When: 7.30pm on Monday 20 July 2009
Where: St Philip with St Stephen Church, Encombe Place, Salford, M3 6FJ‎

We’re delighted to welcome songwriting legend Mark Kozelek for what is only his second solo appearance in Manchester during an illustrious 20-years recording career. His debut here was a sold-out performance at the Dancehouse Theatre – and this time we’ve picked out another very special venue: St Phil’s Church in Salford.

Originally a lynchpin of the sadcore movement in alternative rock with Red House Painters, Kozelek’s harrowing autobiographical lyrics gave unflinchingly detailed accounts of pain, despair and loss while the lengthy accompanying music was slow, intense, dissonant and bleak.

As time has passed, his music has become more acoustic and folk-inflected, while his lyrics now seem obsessed with memory, geography and those who died before their natural time, arguably best demonstrated on Sun Kil Moon’s Ghosts of the Great Highway.

St Philip with St Stephen is one of Greater Manchester’s finest Georgian buildings, situated just seconds from Chapel Street and less than a mile from Deansgate. And it has a bar you’ll be glad to hear!

This all-ages show is a co-promotion with Pineapple Folk.

Tickets from WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk, SeeTickets.com, Piccadilly Records on Oldham Street, Ticketline Box Office in St John’s Centre, Liverpool, and on 0161 832 1111.

When: 7.00pm on Sunday 16 August 2009
Where: The Deaf Institute, 135 Grosvenor Street, Manchester M1 7HE

We’re very excited to be bringing experimental Icelandic collective Múm back to Manchester.

Originally a duo, Múm (pronounced ‘moom’) have expanded and contracted in their 12-year existence. The band was formed in 1997 by original members Gunnar Örn Tynes and Örvar Þóreyjarson Smárason, their first release was a split 10” with the girl-band Spúnk and saw light in the summer of 1998.

They were joined a year later by twin sisters Gyða and Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir and released two albums as quartet. Following a number of collaborative projects, the group’s celebrated debut album Yesterday Was Dramatic, Today Is OK (reissued by Morr Music in 2005) gained a wealth of glowing press and widespread praise. A remix project, Please Smile My Noise Bleed, also released on Morr  in November 2001.

In 2002, after the release of Finally We Are No One and a world tour, Gyða left the band to return to her studies in Reykjavík. Shortly after, the third sister Ásthildur Valtýsdóttir joined for singing duties temporarily and Serena Tideman replaced Gyda on cello, for a single European tour. The band’s third album, Summer Make Good, a darker and foggier, nautically themed work was released in 2004.

Múm present a casually gorgeous blend of electronic atmospheres and funny old instruments like accordions, melodicas and cellos

Múm’s second album fills in the gaps between the work of fellow compatriots Bjork and Sigur Ros with amazing results

Tickets available soon from WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk, SeeTickets.com, Piccadilly Records on Oldham Street, Ticketline Box Office in St John’s Centre, Liverpool, and on 0161 832 1111.

When: 7.30pm on Wednesday 19 August 2009
Where: Night & Day Cafe, 26 Oldham St, Manchester, M1 1JN‎

Born the youngest child of two blind parents, William Fitzsimmons was raised in the outskirts of the steel city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. William’s childhood home was filled with myriad sounds to replace what eyes could not see. The house was suffused with pianos, guitars, trombones, talking birds, classical records, family sing-alongs, bedtime stories, and the bellowing of a pipe organ, which his father built into the house. When his father’s orchestral records were not resonating through the walls, his mother would educate him on the folk stylings of James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel.

William draws from those early influences of his mother’s music, and the embellished instrumentation of his father’s. He is often compared to contemporaries Sufjan Stevens, Iron & Wine and the late Elliott Smith, not only for his unique style and skill in writing and proclivity to deal with substantive and evocative subject matter, but also for his use of organic and colourful melodies and arrangements. His first two records were completely self-produced and his new album, The Sparrow And The Crow, is his first studio recorded work. While his lyricism deals often with darker undertones (his most recent album is said to have been written following his own divorce), a measure of hopefulness is always carefully blended in.

It’s a shame Bon Iver got in there first, at least in the UK, otherwise Fitzsimmons would be this year’s fashionable heartbreak kid

Tickets from WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk, SeeTickets.com, Piccadilly Records on Oldham Street, Ticketline Box Office in St John’s Centre, Liverpool, and on 0161 832 1111.