My God [from the album Heirs and Graces, out now via Gogar Records] SM: This is classy so far. Almost sounds like Gordon Lightfoot. The Skinny: There’s some John Martyn in there, too, I think. SM: Yeah, I hear that. I always thought I was
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Review
Stephen Malkmus
MUSIC
THE SKINNY
OPEN DAY
Thurs 6 Mar, 11am-4pm T COURSES AVAILABLE ASIC THE MANCHESTER MU BASE INCLUDE:
HND SIC PERFORMING MU
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Contact us now to arrange a tour & for more information about courses starting Sept 2014: www.trafford.ac.uk/openday or call 0161 886 7482
BOOK NOW: 0161 832 1111
manchesteracademy.net FEBRUARY Jefferson Starship Saturday 1st Skindred Sunday 2nd Ron Pope Tuesday 4th February Little Comets Wednesday 5th We Are The In Crowd Wednesday 5th Protest The Hero Thursday 6th Cassetteboy vs DJ Rubbish Friday 7th illumiNaughty – Masked Ball Part 2 Saturday 8th The Treatment Sunday 9th August Burns Red Monday 10th Phoenix Tuesday 11th The Defiled Tuesday 11th Mikill Pane Friday 14th Parquet Courts Saturday 15th Tich Saturday 15th Sonic Boom Six Wednesday 19th M.A.D. Friday 21st MDNGHT Saturday 22nd Laura Cantrell Saturday 22nd Rock Sound Impericon Exposure Tour 2014 We Came As Romans + Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! + The Color Morale + Palm Reader Wednesday 26th Black Onassis Thursday 27th
MARCH Temples Saturday 1st The Dear Hunter & Anthony Green Saturday 1st Blackberry Smoke Sunday 2nd Architects Friday 7th Heaven 17 Saturday 15th Maximo Park Saturday 15th Space & Republica Thursday 20th NME Awards tour 2014 with Austin, Texas: Interpol + Temples + Royal Blood + Circa Waves Thursday 20th Quadrophenia Night Friday 21st Ian Prowse & Amsterdam Friday 21st Heaven’s Basement Saturday 22nd Transmission – The Sounds Of Joy Division Saturday 22nd Earl Sweatshirt Tuesday 25th Bonafide Wednesday 26th Deathstars Wednesday 26th Azealia Banks Wednesday 26th Jack Savoretti Thursday 27th Loveable Rogues Friday 28th Tyrese, Ginuwine and Tank (TGT) Friday 28th The Stranglers Saturday 29th
APRIL Hopsin Tuesday 1st Therapy? Thursday 3rd Deaf Havana Saturday 5th Bipolar Sunshine Saturday 5th Mentallica vs Megadeth UK Saturday 5th Riverside Sunday 6th Devildriver Wednesday 9th The Wildhearts Thursday 10th Hue & Cry Thursday 10th Memphis May Fire Friday 11th UB40 Saturday 12th The Temperance Movement Wednesday 23rd Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats Thursday 24th Jace Everett with band Friday 25th The Smiths Ltd – The UK’s No.1 Smiths Tribute Saturday 26th Blood Red Shoes Monday 28th
MAY Northside Saturday 3rd Martin Stephenson & The Daintees Thursday 8th
For full listings visit manchesteracademy.net
February 2014
45 SKINNY.61x314.Master.indd 1
28/01/2014 15:42
The Fire Beneath the Sea
Camp and Furnace, Liverpool, 24 Jan
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Nathaniel Rateliff Leaf, Liverpool, 24 Jan
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For a man who’s recently released a new album – Falling Faster Than You Can Run – that’s steeped in heartache and seemingly born of a deep sense of isolation, Colorado’s Nathaniel Rateliff takes to the dimly lit stage in Leaf in excellent spirits, connecting with the eager crowd as he improvises an upbeat melody while the sound is sorted out. In pork pie hat and neckerchief and accompanied by his band on cello, keyboard and drums, the bearded troubadour opens the evening with When You’re Here before going straight into the title track of his new album. Though the band’s
subtle arrangements add texture, Rateliff’s lyricism always remains central – and his husky, melancholic drawl keeps the crowd silent in rapture. Rateliff draws from truly American influences: Right On sees the band, with its gentle shuffle, operating more like a jazz quartet, while Still Trying resembles a ragged country song. “If you roll in it long enough / your shit won’t even smell,” Rateliff sings in between crying out, unaccompanied, “I don’t know / I don’t know / a god-damned thing.” As the set draws to an end, manoeuvring through country twists and bluesy turns, Rateliff’s introspective poetics leave the crowd moved. [Natasha Linford]
Adam Green
Adam Green
The Deaf Institute, Manchester, 23 Jan
Mogwai
Mogwai
Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, 27 Jan
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Sitting down to witness ferociously loud, almost entirely instrumental electric-guitar work can, potentially, be a bit odd. These types of gigs require expert care and attention to prevent the crowd feeling too far removed from the situation. Tonight, the Bridgewater Hall is decked out with the kind of kit usually reserved for arenas, and resplendent with strobes for the inevitably big crescendos. Yet this stage set – and the band’s performance – lacks the intimacy sedentary shows often need; and while the focus may be on the more delicate aspects of the group’s oeuvre, aside from a few words from Stuart Braithwaite between tracks there’s scant dialogue for the duration.
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Review
You wouldn’t talk during a film, though, and this is the closest anyone is going to get to a celluloid epic without an actual movie being involved. From the breathtaking opening rendition of Heard About You Last Night – the first cut on latest LP Rave Tapes – to the inescapable power of I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead (which sounds like humanity is fighting back), the beautiful cacophonies are impossibly arresting despite the concentrated and often motionless body language on display. Perhaps it’s because Mogwai encourage imagery in the mind, like final offering We’re No Here, a city-eating monster that leaves half the audience standing in ovation. Perhaps not. Whatever the truth, it somehow works for us tonight, which, given the obvious potential to find fault, speaks volumes about the players who pulled it off, and their craftsmanship. [Martin Guttridge-Hewitt]
Photo: Nick Bojdo
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It’s mildly disappointing to find that, in the four years since this writer first saw him play, the phrase ‘man chest hair’ still forms the crux of Adam Green’s local stage banter. That night, he was – perhaps slightly incongruously – opening for The Cribs at the Apollo; this evening, he plays an impressively packed Deaf Institute totally acoustic. As he arrives onstage dressed as a sailor in the early stages of transition to pirate – Seinfeldesque puffy shirt present and correct – there at least appears to be some structure to the opening stages of the show, with Green, accompanied by Moldy Peaches back-up man Toby Goodshank on guitar, breezing through a selection of old solo material, Bluebirds and Pay the Toll included.
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks Gorilla, Manchester, 15 Jan
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“’Get ya cock out?’” Stephen Malkmus mimics in convincing Manc twang. “That’s so...déclassé!” Rather than lobby the former Pavement frontman in painfully predictable fashion, tonight’s audience opts for more left-field interaction. That crowd, sweltering in an uncomfortably rammed hall, is all smiles throughout, and uncommonly engaged across the room. It’s a telling mix of older heads and younger devotees (support act Joanna Gruesome – excellent and well-received tonight – are caught nodding approvingly), and The Jicks play off that response and each other, elevating their elastic grooves and switchback melodies. They are an increasingly distinct and capable outfit; note in particular bassist Joanna Bolme, whose playing is light of touch and heavy on detail.
MUSIC
The set is punctuated by Green’s endearingly awkward interactions with the audience, to the point that the gig’s second half is largely made up of requests from the crowd. To his credit, Green leaves nothing off-limits here, knocking out an a cappella version of Boss Inside “because I can’t remember the guitar part,” and even answering a widely booed question about his film projects. Last year’s date at the Ruby Lounge with Binki Shapiro saw the sheer energy of Green’s solo material put his partner firmly in the shade; even without a backing band tonight, he brims with an irresistible charisma that ensures the show’s ramshackle nature is a positive thing. It might not have been the most convincing vehicle for his songwriting, but this acoustic tour perhaps proves that Adam Green is a performer first and a musician second. [Joe Goggins]
Much of tonight’s set is drawn from new album, Wig Out at Jagbags. Planetary Motion and Surreal Teenagers stake claims for a place in the canon. Every other intro raises a cheer: Jenny and the Ess-Dog is a blast from the past, but a ‘cover’ of Harness Your Hopes is the only blast from the past-past. But who needs Pavement crumbs when Malkmus’s six-album solo repertoire is starting to put it to shame? The man himself is in high spirits, performing hip-swinging shimmies and dispatching a series of solos fashioned around that trademark squeal of overdrive and sustain. His often ignored musicianship highlights a thrilling duality. Indie prime mover? Or crafty classicist? His latest work, cut through with a sharp pop sensibility, finds accord between the tricksy and the accessible. It’s just those crowd management skills – “Oh – Black Book! Get Black Book out? Huh? What?!” – that leave a little to be desired. [Gary Kaill]
THE SKINNY
Photo: Sam Huddleston
Nathaniel Rateliff
Photo: Gaz Jones
It seems fitting as The Fire Beneath the Sea take to the Furnace stage tonight that they’re headlining the venue’s new, themed night, Neighbourhood BBQ Party: they’re practically a neighbourhood in themselves. This impressively sized 13-piece band with five MCs and a horn section already have the crowd going for it as they launch into their opening track Poor Little Fishy – a high-tempo, rambunctious riot of positivity. With a dedicated fan base and a recently
released EP, this Liverpool-based act have been making waves on the Mersey shores for some time now, their songs moving between hip hop, ska, funk, drum‘n’bass and swing – they’ve an intense energy that, given the converted warehouse environment, brings something of a summer festival vibe to this rainy day in January. Their many talented members give eccentric stage performances and, though their unique sound may not be to everyone’s taste, you’d struggle to listen to them without a smile on your face. [Natasha Linford]
Psychoacoustics Berlin expat A Guy Called Gerald delves into his roots, and reveals why he doesn’t plan on releasing any new material in the near future
Interview: Daniel Jones
oss Side has certainly spawned its fair share of pioneers over the years. Leader of the suffragette movement Emmeline Pankhurst grew up there; so did dystopian satirist Anthony Burgess. Looking slightly north to Hulme and you’ll find the birthplace of the first Rolls-Royce engine, not to mention Lemn Sissay’s old stomping ground. There’s also some bloke called Gerald Simpson, who is chiefly responsible for setting two completely different strains of British electronic music in motion. We have him to thank for the bare-knuckle blueprints of both UK acidhouse and jungle. Tip of the hat, sir. A nomad at heart, Simpson has spent the last 20 years flitting between England, America and, now, Germany, sculpting sonic waves and scouting out venues for his latest live project. Speaking from his flat in Berlin, he is keen to dive straight into the thinking behind an evolving “in session” approach. “Basically, I need a place where I can experiment on people,” he laughs, crunching through a bag of anonymous German crisps down the line. “We’re working on a space here, an old punk rock club in Kreuzberg; it’s actually our first night on 10 Feb. Early days yet, but I’m definitely drawn to the idea of finding a few stable venues around the planet, using them once a month to showcase new material live. That way, even though the number of ears is limited, people will get to hear the tracks as they were meant to sound.” Never one to sit on the fence when it comes to the various systems at play in the music industry, Simpson’s live experiments are a reaction to what he calls the “aesthetic change” in dance culture. “The current state of the scene has put me off the idea of releasing anything right now. Putting out a track in this climate is like adding a drop of water to a rainstorm, and it wouldn’t get any credit unless it was pressed on vinyl. That ultimately means losing half the sound quality.” After gathering the bones of 28 Gun Bad Boy together in the early 90s, Simpson insisted on attending every cut, watching different studio hands work their magic on the mixing desk. “In fact, the whole it-sounds-better-on-vinyl debate is so stupid,” he chides. “It’s like somebody saying they’d rather eat at Maccies over a Michelinstarred restaurant. People don’t understand that you’ve got a limited amount of real estate to put that music on, and the deeper the bass, the wider the cut. Some engineers are wizards when it comes to compression but you could never get it sounding like the DAT on the limited space of a 12". It’s kind of heartbreaking when you get the finished record back and half the track is missing.” For Simpson, the key lies in sound sculpture, and doing all he can to defy the progression of “dry-ass, thinned-out, over-sampled stereo
February 2014
A Guy Called Gerald
tracks with no intent.” He describes how his passion for mind-bending bass music stems from the vibrant sound clash culture in late 70s, early 80s Manchester. Back then, before dubstep shot itself in the proverbial foot, the whole genre debate seemed infinitely simpler. “You were either a dubhead or a funkhead,” he remembers. “Reggae or soul. I used to work as a box boy for these guys who built amps. The bass seemed so unrestricted back then, I mean, a guy would play a tune and God knows how it didn’t feed back because you’re almost levitating in the room. They’d enhance the sound with these things called chippers to bring out the high end. I’m talking boxes on boxes in somebody’s council flat. It shook the creases out of your trousers!” It wasn’t too long before a young Simpson began attending dance classes at the Shena Simon night school. He describes dancing as his “first serious passion,” which also pushed him to get his hands on an early Boss drum machine: “It meant being able to exercise to various tempos at home. Looking back, it was so basic, pretty much just a sine wave and white noise to build with. I had a bass guitar too, so I’d be sat there, plugged into my mum’s Amstrad stack, trying to play a Stanley Clarke line. At that point, everything was pointing towards making my own music.”
Despite going on to study in various styles, including classical at the Northern Ballet School, dancing began to take a back seat towards the tail end of the 80s. His decision to focus on production came largely after stumbling across Boston beatsmith Arthur Baker: “From then, I knew I needed more channels to play with, so I got a 4-track Tascam machine. We used to mess around in this shop called A1 Music every Saturday, they used to think we were a right pain in the arse. That’s where I first laid eyes on the 808.”
“Putting out a track in this climate is like adding a drop of water to a rainstorm” Gerald Simpson
settings, and it’s still my job to know exactly when and where. There’s no quick and easy solution; although, in theory, you could have a mass-moving dancefloor, complete with MIDI-controlled hydraulics to raise and lower the floor in time with the bass.” He chuckles again before adding: “That’d get ‘em going!” Simpson has always stood for innovation in that way. His albums on Juicebox in the early-tomid 90s pushed the electronic envelope even further, blending reggae with hip hop to forge a new path for percussive breaks. “There were a few basic formulas but everybody had their own style. Dubplates started popping up around the mid 90s, which bred a nice specialist vibe between DJs. Technology played a huge part in what was actually possible, like time-stretching when Akai brought out the S1000. You could literally define the music by the equipment that was being used. “Maybe it’s my age but I don’t feel that there’s the same rate of movement. There’s so much regurgitation. When you look at the technology that defines the music of this era, it’s pretty much the sync button and Auto-Tune,” considers Simpson, before dropping the news that he’s planning a prolonged meditation in the Varanasi region of North India later in the month: “I’ve been wanting to get away like this for a long time and I think it’s time to bite the bullet and go for it. Two weeks of strictly no talking, right on the banks of the Ganges!” On his return, Simpson will play the newly opened Underland, a former abattoir just off Ancoats, on 8 Feb. Then it’s back to Kreuzberg to get his global project well and truly off the ground. “There’s another venue in Dalston I’m looking at, Voodoo Ray’s, as well as the Analog Room in Dubai. They’ve got a really nice flavour over there, and a surprising number of techheads who deserve exposure. There’s gotta be little pockets like that everywhere, man. I wonder if there are any in India. Let me get back to you on that.”
Fuelled by the sounds of Bambaataa, Gino Soccio and Chick Corea, Simpson soon set to work on his own syncopations in a humble attic studio, with the idea of a bumping dancefloor very much in mind. But that, according to Simpson, is another major point of aesthetic contrast: “The idea of dance music isn’t the same now. You get a lot of people standing around, yawning, especially here in Berlin. A lot of people are terrified of cutting loose because they think it’s cheesy! It’s a genuine problem.” He makes a good point in terms of the interaction between crowd and DJ, arguing that “it’s much harder these days to spot the guys who are freaking the fuck out.” Instead, the mission of analysing different reactions and “microgesA Guy Called Gerald plays Underland, Manchester, 8 Feb, tures” from all four corners of the planet has 9pm, £12 become essential in order to decipher dancefloor www.guycalledgerald.com catalysts. “Different elements work in different
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Photo: Fergus McDonald
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CLUB
COMEDY
LIVE
FEB 2014
Presents
OTHER
SATURDAY 01 FEBRUARY
MAURICE FULTON & SPACE DIMENSION CONTROLLER 10PM : £8
WEDNESDAY 05 FEBRUARY
CHILDISH GAMBINO 7PM : (SOLD OUT) FRIDAY 07 FEBRUARY
MANO LE TOUGH & PROSUMER 10PM : £8 SATURDAY 08 FEBRUARY
THE NAUGHTYS (SCRUFF OF THE NECK RECORDS)
7PM : £8
SATURDAY 08 FEBRUARY
MAXXI SOUNDSYSTEM & OUTBOXX 11PM : £10 MONDAY 10 FEBRUARY
DEAD PREZ 7.30PM : £16
TUESDAY 11 FEBRUARY
CLUB LISTINGS SATURDAY 1st february
Girls on Film Electronic dance pop of the highest order
10PM / £3.00 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------friday 7th february
Revolver 60s Pop, Motown, Rock & Roll — 10PM / £3.00
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GOO & NOW WAVE PRESENT FOALS DJ SET Indie, BritPop, Shoegaze — 10PM / £9.00
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------FRIDAY 14th february
GET LuCKY A journey through disco music — 10PM / £3.00
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Revolver 60s Pop, Motown, Rock & Roll — 10PM / £3.00
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KAISER CHIEFS 7PM : (SOLD OUT)
UPTOWN Disco, Boogie, Funk, Wedding Bangers — 10PM / £3.00
WEDNESDAY 12 FEBRUARY
POP 10PM / £3.00
CLOUD CONTROL 7PM : £9 THURSDAY 13 FEBRUARY — MANCHESTER DISTRICT ARCHIVE PRESENTS:
RICHARD BOON & DAVE HASLAM 6.45PM : FREE ENTRY
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------saturday 22nd february -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------FRIDAY 28th february
REBEL muSIC ROCK ‘N’ ROLL & HIP HOP — 10PM / £3.00 WEEKLY CLUBS
FRIDAY 14 FEBRUARY
TUESDAYS
SATURDAY 15 FEBRUARY
Fruity — 10PM / £4.00 LIVE & EVENT LISTINGS : MUSIC HALL
JUICY 10PM : £3
JORIS VOORN 10PM : (SOLD OUT) TUESDAY 18 FEBRUARY
GROUPLOVE 7PM : £10
WEDNESDAY 19 FEBRUARY
GOLD TEETH Hip Hop, Garage, House, Disco, Funk, Rock & Roll, SATURDAY 1ST FEBruary
THE WAVE PICTURES 7.30PM / £9.00
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YOUNG FATHERS 7PM / £8.50
OF MONTREAL 7.30PM : £15
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THURSDAY 20 FEBRUARY
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DAMIEN DEMPSEY 7PM : £15 FRIDAY 21 FEBRUARY
BICEP ALL NIGHT LONG 10PM : £8 SATURDAY 22 FEBRUARY — GROUP THERAPY COMEDY CLUB PRESENTS:
TONY LAW 7PM : £10 / £8
SATURDAY 22 FEBRUARY
TUBE & BERGER 11PM : £3 SUNDAY 23 FEBRUARY
BLACK SUBMARINE 7PM / £17.50
PACIFIC + CONQUER RIO 7PM / £7.00
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FOREST SWORDS + GNOD 7.30PM / £9.00
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FANFARLO 7.30PM / £9.00
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KESTON COBBLERS CLUB 7.30PM / £7.00
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DANNY BROWN + VIC MENSA 7.30PM : £16
CATE LE BON + SEA LION 7PM / £9.00
MONDAY 24 FEBRUARY
SPEEDY ORTIZ + JOANNA GRUESOME 7.30PM / £7.00
TOY 7.30PM : £10
TUESDAY 25 FEBRUARY
THE JEZABELS 7PM : £10 WEDNESDAY 26 FEBRUARY
GOBLIN + ANDY VOTEL 7.30PM : £20 THURSDAY 27 FEBRUARY
CLAUDE VONSTROKE 10PM : £8 FRIDAY 28 FEBRUARY — GRIMM UP NORTH PRESENTS:
TENEBRAE (FILM SCREENING) 7PM : £6 THISISGORILLA.COM
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------SUNDAY 16TH FEBruary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------FRIDAY 21ST FEBruary
BOY & BEAR 7PM / sold out
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GEORGE EZRA
7PM / sold out ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------TUESDAY 25TH FEBruary
PAPER AEROPLANES + COUSIN JACK 7PM / £9.00
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JOHN MURRY 7PM / £10.00
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THEDEAFINSTITUTE.CO.UK
W I N T E R / S P R I N G 2 0 1 4 • LIVE • CLUB • CLASSICAL
06.FEB ANNA CALVI 07.FEB MODERAT LIVE 15.FEB DAMIAN LAZARUS / ART DEPARTMENT INFINITY INK 28.FEB SOLD OUT BONOBO LIVE 28.FEB MK / HOT SINCE 82 / HUXLEY 01.MAR ANNIE MAC / DAVID RODIGAN REDLIGHT / MELE 20.MAR SOLD OUT BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB 21.MAR SOLD OUT BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB 21.MAR DIXON / MATTHIAS TANZMANN / HEIDI 26.MAR WILD BEASTS 20.APR SASHA & SPECIAL GUESTS 27.APR MANCHESTER CAMERATA 17.MAY SOLD OUT NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL 18.MAY SOLD OUT NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
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Clubbing Highlights Despite being the shortest month of the year by a staggering two days, February is crammed full of quality jocks. In Liverpool: Objekt, Rahaan and Levon Vincent. In Manchester: Maurice Fulton, Mano Le Tough and Prosumer Words: Jake Hulyer Illustration: Yvette Earl
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ow that all resolve to uphold those New Year’s resolutions has well and truly waned, February is an ideal time to reacquaint yourself with the dark, sweaty rooms you may have been avoiding for the past month for reasons financial, health-related or otherwise. As you are no doubt aware, winter’s far from over; but while you battle through the bitter wind and possible snow, there’s a plethora of enticing bookings waiting to ward away the winter blues. Kicking off the month in Manchester, on 1 Feb Stevie Wonderland have invited down the time-travelling intergalactic funk peddler Space Dimension Controller to showcase the cosmic boogie sound that he’s cultivated on his records, most notably on last year’s meticulous concept album for R&S. Alongside him on the bill is Maurice Fulton, whose new and old disco selections should mean that there will be no shortage of funk-laden basslines over the course of the night – a no-brainer for anyone after some guilt-free nostalgia (£8). On the same night, Liverpool’s East Village Arts Club will be taken over by Circus, where the longstanding night will host Steve Lawler for a set most likely consisting of clacking, percussive tribal house (£20). The sixth birthday celebrations for mUmU will also be taking place in Liverpool, featuring Radio Slave among many others, with their usual no-nonsense approach guiding what will most certainly be rugged house and techno at a location TBA to ticket holders (1 Feb, £25). The following Friday, The Warehouse Project and Trof have teamed up to bring (sort of) electronic supergroup Moderat to the grand setting of the newly restored Albert Hall. As the first of a series of late night events programmed by the two promoters there, the trio will be playing a live set. Their pop-inclined take on electronic music, executed so successfully on their record II last year, means that some hands-in-the-air, transcendental moments below the Albert Hall’s gilded ceiling could well be in store (7 Feb, £18.50). Also on that Friday, Coded Rhythm at Joshua Brooks will be headlined by xxxy; his interesting takes on house and techno are informed by a taste for the euphoric, which promises a DJ set characterised by largely the same principles (£7). At Gorilla, Selective Hearing have bagged a double whammy of Berlin-based house DJs; Mano Le Tough and Prosumer will no doubt bring the goods for anyone after some emotive, intelligent dance music (7 Feb, £8). According to listings, Mano will be shooting across the M62 to play Abandon Silence at Liverpool’s Kazimier on the very same night, supported by Tom Trago and Leon Vynehall. It’s sold out, like, but keep an eye on it. Over at The Shipping Forecast, Hustle have lined up an evening featuring two less celebrated veterans of the house and disco scene: firstly, Rahaan, who, hailing from Chicago, is sure to drop a wealth of golden disco cuts that’ll most likely be all the more welcome for their unfamiliarity; and secondly, the UK’s own Terry Farley, who will be bringing the classic house and 808 acid squelch that he was a part of developing in the 80s (8 Feb, £8). For the next edition of fledgling Manc night Four20, Leeds’ Jonny Cade will be taking to the booth at Joshua Brooks: expect
February 2014
tech-y and garage house from the young producer who has previously collaborated with Huxley. In support is Chésus, who produces jazz-inflected, 90s-esque house music, as well as putting out hip hop as part of Darkhouse Family – so he may well have a few curveballs up his sleeve on the night (8 Feb, £7). If your idea of a romantic evening is rhythmically rubbing yourself up against lots of strangers in a small confined space to the soundtrack of dub techno, then you’re in luck as LDMS are holding a Valentine’s Special with Levon Vincent at Liverpool’s 40 Seel St (14 Feb, £7). With his atmospheric, lo-fi releases on his own Novel Sound imprint in perpetual high demand, and a recent pledge to finance a young producer’s musical development revealing him as an all-round nice guy, what more reason do you need to get yourself to this night of blossoming techno romance? Music Is Love over in Manchester also seems an appropriately titled choice for Valentine’s, though their line-up, featuring Chez Damier, Marquis Hawkes and Point G, is certainly not for the faint-hearted. At the newly re-opened Sankeys, this one looks like the top pick for those looking to make a return to the Manchester institution after its expansion to Ibiza and New York (14 Feb, £15). On 19 Feb, Chow Down and Project 13 are coming together to bring DJ Rashad, man of the moment, to Manchester’s Soup Kitchen. His Double Cup LP for Hyperdub at the tail end of last year is arguably the record that brought juke and footwork to the masses (well, maybe not the masses). Retaining the distinctive sound he helped develop, Rashad has managed to incorporate jungle and hip-hop influences to devastating effect. For £5, you really don’t have any excuses for missing a man at the top of his game right now. Elsewhere, 21 Feb sees the So Flute crew pull one of their biggest names to date, funk/ soul selector supreme Floating Points. He’ll no doubt be treating the Roadhouse basement to an impressive haul of dusty relics from around the world (£10). Same night, meandyou. make up for lost time by finally bringing Ron Morelli back to Manchester after his unfortunate absence last August. The L.I.E.S. boss is sitting prettier than most going into 2014, at the very top of one of the hottest properties in dance music. Well worth a fiver. For some more low signal manipulation, Objekt, a name you might recall for his subrattling Cactus released on Hessle Audio back in 2012, will be featuring in Liverpool for Less Effect at 24 Kitchen Street on 21 Feb (£7). His releases are extremely limited, but, like his online mixes, they feature all kinds of abrasive, weighty sounds. In support will be Rich Furness and Harry Sheehan, Liverpool natives with a number of appearances at Chibuku and Abandon Silence under their belts. Finally, Motion will be presiding over another evening at Fallout Factory on 28 Feb (£8) – the guys bring in Faceless co-founder Barber, following on from the disco fuelled antics of their first birthday with Greg Wilson. [Jake Hulyer] Ticket prices are advance unless otherwise specified; some events may be more on the door
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DJ Chart: Legowelt Danny Wolfers selects five tracks, from Memphis rap to cyberpunk Interview: Daniel Jones
I
n terms of lush, intergalactic wizardry, not many producers can compare to the freaky magician that is Danny Wolfers. Hailing from Den Haag (to us, The Hague), Wolfers has been pushing a prolific stream of releases since the mid 90s, a recorded testament to his unstinting work-rate. His productions (as Legowelt) range from tough Blake Baxter-esque techno to lo-fi electro down at the spacier end of the spectrum. Or, in the words of Wolfers himself, his style is “a hybrid form of slam jack combined with deep Chicago house, romantic ghetto technofunk and EuroHorror Soundtrack.” He’s not far off. A long-time friend of fellow Hagenaar DJ TLR, Wolfers has been a part of the Crème Organization family since day one. His latest LP on the label, Crystal Cult 2080, lands at the end of March, and takes its name from “a homemade germanium crystal compressor” with which Wolfers recorded the entire album. Outside of Legowelt, Wolfers has gradually whipped up a smorgasbord of other aliases (Nacho Patrol, Polarius, Smackos, etc.) which goes to show three things: one, the sheer variety of his musical palette; two, endless configurations of era-specific gear; and three, a lack of desire for universal recognition. This selection, five of his all-time favourite tracks, could well have been picked by several different versions of Danny Wolfers. As to which side of his musicality is responsible for which track, your guess is as good as ours.
K.A.T.O. – Fantasies of Lust [Nu Groove] An obscure Ronald Burrell record, every track is good on here but the gem is hidden away on the B-side, Fantasies of Lust. It’s got a real sleazy Burrell Nu Groove beat with this ultra-sensual, monophonic, portamento’d lead line that just keeps repeating in an everlasting circle of longing carnal soul. And the vocals – just “Fantasies of Lust” barely catching the notes – I was really surprised this didn’t make it on Rush Hour’s Burrell Brothers compilation last year because this is pure hot steam! Walt J – Feel What I Feel [Dow Records] The essence of pure soul Detroit elixir. I’ve studied every millisecond of Walt J’s productions and there is something about this guy, a certain impulsive sincerity. This track sounds as if it’s just shuffled out of his sleeve, a few sampled chords and an R8 drum machine rhythm with some shy timid vocals that go “A lot of people just misunderstand me, about the things I do and how I express myself / I wish I could just reach out and touch you and make you feel what I feel” – and blammo, in comes that 909 kick! People just don’t make simple honest records like this anymore. SPV Click – Time To Hit The Dope [Playa Fly] One of the staples of the early Memphis rap scene, I don’t know what was going on over there but something special happened in that city during that time. A lesson in drum machine witchcraft, all it takes is a mesmerizing hypnotic
Legowelt
melody and a sampled vocal snippet (“Time to hit the dope HOE!”) that keeps repeating like a mantra, transporting your soul into a pleasant state of evaporating crepuscular light. Flo & Andrew – Japanese Girls [Broadbean] This is from Bologna, Italy, dating from the early 80s. Almost proto techno with tear-jerking 5th pads and little bleeps lost in a distant fog. But it’s those vocals that push everything over the edge, the cryptic ramblings of complete psychotic breakdown. Desperation with intense dark beauty.
Clock DVA - NYC Overload [Interfisch] The ultimate cyberpunk song in my book. It must be watched alongside the ultra-cool Amiga DPaint videoclip for full effect! It has this cold FM baseline over the arrangement of cinematic strings and all these freaky perfectly EQ’d bleeps and cyber-information sounds. Creepy malicious vocals, like if they would remake that movie The Conversation but with Adam X instead of Gene Hackman in the leading role. Read our interview with Legowelt at theskinny.co.uk/clubs
Crystal Cult 2080 is out on Crème Organization late Mar
Q&A: Bugged Out! Dance and electronic festival Bugged Out! brings Todd Terje, Kölsch, Daniel Avery and more to Southport in March. Head honchos Charlotte Hotham and John Burgess tell their story Interview: Daniel Jones
Tell us a little bit about the ethos behind Bugged Out? John Burgess: “We were a cult techno magazine called Jockey Slut first, which the night evolved from in 1994. I think the night still has the ethos of a magazine; though we are rooted in acid house we evolve with time and still try and reflect what is happening at the moment.” The brand itself has been going for close to 20 years now, when did things start getting serious? JB: “We’re 20 this year. We did a few small parties with Jockey Slut called Drinking Club and then Disco Pogo in Manchester. The owner of Sankeys Soap, Andrew Spiro, liked Disco Pogo, the music and crowd and invited us to host a weekly Friday at Sankeys. The first night was 24 November 1994 with LFO, Autechre and James Lavelle.” How has your taste evolved in that time? JB: “Our roots are techno, acid house and their mutant variations. Every four or five years there are shifts within that culture and – as we’re fans of clubbing first and foremost – we get excited by
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these shifts as they bring forth new talents like Tiga and Erol Alkan in 2001, Justice in 2005, [and recently] Jackmaster and Daniel Avery.” This year sees the event move to the sunny shores of Southport. What was your thinking behind the move? Charlotte Hotham: “We’re going back to our Northern roots. As we’re celebrating 20 years of Bugged Out it’s a natural fit for us to return to the North to kickstart our birthday celebrations. Northerners know how to party. Pontins Southport has such a huge history with music weekenders, the Southport started there, Tribal Gathering, Northern Soul weekenders, it’s a perfect fit for us… and the rave rooms look amazing!” What was your approach when selecting this year’s line-up? CH: “We’ve tried to have a good balance of all the DJs who have been synonymous with Bugged Out over our 20 years. Dave Clarke and Green Velvet were some of the first acts we booked in the mid-90s and we’re still booking them now. There’s loads on the line-up that we’re looking forward
Todd Terje
to, Todd Terje’s first UK live show is a definite must-see, the edibleskreamizm stage can’t be missed, Route 94 and Ten Walls. There’s just too much to mention! Oh and Kölsch’s Der Alte has become something of a Weekender anthem so we’re really excited to have him play.” Any other fun-fuelled activities are on offer? CH: “Loads! Rave Karaoke, Pulse DJ Musical Bingo, Mixmag Secret Chalet Party, the famous Pool Parties are happening on Saturday and Sunday and there’ll be loads of secret pop-up surprises over the course of the event. And, of course, we’ve got The Skinny Pub Quiz too.”
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Ah yes, that could get messy. What’s in it for the punters? CH: “Prizes beyond their wildest dreams. A yearlong guest list to Bugged Out among much more!” Bugged Out! Weekender, Pontins Southport, 7-9 Mar The Skinny hosts the Bugged Out! Pub Quiz on the Saturday afternoon, 8 Mar Check out Johnno's Bugged Out! Classics tracklist online at theskinny.co.uk/clubs www.buggedoutweekender.net
THE SKINNY
Andrew Norman Wilson and Aily Nash - Dream Factory (2013)
Time & Motion: Redefining Working Life FACT Liverpool, until 9 Mar
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Under strip lights, a group of young people in blue overalls solder wires and pass plastic components along a conveyor belt. But these Chinese workers aren’t manufacturing consumer electronics. They’re performing for 75 Watt, a new video piece by Revital Cohen and Tuur Van Balen. After all, what exactly is work? Split between FACT’s two gallery spaces, Time & Motion is a mixture of new pieces and archive material (newspaper clippings, photographs, book covers) all exploring the working day. It’s all presented in collaboration with the Royal College of Art, and includes a groundfloor co-working space available to the public. Central to the exhibition is Victorian social reformer Robert Owen’s call for factory workers to have “eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest.” Time & Motion explores our conception of the working day, of labour and the disparity between earning potential, as demonstrated by Oliver Walker’s new video installation One Pound. Four screens display videos showing how long it takes for different workers
to earn £1. Agricultural workers toil in a dusty field, picking and bailing cotton for over an hour. Elsewhere, a smiling, sharp-suited stockbroker flashes up on screen for less than a second. Punchcard Economy, a machine-knitted banner by Sam Meech, dominates FACT’s cafe space. Looking closer, gridlike patterns decorate the background. They’re based on punchcards documenting the working patterns of members of the public that have been collected by the Northwest-based artist. Upstairs in Gallery 2, Andrew Norman Wilson’s film Workers Leaving the Googleplex investigates some dubious working practices at Google’s Silicon Valley headquarters. Another highlight is Gregory Barsamian’s Die Falle, a kinetic sculpture representing the unending cycle of human labour. It’s equally baffling and beautiful. Time & Motion asks powerful questions about working lives and the dissolving boundaries between labour, rest and recreation. [Jacky Hall] 12pm-6pm, Free www.fact.co.uk
John Darwell - Collapsed Brussels Sprout
Edward Chell: Soft Estate
The Bluecoat, Liverpool, until 23 Feb
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Edward Chell is an artist who can often be seen in a high-visibility jacket and hard hat exploring the verges of many major roads around the UK. Although this practice may seem a little eccentric, these verges are an important natural habitat, where some of our rarest flowers are given the space to thrive. An exhibition proposed by Chell and expanded by The Bluecoat into a group show, Soft Estate takes its name from the Highways Agency’s term to describe road verges – and the exhibition reveals both the beauty and pollution hidden within these urban edgelands. Chell’s work, concentrated on motorway verges, seems to scream about environmental issues; his painted silhouettes of different plant species found on these strips of land look like cross sections after the plants have absorbed pollution from passing traffic. The artist’s delicate prints themselves utilise a form of pollution, having been produced from a finely milled road
dust collected from the roadside. Sandwiched in between Chell’s work are images from The Caravan Gallery, well-travelled edgelanders who seek the anomalies that occur when spaces undergo regeneration. Laura Oldfield Ford’s ballpoint pen drawings of avoided urban spaces are captivating, their neon detail and scrawled graffiti reminiscent of the louder elements of 90s pop culture. Nearby, a selection of photographer John Darwell’s images of a littered ‘non-space’ near his home reflect his interest in industrial change, and explore what happens when urban spaces are left unowned. When passing one of Chell’s motorway-style signs that contains a quote too long to be read at high speed, it’s a reminder of how quickly we zip by some of our most familiar urban spaces. This exhibition persuades us to take a closer look at what we often ignore, revealing what’s really below the surface. [Emma Sumner] 10am-6pm, Free www.thebluecoat.org.uk
Band on the Wall
February Listings 2014 www.bandonthewall.org / 0845 2500 500
01.02.2014: CLUB—
MR SCRUFF
Shop | Eat | Make | See
16.02.2014: LIVE —
ACOUSTIC BHUNA FT. JAMIE BREWER, ——————————————————— GLASS TIDES + TAYLOR & THE MASON 02.02.2014: LIVE — ——————————————————— ACOUSTIC BHUNA FT. WHERE JOY KILLS 18.02.2014: LIVE — SORROW, TE YATES AND ASH HUNTER ZARA MCFARLANE
Manchester Craft & Design Centre is an award-winning venue for handmade goods, available from 18 studio boutiques. Visit our café for tasty homemade food and browse our exhibition space - all under one Victorian glass roof.
——————————————————— ——————————————————— 06.02.2014: LIVE —
NATALIE WILLIAMS
20.02.2014: LIVE —
THE ARISTOCRATS + GODSTICKS
——————————————————— ——————————————————— 07.02.2014: CLUB — 21.02.2014: LIVE — XFM’S FIRST FRIDAY FT. FINDLAY & DEXTERS GAPPY RANKS & THE SOUL REBEL
——————————————————— BAND + DJ JOEY B (HOT MILK) 08.02.2014: LIVE — ——————————————————— ERIC ROBERSON + DJ PAUL MAC 22.02.2014: CLUB — ——————————————————— CRAIG CHARLES FUNK & SOUL CLUB FT. 11.02.2014: LIVE —
EWAN DOBSON
JOHN TURRELL & THE HEED
—————————————————— ——————————————————— — 24.02.2014: LIVE — 13.02.2014: LIVE —
PHAROAHE MONCH + APE CULT & IN THE LOOP COLLECTIVE
MUSICAL ADVENTURES IN MANCHESTER
14.02.2014: LIVE —
THE JAMES TAYLOR QUARTET + DJ MIKEY DON
DAVE FORMULA AND THE FINKS
HEATHER PEACE
28.02.2014: CLUB — SOUL:UTION FT. DOC SCOTT, MARCUS
THE PROSPECTORS + GRAHAM MASSEY
—————————————————— ——————————————————— — 27.02.2014: LIVE — ——————————————————— 28.02.2014: LIVE —
——————————————————— BLUE TOUCH PAPER 15.02.2014: LIVE — ———————————————————
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February 2014
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Review
51
February Film Events
Only Lovers Left Alive
Dallas Buyers Club
Words: Simon Bland
Her
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto, Jennifer Garner Released: 7 Feb Certificate: 15
Director: Spike Jonze Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson, Amy Adams Released: Out now Certificate: 15
There’s something terribly banal about Dallas Buyers Club, Jean-Marc Vallée’s old-fashioned redemption piece about a crooked Texan bigot finding open-mindedness and compassion only when faced with his own mortality. However, thanks to a lack of heartstrings being insincerely tugged and magnetic performances from Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto, this familiarity never quite breeds contempt. McConaughey plays Ron Woodroof, a homophobic Dallas electrician diagnosed with HIV in 1985 who spent his last years sourcing and distributing AIDS treatments that were not approved by the US Government. Alarmingly frail and seeming much shorter than his 6ft, McConaughey’s changed physicality brings tragic irony to Woodroof’s macho posturing of the first hour and sympathy for his struggles in the last. Leto, similarly transformed, offers sass and sadness in the role of Rayon, Ron’s drug-addled transgender business partner. The quality of these turns provides the only surprise, though, as every expected narrative beat is hit; one scene in a supermarket is particularly inelegant in demonstrating the protagonist’s evolving world view. Hallmark stuff, elevated by on-screen class. [Chris Fyvie]
Each of Spike Jonze’s films to date has hinged on a far-fetched premise, but, crucially, they have all possessed an insight and depth of feeling that makes them much more than a mere flight of fancy. His first original screenplay Her is set in a future society cleverly extrapolated from our own, with the hordes of people constantly engaging with their handheld device being a very familiar sight. Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) is a lonely geek who falls in love with his computer’s new operating system, an artificial intelligence called Samantha (voiced by a sultry Scarlett Johansson), and Jonze mines this odd situation for an extraordinary range of emotions, with Phoenix’s reactions to his unseen paramour speaking volumes through the smallest gestures. Jonze ultimately allows his bold concept to drift away into a rather trite conclusion, but so much of his film is sincere, thoughtful and lovingly crafted. Her asks us to consider what constitutes a ‘real’ relationship in a world where every interaction is filtered through technology, making it feel like a vital contemporary romance. [Philip Concannon]
Bastards
Stranger by the Lake
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Director: Claire Denis Starring: Vincent Lindon, Chiara Mastroianni, Lola Créton Released: 14 Feb Certificate: 18
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Director: Alain Guiraudie Starring: Pierre Deladonchamps, Christophe Paou Released: 21 Feb Certificate: 18
Noir-infused tragedy Bastards sees director Claire Denis back in her more polarising mode as the dark queen of French cinema, with a work of bewitching atmosphere that veers between the sensual and repulsive. Its elliptical narrative concerns a ship captain, Marco (Lindon), returning to land when a series of hardships strike his sister’s family. The abuse of his troubled niece (Créton), the collapse of the family business, and the suicide of his brother-in-law all seem linked to a sinister businessman (Subor). Driven by mysterious motives not entirely predicated on overt vengeance, Marco begins a heated affair with the businessman’s wife (Mastroianni), while all involved find themselves caught in a hell they can’t escape, directed by impulses not fully comprehensible, even to them. Endlessly propulsive in its lean storytelling, sublimely shot by Denis’ long-time cinematographer Agnès Godard (her first time shooting on digital for Denis), and bolstered by a hauntingly ghoulish score by Tindersticks, this is a beautiful nightmare of a film that sears in the brain like few others. [Josh Slater-Williams]
When was the last time you saw an erotic thriller that worked simultaneously on both levels? Stranger by the Lake is the rare film that integrates explicit sex into an increasingly taut narrative, while also functioning as a compelling look at amour fou and a wry comedy of manners. Alain Guiraudie’s film takes place entirely within the confines of an idyllic lakeside hideaway, where naked men sunbathe, check each other out and occasionally disappear into the bushes together. Franck (Deladonchamps) is a newcomer at the site, unwisely looking for love in this sex-charged atmosphere, and he becomes besotted with the mysterious Michel (Paou); a fixation that isn’t dampened – perhaps it’s even intensified – when he sees Michel murdering a previous lover. Brilliantly filmed by Claire Mathon in glistening natural sunlight that gradually segues into nightmarish darkness, Stranger by the Lake is a provocative examination of homosexual desire and a first-rate work of Hitchcockian suspense. The whole film pulses with a tangible sense of danger and obsession. [Philip Concannon]
Only Lovers Left Alive
An Oversimplification of Her Beauty
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Director: Jim Jarmusch Starring: Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowska Released: 21 Feb Certificate: 15 If you have ever taken a moment to wonder what a vampire romance directed by Jim Jarmusch would look like, then Only Lovers Left Alive probably comes pretty close to the film you imagined. Detached, languid and drily amusing, this is a tale of vampires whose biggest problem is not sunlight or garlic, but an overwhelming sense of ennui. Adam (Hiddleston) and Eve (Swinton) have been together for centuries, but they have grown weary of the cultural decay and aimless zombies (i.e. us) that they see all around them. There’s not a lot of plot to sustain Only Lovers Left Alive’s casual pacing – that is until a sparky Mia Wasikowska turns up as Eve’s petulant younger sister – but it’s just fun to hang out in this world and share these vamps’ fetishistic pleasure in physical media. Like most Jarmusch films, Only Lovers Left Alive occasionally threatens to be a little too cool for its own good, but at least the characters’ undead status makes their name-dropping more interesting than most: “Byron – what a bore.” [Philip Concannon]
52
Review
Cinema, like love, has many shades. Sometimes it’s all kissing in the rain and romantic meetings at New York landmarks; at other times it’s all joyless sex and projectile vomiting. This month’s film events in Liverpool and Manchester have both in equal measure
Director: Terence Nance Starring: Terence Nance, Namik Minter, Alisa Becher Released: 7 Feb Certificate: 12A
An Oversimplification of Her Beauty is a love story, and it appropriately feels as if it has been made with the heart more than the head. This debut feature from artist Terence Nance is overstuffed with ideas and full of clashing styles and tones, but as he imaginatively explores his unrequited longing for fellow artist (Namik Minter), he comes up with some piercing insights and resonant truths about the nature of love and relationships. There’s an arresting sense of freedom and playfulness in Nance’s rejection of cinematic convention here. He moves back and forward in time through the ejection and insertion of VHS tapes, and he incorporates a breathtakingly varied and striking series of animated sequences to bring his past romances to life. This is bold, ambitious and beguiling filmmaking from a young talent who has burst forth with a distinctive vision and a clear, heartfelt voice. Sure, you can accuse An Oversimplification of Her Beauty of being ungainly, contradictory and confusing, but then, so is love. [Philip Concannon]
FILM
I
t’s February! A time for lovey-dovey made up words of smushy-mushy sentimentality. So if you’re looking to treat your special someone, give them the gift of Ryan Gosling by heading down to Manchester’s Dancehouse Theatre on 20 Feb. There you’ll find tearjerker classic The Notebook, plus plenty of damp tissues and folks gently whispering, “If you’re a bird, I’m a bird.” Director Nick Cassavetes’ gushy tale of enduring love has quickly become a staple ingredient of any girly night in. Catching it at this gloriously retro Mancunian setting has all the components for a perfect (late) Valentine’s date. Liverpool’s Cineworld, meanwhile, is hosting its own Valentine’s do with a screening of Nora Ephron’s charming 90s rom-com Sleepless in Seattle (14 Feb). Arguably the movie that redefined the romance genre, this crowd-pleaser stars Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan as two singletons inexplicably drawn together. If you’re looking for a reason to cuddle up, nobody does it better than Ephron. Lovesick? The Dancehouse has something for you, too. Celebrate the big day by exchanging flowers and chocolates for green vomit and Ouija boards with The Anti-Valentine’s Night Out (14 Feb). This lovingly sinister Valentine’s alternative summons William Friedkin’s infamous horror The Exorcist back to the big screen. You’ll also get two demonically alcoholic cocktails to sip while you watch poor Regan flirt with the Devil. Aww, young love…
Nymphomaniac
After something a little more hands-on? Visit Cornerhouse Manchester for a steamy double bill of Lars von Trier’s new two-parter Nymphomaniac (22 Feb). This controversial offering spans eight chapters and chronicles the life of sex-addict Joe, played by Von Trier regular Charlotte Gainsbourg. Already infamous for its scenes of unsimulated sex, Nymphomaniac follows Joe’s erotic ups and downs as she encounters an all-star cast of familiar faces. This one-off screening will be broadcast live from London’s Curzon and introduced by selected cast members, who’ll also stick around for a post-film chat. From the scarily good to the scarily bad, Liverpool’s FACT will be hosting two special screenings of Tommy Wiseau’s notorious cult fave The Room (13 Feb). As one of the most beloved terrible movies of recent years, The Room is a perfect storm of dodgy acting and questionable filmmaking. Naturally it’s become an unintentional hit, with Paul Rudd reportedly hosting regular screening parties for his famous mates. Writer, director, producer and star Tommy Wiseau will be in attendance, along with castmate Greg Sestero for an exclusive pre-film Q&A. Unmissable.
THE SKINNY
Wings
John Dies at the End
The Banshee Chapter
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Director: William A. Wellman Starring: Charles Rogers, Clara Bow Released: Out now Certificate: PG
Wings, one of the final big Hollywood productions of the silent era, is most famous for being the Best Picture winner at the inaugural Academy Awards, or rather the winner of what was first called ‘Best Picture, Production’ (F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise picked up ‘Best Picture, Unique and Artistic Production’ the same year). A wartime melodrama of an enormous scale, whose DNA can be found in many a film that went on to win the same accolade (e.g. Gone with the Wind) and many that disastrously tried (Pearl Harbor), it contains camerawork and set pieces that still marvel today. In its tale of two rival pilots turned best friends in World War I, who share love for the same woman back home, director Wellman captures elaborate, death-defying dogfights. It’s Clara Bow, however, as the pining ‘girl next door’ friend of one of them, who proves the perky highlight, making up for the drippy leading men and eventually exhausting final stretches. [Josh Slater-Williams]
Director: Don Coscarelli Starring: Chase Williamson, Rob Mayes Released: 17 Feb Certificate: 15 Don’t worry, the title isn’t quite as spoilerific as it may first appear in writer-director Don Coscarelli’s latest film (his first since 2002’s Bubba Ho-Tep). It would be easy to offer comparisons between this and any number of other movies, from the stoner humour of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, to the psychedelic stupidity of Dude, Where’s My Car?, or the cult appeal of Slither. Coscarelli’s vision is a sometimes overly ambitious, frequently confusing, time-travelling tale of friendship between Dave (Williamson) and John (Mayes) and their adventures after dabbling with an otherworldly drug called Soy Sauce. Most of the action is flashback, narrated by Dave to cynical reporter Arnie (Giamatti), and it’s a fast-paced, delirious tale – quick enough to hide the fact that quite possibly it doesn’t make any sense at all. Still, for the right audience, it’s a joy, and worth a watch if only for the fight between Dave and an evil moustache. [Becky Bartlett]
Director: Blair Erickson Starring: Katia Winter, Michael McMillian Released: Out now Certificate: 18 H.P. Lovecraft’s From Beyond gets a 21st century revamp in Blair Erickson’s solid first feature. When a journalist investigates the disappearance of a friend, she discovers a drug that puts users in contact with malevolent entities from another dimension. Opting for a restrained, serious tone over a jokey gorefest, Erickson works hard to maintain a creepy atmosphere. Setting much of the action at night in abandoned houses and underground labs, he delivers some seriously unsettling moments. Katia Winter (TV’s Sleepy Hollow) is an engaging lead, ably supported by Ted Levine (Silence of the Lambs) as a Hunter S. Thompson-style writer in over his head. What’s really going on might not hold up past the credits, but it almost doesn’t matter when the film gets so much right. This is a polished, well-made horror with some great ideas and enough scares to keep fans happy. Once you’ve watched it, you might want to keep the lights on. [Scott McKellar]
The Selfish Giant
Blood Glacier (aka The Station)
The Stuart Hall Project
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Director: Clio Barnard Starring: Conner Chapman, Shaun Thomas Released: Out now Certificate: 15 In this Oscar Wilde-inspired addition to our social realist canon, all of its Bradford milieu is in the gutter, but two boys are looking at the stars. The two young lads are best friends: Arbor (Chapman), a belligerent, ADHD-suffering scrapper; and Swifty (Thomas), a gentle giant with an innate knack with horses. Following expulsion from school, they become drawn into a world of horse-cart racing and making money by procuring scrap metal in increasingly dangerous ways for a local roughneck (Sean Gilder). This second feature from Clio Barnard (The Arbor) rises above its familiar plot by the astonishing performances she elicits from her young leads, a sensitively constructed screenplay, and Mike Eley’s cinematography. In this scoreless film the tension of the story naturally builds towards its shocking climax, punctuated only by haunting shots of Bradford’s industrial and natural landscapes. Barnard is definitely a talent worth watching. [Danny Scott]
Director: Marvin Kren Starring: Gerhard Liebmann, Brigitte Kren Released: Out now Certificate: 15 “The gates of hell are open. We melted them,” laments Janek (Gerhard Liebmann), a technician working against climate change in the remote German Alps. The rapidly shrinking glaciers give birth to a bloody eco-apocalypse of mutant hybrids. They replicate with ferocious fecundity, viciously attacking animals and humans, in the most violent form of Darwinism. Blood Glacier has moments of pure bloodletting glee, notably an Angela Merkel-lookalike drilling a giant beetle-eagle hybrid in the eye, and scientists, more interested in their ‘historical discovery’ than preserving human life, get their gory comeuppance. Films about monstrous birth (The Thing, Alien) always involve perverse motherhood – here absent/aborting mothers are as much to blame as global warming. Subtextual conservatisms aside, though, Blood Glacier poses difficult questions, such as, how can we reconcile love of humanity and the fight against climate change? The answer is disturbing to say the least. [Rachel Bowles]
BOOK OF THE MONTH
Winter’s Tales
Vicious
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By Metaphrog
Docherty
Director: John Akomfrah Starring: Stuart Hall Released: Out now Certificate: 12A Having redefined what documentaries can do in Nine Muses, Ghana-born British director and rogue historian John Akomfrah once again revisits themes of postcolonialism, Jamaican diaspora and Homer’s Odyssey to tell the story of immigrant Stuart Hall, heavyweight cultural theorist and key figure of the New Left. Shunning the conventional talking heads approach of most documentaries, Akomfrah weaves a patchwork narrative from archival footage and soundbites, many from Hall’s own Open University programmes, resulting in a bricolage of home movies, family photographs, and documentary footage of social upheaval. The music of Miles Davis provides a soundscape for this cinematic collage, and forges a sense of history unfolding as world events and Stuart Hall’s experiences as black immigrant/academic play out before our eyes. The personal is thus deeply political, and Hall’s accessible, self-reflexive politics of fragmented identity are deservedly centre stage. [Rachel Bowles]
By V.E. Schwab
By William McIlvanney
The Insufferable Gaucho
By Roberto Bolaño
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The story of Ayrshire miner Docherty covers three generations, telling how Tam Docherty came to be the giant of his local community and his subsequent fall from grace as his sons grow up in his shadow, and as his aging father comes to stay, bringing with him all the ghosts of the family’s Irish immigrant past. Set against the backdrop of the Great War, the rise of the labour movement under Keir Hardie, and the growing revolutionary political consciousness of the early 20th century, Docherty maintains a tight focus on a single family and a small community, using their experiences as a lens through which to view the tail end of the Industrial Revolution. The characters are intimately drawn, and McIlvanney’s effortless perspectival shifts give moving context to the human drama, showing us life in the small town from the eyes of Docherty’s sons and daughter, his wife, and his friends. In particular, the street corner, which serves as courtroom, duelling spot and philosophical locus in the novel, is vividly drawn, evoking a lost era before working class communities in Scotland were blighted by the evils of social housing, slum clearances and heroin. McIlvanney’s prose is terse, muscular and dramatic, deploying metaphors and similes like half-bricks. This is a riveting family saga, with genuine importance as a piece of social history. [Bram E. Gieben] Out now, published by Canongate. RRP £8.99
February 2014
With most ‘graphic novels,’ despite the term, barely boasting the page-count of a short story or novella, it’s welcoming to immerse yourself in these two beautifully realised ‘graphic shorts’ from the acclaimed Metaphrog duo. Self-consciously brief, these are beautifully produced, heart-touching fairytales that linger in the mind and deserve contemplative re-reading. The shorter of the two (at just six pages) is The Glass Case, the story of a lonely, imaginative young boy and an old doll in Edinburgh’s iconic Museum of Childhood, and it comes with a sucker punch worthy of the best horror story; the longer (albeit only by four pages) work is a straightforward transposition of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Match Girl into what could also be the present-day Scottish capital. Both are narratives lacking affectation or undue sentiment; visually, they are lucid, uncomplicated and (it has to be said) distinctively unlikely to be accused of straying towards the blue end of the rainbow. (With good reason, of course; our sodium-illuminated city nights seldom look chilled from the safety of indoors.) If the thought of anyone selling matches seems somewhat anachronistic, it’s a suspension of disbelief worth retaining on this occasion. Bold, tender and heartfelt. [Paul F Cockburn]
Eli and Victor are straight-A students and best friends until they decide to investigate the existence of EOs (ExtraOrdinaries – people with superhuman abilities) for their final thesis. As every evil scientist in every comic book ever created already knows, the thrill of theoretical research soon wears off and they turn to practical experimentation, risking their lives in the hope of acquiring superpowers. Though they succeed, both are left wondering what they might have lost in exchange for their newfound power. The ‘people with powers’ premise, the enticing ‘what if?’ of what would occur if regular citizens were to find themselves suddenly imbued with superpowers, is one that we seem to be drawn back to time and time again from the original spandex-clad comics to the more modern movie and television iterations. Vicious wears its comic book genealogy on its sleeve, drawing its characters large and loud, and making use of actual science when and where it sees fit, jettisoning it the moment it threatens to get in the way of its neatly plotted narrative. V.E. Schwab brings a sharp turn of phrase and pitch-perfect pacing to her take on a well-worn story, drawing the reader along just briskly enough to keep their disbelief from crashing to the ground until they’ve turned the final page. [Ross McIndoe]
SOLD OUT, published by Metaphrog, RRP £3.50
Out now, published by Titan Books, RRP £7.99
www.metaphrog.com
Though one of the most esteemed Latin American writers of his generation, Roberto Bolaño’s reputation in the English-speaking world is sustained by translations that appeared mostly after his death in 2003. The Insufferable Gaucho was among the last works he prepared for publication in Spanish, but received its first English translation only recently. It wasn’t quite worth the wait. A collection of five stories and two essays, it’s enjoyable enough, but it highlights Bolaño’s relative weakness with short forms. He’s more suited to the sprawling novel: when it comes to concision, he can’t approach his master, Borges, who needed only a few pages to birth worlds. Admittedly, the collection’s most overtly Borgesian stories – Álvaro Rousselot’s Journey, in which a writer searches for an enigmatic director who’s been filming his books without acknowledgment, and the title story, in which a lawyer attempts to live like a gaucho – are also its strongest, achieving a fullness that belies their brevity. The essays, though, are weak: unlike Borges, Bolaño isn’t much of a thinker. The Myths of Cthulhu is an invective against vulgarity in Latin American literature that is itself a model of vulgarity; and Literature + Illness = Illness, written during Bolaño’s final stages of liver failure, ought to be affecting but is, instead, flashy and cold. [Kristian Doyle] Out now, published by Picador, RRP £14.99
DVD / BOOKS
Review
53
How To Be Immortal
Unity Theatre, Liverpool, 7-8 Feb The latest from ensemble theatre company Penny Dreadful, known for their works exploring the hidden, quirky and ‘famously forgotten’ characters and dilemmas of modern human history, How To Be Immortal is a new touring play – directed by Kirsty Housley and with research assistance from UCL’s Division of Medicine and the University of Manchester – that delves into both the scientific and the macabre, exploring the discoveries of DNA and genetics, and the human process of dealing with grief, loss and our connections to the dead. Just as the double helix of DNA winds around itself, the play’s three separate narratives twist together and cross over. First, there’s Henrietta Lacks – dead in 1951, but alive in laboratories throughout the world as her cells multiply and divide – inspiring scientific breakthrough but leaving behind a daughter, Deborah, whose battle to come to terms with her mother’s death has now become a battle to come to terms with her immortality. Back still further in time, to 1950, and we find Dr George Gey and his wife Margaret, two scientists on the verge of the discovery of their careers – and their lives. It’s all pretty low-tech,
what with the home-made apparatus, customised cement mixer and pureed calf livers… but all it takes is one stroke of luck and the right biopsy, and the Gey’s will have made one of the biggest scientific breakthroughs of their time – the secret of immortality. Finally, there’s the classic doomed love story. Wandering squeezebox-playing decorator Mick and cellist Rose are deeply in love. While they and their instruments are an odd match, together they make something amazing. Only thing is – she’s pregnant, and he’s dying. As Rose is left alone with her child, she uses music to try to understand and accept her loss – sometimes the things people leave behind aren’t as tangible as their cells or DNA. Through (mostly) true stories bound together by love, death and biology, this play touches on some pretty deep themes, but is infused with comedy, animation and live music, dodgy 50s science experiments, and a song composed – somehow – from human DNA coding. It’s a love story, a tribute to scientific discovery and an original perspective on our links to the dead and what they mean to us. [Conori Bell-Bhuiyan]
The Ballad of the Burning Star
Ballad of the Burning Star
The Lowry, Salford, 11-12 Feb and Unity Theatre, Liverpool, 12-14 Mar
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The award winning Theatre Ad Infinitum, fresh from smash Translunar Paradise, return with something risky and truly unique. Performing underneath a Star of David mirror-ball, the flamboyant cross-dressing emcee Star, played by Nir Paldi, leads this demented cabaret act that seeks to tell the story of Israel, both the country and the protagonist of the tale. Flanked by a troupe of increasingly beleaguered deadly divas and a put upon musician, Star lays bare the conflicts and contradictions of modern day Israel in the most dramatic way possible. Political drama is tough for any theatre group to pull off, especially when tackling the minefield that is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. To do so with musical numbers, scantily clad women and a man in heels is particularly risky. Fortunately, Theatre Ad Infinitum give it their all and the end result is undoubtedly a mustsee show. High quality storytelling combines seamlessly with their seemingly odd medium of musical cabaret to tell a tough, often funny and
8pm, £12 (£10)
How To Be Immortal goes to The Lowry, Salford, 19-21 Mar, 8pm, £12 (£10)
Photo: Alex Brenner
Photo: Philippe Spall
How To Be Immortal
simultaneously emotionally devastating story. Star and his international supporting divas manage to condense generations of the extremely complex history of Israel into manageable and easy to understand chunks that fit perfectly with the story and never feel forced or patronising. Star, a fascinating and layered creation brought to dazzling life by Paldi, interjects periodically throughout the story to make notes and change details as his internal conflict becomes more obvious, much to the chagrin of his team. The emotional build up leads to an agonising climax that will stick with you for a long time: no matter how much the world tries to disguise the issue, and no matter how glamorous and entertaining Star tries to make the story, in the end nothing can conceal the ugly truth. With shades of a far more visceral Cabaret, Ballad of the Burning Star is a welcome and audacious reminder of how ground-breaking the theatre can really be. This is a play that doesn’t shy away from the controversy and complexities of an issue that many are still afraid to even approach. Truly haunting and admirable in its boldness. [Kayleigh Donaldson] 8pm, £15-£17 at The Lowry, £14 (£12) at Unity Theatre
Blindsided
Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, until 15 Feb
Kate Tempest
Brand New Ancients
Contact, Manchester, 21-22 Feb
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Brand New Ancients was one of the truly masterful achievements of 2013’s Fringe. Written by poet and spoken-word artist Kate Tempest and performed in association with Battersea Arts Centre, Brand New Ancients is set to an underscore of terse tuba, mournful strings, and truly sensational drumming. It cannot help imprint upon the consciousness of the viewer – from head to heart. Tempest sets as a background the legends of old: where Gods, Angels and Demons battled against one another for greater glory. The twist of our fate is that for the Heroes and Villains of our own age, even the fight for survival itself – not to speak of the search for meaning behind it
54
Review
– is a noble plight. “People are muck,” says Clive. A childhood of neglect set him up to strike back against the world. His story is but one, the likes of which may belong to someone you passed on the dirty streets earlier today, but it intertwines inextricably with those others, which lead to the ultimate message: that only those Gods who are brave enough to love will ever truly realise their Godliness. The words explore the full gambit of tones and emotions, as Tempest alternates between poetic prose, spoken word, edgy hip-hop and beat poetry. The music is used to build suspense and foreboding, or sensitively cast shadows and highlights under the mastery of her refrain. The overall effect is incredibly moving. [Antony Sammeroff] 8pm, £12 (£7)
Since his breakthrough with Port in 2002, Stockport-born playwright Simon Stephens has come to be recognised as one of the brightest talents in contemporary theatre. Stephens has a unique gift for getting inside the heads and hearts of his characters – often ordinary people trying to keep their balance when life treats them cruelly. With 25 plays to his credit – and a recent Olivier award for his adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – expectations are high for Blindsided, a third collaboration with director Sarah Frankcom. What he’s delivered is half of a masterpiece. The year is 1979. John (Andrew Sheridan) is a trainee accountant with an interest in mind games and occasional house-breaking. He meets Cathy (Katie West), an impulsive, child-like single mum juggling a menial job with a college course. Three days after meeting, they’ve embarked upon an intense, passionate relationship. Cathy’s mother, Susan (Julie Hesmondhalgh), doesn’t trust John. “There’s nothing more horrible than watching your children make mistakes,” observes Susan’s kindly boyfriend, Isaac (Jack Deam). Cathy and John discuss marriage. Catastrophe ensues when a casual betrayal precipitates a horrific and shocking event. Following the suicide exit of Hayley from Coronation Street, Hesmondhalgh is the woman of the moment, though her role in Blindsided is a supporting one, and the drama mostly rests on the shoulders of young actors Sheridan and West. Sheridan is creepy in a way you can’t quite put your finger on, but it’s West who steals the
THEATRE
Blindsided
show, totally inhabiting the character of Cathy. Her love for the undeserving John is purely expressed, and these moments are the play’s most moving. There’s a bigger tragedy at the heart of Blindsided – either shattering or contrived, depending on your point of view. During the second act, the action leaps forward to 1997, and the Isle of Man. The older Cathy, now played by Hesmondhalgh, recalls her lost years with a bizarre fondness. Yes, she’s moved on, but what of the other characters? There’s a fleeting reference to John, still living in Stockport, but as a broken man. Stephens has chosen the easy option, and consequences are conveniently ignored. Given the seismic nature of what happened in 1979, his optimistic resolution seems naïve to the point of being offensive. But this is the Isle of Man, home to motorbike races, cats without tails and Rick Wakeman; clearly, they do things differently here. [Steve Timms] £10-£36
THE SKINNY
Photo: Kevin Cummins
Photo: Katherine Leedale
rrrrr
Spotlight: Gein’s Family Giftshop When we asked the Northwest comedy scene’s movers, shakers and acid takers who their picks were for a big year in 2014, there was one constant in their replies: Gein’s Family Giftshop Interview: John Stansfield
A
lready drawing comparisons to The League of Gentlemen, Gein’s Family Giftshop’s skill comes from their exceptionally tight writing, their unflinching ability to turn a sketch on its head with just one sentence, and genuinely intimate performances that make you believe these idiots in P.E. kits are the characters they attempt to embody. A year hosting a comedy night at the nowdefunct and much lamented Lass O’Gowrie pub in Manchester climaxed at the end of 2013 with a performance as part of a show at the Palace Theatre in the West End, handpicked by The Boy With Tape On His Face, where Gein’s presented only one sketch but turned all the heads of those in attendance. Comprising four members (Ed, Kath, James and Kiri (not pictured)), Gein’s now look forward to another year on the rise after a move over the Irwell to Salford’s Kings Arms pub, and things are already looking bright after Ed’s former drama teacher just got an MBE, “so vicariously we’re all knights now. Except Kath, she’s a bitch.”
Influences: “H. H. Holmes (The Chicago World Fair years), Russell Crowe, gentleman’s perfume ‘Joop’, and Sir Cliff.” First gig: “Square Hole Comedy in Sheffield, we were brought on as ‘Sketch Comedy’ as we didn’t have a name. The audience were utterly baffled, the trip back over the Snake Pass was quiet.” Best gig: “We got to perform at the Palace Theatre in the West End at the end of 2013, Paul Daniels taught Kath how to mimic a bagpipe.” Worst gig: “A gig in Leicester where the loudest sound in the two-tiered theatre was the sound of Ed’s penis missing a chess piece and then retracting back into his P.E. shorts.”
Gein's Family Giftshop
Circuit favourites in the Northwest: “Lee Fenwick, Terry Beefsheen, Michael J Dolan, Harriet Dyer, Brooke WiIliams, to name many.” Favourite venue: “Korova Arts Cafe in Preston because they are relentlessly supportive and always have appreciative audiences.” Best heckle: “Someone winning the jackpot on the quiz machine during our Edinburgh show and walking away with more than we got in the bucket at the end.”
Aspirations: “Get away with all them murders, then TV.” Question from December’s Spotlight, Jayne Edwards: How do you come up with your material? “None of your fucking business Jayne. Shut your mouth.” Catch Gein’s Family Giftshop first Monday of the month at The Kings Arms, Salford. They also play the Leicester Comedy Festival on 12 February at The Exchange Bar @geinsfamilygift www.geinsfamilygiftshop.co.uk
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I N D E P E N D E N T
February 2014
C U LT U R A L
/TheSkinnyMag
J O U R N A L I S M
Illustration: Studio Monik
COMEDY
Preview
55
Manchester Music Tue 04 Feb YOUNG FATHERS
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:00–22:30, £8.50
Post-modern Afrocentric rappers, Young Fathers get ready to drop their new LP, Dead – mixing tribal rhythms with harmonised R’n’B hook-lines, quickfire couplets, and grinding synth and bass. STUART MCCALLUM RESIDENCY
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:30, FREE
Cinematic Orchestra guitarist trying out new material in the realm of beats, electronica, classical orchestration and jazz. ANAMANAGUCHI
NIGHT AND DAY CAFE, 20:00–01:00, £8.50
Alternative boy band made up of hackers and producers born and raised on’t nternet, currently living in New York City. RON POPE (WAKEY! WAKEY! + ALEXZ JOHNSON)
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2, 19:30–22:30, £15
Ron Pope-led American outfit whose current sound steers his former country-folk leanings into irresistibly hooky pop-anthem territory
Wed 05 Feb BLACK SUBMARINE
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:00–23:00, £17.50
Experimental rock lot hailing from England, formerly trading as The Black Ships.
THE BOOGIE WILLIAMS TRIO GRANDE
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:30, FREE
Boogie Williams is joined by Alan ‘The Hat’ Whitham on bass and Richard young on drums, playing soul jazz, boogie and 60s groove. TWISTED WHEEL
KRAAK, 19:30–22:00, £SOLD OUT
Indie-styled Manc trio led by yer man Jonny Brown on vocals and guitar duties, taking over Kraak Gallery for five days with a series of guest support acts, and a special 14-18 disco on the final day. CHILDISH GAMBINO
GORILLA, 19:00–23:00, £SOLD OUT
Rap alias of American actor, writer and comedian Donald Glover, sadly unrelated to Danny Glover, alas.
NIGHT AND DAY’S LOCAL SHOWCASE (LOST IN SPACE + CHEMICAL TOWN + AMBASSADORS OF SHALOM + BUSIK MASE) NIGHT AND DAY CAFE, 20:00–01:00, £5
Live music showcase, giving a stage to local up-and-coming performers. SEPULTURA
THE RITZ, 19:00–23:00, £16.50
Brazilian heavy metal bunch with 13 studios album to their name to date. WE ARE THE IN CROWD
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2, 19:30–22:30, £12
The American indie-rock lot return to the Northwest following their co-headline tour with Never Shout Never last year. THE HALLE: MARKUS STENZ
BRIDGEWATER HALL, 14:15–15:30, FROM £10
The Hallé orchestra perform pieces by Wagner, Strauss and Brahms, conducted by Markus Stenz and featuring soprano Anne Schwanewilms. LITTLE COMETS
MANCHESTER CLUB ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £11.50
Kitchen sink-styled indie-rock quartet led by the somewhat dynamic Robert Coles. ROGER HUGHES LIVE BAND
ONE LOUNGE BAR, 17:00–00:00, FREE
Roger Hughes provides backing for a range of talented musicians, performing a mixed bag set spanning anything from funk and soul to modern hits.
Thu 06 Feb NATALIE WILLIAMS
BAND ON THE WALL, 19:30–23:00, £12
The MOBO award-nominated soul artist tours her latest album, Where You Are.
56
Listings
DAKHLA BRASS MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:30, FREE
Horn and trumpet-based trio, playing some originals songs from their two albums along with some as yet unheard material. TWISTED WHEEL (THE VELVETEEN SAINTS)
KRAAK, 19:30–22:00, £SOLD OUT
Indie-styled Manc trio led by yer man Jonny Brown on vocals and guitar duties, taking over Kraak Gallery for five days with a series of guest support acts, and a special 14-18 disco on the final day. KEVIN DEVINE
SOUP KITCHEN, 19:30–22:30, £9
Brooklyn songwriter best known for his melodic tunesmithery built on alternately introspective, political lyrics.
GUY CONNOR THE CASTLE HOTEL, 20:30–23:00, £3
The Manchester-based singer/ songwriter delivers soulful melodies, chock full of pop hooks and heavy grooves.
NIGHT AND DAY’S LOCAL SHOWCASE (TINY PHILLOPS + HIGH VIOLET + THE EPICENTRE) NIGHT AND DAY CAFE, 20:00–01:00, £5
Live music showcase, giving a stage to local up-and-coming performers. THE STRUTS (WHITE ESKIMO)
SOUND CONTROL, 19:00–22:00, £5
Indie rock four-piece hailing from Derby, strutting on to the scene as their name suggests. AUTOBAHN (LVLS + I SEE ANGELS)
FALLOW CAFE, 19:30–22:30, £5
SMOKEY BLUE GRASS
Leeds-based five-piece navigating 80s post punk soundscapes since Febraury 2013.
TROF NORTHERN QUARTER, 21:00–01:00, FREE
THE BAY HORSE, 21:00–01:00, FREE
An evening of live music and DJs spanning folk, Americana, rhythm and blues. SEX HANDS (THOSE ROTTEN THIEVES + MISTOA POLSTA + FRUIT TONES)
NIGHT AND DAY CAFE, 20:00–01:00, £5
A slew of Manc bands join forces for a night of musical merriment, with the Friends-loving Sex Hands headlining the night. 12 DIRTY BULLETS
SOUND CONTROL, 19:30–22:30, £7
Dunfermline quintet who specialise in a self-styled brand of dirty rock’n’roll. ICEBREAKER: KRAFTWERK UNCOVERED
ROYAL NORTHERN COLLEGE OF MUSIC, 20:00–22:30, £15
Post minimal Kraftwerk tribute show.
FREE GIG FRIDAY (THE RIVETUERS)
Fill your Friday night with free live music – guests and DJs selected by a different band each week. FOALS (CAGE THE ELEPHANT)
O2 APOLLO, 19:00–22:30, £20
ANNA CALVI
ALBERT HALL, 19:30–23:00, £14
Ballsy singer/songwriter and guitarist whose debut LP received a Mercury Prize-nomination.
Fri 07 Feb
SILHOUETTE BEHIND THE GUN (ARCHIVES + ENIGMA FALLS + THE SHALALA VINES) ROADHOUSE, 19:30–22:30, £5
Mancunian punk rock four-piece made up of Chris, Johnny, Kris and Adam. THE DELAPLAINS (DEATH TO THE STRANGE + ALFA 9)
THE RUBY LOUNGE, 19:30–22:30, £5
Sat 08 Feb
THE IZUNDUS (ONLY SHADOWS + SCHØØLTRIP + THE LOST)
ROADHOUSE, 19:30–22:30, £5
KRAAK, 19:30–22:00, £SOLD OUT
PUP + SLAVES
SOUP KITCHEN, 19:00–22:00, £7
Double headline set, with Canadian punk rock quartet Pup appearing alongside Kent’s Slaves; tour buds to the likes of Drenge and Andrew WK.
KRAAK, 17:30–21:00, £SOLD OUT
Indie-styled Manc trio led by yer man Jonny Brown on vocals and guitar duties, taking over Kraak Gallery for five days with a series of guest support acts, and a special 14-18 disco on the final day. THE HALLE: MARKUS STENZ
BRIDGEWATER HALL, 19:30–21:00, FROM £10
The Hallé orchestra perform pieces by Wagner, Strauss and Brahms, conducted by Markus Stenz and featuring soprano Anne Schwanewilms. THE HALLE + HALLE YOUTH ORCHESTRA
BRIDGEWATER HALL, 15:00–16:30, £10 (£7.50)
FRANK TURNER (FLOGGING MOLLY + BEANS ON TOAST)
PHONES4U ARENA, 19:30–22:30, £22.50
THE TREATMENT
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 3, 19:00–22:30, £9.50
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:00–22:30, £11.50
TAYLOR JACKSON
Taylor Jackson takes to the stage with her six-piece band, performing a mix of soulful original material along with some classic funk covers. TWISTED WHEEL (DANNY MAHON + THE BACKHANDERS + COURTY)
KRAAK, 19:30–22:00, £SOLD OUT
Indie-styled Manc trio led by yer man Jonny Brown on vocals and guitar duties, taking over Kraak Gallery for five days with a series of guest support acts, and a special 14-18 disco on the final day. THE NAUGHTYS
GORILLA, 19:00–22:00, £8
Launching their latest single, It’s Gonna Get Ya on the night, Stretford’s sons of ska, John, Mike, Lee, Bev and Brad play a headline show to give it a right good airing.
POLICA
Indie-styled Manc trio led by yer man Jonny Brown on vocals and guitar duties, taking over Kraak Gallery for five days with a series of guest support acts, and a special 14-18 disco on the final day.
TWISTED WHEEL (CLINT BOON + DANNY MAHON)
THE LOWRY: QUAYS THEATRE, 19:30–22:00, £22
FOREST SWORDS (GNOD)
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5
TWISTED WHEEL (BONEHEAD & ALEX LIPINSKI)
Bella Donna Berry, Kiki DeVille and, er, Titsalina Bumsquash provide the live cabaret entertainment.
Classic rock sounds from the Cambridge quintet of 18-year-olds.
BLACK SONIC REVOLVER (TRANSITION, BABY! + CLEARGREEN CULT + VIOLET DEEP)
The Toe Rag Trio are Paul, Helen and Danny – channelling influences ranging from Django Reinhardt to Stephane Grappelli, whilst bringing a fresh perspective to the genre.
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 19:00–00:00, £8
Mancunian trio playing a mix of rock, indie and blues.
Manc-based guitar ensemble, formed and inspired through a combined love of 60s pop structures and post-punk shoegaze guitar. TOE RAG BIG BAND
CHERIE BEBE’S BURLESQUE REVUE
The former Million Dead singer turned folk troubadour does his solo thing, full of his usual rockabilly charm.
BLOODYARD (HYDROSIS)
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5
The Hallé orchestra perform pieces by Wagner, Strauss and Brahms, conducted by Markus Stenz and featuring soprano Anne Schwanewilms.
Sun 09 Feb
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 3, 19:30–22:30, £6
Death metal four-piece hailing from Lancaster.
BRIDGEWATER HALL, 19:30–21:00, FROM £10
THE HALLE: MARKUS STENZ
The Oxford rock ensemble tour their new LP, Holy Fire, the rather fine three-years-in-the-making follow-up to Total Life Forever.
The Oxford rock ensemble tour their new LP, Holy Fire, the rather fine three-years-in-the-making follow-up to Total Life Forever.
The Ontario progressive metal quintet do their headcaving-cumdanceable thing.
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2, 19:00–22:30, £12
KAISER CHIEFS GORILLA, 19:00–23:00, £20
The Hallé orchestra and the Hallé youth orchestra perform Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique.
Liverpool’s son of experimental sound, Matthew Barnes takes the the stage under his Forest Swords guise, likely delivering tracks from Dagger Paths (2010) and Engravings (2013).
PROTEST THE HERO
FOALS (CAGE THE ELEPHANT) O2 APOLLO, 19:00–22:30, £20
NIGHT AND DAY CAFE, 20:00–01:00, £4
Genre-less Mancunian five-piece, formed in 2013 by chief song writer, Leon James Kenny. THE RITZ, 18:30–22:00, £13
Super slick electronic pop-meetssoul outfit fronted by icy cool vocalist Channy Leanagh. THE BOXER REBELLION
SOUND CONTROL, 19:00–22:30, £12.50
The London-based DIY rock lot take their arena-sized tunes on the road, playing tracks offa their latest album and generally bringing venues to a standstill.
DEADBOLT 3RD BIRTHDAY (DEMORALISER + DEAD HARTS + CARCER CITY + LOCK AND KEY + I’LL STAY IN MEMPHIS + FED TO THE OCEAN + REGRESSION) SOUND CONTROL, 16:30–22:30, £7
The weekly night of alternative revelry with a soundtrack of hardcore, pop punk and metal turns three, and has lined up a whole bunch of bands to mark the occasion.
FAIRPORT CONVENTION
The longtime British folk-rockers draw on classic songs old and new.
Mon 10 Feb KESTON COBBLERS CLUB
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:30–23:00, £7
Kent-hailing, toe-tapping, indiefolk five-piece – favourites on BBC 6 Music and winners of the Rebel Playlist. DEAD PREZ
GORILLA, 19:30–23:00, £16
The politically-charged hip-hop duo, formed in New York City in 1996, bring their confrontational stance to the fore as they embark on a Europe-wide tour. SHY NATURE
THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:30–23:00, £5
Alternative rock quartet hailing from North London, navigating jangly 60s sounds and garage group influences. AUGUST BURNS RED
MANCHESTER CLUB ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £12
Christian metalcore outfit hailing from Pennsylvania, US.
Tue 11 Feb EWAN DOBSON
BAND ON THE WALL, 19:30–23:00, £10 EARLYBIRD (£12.50 THEREAFTER)
The Canadian fingerpicking musician and star of YouTube brings his astonishing, quick picking to the Northwest, blending video game music with folky influences and bluegrass technique. PHOENIX
MANCHESTER ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £17.50
The Versailles-based rockers take to a live setting, with 2013’s Bankrupt LP marking a heavier dependence on retro synthesizers and tinny, artificial-sounding drums (aka never a bad thing). SAM C LEES
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE
The gypsy jazz guitarist, best known for his innate ability to blend modernity with tradition, and heralded as the future of Django’s music by the likes of Jon Larson. EZRA FURMAN
SOUP KITCHEN, 19:30–22:30, £7
Chicago based singer/songwriter, formerly of Ezra Furman and the Harpoons, now hitting the road solo.
The gangly Leeds indie-pop scamps return to the live circuit to give their new anthology of singles – Souvenir: The Singles 2004-2012 – an airing, some eight years after they first hit the charts with Oh My God.
NIGHT AND DAY’S LOCAL SHOWCASE (THE UNASSISTED) NIGHT AND DAY CAFE, 20:00–01:00, £5
Live music showcase, giving a stage to local up-and-coming performers.
ASTROID BOYS (MASTER SHORTIE)
SOUND CONTROL, 19:00–22:30, £7
Hip hop, metal, dubstep and metal collective from Cardiff, mashing up their combined influences with MCs Benji and Traxx leading the way. TOM ODELL (FRYARS + JAMES BAY)
O2 APOLLO, 19:00–22:30, £17.50
Chichester-born singer/songwriter who studied at the Brighton Institute of Modern Music. THE DEFILED (BUTCHER BABIES + THE KILLING LIGHTS)
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 3, 19:30–22:30, £9
London-hailing industrial metal quintet touring the hell outta their latest LP, Daggers.
Wed 12 Feb
RENEGADE AND RETROSPECT (SERVICE OF A VILLAIN + ONE KLICK NORTH + BLACK SONIC REVOLVER) ROADHOUSE, 19:30–22:30, £4
Hard rock, folk and blues quartet hailing from Bolton, navigating the gritty 70s rock sound and drawing influence from the likes of Led Zeppelin and Thin Lizzy. THE JAMIL SHERIFF TRIO
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:30, FREE
A dynamic piano trio, led by Jamil Sheriff. LILY & MADELEINE
THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:30–23:00, £8
Teenage sister acoustic-folk duo hailing from Indianapolis, Indiana, currently residing on the Asthmatic Kitty roster. DROHNE + ESPHER + BORLAND
KOSMONAUT, 20:00–00:00, FREE
Fri 14 Feb
A PALE HORSE NAMED DEATH
ROADHOUSE, 19:30–22:30, £13
American stoner metal band formed by ex-Type O Negative drummer, Sal Abstructo, who’s been busy forging a new path in music since 2011. LAUREN AQUILINA
THE RUBY LOUNGE, 19:30–22:30, £SOLD OUT
Melancholic piano-pop from the 17-year-old Bristol dwelling songstress. THE JAMES TAYLOR QUARTET
BAND ON THE WALL, 20:00–23:00, £15
Four-piece jazz funk outfit from Rochester, active since 1985 and embarking a tour to work through their extensive back catalogue. LAUREN HOUSLEY
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5
Singer Lauren Housley belts out the classics for a Valentine’s Day treat, taking in Bonnie Raitt, Dusty Springfield and tracks from her debut album, One Step Closer.
MARTYR DEFILED (BLACK TONGUE + HERITAGE) SOUND CONTROL, 19:00–22:00, £6
Deathcore four-piece hailing from Lincoln, chock full of anthemic riffs and politically and socially charged lyrics. FREE GIG FRIDAY (PSYCHEDELIC PIRATES!)
THE BAY HORSE, 21:00–01:00, FREE
Fill your Friday night with free live music – guests and DJs selected by a different band each week. THE HALLE: VALENTINE’S DAY CONCERT
BRIDGEWATER HALL, 19:30–21:00, FROM £17
The Hallé orchestra present an evening of romantic film scores for the loved-up folk in the Northwest. MIKILL PANE
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 3, 19:30–23:00, £9
The Hackney-born rapper – aka Justin Smith Uzomba to his mam – brings his mix of satire, comedy and pop rhyme to the UK.
A trio of electronic musicians assemble for the latest free gig to pitch up at Kosmonaut, with ambient sounds from Liverpool’s Drohn, warped grooves from Espher, and Borland providing the haunting drones.
Sat 15 Feb
ONE LOUNGE BAR, 17:00–00:00, FREE
The Lip Service actress does that other thing wot she does: setting soaring vocals to jazz-soaked piano and pop guitar riffs, touring on the back of her second album.
ROGER HUGHES LIVE BAND
Roger Hughes provides backing for a range of talented musicians, performing a mixed bag set spanning anything from funk and soul to modern hits.
Thu 13 Feb
PHAROAHE MONCH (IN THE LOOP FT DJ AGENT J + MC BEDOS)
BAND ON THE WALL, 20:00–23:00, £15
The New York-residing hip hop artist tours the UK as a solo artist, promising intricate wordplay touching upon politics and social justice with an intelligent and critical eye. THE GELATOS
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:30, FREE
High energy trio traversing the 40s and 50s with their blend of piano, double bass, sax, clarinet and vocals, joined on the night by drummer, Mark Warburton. SATELLITE STORIES
SOUP KITCHEN, 19:30–22:30, £6
Indie rock quartet hailing from Oulu, Finland, touring with their late 2013 release, Pine Trails. CLOUD CONTROL
GORILLA, 19:30–23:00, £9
Alternative rockers hailing from the Blue Mountains in Sydney. PIXEL FIX
THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:30–23:00, £5
Oxford-based four-piece, touring on the run up to the release of their latest EP, Fall. THE HALLE: RYAN WIGGLESWORTH
BRIDGEWATER HALL, 19:30–21:00, FROM £11
The Hallé orchestra perform pieces by Britten, Berlioz and Debussy, with Ryan Wigglesworth making his concert début with the orchestra. DREAM THEATRE
O2 APOLLO, 19:00–22:30, FROM £35
Progressive metallers riding along on John Petrucci’s guitar wizardry.
ORLA GARTLAND
ROADHOUSE, 18:00–22:00, £7
18-year-old singer/songwriter from Dublin, crafting delicately quirky pop songs. HEATHER PEACE
BAND ON THE WALL, 19:30–23:00, £21.50
CATE LE BON (SEA LION)
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:00–22:30, £9
Welsh singer/songwriter with a rich vocal style, genteel warmth and a fine line in lightly-weird alternative folk. SPEAKEASY BOOTLEG BAND
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5
Hailing from New Orleans, this tin pan alley three piece bring the sounds of the turn of the 20thcentury to the Northwest. HATCHAM SOCIAL
SOUP KITCHEN, 19:30–22:15, £7
Indie pop lot hailing from London, named after the old English word, Hatcham, meaning a ‘clearing in the woods’, don’tchaknow. MIX TAPE VOL 1
NIGHT AND DAY CAFE, 20:00–01:00, £5
Scruff of the Neck Records launch a new series of events, with The High Nines, Skinny roller, Mercury Field, The Reveurs and Matt Fryers assembling to present part one of their live mix tape. THE RED PAINTINGS
SOUND CONTROL, 19:30–22:30, £8
Orchestral art rockers formed in Victoria, but relocated to sunny LA. ALTERNATIVE AND BURLESQUE FAIR
SOUND CONTROL, 19:30–22:30, £5
Dubbed as ‘the ultimate alternative shopping experinece’, the Alternative and Burlesque fair is set to feature 50 stalls and 2 stages with a full programme of entertainment. PARQUET COURTS
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2, 19:30–22:30, £13
The NYC ensemble return to the Northwest, mixing up punk-rock and indie in their own inimitable way.
A DAY TO REMEMBER (MALLORY KNOX + EVERY TIME I DIE + THE STORY SO FAR) O2 APOLLO, 19:00–22:30, £21
American rock outfit residing in sunny Florida, formed back in 2003 by Tom Denney and Bobby Scruggs. TICH (MIKE DIGNAM)
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 3, 19:00–22:30, £9.50
The young popstress hits the road solo, having previously supported the likes of Olly Murs, Little Mix and JLS. LEMONHAZE (ISOLATED ATOMS)
MANCHESTER CLUB ACADEMY, 19:30–22:30, £7
Indie pop four-piece hailing from Paisley, crafting sounds of the neo-psych variety.
Sun 16 Feb
ACOUSTIC BHUNA (JAMIE BREWER)
BAND ON THE WALL, 18:00–22:00, FREE
A new event pitching up at Band on the Wall will see acoustic sets paired with homemade curry, making for a relaxed sorta Sunday. SPEEDY ORTIZ
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:30–23:00, £7
US-of-A-hailing indie rock quartet, built up on the lo-fi output of singer Sadie Dupois.
MOTORHEAD (SAXON + THE PEOPLE THE POET)
O2 APOLLO, 19:00–22:30, £27
Lemmy et al let rip with the usual growl of incomprehensible lyrics and battering of thrash metal. Rescheduled date. RY X
ST PHILIP’S CHURCH, 19:00–23:00, £12.50
Los Angeles-based singer/ songwriter from Australia, better known as Ry Cuming to his mum, touring with his latest EP, Berlin.
Mon 17 Feb
KERRANG! TOUR 2014 (LIMP BIZKIT + CROSSFAITH + NEKROGOBLIKON) MANCHESTER ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £20
A three-strong bill of headliners come together to headline Kerrang!’s 2014 tour, showcasing loud punk-rock sorts from near and far. THUMPERS
SOUP KITCHEN, 19:30–22:30, £7
Alt-pop sounds from Londonhailing duo; Sub Pop signees and former tour buddies to CHVRCHES. ALEXANDER (MORAIN)
SOUND CONTROL, 19:30–22:30, £8
Following the release of their debut LP, Say Hello, the Durhambased indie rock four-piece embark on their biggest solo tour to date. NEWTON FAULKNER
BRIDGEWATER HALL, 19:00–22:30, £19.50
London-based singer/songwriter known for his guitar playing which involves rhythmically tapping and hitting his guitar’s body.
Tue 18 Feb ZARA MCFARLANE
BAND ON THE WALL, 19:30–23:00, £12 EARLYBIRD (£14 THEREAFTER)
Wed 19 Feb
SUPER INTENSE CORPSE MUNCHER (ASCENT + THE RIVER VERSUS + BLACKMAMBA + PHINEAS GAGE) ROADHOUSE, 19:30–22:30, £4
Musical stylings of Dom and Rob, a Manchester-based guitar and drums duo serving up math and grind core. THE TWANG
THE RUBY LOUNGE, 19:30–22:30, £14
Indie-rockers taking their inspiration from Madchester and Britpop times, showcasing material from their fourth LP. STUART MCCALLUM RESIDENCY
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:30, FREE
Cinematic Orchestra guitarist trying out new material in the realm of beats, electronica, classical orchestration and jazz. 3ROOTS
KRAAK, 20:00–00:00, £TBC
A compilation and showcase night for up-and-coming artists in the Manchester region and beyond. OF MONTREAL
GORILLA, 19:30–23:00, £15
The unpredictable and ofttheatrical Kevin Barnes and his Of Montreal crew return to Manchester to promote their latest album, Lousy with Sylvianbriar. SONIC BOOM SIX
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 3, 19:30–22:30, £10
Compelling Manc soundclash of punk-heavy, dancefloor-savvy beats mixing elements of reggae, jungle and ska with the rigorous commentary of hip-hop. ROGER HUGHES LIVE BAND
ONE LOUNGE BAR, 17:00–00:00, FREE
Roger Hughes provides backing for a range of talented musicians, performing a mixed bag set spanning anything from funk and soul to modern hits.
Thu 20 Feb
THE ARISTOCRATS (GODSTICKS)
BAND ON THE WALL, 19:30–23:00, £17
The American instrumental rock/ jazz fusion group made up of guitarist, Guthrie Govan, bass guitarist Bryan Beller and drummer Marco Minnemann. LET SPIN
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE
Blistering jazz quartet formed between four genre-bending instrumentalists, blending their bag of influences as wide-ranging as Rage Against The Machine and Middle Eastern folk. DAMIEN DEMPSEY
GORILLA, 19:00–22:30, £15
Favourited Irish singer/songwriter bringing his mighty voice to bear on topics both local and global. SMOKEY BLUE GRASS
TROF NORTHERN QUARTER, 21:00–01:00, FREE
An evening of live music and DJs spanning folk, Americana, rhythm and blues.
The London-based MOBO nominee and rising star of the UK jazz scene touring with her 2013 album, If You Knew Her.
NIGHT AND DAY’S LOCAL SHOWCASE (ARKHAM KARVERS + DANTEVILLES + NEW RICH)
MANCHESTER ACADEMY, 18:30–22:30, FREE (BOOKING REQUIRED - WWW. TAKINGHAYLEY.COM)
Live music showcase, giving a stage to local up-and-coming performers.
TAKING HAYLEY
The Birmingham-based quartet spread the pop-rock gospel one last time for their farewell tour. BLIND MONK TRIO
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:30, FREE
Three Northwest musicians putting a fresh spin on the classic, chordless jazz trio format. JENNY WILSON
SOUP KITCHEN, 19:30–22:30, £7
The Swedish singer/songwriter Jenny Wilson presents her latest offering, Demand the Impossible; a musical and poetic kick in the teeth. GROUPLOVE
GORILLA, 19:00–23:00, £10
Contemporary indie five-piece formed when band members Hannah Hooper and Christian Zucconi met and clicked in lower east Manhattan. FAT WHITE FAMILY
GULLIVERS, 19:30–23:00, £6.50
NIGHT AND DAY CAFE, 20:00–01:00, £5
MIDLAKE (HORSE THIEF)
THE RITZ, 19:00–23:00, £18
The Texas-residing folk rockers return with a re-jigged line-up and a newly-honed sound as rich and symphonic as it is dynamic and kaleidoscopic. MATT PRYOR
SOUND CONTROL, 19:00–22:00, £9.50
The singer/songwriter of The Get Up Kids and The New Amsterdams plays a selection of melancholy folk tunes. DUMB
FALLOW CAFE, 19:30–22:30, £5
Birmingham-based four-piece, mashing up US college rock influences with their inescapable Britpop heritage. AVICII
PHONES4U ARENA, 19:30–22:30, £41
22-year-old Swedish megastar of a DJ/producer, Acicii plays his only show in the North.
Psych blues bunch from London, known for their unpredictable live shows.
THE SKINNY
NOISE ABOVE NOISE
THE DIXIE TICKLERS
THE CRAIG HANSON TRIO
THE PENTHOUSE, 19:00–22:00, £3
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:30, FREE
The Penthouse open their doors for a night of experimental sound-making in the streets above the Northern Quarter, with sound artists including Debbie Sharp and Now Wash Your Hands providing an open studio experience.
Fri 21 Feb THE BEARDS
THE RUBY LOUNGE, 19:30–22:30, £10
Fuzzy-faced folk from South Australia, responsible for such beard-loving anthems as ‘You Should Consider Having Sex With a Bearded Man’ and ‘If Your Dad Doesn’t Have a Beard, You’ve Got Two Mums...’. Nice.
GAPPY RANKS AND THE SOUL REBEL BAND (DJ JOEY B)
BAND ON THE WALL, 20:30–23:00, £14
British dancehall musician touring with his spirited live band, The Soul Rebel Band, bringing the sound of 90s Reggae to dance floors across the UK and further afield. BOY & BEAR
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:00–22:30, £8
Sydney-based indie quintet deftly mixing driving indie-folk sounds with dainty choral harmonies. THE NIGHTCREATURES
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5
Half blues, half brass band playing New Orleans inspired r’n’b, inspired by the HBO series, Treme, equally comfortable leading a parade as they are leading a jam session. CIRCA WAVES
SOUP KITCHEN, 19:30–22:15, £7
Liverpool garage-pop quartet taking their cue from the early-00s indie scene. NIPSEY HUSSLE (DJ LEE MAJORS)
SOUND CONTROL, 19:00–22:00, £15
American rapper hailing from Los Angeles, devout member of the Rolling Sixty Crips and one of the areas most respected acts. CASUAL SEX
FALLOW CAFE, 19:30–22:30, £5
The Glasgow indie quartet – the sleaze-heavy brainchild of vocalist and guitarist Sam Smith – do their pop-heavy synthesised joy of a thing. PENGUIN CAFE
ROYAL NORTHERN COLLEGE OF MUSIC, 20:00–22:30, £19.50
Classically-trained guitarist Simon Jeffes leads his collective of musicians in a special performance showcasing tracks from their new LP, The Red Book. FREE GIG FRIDAY (LOVECHILD + WARN THE PEOPLE)
THE BAY HORSE, 21:00–01:00, FREE
Fill your Friday night with free live music – guests and DJs selected by a different band each week. THE STRYPES
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2, 19:00–22:30, £12
Crazy young Irish four-piece playing rhythm ‘n’ blues with a level of skill well beyond their years. RUDIMENTAL
O2 APOLLO, 19:00–22:30, £18
The Hackney-based quartet hit the road armed with their newest LP, blending drum and bass with souldrenched lyrics along the way. TWENTY ONE PILOTS
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 3, 19:00–22:30, £10
Ohio-born synthpop duo on the Fueled by Ramen roster. M.A.D
MANCHESTER CLUB ACADEMY, 19:30–22:30, £18.50
Teen pop boy band hailing from London, made up of Dan, Michael and Aiden. ST VINCENT
MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL, 19:00–23:00, £16.50
Annie Clark tours on the back of last summer’s gem of a new album, her live band conjuring intense layers of sound as Clark herself knocks hell out of her guitar.
Sat 22 Feb OZZBEST
THE RUBY LOUNGE, 19:30–22:30, £8
Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath tribute act.
February 2014
Six-piece ensemble playing New Orleans jazz, led by clarinettist and composer Dom James. THE GAME
THE RITZ, 18:30–22:00, £25
The American rapper – aka Jayceon Terrell Taylor, Dr Dre protégé and multi-platinum selling artist – takes to the UK. Rescheduled date. ROOM 94
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2, 19:00–22:30, £8
North London band of brothers – made up of Kieran, Dean and Sean Lemon, joined by Kit Tanton on bass – doing their pop-meetsrock thing. RUDIMENTAL
O2 APOLLO, 19:00–22:30, £18
The Hackney-based quartet hit the road armed with their newest LP, blending drum and bass with souldrenched lyrics along the way. THE X FACTOR LIVE 2014 (SAM BAILEY + ABI ALTON + HANNAH BARRETT + LUKE FRIEND + NICHOLAS MCDONALD + ROUGH COPY + SAM CALLAHAM + TAMERA FOSTER)
PHONES4U ARENA, 14:30–17:30, £33.50
The stars (we use the term loosely) from X Factor 2013 take to the stage for their obligatory tour, with winner Sam Bailey taking the headline spot. THE X FACTOR LIVE 2014 (SAM BAILEY + ABI ALTON + HANNAH BARRETT + LUKE FRIEND + NICHOLAS MCDONALD + ROUGH COPY + SAM CALLAHAM + TAMERA FOSTER)
PHONES4U ARENA, 19:30–22:30, £33.50
The stars (we use the term loosely) from X Factor 2013 take to the stage for their obligatory tour, with winner Sam Bailey taking the headline spot. MDNGHT
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 3, 19:30–22:30, £8
Mancunian live house four-piece, responsible for that dream pop anthem, I Will Lead You On. LAURA CANTRELL
MANCHESTER CLUB ACADEMY, 19:30–22:30, £17.50
New York City-residing country singer/songwriter, crafting a sound awash with her Nashville roots.
Sun 23 Feb CENTIMENT
ROADHOUSE, 19:30–22:30, £9
Geeky tech-metal bunch from Essex, blurring the boundaries of metal since 2010. DANNY BROWN
GORILLA, 19:30–23:00, £16
The gap-toothed Detroit rapper makes his return visit to the UK to spread his usual craziness. JAKE BUGG (THE SILVER PALMS)
THE RITZ, 19:00–23:00, £SOLD OUT
Young Nottingham-born folkmeets-indie singer/songwriter, known to his mammy as Jake Edwin Kennedy.
Mon 24 Feb
MUSICAL ADVENTURES IN MANCHESTER (THE PROSPECTORS + GRAHAM MASSEY)
BAND ON THE WALL, 18:45–23:00, FREE (BOOKING REQUIRED)
A charity night in support of Stockport Cerebral Palsy Society, with a line-up of musicians, poets and DJs providing the entertainment. GEORGE EZRA
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:00–22:30, £8
Young Bristol singer/songwriter known for his bluesy, acoustic balladry. TOY
A group of Matt and Phred’s regulars take to the stage as a trio, playing a variety of jazz standards and some experimental numbers. THE JEZABELS
GORILLA, 19:00–22:30, £10
Attitude-heavy five-piece with their balls-to-the-wall brand of rock’n’roll. 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER
THE RITZ, 19:00–23:00, £12.50
Aussie pop-meets-rock boyband formed in Sydney back in 2011. THE DEAD LAY WAITING
SOUND CONTROL, 19:00–22:00, £6
Swindon-based melodic metalheads furiously playing their way across the UK.
BEYONCE (THE MRS. CARTER SHOW WORLD TOUR)
PHONES4U ARENA, 19:30–22:30, FROM £55
The ambitious pop diva returns to the Northwest for her second Manchester outing, still on the same Mrs. Carter tour that passed through these parts back in May.
Wed 26 Feb SHOOTING PIGEONS
ROADHOUSE, 19:30–22:30, £TBC
Mancunian alternative four-piece drawing inspiration from the cities rich musical heritage; launching their latest EP, Building Romans on the night.
The Amsterdam-based trio present an intriguing mix of jazz, classical, hip-hop, soul and folk influences. GERARD AND THE WATCHMEN
KRAAK, 19:45–00:00, £5
Alternative folk lot rich with harmonies and prone to grabbing whatever instrument comes to hand. GOBLIN
GORILLA, 19:30–23:00, £20
Legendary Italian progressive outfit, chiefly known for their luridly engrossing soundtracks to Dario Argento classics, backed by live visuals. J RODDY WATSON AND THE BUSINESS
NIGHT AND DAY CAFE, 20:00–01:00, £8
Rock four-piece hailing from Tennessee, steeped in gospel and country influences. BLACK STONE CHERRY
THE RITZ, 19:00–23:00, £19
Kentucky rockers riding along on their anthemic tunes and longflowing locks. SOULFLY
SOUND CONTROL, 19:00–22:00, £16
The Phoenix metallers continue to channel unbridled rage through a cacophony of thrash guitars, grooves, tribal polyrhythms and Max Cavalera’s thunderous roar.
BEYONCE (THE MRS. CARTER SHOW WORLD TOUR)
PHONES4U ARENA, 19:30–22:30, FROM £55
The ambitious pop diva returns to the Northwest for her second Manchester outing, still on the same Mrs. Carter tour that passed through these parts back in May.
ROCK SOUND IMPERICON EXPOSURE TOUR 2014 (WE CAME AS ROMANS + CHUNK! NO, CAPTAIN CHUNK! + THE COLOR MORALE + PALM READER)
MANCHESTER CLUB ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £12
ONE LOUNGE BAR, 17:00–00:00, FREE
PAPER AEROPLANES (COUSIN JAC)
Acoustic alternative folkies from Wales, led by vocalist and songwriter Sarah Howells.
The ex-Magazine and Visage keyboardist from Whalley Range tours with his new band, The Finks, offering a new take on the funk template. LEE PARRY + ENIGMA FALLS
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE
A double bill performance from the York-based singer/songwriter, Lee Parry and the Bolton-based folk rock trio, Enigma Falls. THE ORWELLS
NIGHT AND DAY CAFE, 20:00–01:00, £7
Raunchy flower punk from the Illinois-residing five-piece outfit, touring with their latest EP, Other Voices, bringing the fresh-faced rock’n’roll energy by the bucket load. SAM SMITH
THE RITZ, 19:00–23:00, £11
Manchester-based four-piece spanning rock’n’roll, punk and indie genres. DEAD SEA APES (SUNWOLD + ENVOYS)
THE BAY HORSE, 20:00–23:00, £4
BRIDGEWATER HALL, 19:30–21:00, FROM £11
DOMINIC J MARSHALL
RECONNECTED
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:00–22:30, £9
DAVE FORMULA AND THE FINKS
BAND ON THE WALL, 19:30–23:00, £12
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:30, FREE
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 3, 19:00–22:30, £12.50
Tue 25 Feb
ROADHOUSE, 19:30–22:30, £8.50
Indie rock trio currently residing in Long Beach, California, touring with their third album, Nothing is Real.
The Bay Area (by way of Mississippi) songwriter and noisemaker plays a set of his sparse and emotive rock’n’roll.
Korg Delta led five-piece fueled on a chugging motorik rhythm.
British vocal group formed from the boy band, Connected – finalists in the fourth series of Britain’s Got Talent in 2010.
CRYSTAL ANTLERS
Instrumental rock trio, residing physically in Manchester and musically on the border between cinematic soundscapes and washed-out psychedelia meets krautrock.
JOHN MURRY
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:00–22:30, £10
Annual rock tour, this time headlined by American melodic metalcore upstarts We Came as Romans.
GORILLA, 19:30–23:00, £10
Thu 27 Feb
ROGER HUGHES LIVE BAND
Roger Hughes provides backing for a range of talented musicians, performing a mixed bag set spanning anything from funk and soul to modern hits.
THE HALLE: MOTHER GOOSE
Sir Mark Elder conducts the Halle orchestra as they perform the complete ballet score from Mother Goose, along with pieces from Strauss and Beethoven. RIZZLE KICKS
O2 APOLLO, 19:00–22:30, £17.50
Teenage talents Harley AlexanderSule and Jordan Stephens do their thing, mixing pop with some old-school hippity-hop. In baseball caps. Obviously. BLACK ONASSIS
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 3, 19:30–22:30, £6
Ex-Kasabian member Chris Karloff touts his new musical project, touring with their début release, Desensitized.
Fri 28 Feb
SEMITT FALLS (EUTHEMIA + NEW DAY + SENTRY)
ROADHOUSE, 19:00–22:00, £5
Metal dubstep four-piece from Manchester, taking their wubtastic EP, I Know Bear Heads out for a live airing. BLUE TOUCH PAPER
BAND ON THE WALL, 19:00–23:00, £14
Former film score composer Colin Towns returns with a powerhouse line-up of world musicians, playing their take on fusion jazz. GAVIN DEGRAW
MANCHESTER ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £18
New York-based singer/songwriter of the blue-eyed, charming and soulful variety. THE CASTAWAYS
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–00:30, £5
Macclesfield-based seven-piece band, bringing the old school sounds of the Caribbean to the stage. THE PREATURES
NATURALLY 7 ROYAL NORTHERN COLLEGE OF MUSIC, 20:00–22:30, £19.50
A cappella group hailing from New York City, showcasing their beat boxing and vocal play as they promote their latest single, Hidden in Plain Sight.
FREE GIG FRIDAY (MULTIPLIER + THIEVES LIKE US + GRAHAM DOMAIN) THE BAY HORSE, 21:00–01:00, FREE
Fill your Friday night with free live music – guests and DJs selected by a different band each week. BASTILLE
O2 APOLLO, 19:00–22:30, £20
Dan Smith-led indie ensemble who may or may not have their faces painted as skulls (aka, they definitely will).
I LIKE TRAINS (HER NAME IS CALLA)
ST PHILIP’S CHURCH, 19:30–22:30, £10
Melodic Leeds quintet using haunting instrumentation, flowing guitars and world weary vocals to portray a tender depiction of hope within despair. BONOBO
ALBERT HALL, 19:30–23:00, £SOLD OUT
Brighton’s Bonobo (aka Simon Green) tours his fifth LP, The North Borders, an atmospheric and patiently honed gem of a thing drawing on elements of jazz, garage and shimmering dubstep.
Sat 01 Mar
CATFISH AND THE BOTTLEMEN
THE RUBY LOUNGE, 19:30–22:30, £7
Indie rock’n’roll quintet full of guitars and songs about love an’ that.
THE DEAR HUNTER + ANTHONY GREEN
MANCHESTER ACADEMY, 19:30–22:30, £13
Prog rock lot hailing from Rhode Island, US, formed in 2005 as a side project by Casey Crescenzo, ex-The Receiving End of Sirens member. KAMIKAZE
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5
Manchester-based group playing originals and covers, with a selection of contemporary-inspired songs along the lines of The Cinematic Orchestra and Snarky Puppy. ERIC CHURCH (THE CADILLAC THREE)
THE RITZ, 18:30–22:00, £20
American country singer/songwriter (aka Kenneth Eric Church) returning to the UK to air his fourth LP.
FOAD FEST (ORANGE GOBLIN + EXTREME NOISE TERROR + ENTRAILS + DESECRATION + ENOS + BASEMENT TORTURE KILLINGS + THE ATROCITY EXHIBIT + SEDULUS) SOUND CONTROL, 13:00–23:00, £25 (£40 WEEKEND)
Metal music festival taking over Sound Control with two stages, with headline performances from Orange Goblin (Saturday) and Necrophagia (Sunday). TEMPLES
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2, 19:30–22:30, £11
Neo psych bunch hailing from the midlands/the early 80s, built on frontman James Bagshaw’s impressively polished vocals. BASTILLE
O2 APOLLO, 19:00–22:30, £20
Dan Smith-led indie ensemble who may or may not have their faces painted as skulls (aka, they definitely will). MICHAEL BUBLÉ
PHONES4U ARENA, 19:30–22:30, FROM £50
Sydney-hailing rock’n’roll quintet combining classic songwriting with raw, infectious delivery.
The Canadian crooner drops by with his latest album, To Be Loved, delivering his usual big band style of showmanship for six whole days.
THE RITZ, 18:45–22:00, £12.50
Sun 02 Mar
NIGHT AND DAY CAFE, 20:00–01:00, £8.50
THE SMYTHS
The Smiths tribute act. CROWBAR
SOUND CONTROL, 19:00–22:15, £13.50
Sludge metal trio hailing from New Orleans, crafting a slow and brooding sorta sound interspersed with fast hardcore punk influences. TRAAMS
FALLOW CAFE, 19:30–22:30, £5
Krautrock trio hailing from Chichester, currently signed to Fat Cat Records.
COMMUNION NEW FACES TOUR (LUKE SITAL-SINGH + ELIZA AND THE BEAR + FAREWELL J.R. + ANNIE EVE) THE RUBY LOUNGE, 19:00–22:30, £8
Communion returns to The Ruby Lounge for an alternative disco, headed up by live acts and continuing until late.
ACOUSTIC BHUNA (LUCIANO GERBER + BO WEAVIL + BAXTER RHODES) BAND ON THE WALL, 18:00–22:00, FREE
A new event pitching up at Band on the Wall will see acoustic sets paired with homemade curry, making for a relaxed sorta Sunday. THE HEAD AND THE HEART
GORILLA, 19:00–22:30, £11
Folk outfit composed of Seattle transplants, treading the line between a folksy Beatles and The Avett Brothers, but wi’ more oomph, all topped off with raspy vocals courtesy of Josiah Johnson.
FOAD FEST (NECROPHAGIA + WINTERFYLLETH + SERPENT VENOM + DIESEL KING + FOETAL JUICE + SATANIC DYSTOPIA + BURIAL + MOLLY BLOOM) SOUND CONTROL, 13:00–23:00, £25 (£40 WEEKEND)
Metal music festival taking over Sound Control with two stages, with headline performances from Orange Goblin (Saturday) and Necrophagia (Sunday). BLACKBERRY SMOKE (MILLION $ RELOAD)
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2, 19:00–22:30, £14
Georgia-based rockers who have been together for more than a decade. MICHAEL BUBLÉ
PHONES4U ARENA, 19:30–22:30, FROM £50
The Canadian crooner drops by with his latest album, To Be Loved, delivering his usual big band style of showmanship for six whole days.
Mon 03 Mar RADKEY
NIGHT AND DAY CAFE, 20:00–01:00, £8
Punk trio made up of three brothers, Dee, Isiah and Solomon from Missouri.
Liverpool Music Tue 04 Feb
PARR JAZZ: ANT LAW QUARTET
STUDIO 2, 20:30–00:00, £3
Parr Jazz present their weekly jazz night, featuring a line-up of international guests and local artists to perform.
Wed 05 Feb YOUNG FATHERS
EAST VILLAGE ARTS CLUB, 19:00–22:30, £8
In their latest incarnation as postmodern Afrocentric rappers, the Young Fathers chaps get ready to drop their new LP, Dead – mixing tribal rhythms with harmonised R’n’B hook-lines, quickfire couplets, and grinding synth and bass.
Thu 06 Feb CASH
O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £10
Sign up for the ZAP! Get a hand picked selection of the top ten events for Manchester and Liverpool delivered direct to your inbox, every Thursday morning. PLUS exclusive access to special offers and competitions. And the best part? It’s FREE!
Johnny Cash tribute act.
THE CELTIC LADIES + DUBLIN’S IRISH TENORS
LIVERPOOL EMPIRE, 19:30–23:00, FROM £14
An evening of Celtic harmonies and pop hits as The Celtic Ladies take on the likes of Adele and Celine Dion.
Head along to theskinny.co.uk/zap to sign up today
DEAD HEDGE TRIO
MELLOMELLO, 20:00–00:00, FREE
A trio from Liverpool, throwing jazz, psychedelic rock and Afrobeat into the melting pot and coming up with something kinda groovy with an improvised vibe.
LIVERPOOL ROCKS! BATTLE OF THE BANDS: QAURTER FINAL
STUDIO 2, 19:30–23:00, FREE
Battle of the bands tournament, with 48 bands from across Merseyside competing for that cash prize and headline slot at Liverpool Sound City.
Fri 07 Feb
THE SHADES (STAND BY)
THE ZANZIBAR CLUB , 19:30–23:00, £5
@theskinnyNW /TheSkinnyMag
London-based rock band made up of Dean, Hunter, Moses and Slim. LONDON GRAMMAR (BONDAX + KYAN)
O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £SOLD OUT
The indie-pop Mercury Prize favourites take their debut album on tour.
I N D E P E N D E N T
C U LT U R A L
J O U R N A L I S M
Illustration: Sophie Freeman
Listings
57
Liverpool Music THE PENNY ARCADIANS MELLOMELLO, 20:00–00:00, FREE
Tues 11th Feb • £15 adv
Every Time I Die & The Story So Far + Scouts
Fri 14th Feb • £12.50 adv
Mike Peters Declaration Tour
Sun 16th Feb • £14 adv
The Twang
Thurs 20th Feb • £15 adv
Warpaint
Sat 1st Mar • £13.50 adv
Reverend And The Makers
Sat 1st Mar • £16.50 adv
The Selecter
35 Years Of The Selecter - Performing ‘Too Much Pressure’ in full and classic and contemporary hits
Sun 2nd Mar • £20 adv
Me First And The Gimme Gimmes Mon 3rd Mar • £23 adv
The Stranglers
40th Anniversary Tour
Thurs 6th Mar • £13.50 adv
Crowbar
Fri 7th Mar • £12.50 adv
The Dualers
Sat 8th Mar • £16 adv
The English Beat ft. original vocalist Dave Wakeling
Mon 10th Mar • £18.50 adv
Maximo Park
Thurs 13th Mar • £15.50 adv
Metronomy Sat 15th Mar
Bombay Bicycle Club Tues 18th Mar • £18.50 adv
Stiff Little Fingers Thurs 20th Mar • £14 adv
The Answer
Fri 21st Mar • £16.50 adv
Space & Republica 20th Anniversary Tour
Sat 22nd Mar • £21.60 adv
NME Awards Tour 2014 with Austin, Texas ft. Interpol + Temples + Royal Blood + Circa Waves
Sun 23rd Mar • £18.50 adv
The Feeling
Sat 29th Mar • £26 adv
Radstock Festival
ft. Funeral For A Friend + Kids In Glass Houses + Yashin + Feed The Rhino and more
Sat 5th Apr • £17 adv
Riverside
Mon 7th Apr • £25 adv
Boyce Avenue
Thurs 10th Apr • £20 adv
Matt Cardle
Sat 19th Apr • £8 adv
The Hummingbirds Sat 3rd May • £22.50 adv
Fish A Moveable Feast Tour
58
Listings
Rag time jazz outfit hailing from Liverpool, making sounds on guitar, banjo, clarinet, washboard, double bass, trumpet and shed load of vocals. DREW HOLCOMB (JOHNNY SANDS)
VIEW TWO GALLERY, 20:00–23:00, £6
American singer/songwriter of the Americana rock variety, touring in support of his new album, Good Light. LIVERPOOL ROCKS! BATTLE OF THE BANDS: QAURTER FINAL
STUDIO 2, 19:30–23:00, FREE
Battle of the bands tournament, with 48 bands from across Merseyside competing for that cash prize and headline slot at Liverpool Sound City. 359 CLUB
DISTRICT, 20:00–23:00, £5
Ex-Oasis manager, Alan McGee’s 359 Club returns in 2014 with another line-up of four up-andcomers worthy of your ears, including Sugarmen, Go Fiasco, Black Tambourines and Leon Fender Walker.
Sat 08 Feb
ZANZIBAR SHOWCASE (THE SHADOW THEATRE + NEW VINYL + RAISE THE YOUTH + FALLING FOR ELISE) THE ZANZIBAR CLUB , 19:30–23:00, £5
The alt-rock venue serves up another showcase event, shining the light on local and national talent.
DAPPPY (4SAKEN + CAPZ + 4TUNETELLA + ELLIC C & JACK + NORMSKE + JAMIE BROAD + INNUENDO + SPRUNGY) O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £10
The N-Dubz chap entertains the yoof, avec baseball cap. Obviously.
BUDDY HOLLY AND THE CRICKETERS
EPSTEIN THEATRE, 19:30–22:30, £15 (£12.50)
Buddy Holly tribute show.
THE MELLOMELLO JAZZ COLLECTIVE
MELLOMELLO, 21:00–00:00, FREE
MelloMello’s jazz collective return, serving up a free evening of stomping jazz and swing fusion. THE FLYNN AND TONICS
STUDIO 2, 21:30–00:00, FREE
Funk and soul wedding band, comprised of LIPA graduates.
FIESTABOMBARDA (RENEGADE BRASS BAND + WE, THE UNDERSIGNED + HIGHFIELDS + MUTANT VINYL + LONGER FINGER BANDITS + SING FOR YOUR SUPPER)
PALM HOUSE, 19:00–01:00, £7
Fiestbombarda return for 2014 with their first carnival of the year, inviting an array of bands and circus performers to bring a little colour and celebration to the darker months of the year.
CATE LE BON LEAF, 19:30–23:00, £16
Welsh singer/songwriter with a rich vocal style, genteel warmth and a fine line in lightly-weird alternative folk. PARR JAZZ: THE TOM HARRISON/ JAMIE TAYLOR QUARTET
STUDIO 2, 20:30–00:00, £3
Parr Jazz present their weekly jazz night, featuring a line-up of international guests and local artists to perform.
Thu 13 Feb THE WYTCHES
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 19:30–23:00, £5
Brighton band making dark and flowery psychedelia, with surf riffs straight outta 1950.
FREE ROCK’N’ROLL (RORY & NED + LOUISE DISTRAS)
MELLOMELLO, 21:00–00:00, FREE
Fortnightly event offering up an evening of free rock’n’roll-inspired music by the bucket load.
Fri 14 Feb MIKE PETERS
O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £12.50
The frontman of Welsh band The Alarm goes it alone. NO ROOM FOR PARACHUTES
MELLOMELLO, 21:00–00:00, FREE
Liverpool DJ serving up musical treats to fill your Sunday afternoon and evening.
SUNDAY SIT DOWN SESSIONS (EDGAR JONES) MELLOMELLO, 15:00–20:00, FREE
Otherwise known as Edgar Summertyme, the bass player and songwriter for The Stairs, resumes his solo touring duties. SHY NATURE (THE CREASES + THE ROSCOES)
KOROVA, 19:00–22:30, £6
Alternative rock quartet hailing from North London, navigating jangly 60s sounds and garage group influences.
Tue 11 Feb
EVERY TIME I DIE + THE STORY SO FAR (SCOUTS)
O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £15
The New York-hailing metalcore bunch, Every Time I Die do a double headline thing with the pop punk Californians, The Story So Far.
O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £15
The all-female Californian quartet return to show just what they can do with the indie-rock template, via shades of goth and dance dripping in ethereal harmonies and grooves. LIVERPOOL ROCKS! BATTLE OF THE BANDS: QAURTER FINAL
STUDIO 2, 19:30–23:00, FREE
Battle of the bands tournament, with 48 bands from across Merseyside competing for that cash prize and headline slot at Liverpool Sound City. THE STRYPES
EAST VILLAGE ARTS CLUB, 19:00–22:30, £12
Crazy young Irish four-piece playing rhythm ‘n’ blues with a level of skill well beyond their years.
Fri 21 Feb
THE GOOD FRIDAY PROJECT (BLACK SONIC REVOLVERS)
THE ZANZIBAR CLUB , 19:30–23:00, £5
LIVERPOOL ROCKS! BATTLE OF THE BANDS: QAURTER FINAL
A Valentine’s day special, with the Kings of Rhythm presenting an eclectic mix of jazz and swing music to get y’all dancing.
Sat 15 Feb
MIKILL PANE (RASCALS + PAIGEY CAKEY)
80P (ERIC BOROS)
MELLOMELLO, 20:00–00:00, 80P
Vialka’s Eric Boros goes it solo for this 80p show, with support from Phullopium Dude, Trojan Horse and Howie Reeve. STUDIO 2, 19:30–23:00, FREE
Battle of the bands tournament, with 48 bands from across Merseyside competing for that cash prize and headline slot at Liverpool Sound City.
O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £9
THIS FEELING (SUGARMEN + PUSHER + SEROTONIN + THE CORAL DJ SET)
RIZZLE KICKS
The favourited London rock’n’roll night takes a trip North with a selection of live bands taking to the stage.
The Hackney-born rapper – aka Justin Smith Uzomba to his mam – brings his mix of satire, comedy and pop rhyme to the UK. O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £SOLD OUT
Teenage talents Harley AlexanderSule and Jordan Stephens do their thing, mixing pop with some old-school hippity-hop. In baseball caps. Obviously. 80P (SILENT FRONT)
MELLOMELLO, 19:00–21:30, 80P
Vialka’s Eric Boros goes it solo for this 80p show, with support from Phullopium Dude, Trojan Horse and Howie Reeve. NEW POWER SOUL CLUB
STUDIO 2, 21:30–00:00, FREE
Sun 16 Feb
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 14:00–18:00, FREE
WARPAINT (ALL WE ARE)
STUDIO 2, 21:30–00:00, FREE
KINGS OF RHYTHM
O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £SOLD OUT
BERNIE CONNOR
Thu 20 Feb
Showcase event hosted by the Greedy Jesus bunch.
London-based session band, playing anything from 70s classics to modern hits.
A three-strong bill of headliners come together to headline Kerrang!’s 2014 tour, showcasing loud punk-rock sorts from near and far.
EAST VILLAGE ARTS CLUB, 19:00–22:30, £6
London-based grunge rock-revival four-piece touring their debut self-titled LP.
Modern jazz quartet hailing from Warrington, Norwich and Liverpool, serving up an eclectic mix of Latin and modern jazz styles, with some new interpretations of obscure tunes thrown in for good measure.
Sun 09 Feb
KERRANG! TOUR 2014 (LIMP BIZKIT + CROSSFAITH + NEKROGOBLIKON)
CHEATAHS
NEWTON FAULKNER (SAM BROOKES)
O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £SOLD OUT
London-based singer/songwriter known for his guitar playing which involves rhythmically tapping and hitting his guitar’s body. THE TWANG
O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £14
Indie-rockers taking their inspiration from Madchester and Britpop times, showcasing material from their fourth LP.
Tue 18 Feb
PARR JAZZ: ORLI NYLES
STUDIO 2, 20:30–00:00, £3
Parr Jazz present their weekly jazz night, featuring a line-up of international guests and local artists to perform.
Wed 19 Feb PHAROAHE MONCH
THE KAZIMIER, 19:00–23:00, £12.50
The New York-residing hip hop artist tours the UK as a solo artist, promising intricate wordplay touching upon politics and social justice with an intelligent and critical eye.
KOROVA, 20:00–23:00, £5
Sat 22 Feb
THE SONGBOOK SESSIONS (THOM MORECROFT AND THE FULL MOON BAND + JO BYWATERS + THE LEVONS + AFTER THE RUSH HOUR + TAYLOR AND THE MASON)
THE ZANZIBAR CLUB , 19:30–23:00, £5
A showcase event for new and upcoming songwriters in Liverpool and the surrounding areas. QUADROPHENIA NIGHT (MOSES)
Mon 24 Feb PENGUIN CAFE
EPSTEIN THEATRE, 20:00–22:30, £22.50
Classically-trained guitarist Simon Jeffes leads his collective of musicians in a special performance showcasing tracks from their new LP, The Red Book. PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (THE FRONT BOTTOMS)
EAST VILLAGE ARTS CLUB, 19:00–22:30, £18.50
The Seattle rockers perform their self-titled debut album in full. FOXES
EAST VILLAGE ARTS CLUB, 19:30–22:30, £8
One-woman band riding along on Louisa Rose Allen’s resplendent synths, industrial percussion and by-turns-searing-and-soaring vocals.
Tue 25 Feb ROOM 94
O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £8
North London band of brothers – made up of Kieran, Dean and Sean Lemon, joined by Kit Tanton on bass – doing their pop-meetsrock thing. BIG UPS
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 19:30–23:00, £6
Nerdy, punctual punk lot hailing from New York City, listing PHP and Perl among their band interests. PARR JAZZ: THE JOHNNY HUNTER QUARTET
STUDIO 2, 20:30–00:00, £3
Parr Jazz present their weekly jazz night, featuring a line-up of international guests and local artists to perform. JAMES BAY
KOROVA, 20:00–23:00, £6.50
Long-haired singer/songwriter currently residing in Brighton, having his way with the pop/rock template at the tender age of 20.
Wed 26 Feb
BOY JUMPS SHIP (EVOSS + PAVILIONS)
THE CAVERN CLUB, 20:30–23:00, £5
Newcastle punk-rock quartet big on the thundering choruses. PAPER AEROPLANES
THE KAZIMIER, 19:30–23:00, £8
Acoustic alternative folkies from Wales, led by vocalist and songwriter Sarah Howells. NEW BLOOD CLUB
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 20:00–02:00, £2
Indie disco showcasing some new live talent, followed by DJ sets from New Blood Club residents.
Thu 27 Feb EAGULLS
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 19:30–23:00, £5
The Leeds-based five-piece, best known for pissing everyone off with their vitriolic blog posts.
O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £10
JASON REBELLO: LIVERPOOL INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL
F.O.E.S
The British pianist, songwriter and producer – known for his work with Sting – embarks on a solo career, demonstrating his versatile ability.
A night celebrating all things Quadrophenia, with special appearances from The Specials’ DJ/ Saxophonist, a film screening and a live set from The Atlantics. THE KAZIMIER, 19:00–23:00, £TBC
Liverpool’s alt-rock four-piece, touring in support of their latest release, Ophir. ESP!
MELLOMELLO, 20:00–00:00, £3
A new monthly event blending immersive surrealist performance with theatre and presentation. THE ROBERT MATHER BAND
STUDIO 2, 21:30–00:00, FREE
Six-piece soul and funk band from Liverpool, formed in 2012 as the resident band for Eric’s.
Sun 23 Feb WILL JAZZ
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 14:00–18:00, FREE
A lazy afternoon of jazz, selected by the Planetary Jazz founder, William S Whittle. SOUL4SOUL
STUDIO 2, 20:00–23:00, £4
Soul showcase night, offering a stage for Liverpool’s up-andcoming soul musicians. CATFISH AND THE BOTTLEMEN
EAST VILLAGE ARTS CLUB, 19:00–22:30, £7
Indie rock’n’roll quintet full of guitars and songs about love an’ that.
THE CAPSTONE, 19:30–21:30, £17.50
Fri 28 Feb
ZANZIBAR SHOWCASE (LAURA OAKES + ELLIS C & JACK + THE RANGE + SILVER STORY + VICTORIA CULL + HOT MASH)
THE ZANZIBAR CLUB , 19:30–23:00, £5
The alt-rock venue serves up another showcase event, shining the light on local and national talent. PYRO
GEORGE EZRA LEAF, 20:00–23:00, £8
Young Bristol singer/songwriter known for his bluesy, acoustic balladry. THE RETROSETTES SISTER BAND
STUDIO 2, 21:30–00:00, FREE
Vintage band offering a modern twist on sounds from the 50s, 60s and 70s. TOY
EAST VILLAGE ARTS CLUB, 19:00–22:30, £10
Korg Delta led five-piece fueled on a chugging motorik rhythm. ROBERT VINCENT
SWEDISH SEAMAN’S CHURCH, 19:30–23:00, £8
Liverpudlian singer/songwriter mixing folk, rock and country into one musical whole.
Sat 01 Mar THE SELECTER
O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £16.50
2-tone ska revival band formed in Coventry back in 1979, back on the live circuit. REVEREND AND THE MARKERS
O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £13.50
Jon McClure and his band hit the road to showcase tracks from their new album. UNFURL: LIVERPOOL INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL
THE CAPSTONE, 13:30–15:30, £12.50
A musical journey through Indian ragas, flamenco and Arabic music from the Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and Glossop-based five piece. THE WEAVE: LIVERPOOL INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL
THE CAPSTONE, 15:30–17:30, £5
An ensemble of established musicians from the Liverpool jazz scene, playing warm and melodious home-spun tunes.
THE CAPSTONE, 19:30–21:30, £17.50
The Atlantic-straddling jazz super group tour to mark the launch of their second album. DOMINIC J MARSHALL TRIO
MELLOMELLO, 21:00–00:00, FREE
The Amsterdam-based trio present an intriguing mix of jazz, classical, hip-hop, soul and folk influences.
Tue 04 Feb DISTRKT
FACTORY 251, 22:30–03:00, £TBC
Student-leaning night of house, hip hop, r’n’b and garage. POP TART
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NWS, 23:00–04:00, £3
Student night delivering cheesy chart tunes and guilty pleasures. STUDENT HOUSE
SOUTH, 23:00–04:00, £2
The weekly student house and techno night returns to South, keeping you on the dancefloor till the early hours.
Wed 05 Feb
REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 21:00–01:00, FREE
New weekly event, with the ever-charming Duncan from Dutch Uncles taking to the decks for a vinyl only set of golden age pop and disco. BASS FEST (MISTAJAM + JD EX + RED SKY NOISE + LEWIS POTTS)
THE RITZ, 22:30–04:00, £10
THE CAPSTONE, 19:30–23:00, £15
BLUE TOUCH PAPER: LIVERPOOL INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL
Former film score composer Colin Towns returns with a powerhouse line-up of world musicians, playing their take on fusion jazz. YELLOWMAN + DILLINGER
DISTRICT, 20:00–00:00, £12.50
The duo of Jamaica natives – one brought up in an orphanage, the other around Dennis Alcapone’s El Paso sound system – both found their sound in the finest dancehall, much to every reggae fan’s delight.
Sun 02 Mar
ME FIRST AND THE GIMME GIMMES
O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £20
Punk rock cover group hailing from Southern California, known for their onstage fancy dress antics. STUART MCCALLUM: LIVERPOOL INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL
THE CAPSTONE, 13:30–15:30, £12.50
Cinematic Orchestra guitarist trying out new material in the realm of beats, electronica, classical orchestration and jazz. ACV: LIVERPOOL INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL
THE CAPSTONE, 15:30–17:30, £5
Newcastle upon Tyne-based experimental jazz quintet perform as part of the Liverpool International Jazz Festival. HSQ +2: LIVERPOOL INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL
THE CAPSTONE, 19:30–19:30, £5
THE CAPSTONE, 19:30–23:00, £15
THE IMPOSSIBLE GENTLEMEN: LIVERPOOL INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL
Manchester Clubs
SOUND CONTROL, 22:30–04:00, £10
THE CAPSTONE, 19:30–19:30, £5
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 19:30–23:00, £7
With their debut album, Songs of Lies and Deceit in tow, the four piece psychedelic bunch from Carlisle head out on the road.
The long-standing punk-rockers take to the road once more, marking their 40th anniversary with dates up and down the country.
A dynamic piano trio, led by Jamil Sheriff.
JAMIL SHERIFF TRIO: LIVERPOOL INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL
Rock meets power metal fourpiece hailing from Manchester.
THE LUCID DREAM (SUDDEN DEATH OF STARS + THE WILD EYES + STRANGE COLLECTIVE)
THE STRANGLERS
O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £25
Sound Control and The Ritz join forces to host a blow out, bass-centric night, with 10 acts serving up house and disco at Sound Control and hip hop, r’n’b, dubstep, grime and drum’n’bass over at The Ritz.
The contemporary sax quartet, HSQ are joined by harpist Racheal Gladwin and percussionist Phil Bennett.
O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £6
Mon 03 Mar
GET THE BLESSING: LIVERPOOL INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL
Bristol-based post jazz/prog rock outfit and winners of the BBC Jazz Award 2008 for their debut album, All Is Yes. TOPLOADER
EAST VILLAGE ARTS CLUB, 19:00–22:30, £15
The British rockers (of Dancing In The Moonlight fame) re-form after a five year break.
BASS FEST (DANNY HOWARD + KRYDER + JUNIOR J)
Sound Control and The Ritz join forces to host a blow out, bass-centric night, with 10 acts serving up house and disco at Sound Control and hip hop, r’n’b, dubstep, grime and drum’n’bass over at The Ritz.
Thu 06 Feb STOP MAKING SENSE
COMMON, 21:00–02:00, FREE
Common’s regular club-in-a-bar night of hipster bullshit, with Mr Seb Valentine, Benatronic & Luke Warm. THE END IS NIGH
COMMON, 19:00–02:00, FREE
The Common World exhibition closes with an end of the world party, as SMS provide some sounds exploring the complex relationship between pop music and doom. F//CK
FACTORY 251, 22:30–03:30, £3 (99P CHEAP LIST)
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 mash ups across three rooms. MURKAGE
SOUTH, 23:00–04:00, £3
House, hip-hop, grime and garage from the Murkage residents. DJ JOHN MCCREADY
ONE LOUNGE BAR, 21:30–01:00, FREE
Ex-hacienda resident turns his attention of chilled out disco, jazz and funk.
Fri 07 Feb BPM
ROADHOUSE, 23:00–04:00, £3
A night of grime, garage and experimental bass from the club night turned record label, BPM. TOP OF THE POPS
MINT LOUNGE, 22:30–03:30, £2
DJ set from Chris Massey, serving up the hits of the decade along with some guilty pleasures. GIRL POWER!
THE RUBY LOUNGE, 23:00–04:00, £5
Pop Curious take a jaunt into the realm of 90s girl bands and female-fronted pop groups for their one-off club night, Girl Power.
THE SKINNY
Manchester Clubs XFM FIRST FRIDAY (JO GOOD + FINDLAY + DEXTERS) BAND ON THE WALL, 21:00–03:00, £4 EARLYBIRD (£6 THEREAFTER)
The gig and club combo night continues, with a two-strong lineup including Manchester’s Findlay, and the indie rock five-piece from London, Dexters. REVOLVER
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 23:00–03:00, £3 ADV (£4 DOOR)
Manchester’s premier 60s party, now a bi-monthly reason to get excited. Expect 60s pop, garage, motown, rock’n’roll. A LOVE FROM OUTER SPACE
ISLINGTON MILL, 22:00–04:00, £12
Andrew Weatherall and Sean Johnston’s rather ace London night makes its now regular trip north, with the mighty duo playing backto-back all night long. ANALOGUE COPS
SOUP KITCHEN, 23:00–04:00, £8
Marking their first foray into live shows, Eastern Bloc bring the Italy-born, Berlin-based spontaneous duo, Analogue Cops, getting their name from their purist approach to recording, opting to record only on tape and press their tracks on vinyl. WELL FUTURE (GLOWING PALMS)
COMMON, 21:00–02:00, FREE
Guest DJs on the decks, bringing you music from the past, present, and well, future. SELECTIVE HEARING (MANO LE TOUGH + PROSUMER)
GORILLA, 22:00–04:00, £8
Selective Hearing return to Gorilla with a headline set from the Berlin-based producer, Mano Le Tough, aka Niall Mannion, blending modern disco with electronica to euphoric effect. MELTING POT
TROF NORTHERN QUARTER, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£1 AFTER 10PM)
A new Friday-nighter offering up smooth soul and elevating disco. BOOMBOX
TWENTY TWENTY TWO, 21:00–03:00, FREE
David Dunne and Andy Daniels embark on a trip through the 90s, taking in anything from hip hop to house to classic pop. CLUB X OVER
THE RITZ, 22:30–03:30, £4 (£5 AFTER 12)
Monthly alternative club night offering an eclectic mix of rock, grunge, metal, hip hop, industrial and more courtesy of their resident DJs. DROP THE MUSTARD (SHADOW CHILD)
SOUND CONTROL, 23:00–04:00, £10
The boundary crossing teenage duo play their inimitable house-meetsgarage-meets-pop selections. ZUTEKH (AME)
SOUND CONTROL, 23:00–04:00, £12
For part 2 of Zutekh’s birthday celebrations, Kristian from Innervisions’ Âme headlines the night, revealing how the duo bonded over a love of Detroit techno and Chicago house. FRI251
FACTORY 251, 23:00–03:00, 99P (£6 AFTER 12)
Student Friday-nighter, with mashups in room one, indie, funk and Motown in room two, and electro house in room three. SHAKEDOWN
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NQ, 23:00–04:00, FREE
DJ Da Funk taking over the decks for a night of hip-hop, funk and dubstep. PAID IN FULL
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NWS, 22:00–04:00, FREE
DJ Da Funk taking over the decks for a night of hip-hop, frunk and dubstep sounds. MODERAT
ALBERT HALL, 22:00–02:00, £18.50
FUNKADEMIA MINT LOUNGE, 22:30–03:30, £5 ADV. (£6 DOOR)
Mancunian nightclub institution – delivering a chronological history of soul on a weekly basis, courtesy of their DJ collective. SCARY MONSTERS
THE RUBY LOUNGE, 23:00–04:00, £4 (£6 AFTER 11)
Total 80s night, serving up the likes of Bowie, Depeche Mode and Duran Duran.
SOUL BOUTIQUE (ERIC ROBERTSON + DJ PAUL MAC)
BAND ON THE WALL, 20:00–23:00, £12.50
A night of glamour and drop dead gorgeous dance floor-filling tunes. FOALS DJ SET
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 22:00–04:00, £9
The Oxford rock ensemble take to the decks for a late night DJ set. OFF THE HOOK VS POP CURIOUS
CONTACT, 23:00–03:00, £6
Queer alternative night, Off The Hook go head to head with pop music purveyors, Pop Curious for the first club night of Queer Contact Festival 2014.
STUDENT HOUSE
SOUTH, 23:00–04:00, £2
The weekly student house and techno night returns to South, keeping you on the dancefloor till the early hours.
Wed 12 Feb
REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 21:00–01:00, FREE
Common invite their buddies to take over the decks.
FUTUREBOOGIE SHOWCASE (MAXXI SOUNDSYSTEM + OUTBOX)
GORILLA, 22:00–04:00, £10
Brighton’s Maxxi Soundsystem headlines this Futureboogie showcase event, with support from the Bristol-based Outboxx and Futureboogie DJs. WOO HAH
TROF NORTHERN QUARTER, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£1 AFTER 10PM)
New Saturday-nighter spanning old school, hip-hop, soul and funk. BOOMBOX
TWENTY TWENTY TWO, 21:00–03:00, FREE
David Dunne and Andy Daniels embark on a trip through the 90s, taking in anything from hip hop to house to classic pop. TRANARCHY
THE BAY HORSE, 21:00–01:00, FREE
The Manchester-based music and DJ collective prove their worth as seasoned party-throwers. Expect glitter. STONE LOVE
FACTORY 251, 23:00–03:00, £3
New blood indie disco from Stone Love and The Loft Club, offering indie rock’n’roll, soul, funk and Motown across three rooms. ILLUMINAUGHTY
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2, 21:30–05:30, £17
Psy-trance multimedia dance event, throwing predictability out of the window. WHOSAIDWHAT?
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NWS, 22:00–04:00, £2
Regular Saturday-nighter, packed with disco, house and funk, with a dash of hip-hop and reggae for good measure. CLINT BOON
SOUTH, 23:00–04:00, £5
Mixed-bag night from local DJ ledge Clint Boon.
Sun 09 Feb PHONOGRAPHY
THE BAY HORSE, 21:00–23:00, FREE
Vinyl only sets from Peter Jay, Steve Legatto and Rich Harris. ROB POWER’S BLUES RINSE
ONE LOUNGE BAR, 22:00–00:30, FREE
Rockabilly DJ set with live local acts and DJs serving up a mix of blues and rock’n’roll. ITCHY FEET
MINT LOUNGE, 22:00–03:00, £TBC
GOLD TEETH
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 22:00–03:00, £4 ADV (£5 DOOR)
Legendary bad boy, mixed-bag night that invites use of the term ‘carnage’.
FUNKADEMIA
MINT LOUNGE, 22:30–03:30, £5 ADV. (£6 DOOR)
Mancunian nightclub institution – delivering a chronological history of soul on a weekly basis, courtesy of their DJ collective. REVOLVER
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 23:00–03:00, £3 ADV (£4 DOOR)
Manchester’s premier 60s party, now a bi-monthly reason to get excited. Expect 60s pop, garage, motown, rock’n’roll. BRITPOP CURIOUS?
KRAAK, 23:00–04:00, £5
Club night celebrating guitar music you can dance to, expect Suede, Blur, Primal Scream, Bowie and Idlewild. BOLLOX VS TRANARCHY VS THE SISTERS GORGEOUS: THE END
CONTACT, 23:00–03:00, £6
DISTRKT
BICEP
CLINT BOON
BLOCK PARTY
FACTORY 251, 22:30–03:00, £TBC
GORILLA, 23:00–04:00, £8
SOUTH, 23:00–04:00, £5
TROF NORTHERN QUARTER, 21:00–03:00, FREE
Student-leaning night of house, hip hop, r’n’b and garage. POP TART
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NWS, 23:00–04:00, £3
Student night delivering cheesy chart tunes and guilty pleasures. STUDENT HOUSE
SOUTH, 23:00–04:00, £2
The weekly student house and techno night returns to South, keeping you on the dancefloor till the early hours.
Wed 19 Feb
REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 21:00–01:00, FREE
New weekly event, with the ever-charming Duncan from Dutch Uncles taking to the decks for a vinyl only set of golden age pop and disco. PROJECT 13 + CHOW DOWN
New weekly event, with the ever-charming Duncan from Dutch Uncles taking to the decks for a vinyl only set of golden age pop and disco.
Three of Manchester’s Queer-alt club nights comes together for the second club and final club night of Queer Contact Festival.
Thu 13 Feb
Common invite their buddies to take over the decks.
COMMON, 21:00–02:00, FREE
GORILLA, 22:00–04:00, £12
Thu 20 Feb
WOO HAH
Common’s regular club-in-a-bar night of hipster bullshit, with Mr Seb Valentine, Benatronic & Luke Warm.
STOP MAKING SENSE (RAINER VEIL EP LAUNCH)
FACTORY 251, 22:30–03:30, £3 (99P CHEAP LIST)
FRIENDS IN COMMON (ANNA BUDRYS)
A unique blend of rock’n’roll, funk and swing, engineered to get feet moving.
February 2014
Student night delivering cheesy chart tunes and guilty pleasures.
COMMON, 21:00–02:00, FREE
Sat 08 Feb
Manchester’s own Spice Movement headlines the first Hotmilk night of 2014, bringing his cutting edge dancehall sounds to the fore.
POP TART
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NWS, 23:00–04:00, £3
The Hessle Audio co-founder (alongside Ben UF0) mans the decks for the full four hours, playing some of the best in underground house.
Tue 11 Feb
ROADHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£5 AFTER 12)
Student-leaning night of house, hip hop, r’n’b and garage.
Modern Love’s Rainer Veil will be joining the Stop Making Sense boys in their woodchip booth for a special edition of their weekly clubnight, celebrating the launch of the former's latest EP, New Brutalism on the night.
PEARSON SOUND
SOUP KITCHEN, 23:00–04:00, £5
The Berlin electronic audio-visual collaborators treat fans to one of their now renowned live outings. HOTMILK (SPICE MOVEMENTS)
DISTRKT FACTORY 251, 22:30–03:00, £TBC
Sat 15 Feb
F//CK
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 mash ups across three rooms. MURKAGE
SOUTH, 23:00–04:00, £3
FRIENDS IN COMMON (NEIL ATKINS)
COMMON, 21:00–02:00, FREE (£2 AFTER 10)
MICRON (JORIS VOORN)
DJ and producer, Joris Voorn drops by Manchester to headline this Micron event, bringing his house and techno leanings to the fore. TROF NORTHERN QUARTER, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£1 AFTER 10PM)
New Saturday-nighter spanning old school, hip-hop, soul and funk. BOOMBOX
TWENTY TWENTY TWO, 21:00–03:00, FREE
David Dunne and Andy Daniels embark on a trip through the 90s, taking in anything from hip hop to house to classic pop. REACH OUT: MOTOWN
SOUND CONTROL, 23:00–03:00, £1
Fri 14 Feb
A night of 60s sounds, with Motown and soul on the agenda thanks to Sound Control resident, Daniel Deighan.
ROADHOUSE, 23:00–04:00, £5
THE BAY HORSE, 21:00–01:00, FREE
House, hip-hop, grime and garage from the Murkage residents. NAUGHTY NINETIES
MARK HOGG
Shameless 90s club night, recalling the heyday of the Hacienda, serving up classic indie, dance and a dash of rave.
One half of The Slammin’ Boys, and Funkademia resident navigates classic disco and funk as part of his new monthly residency.
MINT LOUNGE, 22:30–03:30, £2
FACTORY 251, 23:00–03:00, £3
TOP OF THE POPS
DJ set from Chris Massey, serving up the hits of the decade along with some guilty pleasures. WORK THEM
KRAAK, 23:00–04:00, £5
Work Then venture over to the Kraak gallery space with a mixed bag of eclectic tunes spanning disco, house and psychedelic pop. PUMPING IRON: VALENTINE’S DAY SPECIAL
COMMON, 21:00–02:00, FREE (£2 AFTER 10)
Mixed-bag night of nu cosmic Italio, vintage avant garde disco and lo-fi rhythmic punk funk, getting extra red and heart emblazoned for Valentine’s Day. MELTING POT
TROF NORTHERN QUARTER, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£1 AFTER 10PM)
A new Friday-nighter offering up smooth soul and elevating disco. BOOMBOX
TWENTY TWENTY TWO, 21:00–03:00, FREE
David Dunne and Andy Daniels embark on a trip through the 90s, taking in anything from hip hop to house to classic pop. DROP THE MUSTARD (BONDAX)
SOUND CONTROL, 23:00–04:00, £10
The boundary crossing teenage duo play their inimitable house-meetsgarage-meets-pop selections. FRI251
FACTORY 251, 23:00–03:00, 99P (£6 AFTER 12)
Student Friday-nighter, with mashups in room one, indie, funk and Motown in room two, and electro house in room three. SHAKEDOWN
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NQ, 23:00–04:00, FREE
DJ Da Funk taking over the decks for a night of hip-hop, funk and dubstep. PAID IN FULL
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NWS, 22:00–04:00, FREE
DJ Da Funk taking over the decks for a night of hip-hop, frunk and dubstep sounds.
STONE LOVE
New blood indie disco from Stone Love and The Loft Club, offering indie rock’n’roll, soul, funk and Motown across three rooms. WHOSAIDWHAT?
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NWS, 22:00–04:00, £2
Regular Saturday-nighter, packed with disco, house and funk, with a dash of hip-hop and reggae for good measure. CLINT BOON
SOUTH, 23:00–04:00, £5
Mixed-bag night from local DJ ledge Clint Boon. REBEL RAVE
ALBERT HALL, 21:00–04:00, £20
Following ten years of Crosstrown Rebels world tours, Damian Lazarus brings his label’s Rebel Rave night to Manchester, with live sets from Art Department and Infinity Ink. APOCA-LOCK-N-LOAD
ZOMBIE SHACK, 22:00–03:00, FREE
Launch night for apoca-lock-nload, an apocalyptic night serving up electro, house, grindhouse and bass.
Sun 16 Feb HAXAN
COMMON, 16:00–00:00, FREE
SOUP KITCHEN, 23:00–03:00, £6
A midweek collaboration between Project 13 and Chow Down sees the Chicago legend, DJ Rashad make tracks to the basement for a trademark set blending ghetto house, tech and Chicago juke. STOP MAKING SENSE
COMMON, 21:00–02:00, FREE
CIRQUE DU SOUL (WILL WEAVER + LUKE WOLFMAN + CHARLIE LBC)
SOUND CONTROL, 23:00–04:00, £8
The travelling club night, self described as ‘burlesque meets bass’, which makes for a vibrant and experience. F//CK
FACTORY 251, 22:30–03:30, £3 (99P CHEAP LIST)
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 mash ups across three rooms. MURKAGE
SOUTH, 23:00–04:00, £3
House, hip-hop, grime and garage from the Murkage residents.
Fri 21 Feb FLOATING POINTS
ROADHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £10
Strictly vinyl set from the UKbased DJ, producer and musician, spanning house, techno, soul and disco. TOP OF THE POPS
MINT LOUNGE, 22:30–03:30, £2
DJ set from Chris Massey, serving up the hits of the decade along with some guilty pleasures. DUSK TILL DAWN
THE RUBY LOUNGE, 23:00–04:00, £5 (£4)
Tequila drenched night of classic sleaze and hard rock – expect Aerosmith, Motley Crue and Misfits to name a few. UPTOWN
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 22:00–03:00, £3 ADV (£5 DOOR)
A new night landing at Deaf, offering up the best in disco, funk, boogie and party classics.
GESAMTKUNSTWERK (DAMIEN DUBROVNIK + HELM + BASIC HOUSE)
ISLINGTON MILL, 21:00–04:00, £8 ADV (£10 DOOR)
The gesamtkunstwerk crew assemble to shred up conventional electronics and reconstruct the remains – basically just the electronic/house/techno sounds we’ve come to expect of the Mill. BLACK BEE SOUL CLUB
KRAAK, 23:00–04:00, £3
Michael Holland and Boomkat’s Conor, dishing up radiophonic disco and film score techno.
Up-tempo Northern Soul in the Northern Quarter – inspired by the underground clubs of the 60s and 70s.
THE BAY HORSE, 21:00–23:00, FREE
SOUP KITCHEN, 23:00–04:30, £7
PHONOGRAPHY
Vinyl only sets from Peter Jay, Steve Legatto and Rich Harris. ROB POWER’S BLUES RINSE
ONE LOUNGE BAR, 22:00–00:30, FREE
Rockabilly DJ set with live local acts and DJs serving up a mix of blues and rock’n’roll.
Tue 18 Feb GOLD TEETH
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 22:00–03:00, £4 ADV (£5 DOOR)
Legendary bad boy, mixed-bag night that invites use of the term ‘carnage’.
MEANDYOU (RON MORELLI)
The Manchester-based collective continue with their trend of hosting bang on house and techno nights, inviting L.I.E.S. boss Ron Morelli over from his native Brooklyn for a late night set. HAXAN (BASIC HOUSE)
COMMON, 21:00–02:00, FREE (£2 AFTER 10)
Michael Holland and Boomkat’s Conor, dishing up radiophonic disco and film score techno.
All night set from boogie disco duo, Andy and Matt, aka Bicep, flexing their love for all things analogue and taking in Italo, Detroit techno and Chicago house as they go.
Mixed-bag night from local DJ ledge Clint Boon.
TROF NORTHERN QUARTER, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£1 AFTER 10PM)
Vinyl only sets from Peter Jay, Steve Legatto and Rich Harris.
BEATS, BATS & BEERS
Rockabilly DJ set with live local acts and DJs serving up a mix of blues and rock’n’roll.
MELTING POT
A new Friday-nighter offering up smooth soul and elevating disco. TWENTY TWENTY TWO, 21:00–03:00, FREE
Mark Webster and his chums play their take on soul, boogie, funk and alternative pop treasures, providing ample soundtrack to your beer-fuelled ping pong session. ULTIMATE POWER
THE RITZ, 22:30–03:30, £8
A new club night sweeping the nation, offering up nothing but power ballads. It’s like one big communal karaoke night. FRI251
FACTORY 251, 23:00–03:00, 99P (£6 AFTER 12)
Student Friday-nighter, with mashups in room one, indie, funk and Motown in room two, and electro house in room three. SHAKEDOWN
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NQ, 23:00–04:00, FREE
DJ Da Funk taking over the decks for a night of hip-hop, funk and dubstep. PAID IN FULL
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NWS, 22:00–04:00, FREE
DJ Da Funk taking over the decks for a night of hip-hop, frunk and dubstep sounds.
Sat 22 Feb FUNKADEMIA
MINT LOUNGE, 22:30–03:30, £5 ADV. (£6 DOOR)
Mancunian nightclub institution – delivering a chronological history of soul on a weekly basis, courtesy of their DJ collective. CRAIG CHARLES FUNK AND SOUL CLUB (JOHN TURRELL + HEED)
BAND ON THE WALL, 21:00–03:00, £15
DJ and actor Craig Charles will be manning the decks until 3am, playing his picks of funk and soul. POP
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 22:00–04:00, £3 ADV (£5 DOOR)
Pop classics in the music hall and glitzy girly disco in the main bar – all of which is designed to keep you dancing all night. FRIENDS IN COMMON (WHITE PEPPER)
COMMON, 21:00–02:00, FREE (£2 AFTER 10)
Common invite their buddies to take over the decks.
UNDERGROUND AND FRIENDS (TUBE AND BERGER)
GORILLA, 23:00–04:00, £8
German duo, Tube and Berger, aka Arndt Roerig and Marko Vidovic bring their deep house sounds to Manchester for a headline set at Underground; touring in support of their first studio album, Introlution. WOO HAH
TROF NORTHERN QUARTER, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£1 AFTER 10PM)
New Saturday-nighter spanning old school, hip-hop, soul and funk. BEATS, BATS & BEERS
TWENTY TWENTY TWO, 21:00–03:00, FREE
Mark Webster and his chums play their take on soul, boogie, funk and alternative pop treasures, providing ample soundtrack to your beer-fuelled ping pong session. RELAPSE 3RD BIRTHDAY
SOUND CONTROL, 21:00–04:00, £14
Relapse go head to head with Therapy Sessions for their 3rd birthday, with local legends Dub Phizix and Strategy making their Relapse debut. NICK’S PICKS
THE BAY HORSE, 21:00–01:00, FREE
A selection of rare and private press rock, punk and psychedelia, courtesy of Nick. STONE LOVE
FACTORY 251, 23:00–03:00, £3
Sun 23 Feb
Another Mof Glimmers night, serving up block party essentials with free house punch ‘til it’s gone.
THE BAY HORSE, 21:00–23:00, FREE
TWENTY TWENTY TWO, 21:00–03:00, FREE
PHONOGRAPHY
ROB POWER’S BLUES RINSE
ONE LOUNGE BAR, 22:00–00:30, FREE
Mon 24 Feb OOKAY & ETC!ETC!
SOUND CONTROL, 22:00–03:00, £8
The San Diego-based electronic dance procuder, Ookay appears alongside the Los Angeles-born producer Etc!Etc! For a night of eclectic flavours.
FRI251
FACTORY 251, 23:00–03:00, 99P (£6 AFTER 12)
Student Friday-nighter, with mashups in room one, indie, funk and Motown in room two, and electro house in room three. SHAKEDOWN
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NQ, 23:00–04:00, FREE
DJ Da Funk taking over the decks for a night of hip-hop, funk and dubstep.
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 22:00–03:00, £4 ADV (£5 DOOR)
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NWS, 22:00–04:00, FREE
GOLD TEETH
PAID IN FULL
Legendary bad boy, mixed-bag night that invites use of the term ‘carnage’.
DJ Da Funk taking over the decks for a night of hip-hop, frunk and dubstep sounds.
FACTORY 251, 22:30–03:00, £TBC
SOUTH, 23:00–04:00, £2
DISTRKT
Student-leaning night of house, hip hop, r’n’b and garage. POP TART
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NWS, 23:00–04:00, £3
STUDENT HOUSE
The weekly student house and techno night returns to South, keeping you on the dancefloor till the early hours.
Student night delivering cheesy chart tunes and guilty pleasures.
Sat 01 Mar
SOUTH, 23:00–04:00, £2
MINT LOUNGE, 22:30–03:30, £5 ADV. (£6 DOOR)
STUDENT HOUSE
The weekly student house and techno night returns to South, keeping you on the dancefloor till the early hours.
Wed 26 Feb
REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 21:00–01:00, FREE
New weekly event, with the ever-charming Duncan from Dutch Uncles taking to the decks for a vinyl only set of golden age pop and disco.
Thu 27 Feb CLAUDE VONSTROKE
GORILLA, 23:00–04:00, £8
Gorilla’s partners in rave, Drop the Mustard present a set from the towering tech-house king that is Claude VonStroke. F//CK
FACTORY 251, 22:30–03:30, £3 (99P CHEAP LIST)
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 mash ups across three rooms. MURKAGE
SOUTH, 23:00–04:00, £3
House, hip-hop, grime and garage from the Murkage residents.
Fri 28 Feb BONOBO DJ SET
ROADHOUSE, 23:00–04:00, £10
Brighton’s Bonobo (aka Simon Green) tours his fifth LP, The North Borders, an atmospheric and patiently honed gem of a thing drawing on elements of jazz, garage and shimmering dubstep. TOP OF THE POPS
MINT LOUNGE, 22:30–03:30, £2
DJ set from Chris Massey, serving up the hits of the decade along with some guilty pleasures. HOLY CIRCUS
THE RUBY LOUNGE, 23:00–04:00, £4
Blissed out night of indie, rock, lofi garage and all in between; expect to hear The Smiths, Talking Heads and The Cure. REBEL MUSIC
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 22:00–03:00, £3 ADV (£4 DOOR)
Resident DJs spin the very best of the last six decades of controversial icons, from Elvis, The Clash, Chick Berry and Snoop Dogg. TRUSS + AND + SZARE
SOUP KITCHEN, 22:00–04:00, £7
The London-based producer, Truss headlines this night from Adapt and Eastern Bloc alongside sets from Mancunian duo AnD, and modern techno pioneer, Szare.
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NWS, 22:00–04:00, £2
COMMON, 21:00–02:00, FREE (£2 AFTER 10)
Regular Saturday-nighter, packed with disco, house and funk, with a dash of hip-hop and reggae for good measure.
Mark Webster and his chums play their take on soul, boogie, funk and alternative pop treasures, providing ample soundtrack to your beer-fuelled ping pong session.
Tue 25 Feb
New blood indie disco from Stone Love and The Loft Club, offering indie rock’n’roll, soul, funk and Motown across three rooms. WHOSAIDWHAT?
BEATS, BATS & BEERS
FUNKADEMIA
Mancunian nightclub institution – delivering a chronological history of soul on a weekly basis, courtesy of their DJ collective. REMAKE REMODEL
THE RUBY LOUNGE, 23:00–04:00, £4 (£3)
A night of alternative rock’n’roll shenanigans. MR SCRUFF KEEP IT UNREAL
BAND ON THE WALL, 21:30–03:00, £11
DJ set from the musical mastermind, known for mixing a junkshop bag of sounds and bringing his beats to life with squiggly, scribbled animations. CLARK + SHED
GORILLA, 22:00–04:00, £10
Clark present a trademark live AV show, with a live set from Shed and support from Selective Hearing DJs. WOO HAH
TROF NORTHERN QUARTER, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£1 AFTER 10PM)
New Saturday-nighter spanning old school, hip-hop, soul and funk. BEATS, BATS & BEERS
TWENTY TWENTY TWO, 21:00–03:00, FREE
Mark Webster and his chums play their take on soul, boogie, funk and alternative pop treasures, providing ample soundtrack to your beer-fuelled ping pong session.
EARGASM (PHIL DUGGAN + ILL PHILL + CRAIG TINKER + DANNI CARA + STEPBROTHERS) SOUND CONTROL, 23:00–04:00, £7
Manchester’s biggest deep house night moves to its new home at Sound Control, with bassline legend Jamie Duggan headlining the night. STONE LOVE
FACTORY 251, 23:00–03:00, £3
New blood indie disco from Stone Love and The Loft Club, offering indie rock’n’roll, soul, funk and Motown across three rooms. WHOSAIDWHAT?
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NWS, 22:00–04:00, £2
Regular Saturday-nighter, packed with disco, house and funk, with a dash of hip-hop and reggae for good measure. CLINT BOON
SOUTH, 23:00–04:00, £5
Mixed-bag night from local DJ ledge Clint Boon.
Sun 02 Mar PHONOGRAPHY
THE BAY HORSE, 21:00–23:00, FREE
Vinyl only sets from Peter Jay, Steve Legatto and Rich Harris.
WELL FUTURE (KICKIN PIGEON)
Guest DJs on the decks, bringing you music from the past, present, and well, future.
Listings
59
Liverpool Clubs Tue 04 Feb DIRTY ANTICS
Sun 09 Feb DJ LETHAL
O2 ACADEMY, 22:30–02:00, £4
BUMPER, 22:30–04:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 11)
DJ Lethal leads the official Limp Bizkit after party.
Wed 05 Feb
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 14:00–18:00, FREE
Messy Tuesday-nighter, bring your dirty shoes. CLARKS
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 22:00–03:00, £3 (£5 AFTER 12)
A new monthly bashment club hitting the Liverpool scene, serving up bashment, soca and dancehall with Caribbean décor and carnival vibes. MEDICATION
NATION, 22:30–03:00, £5
Long-running student night serving up three rooms of house, electro, chart and r’n’b – complete with visuals and occasional fancy dress. KILL YOUR TV
BUMPER, 20:30–05:00, £2
An anything-goes affair – think indie, punk, ska, new wave, electro and more. NO-WAVE SOCIAL CLUB
BROOKLYN MIXER, 22:00–03:00, FREE
Alternative indie and hip-hop night from the No-Wave bunch, expect the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Hot Chip and Pixies.
Thu 06 Feb JUICY
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 23:00–03:00, £3
All party, no bullshit night of everything from classic hip-hop to disco and funk. SKREAM
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 22:00–03:00, £15
Chibuku bring the Croydon-based DJ, Olly Jones, aka Skream to Liverpool best known for his tastemaking spot on Radio 1 alongside Benga. TIME SQUARE
THE KRAZY HOUSE, 22:00–04:00, £2
Staple student night with a mix of music across the three floors (think: rock, indie, alternative, dance and a sprinkling of cheese). STOCK EXCHANGE
CHAMELEON BAR, 20:00–02:00, FREE
Ease those double-dip recession woes and dance yourself silly at Chameleon’s weekly Stock Exchange. GOSSIP!
GARLANDS, 22:00–03:00, £4
BERNIE CONNOR
Liverpool DJ serving up musical treats to fill your Sunday afternoon and evening.
Tue 11 Feb DIRTY ANTICS
BUMPER, 22:30–04:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 11)
Messy Tuesday-nighter, bring your dirty shoes.
Wed 12 Feb MEDICATION
NATION, 22:30–03:00, £5
Long-running student night serving up three rooms of house, electro, chart and r’n’b – complete with visuals and occasional fancy dress. KILL YOUR TV
BUMPER, 20:30–05:00, £2
An anything-goes affair – think indie, punk, ska, new wave, electro and more. NO-WAVE SOCIAL CLUB
BROOKLYN MIXER, 22:00–03:00, FREE
Alternative indie and hip-hop night from the No-Wave bunch, expect the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Hot Chip and Pixies.
Thu 13 Feb JUICY
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 23:00–03:00, £3
All party, no bullshit night of everything from classic hip-hop to disco and funk. TIME SQUARE
THE KRAZY HOUSE, 22:00–04:00, £2
Staple student night with a mix of music across the three floors (think: rock, indie, alternative, dance and a sprinkling of cheese). STOCK EXCHANGE
CHAMELEON BAR, 20:00–02:00, FREE
Ease those double-dip recession woes and dance yourself silly at Chameleon’s weekly Stock Exchange. GOSSIP!
GARLANDS, 22:00–03:00, £4
Student night with 5 rooms of music spread over 2 floors and occasional theme nights.
Student night with 5 rooms of music spread over 2 floors and occasional theme nights.
Fri 14 Feb
Fri 07 Feb
Back to back DJ set from Cobra Commander and AK47/247.
ABANDON SILENCE (MANO LE TOUGH + TOM TRAGO + LEON VYNEHALL) THE KAZIMIER, 22:00–04:00, £SOLD OUT
Abandon Silence’s opening line-up for 2014 features three Liverpool debuts for Mano Le Tough, Tom Trago and Leon Vynehall. CARL COMBOVER
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 22:00–03:00, FREE
60s rock’n’roll and raw r’n’b from the Go Go resident, Carl Combover. THE AFTER WORK SOCIAL CLUB
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 18:00–21:00, FREE
Beaten Track DJs provide the soundtrack for the After Work Social Club.
Sat 08 Feb NO FAKIN
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 22:00–03:00, FREE
Selector set from the No Fakin DJs, spanning hip hop, funk, soul and reggae.
HUSTLE (RAHAAN + TERRY FARLEY + JAMES MORGAN) THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 22:00–03:00, £6
Disco and house legend Terry Farley and Chicago DJ Rahaan join forces for a night of underground classics. RAGE
THE KRAZY HOUSE, 22:00–05:00, £3
Mixed-bag night spread out over all three floors, serving up indie, rock, alternative and dance tunes. BEDLAM SATURDAY
GARLANDS, 22:00–04:00, £10 (£5)
Extravagant and flamboyant club night complete with resident entertainers, including Foxy Grunt and Barbie the hostess with the mostess.
60
Listings
COBRA COMMANDER + AK47
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 22:00–03:00, FREE
LDMS (LEVON VINCENT + G R BARTLETT + ASSHETON)
40 SEEL STREET, 22:00–03:00, £7
RAGE THE KRAZY HOUSE, 22:00–05:00, £3
Mixed-bag night spread out over all three floors, serving up indie, rock, alternative and dance tunes. BEDLAM SATURDAY
GARLANDS, 22:00–04:00, £10 (£5)
Extravagant and flamboyant club night complete with resident entertainers, including Foxy Grunt and Barbie the hostess with the mostess. RUBIX (TECHNASIA + BEN GRUNNELL)
THE GARAGE, 22:00–08:00, £12 ADV (£15 DOOR)
The first RUBIX of 2014 sees Ovum Recordings’ Technasia take to The Garage, bringing the sounds of Hong Kong to the UK.
Sun 16 Feb
EAST VILLAGE ARTS CLUB, 22:00–04:00, £16 (£14)
The February edition of Chibuku sees Scottish electronic producer, Hudson Mohawke nabbing the headline spot.
DIRTY ANTICS
BUMPER, 22:30–04:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 11)
Messy Tuesday-nighter, bring your dirty shoes. NEW BLOOD CLUB
Long-running student night serving up three rooms of house, electro, chart and r’n’b – complete with visuals and occasional fancy dress.
DIRTY ANTICS
BUMPER, 22:30–04:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 11)
Messy Tuesday-nighter, bring your dirty shoes.
Wed 19 Feb MEDICATION
NATION, 22:30–03:00, £5
Long-running student night serving up three rooms of house, electro, chart and r’n’b – complete with visuals and occasional fancy dress. KILL YOUR TV
BUMPER, 20:30–05:00, £2
An anything-goes affair – think indie, punk, ska, new wave, electro and more. NO-WAVE SOCIAL CLUB
BROOKLYN MIXER, 22:00–03:00, FREE
Alternative indie and hip-hop night from the No-Wave bunch, expect the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Hot Chip and Pixies.
Thu 20 Feb JUICY
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 23:00–03:00, £3
All party, no bullshit night of everything from classic hip-hop to disco and funk. TOP DECK OPENING PARTY
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 19:00–00:00, FREE
Part two of the Top Deck opening party sees David Rodigan bring his bass-heavy reggae sounds to the bar, setting the tone for things to come. TIME SQUARE
THE KRAZY HOUSE, 22:00–04:00, £2
STOCK EXCHANGE
Ease those double-dip recession woes and dance yourself silly at Chameleon’s weekly Stock Exchange. GOSSIP!
GARLANDS, 22:00–03:00, £4
Fri 21 Feb
CHIBUKU SHAKE SHAKE (HUDSON MOHAWKE + JACKMASTER + DJ ZINC + SPECIAL REQUEST (PAUL WOOLFORD) + TESSELA + FRIEND WITHIN + RICH FURNESS & HARRY SHEEHAN)
Tue 25 Feb
Tue 18 Feb
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 22:00–03:00, FREE
Deep Hedonia and Upitup Records transform MelloMello into a ravecave of sorts, serving up a heady mix of techno, abstract techno and live visuals.
A lazy afternoon of jazz, selected by the Planetary Jazz founder, William S Whittle.
Indie disco showcasing some new live talent, followed by DJ sets from New Blood Club residents.
JAZZY JADE
HEDSUP
WILL JAZZ
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 14:00–18:00, FREE
Enjoy a laid back selection of grooves from the Mellowtone bunch, serving up the obvious alongside the obscure.
Student night with 5 rooms of music spread over 2 floors and occasional theme nights.
MELLOMELLO, 22:00–02:00, £2
Sun 23 Feb
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 20:00–02:00, £2
CHAMELEON BAR, 20:00–02:00, FREE
Back with more old school hip hop and 2 step garage grooves.
GARLANDS, 22:00–04:00, £10 (£5)
Extravagant and flamboyant club night complete with resident entertainers, including Foxy Grunt and Barbie the hostess with the mostess.
Wed 26 Feb
Sat 15 Feb
The Bristol-based bloggers and electronic music party-throwers land in Liverpool for the Spring leg of their tour, bringing their popular YouTube channel concept to a live setting.
BEDLAM SATURDAY
MELLOWTONE
Staple student night with a mix of music across the three floors (think: rock, indie, alternative, dance and a sprinkling of cheese).
ETON MESSY (SWEATY BEATS)
Mixed-bag night spread out over all three floors, serving up indie, rock, alternative and dance tunes.
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 16:00–20:00, FREE
Liverpool Dance Music Society bring the NYC-hailing, Novel Sound label boss, Levon Vincent to the city, alongside LDMS residents, Nick Assheton and G R Bartlett.
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 22:00–03:00, £8
RAGE THE KRAZY HOUSE, 22:00–05:00, £3
TOP DECK OPENING PARTY (DAVID RODIGAN + RICH FURNESS)
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 22:00–03:00, FREE
Part two of the Top Deck opening party sees David Rodigan bring his bass-heavy reggae sounds to the bar, setting the tone for things to come.
Sat 22 Feb
DJ TENNIS (MACK + OR:LA)
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 22:00–03:00, £8
Manchester’s Zutekh venture across to Liverpool with DJ Tennis – aka New Jersey resident Manfredi Romano – in tow for a night of house and techno sounds. ESP!
MELLOMELLO, 20:00–00:00, £3
A new monthly event blending immersive surrealist performance with theatre and presentation.
MEDICATION
NATION, 22:30–03:00, £5
KILL YOUR TV
BUMPER, 20:30–05:00, £2
An anything-goes affair – think indie, punk, ska, new wave, electro and more.
Theatre Manchester Capitol Theatre TOP GIRLS
5–8 FEB, TIMES VARY, £8 (£5)
Hailed by the Guardian as ‘the best British play ever by a woman dramatist’, Caryl Churchill’s modern theatre piece set in the early Thatcher years offers a new perspective of women’s experiences at a monumental time in history. TIME AND THE ROOM
26 FEB – 1 MAR, TIMES VARY, £8 (£5)
In this thought-provoking new theatre piece, a series of intertwined encounters between juxtaposing characters seeks to explore the complexity of human relationships and encourage the viewer to see art and theatre in a new light.
Contact MOTHER’S RUIN
7 FEB, 7:30PM – 10:30PM, £12 (£7)
Four Northwest performers go head to head in this variety talent show as part of Queer Contact Festival, with £250 up for grabs for the winner. JOEY ARIAS AND KRISTIAN HOFFMAN: LIGHTNING STRIKES
6 FEB, 7:30PM – 10:30PM, £15 (£10)
Alternative indie and hip-hop night from the No-Wave bunch, expect the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Hot Chip and Pixies.
New York diva Joey Arias shares the stage with veteran of the East Village, Kristian Hoffman, presenting a musical journey through 70s rock anthems to popular standards, all while channelling Billie Holiday. Part of Queer Contact Festival.
Thu 27 Feb
8 FEB, 2:00PM – 4:00PM, £6 (£3)
NO-WAVE SOCIAL CLUB
BROOKLYN MIXER, 22:00–03:00, FREE
JUICY
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 23:00–03:00, £3
All party, no bullshit night of everything from classic hip-hop to disco and funk. TIME SQUARE
YOUR PLACE OR MINE
A political debate focussing on LGBT rights around the world, chaired by Mother’s Ruin cofounder, Tim Redfern. HOUSE OF SUAREZ VOGUE BALL
8 FEB, 7:30PM – 10:30PM, £12 (£7)
Staple student night with a mix of music across the three floors (think: rock, indie, alternative, dance and a sprinkling of cheese).
Contact is transformed into a catwalk reminiscent of 70s and 80s New York, as club culture and high fashion go head to head. Part of Queer Contact Festival.
CHAMELEON BAR, 20:00–02:00, FREE
8 FEB, 8:00PM – 10:00PM, £9 (£5)
THE KRAZY HOUSE, 22:00–04:00, £2
STOCK EXCHANGE
Ease those double-dip recession woes and dance yourself silly at Chameleon’s weekly Stock Exchange. GOSSIP!
GARLANDS, 22:00–03:00, £4
Student night with 5 rooms of music spread over 2 floors and occasional theme nights.
Fri 28 Feb
TO RUSSIA WITH LOVE
With the world’s spotlight on Russia for the opening of the Winter Olympics, Manchester’s LGBT theatre community present an evening of performance and protest to shine a light on Russia’s LGBT rights violations. YOUNG ENIGMA, JACKIE KAY AND GUESTS: ESQUIRE LITERARY SALON
11 FEB, 7:30PM – 10:30PM, £9 (£5)
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 22:00–03:00, FREE
Local literary collective Young Enigma curate a night of live literature and poetry responding to the theme of identity. Part of Queer Contact Festival.
GILES PETERSON
12 FEB, TIMES VARY, £6
ANDREW HILL
The Abandon Silence resident serves up a set of bass and beats. THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 22:00–04:00, £10
The Swiss DJ and producer takes to The Hold to join the dots between African roots and modern day bass culture.
Sat 01 Mar
LUNA (JUST BE + STEVE PARRY)
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 23:00–03:00, £10
The underground club night returns to Liverpool for an intimate night of house and techno, with Matthew ‘Bushwacka’ B, aka Just Be taking the lead. RAGE
THE KRAZY HOUSE, 22:00–05:00, £3
Mixed-bag night spread out over all three floors, serving up indie, rock, alternative and dance tunes. BEDLAM SATURDAY
GARLANDS, 22:00–04:00, £10 (£5)
Extravagant and flamboyant club night complete with resident entertainers, including Foxy Grunt and Barbie the hostess with the mostess.
SHORTCUTS
Double bill performance of two in-progress works exploring the themes of religion, sexuality and transformation. Part of Queer Contact Festival. THE TIGER LILLIES: LULU – A MURDER BALLAD
13–15 FEB, 8:00PM – 11:00PM, £20 (£15)
An unnerving performance following the journey of Lulu from her days as a prostitute to their height of society and back again, spanning Berlin, Paris and Jack Ripper’s London, as told by musical trio The Tiger Lillies. THIS HOUSE BELIEVES
15 FEB, 4:00PM – 6:00PM, £6 (£3)
Elly Barnes, a key campaigner for LGBT inclusion in education, and young people from the LGBT North West and the Albert Kennedy Trust lead a discussion about what it means to be a young LGBT person in the world today.
PROTO-TYPE THEATRE: THE GOOD, THE GOD AND THE GUILLOTINE 18 FEB, 8:00PM – 10:00PM, £11 (£6)
In response to Albert Camus’ 1942 novel, The Stranger, Proto-type theatre present a collaborative performance with the Manchester Metropolitan University Laptop Ensemble, creating a genrespanning show borrowing elements from a gig, opera and recital. KATE TEMPEST: BRAND NEW ANCIENTS
21–22 FEB, 8:00PM – 10:00PM, £12 (£7)
Young poet Kate Tempest presents her take on the epic, framing it in an everyday scene with the people around us playing the role of the gods; hence such inspired lines as ‘Winged sandals tearing up the pavement’.
Opera House THE CIRCUS OF HORRORS
20 FEB, 27 FEB, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY
Prepare thyself for a whirlwind of contortionists, flying aerialists, demon dwarfs, sword swallowers, and any other weird thing you can think of – yep, it could only be The Circus of Horrors. ELLEN KENT’S AIDA
2 MAR, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY
Verdi’s classic love story of war, jealousy and revenge is brought to the stage by a cast of international soloists under the direction of Ellen Kent. BUDDY
3–15 FEB, NOT 9, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY
The West End show tribute to the Buddy Holly story – serving up all the classics including La Bamba and Johnny B. Goode – continues its feel-good trajectory, some 25 years and counting. DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS
12–22 FEB, NOT 16, TIMES VARY, FROM £19.50
Two common swindlers (Rufus Hound and Robert Lindsay) attempt to con a millionaire heiress on the French Riviera; based on the classic comedy starring Sir Michael Caine and Steve Martin. ELLEN KENT’S LA BOHÈME
1 MAR, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, FROM £15
Puccini’s romantic opera is brought to the stage under the direction of Ellen Kent, telling the tale of the doomed Mimi, dying of consumption while falling in love.
Royal Exchange Theatre BLINDSIDED
27 JAN – 15 FEB, NOT 2 FEB, 9 FEB, TIMES VARY, FROM £10
Simon Stephens presents his latest theatrical gem; the story of a girl growing up in the arse-end of Stockport at the end of the 70s, navigating love, life, family and betrayal in one fell swoop as she falls in love with a man destined to break her heart. ORLANDO
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 20 FEB AND 22 MAR, TIMES VARY, FROM £14.50
Virginia Woolf’s time-travelling, gender-swapping romp across the world is brought to the stage thanks to a careful adaptation by Sarah Ruhl, telling the tale of a nobleman who is run out of England, sleeps for seven days and wakes as a woman. BLACK ROSES: THE KILLING OF SOPHIE LANCASTER
26 FEB – 8 MAR, NOT 2 MAR, TIMES VARY, £12 (£10)
A harrowing response to the death of Sophie Lancaster, a gap year student who was beaten unconscious in 2007 and later died; originally written as a poem by Simon Armitage, and presented alongside words from her mother, Sylvia Lancaster.
The Dancehouse THE GREEN EGGS AND GLAM BURLESQUE REVUE
21 FEB, 8:00PM – 11:00PM, £12 (£11.50)
Variety burlesque show, complete with showgirls, clowns, circus freaks and all manner of delightful debauchery.
New theatrical production of the O.T.T. musical adventure where two drag queens and a transsexual get a cabaret gig in the middle of the desert. Now with added Jasonbloody-Donovan. ENGLISH NATIONAL BALLET’S LE CORSAIRE
11–15 FEB, TIMES VARY, FROM £10
A thrilling ballet telling the story of a the dashing pirate Conrad as he falls for a harem girl, Medora, complete with all the makings of a swashbuckling classic – there’s even a shipwreck. LET IT BE
28 FEB – 8 MAR, NOT 2 MAR, TIMES VARY, FROM £15
West End show charting the meteoric rise of the Beatles, taking the audience on a musical journey through all the hits, from their early days at the Cavern Club to their global hits, Yesterday and Hey Jude.
GRISLY TALES FROM TUMBLEWATER
2 MAR, TIMES VARY, FROM £5.50
Edward Jaspers performs a one-man adaptation of Bruno Vincent’s dark novel, Grisly Tales From Tumblewater, a David and Goliath-like tale told through laughs, frights and live music.
The Lowry: Lyric Theatre A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
26 FEB, 27 FEB, 1 MAR, TIMES VARY, FROM £15
Edward Hall’s new all-male production of Shakespeare’s classic comedy tale of unrequited and unwanted love. THE COMEDY OF ERRORS
28 FEB – 1 MAR, TIMES VARY, FROM £19
17–22 FEB, TIMES VARY, FROM £19.50
3–6 MAR, 7:30PM – 9:30PM, £10 (£8)
Exploring the notion that we all have something to hide, Hidden follows six individuals with seemingly ordinary lives as they head on a collision course with hilarious and dark consequences. DESIGN 4 LIFE
5–8 FEB, 8:00PM – 10:00PM, £10 (£8)
SPRING AND PORT WINE
The 1970s stage play by Bill Naughton is transported to Romania in the decades following the 1989 revolution; the Crompton family is domineered by patriarch, Rafe, and chaos breaks out when his authority is questioned. Part of Mashed Up North. VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN
19–22 FEB, 8:00PM – 10:00PM, £10 (£8)
A re-working of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein presented as part of Mashed Up North, telling the well-worn story of Frankenstein’s horrific monster from the perspective of Victor, who wants to set the record straight. EMBRYO 83
28 FEB, 7:30PM – 11:00PM, £5
Mixed bag night that acts as a platform for performances currently in development – you’ll see anything from short films and comedy to poetry and bands of all genres.
The Lowry Studio
6–7 FEB, 7:30PM – 10:30PM, FROM £35
12 FEB, 8:00PM – 10:30PM, FROM £5
The celebs (we use that term lightly) and dancers from television phenomenon Strictly Come Dancing take to the stage for the annual live tour. We trust you’re suitably excited?
Interstage present a new play by Evan Placey, produced as part of The National Theatre Connections programme, telling the tale of Josh and Isabella, childhood sweethearts who run into problems when Isabella becomes a boy.
HIDDEN
Phones4u Arena
STRICTLY COME DANCING TOUR 2014
PRONOUN
25–26 FEB, 8:00PM – 10:30PM, FROM £5
11 FEB, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, FROM £18
A touching play about an elderly woman settling into her new highrise flat with Tiptoes her cat and a dark past lurking behind her. Part of Mashed Up North.
12–15 FEB, 8:00PM – 10:00PM, £10 (£8)
17–22 FEB, TIMES VARY, FROM £15
Silly sketch outfit WitTank head back to boarding school with their array of eccentric characters in the archaic institution.
STRANGEWAYS
PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT
60s-set musical singalong which finds two young musicians competing for the love of a certain lady.
WITTANK: THE SCHOOL
23 FEB, 8:00PM – 10:30PM, £12
24–27 FEB, 8:00PM – 10:00PM, £8.50 (£5.50)
The King’s Arms
3–8 FEB, TIMES VARY, FROM £10
DREAMBOATS AND PETTICOATS
A blend of spoken word, livelooped electronics and acoustic performances exploring the golden ratio, presented as a performance in 1.6180339887 parts.
A re-jigged, updated version of Shakespeare’s much-loved comedy as told by Edward Hall’s all-male company, delving into a fast-paced tale of family, long journeys and a messy mystery to be unravelled.
An existential crisis from the perspective of three twentysomethings living in a high-rise somewhere in Greater Manchester and dealing with their lust triangle; a re-working of Noel Coward’s comedy by a similar name. Part of Mashed Up North.
Palace Theatre
PRELUDE TO A NUMBER 12 FEB, 14 FEB, 8:00PM – 10:30PM, £12
HOFESH SHECTER’S SUN
A new full-length contemporary dance piece by Hofesh Shechter, complete with full atmospheric score. MOON TIGER
Simon Reade’s adaptation of Penelope Lively’s Booker Prizewinning novel makes its way onto the stage, telling the story of a historian planning to write a history of the world, taking in her own life story as thoughts are cast to the past.
The Lowry: Quays Theatre BALLETBOYZ
4–5 FEB, 8:00PM – 10:30PM, FROM £17
Fresh, young dance company Balletboyz tour their new production, featuring ten exceptional young dancers across an evening of inspired dance work. THE SEAGULL
21 FEB – 8 MAR, NOT 23 FEB, 2 MAR, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY
Innovative re-imagining of Chekhov’s first major play, intimately exploring emotion, creativity and romantic conflict. BALLAD OF THE BURNING STAR
11–12 FEB, 8:00PM – 10:30PM, FROM £15
The cabaret troupe Theatre Ad Infinitum take on the conflicted state of Isreal in their explosive and provocative style.
Z Arts
THE LUCKIEST MAN IN THE WORLD
15 FEB, 7:30PM – 9:45PM, £12 (£10)
An emotional roller coaster following a beautiful yet unassuming woman, Caroline, and the love of her life, Mike, as they navigate the often crazy world of relationships.
WE CAN BE HEROES
A charming new production by Sometimes We Play, telling the story of two teenage boys and Mr Smith, a superhero with a canine sidekick, and his efforts to keep them from the clutches of a gang of older boys.
THE SKINNY
Liverpool Theatre Epstein Theatre YEOMAN OF THE GUARD
11–15 FEB, 7:30PM – 10:30PM, FROM £12 (£6)
The Crosby Gilbert and Sullivan Society present a new production of the ever-popular musical, a bittersweet story full of melodrama. Ain’t they all...
Liverpool Empire
SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS
24 FEB – 1 MAR, TIMES VARY, FROM £10
Musical favourite set in Oregon in 1850, following young Adam – the eldest of seven brothers – and his quest to get a bride for ‘em all. GHOST
11–22 FEB, NOT 16, TIMES VARY, FROM £10
Theatrical production based on the 90s movie of the same name, where a certain Patrick Swayze got all excited with the pottery kiln. 51 SHADES OF MAGGIE
5 FEB, 7:30PM – 10:30PM, £21
A riotous send up of 50 Shades of Gray, telling the story of Maggie and her endless search for Mr Right. ELLEN KENT’S NABUCCO
7 FEB, 7:30PM – 11:00PM, FROM £10
Giuseppe Verdi’s opera of four acts, featuring the famous Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, presented by Ellen Kent. ELLEN KENT’S AIDA
8 FEB, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY
Verdi’s classic love story of war, jealousy and revenge is brought to the stage by a cast of international soloists under the direction of Ellen Kent.
Royal Court Theatre ONCE A CATHOLIC
22 JAN – 8 FEB, NOT 26 JAN, 2 FEB, TIMES VARY, FROM £13
Kathy Burke directs this disturbingly dark, occasionally shocking and fundamentally funny play set in the 50s, following Mary, Mary and Mary at The Convent of Our Lady Of Fatima amidst a world of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll.
The Kazimier
SQUIDLING BROS CIRCUS SIDESHOW
8–9 FEB, 7:00PM – 12:00AM, £5
Offering an alternative circus side show experience, the Squidling Bros jet in from their native Philadelphia for their only UK date, doing dangerous and downright weird shit within the circus act template.
The Lantern Theatre PROJECT XXX
8 FEB, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY
This darkly romantic comedy takes a jaunt into the world of internet pornography as a feminist blogger decides to take her sexual choices into her own hands and film her first time with new love interest, Callum – who is grappling with issues of his own. SHIRLEY VALENTINE
14–15 FEB, 7:30PM – 10:30PM, £10.50 (£8.50)
THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY 13–15 FEB, TIMES VARY, £SOLD OUT
Third year acting students from LIPA present Phyllis Nagy’s adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s famous novel, following Tom Ripley as he sets out to Italy to convince wealthy American, Dickie to return home. THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTRY SPELLING BEE
26 FEB – 1 MAR, 7:30PM – 10:30PM, £10 (£8)
Rachel Sheinkin’s book is adapted for the stage with music and lyrics by William Finn in this musical comedy following six school geeks in the US competing in a prestigious spelling bee; socially awkwardness all well and in place.
The Playhouse PHOENIX DANCE THEATRE
25 FEB, 7:30PM – 10:30PM, FROM £10
The Phoenix Dance Theatre present three choreographic pieces, including the first UK work by Ivgi and Greben, and Didy Veldman’s See Blue Through.
Unity Theatre SCRATCH NIGHT
11 FEB, 8:00PM – 11:00PM, £5
Local and national companies present new works in progress, followed by an informal Q&A and networking opportunities.
BELLA: QUEEN OF THE BLACKFRIARS RING
5–6 FEB, 8:00PM – 11:00PM, £10 (£8)
An all singing, all dancing, all boxing production written by Denise Kennedy and directed by Paula Simms, telling the story of Music Hall dresser turned boxing promoter, Bella Burge. HOW TO BE IMMORTAL
7–8 FEB, 8:00PM – 11:00PM, £12 (£10)
An original new play from Penny Dreadful productions exploring our connections to the dead through the eyes of Deborah who has to come to terms with her mother’s cells being kept alive and multiplying in a lab. EXTRA HAPPY HAPPY
12–15 FEB, 8:00PM – 11:00PM, £10
Big Wow kick start preparations for their 2014 Edinburgh Fringe Show with their latest offering, telling the tale of a dimwitted traveller embarking on an adventure with an out of date copy of Lonely Planet. THE TRYALS OF ANNE BONNY
21–22 FEB, 8:00PM – 11:00PM, £12 (£10)
Static Moves present a one woman show supported by aerial theatre, taking place in a maritime setting in the early 18th century and telling the harrowing true story of one woman that will shatter any romantic notions of pirates.
Manchester Comedy Tue 04 Feb
XS MALARKEY: JESS FOSTEKEW (CHRIS BROOKER + JACK ROOP + JOHN PENDAL + MC TOBY HADOKE) PUB/ZOO, 19:30–23:00, £5 (£3 MEMBERS)
The weekly comedy night pitches up in a new home, inviting the charming Jess Fostekew to share her casual observations on pretty much anything. THE WORST COMEDY NIGHT IN SALFORD
Purple Coat Productions return with Willy Russell’s heartwarming tale of a Liverpudlian housewife in a rut and her lifechanging trip to Greece.
Keeping expectations low with this open mic night of stand up, all are welcome to give it a bash.
The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts
THREE MINUTE THEATRE, 19:00–22:00, £5
A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC
27 FEB – 1 MAR, TIMES VARY, £8 (£4)
Broadway’s neglected masterpiece - Sondheim’s achingly beautiful A Little Night Music - deals with love in all its wondrous, humorous and ironic permutations. Performed by third-year acting students.
THE KING’S ARMS, 19:30–23:00, FREE
Wed 05 Feb SOS
The Superstars on Saturday bunch present an evening of silly character sketches.
Thu 06 Feb
BIG VALUE THURSDAYS (JOHN WARBURTON + SEAN CANNON + GERRY K + DAVID LONGLEY + MC BARRY DODDS)
THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–23:00, £9 (£6)
A Frog flagship event offering up four great acts for stonkingly great value.
STAND UP THURSDAY (STEVE ROYLE + MC PAUL THORNE) THE COMEDY STORE, 20:00–22:00, £12 (£8)
February 2014
Cheat life and get that Friday feeling one day early with a night of comedic delight from some circuit funny folk.
Comedy Fri 07 Feb
BARREL OF LAUGHS (SMUG ROBERTS + ROBERT WHITE + DAVID LONGLEY + MC BARRY DODDS) THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–02:00, £16 (£8)
Three top-notch comics, a sprinkling of Frog compere funnies and a late night disco courtesy of the resident DJ. THE BEST IN STAND UP (STEVE ROYLE + CAREY MARX + CHRIS MARTIN + PRINCE ABDI + MC PAUL THORNE)
THE COMEDY STORE, 20:00–22:00, £18 (£12)
Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians.
LAUGH LOCAL (JAMIE SUTHERLAND + HOLLY WALSH + IAIN STIRLING + MC JUSTIN MOORHOUSE) CHORLTON IRISH CLUB, 18:30–23:00, £12
Comedy comes to the suburbs as the folk behind Bop Local present an evening of comedy, with Justin Moorhouse leading the flock. CASSETTEBOY VS DJ RUBBISH
MANCHESTER CLUB ACADEMY, 22:00–03:00, £10
In this part comedy night, part disco, YouTube mega-stars, Cassetteboy – famous for mashing-up everyone from Alan Sugar to Harry Potter, usually with a mucky twist – go head to head with the Peckham-based freestyle rapper, DJ Rubbish.
Sat 08 Feb
BARREL OF LAUGHS (SMUG ROBERTS + ROBERT WHITE + DAVID LONGLEY + MC BARRY DODDS) THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–02:00, £16 (£8)
Three top-notch comics, a sprinkling of Frog compere funnies and a late night disco courtesy of the resident DJ. THE BEST IN STAND UP (STEVE ROYLE + CAREY MARX + CHRIS MARTIN + PRINCE ABDI + MC PAUL THORNE)
THE COMEDY STORE, 19:00–21:00, £20 (£14)
Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians. THE BEST IN STAND UP (STEVE ROYLE + CAREY MARX + CHRIS MARTIN + PRINCE ABDI + MC PAUL THORNE)
THE COMEDY STORE, 21:20–23:30, £20 (£14)
Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians. DAPPER LAUGHS
SOUND CONTROL, 19:30–23:00, £SOLD OUT
Comedian and vine star, Dapper Laughs takes his Proper #Moist show on the road, confirming every stereotypical ‘lad’ image as he goes.
Sun 09 Feb
NEW STUFF (TOBY HADOKE)
THE COMEDY STORE, 19:30–21:30, £3
A chance for those on the circuit to test out some new, never before heard or seen material, with MC Toby Hadoke.
Mon 10 Feb
BEAT THE FROG (BARRY DODDS)
THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–23:00, £3 (FREE WITH STUDENT ID)
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!
COMEDY PLAYGROUND (CRAIG HILL + ZOE LYONS + SUZI RUFFELL + SOPHIE WILLAN + SARAH EMMOTT + LEE PEART + MC JONATHAN MAYOR)
CONTACT, 19:30–22:30, £11 (£6)
As part of the Queer Contact Festival, Comedy Playground pitches up with Scottish camp comic, Craig Hill and Zoe Lyons offa Have I Got News For You. SKETCH, DRUGS AND ROCK N ROLL
SANDBAR, 20:00–23:00, FREE
An evening of sketch and character comedy from Legion of Doom, Imodium Nitrate, Peter Brush and Randolph Tempest, with Red Redmond leading the night.
Tue 11 Feb
XS MALARKEY: ZOE LYONS (MATT REES + JAMIE DALGLEISH + ANTHONY MILLER + MC TOBY HADOKE) PUB/ZOO, 19:30–23:00, £5 (£3 MEMBERS)
More acerbic comedy rants from the award-winning Zoe Lyons, awash with silliness, satire and caustic one-liners.
Thu 13 Feb
BIG VALUE THURSDAYS (STEVE SHANYASKI + BRENNAN REECE + GEORGE EGG + MC DANNY MCLOUGHLIN)
THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–23:00, £9 (£6)
A Frog flagship event offering up four great acts for stonkingly great value. STAND UP THURSDAY
THE COMEDY STORE, 20:00–22:00, £12 (£8)
Cheat life and get that Friday feeling one day early with a night of comedic delight from some circuit funny folk. FESTIVAL OF THE SPOKEN NERD
THE LOWRY: QUAYS THEATRE, 20:00–22:30, £16
Live comedy for the sci-curious, with geek songstress Helen Arney, science expert Steve Mould and stand-up mathematician Matt Parker SHAM BODIE
THE CASTLE HOTEL, 20:00-23:00, £10
New monthly comedy night, returning for their third run with John Ainsworth bringing the bluesy rock sounds, and the surreal stand-up comic Steve Bugeja appearing alongside Jack Evans of Quippopotamus.
Fri 14 Feb
BARREL OF LAUGHS (STEVE SHANYASKI + BRENNAN REECE + GEORGE EGG + MC DANNY MCLOUGHLIN)
THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–02:00, £16 (£8)
Three top-notch comics, a sprinkling of Frog compere funnies and a late night disco courtesy of the resident DJ. THE BEST IN STAND UP (PAUL TONKINSON + MICK FERRY + KEITH FARNAN + MC ROGER MONKHOUSE)
THE COMEDY STORE, 20:00–22:00, £18 (£12)
Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians. CHRIS RAMSEY: THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN ON SATURDAY MORNING TV
THE LOWRY: QUAYS THEATRE, 20:00–22:30, £19.50
The star of Celebrity Juice and BBC Two’s Hebburn brings his new show to The Lowry, taking its inspiration from his being booted off the Soccer AM sofa last year for misbehaving.
Sat 15 Feb
BARREL OF LAUGHS (STEVE SHANYASKI + BRENNAN REECE + GEORGE EGG + MC DANNY MCLOUGHLIN)
THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–02:00, £16 (£8)
Three top-notch comics, a sprinkling of Frog compere funnies and a late night disco courtesy of the resident DJ. THE BEST IN STAND UP (PAUL TONKINSON + MICK FERRY + KEITH FARNAN + MC ROGER MONKHOUSE)
THE COMEDY STORE, 19:00–21:00, £20 (£14)
Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians. THE BEST IN STAND UP (PAUL TONKINSON + MICK FERRY + KEITH FARNAN + MC ROGER MONKHOUSE)
THE COMEDY STORE, 21:20–23:30, £20 (£14)
Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians. COMEDYSPORTZ IMPROV
THE EDGE THEATRE & ARTS CENTRE, 18:30–20:00, £7 (£5)
Comedy improv show with two teams battling it out for the biggest laughs, serving up sketches, songs and scenes with audience participation playing a key role in the development. STEVE PUNT AND HUGH DENNIS
THE LOWRY: LYRIC THEATRE, 19:30–22:00, £25
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis make light of the darkest depths of winter, as the grit lorries are out and about, news readers are requesting ‘pictures of snow’ and, inevitably, the boiler is broken. CHRIS RAMSEY: THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN ON SATURDAY MORNING TV
THE LOWRY: QUAYS THEATRE, 20:00–22:30, £19.50
The star of Celebrity Juice and BBC Two’s Hebburn brings his new show to The Lowry, taking its inspiration from his being booted off the Soccer AM sofa last year for misbehaving.
Sun 16 Feb NEW COMEDIANS
THE COMEDY STORE, 19:30–21:30, £3
A night of stand-up from some fresh-faced comics trying to break on to the circuit – be nice. TOM WRIGGLESWORTH
THE LOWRY STUDIO, 20:00–22:30, £12
Following a sell out run at the Edinburgh festival, stand up comic Tom Wrigglesworth presents his latest show, exploring this profound relationship with his grandfather through storytelling and anecdotes.
Mon 17 Feb
BEAT THE FROG (DAN NIGHTINGALE)
THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–23:00, £3 (FREE WITH STUDENT ID)
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!
RUSSELL BRAND: MESSIAH COMPLEX
O2 APOLLO, 20:00–22:30, £27.50
The outspoken comic takes to the road for his first ever world stand up tour, taking the form of a dissection of various social and religious figures and the reality of their lives through comparisons of each other.
Tue 18 Feb STAND UP THURSDAY
THE COMEDY STORE, 20:00–22:00, £12 (£8)
Cheat life and get that Friday feeling one day early with a night of comedic delight from some circuit funny folk.
XS MALARKEY: MARLON DAVIS (SARAH CASSIDY + SAM SMITH + GERARD MEEHAN + JOE LYCETT (NEW MATERIAL) + MC TOBY HADOKE)
PUB/ZOO, 19:30–23:00, £5 (£3 MEMBERS)
Marlon Davis present his unique brand of soul-baring comedy. THE WORST COMEDY NIGHT IN SALFORD
THE KING’S ARMS, 19:30–23:00, FREE
Keeping expectations low with this open mic night of stand up, all are welcome to give it a bash.
Thu 20 Feb
BIG VALUE THURSDAYS (ANDY ASKINS + LAURA MACHIN + LIAM BOLTON + TOM STADE + MC PETE OTWAY)
THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–23:00, £9 (£6)
A Frog flagship event offering up four great acts for stonkingly great value.
Fri 21 Feb
BARREL OF LAUGHS (ANDY ASKINS + ADAM STAUNTON + MC PETE OTWAY) THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–02:00, £16 (£8)
Three top-notch comics, a sprinkling of Frog compere funnies and a late night disco courtesy of the resident DJ. NEW STUFF
THE COMEDY STORE, 19:30–21:30, £3
A chance for those on the circuit to test out some new, never before heard or seen material, with MC Toby Hadoke. THE BEST IN STAND UP (PIERRE HOLLINS + MC IMRAN YUSUF)
THE COMEDY STORE, 20:00–22:00, £18 (£12)
Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians.
Sat 22 Feb
BARREL OF LAUGHS (ANDY ASKINS + ADAM STAUNTON + MC PETE OTWAY) THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–02:00, £16 (£8)
Three top-notch comics, a sprinkling of Frog compere funnies and a late night disco courtesy of the resident DJ. THE BEST IN STAND UP (PIERRE HOLLINS + MC IMRAN YUSUF)
THE COMEDY STORE, 19:00–21:00, £20 (£14)
Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians. THE BEST IN STAND UP (PIERRE HOLLINS + MC IMRAN YUSUF)
THE COMEDY STORE, 21:30–23:30, £20 (£14)
Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians. GROUP THERAPY (TONY LAW)
GORILLA, 19:00–22:15, £10 (£8)
Get your monthly giggle fix with Group Therapy, with this month boasting a headline set from Canadian comic, Tony Law, often seen on’t telly and such.
Sun 23 Feb LAUGHING COWS
THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–23:00, £7 ADV. (£9 DOOR)
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.
ANTWERP MANSION COMEDY NIGHT (NATHAN CATON + JAY HAMPSON + RYAN GLEESON) ANTWERP MANSION, 19:30–23:00, £5
The Antwerp Mansion comedy night returns with Mock the Week’s Nathan Caton appearing alongside Manchester-based comic Jay Hampson and Blackpool’s Ryan Gleeson.
Mon 24 Feb
BEAT THE FROG (ALEX BOARDMAN)
THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–23:00, £3 (FREE WITH STUDENT ID)
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! SIDEKICK COMEDY (STEVE BUGEJA + LOU CONRAN + KEVIN DEWSBURY)
VIA, 19:00–23:00, £2
A monthly comedy gig offering an alternative to the usual comedy nights, offering a new take on the template with a nerdy-cool vibe. XS MALARKEY: BEN TARGET (JAY FOREMAN + MAT EWINS + SOPHIE WILLAN + MC TOBY HADOKE)
PUB/ZOO, 19:30–23:00, £5 (£3 MEMBERS)
London-based comic doing away with the usual template with his unorthodox silliness. JACK WHITEHALL
THE LOWRY: LYRIC THEATRE, 20:00–22:30, £20
Posh boy Jack Whitehall – recently seen gracing our TV screens as the deplorable public school tosser JP in Fresh Meat – taking his cheeky self out on the road with his latest stand-up show.
THE BEST IN STAND UP (MIKE GUNN + ALISTAIR BARRIE + LLOYD LANGFORD + OTIZ CANNELLONI + MC JASON COOK) THE COMEDY STORE, 21:30–23:30, £20 (£14)
Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians. JOEL DOMMETT
THE LOWRY STUDIO, 20:00–22:30, £12
The face of MTV in 2012 takes to the stage with his latest stand-up show, following on from his appearances in Skins and Impractical Jokers.
Sun 02 Mar KING GONG
THE COMEDY STORE, 19:30–21:30, £6 (£3)
The night when ordinary folk can have a bash at stand up-all in hope of being crowned King Gong, until next month. Prestigious.
Mon 03 Mar
BEAT THE FROG (PHIL ELLIS)
THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–23:00, £3 (FREE WITH STUDENT ID)
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! JOE LYCETT
THE LOWRY STUDIO, 20:00–22:30, £12
The 2012 Edinburgh Comedy Award Best Newcomer nominee presents his new show, hilariously titled If Joe Lycett Then You Should’ve Put A Ring On It. GEIN’S FAMILY GIFTSHOP BARGAIN BASEMENT
THE KING’S ARMS, 20:00–23:00, FREE
New sketches and material drawing inspiration from the misery and human suffering.
Liverpool Comedy
Thu 27 Feb
BIG VALUE THURSDAYS (PAUL TONKINSON + ADAM ROWE + PETE PHILLIPSON + IMRAN YUSUF + MC MIKE WILKINSON)
THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–23:00, £9 (£6)
A Frog flagship event offering up four great acts for stonkingly great value. STAND UP THURSDAY
THE COMEDY STORE, 20:00–22:00, £12 (£8)
Cheat life and get that Friday feeling one day early with a night of comedic delight from some circuit funny folk. 365 DAYS OF KINDNESS
THE LOWRY STUDIO, 20:00–22:30, £12
Following the 2011 riots, Bernadette Russell vowed to commit an act of kindness to a stranger every day for a year, presenting the results in a part story-telling, part stand-up style.
Fri 28 Feb
BARREL OF LAUGHS (PAUL TONKINSON + SAM AVERY + IMRAN YUSUF + MC MIKE WILKINSON)
THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–02:00, £16 (£8)
Three top-notch comics, a sprinkling of Frog compere funnies and a late night disco courtesy of the resident DJ.
THE BEST IN STAND UP (MIKE GUNN + ALISTAIR BARRIE + LLOYD LANGFORD + OTIZ CANNELLONI + MC JASON COOK)
THE COMEDY STORE, 20:00–22:00, £18 (£12)
Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians. RUSSELL HOWARD
PHONES4U ARENA, 19:30–22:30, £27.50
The cheeky young comic does his quick-witted thing, fusing an effective combination of storytelling and comedic mime, along with a healthy dose of self-depreciation.
Sat 01 Mar
BARREL OF LAUGHS (PAUL TONKINSON + SAM AVERY + IMRAN YUSUF + MC MIKE WILKINSON)
THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–02:00, £16 (£8)
Three top-notch comics, a sprinkling of Frog compere funnies and a late night disco courtesy of the resident DJ.
THE BEST IN STAND UP (MIKE GUNN + ALISTAIR BARRIE + LLOYD LANGFORD + OTIZ CANNELLONI + MC JASON COOK)
Wed 05 Feb THE LAUGHTER FACTOR
THE SLAUGHTER HOUSE, 20:00–23:00, £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.
Thu 06 Feb
JEFF INNOCENT (DAVID LONGLEY + BIG LOU + MC PHIL ELLIS)
COMEDY CENTRAL AT BABY BLUE, 18:00–22:00, £15
Burly East End geezer and comic – could be mistaken for the bouncer – but more apt at delivering sharp witted social observations.
Fri 07 Feb
JEFF INNOCENT (DAVID LONGLEY + SAM AVERY + MC PHIL ELLIS)
COMEDY CENTRAL AT BABY BLUE, 18:00–22:00, £15
Burly East End geezer and comic – could be mistaken for the bouncer – but more apt at delivering sharp witted social observations. SEYMOUR MACE (STE PORTER + MC CHRIS CAIRNS)
THE SLAUGHTER HOUSE, 20:00–23:00, £15
Regular triple headline show, with three comics lined up to tickle your funny bone.
Sat 08 Feb
JEFF INNOCENT (DAVID LONGLEY + SAM AVERY + MC PHIL ELLIS)
COMEDY CENTRAL AT BABY BLUE, 18:00–22:00, £18
Burly East End geezer and comic – could be mistaken for the bouncer – but more apt at delivering sharp witted social observations. STE PORTER (SEYMOUR MACE + MC CHRIS CAIRNS)
THE SLAUGHTER HOUSE, 20:00–23:00, £17.50
Resident comic serves up some crowd-pleasing comedy punctuated by his quick wit and at-ease stage presence.
Thu 13 Feb
STEVE SHANYASKI (STEVE HARRIS + JONNY PELHAM + MC KERI PRITCHARD – MCCLEAN)
NEIL FITZMAURICE (JUSTIN MOORHOUSE + KEITH CARTER AS NIGE + STEVE HARRIS + STEVE ROYLE + DALISO CHAPONDA + MC CHRIS CAIRNS) THE SLAUGHTER HOUSE, 20:00–23:00, £15
Actor and comedian – best known for his role as Mark’s love rival in Peep Show – presents his latest comic offerings.
Fri 14 Feb
STEVE SHANYASKI (STEVE HARRIS + JAMIE SUTHERLAND + MC DAVE TWENTYMAN) COMEDY CENTRAL AT BABY BLUE, 18:00–22:00, £15
Eloquent young man making funnies out of everyday, mundane experiences. PAUL TONKINSON (MICK FERRY + KEITH CARTER AS NIGE + MC NEIL FITZMAURICE)
THE SLAUGHTER HOUSE, 20:00–23:00, £15
Regular triple headline show, with three comics lined up to tickle your funny bone.
Sat 15 Feb
RUSSELL BRAND: MESSIAH COMPLEX
ECHO ARENA, 19:30–22:30, £31
The outspoken comic takes to the road for his first ever world stand up tour, taking the form of a dissection of various social and religious figures and the reality of their lives through comparisons of each other. STEVE SHANYASKI (STEVE HARRIS + JAMIE SUTHERLAND + MC LOU CONRAN) COMEDY CENTRAL AT BABY BLUE, 18:00–22:00, £18
Eloquent young man making funnies out of everyday, mundane experiences. MICK FERRY (PAUL TONKINSON + KEITH CARTER AS NIGE + MC NEIL FITZMAURICE)
THE SLAUGHTER HOUSE, 20:00–23:00, £17.50
Regular triple headline show, with three comics lined up to tickle your funny bone.
Sun 16 Feb
RUSSELL BRAND: MESSIAH COMPLEX
ECHO ARENA, 19:30–22:30, £31
The outspoken comic takes to the road for his first ever world stand up tour, taking the form of a dissection of various social and religious figures and the reality of their lives through comparisons of each other.
Thu 20 Feb
RICHARD HERRING: WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE
UNITY THEATRE, 20:00–23:00, £15
Death is inevitable and universal. Let’s laugh in its face while our hearts still beat and our jaws are still attached. JIMEOIN
EPSTEIN THEATRE, 19:30–22:30, £16 (£15)
Inspired ramblings from the standup Northern Ireland comedian and actor (aka Jimeoin McKeown). ANDY ASKINS (JAMES MEEHAN + KATE MCCABE + MC TOBY HADOKE)
COMEDY CENTRAL AT BABY BLUE, 18:00–22:00, £15
Triple headline show with a line-up of circuit funny folk vying for your giggles, all guided by a top notch compere. HOWARD MARKS
THE SLAUGHTER HOUSE, 20:00–23:00, £15
Oxford-educated, dope smuggling charmer Howard Marks debuts his new spoken work piece – Scholar, Smuggler, Prisoner, Scribe – looking back at the four incarnations of his own life. In the cabaret bar.
Fri 21 Feb
ANDY ASKINS (SULLY O’SULLICAN + ROBERT WHITE + MC TOBY HADOKE)
COMEDY CENTRAL AT BABY BLUE, 18:00–22:00, £15
Triple headline show with a line-up of circuit funny folk vying for your giggles, all guided by a top notch compere. JUNIOR SIMPSON (STEVE HARRIS + SILKY + MS CHRIS CAIRNS)
THE SLAUGHTER HOUSE, 20:00–23:00, £15
Regular triple headline show, with three comics lined up to tickle your funny bone.
COMEDY CENTRAL AT BABY BLUE, 18:00–22:00, £15
Eloquent young man making funnies out of everyday, mundane experiences.
THE COMEDY STORE, 19:00–21:00, £20 (£14)
Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians.
Listings
61
Liverpool Comedy
JOHN FOTHERGILL (JOSEPH WILSON + CHRIS MCCAUSLAND + MC NEIL FITZMAURICE) THE SLAUGHTER HOUSE, 20:00–23:00, £15
Regular triple headline show, with three comics lined up to tickle your funny bone.
Sat 22 Feb
Sat 01 Mar
MITCH BENN IS THE 37TH BEATLE
EPSTEIN THEATRE, 20:00–22:30, £14
Many who’ve claimed the title, fifth Beatle can’t all be right – but according to Mitch Benn, some righter than others. Take a comedic jaunt through his Scouse upbrining and obsession with Liverpool’s most famous band.
ANDY ASKINS (SULLY O’SULLICAN + ROBERT WHITE + MC TOBY HADOKE)
COMEDY CENTRAL AT BABY BLUE, 18:00–22:00, £18
Triple headline show with a line-up of circuit funny folk vying for your giggles, all guided by a top notch compere. SILKY (STEVE HARRIS + JUNIOR SIMPSON + MC CHRIS CAIRNS)
THE SLAUGHTER HOUSE, 20:00–23:00, £17.50
Regular triple headline show, with three comics lined up to tickle your funny bone.
Thu 27 Feb
PUNT AND DENNIS: PLOUGHING ON REGARDLESS
THE PLAYHOUSE, 19:30–23:00, £18
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis make light of the darkest depths of winter, as the grit lorries are out and about, news readers are requesting ‘pictures of snow’ and, inevitably, the boiler is broken.
PAUL TONKINSON (HARRIET DYER + ADAM RUSHTON + MC DANNY MCLOUGHLIN) COMEDY CENTRAL AT BABY BLUE, 18:00–22:00, £15
Regular triple headline show, with three comics lined up to tickle your funny bone.
Fri 28 Feb
COMEDY CENTRAL AT BABY BLUE, 18:00–22:00, £18
Regular triple headline show, with three comics lined up to tickle your funny bone.
JOHN FOTHERGILL (JOSEPH WILSON + CHRIS MCCAUSLAND + MC NEIL FITZMAURICE) THE SLAUGHTER HOUSE, 20:00–23:00, £17.50
Regular triple headline show, with three comics lined up to tickle your funny bone.
Manchester Art Centre For Chinese Contemporary Art TIPPING POINT
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 16 JAN AND 15 MAR, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
A group exhibition by Jamie Lau, Cindie Gottlieb-Cheung and Andrew Lim, responding to the theme ‘tipping point’ through sculpture and presenting an ongoing dialogue in which they share methods and exchange ideas. DARIUS CHANG JUI-YU: FIRST STEP
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 4 JAN AND 3 MAY, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
Graduate Darius Chang Jui-Yu presents a showcase sitespecific installation, taking over the stairwell.
PAUL TONKINSON (STUART GOLDSMITH + HARRIET DYER + MC DANNY MCLOUGHLIN)
COMEDY CENTRAL AT BABY BLUE, 18:00–22:00, £15
PAUL TONKINSON (STUART GOLDSMITH + HARRIET DYER + MC DANNY MCLOUGHLIN)
Art LYDIA MEIYING: CHINESE NEW YEAR PROJECT VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 14 JAN AND 8 FEB, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
Illustrator and pattern designer Lydia Meiying is the artist-inresidence for the Chinese New Year celebrations, seeing in the year of the horse with a series of workshops and events. See cfcca. org.uk for more details.
ROB DUNNE + DANIEL STAINCLIFFE: UNKNOWN MONSTERS
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 21 FEB AND 29 MAR, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
A visual arts experiment delving into the social, psychological and mythological power of a hoax, documenting the production of five hoaxes – including the Chengdu Sasquatch – in the Chengdu region of China.
Contact
PAM VAN-DAMNED: WORLD WARPAINT
6 FEB – 18 APR, WEEKDAYS ONLY, 10:00AM – 11:00PM, FREE
Photographer Pam Van-Damned presents a collection of photographs documenting bands, inspirational figures and drag queens – with the majority often captured wearing make-up, this emerged as a dominant theme in her work.
Cornerhouse
JAMIE SHOVLIN: HIKER MEAT
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 18 JAN AND 20 APR, TIMES VARY, FREE
Jamie Shovlin cooked up his art movie Rough Cut – a remake of the non-existent 70s film, Hiker Meat – as a low-budget exploitation film crafted from found video clips; his process is laid bare in this accompanying exhibition. GEOFF BROKATE
9 JAN – 4 FEB, NOT 13 JAN, 20 JAN, 27 JAN, 3 FEB, TIMES VARY, FREE
An exhibition of work by Australian photographer Geoff Brokate; best known for documenting the lives of people he has met on his travels, he now turns his attention to the English countryside.
Regular triple headline show, with three comics lined up to tickle your funny bone.
GEOFF CROSSLEY: MY FATHER’S HOUSE
6 FEB – 4 MAR, NOT 10 FEB, 17 FEB, 24 FEB, 3 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE
An exhibition of manipulated photographs by Altrincham-based artist, Geoff Crossley, re-kindling old memories of his childhood home by placing family snapshots over photographs of the house in its current, empty state.
Imperial War Museum North
CATALYST: CONTEMPORARY ART AND WAR
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C U LT U R A L
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Illustration: Verbals Picks
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Listings
12 OCT – 23 FEB, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
A new exhibition bringing together the work of over 70 artists across photography, film, sculpture, oil paintings, prints and book works to explore our changing perceptions of conflict in a time when our opinions are are so easily influenced by the media. WOMEN AND INDUSTRY IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR
27 JAN – 31 JUL, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
An external photographic exhibition of work by George Parham Lewis, revealing images of women during the First World War as they took on roles in industry during the conflict.
MMU: Special Collections
A CHROMATIC REVOLUTION: THE SEARCH FOR AFFORDABLE COLOUR IN 19TH CENTURY BRITISH BOOK ILLUSTRATION
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 27 JAN AND 16 MAY, TIMES VARY, FREE
Exploring the world of 19th century book illustration, this exhibition looks at the techniques of the time, from half-coloured wood block printing, to the lush practice of chromolithography.
Manchester Art Gallery RADICAL FIGURES: POST-WAR BRITISH FIGURATIVE PAINTING
16–16 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE
A collection of works bringing together artists such as Francis Bacon, Lucien Freud and David Hockney to explore the role they played in the reinvention of figurative and realist art in postwar Britain. HOME, LAND AND SEA: ART IN THE NETHERLANDS 1600-1800
24–23 MAY, TIMES VARY, FREE
Bringing together over 50 paintings from the Manchester City Galleries’ 17th and 18th century Dutch and Flemish collection, including portraiture, landscapes and seascapes from Pieter de Hooch, Gerard ter Borch and Jacob van Ruisdael. A HIGHLAND ROMANCE: VICTORIAN VIEWS OF SCOTTISHNESS
20–1 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE
A collection of popular 19th century paintings and works on paper by Scottish artists is displayed alongside visions of Scotland by artists from England, exploring the changing view of Scotland and Scottishness over the past two centuries.. ART FOR ALL: THOMAS HORSFALL’S GIFT TO MANCHESTER
29 NOV – 8 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE
An exhibition of nature-themed artworks from Manchester’s Thomas Horsfall collection, cocurated by local school children. JOANA VASCONCELOS: TIME MACHINE
15 FEB – 1 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE
Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos brings over 20 of her large scale sculptures to Manchester following her success representing Portugal at the 55th Venice Biennale – she will also be presenting a new textile work.
Manchester Craft and Design Centre THE GIFTS OF THE DEPARTED: ALINAH AZADEH
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 23 NOV AND 1 MAR, 10:00AM – 5:30PM, FREE
Interdisciplinary artist, Alinah Azadeh presents a new exhibition of work exploring communal rituals and the process of wrapping and exchanging gifts.
Oklahoma
FAITH IN:-M.C.W.B.W.B.H.&BE CLYVE BONELLE AND SUK NINMYO EXHIBITION
28 JAN – 17 FEB, 10:00AM – 7:00PM, FREE
Clyve Bonnelle and Suk Ninmyo present a joint exhibition with Bonnelle’s brash use of colour and imagery contrasting with Ninmyo’s exquisite fine-line pen illustrations as they explore science fiction and surrealism.
Paper Gallery
PAPER #11 (RACHEL WRIGLEY: STARING AT THE ARTEX CEILING)
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 18 JAN AND 1 MAR, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
Following her six week residency at PAPER gallery, the Oldham-based artist explores the possibilities of paper and its sculptural qualities in the hope of presenting a distorted vision of reality.
People’s History Museum
THE PEOPLE’S BUSINESS: 150 YEARS OF THE CO-OPERATIVE
An exhibition exploring the vast history of The Co-operative, from their origins as the Co-operative Wholesale Society in Manchester, to their innovative branding.
Salford Museum and Art Gallery 20:20 VISION
10 JAN – 24 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE
Celebrating 20 years of Start in Salford’s arts and wellbeing centre, they present an exhibition of work created over the years.
Sandbar CITY LIFE
31 JAN – 3 MAR, 12:00PM – 11:00PM, FREE
A group exhibition curated by Jo Lowes, bringing together a group of established and emerging artists as each explores the visual experience of living in a city, culminating in a multimedia exhibition.
The Didsbury Parsonage Trust MARK FINZEL: THE ASCENSION OF PAN
8–23 FEB, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
Manchester Jewish Museum VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 26 JAN AND 9 MAR, TIMES VARY, £3.95 (£2.95)
The Holden Gallery
Local resident and member of the Jewish community, Gary Spicer presents an exhibition of drawings, photographs and writing responding to the Holocaust.
Manchester Museum
CORAL: SOMETHING RICH AND STRANGE
29 NOV – 16 MAR, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
Exploring our ongoing fascination with coral, Manchester Museum present an exhibition of objects that will highlight the importance of preserving our marine environments. FRAGMENTARY ANCESTORS: FIGURINES FROM KOMA LAND, GHANA
27 JAN – 5 MAY, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
The UK’s first ever officially approved exhibition of clay figurines made by the people of Koma Land in Ghana; the often fragmented figurines depict two-headed creatures, birds and animals and are thought to be representations of their ancestors.
National Football Museum
GAME CHANGERS: 125 YEARS OF THE FOOTBALL LEAGUE
10 JAN – 27 APR, TIMES VARY, FREE
An exhibition charting the changes in the game from 1888 to the present day, with stories from all 72 current league teams and never before seen personal items from George Best, on loan from his sister and the Best Chances charity.
Lady Lever Art Gallery
5–28 FEB, NOT 9, 16, 23, TIMES VARY, FREE
14 FEB – 1 JUN, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
DAVID LUNT: RELICS
A solo exhibition by Cheshirebased artist David Lunt, exploring his interest in the cinematic image through paintings and drawings.
Twenty Twenty Two PONG PING
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 6 FEB AND 5 MAR, 4:00PM – 11:00PM, FREE
A ping pong themed exhibition featuring six large-scales works constructed from ping pong balls, created by Liam Hopkins, aka Lazerian.
Untitled Gallery
TONY CHARLES: ABRASIVE ACTION
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 22 FEB AND 5 APR, 12:00PM – 6:00PM, FREE
A solo exhibition of work by Tony Charles, exploring the relationship between sculpture and its twodimensional counterpart, painting.
DIAGRAMS.
17 JAN – 28 FEB, WEEKDAYS ONLY, 10:00AM – 4:00PM, FREE
A group exhibition inviting a group of artists to offer their interpretation of diagrams, looking at the process of providing a visual representation of meaning, and the moment when visual elements becoming embedded with meaning.
The Lowry
DEFINING ME: MUSICAL ADVENTURES IN MANCHESTER
28 SEP – 23 FEB, TIMES VARY, FREE
An exhibition charting Manchester’s rich musical heritage through ticket stubs, posters, video and photographs; spanning everything from the Hallé Orchestra’s first performance in 1858 to the present day musical landscape. ALISON GOLDFRAPP: PERFORMER AS CURATOR
19 OCT – 2 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE
To kick off their Performer as Curator series, The Lowry invite English singer/songwriter Alison Goldfrapp to curate an exhibition of work offering insight into the singer’s personal inspiration through paintings, film, illustration and photography.
The Penthouse NOISE ABOVE NOISE
28 NOV, 20 FEB, 7:00PM – 10:00PM, £3
The Penthouse open their doors for a night of experimental sound-making in the streets above the Northern Quarter, with sound artists including Debbie Sharp and Now Wash Your Hands providing an open studio experience.
TURNER
A chronological exploration of JWM Turner’s life and work is presented in this exhibition of some 30 works by the landscape painter, pulled from across the National Museum Liverpool’s collections.
Merseyside Maritime Museum
LETTERS FROM THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
7 JAN – 3 MAR, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
On the run up to the 150th anniversary of the end of the American Civil war, which ceased when the last Confederate warship surrendered in the Mersey, explore this collection of letters from the Maritime Archives.
Liverpool Art Arena Gallery
WILLIAM JOHNSTON: AKAS, PARALLEL PERSONAS AND SELF PORTRAITS
1 FEB, 2 FEB, 9 FEB, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
After dropping his artistic pseudonym, artist William Johnston embarked on an exploration of the psychology of identity, through technology, online behaviour, and communication, with science and religion playing integral roles in his work.
Exhibition Research Centre PLEASE COME TO THE SHOW
13 FEB – 11 APR, WEEKDAYS ONLY, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
Ephemera from the MoMA Library collection of artists’ files – containing everything from announcement cards to press clippings – are presented as an alternative way to approach and consider art.
FACT
TIME AND MOTION: REDEFINING WORKING LIFE
12 DEC – 9 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE
A group exhibition in collaboration with the Royal College of Art’s Creative Exchange, exploring the workplace through artworks and research projects and placing the subject of shifting from an industrial to a service-based economy in focus.
International Slavery Museum BRITISH DANCE: BLACK ROUTES
13 SEP – 23 MAR, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
A new exhibition exploring the experiences of Black British dancers from 1946 to 2005 and shining the spotlight on their contributions to British dance, through jazz, contemporary, ballet and hip hop. LAURA FACEY: THEIR SPIRITS...
31 JAN – 7 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
Jamaican artist, Laura Facey presents an exhibition exploring the cruelty of slavery and the transcendent nature of the human spirit, with her 2006 piece, Their Spirits Gone Before Them sitting at the heart of the exhibition. BRUTAL EXPOSURE: THE CONGO
24 JAN – 7 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
A distressing exhibition of photographs by missionary Alice Seeley Harris, documenting her time in the Congo and exploring the brutality experienced by the Congolese people in what was probably the first photographic campaign for human rights.
KEYWORDS: ART, CULTURE AND SOCIETY IN 1980S BRITAIN 28 FEB – 11 MAY, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, £8 (£6)
Taking words from Raymond Williams' collection of essays, Keywords, as impetus, Tate Liverpool's new exhibition explores parallels between shifts in language and culture.
The Bluecoat
EDWARD CHELL: SOFT ESTATE
10 DEC – 23 FEB, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE
Contrasting the 18th-century idea of the Picturesque with modern day motorway landscapes, Edward Chell presents a collection of paintings, prints and found objects exploring history, ecology, roads and travel. BLUE ROOM EXHIBITION
4 FEB – 2 MAR, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE
Museum of Liverpool
An exhibition of work in mixed media responding to the main gallery exhibitions, created by members of the Blue Room Programme, a weekly meeting of artists with learning disabilities.
27–21 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
8 FEB, 12:00PM – 2:00PM, FREE, BOOKING REQUIRED
APRIL ASHLEY: PORTRAIT OF A LADY
12 OCT – 11 MAY, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
Artist and designer present an exhibition of portraits and abstract pieces exploring classical mythology and modern stylings, working with original photographs and then manipulating with colour and layers.
GARY SPICER: ENCOUNTER WITH THE HOLOCAUST
The Portico Library
A exhibition exploring the life of April Ashley, the Liverpool-born Vogue model and actress and one of the first people in the world to undergo gender reassignment surgery. BY JOVE! IT’S KEN DODD!
7 JAN – 21 APR, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
The life of the entertainer and comic Ken Dodd is celebrated in this exhibition of photographs by fellow Liverpudlian Stephen Shakeshaft.
Open Eye Gallery
ALVIN BALTROP AND GORDON MATTA-CLARK: THE PIERS FROM HERE
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 7 DEC AND 9 FEB, 10:30AM – 5:30PM, FREE
A collection of photographs by Alvin Baltrop and Gordon MattaClark, displayed together for the first time in the UK, focussing on the Piers area of NYC during the mid 70s, an area of dilapidation that mirrors Liverpool’s docklands.
Sudley House
20TH CENTURY CHIC: 100 YEARS OF WOMEN’S FASHION 7 JAN – 3 MAR, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
A collection of 12 evening outfits spanning 1900 to 2000, charting the changing role of women in society throughout this period, and how these changes were reflected in the fashion of the time.
Tate Liverpool DLA PIPER SERIES: CONSTELLATIONS
23 NOV – 31 MAY, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
An exhibition displaying ‘trigger’ artworks surrounded by groups, or ‘constellations’, of artworks from the same period. With the first floor open you’ll be able to see five ‘trigger’ artworks from before 1960, from artists including Picasso and Pollock. THE OFFICE OF USEFUL ART
8 NOV – 8 FEB, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
A working office and education centre created as part of the Art Turning Left exhibition to explore the idea of usefulness and usership in relation to art, stemming from Cuban artist, Tania Bruguera’s The Useful Art Association. WELCOME TO MY WORLD
18 JAN – 15 FEB, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
An exhibition of work by Joann Kushner and local young people, exploring issues in their lives and communities and drawing inspiration from Barbara Kruger’s Who Owns What? from the DLA Piper Series: Constellations. RICHARD HAWKINS: HIJIKATA TWIST
28 FEB – 11 MAY, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
EDGELANDS WALK
In relation to the Soft Estate exhibition, Colin Dilnot leads a walk through the Wirral’s hidden wilderness – meeting place TBC. SOFT ESTATE ARTISTS TALK
12 FEB, 6:00PM – 7:30PM, FREE
Jan Williams and Chris Teasdale of The Caravan Gallery and John Darwell discuss their work in the Soft Estate exhibition.
The Brink NATURE’S WAY
17 DEC – 7 MAR, NOT 25 DEC, 26 DEC, 1 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE
A joint exhibition of nature photography by Liverpool-based artists, Colin Serjent and Jane Groves.
The Cornerstone Gallery RACHEL SWEENEY: BODY TOPOGRAPHIES
31 JAN – 14 MAR, WEEKDAYS ONLY, 9:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
An exhibition of photographic works by Rachel Sweeney – a local dancer and part of performance company Orr and Sweeney – exploring the creative links between the body and its environment.
Walker Art Gallery
NEW WORKS AT THE WALKER
7 OCT – 23 FEB, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
Keep up with the ever-growing collection of work in the Walker Art Gallery with this exhibition of recently acquired works, including pieces by Anish Kapoor, Louise Bourgeois, Paula Rego and Yoko Ono. DAVID HOCKNEY: EARLY REFLECTIONS
11 OCT – 16 MAR, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
A unique collection of work charting the early development of a British icon with almost 40 pieces on display, dating from between 1960 and 1978, allowing a unique insight into Hockney’s early years.
THE NARRATORS: WORKS FROM THE ARTS COUNCIL COLLECTION
11 OCT – 16 MAR, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
Visual dialogues are created between contemporary and modern works in this exhibition of work from the Arts Council’s collection of decorative and fine art, running parallel to a collection at The Royal Standard. PORTRAIT OF THE ENGRAVER
13 DEC – 30 JUN, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
The Wirral-born artist James Hamilton Hay is the focus of this exhibition of landscapes and city etchings, showcasing his life’s work after leaving the Liverpool School of Art and seeking the guidance of British Impressionist Julius Olsson.
American artist Richard Hawkins presents his first museum exhibition in the UK, bringing together new works that demonstrate his complex style of juxtaposing images and ideas.
THE SKINNY
The Stars and Psychs French revivalists Sudden Death of Stars are quietly yet assuredly leading the way in bringing the psych back into pop. Or should that be the other way around? We went all the way to Rennes to investigate
Interview: Colm McAuliffe
T
he Breton city of Rennes is steeped in medieval histories, a haven of Celtic and Roman influences and rich in mystic folklore and sagas. If ever a city was to propagate itself as a hotbed of psychedelic sounds in thrall to the recent and distant past, this beautiful French outpost fits the bill. Famously, the city boasts two simultaneous festivals, renowned for their idiosyncrasy and penchant for attracting ‘the next big thing.’ And during their 2013 editions, Trans Musicales and Bars en Trans festivals peppered a striking number of local psychedelic treats throughout their programming, with the local Sudden Death of Stars rising highest above the parapet. Of course, the fact that SDOS are signed to Tjinder Singh and Ben Ayres’ ultra-hip label Ample Play is a contributing factor, but listen to the sextet’s debut album, Getting Up, Close Down, and recent Christmas 7” What Is Winter Good For? and you encounter a band certainly familiar with their Brian Jonestown Massacre records but also muscling up to the vintage dark folk tales of Comus or even the galloping psych jangle of The Feelies, mumbled vocals intact. Dreamy melodies abetted by organ trills, stabs of sitar and often magnificent facial hair mould into a deceptively gentle calibration of celestial sounds. Despite their relative youth, SDOS are a band fully formed with sitar at the ready, and are on the verge of releasing their second album proper on Ample Play later this year. The Skinny met the band’s frontman Goulwen Ory on a disarmingly sunny winter morning in Rennes, the band having played to a sell-out audience the previous evening as part of the aforementioned Bars En Trans music festival.
“We are not professionals; we tour once a year!” “We were lucky [to end up on Ample Play records],” reflects Ory. “Tjinder [Singh] from Cornershop and his wife Maria were on holidays in Brittany and they were looking for bands or gigs to see on their trip. They came across a festival where we were on the programme. Tjinder liked the description of our band, he thought it sounded interesting but they couldn’t make it to the show because they had to go back to London! Instead, they met us in Rennes during the holidays where we talked and that was it! That was November 2012.” Sudden Death of Stars originated in Rennes but it took a little bit of time before they found their feet as purveyors of psych pop. “We started in 2009, five years ago,” reflects Ory. “There were three of us, a drummer, me and a twelve string guitarist. We tried to do something really pop with a girl singing but it didn’t work out. I was just playing guitar. We brought three people into the band to replace her and I realised the songs I was bringing to the band now were in a different style to before. It was during our second recording session for the album we had the song Supernovae and at first there was no sitar. But when we heard how it sounds, we realised ‘there has to be a sitar on this!’ So, by talking to each other, it turned out that Xavier, our drummer, had a co-worker whose boyfriend was playing sitar! Easy! And you don’t see sitar on stage every
February 2014
Sudden Death of Stars
time.” It took the band two years to make their debut album which was initially released on French label Close Up before Ample Play took the reins, with the vinyl copies completely selling out on release. Witnessing the band play on home turf, the audience is swelled by noisy and occasionally boorish friends of the band, suggesting they are something of a big draw in their native France. “I think we are really famous in Rennes because we have a lot of friends!” laughs Ory. “I think our name rings a bell in France but not so much in other countries as it’s so difficult to get people to see our shows. There are lots of bands in Rennes but not really in the same form of music as us. There is quite a small scene in France, you have maybe ten groups as part of the scene here. We can really identify with these bands. For us, Brian Jonestown Massacre was definitely an influence but at the beginning, it was more The Warlocks and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. There
is also a strong pop thing in the band, a definite 1960s influence.” Like many of their contemporaries at home, Sudden Death of Stars choose to sing not in their native French but in English. This can often go either way but, luckily, Ory is quite the impressionist – or is it mere impressionism? Why not sing in his native language? “It’s more easy to write lyrics in English than in French – which you might not believe when you hear me talking!” he says. “But it’s true, I’m not used to listening to French music, we’re more used to hearing English-speaking music. That’s natural for us to sing in English. It is considered acceptable, there are more French bands who sing in English than in French, in all kinds of music. “ This year is gearing up to be a pivotal one for the band. Their next album is due along with bouts of heavy touring as Sudden Death of Stars return to the UK in March and have just been announced as one of the acts playing the
MUSIC
increasingly influential Liverpool Psych Fest in September, alongside such luminaries as Goat, Teeth of the Sea and the mighty Gnod. Ory is rather confident about the band’s live appeal. “The first time we played in London was with [Damo Suzuki’s] Reverb Conspiracy last year and the second time was just as a support. Both gigs were really great, in fact they were perfect. But you know we are not professionals, we tour once a year! We toured last November. The next album is coming out on 10 March. Ample Play are really involved in what we are doing, they do lots of promotional work for us. Ample Play is a seal of quality.” Sudden Death of Stars play The Shipping Forecast, Liverpool, 28 Feb and Band on the Wall, Manchester, 3 Mar All Unrevealed Parts of the Unknown is released on 10 Mar via Ample Play www.facebook.com/suddendeathofstars
Out Back
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Photo: Richard Gray
Goulwen Ory