The best gig that I never went to was a 2008 reunion gig by the Liverpudlian band The Pale Fountains. I’m told this on good authority, because while I was never there, several friends of mine were, and they spent most of the gig texting me annoying updates.​ Around the same time that the band broke into their anthemic 1984 ‘Jean’s Not Happening’, I was most definitely not happening. I was standing in a bus shelter outside the Shepherds Bush Empire desperately trying to call

Cast your mind back to the not-so-recent past, and there was a massive fuss when it was announced in 2024 that Oasis were reforming and going on tour. No offence to the Burnage boys, but there was a northern band going on tour that I was a little more excited about – and that was Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band. As someone who grew up in Greater Manchester in the 80s and 90s, surrounded by the sounds of ‘the Madchester’ scene, there were plenty of northern bands I was ex

Somewhere in the centre of Manchester, not far from the site where an IRA bomb in 1996 injured two hundred people, lies the site of the old Cona Coffee Bar . It was practically the waiting room for The Twisted Wheel, that famous mod haunt only a few streets away, but the bar was famous in its own way too. First there was the jukebox: crammed with RnB and northern soul. It was the hub of the city’s skiffle craze too, in the mid to late 50s, when my dad as a quiff-haired

On the subject of Manchester bands, I was really affected last month by the news that Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield of the Stone Roses and Primal Scream died, aged 63. The Stones Roses were a massive part of my teenage years growing up in Greater Manchester . My friends and I saw them play many times at venues around town when the band was still just a local phenomenon, and before they hit the dizzy heights of fame. Somehow we all knew something big was happening -- the gigs were ele

I was surprised to discover that, next month [March 2025], it will be ten years since Sujfan Stevens brought out his beautiful album Carrie & Lowell. This album helped me through the death of my mum, which I wrote about some time ago. I’m sharing the piece below, in case it helps anyone going through a similar thing. Her death also coincided with the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017, so it also comes with a trigger warning, in case you were affected by the tragedy. Music h

May the long-time sun shine upon you / all love surround you.’ Finally this month I’ve been getting in touch with my inner hippy by delving into some old recordings of the influential 1960s band The Incredible String Band (ISB). I’ve been a fan of this eclectic, highly idiosyncratic group since I was a teenager and was introduced to them by a friend and fellow music-lover (ie, the poor chap leant me his records and still hasn’t got them back ). To me, ISB symbolises all that

Carrying on this theme of music, it’s fair to say that this was mostly a summer of musical returns, starting with something really exciting… the return of the Moldy Peaches , who played their first UK gig for 22 years! If that didn’t make it enough of an occasion, the New York indie band came playfully attired in sailor suits, Super Mushroom hats and zebra costumes – a nod to the band’s love of dressing-up. The whole concert was like a ‘warm hug’, wrote one reviewer, ‘a supe

This summer (2023) had other musical stand-out moments. Not only did Pulp maginficently return, but Blur played two rather stupendous, spellbinding Wembley gigs on the back of a lovely new album (‘The Ballad of Darren’). As a long-time fan of Damon Albarn ’s music, I’ve seen the band more times then I care to count, as well as his many other incarnations ( Africa Express; Gorillaz; The Good, the Bad and the Queen; and solo work), so, initially, I was a little reluctant to sh

Okay, so I’m totally outing myself as a nineties throwback here, with a penchant for American indie rock, but Pavement were one of those cool bands in the nineties that were kind of well known and yet weren’t. Beloved by fans and music journos for their low-fi, slacker kind of vibe, they never quite made it into fully-blown, mainstream status, and yet - bizarrely - a few months ago [in 2022] a remake of their song ‘Harness Your Hopes’ went viral on TikTok – and suddenly th

I’ve always been a big Beck fan, and not just because we share the same name (although that might have something to do with it – that’s one for the therapists, I guess). This week [October19 2022] marked the twentieth anniversary since his fabulous SEA CHANGE came out. Sea Change is a phenomenal album: rightly compared to Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks (which is also a corker). It was apparently written in the aftermath of his nine-year relationship with the designer Leig