Sounds From The Other City

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

First up, there was an opinion piece a month ago about how ‘Manchester’s Music Scene Is Dying‘ – sparking much debate both on NME.com and elsewhere. Turns out the writer, Alistair Beech, is very much pro-Manchester and intended the piece as a sort of rallying call rather than an obituary-in-waiting. Looks like it was a case of heavy-handed/over-worked sub-editors and people reading headlines and jumping to conclusions, but there’s some interesting reading in there nonetheless.

Then even more recently, the same author compiled a roundup of the best bands coming out of Manchester right now. Dutch Uncles, Airship, May68, Lost Knives, Modernaire and Hey! Manchester alumni Run Toto Run all feature. Read more here – if your eye sight is up to it.

The 2009 shortlist for the now-annual Best of Manchester Awards was announced earlier this week, and makes for music category makes for interesting reading:

Jayne Compton has been shortlisted for a diverse portfolio that includes long-running experimental club night, Club Brenda, ‘a genuinely uncompromising underground art happening’, according to Compton that blends live music, art and performance. Compton has also been shortlisted for her Switchflicker Records label (which launched the Ting Tings with That’s Not My Name) and an upcoming Arts Council book, Strange Trees.

Natalie Curtis was shortlisted for a photography portfolio that includes portraits of bands such as Doves, the Paris Riots and Silversun Pickups. Her quiet documentary style has lead to a series of startlingly warm and intimate shots – and was singled out by the judges for its freshness and direct approach.

Max Moran has been shortlisted for a portfolio that includes the video-based music blog, ThisTownSounds.com. Running since 2007, the blog has premiered White Lies’ first ever filmed interview, as well as early performances from the likes of Florence & The Machine. Moran has also been recognised for his sell-out club night, Hot Club, its laid back sister session, Hat Club and, more recently, Moran’s burgeoning record label, Hit Club.

The music judges also awarded special commendations to Paddy Steer, an ‘unsung hero’ according to one of our panel, for his contribution to the Manchester music scene over the past 25 years; and to classical composer Joe Duddell who has curated (and conducts) the Elbow and Hallé Orchestra performances that form the centrepiece of this year’s Manchester International Festival.

Hey! Manchester is well aware of Jayne and Paddy’s work (check out this excellent video from his recent album launch), but ThisTownSounds.com in particular is a great new discovery for us – check it out.

Opening a couple of days ago, this new ‘pop up bar’ has scheduled 10 weeks of event – from a preview night featuring local band Delphic to a Calvin Harris DJ set on Saturday just gone. Other nights feature a DJ set by Late of the Pier, plus ‘twisted trannie night MirrorMirror’s extravagant summer ball’, as CityLife so eloquently puts it.

It adds that the overall aim is to create a series of ‘one-off events, big sounds, memorable nights out, in a temporary space with a rough-round-the-edges charm’.

Then, in two months time, the bar’s owners will shut up shop and re-open it in October as the Blackdog Ballroom, complete with slate floors, wood panelling and so on. It sounds like Manchester looks set to gain a New York-inspired venue that’s open a very convenient 16 hours per day.

I don’t know anything about this, but aren’t weekend gigs at roadhouse early doors anyway? So if the 1990s are playing the blur gig could be happening afterwards? (unless they have a clubnight on)

But… tickets for a show like that probably wouldn’t be available to just anyone. Blur have always played tiny shows like this even at the height of their popularity and people were always informed of them via the fanclub.

Faktion is scheduled to happen after the gig, so this seems highly unlikely – but everyone loves a good rumour.