A friend asked me to mention CityLifers, a reviews site he writes for – something of an unofficial off-shoot from CityLife. They’re looking for Manchester music fans looking to ‘indulge your inner journalist’ and share their views with a like-minded community. Here’s CityLifers‘ manifesto:

• To create a place for EVERYONE with a passion for music, so they can spread the word about the bands, artists, singles, albums and venues they are passionate about.
• To feature reviews and recommendations of the latest and best music out there.
• To make sure that smaller venues and the acts that play in them are given the coverage and recognition they deserve. At some point in their careers, all bands and artists rely heavily on these places to learn their craft.
• Without fans with a passion for music, the world would be even more awash with the soulless sounds that are so often thrust upon us. We believe that every music fan using this site is as much a part of the music industry as record companies and the artists themselves. It is the people that buy music and watch bands live that help keep musicians in a job, so we believe that those music fans should have a place to make their views known.

The site is stuffed full of content – from venue, album, single and live reviews to interviews with the likes of Jesca Hoop. They’re offering free CDs to reviewers – visit http://citylifers.co.uk/want-to-join-us/ to send a sample review and join the CityLifers team.

You should get in touch with ManchesterMusic if so:

MM is built on a bedrock of supporting emerging talent, which puts an equal emphasis on the talents of reviewers and photographers as it does for musicians. MM is serious about its coverage and approaches this in a purely professional way – so this means our reviewers are expected do be fair, transparent and knowledgeable, as well as, of course, competent and interesting writers.

We don’t set a minimum workload, but do ask that you’re honest about what you feel you can deliver and stick firmly to deadlines – we can get you into a lots of gigs/venues, but we also ask that biased importance (ie. in contrast to signed/touring material) is attached to:

1. Local music
2. Unsigned Music

They’re looking for live reviewers plus feature writers and interviewers, plus people who can contribute relevant audio/visual content. So far they’ve covered 4,500 artists on http://www.music-dash.co.uk/.

If you’re interested in writing for ManchesterMusic, email sovrec@yahoo.co.uk with some samples.

Someone posted a note on the Hey! Manchester Facebook group a few months back about ‘a brand new chain of music venues opening up and down the country’, including Sub29 in Cardiff, Sub89 in Reading, Sub41 in Glasgow… and now Sub61 in Manchester.

This 600-capacity venue (with a suitably large club/live PA) sits on the top floor above Walkabout, overlooking Quay Street and with an entrance on Artillery Street. Early events are mostly club-based, but there are a few bands playing too – check out the venue’s listing page on Last.fm for the upcoming events. And for more information about Sub61, try this contact page.

Everyone’s favourite baritone-voiced Yorkshire funnyman, Richard Hawley, is doing an in-store set at Piccadilly Records on Oldham Street tomorrow. To get a ticket – of which there are only a few remaining – you need to go in and buy a copy of his new album, Truelove’s Gutter. He’ll sign it after his performance, from 4pm tomorrow.

And Piccadilly Records’ weekly newsletter also flags up an appeal that may be of interest to Manchester music history fans:

Manchester District Music Archive is currently seeking information, photos and artifacts relating to gay clubs and bars in Greater Manchester from the 1940s to the present day. They are planning a large-scale event in February 2010, hosted by writer Jon Savage, which will celebrate the history of gay music culture in Greater Manchester. This will be followed by an in-depth virtual exhibition on their website MDMArchive, so they need photos, flyers, tickets, posters, fanzines, membership cards – that kind of thing.

They are also looking to interview any regular attendees of gay clubs and bars over the years (across the whole of Greater Manchester), or anyone who has been a member of a musical group, such as a choir or band that had an LGBT focus.

If you can contribute, get in touch by emailing info@mdmarchive.co.uk.

Congratulations to Jayne Compton (second right above) and Max Moran (left), joint winners of the music category at last night’s Best of Manchester Awards. Max is someone we didn’t realise we’d heard about – but besides running ThisTownSounds.com, it turns out he runs the Hot Club night, which has brought the likes of Micachu and the Shapes, Metronomy and Good Shoes etc to Manchester.

Two of the city’s most interesting bands played at Urbis either side of the award presentation: Gnod and Young British Artists. One of the Gnod members said he felt like a museum piece playing to the art crowd – nevertheless, both are well worth checking out.

In other news, we’re putting Efterklang and Bowerbirds on later in the year! The former will be performing at a Hey! Halloween special at the Deaf Institute on Saturday 31 October, while the latter playing at Dulcimer the following night – more information here.

And we’re delighted to confirm that Switchflicker Records’ Magic Arm will be supporting Final Fantasy at the RNCM next month!