Now Then Magazine expansion: Gorton event

We're excited to be working with the Arts Council England to stage a trio of events this summer. The events are connected to a wider project to expand Now Then magazine across the city.

As part of this we'll be distributing more copies of each issue in more locations and it will be our first opportunity in a while to get out and stage some events featuring local art, poetry, music and discussion.

At St Philip's Church hall, where we will be staging the Gorton event this Saturday 24 May, we have constructed a day mixing art and music, including a talk by Ruth Daniel, who founded the Un-Convention events and will be speaking about the impact of digital and social media on the music industry, how this has transformed the music industry landscape and opened up opportunity for musicians to form networks, work together and become empowered. There will be chance to ask Ruth questions around these topics of cultural entrepreneurship following her talk.

Early in the afternoon, the local art activism group Upper Space will be leading a screen printing workshop. In the past they have been involved with campaigns to promote social justice and intervene with the status quo by presenting opportunities to question and discuss society. Leaving their more political cultural work to one side for this event, on Saturday they will be teaching you to design a t-shirt that you can then take home with you.

Finally, North West folk-pop trio Ivan Campo will perform their harmonious songs until we finish the day at 7pm. They have performed at Now Then events before at both Antwerp Mansion in Rusholme and Dulcimer in Chorlton, as well as supported the likes of Stealing Sheep, Alt-J and Roddy Woomble. Across their recorded output, they specialise in seven-track EPs, and have recently signed with Manchester label Debt Records, whose affiliated sound engineers WR Audio will be providing the soundsystem.

The whole event will be free for everyone to attend and there will be DJs invited by Now Then all day to fill in the gaps.

Later in the year we'll be visiting Moston and Stockport and will divulge more information on those nearer the time.

Ivan Campo photo by Ged Camera

The venue address is St Philip's Church, Brockhurst Road, Gorton, M18 7ER. For more information, visit the Facebook event page.

Un-Convention @ Manchester School of Art, 12.10.13

Free CDs. Free live music. Free discussions. What’s not to like about ‘free’? Once again the Un-Convention event has returned to Manchester and in their typical fashion of trying to keep things fresh it took place at the recently constructed, airy and naturally lit Manchester School of Art.

The events were free entry (via pre-booking) and attracted healthily sized crowds to hear three discussions, which were focused around Manchester and the North West. One reflected on the role Ringway (aka Manchester) Airport played in helping to set Manchester up as the next preferred social city outside of London, while another covered the essential social networking required to survive and flourish, exemplified by the Murkage Cartel.

With well-respected figures from the Manchester music environment such as the promoter Jay Taylor, Dave ‘Murkage’ who set up the Murkage club night events, City Life editor Luke Bainbridge, Mike Burgess (HeavyFeet) and band member Rick Boardman (Delphic), there was enough diversity and knowledge present to keep the audience entertained.

The pool of experience was broadened even further with the introduction of Dr Aravind Vijayaraghavan who was involved with the development of graphene.

Never an event to talk down to its audience, crowd members included people involved with the burgeoning Antwerp Mansion community and young musicians seeking some crumbs of advice as they take their first tentative steps into a new career.

The music comprised a CD created and recorded on the day from artists including Walk, JP Cooper, Kirsty Almeida and Jo Dudderidge, who each contributed one or two tracks. When Dudderidge finished at about 5pm, the organisers’ promise was that the CD would be available with six songs by 6pm. And it was. Speed didn’t breed blandness though as each CD cover was individually crafted on the day – some by students at the School of Art, others by attendees.

It’s perhaps a pity that time pressures prevent any inclusion of music from the closing band, Hope and Social, who played a storming set. With a bit more time than the previous acts, they start with a stylish swagger and fulsome sound, quickly converting the discussion hall into a dancing venue with people getting up and jiving in the alcoves.

Simon Wainwright is an engaging frontman, chatting easily with the crowd between numbers as the musicians rotate instruments and positions. He makes inevitable comparisons between their native Leeds followers and those present: “If this was in Leeds, you’d have smuggled some beer in”.

It’s an onslaught of bright passionate music that may have been free for the audience, but is definitely valuable.

Words & photos: Ged Camera.

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