Hey! FUC51
You may already be familiar with FUC51 – the blog that popped up earlier this year to poke fun at all things Madchester and Factory. Their writing is witty, their sources anonymous – just like the writers of the blog itself. But Hey! Manchester thought we’d ask them what it’s all about anyway…
Basics first: who are you?
Stephen Morris and Cressa. Some twat out of Northside probably. That guy with dreads who used to do ‘Wonderwall’ outside Boots on Market Street.
You set up FUC51 back in January. Was there a particularly terrible experience that prompted you to do so?
Nope. People tend to assume we emerged intentionally at the same time as Hooky re-opened the doors of the old Factory offices, but really, that was just a fluke on our part and proved incredibly useful in terms of interest around Manchester and music.
Sounds From The Other City 2010
Sounds From The Other City, Salford’s celebration of new music, returns on Sunday 2 May – and this year it’s expanding. If you’re lucky enough to bag one of the £15 passes, you may well find yourself watching space rock in Islington Mill, a bike orchestra in The Salvation Army, ex-shoegazers in St Phil’s Church, and even poetry in the excellent ale pub The New Oxford. Here’s the one-day festival’s first daytime (3pm-11pm) announcements:
Lamb and Wolf at Islington Mill (club space)
Chrome Hoof
Bo Ningen
Divorce
Breaking Colts
Klaus Kinski
Mind On Fire vs. Wotgodforgot at The Salvation Army
Seaming
The Laze
The Legend Of The Seven Black Tentacles
Levenshulme Bicycle Orchestra
SWN vs. Hey! Manchester at St Phil’s Church
Damon & Naomi
Jesca Hoop (solo)
Y Niwl
Room Tones at Islington Mill (engine room)
The Boats
Danny Norbury
Dean McPhee
Ya Mamas Cooking at The Crescent
Liz Green
Serious Sam Barrett & David Broad
Elvis In Disguise
Zacc Rogers
‘Rockabilly Bingo’
Paradox at The New Oxford
Neil Bell
Mike Garry
Neil Campbell
Chris Killen
Bring On The Dancing Horses at The Old Pint Pot (upstairs)
Egyptian Hip Hop
Wu Lyf
Postcards From Manchester at The Old Pint Pot (downstairs)
The Rural Alberta Advantage
Islet
Help Stamp Out Loneliness
Comfortable On A Tightrope at The Angel Centre
Talk Normal
Pheremoans
Levert
Way Through
Sex Hands
Dinner Party
Waiters
And rather than just an over-crowded Islington Mill, SFTOC will be offering three different options by night:
The Old Pint Pot
Upstairs – Bring On The Dancing Horse vs. Now Wave
Downstairs – Under Achievers Please Try Harder vs. Pull Yourself Together
The Kings Arms
Upstairs – Mind On Fire, Herbal Sessions, This City Is Ours & Drum Music
Downstairs – Naive Melody vs. Stop Making Sense
The Black Lion
Upstairs – Contort Yourself residents party
Downstairs – Bollox vs. Bad Dancer
There’s also a Mount Pleasant Exhibition at the Gallery Space in Islington Mill, plus a ‘Box Office’ artist project to be announced. To stay up to date, join the Facebook group and follow SFTOC on Twitter. Tickets are available from Piccadilly Records, Islington Mill and Quaytickets.com.
The Photography of Steve Gullick – at the Kraak Gallery
The Kraak Gallery, the Northern Quarter’s short-lived but widely approved-of underground music venue, is hosting a photography exhibition next month, featuring photographs of people like Will Oldham:
Steve Gullick has photographed for NME and Melody Maker as well as his own publications Careless Talk Costs Lives and Loose Lips Sink Ships – and has impeccable taste, with Nirvana, Bjork, Beck, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Neil Young and Nick Cave among the familiar names that will feature.
The Photography of Steve Gullick runs from 12-27 March at the Kraak Gallery (11 Stevenson Square, behind Hula Bar). It’s open Tuesday to Sunday, 11am-6pm. What’s more, Steve’s band The Tenebrous Liar play the opening party at the Bay Horse on 11 March (£2, 8pm), and he’ll be giving a guided tour of the exhibition at 3pm on the final day – email him directly to book a place.
Hey! Marble Valley
Ahead of Thursday’s intimate show at Dulcimer, Hey! Manchester catches up with Steve West, front man of Marble Valley and drummer in Pavement.
Hi Steve, how are you?
It’s been an uppin’ downer week here, cold as Big Ben’s hour hand.
Obvious question first: where does the name Marble Valley come from?
My mother’s father grew up on a farm with 12 siblings in Marble Valley, located in the blue ridge mountains of Virginia.
Why did you decide to record the latest album, Slash and Laugh, in Amsterdam?
Remko Schouten, our Sampler guy, owns a fabulous studio named Island Studios there, and he graciously offered to record us.
The songs are incredibly fun and quirky. How do you go about getting these elements into the music?
When we are together it comes out naturally like a burp or hick up. Alone, I just think about these guys playing the songs and go with it.
Hey! Manchester’s favourite albums of 2009
Ok, so it’s a whole 12 days off the pace (I’ve been busy booking shiny new shows!) but I finally got round to making a list of my favourite albums of last year:
- Fever Ray – Fever Ray (Rabid Records)
- Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – Vs. Children (Tomlab)
- Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino)
- Au Revoir Simone – Still Night, Still Light (Moshi Moshi)
- Sleeping States – In The Garden of the North (Bella Union)
- Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest (Warp)
- Wild Beasts – Two Dancers (Domino Recordings)
- The xx – xx (Young Turks/XL)
- Miike Snow – Miike Snow (Sony)
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz! (Polydor)
- At Swim Two Birds – Before You Left (Vespertine & Son)
- Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca (Domino)
- Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – Up From Below (Community Records)
- Alaska in Winter – Holiday (Regular Beat)
- Taken By Trees – East Of Eden (Rough Trade)
Oh, and one more for good luck – favourite soundtrack of the year:
- Clint Mansell – Moon OST (Black Records)
All these albums bar Grizzly Bear are rather handily available on Spotify – so click here for the Hey! Manchester albums of 2009 playlist.