When: 7pm on Wednesday 22 March 2023
Where: YES Pink Room, 38 Charles Street, Manchester, M1 7DB

We’re excited to welcome Anna B Savage back to Manchester – this time, to YES!

Anna B Savage has always asked questions in her music, but on new album in|FLUX answers are no longer her quest. Vulnerability and curiosity have consistently been operative words to describe her work and on her second album she ruminates on the complexities and variables of humanity, the pain or pleasure of love, loss and earthly connection, capturing it all in devastating, elating and powerful ways. The key difference between this and previous releases: she’s not anxious about what’s on the other side. She’s come to appreciate staying afloat – basking even – in the open ended, uncertainty of the grey area.

It’s been hard work to get to this point, both in the studio and in the sometimes gruelling work it takes to get there using therapy. Like anyone that has been knows the unfurling of one’s innermost thoughts and feelings – some that you may not even know are there – reveals they are in constant flux. In fact, the aforementioned and operative ‘vulnerability’ attributed to her music before now has a partner, the notion of said ‘flux’.

Because in contrast to her debut, A Common Turn, in|FLUX takes Savage on a diametric journey. When faced with the inconsistencies of the world, in your relationships, and within yourself (they often make themselves present in the damning quiet of a therapy room) you want clear cut and irrefutable answers, especially when paired with the pristine superficiality of a life without conflict or nuance portrayed on social media.

Like a lot of women, our feelings are deferred to other authorities (most devastatingly this includes inner imposter voices implanted by a life of patriarchy) “I’ve had a whole lifetime of being told that I don’t know what I feel or want and that the most important thing in my life is relationships” It stifles your ability to navigate tricky circumstances that aren’t black or white. How do you know how to deal with, say, “…making it through a terribly toxic relationship, one that made you so hurt and angry, but still not knowing what to do with all the love you had for them?” says Savage. What about when you’re not trusted enough to explore duality at all?

The first stage to healing from this was simply acknowledging that variances were intrinsic to existing. “I came to accept that inconsistencies and hypocrisies were a part of human nature”, crucially adding that “they all work together to form a whole.” She changed from deeming duality as pejorative to being excited and energised by it. In turn, she began to trust herself: “Trusting that often my instinct is enough, trusting that I am allowed to be multifaceted, and that I can embody and express my dualities and multitudes”, “trust I can express this and be understood…trust myself to be able to write songs again”.

Though her previous releases have been met with massive critical acclaim, receiving plaudits from the likes of The New York Times, NPR and Rolling Stone, and tour support slots with Jenny Hval and Father John Misty, her insecurities made the process fairly gruelling. Instead she approached creating in|FLUX in a way that was imbued with self-governance and determination, shedding the pressure she had put on herself.

None of the songs were fully formed before entering the studio, the whole experience was fluid and relied on interactions and play with producer Mike Lindsay (Tuung, Lump). Where Savage thought she would fall foul of her own negative self-talk, she spent each morning before seeing Mike working on her ‘Morning Pages’, an idea from the hugely popular book The Artist’s Way, which consisted of writing streams of consciousness to actively enact her unlearning, leaning into instinct.

She confidently explores lyrical themes and musical tones of duality – she’s a true artist and she’s given herself grace to believe that which has been audibly freeing. The resulting breadth of emotion on in|FLUX is palpable. Take “Feet of Clay” a song that describes her agency in a romantic relationship whilst acknowledging her inner contradictions, “I know I said I wanted you but I’ve got feet of clay, I know I said I wanted you but that was yesterday.” There’s anguish in “Say My Name”: which culminates in a spine-tingling breath at the end, perhaps an expression of shock, relief or of exhaustion. But there’s also tranquillity; on ‘Hungry’ where she professes, “thought I’d feel lonely but that’s not true”, and resolute determination on title track ‘in|FLUX’, the line “I want to be alone, I’m happy on my own” repeated like a mantra as the song descends into an unhinged, jubilant mess.

Desire and intimacy are here too, from the nervous ‘dance’ of “Crown Shyness”, describing two people on the precipice of an uncertain romance, to the lust of “Pavlov’s Dog” and “Touch Me”:  “Touch me, please/ Pull my hair / caress my cheek”. Her meandering yet deft vocals – something like Wild Beasts’ Hayden Thorpe, the operatic Maria Callas, the rawness and unruly beauty of Ella Fitzgerald – are still the perfect bedding for the bitesize stories she carves out; the push and pull of expressions of vulnerability evident once again.

Musically, there’s an openness and range to match the breadth of emotion. Anna dusted off her clarinet and saxophone, instruments she hadn’t played for 15 years, trusting that with a little bit of time she could play proficiently enough for her purposes. A friend gifted her an electronic-kalimba too (a personalised ‘Colour Palette’ by Lottie Canto), an adaptation of the mbira instrument native to Zimbabwe (it’s found some popularity in recent years, namely on Volcano Choir’s ‘Mbira on the Morass’) and instinctively “I knew that I had to put it on everything. The sound of it was so perfect for this album: Warm, friendly and a little unsettling”, and crucially, “Both things at once.” You can hear it subtly layered under recent single “The Ghost” for one.

Perfection wasn’t the goal and she embraced flaws. On “The Orange”, Savage accidentally went to the wrong chord during recording, “but I absolutely love it” she says, ultimately keeping that in the final chord structure. “It went wrong, but it worked out for the better.”

Some of the greatest songs have ‘mistakes’ or ‘accidents’, but sometimes they come to be crucial to the qualities of these songs, take Radiohead’s “Creep” or D’Angelo’s “How Does It Feel.” Standing beside apparent errors and treating them as unexpected treasures is key to suffusing confidence and exercising self-belief. For Savage, it represents something like “an expression of my own new found attitude towards myself, to life, creativity and songwriting…a realisation that things will be alright”

The song turned out to be the linchpin of in|FLUX, perfectly showing this development that she looks to bring on stage. It’s a full circle moment; sentimentally in opposition to “ONE”, the oldest song on A Common Turn. From “I thought he was better than that, to grab an inch of stomach and say fat”, to “Nowadays I like my lovely soft belly / and my soft sensibilities / the wobbly warmth within me”

Taking this self-belief forward, she is set to play some of her biggest shows to date in 2023, including London’s Village Underground. “I am so excited to play these songs live. These songs show little pockets of joy, or recovery or hold difficult multitudes within them that hopefully show my development as a person and as a musician”.

“I feel like this album is an exploration of recovery and the journey of therapy,” says Savage. By standing in dichotomy: the light and dark of it, highs and lows it produces, love and loss and everything in between, she explores new plains that unfurl and reveal a different and more self-assured person within. “it’s a difficult thing [to engage in] but can also be the best thing ever, and lead you to feeling completely content.”

It’ll be a sentiment that reaches fans deeply, especially in a time where uncertainty feels a lot more ubiquitous to life in recent memory. We’re all trying really fucking hard to be happy and content, and Anna B Savage is trying really fucking hard too. But she’s equipped more than ever to, as she says, “carve out my own life…know that it can be enjoyable, and lean into that.” Like she says on “The Orange”, if this is all that there is…she’s going to be fine.

Tour support comes from Albert Gold. It has been previously noted that Albert Gold must surely qualify as the most heartbroken man in the whole of Hackney. Over the past few years a stream of supple tunes of various soulpop hues has proven him to be a vivacious fresh songwriting talent backed by an extraordinary vocal range and a litany of crumpled relationships. He’ll be sharing the emotional love when he supports the no-less-passionate Anna B Savage on her springtime tour.

Buy tickets now. Tickets are also available from Dice.fm, WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

Attend on: Facebook

When: 7.30pm on Friday 31 March 2023
Where: Gullivers, 109 Oldham Street, Manchester, M4 1LW

PLEASE NOTE: This show is sold out! Watch this space for future His Lordship shows in Manchester.

We’re delighted to be welcoming His Lordship to Manchester!

His Lordship, the new project from guitarist James Walbourne (The Pretenders, The Pogues, The Rails) and Kristoffer Sonne (Chrissie Hynde, Willie Nelson), announce their first UK tour,  taking in 11 cities across the UK. Already having made an indelible mark on London’s live scene, His Lordship is the sound of Walbourne unleashed as a frontman; a furious riot of raging guitar and perverted drums from another dimension.

In addition to the tour, the duo also announce their debut EP, a one take collection of rock ‘n’ roll covers, which came together in one evening after a long day of recording original songs (also coming soon). Deciding to let loose, they kept the tape rolling and filmed a set of rock ’n’ roll tunes they like to play. They didn’t even rehearse them. The finished EP is a first take 15 minute set of Stuff They Like. Gene Vincent, Jack Scott, Link Wray and The Killer.

The EP will be released on 16 April digitally, with a vinyl release to follow on Psychonaut Sounds.

Tour support comes from Bruno and the Outrageous Methods of Presentation. Created in Bristol in 2005 from Brazilian/English motherfatherlodes, Bruno is a multi-faceted neuro-amazing proto-superstar, splatter-gunning golden gems of power-pop, garage-punk, nihilistic electro-void darkness and plain super-catchy teeth-rattlers.

Before he started to be recognised for his mindshitting musical output he was spotted by Jason Pierce, asked to DJ by Bobby Gillespie and dropped into Zak Starkey’s studio to record a single alongside two musical friends plus bassist Glen Matlock.

This show is a co-promotion with DHP.

Buy tickets now. Tickets are also available from Dice.fm, WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

Attend on: Facebook

When: 7pm on Wednesday 5 April 2023
Where: The Deaf Institute, 135 Grosvenor Street, Manchester M1 7HE

We’re delighted to welcome The Courettes back – this time, to the Deaf Institute!

The Courettes are an explosive rock duo from Denmark and Brazil who found the perfect blend between garage rock, 60s Girl Group, Wall of Sound, surf music and doo wop. Like The Ronettes meets The Ramones at a wild party at Gold Star Studios echo chamber.

Praised by the biggest music magazines around the world, in 2020 the band signed with legendary British label Damaged Goods, putting them on the same roster as top international rock icons like Buzzcocks, Manic Street Preaches, Atari Teenage Riot, New Bomb Turks, Amyl and the Sniffers, Billy Childish, Captain Sensible and many others.

Their last and third album, Back in Mono, was released in autumn 2021 and is a truly milestone in the career. The album brings the band in top form, showing great songwriting skills and with broader nuances, influences and sound qualities to their garage rock recipe.

Their last singles, Want You! Like a Cigarette, Hop The Twig and R.I.N.G.O., all received airplay at BBC 6 Music in England and radio stations in Europe and the USA. Back in Mono received top reviews in the main music magazines like Mojo, Classic Rock and Shindig and was featured in countless Best Albums of 2021 lists.

One of the most hard-working bands on the European rock ‘n’ roll scene, The Courettes have the reputation of delivering full-speed energetic performances and have played in 15 countries around Europe and Brazil. Flavia Couri (Vox, Guitar) and Martin Couri (Drums, Vox) have shared the stage with artists like The Sonics, The Pretty Things, Holly Golightly, The Bellrays, Jon Spencer, B52 ?s, Stray Cats, Kitty, Daisy and Lewis, Gang of Four, Weezer, Franz Ferdinand and more.

‘The real sound of now busting through your door’ – Rolling Stone

‘Your new favourite band once you’ve heard them!’ – Louder Than War

Age restriction: 14+. Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

Buy tickets now. Tickets are also available from Dice.fm, WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

Attend on: Facebook

When: 7pm on Friday 7 April 2023
Where: Band on the Wall, 26 Swan Street, Manchester M4 5JZ

We’re excited to welcome this collaboration between Rachel Unthank and Paul Smith to Band on the Wall.

Two former Mercury Music Prize nominees Rachel Unthank (The Unthanks) and Paul Smith (Maxïmo Park) announce Nowhere And Everywhere, their debut album as Unthank : Smith. Two new songs, The Natural Urge and Seven Tears, are available to hear now.

With Nowhere And Everywhere Unthank and Smith, both from England’s North East, and foremost talents in their respective fields, set out to collect songs and pen originals that claw at the beating heart of the region. Though Rachel Unthank has been immersed in the folk world from childhood, Paul Smith’s route towards folk began in his teens with a love of Martin Carthy, Karen Dalton, Nick Drake and Bert Jansch, especially their fingerstyle guitar-playing. Echoes of that approach can be heard throughout this album, albeit simplified and merged with a more direct sound akin to US avant-rock acolytes of the ‘60s folk revival like Gastr Del Sol and David Pajo.

The pair’s collaboration for the new project came about somewhat naturally as Rachel explains: ‘Paul and I have discovered that we have so much in common. At the core of that is the genuine joy that singing brings us both. We also both have a deep-rooted connection to our native North East, as can be heard in our unfiltered accents, yet this rootedness gives us the appetite for outrospection. I can’t wait to get on the road and start singing together.’

Paul adds: ‘Rachel’s voice is a rare instrument, so to hear our voices blending together for the first time was a big moment for me. It hinted at new possibilities for me as a singer and musician.’

Co-produced by David Brewis of Field Music, Nowhere And Everywhere features Faye MacCalman of emerging avant-jazz group Archipelago on clarinet, and exploratory drums by Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy / Alasdair Roberts collaborator Alex Neilson, of Trembling Bells.

While the album includes its share of traditional songs, the first two tracks to emerge are both originals penned by Paul Smith (The Natural Urge) and Rachel Unthank (Seven Tears). The Natural Urge was partly inspired by the bleak, gnarled landscapes depicted by Paul Nash in his role as an official WW1 artist. He comments: ‘The Natural Urge is, ultimately, an anti-war song, but I tried to write something more atmospheric and less obvious than that might imply. The guitar riff reminded me of a folk melody, and the theme also seemed to fit with the tradition of protest.’

Rachel adds: ‘I enjoy the brooding atmosphere that builds through The Natural Urge with layered harmonium and guitar, and how the clarinet blends with our voices, making it sound like a haunting third voice.’

Rachel Unthanks’ Seven Tears injects some local mythology into proceedings, as she explains: ‘I have always loved the songs and ballads about selkies – a seal in the sea that takes off their sealskin and adopts human form on land. When doing some research about the selkie mythology, I read that if you cried seven tears into the sea, then your selkie lover would come back to you. I also love the Northumbrian word “darkening” which means dusk; that time of night when magic happens, and the time that I once saw a bob of seals off a Northumbrian beach, which inspired me to write this song.’

Tour support comes from Alex Rex. Alex Rex is the ‘ghost-rock’ project of Alex Neilson (Trembling Bells, Bonnie Prince Billy, Shirley Collins et al). Inspired by Greek Tragedy, Barbara Streisand and Alex’s own internal critic, Alex Rex perform songs of love, loss and loathing.

This show is seated with limited standing.

Age restriction: This is a 10+ show. Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

Buy tickets now. Tickets are also available from Dice.fm, WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

Attend on: Facebook

When: 7.30pm on Monday 10 April 2023
Where: The Deaf Institute, 135 Grosvenor Street, Manchester M1 7HE

We’re delighted to be working with Nina Nastasia!

TW: SUICIDE

‘Riderless Horse is my first solo record, and it’s the first record my former partner, Kennan Gudjonsson, didn’t produce.

‘I haven’t made an album since 2010. I decided to stop pursuing music several years after my sixth record, Outlaster, because of unhappiness, overwhelming chaos, mental illness, and my tragically dysfunctional relationship with Kennan. Creating music had always been a positive outlet during difficult times, but eventually it became a source of absolute misery.

‘Kennan, a cat and I lived in a studio apartment in NYC for 25 years, finding ways to survive while making records and going on tours. Our apartment was the place where people would come stay, eat, drink, play music, and use our tub. It was quite a home we had created, but it was decaying steadily from the moment we moved in, and in the end, it was as if black mold was growing beneath the surface, undetected, and the two of us were dying and getting too weak to ever leave. We loved each other. We were each other’s family, but there was ongoing abuse, control and manipulation. We hid. We didn’t want anyone to see how ugly things could get, so we increasingly isolated from our friends and family. We were lost.

‘On January 26, 2020, I made the decision to separate and live apart, and on January 27, Kennan died by suicide. What a thing, suicide. I can only feel sadness and guilt about it. Maybe I’ll have other reactions to it later on.

‘Riderless Horse documents the grief, but it also marks moments of empowerment and a real happiness in discovering my own capability. Steve Albini produced this record with me, and Greg Norman assisted. The three of us are old friends, and we did a field recording in a guesthouse built like a lighthouse that two very dear friends of mine have in Esopus, NY. It was exactly the right environment to work on this record. We all had meals together, cried, laughed, and told stories. It was perfect. It made me realize how much I love writing, playing and recording music.

‘Terrible things happen. These were some terrible things. So, what to do – learn something valuable, connect with people, move the fuck out of that apartment, remember the humor, find the humor, tell the truth, and make a record. I made a record.’

Age restriction: 14+. Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

This show is a co-promotion with Form.

Buy tickets now. Tickets are also available from Dice.fm, WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

Attend on: Facebook

When: 7.30pm on Thursday 13 April 2023
Where: Gullivers, 109 Oldham Street, Manchester, M4 1LW

PLEASE NOTE: This is the new show date, in April 2023. Original tickets (from April 2022) remain valid and all other details are the same.

We’re excited to be working with William Crighton for the first time!

William Crighton is an acclaimed Australian rock roots artist and storyteller. In 2022 Crighton released his third album Water and Dust, toured to sold out audiences in his home country Australia and performed a three month tour in the UK and Euro which included major festivals as well as opening for Canadian bluegrass sensation The Dead South, rock legends Midnight Oil on their final ever tour and folk hero Beans on Toast.

Crighton returns to the Northern hemisphere in 2023 for a run of special shows.

‘Like Tom Waits and Nick Cave, William Crighton is an original. But, apart from that, he’s like no one else‘ – Stack Magazine

Tour support comes from New Zealand’s Proteins of Magic. Living between Tamaki Makaurau Auckland and Nashville, Tennessee, Kelly Sherrod is a multi-faceted artist working across both audio and visual formats. She writes, produces and performs her music, creates visual worlds from claymation to digital art. Through her work she blurs the boundaries between innovative alt-pop and contemporary art music, bringing into existence a world that is uniquely her own.

‘I consider her in that lineage of female musicians with a completely unique voice and approach, in the tradition of Nina Simone, Nico, Patti Smith, Björk, etc. She is the real deal’ – Shayne Carter

Buy tickets now. Tickets are also available from Dice.fm, WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

Attend on: Facebook

When: 7.30pm on Friday 14 April 2023
Where: Gullivers, 109 Oldham Street, Manchester, M4 1LW

We’re delighted to be working with Ailbhe Reddy for the first time!

Ailbhe Reddy has announced details of her new album Endless Affair – the follow-up to her critically acclaimed Choice Music Prize-nominated (Best Album) debut album Personal History – and shared the video for new single Shitshow. Endless Affair is due out on 17 March 2023.

2022 has already seen Ailbhe Reddy make her debut at The Great Escape, Visions Festival and Latitude Festival, winning great swathes of new fans along the way. New single Shitshow – a humbling account of a party’s aftermath set to fuzzed-up, down-trodden guitars – officially heralds the announcement of her new album. Ailbhe comments on the single: ‘Shitshow came from a lyric I played with for a few months which was “my god, look at the state of me, this is so embarrassing, won’t you take me home?” It’s kind of addressing another person and kind of addressing myself from the perspective of the morning after. I had those lyrics for a while and while working with Tommy McLaughlin on the record he jokingly said we should call the album Shitshow and I vowed to work that word into a lyric so it perfectly fit into this song. It’s about looking back on a night out with regret while also addressing and apologising to an ex-partner about my antics. The first verse is to myself and the second verse is to someone else. It’s kind of a tongue in cheek examination of a bad hangover.’

‘Tell me how did I get here? This endless pitiful affair.’ It’s quite the lyric for Ailbhe to open her new album Endless Affair with, but one that smartly captures the central idea it addresses: the challenges we face in letting go and accepting finality.

With her new album Ailbhe poses these ideas across a spectrum covering the playful and up-beat to the sombre and heart-wrenching, plotting the album’s path in a way that mirrors life’s own evolution from the care-free to the serious. Its opening run of tracks – in particular single Shitshow and Inhaling – crave revelry and reflect on the wilder side of a youth increasingly viewed in the rear-view mirror. The likes of A Mess soar atop a swell of fuzzed-up indie-rock and a chorus of joyous hollers, while the come-down hits on the quietly brutal Last To Leave. Once the final notes of the album’s arresting centrepiece Shoulder Blades ring out, there is a palpable sense that the struggle to let go is shifting away from the backdrop of the party and into that of relationships and mortality.

This is where Endless Affair leaves the party and matures further into a story of more certain endings and letting go of life. When the album reaches its penultimate song, the stunningly vivid Pray For Me – penned after the passing of Ailbhe’s grandmother – the strength of her song writing ability is laid out starkly. She instinctively straddles the line between emotional honesty and vulnerability, while delivering tongue in cheek moments, youthful stupidity, anger, defiance and heartache. Endless Affair exists as many of these things and leaves us with the final thought that we also do: you can be a party animal, a f*** up, a good partner, a bad partner, sensitive, unkind, a good daughter, and a bad one. All of this is rendered impressively in Endless Affair.

Tour support comes from Merpire. Merpire, the moniker of Melbourne-based artist Rhiannon Atkinson-Howatt, writes music living somewhere between the rom-com and horror movie sections of her mind. This is evident not only in her music but her videos too. The teenage bedroom-inspired video for her song Dinosaur was quickly added to ABC’s Rage – a teenage dream for Merpire.

A year after co-founding the online streaming festival ISOL-AID as a reaction to the pandemic in 2020, Merpire released her debut record, Simulation Ride, co-produced with James Seymour, via ADA Records – a record about looking for positivity in anxiety. It landed the feature album spot on Double J and SYN radio, winning hearts around the country. Lead single Brain Cells was featured on BBC Radio 1’s Jack Saunders’ Future Artists, Village on NPR and La Blogothèque as well as features in CLASH magazine, NME, Atwood magazine and more. Double J has continued to play three songs from the record every day since its release.

Buy tickets now. Tickets are also available from Dice.fm, WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

Attend on: Facebook

When: 7.30pm on Tuesday 18 April 2023
Where: Gullivers, 109 Oldham Street, Manchester, M4 1LW

We’re delighted to be working with Shannon Lay for the first time!

Geist feels like a window – or a mirror – into possibilities of the self and beyond. Shannon Lay’s latest album is tender intensity, placeless and ethereal. It exists in the chasms of the present – a world populated by shadow selves, spiritual awakenings, déjà vu and past lives.

‘Something sleeps inside us,’ Lay insists on the opening track, and that’s the guiding philosophy throughout. A winding, golden, delicate thread of intuition that explores the unknown, the possibility. Its title, Geist, the German word for spirit, is rife with an otherworldly presence, the suggestion of another. The promise that you are never alone.

Lay tracked vocals and guitar at Jarvis Tavinere of Woods’ studio, then sent the songs out to multi-instrumentalists Ben Boye (Bonnie Prince Billy, Ty Segall) in Los Angeles and Devin Hoff (Sharon Van Etten, Cibo Matto) in New York; trusting their musical instincts and intuition. She then sent those recordings to Sofia Arreguin (Wand) and Aaron Otheim (Heatwarmer, Mega Bog) for additional keys, while Ty Segall contributed a guitar solo on Shores.

As a whole, Geist is both esoteric and accessible. There’s the concise, pared-back cover of Syd Barrett’s tilt-a-whirl-esque Late Night, while Rare to Wake, inspired by Dune, is existential and meditative, a circular guitar riff looping at the core of it. Awaken and Allow, is ancient-feeling and mainly a cappella, its melody channels her deep Irish roots, a moment of reflection, before a drop happens – its intensity mirroring the anticipation and anxiety that come with taking the first step to accepting change for yourself.

Time’s Arrow, with its refrain of heading downhill, was inspired by something a close friend said. Lay notes: ‘I wanted Time’s Arrow to be this gentle reminder that we’re on our way, and we’re moving forward. There is medicine in every moment so don’t rush.’

A Thread to Find, which Lay wrote after walking into an old hotel in Switzerland and being struck by the feeling like she’d been there before, is a testament to the energy we leave behind and stumble across.

And the title track Geist, a song about the power living in all of us, is a love song to the possibility of healing, an ode to falling into the arms of what you’re becoming. It’s a glimpse into the parts of yourself you have yet to meet. But you can, if you want to.

Local support comes from Alf Whitby. Sad pop singer Alf Whitby brings shape shifting sounds to soothe the soul. Centred around piano and guitar, his songs drift effortlessly, meandering through the mind of a twenty something trying to figure things out. A spattering of singles followed his debut album released in 2020, all drawing on summoned up characters and dreamt up landscapes – definitely folk songs at heart, but keep an ear out for jazzy chords and indie rock jangles.

Buy tickets now. Tickets are also available from Dice.fm, WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

Attend on: Facebook

When: 7.30pm on Thursday 20 April 2023
Where: Gullivers, 109 Oldham Street, Manchester, M4 1LW

We’re delighted to welcome H!M favourite Withered Hand back to Manchester!

Edinburgh-based cult indie songwriter Withered Hand (Dan Willson) is back with his first new album in nine years. How To Love was recorded with (Mogwai producer) Tony Doogan in Glasgow, and features guests King Creosote and Kathryn Williams (both of whom are long-standing collaborators).

Withered Hand broke out of Scotland’s Fence Collective music scene in 2009, releasing his acclaimed debut album Good News the same year. Willson toured Europe and North America before releasing a series of lo-fi EPs and his second album New Gods (Fortuna Pop!/Slumberland Records), which was nominated for the Scottish Album of the Year 2014.

His music has found favour and support from national and international radio, online and leading print publications.

Withered Hand’s third album How To Love is released on 28 April via Reveal Records.

‘The UK’s best lyricist’ – King Creosote

‘Killer melodies …tunes full of warm, woozy sing-song charm’ – Rolling Stone

Local support comes from Daniel Darley. Daniel Darley is a singer-songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist from Manchester. Currently recording his debut album, his songs are exquisite, lyrical chamber pieces, blending elegiac piano and guitar with hauntingly beautiful melodies and floating symphonic textures reminiscent of early Neil Young, Scott Walker, Radiohead and The Plastic Ono Band.

His debut single Faking was released on AWAL in October 2022. It was described as ‘sublimely melodic, this is a beautiful and captivating debut’ by IndieBuddie blog. The single received worldwide radio play. Shortly after its release he headlined Full Moon Rising Festival in Ireland. Writing about Darley, Fansforbands blog said: ‘Immensely talented, Darley’s lyrical voice has immense potential and I’m certain this is merely the beginning of something that will stand alongside his city’s iconic predecessors.’ His next single To Feel Love Closer will be released in April 2023 on AWAL and has been described as ‘really beautiful’ by Craig Potter of Elbow.

Buy tickets now. Tickets are also available from Dice.fm, WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

Attend on: Facebook

When: 7.30pm on Saturday 22 April 2023
Where: Hallé at St Michael’s, 36-38 George Leigh Street, Ancoats, Manchester M4 5DG

We’re delighted to be working with Neil Cowley for the first time.

Since disbanding his eponymous trio and becoming a solo artist in 2018, pianist Neil Cowley has introduced elements of ambient, electronic and neoclassical music into his sound, having established himself as an esteemed pianist, composer and producer. In 2021 came Hall of Mirrors, Cowley’s magnum opus, his first solo album and the truest realisation yet of his unending love affair with the piano. Recorded in Berlin, the album featured piano arrangements filtered through a prism of production tricks, with support from Clash, Mojo and Uncut plus radio support from BBC 6 Music, Radio 1, Radio 2 and Radio 3. Returning to the stage, Neil celebrated the Hall of Mirrors release with a sold-out show at London’s Islington Assembly Hall in May 2021 and ended the year with a two-night residency at London’s Southbank Centre.

With a unique visual backdrop of vintage TV sets, Cowley inhabits his personal musical playspace on stage surrounded by keyboards and electronics, in a captivating display of artistry and showmanship.

Battery Life is released on 24 March 2023 and the Spring sees Neil tour extensively in the UK with shows in Belgium, Germany, Ireland and The Netherlands.

‘Battery Life is an album of abstract memories and stolen excerpts,’ Cowley says. ‘It is my perception of the past before the detail is filled in. Blurred pictures, strange details, a feeling, a smell and above all the freedom to redefine the past at my whim. In an age where we are able to archive virtually any amount of life experience at the press of a button, it calls into question the value of a memory, both undetailed and detailed.’

‘Like slow-motion hymns, working within deliberately constricted melodic phrases but always wringing out a quiet grandeur and a beautiful sadness’ – The Guardian

‘A voyage into a wider world of atmospherics. Exquisite’ – Metro

This will be one of the first public concerts in St Michael’s since its recent re-opening, having been closed since 2004. The Roman Catholic church was founded in 1859 and became the heart of the Little Italy Community in Ancoats.

Age restriction: 14+. Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

Buy tickets now. Tickets are also available from Dice.fm, WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

Attend on: Facebook