COMPETITION: Sugarhill Gang & Grandmaster Flash

Summer might be a time to take stock or head out to a nearby field to watch your favourite musicians in oversized gazebos, but the folks at Trof haven't rested on their laurels just because the sun's out. Instead they've set about bringing two icons of hip hop to their Gorilla venue for a pair of shows taking place over the next month: Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash.

First up there's Sugarhill Gang's show on Thursday 17 July. Best known for 'Rapper's Delight', a chart hit that sampled the break from Chic's 'Good Times' and capitalised on the growing hip hop movement, the New Jersey trio returned in the late '90s with Jump On It, a rap album for children.

Manchester's Fingathing bring their leftfield live hip hop to support.

Then on Saturday 2 August the clocks are set to clubnight as Grandmaster Flash takes centre stage on the ones and twos. Along with The Furious Five MCs, he is a man whose CV is decorated with the accolade of being in the first hip hop group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, having cut popular tracks such as 'The Message'.

The Juicy DJs are on hand to fill your ears with their record collection at that one.

We’ve teamed up with Trof and Gorilla to give away a pair of tickets to each show. All you need to do to enter is like and share the image at the other end of this link (making sure it’s set to ‘public’ so we can see that you’ve entered). Finally, please comment on the original image with which one of the two events you’d like to attend.

We'll announce the winner of the Sugarhill Gang competition on Tuesday 15 July, then the Grandmaster Flash competition winner on Thursday 31 July.

Good luck!

Words: Ian Pennington
Images: courtesy of Trof

For more information and tickets, click here for Sugarhill Gang and here for Grandmaster Flash.

Preview: Dot to Dot Festival 2014, Friday 23 May

Dot to Dot Festival rolls in to town once more this weekend to kick off the festival season early, with more titillating new music in tow than anything the majors could possibly offer and all in the comfort of some of Manchester’s finest venues.

Spoiling numerous audiences for choice as it makes its way through Manchester, Bristol and Nottingham (Friday, Saturday and Sunday respectively) the only real question for attendees is who can’t you afford to miss? Thankfully the festival has put together an extremely comprehensive stage guide so you can perfect your sprint from Gorilla to Zoo just in time to catch Macaulay Culkin and co’s homage to Neapolitan flatbreads and early John Cale records.



Other highlights across this gargantuan day of sound include kings of nostalgic indie-rock Real Estate, the icy, Scandinavian alt-folk of Noah Gundersen and the warm, spacious pop of New Yorkers Caveman. Running water, zero mud baths, plentiful cash machines and reasonably priced drinks as standard.

Words: Dan Coultas

Tickets are still available, priced at £20 (+ booking fee). The downloadable timetable is here. For more info visit their website here.