Arts, Music & Events Preview, February 2011 (Part One)

I dislike introducing these with a comment about the weather, but often the temperature does correlate with event attendances. The clear blue skies are hopefully indicative of more plentiful audiences to come; here’s where you should be:

Tonight (Tuesday 1st) there is another instalment of the Manchester Salon discussion group at Tempus Bar on Oxford Road. Entitled First Tuesday, the premise is to discuss and debate current affairs on the first Tuesday of the month; this month focussing on Egyptian politics, Wikileaks and the various permutations of conspiracy and general arcane stupidity of the backward-thinking pundits at Sky Sports. You will likely have opinions on all three, so this is a chance to talk the ear off some fellow opinionators.

Cool Runnings once more brings its feel-good reggae vibes to a corner of Fallowfield on Wednesday 2nd. The corner in question being The Corner. Y'know, the one with the mannequins outside.

An Outlet’s Some Drum I Would Never Hear monthly showcase dips once again into the musical mixed bag on Thursday 3rd; picked out this time are Run Toto Run and two-fifths of Slow Motion Shoes to cement an overriding electro-pop vibe, while performance poet Martin Visceral is also welcomed alongside resident PJ Harvey clone Eleanor Lou. Across the Northern Quarter there’s a penultimate show for Kin before relocation forces a band dismembering. That’s at Gulliver’s. Neither will take any of your recession pennies when you step over their thresholds to entertainment.

Local filming fanatics MCR Scenewipe are staging a talented triangle of local ladies on Friday 4th; Liz Green, Josephine and Naomi Kashiwagi are at the vertices and you can catch all 180° for free at Fuel in Withington.

The weekend of 5th and 6th sees a rearranged art exhibition courtesy of Lead Pencil and Kraak Gallery. It’s called Pluto and Uranus are Missing. There’s an intergalactic theme; check it out. Gigs-wise on Saturday 5th, Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six stride the Dancehouse stage again – this time with John Otway in a performance planned to be recorded for longevity and released through Debt Records soon afterwards on Monday 7th. To sweeten the deal, your entry fee also secures your sobriquet in the record, Get Religion’s, sleeve notes.

For those looking to bounce to the beats of minimal tech and house, Content have booked in Agnes at Joshua Brooks until the early hours. But don’t forget that Sunday 6th is the last chance to submit some scribbles for Art Corner’s latest display, Theories of The Grotesque.

Closing in on the halfway point, there are a few clubnights that’ll agreeably bang aural hammer to anvil; Dots and Loops for a Tiger Lounge mash of lo-fi indie kraut-tronica on Thursday 10th; Hot Milk’s dancehall dub at The Roadhouse on Friday 11th; more from This City Is Ours’ regular electronic soiree at An Outlet on Saturday 12th. Follow all that up with the second of Hoya:Hoya’s Secret Series at The Roadhouse.

Catch your breath for a second then seek out a V-Day record release from Red Deer Club towers. Stealing Sheep’s The Mountain Dogs follows the RDC penchant for girl-group folk-pop (Sophie’s Pigeons, Sarah Lowes) with an EP littered with melody and expansive harmonies. The overall tone flitters from chirpy to twisted, sombre to sunny, but you’ll settle on the title track; it’s a real treat.

Words: Ian Pennington

Arts & Music preview, October 2010 (Part One)

Now Then’s early October forecast


Yup, means pretty much everything is going on again now the students are back. SO now we’re safely in our twenties we’ve only got the energy to go until the middle of the month. And no I don’t want to swag more energy off one of those guido Monster N-R-Gay drinks monster trucks shitting out Pendulum all during freshers’ week.

Thursday 30th Sept – holy crewcut, three mega exhibition previews all in one night, let’s get on our hipstermobiles down to Spear Street for the Papergirl no.4 Manchester launch. Papergirl started off in Berlin distributing beautiful rolled-up prints/art from their two-wheels to unsuspecting Germans on the sidewalk, and now it’s here. Check the art out at Soup Kitchen before it gets chucked about. Here’s a nice video. Then Chris Drury splats Common’s walls with another layer of sickness called All My Friends Are Undead – must be Hallowe’en soon? And head down to Easa before it gets literally demolished for 36exp, which does what it says on the roll, showcasing 36 experimental photographers including Eleanor Marechal each given a solitary roll of film to play with. Later kick down to NoiseLab where the Hear No Evil, See No Evil magazine and CD launch party from Mind On Fire and Onefiveeight includes Paper Tigers and the MOF band. Also Trof Corner is hosting the opening of The Toy Shop on Friday 1st which is generally all very nice and lo-fi.


Hold up, what’s this, a Now Then event at the magnificent Un-Convention Salford 2010? That’s right, the great antithesis to In The Chitty is letting us host a whole load of should-see music at the Rovers Return, from Veí’s opening, via Paul Green and Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six, to King Capisce ending it all on Saturday 2nd. There’s even performance poetry as well courtesy of Joe Kriss and caro snatch.


Tabloid headline of the week: Twisted queer horror shocker on Sunday 3rd at the Cornerhouse, a special Peaches Christ retrospective.

WotGodForgot have two giant nights at the Ruby Lounge in a row. Wednesday 6th is Scotch Egg’s mental Atari shitstorm Drum Eyes, and, I don’t ever remember Mice Parade being this cheesy (forget it – I don’t even like puns), but it’s definitely still worth going down on Thursday 7th to check out the lush fidgety Adam Pierce play his just-out-now LP What It Means To Be Left-Handed.

Talking of left-handed, there’s no better time than just after the Labour Party Conference here, that saw Ed Miliband try to reclaim the filthy proletariat back to the left, than to go on a Marx and Engels tour of Manchester to see just why those bourgeois bulldozers loved this sodden city so much. The tour starts at The Cornerhouse on Saturday 2nd at 11am and Tuesday 5th at 3pm, of which the latter has the added bonus of a visit to Cheetham’s Library where the two studied. There could be a rather lovely juxtaposition to listening to a load of Chorltonites piling Marx up their arses and regurgitating out of their mouths at the Manchester Anarchist Bookfair at the Dancehouse on Saturday 2nd.

For a fix of alt-indie-post-folk-whatever theatrics, marvel at Pineapple Folk’s capture of Of Montreal on Tuesday 5th.

Friday 8th is Hot Milk’s 5th Birthday Splash at The Roadhouse with Deadly Dragon Sound System.

As I type my mac’s having a haemorrhoid at the thought that Binary New Year is coming on 10/10/10. Not sure how it works for a Binary Party at Arcadia on Saturday 9th spinning 4/4 beats on the ones and twos but does end up being a new year twice in nine minutes. PS it’s not mathrock.


It’s been coming for ages, but if you’re a Doom fan you are probably a stoner graphic novel and AdultSwim fan with a Yankees cap so you need a million reminders like this to buy your billet to see the legend you’ve been waiting to see since you were 16 and a stoner comic book and MTV fan with a Yankees cap. I know it’s hard to spend £20+ on a fraudster when you could get 3.5 instead, but hey, word has it WHP have written into his contract that he’s got to show ID just before he gets on stage. Yes it’s actually Metal Face in his first ever UK gig outside London. Doomsday is Wednesday 13th with ridiculous support from Hudson Mohawke, Illum Sphere and Dels.

If you ever wanted an incisive, balanced, gripping and entertaining – even just good will do – debate about the American healthcare system, don’t watch Sicko. What you will need to do is get your sorry ass down to listen to the genuinely great author, academic, journalist and activist that is Lionel Shriver. Town Hall; Thursday 14th.

One69a and RAG are running screenprinting and appliqué workshops from Friday 15th at Islington Mill to design, print and create your own tees. This is your chance to run buckwild with ironic statements or actually do something amazing if you’re talented. Souper.

All this and we’re only halfway through the month. When you’re ready for more, October Part Two will be duly directed into your bandwidth.

Festivals:
Abandon Normal Devices
Manchester Literature Festival
Free For Arts Festival

Words: Sam Bass