Arts, Music & Events Preview, May 2011 (Part Two)

We’re now deep into festival season with Sounds From The Other City and FutureEverything (look out for our Steve Reich review in the next few days) already having passed us by. But the festivities, along with the weather, are just warming up; here’s what to look out for in the closing days of May.

Tonight (Thursday 19th) at 6pm is the launch of Chorlton Arts Festival (CAF) in Chorlton precinct, as artwork created in line with the {this way: UP} theme will be unveiled by special guest, Chorlton resident and CAF Patron, Damon Gough (aka Badly Drawn Boy). BREAD Art Collective have positioned the artistic contributions in unannounced locations through the town; above eye level to provoke shoegazers into a varied view. Amongst the art portrayed will be a preview of a project co-curated by Doodlebug and Alexandra Arts, which takes a lead from JR’s Inside Out socially cohesive guerrilla art by asking local schoolchildren to take and pose for portrait photographs while considering what the area's parks mean to them.

Friday 20th is the first day of action at Friends of Mine’s three-dayer in a Cheshire field (FOM Fest 2011), which boasts Walls, From The Kites of San Quentin, The Fall, Toro Y Moi, Jim Noir, Working For A Nuclear Free City, The Longcut, plus plenty more besides.

All the while Chorlton Arts Festival will be ongoing until the end of the month; best to check their listings to pick out a selection of the live music, spoken word, literature, DJs, comedy sketches, visual arts, drama and participatory improv.

Retro soul maestro Bill Withers is the subject of a night in homage to his recording career at Soup Kitchen on Sunday 22nd, featuring recent documentary Still Bill, live performances (not by the man himself, albeit) and DJs. More music follows on Monday 23rd in the form of Three Trapped Tigers at Night’n’Day Café; the avant garde noise merchants have been booked in to top a bill ahead of Tall Ships by the ever-progressive and ambitious promoters WotGodForgot. That is unless you’d prefer the alt-folk dabbling of Hey! Manchester of a Monday evening; in which case they’re offering Juliana Barwick’s solo choir dreamscapes at Kraak Gallery, with past Now Then Manchester interviewee Najia Bagi providing support.

One for environmental activists next: Kindling Trust has organised a get-together for otherwise disparate groups all striving for similar goals. The Bull’s Head pub on Thursday 26th.

And soon enough there’s another Bank Holiday weekend. Wet Play and Hoya:Hoya are vying for attention on Saturday 28th; they have Deep Space Orchestra at Kraak and Brainfeeder’s mind-melting Lorn at Roadhouse respectively.

The standout for Sunday 29th / Monday 30th is Eurocultured, nucleated along the New Wakefield Street bars and inclusive of another veritable multinational line-up. The headline-grabbers are Scando-techno sextet Slagsmalsklubben, Israel’s Balkan Beat Box and the effervescent performer David Thomas Broughton, but fail to explore at your peril; Mind On Fire, Doodlebug and Hoya:Hoya are amongst those flexing curative muscle, with Naomi Kashiwagi, Aardvarck and Vieka all confirmed. Not to mention the must-see live street art.

Monday 30th is also the day to catch another festival: Dot to Dot.

Words: Ian Pennington

Arts, Music & Events Preview November 2010 (Part Two)

It doesn’t seem long since the last one, but the time is right for another of our bi-monthly preview write-ups. There’s not a lot of preamble I can think of to introduce the second half of November, so we may as well dive straight in.


Continuing that vaguely aquatic theme are Red Tides, whose folky ballads are due an appearance at the Night’N’Day Café, Tuesday 16th. On the same evening there’s a Manchester Friends of the Earth initiative hosted by Nexus Art Café under the exclamatory moniker of Swap It! Stitch It! Style It! Bring at least three items of clothing to throw into the mix and leave with something brand new and unique. What’s more, you’ll feel far cleaner than you would do if you’d spent the time rushing around Primark before filling their filthy coffers.

Wednesday 17th sees a couple of gigs worth tossing a coin between. Heads says The Phantom Band @ Deaf Institute (Now Wave); tails and you go to Holy Fuck (with Buck 65) @ Academy 3 (High Voltage). Both have released sterling sophomore LPs this year.

Keep that coin handy because you’ll need it again the following night. Different kettles of fish this time, so that might ease the Thursday 18th decision. Firstly there’s local songsmith Jim Noir at Ruby Lounge, who gained infamy a couple of years ago for a pair of TV advert spots with his debut album jangles ‘My Patch’ and ‘Eanie Meany’. If that’s not for you there’s a photographic display launch night at The Art Corner. Delphine Ettinger, aka Ashes57, is showcasing her snaps of dubstep’s rise to prominence while Jehst (DJ) and the Format residents will provide some musical accompaniment. The exhibition remains viewable until mid-December.


Hip US record label Anticon have sent their signee Baths out on tour. The Manchester leg is at Deaf Institute on Friday 19th, courtesy of High Voltage. Fans of Bibio, Animal Collective and the like should make the effort. Or you could keep it local that night by visiting Fuel in Withington for a Red Deer Club conducted event, which includes Sophie’s Pigeons, Christopher Eatough and Stone Butch And The Bear.

Forget your coin for the next decision – you’ll need something closer to dice. Unless, of course, you’re better at making decisions than I am when spoilt for choice, which is quite likely. Anyway, for those who fancy leaving it to chance, roll a one and you could try getting a ticket to my pick of the Warehouse Project this season, the Kieran Hebden-invited bunch (Four Tet, Caribou, Theo Parrish, Mount Kimbie, Actress, Nathan Fake, James Holden – what a line-up that is!) Roll a two: stay at home and watch some shite ‘reality’ telly. No? Best avoiding that outcome then. Roll a three for a Friends of the Earth fundraiser at the Ram & Shackle in Fallowfield. Mount Fabric top the list of music.

Roll a four and find yourself at the 5th Carefully Planned all-dayer. They usually know their folk music so if the Castle Hotel’s walls have ears then it’ll be quite content with the nine acts from 4pm onwards. Roll a five (this is a little too Big Break now, isn’t it?) and a trip to catch the last day of Islington Mill’s current art exhibition, The Doers, The Drifters and The Dreamers. While you’re there you can sample the Contemporary Ceramic Art due to be adorning the Mill’s fresh first floor furnishings, which will have been open from Tuesday 16th. Finally, a sixth side to the die could be Golden Lab’s offerings at Fuel, which features Vibracathedral Orchestra pair Mick Flower and Neil Campbell, who’ve worked with seemingly poly-limbed percussionist Chris Corsano and Tom Greenwood of Jackie-O Motherfucker. A freak-out is on the cards at that one. All that in one day. Phew.

That’s a tough day to follow for choice, so I’ll narrow it down for Sunday 21st: Wotgodforgot have Sun Araw, Zun Zun Egui and Gnod all doing their various warped rock things under the same roof. Islington Mill’s roof to be precise.


Experimental electronic types Hoya:Hoya have kicked off as a record label. You may have already picked up their first compilation on vinyl, but if not then Monday 22nd is the day it’ll go digital.

When passing through Stretford the other day it was hard not to spot the Christmas lights proudly illuminating the night sky and my immediate thought was that they must just be getting their money’s worth. But, to be fair, that festive consumption period is looming ever closer and the folks at Islington Mill have spotted the proximity as well. Their annual crafts fair takes place on Thursday 25th.


Also on Thursday 25th in a Christmassy arts theme, Mooch N4 launches its next Street Art exhibition, Lump of Coal and a Satsuma. Otherwise, there’s music on the same night from northern noiseniks 65daysofstatic at the Academy. Support comes in the form of From The Kites Of San Quentin.

On the final long weekend of the month and Content have a tech-funk disco in store for Friday 26th at The Attic. Recloose’s name is the one commanding the entry fee with a promised melange of chilled grooves and minimal beats. Fast forward another 24 hours and you should look to Now Wave’s double portion of Ratatat. Saturday 27th at Deaf Institute sees a live set followed by the DJ guise under the ‘exactly what it says on the tin’ heading of An Evening With Ratatat.

Still want more for your month? How about harmony addled indie poppers Best Coast at Ruby Lounge on Monday 29th? Sorted.

On a related note, if you’d like to review local events like those previewed, or even just have something to say that you feel is worth publishing on subjects from politics to the arts via local issues, initiatives and good causes, then don’t hesitate to drop an email to ian [at] nowthenmagazine [dot] com.

Words: Ian Pennington

Arts, Music & Events Preview, November 2010 (Part One)

Welcome to November; home of charitable moustache movements, money up in smoke and the onset of that one-hour shift in your daylight allocation. We’re now into ‘the darker half’ of the year, if you follow your Celtic tradition, and so malevolent spirits have moved on by; fooled by your Scream or Jigsaw masks.

Which conveniently (ish) leads me onto the beginnings of this month and the benevolence that remains. Today (Monday 1st), if you read this in time, there’s a forum in Hulme to discuss climate change solutions. Starting at 5pm, the Community Engagement and Climate Change forum is staged by Manchester Friends of the Earth and will feature proactive discussion and global case studies within the confines of St Wilfrid’s Enterprise Centre. Another from Manchester FoE the following day is Moving Manchester at Friends Meeting House, 7pm. Amongst others you’ll potentially hear from local public transport monopolists, Stagecoach, and the City Council about transport policy in the area.


If you’re after some intriguing music this evening and still have demons to exorcise then head to Islington Mill for a post-All Hallows Eve Zombie Zombie performance of John Carpenter’s enviable compositions.

Onto a theatrical slant, Contact Theatre has a new production under the moniker A Night on the Tiles. One for the board-game wordsmiths, it hinges on a high-stakes game of Scrabble and runs from Tuesday 2nd until the middle of the month. Also on the Tuesday, Ruby Lounge hosts James Yuill for an evening on poppy electronica.

For those who’re still living off Frank Zappa’s world-wise pearls of wisdom (eg “don’t eat the yellow snow”) and jazz-infused psyche weirdness, a sometime incarnation of his former backing band, The Grande Mothers Re Invented, promise a rehash of Zappa’s extensive back catalogue mixed in with blues numbers and their own ditties. Wednesday 3rd at Deaf Institute.

Thursday 4th sees a folky highlight at Silver Apples in West Didsbury. Folk Lore has lined up The Winter Journey and The Acoustic Conquistador for this month. Both are worth your time and free entry is always a bargain.

Steer clear of pyromania and the homage to Guy Fawkes by instead catching Casiotone for the Painfully Alone’s farewell tour. The lo-fi twee maestro is another stopping at Deaf Institute, with Hey! Manchester providing directions this time on Friday 5th.

Dieter Moebius is an incredible coup for Mie Music. They’ve booked the cosmic synth operator and Cluster co-founder in for Sunday 7th at the ever-creative Islington Mill. Synonymous with Krautrock’s golden era in the 70s, Moebius also has past collaborations with Brian Eno and Neu!’s Michael Rother on his CV.

Visit the Anthony Burgess Foundation HQ on Thursday 11th and you’ll be treated to sets by local songwriters Gideon Conn & Josephine Oniyama in a special seated show.


There’s another birthday for a long-running Manchester clubnight this month. This time it’s Micron who’re celebrating and in doing so they’re planning to share a present of Danny Howells for a six-hour stint on the decks, stretching through the early hours from Friday 12th.

Blank Media Collective have set aside that whole weekend, from Friday 12th until Sunday 14th for their wide-reaching takeover of artistic attentions. Alongside some of their ongoing exhibitions, BlankWeekend promises poetry, arts workshops, music (courtesy of Day For Airstrikes, Go Lebanon and others) and general mischief. Best to visit the links for a detailed breakdown of events.

That’ll do for now, but there’s plenty to look forward to beyond the mid-month mark.

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

Silver Apples @ Deaf Institute, Wednesday 28th July

It’s a shame that this Now Wave / WOTGODFORGOT show falls during the sleepy summer gig months. The crowd is healthy enough and Silver Apples co-founder Simeon Coxe (often known simply as Simeon) is clearly appreciative of all the plaudits he receives, but, as innovators so ahead of their time in the late '60s, Silver Apples perhaps deserve greater recognition than from the fanatical few.

The journey begins, though, with a musician more than capable of filling Simeon’s sonic shoes, Denis Jones. Although the gathered few are sparse for his set, Denis enraptures attentions towards a blend of cacophonous crescendos through forthcoming album Red+Yellow=’s ‘Rage’, ‘Clap Hands’ and ‘Sometimes’, while the old favourite, debut album closer ‘Beginning’ is greeted by a knowing hush of anticipation; immaculately uplifting.


The short film, Play Twice Before Listening, sets the scene. Silver Apples originally recorded music in the late 1960s and disappeared for years due to the demise of the record label, KAPP, that had released their first two records. KAPP's sale and eventual absorption into MCA Records was shepherded along following an attempt to defend itself in a legal wrangling against major airline Pan Am, who took offence to the Apples’ second album cover and its depiction of a flight crash scene.

If that image was to prove prescient, it also symbolised the relevance of Silver Apples in an era defined by social change, political protest, technological advancement and, most importantly, the purported moon landing. Looking back, Simeon’s adaptation of vintage 1940s oscillating electricity machines into a primitive dance music arsenal renders a fitting soundtrack to such a phenomenon.

This is not a pension tour, though. The rekindling of the flame in the mid-1990s must have felt more like unfinished business. Although short-lived in one respect, with original drummer Danny Taylor passing away soon after in 1998, his death also led to the rediscovery of undamaged recordings for the third album, entitled The Garden, which was proposed for 1970 but waited nearly 30 years for release.

So, when Simeon, alone, takes the stage at Deaf Institute it feels like the continuation of something that has not yet reached completion. Kicking into a canned boom-chk undercurrent to cosmic wobbles, the fedora-clad innovator is noticeably grateful for his second chance.

Not bogged down by reliance upon too many hits in the back catalogue, Simeon is free to experiment; swooshing, floating, warping through many a musical galaxy; orbiting the SONAR-esque ‘I Don’t Know’ and the almost poppy ‘I Don’t Care What The People Say’.

Following the spiralling sonic lure of ‘Oscillations’, Simeon doffs his hat to salute raucous applause; ahead of its time in the '60s and still unique enough to merit recognition.

Words & Pictures: Ian Pennington