FREE
BANK HOLIDAY
saturday may 24th 2014 manchester academy
performing their Classic debut album script of the bridge... in full
10 hours of music...
A big big love
BOOK NOW 0161 832 1111 www.gigantic.uk.com All day Beer & Cider Festival produced In association with Robinsons
Hallé concerts at The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester Saturday 25 January, 7.30pm
Saturday 3 May, 7.30pm
Mediterranean Classics
Spies and Spooks
The Italian Girl in Algiers: Overture Rossini Pavane pour une infante défunte Ravel Nights in the Gardens of Spain Falla L’Arlésienne Suite: selection Bizet The Fountains of Rome Respighi Rhapsody: España Chabrier
Where Eagles Dare Goodwin Casablanca Suite Steiner Scandal Davis Raiders of the Lost Ark Williams Reilly, Ace of Spies Shostakovich Charade Mancini The Third Man Karas The Ipcress Files Barry The Avengers Suite Dankworth/Johnson James Bond Theme Norman Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Burgon The Lady Vanishes Levy North by Northwest Herrman Notorious Webb Catch Me If You Can: Escapades Williams The Quiller Memorandum Barry Munich: A Prayer for Peace Williams Mission Impossible Schiffron
Stephen Bell conductor | Viv McLean piano Determined to inject a bit of spring sunshine into January, this selection of music from around Europe will instantly transport you to a sun-kissed piazza in Rome or a Spanish garden on a balmy evening. Certainly something to warm you up this winter.
Friday 14 February, 7.30pm
Valentine’s Day Concert Wedding March Mendelssohn Love Is A Many-Splendoured Thing Fain and Webster Salut d’amour Elgar My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose Burns The Gadfly: Romance Shostakovich Musetta’s Waltz Song Puccini Romeo And Juliet: selection Prokofiev Guys And Dolls: selection Loesser Someone To Watch Over Me Gershwin Love Story Lai West Side Story: Tonight Bernstein My Fair Lady: On The Street Where You Live Loewe The King And I: I Have Dreamed Rodgers and Hammerstein Girl Crazy Overture Gershwin
Carl Davis conductor Standing in the shadows, exchanging suitcases, cracking code, all just another day in the office for a top secret agent – but not without its complications. These undercover tasks are full of suspense and what better way to build that tension than through an ice cool soundtrack? For one night only you can be Harry Lime, George Smiley or James Bond. Just remember to look cool.
Stephen Bell conductor Natasha Marsh soprano | James Edwards tenor ‘If music be the food of love, play on.’ And play on we shall for this evening is packed with devotion, declarations, and undying love. Romantic scores from films, operas and musicals from across the world all come together for this special evening.
Box Office 0844 907 9000 • www.halle.co.uk
Saturday 21 December
Monday 10 February
Sunday 23 March
Wednesday 15 January
Wednesday 12 February
Tuesday 25 March
Sunday 19 January
Thursday 13 February
Tuesday 25 March
FUN LOVIN’ CRIMINALS MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL DEER TICK THE DEAF INSTITUTE
SHY NATURE THE CASTLE
LILY & MADELEINE THE CASTLE
SATELLITE STORIES SOUP KITCHEN
STU LARSEN SOUND CONTROL DENAI MOORE THE CASTLE
Thursday 23 January
Saturday 15 February
Thursday 03 April
Friday 24 January
Monday 17 February
Tuesday 8 April
Thursday 20 February
Saturday 12 April
Friday 21 February
Thursday 17 April
Tuesday 25 February
Friday 02 May
GOD DAMN GULLIVERS
JAMES VINCENT MCMORROW MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL Friday 24 Jaunuary
LINDA ORTEGA THE DEAF INSTITUTE
Monday 25 January
THE HEARTBREAKS THE DEAF INSTITUTE Sunday 26 Jaunuary
NATHANIEL RATELIFF SOUP KITCHEN Monday 27 January
FILTHY BOY* THE CASTLE
Wednesday 29 January
LONDON GRAMMAR MANCHESTER ACADEMY | SOLD OUT Thursday 06 February
KEVIN DEVINE SOUP KITCHEN
Friday 07 February
PUP + SLAVES SOUP KITCHEN
Saturday 08 February
POLIÇA THE RITZ
Saturday 08 February
THE BOXER REBELLION SOUND CONTROL
HATCHAM SOCIAL SOUP KITCHEN THUMPERS SOUP KITCHEN
DAMIEN DEMPSEY GORILLA
ST VINCENT MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL PAPER AEROPLANES THE DEAF INSTITUTE Wednesday 26 February
JOHN MURRY THE DEAF INSTITUTE
Friday 28 February
Contents
P.12 Warpaint
CROWBAR SOUND CONTROL
CHRYSTA BELL SACRED TRINITY CHURCH UB40 MANCHESTER ACADEMY JAMES BLUNT O2 APOLLO MANCHESTER THE TWILIGHT SAD THE DEAF INSTITUTE
WILDFLOWERS THE CASTLE
Sunday 09 March
MØ THE DEAF INSTITUTE
January 2014
Thursday 15 May
THE FALL MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL I N D E P E N D E N T
J O U R N A L I S M
PETER HOOK & THE LIGHT THE RITZ
Get in touch: E: hiya@theskinny.co.uk T: 0161 831 9590 P: The Skinny, Second Floor, Swan Buildings, 20 Swan Street, Manchester, M4 5JW
Saturday 29 November
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P.36 Joseph Hulme: Cause of Misery (Fragment of Circle Drawing #8)
P.25 Food & Drink Survey 2014
BELINDA CARLISLE MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL
Wednesday 05 March
P.16 The Railway Man
VIGO THIEVES SOUP KITCHEN
Friday 16 May
alt-tic 4
SAINT RAYMOND THE RUBY LOUNGE
Photo: Daniel Harris
THE CHAMELEONSVOX THE RITZ
13 4 8
Editorial Northwest Editor Film & Deputy Editor Events Editor Music Editor Books Editor Clubs Editor Comedy Editor Deviance Editor Fashion Editor Food Editor Travel Editor Staff Writer
Lauren Strain Jamie Dunn Laura Howarth Dave Kerr Ryan Rushton Daniel Jones John Stansfield Ana Hine Alexandra Fiddes Jamie Faulkner Paul Mitchell Bram E. Gieben
Production Production Manager Designer Sub Editor
Amy Minto Thom Isom Kristian Doyle
Sales/Accounts Northwest Sales & Marketing Manager Sales Executive
Caroline Harleaux Issy Patience
Lead Designer
Maeve Redmond
Company PA
Kyla Hall
Editor-in-Chief Sales Director Publisher
Rosamund West Lara Moloney Sophie Kyle
THE SKINNY
The Skinny Ad Quarter Page November 2013_Layout 1 26/11/2013 16:38 Page 1
Contents
Up Front 06
Our Food ed Hero Worships a really good chef like. Plus: Shot of the Month, Skinny on Tour, Stop the Presses, BALLS, Online Only, and a comic.
08 Heads Up: STUFF GWAN ON. Features 10
12
15
16
18
19
30
It’s been the year of beer: here are your favourite pubs, brewers and food and drink shops. Then where do you go when you’ve had too much of this libation? Your favourite places when hungover, that’s where.
32
Breakdown – the top dogs in each category.
Bedroom-electronica extraordinaire William Doyle (aka East India Youth) talks us through his startlingly confident and ambitious debut Total Strife Forever.
33
Jenny Lee Lindberg and Stella Mozgawa of Warpaint discuss their Floodproduced sophomore album, their growing bond as artists, and why they’re in this for the long haul.
Travel: Celebrating their 100th issue this month, our sister paper have been all over the ruddy world. We look back at what we’ve learned from our Travel section. Warning: Contains poo.
34
Deviance: One writer considers the influence of the economy on Europe’s hub of sexiness and liberation, Barcelona.
35
Fashion: Manchester School of Art graduate Mark Glasgow tells how he's taken his playful fabric mixtures and a fascination with Disneyland to London's Royal College.
We speak to nicest guy in Hollywood Michael Cera about his upcoming douchebag role in Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus. Jeremy Irvine shares his deep admiration for the late Eric Lomax, the POW he portrays in biopic The Railway Man.
Lifestyle
36
Did you not get the chance to take in any great theatre last year? The Library Theatre Company's annual re:play festival is your chance to make amends. Birkenhead’s George Cottier hates comedy.
Review
39
From a freezing Motor City, Terrence
20 Parker discusses his scorching new album Life on the Back 9.
22
We take a closer look at Comma Press’ Gimbal app, which introduces psychogeography to the short story.
23
Curators and artists involved in Different Domain, The Royal Standard’s part-online, part-IRL exhibition, examine how we engage with art on the Internet – and how it engages with us.
24 25
Thee Silver Mt. Zion’s Efrim Menuck goes from despair to defiance as he contemplates the human condition.
45
47
48
Food & Drink Survey 2014
Introduction – The votes have been counted and verified. The best food and drink venues in the Northwest are…
26 Your favourite places for a first date, best cafes and newcomers.
29 We learn to cook a curry the Mughli way
thanks to your votes in the Indian subcontinent category, and enjoy a whistlestop tour of world cuisine guided by your nominated places to grab European, American, Asian and Indian food. Plus, where to swing by when you’re in a rush!
Showcase: Liverpool John Moores University graduate Joseph Hulme “guesses you will dislike his art”. Decide for yourself. Music: Patterns cook us up a stonking dinner and relate the journey to their gauzy, long-awaited debut, Waking Lines, out this month on Melodic; plus new albums from Mogwai, Actress, East India Youth and Warpaint. Clubs: Black Bee Soul Club are reinvigorating Northern soul; while Varoslav brings us his favourite cuts and new Rue De Plaisance release. Film: New films from Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) and the Coen brothers (Inside Llewyn Davis). We smell Oscar season. Theatre & Art: Popular Demand discuss Virtually Reality at Liverpool’s Unity Theatre, plus reviews of Gordon MattaClark and Alvin Baltrop, and Alinah Azadeh.
49
Comedy: Northwest comedians and promoters reveal their hopes for the regional scene in the New Year.
50
DVD & Books: New DVDs, from the sublime (Jane Campion’s The Piano) to the riddickulous (Vin Diesel vehicle Riddick ).
51
55
Listings: Everything you wanted to know about going out in Liverpool and Manchester, but were afraid to ask. Competitions: Win tickets to Glasgow Comedy Festival and Horizon Festival.
BOBBY WOMACK
Sunday 26 January 7.30pm Liverpool Philharmonic Hall £34.50, £39.50, £45.50
‘[Womack] was lifted out of obscurity by Damon Albarn for his last Gorillaz album in 2010, and promptly went about shredding the urban electro setting with three decades’ worth of pent up emotion… Singing as if his life depends on it. We are in the presence of mad, brilliant, soulful genius and there is no choice but to surrender.’ The Telegraph
Box Office liverpoolphil.com 0151 709 3789
FG
The Bay Horse 35-37 Thomas Street Every Week Northern Quarter Live Performances & DJ Sets:
thebayhorsepub.co.uk twitter@TheBayHorsePub facebook.com/thebayhorseMCR
Any bands wanting to play at Free Gig Friday contact Yvonne on bayhorsegigs@gmail.com
Free Gig Friday At The Bay Horse from 9pm
FRIDAY 3RD JANUARY:
TRIP OF HAIRS & GUESTS
F
FRIDAY 10TH JANUARY:
WORDS & NOISES, FOLK REMEDY & TOM SIMS FRIDAY 17TH JANUARY:
KEIRA LAWLER & GUEST DJS FRIDAY 24TH JANUARY: SHUT UP DAD & GUESTS FRIDAY 31ST JANUARY:
GHOST OF DEAD AIRPLANES & MATTHEW THOMAS THOMPSON
T HE B AY H ORSE
35-37 Thomas Street, Northern Quarter, M4 1NA PHONE : 0161 661 1041 twitter@TheBayHorsePub facebook.com/thebayhorseMCR Any bands wanting to play at The Bay Horse contact Yvonne on bayhorsegigs@gmail.com
January 2014
OF ONE TWO Y ES ONLD AT UK
WHAT’S ON IN JANUARY HAPPY MONDAYS Every Monday two guests wine & dine for only £10 with the best classic indie & alternative tunes from Stuart Corr y (Manchester North FM 106.6)
QUIZ TUESDAYS NOELS HORSE PARTY QUIZ 7TH MARK CLAPHAM QUIZ TUESDAY 28TH EVERY WEDNESDAY OPEN MIC Interested in playing? Contact Matt & Edwin at Facebook @openmic@thebayhorse
THURSDAY BASEMENT GIG 30TH From Another Place present Speaks & The Gracies
SATURDAYS NEW DJ LINE UP WITH TOP OF THE POPS 4TH TRANARCHY 11TH FREE RADICALS 18TH NICKS PICKS 25TH
SUNDAYS SUNDAY SESSIONS 5TH PHONOGRAPHY 12TH, 19TH, 26TH Peter Jay, Steve Legatto & Rich Harris playing VINYL ONLY from 4pm
Contents
5
Editorial
A
s we send this issue to press, we’ve not had Christmas yet, so I sort of want to wish you a relaxing break but it’ll probably come across pretty insensitive as you slowly uncoil your cranial loops from their anxious rictus and sit at your bare desk attempting to meet the cold, interrogative stare of January. But er... happy Christmas 2014? Props this month must go to our Food editor, who has spent basically all of his life for the past eight weeks consulting your votes in our first Food and Drink Survey, chucking them in his very stylish sorting hat, and pulling out a bunch of features, which you can tuck into – whoahhh! – from page 25. Lots to chew on in there – do you know what, I can’t even be bothered – from a look at different themes in Liverpool and Manchester’s new restaurant openings, to some secret-recipe curry tips, to a selection of weird and wonderful beers which, if we’d been able to run it in our December issue, would’ve made a good little gift guide, come to think of it. Oh well, instead you can use it to assist you in your New Year’s Resolution to drink more. And if you’re now kicking yourself for not shouting your mouth off about where you like to eat and drink in the Northwest first time around, keep your eyes peeled in August, because we’ll be doing it all over again in the name of both democracy and the evolving culinary landscape. Of course, it’s not all about food. Music brings us a host of soul-searching conversations this edition. While our cover star William Doyle aka East India Youth would rather let the graded, gradual synthscapes of debut album Total Life Forever speak for the heartache that lies behind it, Thee Silver Mt. Zion’s Efrim Menuck is disarmingly articulate about the state of his band’s new album, parenthood, late-stage capitalism – everything, basically. Christmas will have come a little late – 6 Jan, to be precise – for loyal followers of Manchester band Patterns, whose long-anticipated debut is released via Melodic on that very date; and on page 41, frontman Ciaran McAuley has some thoughtful things to say about the cultural heritage that comes with the very act of releasing a first album (while cooking a lamb
terrine, we should add. Thankyou Ciaran). Last but by no means least, our Scottish sister paper’s cover stars, Warpaint, discuss longevity and having to answer That Interminable Question – you know the one – with a modesty and openness reflective of their warm-blooded second album. Speaking of our big sis, a massive three cheers for them, as they celebrate their 100th issue this month – there’s a party and everything with golden tickets available for a lucky 100 readers if you happen to be in the area of Edinburgh aound the 17th. In Film, everybody’s favourite nerd-who’snot-actually-so-much-of-a-nerd-anymore Michael Cera and director Sebastián Silva giggle fraternally over their larks in the desert making Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus – while, in stark counterpoint, Jeremy Irvine relates his experiences talking with the late Eric Lomax, whose life and times as a prisoner of war inform a new film starring Irvine and Colin Firth, The Railway Man. Elsewhere, our Clubs ed conquers all the odds to bring us a chat with Terrence Parker, who’s snowed in in Detroit; Art joins curators at The Royal Standard mid-way through their experiment in art online versus art ‘IRL’; Books goes on a field trip with Comma Press’s new short story app, which matches your commute with a journey anywhere in the world; Comedy meets the uncompromising (and – bonus! – funny) George Cottier; Deviance goes to Spain, and Travel comes with a NSFROD (Not Safe for Reading Over Dinner) warning. This issue of The Skinny was brought to you by the 2011 Justin Bieber album, Under the Mistletoe. Happy New Year. [Lauren Strain] ON THE COVER: East India Youth, by Nuria Rius Born in Barcelona, photographer Nuria Rius is now London-based, currently working freelance and specialising in portraiture and fashion. She has worked as Editor in Chief and Photo Editor for a Spanish magazine about art, fashion, design and music for nearly eight years. www.nuriarius.com www.nuriarius.blogspot.com
Hero Worship: Simon Rogan In honour of our Food and Drink Survey results, our Food ed Jamie Faulkner raises a glass to kebab man turned award-winning chef Simon Rogan
Simon Rogan
I
f there were a sort of chef equivalent of the Chinese Zodiac Calendar, 2013 would have been the year of the Rogan. If that sounds like hyperbole, think about what you achieved last year, then consider the following: his two Michelin-starred Cumbrian restaurant, l’Enclume, came first in the Waitrose Good Food Guide’s annual top 50, scoring a perfect 10; his takeover of The French at Manchester’s Midland Hotel saw it enter the same guide straight at number 12; his London pop-up Roganic closed after two years of rave reviews. And *pauses for breath* he was named the successor to Gordon Ramsay at the iconic Claridge’s. Not bad, eh? It has, granted, been a long slog. Years before a stint with Marco Pierre White and opening l’Enclume in 2002, he was a schoolleaver frying chips in a Greek restaurant. His training resembles Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential trials at the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) in reverse. While Bourdain was the suave (in his eyes) New Yorker among talentless hicks, at catering college Rogan was good with kebabs and spuds but felt insecure in comparison to his classically-trained classmates. Yet he
ended up top of the pack. So, Rogan’s story is a good ol’ triumph of perseverance and talent, at the end of which he’s become the darling of the British food scene. For amateur chefs like myself his food is a source of inspiration and envy. And, like a British René Redzepi, he has a reassuring commitment to growing his own, foraging and experimenting with what’s around him. Furthermore, in spite of the fact that most histories of empire-building reveal that being nice doesn’t tend to work, Rogan genuinely seems like a nice, ‘cheeky chappie’, eminently less irritating than Jamie Oliver. While Blumenthal and Ramsay have built their empires then steadily diluted them with increasingly inconsistent ‘why don’t we make a massive brew?/where’s the next inept restaurateur?’ programming and self-aggrandisement, Rogan seems solely concerned with making good restaurants and good food; sod the rest of it. Amen to that. Turn to page 25 to read our inaugural Northwest Food and Drink Survey www.simonrogan.co.uk
The Skinny on Tour Wae'aye man! It’s January, so this month our Skinny reader is on a bit of a budget break – but where is she holidaying? Luckily there’s no fog on this famous river, so you’ve a clear view of the city she’s visiting. The sage among you should have a good idea.
Shot of the Month Factory Floor at Gorilla, Manchester, Sat 7 Dec, by Alexander Bell
6
Chat
For your chance to win The King by Kader Abdolah, courtesy of our chums at Canongate, just head along to www.theskinny.co.uk/about/ competitions and tell us where you think this canny reader is holidaying. Competition closes midnight Sun 2 Feb. Winners will be notified via email within two working days of closing and will be required to respond within one week or the prize will be offered to another entrant. Full T&Cs can be found at www.theskinny.co.uk/about/terms
THE SKINNY
place between 29-30 March in Liverpool's Baltic Triangle, are on sale now for a mere £10. www.thresholdfestival.co.uk. Our Food and Drink Survey is complete. You can turn to page 25 to find out our readers’ favourite pubs, cafes, greasy spoons etc. – and you’ll find many of our Best Brewery winners flogging their wares, alongside those of many other local, national and international brewers, at the MANCHESTER BEER & CIDER FESTIVAL, which runs 22-25 January at The Velodrome. Fancy a weekend of craft ales and traditional ciders? Then get on your bike (or just take the metro to the Velopark). www.manchesterbeerfestival.org. uk.
The programme for this year’s ÂĄVIVA! – Cornerhouse’s annual celebration of Spanish & Latin American cinema – has been announced. Opening the festival, which runs 7-24 March, is DĂas De Vinilo, a feel-good Argentinian comedy about four record-obsessed 30-somethings who gradually realise there might be more to life; first-time director Gabriel Nesci will be in town for a Q&A following the film. The full programme will soon go live over at www.cornerhouse.org.
The THRESHOLD FESTIVAL OF MUSIC AND ARTS have announced further additions to their music line-up, with The Mono LPs, Natalie McCool, The Wild Eyes and Etches now joined by Broken Men, The Fire Beneath the Sea and Dub Mafia. Earlybird tickets for the event, taking
Online Only
Photo: CAMRA
Manchester Beer & Cider Festival
Recently re-opened as a contemporary arts centre, the iconic art deco Tetley building in Leeds is now host to an enticing arts programme. Make tracks over to THE TETLEY in January to catch some of the exhibitions on display, including A New Reality Part 1, a group exhibition inviting audiences and artists to unravel the history of the building. www.thetetley.org.
with Mystic Mark
ARIES This month you invent an ingenious solar powered bulldozer for decimating the Amazon rainforest in a carbon-neutral manner.
TAURUS Though you can sometimes come across as a shark-eyed velociraptor of a human there is some goodness in you, like that time you threw a fistful of change into a beggar’s face.
GEMINI You decide it would be more cost effective to cover your entire home in green screen wallpaper and then add your possessions or furniture in later during post-production.
CANCER The donkey you thought you were in love with has been taking you for a ride. Waking up in the barn the Want to taste colour and experience the texture morning after with no wallet you call of sound? Synaesthesia – the mind-boggling the bank and find that it went and bought a brand condition that occurs when one stimulus evokes new sports car, MacBook Pro and a massive sack the sensation of another – is set to be explored in of grain on your credit card. You never should a new series of events cropping up in Liverpool. have trusted that beautiful bastard. THE SYNAESTHESIA FEAST will serve up a fivecourse meal of creative and stimulating foods LEO You decide it’s about time you that will be enhanced by the integration of music accepted your guilt and confessed at church about all that priest spunk you and visuals. Camp and Furnace, Liverpool, 4-5 Feb, 7pm, £30 swallowed back when you were an altar boy. GET THE SKINNY DELIVERED direct to your door so you never miss an issue. Subscriptions start VIRGO In order to make waking up from £7.99. Go to www.theskinny.co.uk/subscribe the morning quicker, try changing in to find out more. your alarm clock to the sound dolphins make when they’re on fire.
LIBRA After being on the waiting list for an organ transplant, the NHS inform you that they found a secondhand one at a car boot sale at the weekend. It’s a bit dusty and out of tune, but it has a real warm sound and the previous owner has taken good care of it, despite years on the road. As you drift off in the operating theatre, you see the nurse wheel it in, packed in ice. The doctor even plays a sad tune on it before he laboriously lifts it up and unsuccessfully attempts to jam it inside your body.
SCORPIO After having your heart broken by so many girls it’s nice to meet one that only breaks your liver.
SAGITTARIUS Your attitude to work is much like God’s. Work for a week, rest on Sunday and then never go back to work ever again. You also expect to be constantly praised for the fact you even went to work in the first place.
CAPRICORN Your levels of gorm are running dangerously low.
AQUARIUS Your mouth is so clean you could eat your dinner in it.
PISCES Typing ‘What is the calorific value of circumcised foreskin?’ into the Weight Watchers website gets you placed on a very exclusive watch list. It seems such a waste to throw them all away, you figure, might as well fry them up with a few onions, what can be the harm in that? The jury however are unmoved by your argument of “waste not, want not.�
twitter.com/themysticmark facebook.com/themysticmark
Eyes to the website
Our Scotland paper also did a Food Survey – find out the best places to grab a bevvy and some scran in Glasgow, Edinburgh and beyond. www.theskinny.co.uk/food
A magician, a mentalist and a comedian walk into a coffee shop‌ meet boundary-breaking comedy trio The Colour Ham. www.theskinny.co.uk/comedy
We take a look at the programme for this year’s manipulate Festival, which showcases cuttingedge puppetry and animation from all over the world. www.theskinny.co.uk/theatre
Honeyblood call in from the studio while still hard at work on their debut album. www.theskinny.co.uk/music
January 2014
BALLS.
Danni McWilliams reveals her new collection HOMEGIRL, inspired by Latino street style. www.theskinny.co.uk/fashion The team behind Croc vs. Croc take us through their plans for the grand re-launch of the Glasgow School of Art Union. www.theskinny.co.uk/clubs
Our sister paper celebrates its 100th issue: DJ Chart invites back first ever guest DJ Brian D'Souza (aka Auntie Flo) to share his current picks; three of our favourite comedians consider how far they've come since issue 1; Showcase, um, showcases all of the front covers ever, and more... www.theskinny.co.uk
Chat
7
Compiled by: Laura Howarth
Happy New Year! With the pennies dwindling and festive cheer all but gone, there’s plenty of free stuff going on to keep you jolly until pay day. While the music industry snoozes, we load up on theatre, art, comedy, film and, well, a beer and cider festival. Doesn’t look too bleak now, does it?
Fri 3 Jan
As you slowly work off the mother of all hangovers and solemnly swear that this year you will be Better, we suggest you avoid taxing your body and brain with anything too strenuous and instead spend the day wandering aound the Bluecoat Print Sale, picking up some original prints as you go. The Bluecoat, Liverpool, until 5 Jan, 10am-6pm, Free
MelloMello set the tone for the year to come with an exhibition launch from Parabhen Lad and free live music from The Penny Arcadians. Made up of various members of Zombina and the Skeletones, White Blacula and more, they'll be serving up 20s-style skiffle jazz moves as part their new monthly residency. MelloMello, Liverpool, 8pm, Free
Bluecoat Print Sale
MelloMello
Fri 10 Jan
Sat 11 Jan
As the Royal Exchange represent the UK in an inter-cultural, performing arts response to the global food crisis – with nine theatres across four continents taking part – the internationally renowned playwrights involved in creating Hunger For Trade invite audiences to contribute to the development of the piece. Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, 1pm, £3.50
The King’s Arms is bustling with activity this month. Catch Life’s Witness, a short play developed during The Lowry’s Making New Work showcase that tells the tale of a young author and his pursuit of fame and fortune following the tepid reception of his latest book. The King’s Arms, Salford, 7.30pm, Free (donation), see listings for more details
Upon releasing his whopping 22-track album, Big Wheel – a musical mosaic of his life, loves and influences composed over a number of years (just don't call it a concept album) – the Californian singer/songwriter Cass McCombs takes to the road for a Europe-wide tour. The Deaf Institute, Manchester, 7.30pm, £9.50
Following several sell-out screenings at the London International Animation Festival, catch a re-run of the Kids Club Special, a selection of 14 short animated films from around the world – for big’uns and little’uns alike – including Fresh Guacamole by PES, the shortest film to ever be nominated for an Academy Award. FACT, Liverpool, 11am, £3
Life's Witness
Cass McCombs
Hunger For Trade
Wed 15 Jan
Thu 16 Jan
Fri 17 Jan
In which San Francisco-hailing freak-folk singer Jessica Pratt graduates from four-track bedroom recordings to actual performances in front of actual audiences. She brings her retro, 60s-vibing self-titled debut out to a live setting, with support on the night from Belgian musician Bram Devens, aka Ignatz. The Castle Hotel, Manchester, 8pm, £8
Catch the soothing and melodic sounds of House of Trees in the midst of their Where’s the Butcher, Where’s the Baker tour. The classical folk-meets-jazz duo from Sweden are described by some as Billie Holiday singing Kurt Weill songs on a Tim Burton soundtrack – which is nice. Matt and Phred’s, Manchester, 9pm, Free
Taking meta mind-fuckery to a whole new level, Jamie Shovlin cooked up his art movie Rough Cut – a remake of the non-existent 70s film, Hiker Meat – as a low-budget exploitation film complete with attendent footage crafted from found video clips. His process is laid bare in this accompanying exhibition. Cornerhouse, Manchester, until 21 Apr, Free
Jessica Pratt
Aston Presents
House of Trees
Hiker Meat
Fri 24 Jan
You can’t chuck a stone in the Northwest without hitting an independent brewer; hence our seemingly bimonthly inclination to Try All The Beers. Pitching up in a rather unique setting, the Manchester Beer and Cider Festival will see over 300 craft ales vying for your attention against the backdrop of whizzing bikes. The Velodrome, Manchester, until 25 Jan, from £2
New York-hailing anti-folk chappie Adam Green steps out on his own – sans Kimya Dawson or Binki Shapiro, waaaah! – for a solo acoustic tour, taking in venues up and down the country and spreading his potty-mouthed cheer while he's at it. The Deaf Institute, Manchester, 7.30pm, £10
Manchester's adopted son of psychedelic pop Connan Mockasin – recently seen chatting to The Skinny about everything from his love affair with Japan to his latest album, Caramel – takes his delicious release out for a well-deserved airing. This is a beg, borrow, steal sorta situation, so keep your eyes peeled for tickets. Soup Kitchen, Manchester, 7.30pm, £returns only
Adam Green
Photo: dyroxy.com
Thu 23 Jan
Photo: CAMRA
Wed 22 Jan
Manchester Beer and Cider Festival
Photo: MC Neil Jarvie
Thu 9 Jan
Photo: Direkt Zur Startseite
Wed 8 Jan
Connan Mockasin
Wed 29 Jan
Thu 30 Jan
Fri 31 Jan
Manchester’s literary stalwarts Bad Language return in the new year, continuing their quest to support new and emerging writers by offering them a stage, a microphone and an attentive crowd to test out their craft on. Make this the year you get really into writing short stories, yeah? The Castle Hotel, Manchester, 7.30pm, Free
Prior to his performance and installation at Sefton Park later this year, turning the Palm House into a grotesque and frankly disturbing zoological chamber of marvels, Liverpoolbased artist of Greek origins Filippos Tsitsopoulos presents his Cabinet of Curiosities of Mr. Bonsai. The Bluecoat, Liverpool, 6pm, Free but ticketed
Darkly romantic comedy Project XXX takes a jaunt into the world of internet pornography as a feminist blogger decides to take her sexual choices into her own hands, and film her first time with new love interest, Callum – who is grappling with issues of his own. The Edge, Chorlton, Manchester, 30 and 31 Jan, 7.30pm, £7 (£5)
Bad Language
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Paradise is the New hell-theatrical costumes for faces (2013)
The Edge
THE SKINNY
Photo: Elinor Jones
Heads Up
Thu 2 Jan
Sat 4 Jan
Sun 5 Jan
Mon 6 Jan
Tue 7 Jan
Following a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2012, crude comic par excellence Rob Rouse is back on the road following the birth of his second child. The majority of his chat centres around, well, as you may have guessed, crapping, peeing and puking. Comedy Central, Liverpool, 6pm, £18
Kicking off the inaugural Acoustic Bhuna event – pairing live acoustic sets with delicious homemade curry, a bleeding obvious combo when you think about it – the Mancunian alt-rock five-piece Rook and the Ravens share the stage with some delicate and fragile guitar work from dbh, while Che and the Mistakings round off the night. Band on the Wall, Manchester, 6pm, Free
Providing a comedic playgroup of sorts, where new and established comics alike can test out some fresh material on friendly and open-minded audiences (that’s you!), Dead Cat Comedy Crèche returns in the new year with energetic funny-man and Dead Cat Comedy founder Red Redmond once again at the helm. Sandbar, Manchester, 8pm, Free
Liverpool’s PurpleCoat Productions – backed by the likes of Stephen Fry and the RSC – present a re-hashing of the 1982 play Noises Off by Michael Frayn, a hilarious farce following the backstage antics of an amateur dramatics production; which makes it both a play and a play within a play. The Arts Centre, Liverpool, until 10 Jan, 7pm, £10 (£8)
Rook and the Ravens
Dead Cat Comedy Crèche
The Arts Centre
Sun 12 Jan
Mon 13 Jan
Tue 14 Jan
Although far more amiable than the title of his show would suggest, South African comic Trevor Noah picks apart cultural stereotypes in his newly polished piece, The Racist. Comedy from the perspective of a South African born to an African mother and German father during the height of apartheid? That’s some heavy shit. The Lowry Studio, Salford, 11 and 12 Jan, 8pm, £15
Catch an exhibition of patterned, glow-in-the-dark canvasses by Hisachika Takahashi before they're gone. First displayed in Antwerp in 1967 and now brought to Liverpool by curator and artist Yuki Okumura, this time-travelling show offers a unique aesthetic experience under white, natural, or UV light. Exhibition Research Centre, Liverpool, until 23 Jan, Free
We'll spare you the horse puns and just get on to the mane event (soz); the CFCCA kick-start their season of workshops, activities and exhibitions to celebrate the Year of the Horse today. Events run throughout January, on the run up to Chinese New Year (31 Jan). Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Manchester, until 10 Feb, check cfcca.org.uk for full details
Hisachika Takahashi: Antwerp 1967/Brussels 2013/Liverpool 2013
Trevor Noah
Lydia Meiying
Mon 20 Jan
Tue 21 Jan
Liverpool-based promoters Deep Hedonia and Upitup are branching out from occasional gigs to regular shindigs with their first instalment of HEDS-UP (sound familiar?). With a little help from some of their more leftfield DJs and a sprinkling of hallucinogenic/awesome visuals, they'll turn MelloMello into a fully fledged ravecave. MelloMello, Liverpool, 10pm, £2 donation
Opting to spend one third of an average year onstage should make for quite the polished live show from this Rhode Island-hailing alt-country five-piece. Still riding the wave of success of their 2013 release, Negativity, 2014 finds Deer Tick still trading in dirty Americana and pseudo-hillbilly ditties. The Deaf Institute, Manchester, 7.30pm, £11.50
Like the highbrow version of catch-up TV, the Library Theatre Company's re:play festival offers a second chance to catch fringe theatre gems from the past 12 months and kicks off with an adaptation of Anthony Burgess' One Hand Clapping, and The Rise and Fall of a Northern Star. The Lowry Studio, until 1 Feb, see listings for full details
With Amazon's delivery drones fresh in our minds, performance duo Popular Demand's Virtually Reality pokes around the implications of technology promising to improve our lives while looking at the practical and moral implications of such developments – and using movement, soundscapes and visual imagery. Unity Theatre, Liverpool, until 22 Jan, 8pm, £8 (£7)
HEDS-UP
Deer Tick
The Rise and Fall of a Northern Star
Photo: Debbie Turner
Sun 19 Jan
Photo: Anna Webber
Sat 18 Jan
Virtually Reality
Sat 25 Jan
Sun 26 Jan
Mon 27 Jan
Tue 28 Jan
They've only gone and done it again; Liverpool's Married to the Sea present the latest instalment of 10 Bands 10 Minutes, this time taking on the king of pop, Michael Jackson. It's all set to be an absolute Thriller, as ten bands each take, yes, ten minutes to Rock With You; and if it's Bad, just Beat It. The Kazimier, Liverpool, 8pm, £tbc
Putting to rest the tired old myth that women ain't worthy of our chuckles, the ladies at Laughing Cows return with a bang in the new year, apparently making really funny line-ups a New Year's Resolution – catch Cecilia Delatori, Alice Frick, Lauren Karl and Nathalie Kerrio, along with LC host, Kerry Leigh. Frog and Bucket, Manchester, 8pm, £7 (£10 door)
Scottish post-rockers par excellence Mogwai return to the rainy city following a duo of dates at the Manchester International Festival in 2013. Bringing their latest release Rave Tapes along for the ride, they'll likely cherrypick old and new tracks. Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, 7.30pm, £returns only
Presented as a visual dialogue between English photographer James Clifford Kent and celebrated Cuban writer and critic Edmundo Desnoes, Memories of a Lost Shark is an exhibition made up of 26 black and white photographs and accompanying texts, encouraging the viewer to take sides. Instituto Cervantes, Manchester, until 1 Feb, Free
Married to the Sea
Cecilia Delatori
Mogwai
James Clifford Kent: El viejo y la máquina de escribir
Sun 2 Feb
Mon 3 Feb
East India Youth, known as William Doyle to his mum, brings his one-man experimental soundscapes – as showcased on his debut offering, Hostel, released on a label The Quietus magazine founded especially, no less – to the fore. His vocals and instrumentation wander down alleyways of electronica, techno, krautrock and pop. Korova Club, Liverpool, 7.30pm, £5
Looking at the work of sculptor Oscar Nemon – known for his proposed plans for a temple of universal ethics in London, and for his portrayal of figures such as Churchill and Thatcher – Pil and Galia Kollectiv curate an exhibition, Radical Conservatism, that questions whether those terms are indeed antithetical. The Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, until 2 Feb, Free
Sargent House signees Tera Melos – now playing as a three-piece outfit – bring their latest album, X’ed Out, to a live setting. Their unconventional style, comprising complex alternate rhythms and start-stop dynamics by the bucket-load, is underpinned by a melodic songwriting core. The Kazimier, Liverpool, 7.30pm, £9
East India Youth
January 2014
Photo: Richard Manning
Sat 1 Feb
Nemon Thatcher
Tera Melos
Chat
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Photo: Ron Harrel
Rob Rouse
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THE SKINNY
Strife’s What You Make It A chance encounter with a reluctant label boss sent electronic prodigy East India Youth on an unexpected trip. William Doyle tells us about his long-incubating debut and the ongoing struggle to stop trashing his MacBook Interview: John Thorp Photography: Nuria Rius
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t’s rare for an artist to become a critical darling before their music has even reached the hands of a record label. But in late 2012, William Doyle managed just that when, during a Sonic Youth performance, he handed a tape of demos to John Doran, author and editor of influential and occasionally acerbic culture site The Quietus. Despite previously claiming that he’d “rather cut off my own head with nail clippers than start a label,” Doran was nonetheless suitably impressed and felt compelled to give East India Youth a serious boost by doing just that. The EP, Hostel, perhaps wasn’t what everyone expected from the site (Popjustice memorably described the Quietus’s first foray into releasing music as “surprisingly listenable”); lead single Heaven, How Long was a ponderous slice of electro-pop with a heartstopping, soulful finale. As it happens, Doyle has been living with Total Strife Forever for a long while – nearly three years, with it landing in the hands of Mr Doran in almost full form, now remixed and remastered for release (via Stolen Recordings) on an uncertain indie landscape. A startlingly confident and ambitious debut, the LP’s Foals-referencing title doesn’t necessarily prepare the listener for the musical gravitas on display throughout. While it was composed and recorded entirely within the confines of his own bedroom, Doyle has at points managed to coax out the sort of expansive and dramatic soundscapes associated more with Brian Eno and Björk. It’s an approach that, at times, skirts melodrama, but impressively so, employing a 60- or 70-strong chorus of his own looped and adjusted vocals. “I recorded the initial stuff over two years, and now it’s three years since I first started it,” recalls Doyle. “The whole idea of the project formed quite gradually, and then, in the summer of 2012, clicked together really quickly. So I’m coming back to it now and wondering, ‘How did I come to this conclusion with this track?’, and it’s a really interesting process. I’m really looking forward to it coming out, because then it’s done and I can move on.” Prior to East India Youth, Doyle was the lead singer of indie outfit Doyle and the Fourfathers, a ‘tipped’ indie act with an almost orchestral sound reminiscent of Irish chamber pop band The Divine Comedy. The foundations of East India Youth were poured while Doyle was still in the band, when he quickly came to the realisation that he could “tap in quite deep to electronic music… to convey things easier than with words.” Despite Britain’s ongoing obsession with
January 2014
discovering the next great archetypal or arbitrary guitar band, has the spike in bedroom producers and the availability of software meant that those previously labouring away in rehearsal rooms are now thinking both bigger and smaller when it comes to solo creativity? “The technology’s so easy to get and that’s quite cool. It’s like postpunk bands picking up synthesizers in the 70s; now anyone can download a whole studio one afternoon and then get on with it, and electronic music links in better with that than being in a band,” reckons Doyle. “Now that everyone lives online on social media, I think it’s part of a wider problem; actually meeting up with two or three guys in a room when everyone just lives online seems pretty unappealing when you can just be getting on with it.”
“It’s becoming a bit of an issue, rushing the set to get to that release at the end” William Doyle
The accompanying press for Total Strife Forever subtly suggests that a scenario of great personal change was the emotional foundation of the recording process. On tracks like Glitter Recession and Midnight Koto, Doyle gears his electronics to something approaching all-out melodrama – but it’s the delicate, heart-onsleeve songwriting of Dripping Down and Looking For Someone that gives the record its melancholic, pleasingly cathartic feel. ‘Looking for someone/Pretty sure you were the one/Once you’re there and now you’re gone,’ sings Doyle on the latter, with heartbreaking resignation. However, he’s keen to remain opaque on what drives the heart of East India Youth in its current form. “When I finished the first mix of the record it was a real watershed moment,” he recalls. “There’s a lot of personal, family stuff involved, and I don’t want it to sound like I’m making a press release from it. I wanted people to know it was made in a state of anguish, but as for the specifics, maybe not. I’ve kept the title all the way through, even when I thought it might not be a good idea, but it just sums up that period of my life, really.”
Total Strife Forever has a strong neo-classical influence; unsurprising, given that Doyle recalls listening to classical before even pop music as a child. Minimalists Steve Reich, Philip Glass and Estonian luminary Arvo Pärt all inspire East India Youth, but Doyle stresses that it’s “more to do with the spirit [in which] it was made, and paying attention to changes in tempo and dynamics is what classical brings to the table. How repetition affects the listener.” Nonetheless, Total Strife Forever goes so deep into instrumentation alone that the more traditional songwriting that bubbles to the surface might come as a surprise on an initial listen. Doyle cites the template of Berlin-era Bowie – such as Low, in which The Thin White Duke’s pop songwriting gives way to a wall of meditative krautrock – but is nonetheless perfectly happy to invert it. “It was really important to me that I skewed the balance of the pop tracks in favour of the instrumentals,” he admits, explaining the benefit of self-restraint in the writing process. “A lot of artists seem to favour the vocal stuff above the other, whereas I thought it’d be interesting to reverse that. Many of the tracks started with vocals naturally attached to them, because being a songwriter that’s what my habit is, but most of them breathed better without it. There are no vocals until the third track, Dripping Down, which might confuse some people but it makes the most sense for the album.” Then there’s Hinterland, which, early doors during Total Strife Forever, suddenly and briefly takes Doyle’s work in a completely different direction – pounding, analogue techno, complete with a lurching acid drop. During a recent support tour with Factory Floor, the East India Youth laptop – adorned with a telling Perc Trax sticker – was sent flying to the floor as he pummelled the track out of his digital and analogue gear. “That’s actually not the first time that’s happened,” he assures, before, with tongue firmly in cheek, pondering the possibility of destroying a MacBook at the end of every show. “I really enjoy playing that one live, and it’s becoming a bit of an issue, rushing the set to get to that release at the end, because I just fucking love playing it,” he confesses. “And I could easily make everything like that, but it’s not going to be enough of a challenge for me. But I do love that sound, and this year I’ve mainly been into industrial techno like Raime, Vatican Shadow and Regis. That stuff really chimes with me, I find it to be very visceral music. I have been working on some material in a separate folder
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that’s more in that vein, but who knows if that will see the light of day.” A recent and boozy Saturday night audience in Manchester awaiting Factory Floor thoroughly embraced both the understated, inner-gazing aspects of East India Youth, as well as his fullthrottle, club-ready finale. “It’s an interesting juxtaposition,” Doyle observes. “Trying to mix those two styles without it becoming a gimmick.” While there’s nothing gimmicky about an East India Youth performance, it certainly differs from the usual young-man-hiding-behind-his-laptop aesthetic that either haunts or perfectly services the majority of live electronic shows. Doyle performs with such sweaty, impassioned and festival-friendly gusto, he looks less to be checking his email as battering his ISP provider. If he’s keen to keep the lyrical influences of Total Strife Forever under wraps, then what, at least, inspires such confidence? “Well, I’ve been the frontman in bands, prancing around for years, that’s something I’ve always enjoyed,” suggests Doyle – on this subject, it’s fair to say, diverging from the spirit of his influences. It’s difficult to imagine Oneohtrix Point Never or Tim Hecker express their love for any kind of prancing. “I was worried I wasn’t going to enjoy performing electronic music as much as playing in bands, so the idea was to have more of a show,” he says. “It wasn’t a conscious decision, but how do I make it interesting for the audience as well as myself? I didn’t want to become the archetypal electronic musician. I didn’t want to focus too much on the aesthetic, even down to just looking down the lens in photos. I wanted to add some personality into what’s become a faceless music scene.” Given its diverse influences and unapologetically high-minded mix of heart-wrenching pop and experimental electronica, it will be interesting to see the sort of audience Doyle establishes with Total Strife Forever. Regardless, given the occasionally staid state of affairs in British alternative music, it’s invigorating to hear a record as passionate and occasionally transcendent: having hopefully dealt with whatever heartbreak lies at its centre, we can only hope that Doyle will continue with the lofty ambition that many other artists debuting in 2014 would do well to match. Total Strife Forever is out on 13 Jan via Stolen Recordings. East India Youth plays Gullivers, Manchester, on 30 Jan, and Korova, Liverpool, 1 Feb www.facebook.com/eastindiayouth
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Quiet Defiance Returning this month with a bewitching second album after a self-imposed desert exile, Jenny Lee Lindberg and Stella Mozgawa say Warpaint are in this game for the long haul
Interview: Dave Kerr Photography: Daniel Harris
W
ith disarming frankness and a wicked sense of humour, Warpaint’s Jenny Lee Lindberg and Stella Mozgawa still know when to reserve a certain mystique – an art too many of their contemporaries seem to have willingly surrendered. The odds of finding this Los Angeles ambient rock quartet locked in a Twitter ruckus with the flavour of the week aren’t particularly high. The duo erupt with laughter at the absurdity of it all. “The four of us were just having a conversation about this yesterday,” says Mozgawa. “We’re at a point where we’re a little baffled by how to go about presenting the band online – what feels natural and what doesn’t. How far do we go before it starts to feel forced and we’re just becoming another product of…” – she hesitates to identify rock’n’roll’s old nemesis – “…the system?” Grafters from the get-go, the word ‘meteoric’ has regularly been misattributed by part-time spectators to a career now almost a decade in. Collecting endorsements from the likes of RZA (a vocal fan of Lindberg’s tripped-out basslines) and, er, Justin Timberlake (who entreats prospective fans to listen ‘between giant, tingling swigs of scotch in a dark corner’) probably hasn’t hurt, but as trajectories go, Warpaint’s hard-fought ascent has otherwise been distinctly old school. With a live reputation that preceded their first gig on these shores, they’ve spent the last three or so years returning to a gradually loudening fanfare. Having finally caught their stride after several years of shedding drummers (a chance introduction to guitarist/vocalist Emily Kokal at a Metallica gig eventually brought Mozgawa into the fold full-time) and a maternity break for guitarist/vocalist Theresa Wayman, debut album The Fool delivered on the promise of their self-released Exquisite Corpse EP when it emerged in the autumn of 2010. “We didn’t want to sit on a second album for too long,” says Lindberg of its aftermath. “But we weren’t rushing the process, that’s for sure. If it wasn’t ready we weren’t going to record it.” The band retreated to Joshua Tree for a month of self-imposed exile to get sessions rolling – not, they insist, to ride the cliché and fall about the desert on peyote. Lindberg cackles. “Well, there was a little bit of that, which is necessary I think – almost ceremonial when you’re out there,” Mozgawa concedes. “But it was Emily’s idea that we get out of town and avoid the distractions of being in the city, even though we could’ve done something there. I think it was really good for us to bond and play every single day, recording everything that we’d been playing and just have this period of time to only do that. Everything outside of that, you’re still going home to your personal environment, your boyfriend, your family, your friends, the same bars, and the same restaurants. We had to get out of that and know that this was the moment to focus.” An unconventional band calls for unconventional allies. Enter, eminent post-punk superproducer Flood, a significant figure behind the scenes on touchstone releases, from Nick Cave’s first step into the Bad Seeds (From Her to Eternity) to PJ Harvey’s most celebrated (Let England Shake). Regularly in the right time and place, his union with Warpaint makes absolute sense. It’s destiny realised, says Lindberg. “Back in the day, Emily randomly asked a friend ‘if we were ever to get a producer, who d’you think?’ He immediately said Flood and that just stuck in her
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mind for years. When we were tossing the idea of having a producer around this time, his was one of only a few names that circled us. We were thinking about doing it all ourselves, but when he said he was available our minds were made up.” With Flood bringing his Midas touch to the album’s production, another common denominator in the arc of boundary-smashing modern music – visionary video artist Chris Cunningham – was charged with documenting the band’s time in the desert. The results (teased on Warpaint’s new website and Love Is To Die single trailer) are the basis for an evocative audio-visual collage of remixes and captured moments – a graceful illustration of the purity in their music. As one of only a handful of projects that the ever in demand director has undertaken in the new millennium, how exactly did they snare his attention? “Well, he’s my husband, first of all – I should tell you,” reveals Lindberg, shy as she goes about it. “But that’s not why he’s working with us. He had to interview for the job too! He came out to Joshua Tree to do his own work and this was just something that came about quite naturally. He’s been sporadically filming what we’ve been doing behind the scenes ever since, just the making of the album. We’re all pretty comfortable when he’s around; he’s very mindful about not wanting to disrupt the flow. We were rarely aware of his presence, so what he filmed was real, it never felt like a performance.” Mozgawa pipes up: “He’s become like the fifth member!” Whereas The Fool was a light-of-touch stoner’s delight by design, Warpaint’s self-titled return blows open the possibilities with electronics. Somehow intimate and wild, it’s a stew of contradictions that keeps on giving. “We have a natural tendency to try and fit a million ideas into any one song, and it’s been really fun to explore that,” says Mozgawa. “I think we’re honing in on our style, in a sort of intuitive and subconscious way. We’re getting closer to knowing what it is that works for each of us – whether it’s in a song or as this band – and how to interact with each
other, now that we’ve played live together for so long. I think this record is a true representation of us striving for that, to be better, and to get to the point as well, which is…” – Lindberg shouts the rest of her bandmate’s sentence over the din of a passing lorry – “… pretty hard to do sometimes. Then again, we want it to sound and feel just right – everyone has to be happy.”
“There’s all these decisions some artists must have to make all the time, especially if you’re in the pop world. We’re not even in that universe” Stella Mozgawa
In person, Warpaint’s natural chemistry suggests they’re collectively in that place. Defying the bad hand they’ve been dealt by the air luggage gods on the opening night of this UK tour we join them on, backstage the quartet lift the mood by spontaneously breaking into song while The Skinny’s photographer snaps away. On record, where darker moods intertwine with this easy elegance, it’s a different story. Take the sinister gang chorus to Disco//very, where the album’s vaunted rap influence announces itself the loudest. ‘Don’t you battle, we’ll kill you,’ shrieks
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Lindberg out in front. ‘Rip you up and tear you in two.’ “That song’s a free for all; it’s very bass and drums,” she says. “We wanted to have everybody singing. I wrote the first verse, Theresa wrote the second, Emily took the third. All three of our verses were very spontaneous and spoke to where we were all individually coming from at that point in time. Speaking for myself, that song’s like a rowdy child that had too much sugar. It’s like a hip-hop song. Someone said to me that it sounds really aggro and angry, I know it probably does, but it’s coming from a very child-like innocent place.” Since the Cyrus vs O’Connor debate recently gave new voice to the seemingly immortal topic of what constitutes a righteous feminine representation on planet pop, the elephant in the room inevitably stumbles into our conversation. Lindberg lets out a pre-emptive scream and hands a grinning Mozgawa the baton. “There’s all these small tangents and decisions some artists must have to make all the time, especially if you’re in the pop world. We’re not even in that universe. If we were to do something provocative it would be of our own volition. We’d make a decision to be disgusting, or be really sexual, or even really prudish. We wouldn’t be swayed by what our managers or anyone else thinks we have to do. Luckily, we’re not that kind of band or people.” Warpaint have undoubtedly clung to their own creative vision without tuning in to any external expectations. “We don’t pay any attention to them,” Lindberg starts. “I think people, even back in the day, would ask, ‘how does it feel to be an all-girl band? The truth is we don’t care. Whether we’re all-boy, girl, dog or monkey, it doesn’t matter; we’re just there playing music together.” Mozgawa’s chuckling again: “I’m just picturing an all-dog band here…” Warpaint is out on 20 Jan via Rough Trade. They play Liverpool O2 Academy on 20 Feb www.warpaintwarpaint.com
THE SKINNY
RNCM Skinny quarter Jan 14 AW.pdf
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A vibrant and inspirational creative crafts spectacular!
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Manchester Children’s Book Festival 26 June - 6 July 2014
No More Mr Nice Guy DiCaprio has Scorsese, Depp has Burton, Gosling has Winding Refn. We speak to a more low-key actor/director team, Michael Cera and Sebastián Silva, who are bringing a pair of excellent movies to UK screens in 2014
Interview: Jamie Dunn Illustration: Camille Smithwick
While high on coke, Jamie extends a similar invitation to an American woman he meets at a party, the eponymous Crystal Fairy (Gaby Hoffman), only this trip proves to be less harmonious than Silva’s. Jamie and Crystal are two sides of a pretty unpleasant coin. He’s an uptight killjoy who manages to take the fun out of partying. She’s a walking cliché of chakra platitudes, who lectures the boys for eating junk food but swigs on a bottle of cola and munches on Cheetos when no one’s looking. Their passive-aggressive journey together blurs genres, weaving from awkward comedy to plaintive drama. This is the chief characteristic of Silva’s filmmaking: when he sits down to write a film he doesn’t consider the section where it’ll be found on Netflix. “I never think of movies that way, and I hope I never do,” explains the 34-year-old. “Basically I’m telling a story that I went through, and life contains drama and comedy and surprising things and dullness and all of it.” Straddling genres also allows Silva to dampen expectations. “I don’t want to promise anyone that they’re going to laugh or be scared or that they’re going to cry, because I’m just setting myself up for failure if they don’t,” he says modestly. “But if I just say, ‘This is the story I’m telling you – you’ll cry or you’ll laugh, whenever you feel like it,’ there’s so much more freedom for me and the audience as an experience.” Perhaps Cera is trying something similar with his recent career shift? Has breaking from his sweet-loser shtick been about becoming freer as an actor? “I don’t see it as more freeing,” he f the many fine jokes in 21 Jump Street, the known for its hallucinogenic properties, which he says. “The level of fun for me is always dependent 2009’s Youth in Revolt he got the opportunity to surprisingly sturdy movie adaptation of the show his dark side by playing both demure book- plans to ingest on an idyllic beach he’s travelling on who I’m working with and how collaborative it worm Nick Twisp and his chain-smoking French Johnny Depp-starring 80s TV series of the same to with three Chilean friends. It’s an odyssey simi- is and how much it feels like finding something alter-ego François Dillinger, who takes over name, the smartest is the running gag that turns lar to one taken by the director in his youth. together.” supposed social norms on their head. Of the two whenever Nick needs to do something badass, Movies don’t come much more collaborative like seduce a girl or set his mother’s car on fire. fresh-faced cops sent undercover to infiltrate a than Crystal Fairy. Shot on a dime and semidrug ring in a high school, Schmidt (Jonah Hill), a In Scott Pilgrim vs. the World he had fun as a twoimprovised, it brims with energy and a sense of timing egotist with superpowers. And his bad-boy socially challenged and romantically frustrated place. It may be a tossed-off project, but beneath rep has been sealed with his anarchic cameo nerd, is vastly more popular with the student its nonchalant exterior lies psychological insight in last year’s This Is the End, where he plays a body than his partner Jenko (Channing Tatum), that would make most Oscar-bait dramas green party animal version of himself, who snorts coke, a smooth-operating knuckle-headed jock. This with envy. The shoot was so relaxed, in fact, that role reversal isn’t just employed for comic effect, touches up Rihanna, and has a three-way at Cera and the cast took the opportunity to ‘go James Franco’s housewarming party. though; it’s an act of social realism. Look around method’ and sampled some mescaline brewed Cera continues to channel his inner doucheyou. Comic book movies are hot property, thickfrom a San Pedro (it feels like having “a few glassbag in a brace of films being released in early es of white wine”, apparently). Crystal Fairy does rimmed glasses trump 20/20 vision, and skinny 2014 from Chilean director Sebastián Silva (The that trick that so few films manage: it makes the torsos top biceps and brutishness. The geeks Maid). In April he co-stars in Magic Magic as experience of watching as enjoyable as the expehave inherited the earth. Brink, a creep in knitwear whose erratic behavrience of the people larking around in the beautiThese geeks have a king, and his name is ful location. “The movie is basically a document Michael Cera. Paler than semi-skimmed milk, 100 iour and eccentric sense of humour are helping send a young woman (Juno Temple) round the of this vacation we all took together,” explains pounds when wet, and with a hairdo that cries bend. The performance calls to mind Crispin Cera. “We were in this amazing spot, and all living out mum-cut, Cera is the unlikeliest of movie in the same house, sleeping on top of each other, stars. But he and some other narrow-shouldered Glover at his most manic. First, though, there’s Crystal Fairy & the eating bread and avocado and listening to music. young men, like Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew It was great.” Garfield, who would have had to vie for roles with Magical Cactus, a loose, easygoing road-movie And what of the real Crystal Fairy? How did Rick Moranis and Martin Short in the 80s and 90s, that Silva seemingly threw together when the she feel about having her journey portrayed on have carved out varied careers as bona fide lead- shooting of Magic Magic was delayed. “I’d left ing men. Santiago and lost hope that we would ever make screen? “I spoke to her not long ago, actually,” Sebastián Silva Cera’s rise to be Hollywood’s chief nerd has Magic Magic,” Cera says by phone from New York, Silva beams. “Gaby Hoffman, the actress who been swift. He first came to the public’s attention “but then Sebastián calls me and says, ‘Why don’t plays Crystal Fairy, got a hold of her. She had a on TV in Arrested Development as George Michael, we just make this other movie: there’s no dia“Thirteen years ago, me and my best friend friend who knew Crystal, so because of all this I logue written, we’ll make it in two weeks, and we’ll wanted to go and take mescaline, to do it from the sole redeeming member of the obnoxious got to speak on the phone with the real Crystal Bluth family. On the big screen his big break came just be able to work together.’” cactus preparation, down in the national park Fairy after 13 years.” In it, Cera plays Jamie, an insufferable thrill- in Chile,” explains Silva, who joins Cera and in 2007’s Superbad, in which he played the fragile Has she seen the movie? “Yeah, she really nice guy foil to his two outlandish best friends. In seeking American who’s visiting Chile and seems The Skinny in a conference call. “We had it all liked it. She’s living in Vermont now and I’ve inJuno, as the lover of the smart-mouthed pregnant to be attempting to soak up as much of the coun- planned, but the night before I went to a party vited her to have a pyjama party at my place. You try’s illegal substances as he can get his hands teen of the title, he was even more timid. And in and met a girl from the States. She went by the wanna come, Mike?” Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist he is the straight on. “Yeah, it sounds like you’ve done a lot of drugs name of Crystal Fairy. She was this hippy tree “Sure,” says Cera, dryly. “We can get togethmember of an “all gay band” called The Jerk-Offs. here,” a partygoer sighs at the opening of the film hugger from the West Coast. We became good er and watch the movie.” after Jamie complains about the quality of the co- friends that night and I, in a friendly impulse, If you need an omega-male, call Cera! Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus is released 17 Jan caine and weed he’s sampled on his travels. The But lately the Canadian actor has been invited her to tag along with us and come to this next high Jamie is keen to try is a native cactus breaking out of this adorkable typecasting. With creek up north, and she accepted the invitation.” Magic Magic is released 18 Apr
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“Basically I’m telling a story that I went through, and life contains drama and comedy and surprising things and dullness and all of it”
January 2014
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War and Peace War Horse star Jeremy Irvine discusses playing a young Eric Lomax in The Railway Man, the story of the life of a tortured POW who managed to forgive his captors
Interview: Tom Seymour
The Railway Man
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he scene is nostalgic, pastoral, beautifully English. On a trundling train in Northern England, Eric Lomax (Colin Firth), a kindly middleaged man, finds himself sitting opposite the politely inviting Patti (Nicole Kidman). However improbably, Eric finds himself chatting her up. “If you think Warrington’s exciting,” he says. “Wait ’til we get to Preston.” It’s a scene consciously reminiscent of David Lean’s Brief Encounter. Eric reaches his destination. His and Patti’s eyes linger before parting. Later we find him sitting in a working men’s club with his fellow veterans of the Second World War, staring out of the window. Then he jumps up, rushes back to the train station, and eventually intercepts his future wife at Edinburgh’s Waverley Station. Director Jonathan Teplitzky provides a deceptively reassuring opening to a true story of pain, suffering and, finally, redemption, because Eric and Patti’s romance precipitates the most difficult chapter in their adult lives – Eric must come to terms with “a life of bitterness and hatred.” He was held in captivity by the Japanese as a prisoner of the war, starved and tortured to the point of no return. Nightmares haunt him every night, while his waking days are hamstrung by fantasies of revenge and intense depression. As Patti confronts her new husband, forcing him to talk about his experiences for the first time, the film spools back. We meet the younger Lomax, played insightfully by War Horse actor Jeremy Irvine, trying to acclimatise to his new existence as a prisoner of war. The Railway Man is based on Lomax’s own memoir of an almost forgotten chapter of Britain’s war. Lomax, who died last year at the age of 93, was born in Edinburgh in 1919, left school at 16 and joined the Post Office as a telegraphist. At 19, with war inevitable, Lomax joined the Royal
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Corps of Signals, becoming a Royal Signals officer for the Royal Artillery. In 1942 he was captured by the Japanese following the surrender of Singapore. As a prisoner of war in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, he became one of the thousands of men forced to build ‘the death railway’ over the River Kwai in Burma. ‘We were surviving, but that was not enough,’ Lomax wrote in his memoirs, first published in 1995. ‘We were rebellious and eager to know what was happening in the war.’ Lomax was part of a small group of prisoners who secretly built a radio, bartering stolen tools for parts with local traders. They would tune in to Allied bulletins from India, or just to listen to music from back in Blighty. But the radio was discovered, and Lomax was held in Changi jail and tortured within an inch of his life as the Japanese tried to force a fictional confession of sabotage. As his interrogator said to him on arrival at the prison: “Lomax, you will be killed shortly, whatever happens. But it will be to your advantage in the time remaining to tell the whole truth. You know now how we can deal with people when we wish to be unpleasant.” “I’ve never had the sort of emotional connection [to a character I’ve played than] I had to Eric Lomax,” Irvine tells The Skinny when we meet in London. “I got to meet him and his wife, so I spent a lot of time thinking about the responsibility that comes with telling his story. How could I relate to someone who has been forced into a situation so horrific? I was going to have to do everything to get an occasional glimpse of what his life was like as a prisoner of war.” Irvine lost 30 pounds for the role, and spent time in Lomax’s home in Berwick-upon-Tweed, trying to learn as much as he could about the conditions he endured. “He was still suffering 60
years on, and I was asking him to hand the most difficult parts of his life over to me,” Irvine says of the experience. “He was an incredibly funny and sharp and generous man, who gave me so much. But there was a line where I couldn’t go. He’d just go silent, but I could see him reliving it on his face.”
“I’ve never had the sort of emotional connection to a character I’ve played that I had to Eric Lomax” Jeremy Irvine
When it came to the waterboarding sequences, Irvine told Teplitzky he wanted to film the scenes as realistically as possible. “I thought to myself, bit of wet cloth and a hose, it can’t be that bad,” Irvine says. “I’ve heard people describe waterboarding as drowning on dry land, but it’s so much worse. You can have your head held under water, no worries. But water forced into your lungs, into your stomach, up your nose, eyes, ears – you can’t breathe in, exhale. You’re so totally helpless. We did a lot of takes, but not for very long. I managed to deal with it for seven or eight seconds, and I could stop when I wanted. Eric had it day after day.” But waterboarding was only the tip of the
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suffering Lomax was about to experience. He would endure much worse. “They’d waterboard him until his stomach visibly swelled with water, and then they’d stamp on his stomach,” Irvine reveals. “We couldn’t put what Eric went through in the movie, because no-one would watch it.” In the film’s third act, a now ageing Eric realises that the man that tortured him, the interpreter Takashi Nagase of Kurashiki, Japan, has resurfaced. The film shows Nagase working as a tour guide at the prison in which Eric was tortured, now a museum open to tourists. Firth’s Lomax travels alone to Burma to confront Takashi with the express purpose of murdering him, but instead finds in himself a capacity to forgive, to reconcile the past with the damaged men they are now. Extraordinarily, the two found in the other an element of mutual understanding and, over time, became friends. The film, it must be said, takes liberties here in the interests of dramatic unity. Lomax discovered Takashi after Takashi wrote his own book, Crosses and Tigers, about his own experiences during and after the war. After Patti made contact with Takashi, Lomax met him again on the bridge over the River Kwai with a camera crew in tow; it became the documentary Enemy, My Friend? directed by Mike Finlason. Yet this remains a reverent, powerful film – a true tribute to the quiet men who sacrificed themselves, in death and in living, so we could live free and without fear. “He wrote the book and kept it in a cupboard for 30 years,” Irvine says. “He felt shamed by himself, but Eric Lomax was a hero, not just as a young man at war, but throughout his life. I have no idea how he forgave like he did. I could never do that.” But Lomax captures his life in the final sentence of his memoir: ‘Some time the hating has to stop.’ The Railway Man is released 10 Jan by Lionsgate films
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Once More, with Feeling Every year, re:play festival gives us the opportunity to see short-run or one-off theatre that we didn’t catch over the last 12 months – and this year’s programme takes some new steps
N
ow in its seventh year, the Library Theatre Company’s annual re:play festival is a chance to see some of the best of the last year’s new or fringe theatre that you might have missed the first time around. Eight full-length plays, plus one work-in-progress and a handful of script readings will be held at The Lowry, Salford, towards the end of January and into February in a celebration of Manchester and Salford’s new theatre – and, while it’s always offered a diverse line-up, re:play this year is proving more eclectic than it’s ever been, with physical theatre, sketch comedy and verbatim theatre all making an appearance. Lucia Cox, of House of Orphans theatre company, is one of many directors “thrilled” to be involved in this year’s re:play. Her adaptation of Anthony Burgess’ One Hand Clapping (20-22 Jan) is the first-billed show of the festival, and she describes it as “funny, dark and dissatisfied... It’s about a young married couple living in a fictional northern town; the husband has a photographic memory so he decides to go on a quiz show and ends up winning an awful amount of money.” Of course, nothing is ever as good as it sounds: “There’s a bit of twist at the end… it becomes this dark, dark comedy.” In keeping with the ‘Northern’ theme is The Rise and Fall of a Northern Star (20-22 Jan) – the only piece not being performed in The Lowry Studio space. Instead, writer and performer Stella Grundy and director Ian Curley use the backstage Lowry dressing rooms to create an
Interview: Conori Bell-Bhuiyan
intimate space for just 30 people in which to tell the tale of the fictional Madchester icon Tracy Star. “This is a star before the make-up goes on, before the showbiz clean-up… that’s why we thought of the dressing room,” Grundy explains. “It’s very, very intimate. We scared people when it was first performed – she’s quite a dangerous character. It’s like being in a room with someone who’s slightly losing it. “Tracy Star has got my story in her,” Grundy continues. “I created this character so it frees things up for me to look back on my life in a more subjective way. Tracy Star could have existed. That’s what we’re interested in.” The performance also includes live music (though Grundy stresses that the show is “not a musical”), and promises “a bit of a shock ending.” The programme also includes a highlight from last year’s 24:7 festival – Rob Ward’s oneman show Away From Home (30 Jan and 1 Feb), about the relationship between a male escort and a premiership footballer. All Our Friends Are Dead (28 and 30 Jan, 1 Feb) is the darkly surreal and chaotic creation of comedy duo Katie Norris and Sinead Parker, and the festival’s first ever sketch comedy. Adding to the growing range and variety is the more sombre To Walk In Your Shoes (27-29 Jan), which uses verbatim theatre and documentary photography to tell the real stories of asylum seekers in Britain, while the film noir-inspired The Man Who Woke Up Dead (23 and 25 Jan) and the uniquely surrealist Lunch (23
The Rise and Fall of a Northern Star
and 25 Jan) both use physical theatre and expert choreography to create bold and unpredictable worlds, each entirely their own. In case eight full shows weren’t enough to be getting on with, re:play also boasts the free, experimental theatre piece Handles (31 Jan). This work-in-progress delves into lives lived though social media, where live tweets from
the audience will be included in the show as its creator Tom Mason explores our ideals of online self-image. re:play, The Lowry, Salford, 20 Jan-1 Feb, various times and prices www.librarytheatre.com/replay2014
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Join us on Saturday 1 March as we Light Up the building for the first time and on Sunday 2 March for our Housewarming, when we invite you to make yourself at home, explore and discover the new theatre. More details to be announced in the New Year.
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In Association with Liverpool Lantern Company and Walk the Plank
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THEATRE
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The Best Comedian Through poking fun and provocation, Birkenhead’s George Cottier insists that there’s a difference between ‘comedy’ and ‘funny’
Interview: John Stansfield
W
ay back in twenty oh six, a young upstart from Birkenhead brought his disjointed, intentionally awkward act to the final of the Beat The Frog World Series at The Frog and Bucket on Oldham Street in Manchester. A dark horse who abruptly walked off stage when he felt he was done, he was crowned the winner and moved Chortle’s Steve Bennett to describe him as ‘strikingly original’ and ‘definitely an act worth seeing more of’. But only five years later, George Cottier was kicked off Bennett’s UK comedy guide website and allegedly branded a ‘fucking twat’ by the man himself. Cottier doesn’t really like comedy as such, or anyone involved with what he describes as a “toxic” industry. That’s not to say he doesn’t like them as humans, just everything that they stand for. “Comedy nights generally are bad, they’re bad for the human soul,” he says. “The whole format is just bizarre; ‘oh let’s go out and sit quietly and watch another man tell us about his laundry or how his toaster broke.’”
“When someone’s being purely funny but not delivering comedy, people are terrified by it” George Cottier
Cottier scratches beneath the surface of comedy to find what is funny – those indescribable moments when something creates laughter without it just being a cleverly strung together collection of anecdotes and catchphrases. He waits for what is funny to come to him, rather than trying to craft a gag about his daily trudge through existence: “It’s a horrible artifice,” he continues, “and only fun to really think deeply about how you can mess with it, do something genuinely exciting. If you’re just going to go up for your own vanity or talk about who you hate then what’s the point?” It is this attitude that led Cottier to the forums of Chortle – a space where backslapping is a must. For those unfamiliar with Chortle, it is a website largely set up for testimonials from comics or promoters waxing positive about each other – a format that Cottier felt he could play with. He started leaving comments about certain acts, saying they were bad and that he was ‘the best comedian’, upsetting the apple cart by stating that comedians had kicked dogs in his presence, or bought people food, or told a fat person to stay away from them. This was not taken in the lighthearted and satirical spirit in which it was meant, and people began to get annoyed at this young comic seemingly ruining their reputation. Though Cottier was only using the site to amuse himself and others – which was surely its raison d’être – a non-existent spat with Matt Price Comedian ended with Cottier’s removal from the site and Bennett’s rather sweary epithet. It’s always been evident that Cottier’s particular style and demeanour would not fit in with the usual comedy crowd, so often a circuit of middle-aged white males complaining about their wife and mortgage. He longs for something more substantial, and yet indescribable. Being ‘banned from comedy’, as his website puts it, is exactly
January 2014
the reaction he wants; he seeks to elicit raw emotion, almost vitriol, for his actions. In achieving a reaction of honesty, Cottier has done his job – something different – and it is this attitude that leads him to perform at more ‘alternative’ nights, though he is loath to use the word: “Alternative to what? Everything’s the alternative to something.” A recent performance at Three Minute Theatre’s SOS saw Cottier perform a play he had written in his head a few hours before, taking the stage with people he physically pulled out of the audience to enact ‘I love you and we’re in the park’. He left the stage abruptly after three minutes, and then bellowed for the remaining ‘actors’ to “get off the stage”. Nobody was quite sure what they had just seen, but they knew it was funny. In the past, Cottier has simply gotten up on stage with a camera and a timer and taken promo shots of him pretending to do a gig, posing in classic comedy poses like scratching his head, being irate about politicians, being heckled and then putting said heckler back in their place. All the while not actually doing the gig. “Yeah, I’ve not been invited back to that gig, the audience found it funny but the promoter didn’t,” he comments. “I was supposed to be doing 25 minutes, but I was only there for about six.” At another gig he came out and just threw sweets into the audience. “It was amazing, they all looked really happy.” Cottier’s brand of abstract and surreal comedy lends itself best to a room he can control. He believes people are “unwilling to embrace the chaos” of life, and wants to create situations where people have to react – and where better to find a home than on that chasm of chaos known
as the Internet? Cottier’s videos have garnered praise and revulsion alike, viewers never sure what they’ve taken in but aware that they have felt something. His Dinosaurs song has achieved a cult following in Chile, with him finding himself branded ‘el mejor humorista’, and his video about Jesus set to Dead or Alive’s You Spin Me Round has been part of an art exhibition in Greece quoted as ‘a very simple idea of a contradiction between the visual and the sonic constantly finds its balance between a synesthetic adherence and a blasphemous symbiosis’. In February 2013, Cottier and his writing partner Liam Bolton produced, directed, and starred in their own short web sitcom, Danger Precinct, starring fellow surrealists Phil Ellis, Lee Fenwick and Peter Slater. (He also composed the show’s music, and created the intentionally shonky special effects that give it its eerie charm.) Danger Precinct is somewhat akin to Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! in that it takes on the guise of a police procedural with lines that could have been taken directly from a real show, but is skewed with awkward characters suffering their interactions. A second series is written and ready for production in the new year with the continuation of the Jean Hamm case. There is no higher goal of getting on to TV, however; Danger Precinct simply gives Cottier a further platform to make himself and his friends laugh. “Why be on TV? It’s just appalling,” is his conclusion on the slowly redefined medium of television. Rather, YouTube is as much Cottier’s home as the real world, and his obsession with ‘YouTubers’ such as James Cotter (for whom he has written a poem entitled The Actor), Daniel
COMEDY
Hutchings (who made an appearance in Danger Precinct as an insane criminal locked in a virtualreality prison) and especially the Christian librarian Beckie0 (who forms the base of one of his videos) bleeds into his work. Happiest when confounding people, Cottier’s favourite piece of stand-up is Tom Green’s appearance on a cruise ship while he was in his pomp. Green comes on stage to rapturous applause from an audience hoping for a classic comedy set only to deliver a serious of bizarre, incoherent sounds and non-sequiturs, while the audience slowly leaves. “Just the wild presented to you,” Cottier marvels. “Eventually he has to be removed, and as they’re dragging him out of the club he thanks everyone. It’s the best stand-up performance in the world. Ever. Nothing will ever beat that. It’s pure funniness. “There’s an antithesis between comedy and funniness,” he continues. “Comedy is this superstructure, and funniness is what’s going on beneath it, like tectonic plates… so when someone’s being purely funny but not delivering comedy, people are terrified by it. Nobody wants to be confronted with something that’s truly funny, because it would just fuck with your head.” The idea of true funniness is what keeps Cottier going, keeps him creating – and although it’s a quest he may never complete, it will be fascinating to see where it leads. George says he does 100 gigs a week but prefers not to tell people when and where. However, he can confirm that he gigs at SOS, Comedy Balloon, Hot Water Comedy and Comedy Central www.georgecottier.co.uk
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In the House Ahead of the release of his third album, Detroit turntablist Terrence Parker considers how friends, family and golf – yes, golf – led him back to music
Interview: Daniel Jones
mong the throngs of talented musicians to emerge from the Motor City over the past 30 years, native turntablist extraordinaire Terrence Parker has quietly built a reputation as Detroit’s spearhead of gospel-flecked house music. Whether releasing as himself or Seven Grand Housing Authority, or working with other local talent, the sole purpose of his hand in production is to lift spirits. His legacy of immaculate 12”s spans from The 4 Play EP with Claude Young Jr. back in ’93, to the incredibly influential Tribute to Ken Collier out on Glasgow’s Seventh Sign in ’09. Both are must-have records. Parker – known as TP to his friends – calls as he is driving back home to Detroit in the aftermath of a snowstorm to discuss new album Life on the Back 9, landing on Carl Craig’s seminal Planet E at the end of this month. Label-wise, we can safely assume that this release marks a return to his techno origins. “It’s cold, man!” observes Parker, through chattering teeth. “We got three or four inches of snow last night on top of the foot we already had! The windshield’s all frozen up so I’m gonna have to be careful here, it’s like minus ten outside. The salt trucks are out in force. We’re Detroiters though; we’re built for snow. “The new album captures that tough mentality,” he continues. “It’s actually my third full-length and it’s been great working with Carl, Monty, Reggie and the team throughout the whole process. They genuinely care about every little detail. Even though I’m mostly known for my house productions, I actually started out making straight techno with a group called Separate Minds around ’88. It was myself, Trackmaster Lou Robinson (Scan 7) and Marc Kinchen, now more affectionately known as MK. Looking back, quite a lot of my earlier stuff had a slightly harder vibe, so this album is all about going back to those roots. “My studio set-up is pretty virtual – I use Reason with a few other plugins for mastering,” he says. “I do like having the hands-on idea of a MIDI studio, and I do use some gear live, the Korg Mono/Poly for a lot of bass synths, for example. You can’t sync it, so you have to play live!”
“Detroit’s always been working class, and that hardworking, industrial environment seems to breed talent” Terrence Parker
Parker’s professional relationship with the Planet E boss began around 1999, when Craig – also a musical director back in the day – booked him to appear at the first Detroit Electronic Music Festival. “That was the first time we met properly and, straight away, I was impressed by the way Carl presented himself,” he admits. “I
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Terrence Parker
mean, we’d seen each other around before then, at random coffee shops or events, but that was our first time working together. Everybody pretty much knows everybody else in Detroit.” The title of his new album suggests that Parker may well be a dab hand on the golf course. “The title actually comes from my father,” he reveals. “Both my parents are big golfers. A few years back, I was going through a really difficult period in my life where I was constantly struggling to stay positive about anything. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to carry on making music. My mom was concerned about me and so she gets my dad on the phone to have a few words, and he starts telling me about his golf game. I’m like having a really, really hard time and he wants to tell me about his handicap! “But then he says, ‘Look, Terrence, one day I was out on the course and everything was going wrong. The ball kept finding the rough, sand traps, bunkers, pretty much everywhere but the fairway. All my buddies were laughing at me and I just felt like packing up and calling it a day. Midway through, I grabbed a coffee in the clubhouse and prayed to God to help me with my game. I knew I had to settle down and just take one hole at a time.’ So that’s what my dad did. He relaxed and took one hole at a time. His back nine not only got better, but he shot an amazing score and ended up beating all the guys who were laughing at him. “That’s the way you have to view your life,” he considers. “Even if you don’t do so well on the
front nine, it’s not the end, it’s the beginning. It’s the way you react to whatever situation you’re in. That story really put everything in perspective for me, symbolised where I was at that time and inspired me to go back to music.” Parker’s father played a major role in his musical development, bringing records into the house by Smokey Robinson, The Four Tops, The Marvelettes, or, as TP likes to call them, “the usual suspects.” Motown aside, it was gospel artists like Mahalia Jackson and Andraé Crouch who proved to be a major influence. “Growing up we had this very famous group called the Clark Sisters,” he remembers. “They had a track called You Brought the Sunshine that flopped in the 70s gospel community, but it indirectly became a cult classic at Studio 54. That record really was the start of what I now call gospel-dance. It had that beat to it.” Parker’s first taste of delivering music to the masses came as a high-school radio DJ. “From that, I ended up doing a couple of shows with the famous Electrifying Mojo,” he says. “He had this crazy persona where he was some kind of alien being sent down to Earth with all this music, which had a massive influence on the first techno wave. Back then, listening to guys like Jesse Saunders and Jackmaster Funk really set it off for me. Marshall Jefferson’s On The House production made me want to take that familiar, uplifting gospel sound and put my own stamp on it.” In a city with such enormous musical history, the cycle is bound to continue in some form.
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Parker is quick to mention young guns J. Garcia and Hugh Cleal as worthy up-and-comers from his fair city. Minimal artist Merchka also gets the thumbs up, as does local house label Coyote Cuts, run by the aforementioned Hugh C. “They made their name promoting parties in the city with people like Grant Nelson and Kenny Dixon Jr. Some of their productions are incredible,” he affirms. According to Parker, Detroit’s unique position on the musical map is partly due to its geographical location. It’s surrounded by the Great Lakes, with the Detroit River running through the heart of the city. “We’re pretty much a seaport,” he adds. “There have always been workers and musicians coming and going, not only influencing the city but also adding to the city’s influence. “We’ve always been working class, and that hardworking, industrial environment seems to breed talent. Not just Motown or techno, all kinds of artists: Rodriguez, Eminem, Dennis Coffey, Anita Baker to name a few. I don’t know if it’s something in the water but for some reason God has decided to bless a lot of people from this city. I’m thankful that I was born and raised here. If I was born in Los Angeles or Miami, I wouldn’t be the same person going down that back nine.” Life on the Back 9 is released 27 Jan by Planet E Terrence Parker plays Kitchen Street Pop Up, Liverpool, on 25 Jan www.terrenceparkermusic.com
THE SKINNY
Photo: Michael Johnson
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Putting Short Fiction on the Map A new app from Comma Press takes short stories and integrates them with detailed maps, allowing readers to explore unfolding narratives in real cities. Your commute just got interesting
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pps are big business – in 2012, paid-for apps alone generated an estimated $8 billion worldwide, with that number swelling to $30 billion with ad placement and subscriptions taken into account. E-book functionality is built into smartphones and tablets as a matter of course, widening the market opened by devices like the Kindle and Kobo. Apps and digital delivery methods range from the ‘enhanced content’ offered by Harper Collins, with enabled devices showing video, animations and other content alongside and within the text, to myriad audiobook-related apps, to the steadily growing market for Kindle Singles – short stories and serialised works of fiction sold cheap, addressing a growing hunger for fiction delivered in digestible chunks. Jim Hinks, Digital and Translation Editor at Manchester’s Comma Press, is happy that the literary app market and the rise of e-readers has led to something of a renaissance for the short story, but is quick to shoot down one of the big myths. “People say we live modern, fast-paced lives, so short stories are perfect, because you don’t really have to think about them. You can just sort of... fit them in, when you have time,” Hinks reflects. “I don’t think that’s true, really. If you want the best out of a short story, you have to really concentrate, and read into it. It’s a more difficult art form than a novel, which might link in a lot of context for the reader. Short stories are always going to be something of a niche.” Faced with the challenge of how to fulfil the needs of this niche form of storytelling, and deliver an app that readers would find useful as well as entertaining, he and his team came up with Gimbal. “When readers use the app, they can either view the story in text form, or they can listen to the audio, and actually see the route that the story takes across the city in which it is set,” Hinks explains. “As you’re listening to the story, you can see the journey across the city plotted on a map. The cursor moves along, and shows you points of interest along the way – these could be places mentioned in the story, or key landmarks.” Deceptively simple, the experience of using Gimbal is addictive – particularly while on public transport. Designed with commuters in mind, the linking of your physical journey with an unfolding narrative in foreign territory is deeply engaging. “You only have to look at things like the
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protests in Taksim Square in Istanbul recently to see how important town planning and municipal space are to the way people live their lives – the way we interact in public spaces,” says Hinks. “We see this as a key concern of contemporary short stories. Short fiction is often about chance encounters between strangers in public places – in a square, in a shopping mall, on public transport. It’s a trope that comes up an awful lot. Gimbal was designed to explore that idea. We don’t see ourselves as being in competition with other literary apps, which have different concerns.” The Gimbal project began when Comma collaborated with Literature Across Frontiers, a pan-global organisation promoting collaboration between writers in different cultures and territories. It was funded in part by Arts Council England. “We had set up a series of residencies called the ‘Tramlines’ project – lots of writers went to stay with each other, and lay around on public transport discussing ideas and writing stories,” says Hinks. Some of these stories, by writers such as Hassan Blasim and Yousef alMohaimeed, ended up finding a home on Gimbal, giving insight into life in their home cities in Iraq and Saudi Arabia. “Most of the stories feature journeys taken by characters,” says Hinks. Al-Mohaimeed’s story is “about a clandestine meeting between a man and a woman, who he falls in love with. But because of the political and social situation in Saudi Arabia, this kind of interaction between men and women is frowned upon, at least in public – so they have to organise their meetings in a very clandestine way. It’s all about these kinds of encounters on park benches, in shopping malls; but it’s also about the way the government regulates these public spaces, and how this changes the way people live their lives.” Blasim’s tale, set in Baghdad, “is all about crossing bridges over the River Tigris. The bridges are key points when you are moving from one place to another, and often each bridge is controlled by a different militant organisation. So these stories, which explore the geography of the cities they are set in but also let you see it on a map, allow you to explore a city and also learn about its politics, its sociology, its anthropology.” Gimbal’s effect has a similar ambition to some of Iain Sinclair’s writing about
Interview: Bram E. Gieben Illustration: Caroline Dowsett
map that imagined future cityscape, and to map that onto their city as it is at the moment.” These stories can work “as an allegory to talk about the politics of the time, or to describe a utopian or dystopian future for their city.” Asked what he sees as being the future for literary apps, Hinks has a clear idea: “I think searchability will be a huge thing,” he says. “Hashtagging will be important, in the same way as it is on Tumblr blogs and in Twitter memes. The problem with many of the current literary apps is that they are a publisher pushing very specific, narrow content through an app – using the app solely for that purpose. I think literary apps that actually aggregate content and allow for more discoverability, and search options for the user, are where things are going to go.” Some of that searchability is what makes Gimbal a pleasure to use: “You can search for stories that are between 10 and 20 minutes long,” Hinks explains, a feature aimed at commuters. “If your normal commute takes 30 minutes, you can find a story that perfectly fits your commute. You can pick by mode of transport, or by genre. Jim Hinks The intention, right from the start, was to make something that was easy to use, and useful.” Hinks believes the short story is the perHinks is wary of apps where the designers fect literary form for this kind of exploration. are “putting functionality in there for the sake of “Whereas poetry might cling more tenaciously to it,” which led him away from his initial thought, of the source language, short stories tend to trans- using GPS technology in some way. “We realised it late far better. And yet, they often deal with far doesn’t offer much use to the reader to do that. more universal situations than the novel, which is So we had to take a step back and ask ourselves, often so rich in context that it becomes difficult ‘What will people actually use? What will they to uproot and put into another language. Short want?’ Hopefully we got it right, and it’s something I want to do for all our future app projects... stories tend to be about these universal, minute to look at what readers are likely to engage with.” crystallisations of people’s lives, which you can Gimbal may also offer opportunities for understand from another perspective. At the emerging writers to submit their work at some same time they have enough context and detail point in the future. “All I can say on that is ‘Watch – geographical detail specifically – that you can this space.’ We have something cooking at the also learn about different cultures.” moment along those lines. Gimbal feels like a Currently, the stories on Gimbal “tend to starting point for us. It’s just opened up so many be realist, to a large degree.” But the possibility possibilities – the process of doing it, finding out for overlaying speculative fiction narratives on how readers interact with it – it’s opened the to maps of real cities is something the app may tackle when Iraq Plus 100, a collection of specially door to so much more, in future.” commissioned science fiction from Iraqi writers, Gimbal is a free app available from letsgimbal.com. It is is published late next year. “This is a book that currently available for iPhone and iPad, with an Android version in development asks Iraqi short story writers to imagine their city a hundred years after the US and UK invasion www.commapress.co.uk of 2003,” says Hinks. “It’s actually asking them to psychogeography – attempting to connect a city’s physical geography, its architecture and its history to the territory of the imagination and experience. “Psychogeography has been part of the inspiration not just for the app itself, but for a lot of commissions in the past,” says Hinks. “Years ago, we were influenced by people like Iain Sinclair, and other psychogeographers – their understanding of the city. We’ve always commissioned on the basis of location.”
“Short fiction is often about chance encounters between strangers in public places”
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THE SKINNY
Into the Ether
Curators at The Royal Standard Amy Jones and James Hedley Harper discuss how their new medium-straddling exhibition, Different Domain, explores the interface between art online and in ‘real life’
Interview: Ali Gunn
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or their current exhibition, Liverpool’s The Royal Standard present a programme that questions the nature of artworks that inhabit the Internet, and looks at how audiences can engage with this rapidly changing culture both online and in real life (IRL). Curated by Amy Jones and James Hedley Harper, the six-week Different Domain occupies The Royal Standard’s website, their Twitter account, Google Hangouts and – for two one-day events – the physical space of the gallery, and features the work of an international cast of artists: Laura Buckley, Harry Burke, Jesse Darling, Bill Domonkos, Joe Hamilton, Sara Ludy, Alexandria McCrosky, Sabrina Ratté, Erica Scourti and Molly Soda. “The way we use, understand and access the Internet has changed massively even within the last five years,” writes Jones by email. “It felt necessary to explore the impact of that on the production and exhibition of art works.” The way in which galleries and curators show online art, and in particular the ways in which artists and curators bring online art offline and into real life, is a primary concern for Jones. Compared with commercial galleries – which may have a financial interest in the way online art can be presented IRL for the purpose of being sold – The Royal Standard’s interests lie in asking what conceptual value there is in taking online art out of the realms it was created in, and into the gallery website for an hour to look at an exhibition... it’s – and in looking at if, through this change, the just not how people use the Internet.” Working context of the work differs. with their website developer, John Wai, The Royal Standard have built a way to exhibit artworks on their website not only for Different Domain but also for future programming. Each artwork featured in the online programme takes over the front page of the site; as Jones explains: “we really wanted to showcase each individual artist as best we could. We felt that changing the content on the website regularly would encourage people to keep coming back and really engage with the individual works.” Opening the online programme was Molly Soda – an Internet ‘sensation’ brought to fame through her use of the blogging platform Tumblr. Describing her aesthetic as “when you’re getting undressed in front of your window and you’re pretty sure the neighbor across the street can see you but you keep your blinds open anyway,” Soda blurs the distinction between URL and IRL in her work. Unlike her other works where she performs alone, often playing multiple characMolly Soda ters, for her new video piece, Swimming in Gold, For the first part of the IRL exhibition, GIFS Soda has enlisted others to perform alongside and Glitter (which took place in December), the her. “I wanted the video to feel like a bunch of physical space of the gallery was stripped of its Facebook status,” she says, “whatever you post white cube conventions, with the curators aimto keep people informed on what party you’re ing to create a space “that’s not the Internet but going to.” not quite the gallery either.” In it, both the space A barrage of emblems of Internet culture, and the work within it – such as Jesse Darling’s from the adverts that hog the edge of websites reference of a YouTube meme for Marvin’s Room to the self-confessionals of YouTube videos, by Drake in her Darling’s Room (Karaoke Version) Swimming in Gold captures the digital spaces – referenced Internet platforms that have bethat we inhabit on a daily basis and stirs up come so engrained into our everyday life. Jones questions about the communal nature of social describes the experience of the event as similar platforms. Drawing a sharp commentary on to how we encounter a constant flux of imagery the actually-often-unsocial aspect of Internet online. For her, “it was a real mass of colours and platforms, the video is, she says, like “everyone’s information, which was at times quite overtalking at each other instead of to each other.” whelming.” The second event IRL (Holding Space, Just as Different Domain looks at the distincon 17 January), on the other hand, will consider tion between public and private space online, so how physical space is represented and how a does Soda within her own practice. “You exist as sense of place can be created on the Internet. an avatar [on the Internet] essentially, you never For the online programme, however, it was have to reveal your identity,” she says. “I don’t reimportant for the curators to not try to recreate ally take advantage of anonymity on the Internet, I’m quite the opposite, everything I do is always the physical sense of how you view work in a gallery. “Everything on the Internet is so immediate out there.” and transient, in a way that the gallery just isn’t,” For Soda, using the Internet as a medium says Jones, “so asking people to stay on your brings up questions of ownership. Reflecting on
“Ownership doesn’t really exist over the Internet... once you throw your ‘work’ into cyberspace you’re essentially giving it up”
January 2014
Laura Buckley – Enhance, Stop 1
Molly Soda – Swimming in Gold
the curatorial elements of Different Domain, she says, “I like the idea that ownership doesn’t really exist over the Internet... once you throw your ‘work’ into cyberspace you’re essentially giving it up.” The collective and social nature of the Internet allows Soda to push her own practice, she says: “Everyone is collaborating and doing cool shit together that you can’t do in real life because of distance.” That concentration on collaboration is continued on 4-5 January, when poet and curator Harry Burke – tipped by super-curator Hans Ulrich Obrist as one to watch – will be taking over The Royal Standard’s Twitter account. Burke’s poetry takes a sharp look at contemporary youth culture and uses the Internet not only contextually but also as a source of creation and publication. For Burke, “the biggest challenge for artists and curators at the moment is to try and interrogate and undermine this process of commodity making, and understand that this process includes all technologies.” Alongside his takeover, Burke will be broadcasting a poem via Google Hangouts. “We chose Google Hangouts to broadcast live works for Different Domain as it was the one social broadcasting tool that we felt reflected the themes of the exhibition,” states Hedley Harper, placing
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emphasis on the ability of the audience to interact: “They can see and hear the performer, while also being able to respond verbally and visually,” he says. Whether through online performance, audio-visual landscape or Internet poetry, the works from this selection of international artists show the broad ways in which the Internet can be used as a platform for making and disseminating art. When asked whether viewing an exhibition on a computer screen could be seen as a private, isolated endeavour, however, Jones insists that it’s not a case of logging in and zoning out. On the contrary, “it’s a more solitary experience to walk around a quiet gallery contemplating the work than it is online with Facebook chat open and your Twitter feed silently humming in the background.” Different Domain continues online until 18 Jan, featuring: Bill Domonkos, Wenzel (until 3 Jan); Harry Burke Twitter Takeover (4-5 Jan); Alexandria McCrosky, Learned Blindly (6-10 Jan); Google Hangout Broadcast (11-12 Jan); Sara Ludy, Title TBA (13-18 Jan) Holding Space feat. Sara Ludy, Joe Hamilton, Laura Buckley, Bill Domonkos, Alexandria McCrosky and more, The Royal Standard, Liverpool, 17 Jan, 7pm Viewers will be able to follow Harry Burke’s Twitter Takeover by using the hashtag #DIFFERENTDOMAIN www.the-royal-standard.com
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Get Loved Up to Survive The Western world’s recognised narrative lies in peril; for Thee Silver Mt. Zion’s Efrim Menuck, only embracing “hokey” values can save it
Interview: Simon Jay Catling
he human condition to create narratives within our own lives means that our greatest fears are those that threaten to end them. For Thee Silver Mt. Zion’s Efrim Menuck, focusing on these overwhelming dangers to our recognised existence – be it the West’s economic and social decay, or climate change – has been what’s pulled his creative current through the group’s 15 years together. Their albums alternate between states of despair and defiance, as Menuck grapples with issues that feel paradoxically ignored in the developed world, even as they stare us unflinchingly in the eyes. “Sure, I find myself vacillating between despair and hope over the course of minutes,” Menuck tells The Skinny over Skype. “It is just the human condition. You can’t wrap your head around something like climate change and not end up feeling a healthy amount of helplessness.” His troupe’s latest record, the excellent Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything, revolves around several societal, technological and personal themes, reflecting the constantly malleable nature of its creators’ own thoughts. Menuck demonstrates his own restless nature in our chat today, flicking through his mind as though looking through a filing cabinet to discuss the austerity measures of the West, late-stage capitalism’s social restrictions and fatherhood, each at the draw of a breath. “We live in fucking terrifying times,” he says simply at one point, backing up what we’ve always known of him; both in his work with ’Zion and with the much-revered Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Menuck is someone prepared to face life’s bleakest realities face-first. “But I think human beings all share these same primal fears anyway,” he reasons. “And so my songs are just about finding words for those fears felt like being kissed for the first time!” Menuck because otherwise there’s no way forward. The exclaims, recalling the spring marches. “Montreal beginning has to be finding words for that stuff. has a long tradition of shooting its mouth off,” Otherwise we lose everything.” he goes on, explaining the opening track’s title. “It’s something I love about this city. And this protest… it felt like 70% of the city was out on the streets some nights banging on pots and pans.” In part, the protest worked, and the new leftist minority government, Parti Québécois, halted tuition fee raises. Much like the combustion and silence of the London riots in 2011, however, they seemed gone in the blink of an eye. “The sad thing was it ended as quickly as it began,” Menuck recalls ruefully. “And it didn’t lead to any substantive changes. So the song’s specifically about that feeling of both pride and regret at the same time.” Menuck also revisits the themes of austerity he voiced on 2010’s Kollaps Tradixionales. No less impassioned and raw-sounding than they were then, with the global crash at the time just two years previous, the fever of his vehemence reaches a pitch on the 14-minute Austerity Blues, as he howls refrain ‘we hope we’re still alive to Efrim Menuck see the mountain torn down.’ “Possibly the most outraging thing about these austerity programmes that all the Western As a record, Fuck Off… recalls a lot of themes liberal democracies have engaged in to various existent in previous Mt Zion material; the band degrees over the last few years is how ineffective recorded for ten days solid, in a house Menuck and unoriginal and transparent they’ve all been,” describes as “like someone’s vision of the future he fumes. “The insidious thing about late-stage circa 1966 or something,” outside of their native capitalism is that it has us all convinced that Montreal. So it is that this record’s first song, there’s nothing we can do to change things, that in its pounding drums and hacked-at strings, is the system we’re born into is the system that a part-tribute, part-lament to a place Menuck always has been and always will be, and that any feels a mixture of pride and pity for. Fuck Off suggestion against that is suspect. Like, it feels Get Free (For the Island of Montreal) references impossible to even posit an alternative.” the Quebec student protests of 2012, in which The album ultimately takes this line of thinking to its most desolate on the swelling tumult of a 150-strong stand against the potential of raising tuition fees became a full-scale movement What We Loved Was Not Enough. A typical Thee against the provincial government as a whole. “It Silver Mt. Zion track structurally, it builds from
“The insidious thing about latestage capitalism is that it has us all convinced that there’s nothing we can do to change things”
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Thee Silver Mt. Zion
a place of solitude, strings and guitars gradually scaling up its walls before breaking forth into rumbustious crescendo. It includes the line, ‘the West will rise again,’ a sarcastic take of southern US confederates’ ‘the South will rise again;’ its five words damn the spiral in which the developed world finds itself. “It became this question for me,” Menuck reveals. “’What will it take for the West to rise again? The obvious answer to that is total collapse. It will only rise again when it’s all fallen to shit. So, yeah, what we loved, these values we had, what we believed in hasn’t been enough.” Before uttering that lyric, it’s notable that Menuck croakily asks ‘are our children gonna die?’ A new father at the release of their previous album, his and ’Zion violinist Jessica Moss’s son is now four years old and has taken a grip on Menuck’s public perceptions of the world. It is one thing to confront the despondency of our world head on when you are alone; when you’re suddenly responsible for another life that you hope dearly will extend decades beyond yours, that instinct to call out what seem to be the inevitabilities of our fate starts to jar. “It puts you in the position where you have to be on the side of love,” he ruminates from the other end of the internet. “Huge chunks of my day are occupied with being entranced and in love with this perfect creature who actually knows how to live in this world unlike us adults. It’s like being on a weird drug for a lot of the day and so I spend huge chunks of my days now being in total denial about how dire things look in the world, but those blinders are going to get tore off right fast at some point.” As such, Menuck posits that, as humans, we need to “get hokier” if we are to survive. “These moments we have where it’s like ‘oh wait I have an idealistic idea!’ Well fucking voice it! People are going to shoot you down but I think it’s important
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to do it because we’ve all internalised this idea that things aren’t going to change, so it takes very little for us to stick our heads back into our shells.” As far as Fuck Off… goes, the moments of love and poignancy shown within it surface in a parallel theme that runs throughout, of paying heartfelt homage to musicians dying young. Apparent during Take Away These Early Grave Blues – a live staple as early as 2011 – it becomes truly visible during the emotive, piano-led closer Rains Thru the Roof at Thee Grande Ballroom (For Capital Steez). Though the title references the 19-year-old Brooklyn rapper who tragically took his own life last year, jumping from the top of the Cinematic Music HQ in Manhattan on Christmas Eve, Menuck points out “it’s about musicians dying young, so it could’ve also been dedicated to Jason Molina. But the Capital Steez thing was so ridiculously tragic given how young he was. It seemed like the dedication was deserved.” The Grande Ballroom in Detroit is also referenced, famous as the venue where pioneering proto-punks MC5 made their name in the late 60s. Like so much of Detroit, it now lies in disrepair, having been closed as a venue since 1972. The band themselves of course blazed a trail all too briefly before collapsing out the other side of the music industry within four years of their debut LP. Three of the 5’s founding members have since passed away. “There’s a way that narrative didn’t end how one would’ve wanted to. I mean it just ended. Tragically,” Menuck sighs. “So much of this trade that we’re in of playing music is built up of narratives that don’t end well and specifically stories that end with musicians dying young.” How long until other, greater narratives fall? Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything is released on 20 Jan via Constellation Records. Thee Silver Mt. Zion play Leeds Brudenell Social Club on 26 Feb www.cstrecords.com/thee-silver-mt-zion
THE SKINNY
Photo: Yannick Grandmont
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Welcome to the Food & Drink Survey 2014 You ate, you drank, you voted – and we rifled through your responses to bring you your favourite places to grab some grub and grog in Manchester and Liverpool
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elcome, one and all, to the results of our first ever Food and Drink Survey. To get you in the spirit, think of this intro as the print-based equivalent of that protracted pause favoured by all awards ceremonies ever, before the envelope is opened. We’ll get the boring overview stuff out of the way, and then you can go have fun reading about curry tips, rare beers and how to survive a hangover in West Kirby. So. These next few pages represent a mini-insight into the state of the region’s food and drink scene, Northwest gastronomy circa 2013 if you like, through the public’s eyes. As we would a time capsule that has immortalised the zeitgeist for generations to come, we can look back on this all one day and remark how silly we were to obsess over meat patties and craft beer.
January 2014
Editor: Jamie Faulkner Illustrations: Michael Arnold
Alternatively, aliens might find it and wonder, in their superior wisdom, at the very efficacy of surveys. But not yet. For now, let’s live in the present/ recent past. It’s safe to say that even the most blinkered of us can’t have failed to notice that 2013 was one hell of a year for food and drink in Manchester and Liverpool. It was a time for some long overdue intercity loving. In a kind of restaurant foreign exchange program, Almost Famous found a new home in Liverpool, Lucha Libre bunked up with Manchester, and Moose Coffee, too, headed east down the Mersey. It was also a time for A-list chefs to launch a small-scale, aproned assault on Manchester: James Martin, Simon Rogan and Aiden Byrne each opened a restaurant to more or less positive reception. And, more or less, they
all got a mention in your votes. The beer scene grew bigger, reflected by the sheer number of different names mentioned in the Best Brewery category. New bars sprung up left, right and centre, but the old haunts still held their own. We had a new festival in Liverpool in Camp and Furnace’s Summercamp, and the Independent Manchester Beer Convention held their second annual event. Street food burgeoned under independent trader collective Guerilla Eats, who staged ‘food parties’ of their own as well as lending support to events throughout the region. In short, a lot’s gone on, and we’re glad to see both the familiar and the not-so-familiar, the new and the old faces featuring in the voting. So, after much spreadsheeting, alphabetising, colour-coding, email-threading and
FOOD AND DRINK
old-fashioned bloody counting, the next four pages are our interpretation of your votes – and rather than just list your picks, we’ve got a bit creative. For those of you left without funds to venture abroad thanks to December’s debauchery and present-giving, we’ve got a world-tour-ish of the best non-British cuisines near you. We’ve also got a tongue-in-cheek Google Maps guide to your favourite fast food picks, as well as the aforementioned tips for budding curry-cooks and beer aficionados. Finally, there’s a list of all your favourite places, so you’ve got a handy checklist of new places to visit in 2014. Thanks to all those who voted – it really wouldn’t be anything without you. Really. We’ll see you here again next year.
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Love at Leaf
A Tale of Two Cities
A winner in the Best Place for a First Date category as well as one of your favourite cafes, we check out Leaf’s flirtation-friendly events in January
If your votes in the Best Newcomer category show anything, it’s that Liverpool and Manchester have been yearning for two very different things
Words: Jamie Faulkner
Words: Jamie Faulkner
Leaf
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rgh, ain’t dating hard? Even something as relatively simple as dining out can become a fraught affair: Who pays? What level of swankiness to choose? What if your date suffers from deipnophobia, the abnormal fear of dining and dinner conversation? It’s possible. After that, you’re left with only a few safe options: going for a hot drink (preferably not Bovril); drinking alcohol (preferably not on a park bench), and seeing some live music (preferably not One Direction). Thankfully, Leaf on Liverpool’s Bold Street has all these bases covered, making it a no-brainer for first-date action. If you’re thinking that it’s one of those ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’ places, then you’d be wrong. They started out in 2007 with a mission to bring quality loose leaf tea to the city, so they’ve had the hot beverage department sorted for a while now. With roughly 30 teas on their menu, you’ll also have an obvious ice-breaker. We’re not sure the “Oh, I didn’t know there was such a thing as white tea” conversation is going to light any fires, however. Leaf pull no punches when it comes to alcohol either: the beer list won’t have the ale-heads swooning but it’s bound to please most (and, generally, divisive menus are to be avoided on first dates, as is beer snobbery); their wine list,
too, is affordable and no afterthought. And if live music is what you’re after, they’ve had gigs by the likes of College and Julia Holter in 2013. So, if you’ve roped someone – not literally we hope – into going on a date with you in the first month of 2014, we thought we’d share some of Leaf’s potentially romance-inducing events this month: Life Drawing Workshop (5 Jan) – Take someone along for a kooky first date or just strike up a rapport with the model. At least there’ll be no genitalia-related surprises further down the line. Out of the Bedroom (14 Jan) – An open-mic night. A good idea if you’ve got what people call a “singing voice”, and can thus impress your date and strangers simultaneously. Harvest Sun presents Nathaniel Rateliff (24 Jan) – There’s nothing like a bit of folk balladry to stir up heartfelt emotions and a good bit of bonding. Don’t live in Liverpool? According to you, the places for romance in Manchester are apparently Common, Bakerie, and Épernay champagne bar. The first is perfect at striking a balance between the hip and the not overly fussed; the latter two are moodily lit with corners made for couples. HOST in Liverpool was something of an anomaly, but its variety of pan-Asian food might have played a part.
The Art of Latte T
here was a time... a time when cafes were the place to be seen and heard; hotbeds of political fervour, brimming with debate and discussion. Imagine Sartre and De Beauvoir at Les Deux Magots in the ’40s, and you’ll get the idea. Then, cafes were gradually superseded by the pub, and became something much tamer – more of a haven for freelance creative-types desperate to work anywhere but home than a revolutionary breeding ground. Now, if you’re seen, it should never be sans laptop and, if you’re heard, expect some death-stares over those flat whites. But, in a certain way, this is what we love about them. They’re part of that paradoxically caffeinated yet tranquil realm where, if there’s
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Lifestyle
Free State Kitchen
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ast year was chock-a-block with new openings across the region, with Mancunian voters championing fine-dining neophytes while Liverpool seemed pleased that the ‘dirty food’ revolution had finally begun. In Liverpool, the craze for all things American doesn’t seem to have been a ‘thing’ yet. Originating in Manchester, Almost Famous, who are, er, famous for both their patties and patter, must have had plenty of solicitations from visitors before they decided to open Merseysideway. If they were using some sort of ‘delayed gratification’ technique, it worked a treat. While reviewers and bloggers have been quick to comment on the innuendo, frisbees, no photos policy etc., behind it all there’s a genuinely tasty product. Free State Kitchen have a more softly, softly approach but an equally enviable reputation for doing a proper job of Americanised fare, and it saw them feature prominently in this category and elsewhere. Manchester in 2013, meanwhile, had arguably had its fill of burger and burrito purveyors and set its sights on earning national acclaim for
more upmarket places. Both Simon Rogan’s The French and its slightly less formal sister restaurant Mr. Cooper’s House & Garden opened in the Midland Hotel and featured prominently in the voting. The former had been talked about in the same breath as Michelin stars, but was passed over for the honour despite its boasting some of the most inventive and well-executed cooking to grace the city centre in an age. Still, the Waitrose Good Food Guide saw fit to place it 12th in the country for its 2014 edition. Mr Cooper’s House aimed for the middle ground in pricing alone – the food lives up to Rogan’s exacting standards. It’d be nice to be able to disagree with Jay Rayner’s musings that Manchester as a city has ‘a tendency to tip over into overkill’, but, from The French’s carpet to Mr Cooper’s foliage, we’re still waiting for a low-key city-centre option in the fine-dining vein. Throwing an Icelandic-coffeehouse shaped curveball in our neat categorisation was Takk, the Northern Quarter’s answer to, erm, Icelandic coffeehouses; proving that there are still some cafe niches to be explored.
Your votes in the Best Cafe category revealed you favour high quality but ultimately fuss-free coffee. And also, literally everything with inch-thick salted caramel icing
any artifice, at least it’s quiet artifice. Maybe that’s what you were thinking when you voted for Manchester’s North Tea Power as one of your favourite spots. It’s been doing rather well at the seemingly simplistic art of running a café for several years now in the Northern Quarter, an area that feels saturated by variations on the theme. Regardless of the name, they take their coffee very seriously: it’s all V60s and Aeropresses, coffee specials boards and latte art, while grilled and cold sandwiches, pastries and loose-leaf teas cater for the hungry and the foolish non-coffee drinkers. Did we say the Northern Quarter was saturated? Considering the rate at which new
places are popping up, Home Sweet Home are almost young veterans of the scene. They’re less a cafe and more an American-inspired diner (at least food-wise) that hovers between Britain and the States in terms of styling – but that didn’t stop you voting for them. It’s worth a visit for the cheeseburger toastie alone, but the cookies, cakes and shakes have also won many plaudits. Sourdough kings and all-round great bakers Trove – doing wonderful breakfasts and a regular pizza night featuring their bready wares – also made a name for themselves in your results. In Liverpool, you liked Leaf. However, you also thought they were a great place for a first
FOOD AND DRINK
Words: Jamie Faulkner
date (see above) so we shan’t repeat ourselves. That just leaves us (wahey!) with Bold Street Coffee, who’ve become, without too much exaggeration, a Liverpudlian institution. They’ve won many an accolade along the way, bordering as they do on the right side of indie cool: even though their coffee geekery extends to coffee processing tastings and stocking Has Bean, Square Mile and Workshop coffees, there’s a distinct lack of pretension about the whole endeavour of getting a coffee there. Given that even this simple pleasure can often seem far too trying these days, that’s no bad thing.
THE SKINNY
EVERY MONDAY Movie Night Monday*, classic cult movies with a pizza and beer or wine for £6.95 and 50p a bag of popcorn
EVERY TUESDAY Let’s get Quizzical, £1 entry incl. free pizza and cash prices
EVERY THURSDAY One More For the Road with Terry Gray, the only open mic with FREE SCOUSE ON THE HOUSE
EVERY FRIDAY The Hatch acoustic session, live acoustic music from local and travelling souls
THE 1ST SATURDAY OF EVERY MONTH Open Soul, a night of acoustic music from a spectrum of genres including folk jazz, blues and funk, £3 entry
THE 3RD SUNDAY OF EVERY MONTH Hobo Bazaar from 12-5pm, a unique shopping experience
EACH SATURDAY Join us for the unexpected. HOPSKOTCH Street Kitchen & Bar \ THE HATCH Mathew Street Liverpool L1 6AU 0151 908 0098 hello@hopskotchliverpool.com hopskotchliverpool.com
Other discounts apply to student card holders *10” margherita pizza, bottle of beer, small glass of wine applies
Unit C 11 | St James Square John Dalton Street Manchester | M2 6WH www.jack-spratt.co.uk @JackSpratteat January 2014
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69% of our readers eat out at least once per week* Be sure they know what you offer – promote your menu with The Skinny Contact Caroline or Issy 0161 831 9590 sales@theskinny.co.uk
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Illustration: Hannah Bitowski
it’s the brooklyn way BrooklynMixer SeelSt Liverpool
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THE SKINNY
The Mughli Way How many restaurants can say they’ve fed the Prime Minister, Nigel Slater and Jared Leto? There’s only one we know of, and it proved one of your favourites in the Indian Sub-continent section: Rusholme’s Mughli Interview: Anna Tully Mughli
M
anchester’s Mughli as we know it today hasn’t always been so: it first opened back in 1991, after the late owner, Peter Arshad, decided he wanted to up the game of the ‘Curry Mile’. Over 20 years later, and the restaurant is now headed up by Peter’s son, Haz. He’s been heavily involved since 2006 and was proud to see the loyal following his father created still coming back, years later. More recently, he’s created some innovative twists to the menu, educating diners in the ways of ‘Mamma Mughli’ cooking and promoting a family style of dining. You might have guessed by now that Mughli is no ordinary Indian restaurant: don’t let its location on the ‘Curry Mile’ fool you into thinking you’ll be devouring food best left to 2am on a Saturday night. Haz spent weeks in his parents’ home countries, exploring the street food of Lahore and the ‘dhaba’ curries of the roadsides to bring to Manchester an altogether different ‘Indian’ experience. With a menu heavy on street food and staff who actively encourage diners to
share dishes, the ever-popular Rusholme restaurant has kindly shared with us a few of their top tips for the perfect curry...
Turmeric, cumin seeds and mustard seeds are the beginnings of nearly every curry.
1. You get out what you put in Sounds a little obvious, but using fresh, quality ingredients can really transform a mediocre dish into something rather special, especially where the ‘curry trinity’ and tomatoes are concerned. Use ripe, red tomatoes (rather than tinned) together with a mixture of both red and sweeter Spanish onions with freshly crushed garlic, and you’ll taste the difference.
3. Oil – ‘the elephant in the curry-kitchen’ Traditional Indian recipes aren’t shy when it comes to the use of oil in cooking curry. It is used to protect the onions when sautéing and, more importantly, prevents the spices from burning. The oil will always separate from the sauce once the dish is ready, and can be drained off at this point in any case. The choice of oil also has a big impact on the final taste of the curry. Ghee (or clarified butter) is often used in Indian cooking to provide a richness and depth to the sauce, but sunflower or vegetable oil is also used for a more neutral flavour.
2. Choose your spices carefully Mamma Mughli will always tell you to use freshly ground, toasted spices in your curry dishes but it takes some experience to come up with a wellbalanced, great-tasting blend. Instead buy good quality blends kept fresh by storing in air-tight containers. What’s this ‘curry trinity’, we hear you ask?
4. Timing Timing is one of the key factors when cooking a curry. You could give two chefs the same
ingredients and they could end up with two very different-tasting dishes depending on when those items are added to the mix. Mamma Mughli, for example, would only ever add tomatoes to a dish once the onions have been browned, the meat, garlic and ginger paste added, and all first given time to ‘sweat’ and then reduce. At what stage you add chilli also makes a difference, especially where fresh chillies are concerned – the later they are added, the spicier they tend to be. 5. Accessorise your curry The perfect and most obvious accompaniments are your traditional tandoori naan and lightly browned basmati rice. Don’t forget to embellish your table with other simple-to-prepare accompaniments such as a mint and cucumber raita, mixed-fruit lime pickle or an ‘Indian salad’ tossed in olive oil, lemon juice and chaat masala.
Around the World in Four Categories
Baltic Bakehouse
Ready, Steady, Eat What happens when we put your ‘Best Place... When You’re In a Rush?’ votes and Google Maps together? This, that’s what Words: Jamie Faulkner
W
e start by dropping our yellow streetview man onto Pancho’s Burritos in Manchester’s Arndale. It’s midday on the dot. We decide to be awkward and ask which one of the bain-marie-bound dishes is pork with cactus. We waste five minutes, and go for the chipotle chicken instead. Biting into our mega-burrito, we smartphone-calculate that it’ll take eight minutes to reach our next stop, Go Falafel on Newton Street, which will then be only a short walk (two minutes) to the train station and the 12:07 to Lime Street. We walk into the joint and order a freshly made ginger and carrot juice and a medium falafel wrap. The guys fry up a fresh batch of falafel, because they’re good like that. Lose 10 minutes. We realise we forgot Katsouris Deli, so a round trip to get some spicy paella, meat-filled ciabatta and mezze takes 38 minutes, with 10 minutes added on account of its being ‘rammoed’.
January 2014
We miss the train. As an up-yours to train fares, we decide on an imaginarily extortionate taxi ride instead. Maps says it’ll take us 44 minutes in current traffic to hit our next destination, Tokyou on Liverpool’s Berry Street, but a shipment of Norwegian cheese has caught fire on the M62 and it takes us twice as long. We eat our wrap and pass the time talking about the pros and cons of flammable dairy products. Arriving at Tokyou, we opt for the Beef Noodle Soup with Ramen and a couple of Tsingtaos. We’re glad of change from a tenner after the taxi journey; and it comes in eight minutes flat. Given the cab, we regretfully remember that we’ve got our folding bikes with us and work out that cycling to Baltic Bakehouse on Bridgewater Street will take only four minutes; it’s quiet and we get our sarnie in three. We take on a beef brisket creation with chilli sauce and caramelised onions from the specials board, and relax at journey’s end. Total time: two hours and 44 minutes.
Photo: Chris Leah
Your votes in our Around the World categories – Best Indian Sub-continent, Asian, European and American – result in a whistle-stop tour of the world cuisine on your doorstep. And we don’t mean all those Just Eat takeaways in your wheelie bin Words: Jamie Faulkner
I
magine you’re a barge-owner serenely navigating the sinuous waterways of the Northwest. Suddenly, you find yourself craving, say, American cuisine, but making your way into open water and crossing the Atlantic seems dangerous, potentially life-threatening even, and just plain timeconsuming. Then it hits you: it’s 2014 (you ask yourself why you’re still using a barge), and you can get any damn cuisine you like. Let’s start with the Americana revivalists. There was a lot of love for Manchester’s Luck, Lust, Liquor & Burn and their largely Californiainflected menu, with the kind of delicious bastardisations of burritos and tacos that would make Mexican cantina cooks weep. The Dr. Frankenstein of the city’s burger scene, SoLIta, edged in with their love of meat and all things mac’n’cheese. In Liverpool, Free State Kitchen won over your stomachs with their takes on East Coast cuisine – think chowder, Reuben sarnies and crabcakes. Happily for Me-hi-co, Pancho’s Burritos in Manchester Arndale got plenty of shout-outs for more homely, authentic cooking that includes more dishes than their name suggests – and Liverpool’s Lucha Libre proved they could still hold it down even with the move to Manchester. When it came to voting for the Indian subcontinent, Rusholme’s Mughli proved popular with many besides rockstars and politicians (see above). Coriander, who have places in Chorlton and Withington, command a long-standing following hooked on their non-greasy Bengali cuisine with emphasis on the no-MSG, no-foodcolourings policy. Northern Quarter fave, the
FOOD AND DRINK
canteen-style This & That, pleased plenty with its cheap, authentic curries. Mayur in Liverpool has garnered awards for its cooking and reaches beyond the usual fare, upgrading ‘rare recipes handed down through generations to our master Chefs’ according to their site. It seems Merseyside curryhouses have a thing about master chefs: case in point, Masterchef, which y’all voted as one of the better examples. In our Asian category, Liverpool noob HOST covered all bases by offering pan-Asian delights from laksa to katsu. Yuzu, aka the only place in Manchester fit for Chloë Sevigny, got plenty of votes for its well-articulated Japanese dishes and some of the best sashimi in the city. Ning in the Northern Quarter has Norman Musa, the UK’s leading Malaysian chef, behind it – and more than a few mentions – while Etsu pleased Nipponophiles by remaining largely unrivalled as far as Japanese restaurants go in Liverpool. Finally, Red Chilli, who have locations in Manchester and beyond, won over voters with their Beijing and Sichuan cuisine. While we would have liked to see a spread of European restaurants – y’know, places from Armenia to Switzerland – what actually happened was that you all voted for tapas joints. Well, Liverpool’s Lunya offers a bit more than just tapas, but Neon Jamon has it as their USP. In Manchester, Bar San Juan and El Rincon made the cut, with San Carlo’s Cicchetti flying a lone flag for their eponymous Italian small plates. Perhaps it’s a sign that eating lots of little things will never go out of fashion.
Lifestyle
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Food and Drink Shop
Acknowledging beer’s importance, we’ve rounded up the Best Pubs and Breweries in Manchester and Liverpool according to you good folks – and added some epic beer choices and hangover advice to boot Words: Jamie Faulkner
S
ometimes, sticking things together just makes sense. It truly was an auspicious day for humanity when they combined water, malt, hops and yeast, and realised that the resultant beverage was not half bad. So auspicious, in fact, that some scholars have claimed beer had a pivotal role in our development as a species. Others have even suggested that everyone’s favourite biblical 950-year-old, Noah, loaded his ark with a primitive attempt at beer. Many will have noticed that craft beer became a well-worn trope of 2013, as pub-goers across the country decided to turn their noses up at mass-produced ales and seek out more niche offerings – but this trend also either passed a lot of people by or was snubbed; a dichotomy reflected in your voting. Marble Beers, Quantum and Tickety Brew were all singled out for their beer-making skills in Manchester. Marble have been on the brewing block since ’97 and were flying the flag for small, independent brewers long before the new wave – their alumni have gone on to positions in
Port Street Beer House
Thornbridge, Buxton and Blackjack. Headed up by Jay Krause in Stockport, Quantum are really making a name for themselves, as are Tickety Brew, who have managed to get their bottles in just about every bar in Manchester. Unsurprisingly, Port Street Beer House made the cut for serving the most enviable or dauntingly incomprehensible beer range, depending on your persuasion – yet, the Castle Hotel, a Robinsons Brewery pub at heart, was overwhelmingly popular, perhaps more for its patronage by local musicians, atmosphere and bustling events programme rather than its ale selection. We say this only because Robinsons’ range would be far from a craft beer nerd’s wishlist, with RateBeer scores hitting middle-of-the-road, except for the lovely Old Tom. The ever-popular Marble Arch also made the list, stocking the aforementioned Marble’s beers and serving up delicious grub. Liverpool’s now-defunct Cains Brewery garnered many votes despite closing with £8m worth of debt last year (the latest news is that the site set to be redeveloped as Cains Brewery Village,
incorporating an artisan food market as well as a hotel, spa, cinema etc., with work starting within a year). Given the circumstances it only seems fair to mention another brewery in addition to Liverpool Organic Brewery, who got a healthy share of votes and still exist – so Liverpool Craft Beer Co. get a nod for their lovely brews that grace the pumps at Camp & Furnace, MelloMello and The Kazimier, among others. As for Liverpool’s pubs, The Ship & Mitre lived up to its self-anointed title of ‘Merseyside’s Premier Real Ale Pub’. Well, at least in your eyes: they dropped off the Good Beer Guide’s radar even while boasting one of the best ale selections in the city centre and opening their own bottleshop the Ship in a Bottle. Whether it’s CAMRA’s capriciousness or a drop in standards, that’s not for us to judge – you made your voice heard, and you also showed your support for The Caledonia, which was saved from closure by a 3000-strong petition. Nothing like beer to get people voting.
How to Survive a Hangover Though quite a few of you suggested ‘bed’ as the Best Place When Hungover, the rest of you evidently pluck up the courage to venture bleary-eyed from beneath the duvet
So, let’s get down to business. What are your best hangover ‘cures’? Dishes on your own menu or home remedies? “The traditional Full English Breakfast is the king of hangover cures for good reason. Actually, a member of the talented local band The Red Suns helped us devise our Deluxe Full English Breakfast, which offers really fantastic quality
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Lifestyle
Interview: Jamie Faulkner
I
f Beermoth had a message for you, it’d read: don’t be deterred by the label ‘specialist’. They say: “It’s not something to be feared. We’re not specialist like exclusive, more that we only stock beer and it’s all good.” We asked owners Jeremy Stull and Scott Davies to pick some of the weird and wonderful beers from their annals:
Noel de Calabaza (Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales) “These guys are one of our favourite breweries, so ‘drink it’ is our advice! Or, you can hold onto it, as it’ll only get better with age. It’s a funky, wintery one; sharp, spicy and complex. It’s suitable for wine drinkers. All their stuff is brewed with wild yeast – the whole brewery’s infected!” Iris (Cantillon Brewery) “A lot of people said you couldn’t mix sour and hops but by a process of cold-hopping Cantillon managed to make it work. While the beer’s fermenting they suspend a bag of hops in it for two weeks. It’s kind of minty, peppery, and hoppy, but not particularly bitter. It’s worth noting their beers are always very dry.” Saison Citra (Brew By Numbers)
brewery]. It felt like last summer was the age of the Saison and this is probably the best we’ve had of the style. Nice clean fermentation, fruity from the Citra hops, and not overly spiced. Lager drinkers would be happy with this.”
ubergine in West Kirby turned out to be one of your havens for those regretful Sundays: we talked to owner Andrew Mahon about how they do it, and how to deal with the morning after the night before.
Do you have a loyal following in West Kirby? “We’re hugely lucky to have a loyal local base of customers many of whom we see every day, but we also greet plenty of new faces too with tourists visiting from as far afield as China, Japan, American, Canada, Australia, Thailand and Spain – many of whom have been kind enough to send us photos of their visit to the café, and to post comments on TripAdvisor, etc.”
The ‘year of beer’ continued to be Very Much a Thing in the Best Food and Drink Shop category – we got one of your favourites, Beermoth, to proffer some bottles
Interview: Jamie Faulkner “This one was brewed at Kernel [London micro-
A
Why do you think people voted for you? We’ve heard your breakfasts are pretty legendary... “When hungover I think we like to retreat to a place of comfort, and I think we provide that; we have a homely feel and try to offer a wide selection of home-baked foods with healthy portion sizes. I think our location really helps too – a walk around West Kirby’s marine lake can help clear even the fuzziest of heads!”
Photo: Seb Matthes
The Year of Beer
Imperial Russian Stout ‘Wild Turkey’ (Gadds) “This is a big one at 12%! Aged in Wild Turkey [Bourbon] barrels so it’s picked up the vanilla, oaky notes. It’s similar to Goose Island’s Bourbon County Stout but a little weaker. It’s good to see barrel-aging going on; in fact three of our four beer choices have been barrel-aged.” Aubergine
meats (cured black bacon, etc.), which always goes down a treat. A pot of English Breakfast tea is the obvious companion, but a loose leaf tea can really hit the spot too – I currently have a craving for Moroccan mint. For the more hardcore, hair of the dog: a BrewDog Pale Ale may be your chosen saviour!” Do you practise what you preach? “My personal experience is that prevention is definitely better than cure! Prior to drinking commencing I try to eat nice big pasta dish, then once I return home from the night out I drink at least a couple of pints of water, followed by a paracetamol or two (if it’s been a particularly good night).” For those who neither live near nor, with the mother of all hangovers, have the inclination to go to West Kirby, try this headache-combatting fare from the
menus of your other favourite hangover haunts: The Koffee Pot, Manchester: Forego the more standard options and have the smoked haddock rarebit crumpets and Tabasco tomatoes with a poached egg. Onion Deli, Liverpool: It’s got to be a Full English with homemade beans and a brew – though the ‘Proper’ bacon sarnies are always tempting. Fallow Cafe, Manchester: It’s difficult to go wrong with their hot dog – handmade bratwurst, barbecue sauce, caramelised onions and onion rings for allium overload. Home Sweet Home, Manchester: The whole menu reads like one giant hangover remedy, but Waffle Fried Chicken with bacon and maple syrup is a standout.
FOOD AND DRINK
For those who either abstain from alcohol or detest beer, we should really point out the other picks in the category, which were, perhaps predictably, all delicatessens: Chorlton-based stalwarts Barbakan cater for most needs with their breads, cheese, cold cuts, salad-bar and store-cupboard items, but we reckon it’s the weekend sausage grill that got you voting. FYG deli in the Northern Quarter impressed too – awesome sharing platters, ManCoCo coffee, an impressive chutney and cracker selection as well as an alcohol license all, doubtless, went in their favour. In Merseyside, Delifonseca, whose Dockside eatery won the Waitrose Good Food Guide’s Reader’s Restaurant of the Year award last summer, might have downsized their Stanley Street deli counter in favour of the wine bar, but their food hall has enough treats for the both of them. Lunya, which deals primarily in Catalunyan staples, offers things like Serrano ham carved fresh off the bone, an inimitable wine selection, and hard-to-find cheese, making it unsurprisingly popular.
THE SKINNY
Come to Bar Fringe Before you Drink at The Manchester Beer & Cider Festival CAMPAIGN FOR REAL ALE
SWAN ST, MANCHESTER, 0161 835 3815
boss beers from liverpool live yeast + the best ingredients = quality beers @madhatbrew www.madhatterbrewing.co.uk
January 2014
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Food and Drink Survey 2014: The Winners Here’s the full list of 2014’s winning venues, and all the info you’ll need to track them down
Best Place in a Rush Go Falafel 3 Newton St, Manchester 0161 228 6888 | facebook.com/gofalafel Katsouris Deli 113 Deansgate, Manchester 0161 819 1260 | www.katsourisdeli.co.uk Pancho’s Burritos Arndale Centre, Market Hall, Manchester @PANCHOSBURRITO Tokyou 7 Berry St, Liverpool 0151 445 1023 Baltic Bakehouse 46 Bridgewater St, Liverpool 0151 708 6686 | @BalticBake
Best Food or Drink Shop Beermoth 70 Tib St, Manchester 0161 222 4001 | @thebeermoth Delifonseca 12 Stanley St, Liverpool 0151 255 0808 | @Delifonseca Barbakan 67-71 Manchester Rd, Manchester 0161 881 7053 | @BarbakanDeli Fyg Deli 42 Tib St, Manchester 0161 478 7100 | @fygnq Lunya 18-20 College Lane, Liverpool 0151 706 9770 | @Lunya
Best Place for a First Date
Best Place When Hungover
Common 39-41 Edge St, Manchester 0161 832 9245 | @common_bar
Koffee Pot 21 Hilton St, Manchester @thekoffeepot
Leaf 65-67 Bold St, Liverpool 0151 707 7747 | @leafteashop
Home Sweet Home 49-51 Edge St, Manchester 0161 244 9424 | @HomeSweetHomeNQ
Bakerie 43-45 Lever St, Manchester 0161 236 9014 | @bakeriemcr Épernay Unit 1a, Great Northern Tower, Watson St, Manchester 0161 834 8802 | @epsmanchester HOST 31 Hope St, Liverpool 0151 708 5831 | @HOST_Liverpool
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Lifestyle
Fallow Cafe 2a Landcross Rd, Manchester 0161 224 0467 | @fallowcafe Aubergine Café Blenheim Building, The Crescent Walk, West Kirby 0151 625 2662 | @theaubergineco Onion Deli Cafe 124 Aigburth Rd, Liverpool @oniondeli
Best Newcomer
Favourite Local Beer
Best of The Americas
Best of Asia
Mr Cooper’s House & Garden The Midland Hotel, Peter St, Manchester 0161 932 4128 | @MrCoopersHouse
Marble @marblebrewers
Lucha Libre 96 Wood St, Liverpool 0151 329 0200 | @luchaliverpool
Yuzu 39 Faulkner St, Manchester 0161 236 4159 | @YuzuManchester
Almost Famous 11-13 Parr St, Liverpool @AlmostFamousLIV
Quantum @QuantumBC
Takk 8 Tariff St, Manchester @takkmcr The French The Midland Hotel, Peter St, Manchester 0161 236 3333 | @TheFrenchSR
Liverpool Organic Brewery @LivOrganicBrew
Tickety Brew @TicketyBrew Liverpool Craft Beer @Craft_Beers
Luck Lust Liquor & Burn 100-102 High St, Manchester 0161 832 8644 | @LiquorAndBurn SoLIta 37 Turner St, Manchester 0161 839 2200 | @SoLiTaNq Free State Kitchen 1 Maryland St, Liverpool 0151 708 5005 | @FSK_Liverpool Pancho’s Burritos Arndale Centre, Market Hall, Manchester @PANCHOSBURRITO
Free State Kitchen 1 Maryland St, Liverpool 0151 708 5005 | @FSK_Liverpool
HOST 31 Hope St, Liverpool 0151 708 5831 | @HOST_Liverpool Etsu Beetham Plaza, 25 The Strand, Liverpool 0151 236 7530 | @EtsuRestaurant Ning The Burton Building, 92-94 Oldham St, Manchester 0844 414 5484 | @NingMcr Red Chilli 70-72 Portland St, Manchester 0161 236 2888 | www.redchillirestaurant.co.uk
Best of The Indian Sub-continent
Best Cafe
Best Pub
Best of Europe
North Tea Power 36 Tib St, Manchester 0161 833 3073 | @northteapower
The Castle 66 Oldham St, Manchester 0161 237 9485 | @thecastlehotel
El Rincon de Rafa 244 Deansgate, Manchester 0161 839 8819 | @ElRincondeRafa
Leaf 65-67 Bold St, Liverpool 0151 707 7747 | @leafteashop
Port Street Beer House 39-41 Port St, Manchester 0161 237 9949 | @portstreetbeer
Bar San Juan 56 Beech Rd, Manchester 0161 881 9259 | facebook.com/barsanjuantapas
Mayur 130 Duke St, Liverpool 0151 709 9955 | @Mayurliverpool
The Marble Arch 73 Rochdale Rd, Manchester 0161 832 5914 | @TheMarbleArch
San Carlo Cicchetti House of Fraser, 98-116 Deansgate, Manchester 0161 839 2233 | @CicchettiMcr
Coriander 432 Wilmslow Rd, Manchester 0161 438 2984 | @CorianderMcr
The Ship & Mitre 133 Dale St, Liverpool 0151 236 0859 | @Theshipandmitre
Lunya 18-20 College Lane, Liverpool 0151 706 9770 | @Lunya
Master Chef 57 Renshaw St, Liverpool 0151 709 3275 | masterchefrestaurant.co.uk
Neon Jamon 12 Smithdown Place, Liverpool 0151 734 3840 | @neonjamon
This & That 3 Soap Street, Manchester 0161 832 4971
Home Sweet Home 49-51 Edge St, Manchester 0161 833 1248 | @HomeSweetHomeNQ Bold Street Coffee 89 Bold St, Liverpool 0151 707 0760 | @boldstcoffee Trove 1032 Stockport Rd, Manchester 0161 224 8588 | @trovefoods
The Caledonia 22 Caledonia St, Liverpool 0151 708 0235 | @thecaledonia
FOOD AND DRINK
Mughli 30 Wilmslow Rd, Manchester 0161 248 0900 | @mughli
THE SKINNY
Travel: What Have We Learned? Our Scottish sister paper celebrates 100 issues this month – in that time, they’ve gotten around a bit. Here are five things we at The Skinny have learned on our voyages thus far
Words: Paul Mitchell Illustration: Brittany Molineux
OED: Travel (n): make a journey, typically of some length: the vessel had been travelling from Libya to Ireland
A
late addition to The Skinny’s canon of subdivided cultural categories, the Travel section was born out of a desire to properly reflect the diversity of didactic experiences available to our readers away from the geographical confines of our normal areas of coverage. That, and the desire to wangle some free trips. But, as with the conceit of ‘travel’ itself, our eyes have been opened and knowledge has been acquired (ahem). Go rifle through the archives online; and in the meantime, here we impart to you, grateful reader, the six greatest lessons we’ve learned to date. Use this knowledge wisely. 1. Travellers hate other travellers What else could explain the plethora of advice, warnings against straying too far into ‘tourist’ zones (oh, the irony!), missives on what to wear (try clothes) and an incessant ‘my experience is better than yours now listen to meeeeee’ attitude that curiously seems to plague vast swathes of travel writing as we know it? Turns out we may not be so enlightened – take these choice nuggets for example: ‘Our planet’s most idyllic natural landscapes are invariably disfigured by the presence of horse-faced gap yah students and dishevelled backpackers, all of them pursuing the elusive meaning of life and losing all concept of personal hygiene as they go.’ A Traveller’s Manifesto, March 2012: tinyurl.com/atravellersmanifesto ‘Or perhaps the [gap year] concept has been sullied somewhat by the abiding memories of tedious willy wavers boasting endlessly about single-handedly (remember, one hand on willy) saving the orphaned children of Africa (all of them) whilst talking about the self-fulfilment and path to enlightenment (as embodied, naturally, by ethnic beads and ill-fitting poncho).’ Gap Yah: A Guide to Taking a Year Out, Student Handbook 2011: tinyurl.com/gapyahguide
the UK/Australia/America) – throwing up in the streets and yelling and starting fights – it’s not pretty and you’re not funny. So stop being a twat.’ So, you want to live in Berlin? An expat’s guide, January 2013: tinyurl.com/berlinexpatsguide But alas, not everybody appreciated our wellintentioned advice, as one online commenter weighed in... ‘Sub-heading: how to experience Berlin in the style of a brainless moron.’ POSTED BY DAMIEN | THURSDAY 31 JANUARY 2013 @ 14:11
3. Not so much Australia ‘It’s true to observe that Australia has never been more expensive for a visitor than it is now. A pound used to buy two-and-a-half Australian dollars, now only one-and-a-half. So a low-range hostel dorm bed, $30, used to be a reasonable £12, but is now £20. That’s only the start. If you ‘Don’t use CouchSurfing.org like it’s a datlike to travel with a guidebook, bring one with you ing site – that’s not what it’s there for, and such and guard it like a second passport: they’re $40 an approach is generally considered sleazy and to $75 here. A sandwich, wee bottle of Coke and obnoxious. If you do wind up couchsurfing with pack of crisps will cost $15 (£10). It’s the same for somebody you’re attracted to, then who knows a pack of cigarettes, and if you can find a pint for where things could go, but take extra special care less than five quid, you’ve chanced upon happy before making a pass at a guest in your home hour. Prepare to go hungry, sober, or insolvent.’ – you don’t want to make them feel awkward, Hard Up Down Under, June 2011: tinyurl.com/hardupdownunder especially when they’re dependent on you for a place to stay.’ Just kidding Ozzie Sheilas and Bruces, we love it CouchSurfing for Beginners, October 2009: tinyurl.com/couchsurfingforbeginners really, particularly when it’s free… ‘Dear Paul, 2. We like Berlin On behalf of Tourism Australia, the Youth So much so, it’s the single foreign destination Hostel Association (YHA) and Qantas Airways, I we’ve covered most. We’ve even provided a handy would like to invite you on a ‘Coastal Discovery’ guide to what to do should you find yourself living trip to Australia to explore the incredible adventures on offer for backpackers, gap year students there… and working holiday makers. We would love for ‘Pace yourself you to join us on the trip, starting in the famous A night out really is a night out in Berlin. harbour city of Sydney in New South Wales, No closing hours makes everything incredibly across to the sheer cliffs and canyons of the Blue relaxed, and if you’re into it, you can go clubbing Mountains, up to the spectacular Great Barrier from Friday all the way through to Sunday. The Reef in Queensland and ending in the ancient flip side is the great British sport of binge drinking isn’t well suited to here. You’ll peak too soon rainforests of the Daintree. and be going home before anything even gets Yours, Margo’ going here (which normally starts at 11pmish in a bar / 3am at a club). Also it’s not really acceptable Um, OK then, cheers for that Margo – Oz is ace! to be smashed here (or anywhere else that’s not The Perks of Being a Travel Editor: Australia,
January 2014
October 2012: tinyurl.com/perkstraveleditor 4. War zones – if you ain’t been to one, you haven’t lived (or nearly died) One of our very first travel pieces was a first person account of a US army tour of duty to Afghanistan (yep, we’re hard like that). ‘Those tempted to make the trip should know that there are hazards involved in any Afghanistani vacation. First, women are generally required to be covered from head to toe – failure to comply risks death by stoning. Second, malaria pills are a must (despite their odd side effect of remarkably vivid nightmares). Third, Westerners are highly attractive targets for terrorist ambushes and suicide bombings. Not trying to scare anybody, just a few things to consider.’ Go Away! – to Afghanistan, July 2007: tinyurl.com/awaytoafghanistan ‘For foreigners of many stripes in Peshawar, Prince is a man who can get things done: an individual media types would call a fixer. Prince is a fast talker and a hard bargainer who knows the tribal officials, the government bureaucrats, military men, opium smugglers, weapons dealers, hotel operators, business men, Talibs and more.’ Elite Encounters in Pakistan, February 2011: tinyurl.com/encounterspakistan ‘Later that night when I returned to Jerusalem, I considered getting around an obstruction of tour groups by going through the rooftop exit of a Yeshiva. I stood at a small bridge into it before concluding that it would be rude and unappreciated so I walked away. I was then called upon by a voice from the dark. “I’m sorry, I can’t speak Hebrew”. Pause. “Passport.” Young. Beret. Civvies. Glasses. Body armour. Pistol drawn. “I’m sorry, but are you police or army or what?” “Yes. Passport.” I handed it over. “British?” “Yes.” No nationalistic quibbling. “Why are you here?” I explained how I was trying to quickly get to the Arab quarter to watch the Brazil-North Korea game. “Hm. Well, you looked very suspicious. Are you drunk? “No –” 1. No, I’m not. 2. That’s not illegal here.
TRAVEL
3. The people you’re most afraid of aren’t known for their drunkenness. “ – no, I’m not.” “Well, you looked suspicious. You looked drunk. Would you like some help?” The pistol was still drawn. “Mm. No, thanks.” “Good night.” “Good night.” I walked away, hating myself for not asking for ID and wondering if inebriation was a standard excuse for inspection.” Middle-Eastern Travels: Day-trips in the West Bank, March 2011: tinyurl.com/middleeasterntravels ‘If there’s one thing better than seeing the cradle of civilisation, it’s participating in its wanton destruction! Follow in the footsteps of pioneering American adventurer Chris Jeon, who spent his summer vacation fighting with Libyan rebels, by indulging in the hottest new trend in travel today: war tourism!’ The Travel Hot List 2013: tinyurl.com/travelhotlist Only one of these was an attempt at parody – can you guess which? 5. Sometimes travelling can be really quite shit… ‘In Los Angeles, by a stroke of luck my friend and I had been invited to a USC sorority party. Anyone who has ever seen Girls Gone Wild knows how these occasions always end up. Before, we went for dinner at this restaurant famous for fish tacos. You probably know where this is going... It was like fizzy gravy! Every time I thought about leaving the house, I was drawn back to the toilet as if by powerful magnets in the seat. My mate went, and what I missed that night can only be found on the internet, pay-per-view!’ Holiday snap-shorts, January 2009: tinyurl.com/snapshorts ‘Bagging up your shit isn’t a barrel of laughs at the best of times.’ On: The runs in Mexico – Diarrhoeas of a medical triallist, December 2010: tinyurl.com/runsinmexico www.theskinny.co.uk/travel
Lifestyle
33
The Economics of Spanish Sex Deviance’s foreign correspondent considers the legislative and financial forces behind Barcelona’s sexual permissiveness
Words: Kate Pasola Illustration: Kim Thompson
T
here’s something about public displays of affection that leaves me feeling profoundly repulsed. It’s an irrational and confusing form of bitterness, and not an attitude I’ve always held. A few years ago, I found myself in that sickly, gut-bending type of relationship exclusively reserved for hormone-saturated adolescents. Uninhibited public affection and appropriation of cinematic romance occupied my mid-to-late teens, until the novelty wore off and monotony crept in. Over time I became a subscriber to more British, grown-up standards – a cynical Scroogieness leaves me wanting to drag public snoggers off one another and tell them to wipe the saliva off their faces. Call me a hypocrite, call me a convert, but these days I can´t stomach public loving. My impatience was in superb company in the UK, but moving to Barcelona was a completely different story: women perched backwards on their boyfriends’ handlebars; pelvic grinding on the night bus; dreadlocked couples piggybacking by the Montjuïc fountains... this place is underdog competitor for the most love-drenched city in the word. Barcelona’s tolerance, diversity and eroticism has attracted bohemian adventurers for centuries, and it’s now a European hub of sexiness and liberation. Midway down the main street, La Rambla, is the Museu de l’Eròtica – Spain’s only erotic museum – which exhibits the progression of human sexuality since the beginning of time. From phallic art to Oriental eroticism and even its own ‘Erotic Garden’, the museum has curated a dynamic collection of the truly unexpected. It even gives patrons a sneaky peak into the porn stash commissioned by King Alfonso XIII – quite the voyeuristic afternoon activity. The funny thing is, the museum – along with Barcelona’s dozens of other sex shops – is sleazefree and matter-of-fact. It’s not a case of slinking down an alleyway and into the glow of red light bulbs – it’s situated directly across from the infamous Boqueria fruit market, and at peak times a cheery Marilyn Monroe waves from the balconies to bemused tourists. Sex isn’t a silent, sinful burden: it’s everywhere, it’s normal, and it’s up for grabs for whoever fancies it. Unsurprisingly, it seems like this destigmatisation of casual sex, kinkiness, and public expression of attraction is all wrapped up in economics. Prof Nezih Guner at the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics has identified a strong link between the advances of contraception and a rise in pre-marital sex. In his words, as
quoted in a 2010 GSE article: ‘We can look at the decision to engage in premarital sex as a costbenefit analysis. The joy of the sexual experience must be weighed against the cost – the possibility of an out-of-wedlock birth that could impact a young woman’s prospects.’
“Sex isn’t a silent, sinful burden: it’s everywhere” Parents, churches and the state often bear the financial burden of non-wedlock children, so it makes sense that, as contraceptives have improved, those most concerned about costly accidental pregnancies have relaxed a bit – and as a consequence are less compelled to indoctrinate children against casual sex. This has wonderful implications for our ability to halt the brimstone of prejudice that sexually liberated women usually endure. Take away the financial
The Lesbian Look? I
think a lot of people wonder what makes some queer (or non-straight) people choose to physically present themselves in the ways that they do. Or wonder why women are attracted to women who seem to present themselves in a typically ‘masculine’ way. That, ‘Why don’t you just date a man, then?’ attitude. When I entered into the world of gay at 17, it was a bit of a shock, not least to me. I had spent my teenage years ‘til then tracking down boys (I’d kissed a few female friends, but it had all felt quite ‘Katy Perry’) and obsessing over guitar gods. Then I went and fell in love with a girl. I think my mum was worried I might go out and get a rainbow-coloured buzz-cut the very next day. I didn’t; I didn’t actually know what to do.
34
Lifestyle
incentive from slut-shaming, and perhaps we’ll also remove its sting. Slightly problematic, though, is the fact that the newly elected conservative Spanish government has taken a bit of a U-turn when it comes to contraception. Progress was being made in 2011 towards the end of Prime Minister Zapatero’s leadership. A fan of LGBT rights, equal marriage, abortion-law reform and fighting gender-based violence, Zapatero was making efforts to widen access to state-funded and subsidised contraception. However, Spain’s current right-wing government slammed a lid on this progress, and it can now cost a woman anywhere from €12-15 per month to protect herself using oral contraception. Pretty steep, especially as, according to the European Commission, 55% of Spanish young people are unemployed. So what’s the alternative? A pharmacist I spoke with told me the only state-funded contraceptive left, Diane-35, is a controversial option. Because of a whole host of health risks, it isn’t even acknowledged as a safe form of contraception in many parts of Europe. He explained: “I discourage use of Diane-35 – it’s very unsafe. But people cannot pay for monthly contraception.
I regularly have young women coming into the shop, crying for me to give them free emergency contraception. I lose a lot of money because I cannot bring myself to refuse them.” The morning after pill costs between €18-25, and the pharmacist disperses his monthly stock so rapidly that there is often no option but to close his shop early at weekends. Otherwise, he’s left at the mercy of his own conscience, rooting deeper into his own income to provide the protection that should be the responsibility of the state. If Guner is right about the merits of accessible effective contraception, then it seems like charging young women €150 a year to protect themselves is a gigantic leap in the wrong direction. I’m still shell-shocked from the amount of sexiness that’s been chucked at me since my arrival here, and I continue to find my impulse to knock shared ice-creams out of the hands of dickhead couples difficult to manage. But there’s no denying that this city cultivates a unique environment of diversity, freedom and tolerance – and if I’m prepared to give up my seat on the night bus to a pair of drunken tonsil-wrestlers, then I think something’s got to give in the government too.
One writer examines the relationship between clothing and feminine identity
Dressing in a typically feminine way, especially to ‘go out’ at night, was the default for me, so I just kept on: it was what girls did, and the people around me said I looked nice. It was when I realised that strangers just assumed that I was out looking to be chatted up by a guy (rather than a girl, or anyone else, or no one) that I felt uncomfortable. One particularly cold winter I went to a clubnight in Doc Martens instead of heels and realised I felt I looked… better. After that I always looked forward to the feeling of control that I got from turning up to a club in jeans and boots. I now just wear what I think suits me, not because I, personally, want to be more of a ‘man’, but because I don’t want to be constrained by all of the rules that a typical ‘woman’ is supposed
to follow. I still have long, un-styled blonde hair, for instance, but a lot of aspects of my image that I had associated with being female were, I realised, actually more linked to a projected future of me being in a heterosexual relationship. I enjoy constructing my own look from scratch, and confusing the changing room staff while I’m at it. Although every day is still one in which I have to challenge people’s expectations of how I live, looking a bit different has helped a lot with this; it’s actually easier when people in everyday life don’t just assume that I’m straight when they see me. I would say that I find girls who dress a bit like ‘boys’ attractive because it says to me that they’ve thought about who they are. I am much
DEVIANCE
Words: Phoebe Benjamin
more immediately attracted by personalities than physical bodies, so a woman dressed like a ‘man’ is absolutely nothing like a ‘feminine-looking boy’. Their minds are different – they have come to their looks from totally different directions. I could see a picture of an androgynous person and only find it attractive when I realise that that person identifies as female. In a way it shows that they have the confidence to roll with that identity. And if a woman looks like they’re not particularly dressing in a way that would typically interest the opposite sex, it’s undeniably attractive to feel that that person could be trying to attract me.
THE SKINNY
Constructed Realities Manchester School of Art graduate Mark Glasgow tells how he’s taken his playful fabric mixtures and a fascination with Disneyland to London’s Royal College of Art
Mark Glasgow
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very year, Manchester School of Art introduces a diverse range of exciting graduate designers to the world of fashion – and 2013 was no exception, with many students securing design jobs within established companies before their graduation. Recent graduate Mark Glasgow went the extra mile, scoring himself not only a job but also a place on the prestigious Menswear MA at the Royal College of Art (RCA), London. Glasgow, originally from the small coastal town of Donaghadee, County Down, completed his Foundation Diploma in Art and Design locally at the University of Ulster, Belfast. After this year of experimenting with art and design, he decided to uproot, leaving Northern Ireland to start his degree in Manchester. Although Glasgow admits that he has always had a love for fashion, it wasn’t his original choice of creative career. “I began my first year at Manchester School of Art specialising in Sculpture before discovering that Fashion design was my true calling,” he explains, claiming that it was a natural progression from creating sculptures to designing menswear, as both are relative to the human form. The swap proved successful, and he praises the School of Art for the opportunities it provided him, saying that “university helped prepare me for designing in the real world.” He especially appreciated the important connections that the university had built up with the fashion industry and, as a result of these strong links, he was offered the chance to complete various live design projects throughout his time at the School of Art. It was one of these industry-led projects that proved instrumental to Glasgow’s success.
January 2014
During his second year he won a prestigious internship with Old Navy (a subsidiary of Gap Inc.) through a national design competition organised by the company. He outshone hundreds of entries and was given the opportunity to complete a paid placement in San Francisco, CA with Old Navy’s design department – and it was this time spent in America that helped influence Glasgow’s graduate collection. With the running theme of nostalgia, he recorded his American experiences through illustration that he later translated into screenprint.
“I enjoy playing with scale and creating almost childish shapes” Mark Glasgow
Before spending the summer of 2012 in America, Glasgow would have described his work as tasteful. However, he now feels that, through his observations of this parallel culture, his ideas have broadened. Glasgow’s work at Old Navy made him more aware of the industry and how commercial it can be – and this has encouraged him to embrace his creativity and take risks while he still has the opportunity to do so. Glasgow believes that studying in the Northwest has affected his design process and methodology
in a positive way. The Fashion programme at Manchester School of Art is renowned for its textile approach, and, instead of using fabrics in their raw or bought state, Glasgow likes to take a personal, hands-on approach, making them unique. He spends considered time manipulating his chosen fabrics through processes such as screenprint and bonding, creating exciting patterns that reflect his quirky yet charming research. He favours the process of weave and the idea of designing and creating his own fabrics: “I like to include a novelty aspect within my work, mixing synthetic materials such as plastic with natural cotton fabrics,” he says. Glasgow credits the support and encouragement of his tutors at Manchester School of Art and those who encouraged him to apply for further study for where he is today. His in-depth way of thinking and anthropological approach to his work made him an ideal candidate for his MA – but securing his place at RCA wasn’t the end of Glasgow’s success story. Just a week after accepting his offer, Glasgow was headhunted by Old Navy and offered a permanent job with the company. Though he has declined the job offer for now due to his MA commitments, Glasgow says that working in America could be a possibility for the future. For the moment, he is enjoying his London experience, and loves how his new surroundings are influencing his style of work. “My workspace is chaotic, with lots of stuff going on at once resulting in a mess,” he says, and jokes that he is a bit of hoarder: “I collect and accumulate fabric from various sources – but most of the time it is a lot of crap.”
FASHION
When designing, Glasgow likes to take a conceptual approach with his research and work – and this has continued into his Menswear MA. He finds an initial starting point that interests him, then looks at it in a critically in-depth way. His latest project at RCA explores the idea of Disneyland as a false version of reality, yet how it is perceived as an authentic place. He explains that the ideals of Disneyland fascinate him, as it is a “completely constructed reality that we still experience in a very real way.” When Glasgow finishes his MA he hopes to work within a design team. “In the future, I can see myself working as part of a group of people rather than venturing out as a solo designer,” he says. “My aim is to work for a mid-level luxury brand, such as Carven or Acne.” This notion of working as part of a group may come from his current experience at RCA: he describes the university’s studio as a close community where they all swap and share ideas, supporting each other rather than letting competition consume them. Glasgow describes his work as “nostalgic, colourful and playful,” suggesting that his work has elements of humour and fun. “My work is reflective of how I like to dress, but it is a more extreme version. I enjoy playing with scale and creating almost childish shapes.” This charming menswear designer is sure to make an impact in the future – and as menswear in general gets ever more exciting, Glasgow’s bold use of colour and striking prints should be heading up the crusade. Mark will be included in the School of Material Show with the Royal College of Art in Kensington, London, 14-19 Jan. For more information check out www.rca.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/wip2014_material
Lifestyle
35
Photo: Jose Cuevas
Interview: Jessica Campbell
Joseph Hulme L
iverpool John Moores University graduate Joseph Hulme’s practice is, he says, tightly routed around the concept of failure. He is predisposed with questioning the understanding of the artistic idea itself. How ideas are generated; how they fail (and are abandoned) or succeed (and are pushed forward through self-justification). ‘Fragments of fragments piled up on each other. Can you have an associative work which rests on the idea of having an idea and then not following them up? Hulme’s works range from the bringing together of cutouts of unfamiliar objects from freely distributed Chinese newspapers to videos of Elton John adorned in a Daffy Duck costume that has become a green-screen for tricoloured woodland films. Hulme has said that the works mainly attempt to look at “Scrutinising the idea itself. The concepts are often intentionally half formed and abandoned, cast adrift and left bumping into one another.” Hulme assembles an array of aesthetic one liners edited into half finished jokes. Bad alchemy has been cast here, to manifest a situation, that Hulme describes as “works [that] are greatly ambiguous, created with the sole aim to confuse, misinform or mislead the viewer. A projected stream of thought that you’re constantly running to keep up with.”’ [Josh Whitaker] Greatest Hits (My Favourite Things & Commitment Issues)
www.josephhulme.co.uk hulme.joseph@gmail.com
Ducky Elton (2013)
That's Right (2013)
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SHOWCASE
THE SKINNY
Tree Balancing with Jan and Bob (in Commitment Issues Vol.1) (2013)
Sentences on Joseph’s Art 1. Joseph struggles with commitment issues. 2. Joseph rarely completes anything successfully. 3. Joseph’s art thrives off his failure. 4. Joseph’s art is easy to like. 5. Joseph’s art could be mistaken as shallow. 6. Joseph enjoys simple, repetitive things. 7. Joseph’s ideas are sometimes good. 8. Joseph’s ideas are often bad. 9. Joseph’s art is nervous. 10. Joseph hates art that tries too hard. 11. Joseph’s art is relatively easy to make. 12. Joseph’s ideas move on too quickly. 13. Joseph’s art is retroactive. 14. Joseph is rarely happy with his results. 15. Joseph’s art is too easily distracted. 16. Joseph wants to be Ray Mears. 17. Joseph’s ideas are sporadic. 18. Joseph hates art that looks like his. 19. Joseph’s art is not clear to the viewer. 20. Joseph does not make art that meets requirements. 21. Joseph enjoys working alone. 22. Joseph regards Sol Le Witt as his Grandad. 23. Joseph guesses you will dislike his art. 24. Joseph requires no incentive to do things. 25. Joseph cannot work with loud noise. 26. Joseph’s ideas need space. 27. Joseph does not like small places. 28. Joseph’s art is unclear to you. 29. Joseph’s art is by no means confident. 30. Joseph does not regard this writing as art. Joseph Hulme 2013 Warp, Flatten, Erase (2012)
January 2014
SHOWCASE
(Dedicated to The Master of Conceptualism Sol Le Witt. R.I.P)
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THE SKINNY SKINNY.61x314.Master.indd 1
18/12/2013 14:45
Gig Highlights
Indie Spirit
With New Year’s stubborn vomit stains barely seeped into the shag, it’s high time you take stock and reevaluate your priorities: gigs, of course – and there are plenty, from Fun Lovin’ Criminals to East India Youth
Words: Joshua Nevett
The first Independent Venue Week brings together 18 gig venues from across the UK to celebrate those humble bars and clubs that support the grassroots of our local music scenes. Here’s what’s happening in the Northwest
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January without pseudo self-betterment and clued-in music industry tastemakers peddling to hyperbole at every mention of the phrase ‘The Sound of [insert year here]’ is a January without romance. Cue the annual glut of Nostradamus’ prophecies, proliferated gym memberships and futile attempts to curb those unshakable – and in some cases repugnant – habits. While your excessive binge drinking is no longer socially acceptable, there’s ample opportunity for post-Christmas beer swilling at Manchester Academy, with Cheshire natives The 1975 headlining a hat-trick of homecoming shows (6-8 Jan) in support of their eponymous debut LP. The support is strong, too, in the form of Wolf Alice’s folk-leaning Pixie-isms and the kitsch stoner-pop of B-town staples Swim Deep. Or, if having bile spat in your face by recently vindicated Lamb of God singer Randy Blythe is your penchant, then it’s ill-advised you overlook this metal aficionado’s wet dream – those partial to batshit crazy moshpits, bands named for archaic methods of capital punishment (yes, the support act is called Decapitation) and the visceral brutality of 2012’s Resolution writ large need look no further than 19 Jan at Academy 1. Those with sensibilities more aligned to chart-friendly gloss-pop, on the other hand, should home in on London Grammar at Academy 1 on 29 Jan instead: to hear Hannah Reid’s doleful Jessie Ware-esque vocals on the trio’s debut long-player If You Wait is to feel your heartstrings being tugged gently. There’s no dearth of great gigs at the other end of the M62, either, as Californian pop-punk upstarts This Wild Life play Liverpool’s newest shoebox venue Korova on 12 Jan, before thrash metal three-piece God Damn tear the Wood Street venue a new one on 22 Jan. If you seek more opulent climes, however, then perhaps the grandeur of the Liverpool Philharmonic is more to your taste. Here – on 17 Jan – you can catch one of British rock music’s unsung heroes, Paul Carrack, mine the depths of an oeuvre that traverses three decades. More of a belts-and-braces journeyman than an eminent solo careerist – having recorded sessions for Roxy Music, The Smiths, Eric Clapton and B.B. King – he’s nothing short of a national treasure; let his slow-burning,
Words: Jamie Dunn
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mall venues are the lifeblood of British music.” So says Radiohead’s Phil Selway, one of a number of musicians supporting the inaugural Independent Venue Week, a new venture to support those gig spaces that are modest in size, but punch above their weight in terms of enriching your local music scene. “These venues are where the bands meet, form and play,” adds Huw Stephens. “They are where the similar bands from other towns come to play and create scenes. Without them we have nothing to be proud of.” But these sticky floored joints are facing a challenging time without the booze and mobile sponsors of the bigger venues. Taking place 28 Jan-2 Feb, Independent Venue Week brings together some of the country’s best indie venues and aims to ‘highlight the importance of these venues as the heart of their local community, excite people about discovering new music and reignite people’s passion for gig going.’ The project takes the form of a six-day series of live music nights in 18 small venues spread across the UK.
Poltergeist
winsome soft-rock warm your cockles. On a similar wormhole-from-the-past trick, Fun Lovin’ Criminals are pushing the pulpits aside in Manchester’s Cathedral on 15 Jan, as the place of worship will be gloriously re-imaged in aid of the New York natives’ slightly-too-sleazyfor-church funkadelic canon. Disclaimer: those stood in close proximity to Huey Morgan are likely to be unceremoniously harangued and peppered with shards of shattered mug. If the thought of a Scooby Snacks-incited clap-along doesn’t pique your interest, then behold NME coopted buzz band Darlia: the 90s-indebted Cobain class of 2013. On 21 Jan at Sound Control, expect previously unheard tracks to see the light of day alongside cuts from the Blackpool three-piece’s debut EP, Knock Knock. Meanwhile back on Merseyside, there’s plenty more to keep your ears occupied this month as Poltergeist – the brainchild of erstwhile Bunnymen members Will Sergeant, Les Pattinson and Nick Kilroe – unleash their instrumental krautrock at East Village Arts Club; they’re the pick of a clutch of eclectic acts on 24 Jan including confessionalists Neck Deep (at District) and the doe-eyed melancholia of virtuoso
singer-songwriter Nathaniel Rateliff (at Leaf). What about Manchester’s Soup Kitchen, though? Well, other than the aforesaid Nathaniel Rateliff (who swings by the Kitchen on 26 Jan), the intimate basement space will host the mercurial Kiwi Connan Mockasin on 24 Jan for a sold out show, which subsequently means you’ll hurl with jealously when everyone’s talking about it. That’s unless you already have tickets to see him unpick the clusterfuck of derailed electronics and wahwah jazz chords that is Caramel, his sophomore LP. Besides, you could do worse than hunker down and get freakish to the caustic motorik assaults of East India Youth – the electronica/krautrock solo project of William Doyle. He’ll be treating gig-goers at both Gullivers (in Manchester, on 30 Jan) and Korova (in Liverpool, on 1 Feb) to swathes of cuts from his debut album Total Strife Forever, which hits the shelves on 13 Jan. To put it plainly, there’s a wealth of gigs to salivate over this month, with strength in depth right across the board. We plead with you to remain faithful to the only New Year’s resolution that really matters: your collective and unwavering commitment to the Northwest’s live music scene. Welcome to 2014.
Soup Kitchen
Do Not Miss Bill Callahan The Ritz, Manchester, 3 Feb inger/songwriter Bill Callahan’s deep-pan baritone could crumble mountains to dust and traverse continents in mere minutes. But it doesn’t. Instead, on newest LP Dream River, the onus is firmly on less, not more, contorting conventional song structures to the effect of keeping his sardonic croons in check – resulting in a simultaneously authoritative and apathetic force of human nature. If his previous incarnation under the pseudonym of Smog cast him as something of a miserablist, Dream River’s no-hooks, no-thrills policy simply smacks of anhedonia. It’s totally cool, though, in an era that postures the contrived working-class heroism of Jake Bugg as genuine melancholia; his sparing words resonate with immaculate authenticity. And when he sings, “The only words I’ve said today are beer and thank you” on the album’s first track The Sing, he’s more poet than songwriter.
Bill Callahan
To miss his only visit to the Northwest – for a career-spanning set that straddles over two decades – would be a missed opportunity to peer voyeuristically into the sheltered world of a man
of extreme introspection. Rest assured, those privy to his languishing, stripped-down strings and barely-there percussive arrangements will be gratified in a delayed and untimely manner.
Photo: Kirstie Shanley
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The Liverpool leg takes place 30 Jan at altrock club Zanzibar. Wirral-based neo-shoegazers The Red Suns, fresh from the launch of their debut album Thrown Off the Back of Nowhere, will be there with their brooding sound, as will several local bands, including psychedelic-tinged four-piece Go Fiasco and The Liberty Vessels. Cheap Thrills, meanwhile, make the trip from their hometown of Haarlem, Amsterdam. Soup Kitchen host Manchester’s night – we say night, it begins at 3pm and runs ’til midnight – on 2 Feb and bring the pulsating sounds of Kult Country, self-styled ‘melodramatic pornographers’ Naked (On Drugs), local outfits Francis Lung and Bernard + Edith, and Skinny faves Hoya:Hoya on the decks. Matt Boswell, founder of SWAYS Records, who present the Manchester leg with Generic Greeting, has this to say about the project: “Independent live venues are incredibly important to bands and labels but a space is only ever as good as the people who are running it. We’re lucky that in Manchester and Salford we have great independent venues like Soup Kitchen and Islington Mill that are always up for doing things a bit differently, involving different types of artists as well as the bands. When you get good promoters involved too there’s so much scope for creating a spectacle and a sense of occasion, which is very different to some venues, where going to a gig just makes you feel part of a slightly soulless corporate treadmill.” [Jamie Dunn] IVW Liverpool: The Zanzibar Club, 30 Jan, 7.15pm, £4 IVW Manchester: Soup Kitchen, 2 Feb, 3pm, £4 www.independentvenueweek.com
January 2014
MUSIC
Preview
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East Village Arts Club, Liverpool, 4 Dec
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Oh, Yo La Tengo. So quiet, so fragile, so perfect. You make lines like “sometimes the bad guys come out on top” sound both world-weary and cheerfully fatalistic at the same time. You weave subtle folk murmurs into hushed, heart-stopping power pop. You take decade-old, skin-tinglingly soft ballads like Black to Blue and wring out every last drop of beauty, playing at such low volume that we have to strain our ears to hear it all, and the experience is ultimately more rewarding for the effort that’s demanded of us. This is exhilarating and yet soothing at the same time; one helluva strong cocktail. We surrender to silence. But wait, you’re not done! So what’s happening now…? OH, YO LA TENGO! So loud, so
powerful, so mesmerising! The organ skronk of False Alarm peels sheets off our eardrums, Pass the Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind pummels our guts into new shapes with its unrelenting psych muscle… and Sugarcube? Why, it gets us gliding across the floor, dancing with glee as Ira croons gently over the dreamy fuzz-pop melee. “Is that enough?” you ask over playfully pretty Spectorisms – it really should be, but you continue to give us more, from playing the request of a delighted audience member on the front row (Nothing to Hide) to paying bashful tribute to Liverpool’s musical heritage by strumming sweetly through George Harrison’s Behind That Locked Door (“Not a Beatles cover,” laughs Ira, “that would be pandering.”) Oh, Yo La Tengo, it’s more than enough. [Will Fitzpatrick]
Factory Floor
Factory Floor
Gorilla, Manchester, 7 Dec
Yo La Tengo
Gogol Bordello + Man Man Manchester Academy, 14 Dec
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Writing soberly about a Gogol Bordello live show – one taking place at Christmas, of all times – feels a bit like getting a cat to use interpretive dance to describe the latest Beyoncé album. You might (unintentionally) entertain a few people, but it’s never going to quite compare. Still, tonight’s show is one of such magnificence that it must be documented somehow, providing the context shaky phone footage can’t convey. Before Eugene Hütz and his riotous troupe storm the stage of Manchester Academy, there’s support from Man Man. Their 70s-inflected psych prog-pop feels suited to the occasion, and the skeleton suit-cladded group from Philadelphia occasionally dip into reggae and other genres; but they’re a bit gentle for the job of getting the crowd in the mood for Gogol Bordello. It’s been a strange sort of year for the
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Review
self-styled gypsy punks – the release of new album Pura Vida Conspiracy was overshadowed by their former guitarist suing singer Hütz for alleged embezzlement from the group. However, if there is any tension it doesn’t show as they launch into frenetic album opener We Rise Again. Rip-roaring violin and accordion battle the metalinfused chug of Michael Ward’s guitar, the glorious racket acting as a chaotic clarion call that sends much of the venue’s audience into a joyous meltdown of flailing limbs and frantic pogoing. As though Hütz himself was not enough, the band features Pedro Erazo and Elizabeth Chi-Wei Sun as additional invigorating cheerleaders, buoying the crowd further as they fly through bracing newer numbers such as Lost Innocent World and Malandrino, as well as older classics Wonderlust King and the inimitable, absolutely rollicking strut of Start Wearing Purple. Gypsy weddings are all well and good, but gypsy-punk Christmases are the stuff of legend. [Michael MacLennan]
Photo: Adam Akins
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Factory Floor shows should come with two label warnings: not for the epileptic or weak hearted. The live serving of the debut album by this London-based trio feels like a relentless punch in the face – but in the most enjoyable way. Their tracks could be described as having characteristic traits of a percussion-trifle: generous layers of raw acoustic kicks on the drums courtesy of Gabe Gurnsey are seamlessly interwoven with synthetic clatters on loop. Nik Colk Void’s robotically mutant vocals accompany Turn It Up, a track not advisable to experience while hungover. Insistent cowbells elevate the audience’s spirits as their feet subconsciously hammer the ground in sync with the heart-shaking thumping. As much as the studio
Dean Blunt
Blade Factory, Liverpool, 30 Nov
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For all the talk of ex-Hype Williams man Dean Blunt’s fickle stage manner – there’s a palpable air of trepidation in tonight’s cold, minimally lit Blade Factory, as attendees who’ve travelled far and wide whisper among themselves as to whether he’ll sing, just sit there or even show up – his performance tonight is an exercise in understatement; solemnity, even. Minute after long minute, he stands invisible during the thick slaps of rain that open Walls of Jericho; looped and extended, the waters continue to pour, and an increasingly concerned crowd begin to murmur, uncomfortable in their own silence. When Blunt, in black cowboy hat and sombre poise, eventually steps into the half-light and sings The Pedigree – his part-talked vocals dusty and dry as sawdust, blotting up those seasick strings – a wave of relief, gratitude even, ripples to the back of the room. We realise, alarmed, just
MUSIC
track keeps you on your feet, this live version, with Gurnsey’s unforgiving poundings, charges the atmosphere to bursting point. Though playing as a collective, each member has their own station to bring to Factory Floor’s crisp and unusual sound. Void has a Fender Telecaster slung around her neck that she endeavours to play not with a plectrum, but with implements ranging from drumsticks to violin bows (it’s perhaps this kind of ingenuity that attracted DFA Records to release this album). Dominic Butler fiddles with a mixing board responsible for producing artificial zaps, accumulating to closing track, Two Different Ways. This ten-minute journey ushers the crowd to a state of euphoria, helped along by entrancing and hue-rich visuals. By evening’s end, they are unwilling to stumble their way back to reality. [Edwina Chan]
how quickly he’d assumed the power to possess. It soon becomes clear that testing our resilience is an intentional element of his deceptively unassuming performance style; halfway through, and at odds with the lamenting brass, muffled traffic and askance vox of most of The Redeemer, a flashbulb goes off with a startling crack; it proceeds to blast a slow, single, nauseating strobe for an indeterminate length of time that seems to leak and bend. The effect rapidly overwhelms, and while some close their eyes, luxuriating in or withstanding it, others stagger to leave, feeling along the flattening, brightening walls to seek the exit. By the time we’ve found our legs and returned, Blunt has abandoned the space, leaving co-vocalist Joanne Robertson to carefully piece together a simple, sincere lullaby. Later, amid the shrieks and streaked pavements of an indifferent Saturday night, it feels a stretch to remember the events of just an hour before; were we there? Were you there? It seems unlikely; Blunt a visitation, the night itself an apparition. [Lauren Strain]
THE SKINNY
Photo: Alexander Bell
Yo La Tengo
Photo: Adam Akins
Yo La Tengo
Lucid Dreaming Quite the chef, Ciaran McAuley of Patterns cooks us a stew in honour of our foodthemed issue, bless him. Culinary puns notwithstanding, his band’s hallucinatory debut has been a long-time cooking; but a studied recipe has yielded robust results (we’re sorry)
Interview: Simon Jay Catling Photography: Simon Bray
Patterns
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atterns frontman Ciaran McAuley’s back is turned to The Skinny and his bandmate Laurence Radford, as he concentrates, instead, on a Moroccan-style terrine. For the vocalist of this Manchester-based four-piece, cooking in his own kitchen is a pleasantly contrasting experience to his first forays into culinary cuisine after graduating from Manchester University. “I worked in this hotel, but it wasn’t really run as one,” he recalls. “It had an unofficial halfway house in it for mental patients; the government hadn’t been able to provide accommodation for people, so they’d pay the hotel to put them up. You’d get some bizarre people; this old lady would cook her own frozen meatballs in the kitchen every day even though she wasn’t supposed to. The owner also owned a brothel and would never reveal his own name – he was simply referred to as ‘the Doctor.’ Apparently he had a doctorate in psychology and so used this to manipulate staff into working without pay.” It sounds like an almost Lynchian construct in its bizarreness and, if Patterns don’t quite delve as deeply into the dark underbelly of the human condition as the Mulholland Drive director, they certainly share a similar desire to inhabit an otherworldliness through art. (We laugh as Radford jokes, “Is food a way of not becoming too detached from the world because our music’s so ethereal?” But he might have a point.) After nearly two years, the group – McAuley on vocals, sampler and synths and Radford on guitar are joined by Alex Hillhouse on bass and drummer Jamie Lynch – finally release debut album Waking Lines this month. It’s a record that, in its gentle conflict of pop sensibility and amorphous explorations, attempts to surpass the feeling of time and place. “I almost don’t like albums that feel like they were recorded in a real space,” McAuley explains. “I like albums where things sound quite unnatural and don’t feel temporal, and not like something you’d just get from listening to live music. Our album isn’t about being in a physical space.”
January 2014
Familiar grounding comes in the earworm hooks and immediately satisfying choruses of This Haze and Blood, but they are the weight that the album proceeds to alleviate itself of. A dream-pop record in the classic sense of the Cocteau Twins’ Treasure or Slowdive’s Just for a Day, its intentions are to leave the orthodox behind and evoke a more intangible experience. McAuley admits, however, that he was wary of leaving too much human emotion behind during this process. “I saw an interview with Washed Out after his second album where he said he’d found it totally detached listening back. We didn’t want that; you can make a dream-pop album – or whatever you want to term it – while connecting emotionally with the audience, even if at the same time you’re not delivering them a storyline.” Washed Out is a telling reference: the rich, layered drones lurking beneath Patterns’ more defined melodies hint at influences away from British shoegaze music and more towards the Technicolor sounds of hypnagogic America. McAuley talks enthusiastically about Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion – he uses the same Roland SP-404 sampler as Panda Bear – and Patterns fully emerged in 2010, just as Manchester’s alternative live scene was beginning to overcome its obsession with ‘authenticity’ manifest as testosterone-driven, beer-swilling, ‘proper’ haircuts and instruments. “It felt like over [a period of] around half a year we stopped playing terrible shows with lads with Oasis haircuts,” he remembers. Fans of late DIY indie disco Underachievers Please Try Harder, which was more likely to play Pavement than The Stone Roses, they found kindred spirits in night founder and future agent Dave Bassinder. With promoters Now Wave also on the up, more open-minded, often trans-Atlantic sounds were becoming de rigueur. “Just as we were starting to develop our own ideas around live electronica, the scene opened up and people became really interested in seeing it,” McAuley says. An EP
followed by singles Induction and Blood during 2011 and 2012 exposed Patterns to an audience beyond the Northwest: championed by Steve Lamacq on 6 Music, they played Bestival; locally, they headlined a rare gig to have taken place at the John Rylands Library on Deansgate.
“Our album isn’t about being in a physical space” Ciaran McAuley
Then, for a long time, little happened – as the band had locked themselves away to write. Music as geographical competition is, thankfully, largely redundant in 2014; but as peers including MONEY, PINS and Ghost Outfit all put out their own debut records, were there any tinges of jealousy? “It was frustrating,” admits McAuley, “but because of how long it took on our part, not because of what others were doing.” Radford agrees: “You need to be careful about comparing yourself to other bands. As soon as you start getting competitive about release dates you’ll start rushing and never have a finished product you’re happy with.” Part of Waking Lines’ delay came down to the usual mundane processes of the music industry. A lot of it, though, came down to the band’s respect of the art form and the heritage that comes with releasing a debut album. Says McAuley, “We really wanted to be careful and write something we were totally behind. We could only do that by doing it at home, piece by piece. There’s a psychological hurdle with producing a first record because you build it up so much. It’s an important cultural institution. I’ve learnt loads overcoming that.”
MUSIC
Fortunately, that gestation period has resulted in optimal results, and the record is as fully realised as the band could’ve hoped for. Both McAuley and Radford describe it as “headphone music,” and to that end it was recorded more in the spirit of a bedroom producer – albeit by four of them. Each member wrote in isolation, ideas fizzing between email inboxes, McAuley layering tracks in his room. It’s a way of working that seems at odds with the album’s warm, cohesive feel – “but that’s in keeping with an outdated idea of the ‘rock dream’, where music’s only ‘authentic’ when played by a bunch of guys in a room,” McAuley retorts. “There’s so much electronica that’s able to express complex and human emotions in a natural way. There’s absolutely no way we should have this old weird conception of a band.” McAuley and Radford met studying Philosophy, and wrote their dissertations on the existentialist Martin Heidegger. Though Waking Lines isn’t specifically about that or other philosophical theory, its broad themes of consciousness, late-night hallucinations and altered states do, as McAuley admits, “fit into the psychedelic music canon, and theories around identity and memory are all part of that... They’ve informed our choice to be non-linear and indirect lyrically as well as what we’re doing regards mood.” Instead, the album plots an indefinable yet strongly emotive journey, beginning in the familiar before plunging into the ether, re-emerging with aptly titled closing ballad, Climbing Out. “That song’s like climbing out into the real world,” explains McAuley. “You’re taken into the space, then you’re brought back out and progress to the next thing, whatever that may be… It was the final song written for the record, so acts as a nice bookend, really.” Waking Lines is released on 6 Jan via Melodic. Patterns play Soup Kitchen, Manchester, 8 Feb www.musicalpatterns.com
Review
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Album of the Month
Mogwai
Rave Tapes [Rock Action, 20 Jan]
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If Mogwai were a movie, they’d probably be a horror movie. A sense of dread has long stalked the band’s discography, from The Exorcist-referencing artwork of CODY to the werewolves, vampires and skeletons that lurk amidst their irreverent song titles. Last year the connection tightened with their inspired score for zombie drama Les Revenants – a subtle collection pregnant with menace and melancholia. Now, the band’s ongoing appreciation of John Carpenter manifests itself in prominent, unsettling synths, making Rave Tapes one of their most haunting albums yet. The creeping electronics of Remurdered sound particularly
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything [Constellation, 20 Jan]
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The first full-length release from SMZ since 2010’s Kollapse Tradixionales sees the Constellation heavyweights continuing their trajectory towards a more focused and rockoriented approach, with the music’s chamber elements often submerged beneath Efrim Menuck’s squalls of apocalyptic guitar noise. This gradual shift in SMZ’s sound has been reflected in a stripping-back of personnel: that dominant guitar is now usually augmented by nothing more than two violins, electric bass, and drums. This finessing of arrangements has not limited the dynamism of SMZ’s approach: brief, understated piano-led pieces like Little Ones Run sit comfortably alongside the 14-minute epic ebb and flow of Austerity Blues. As illustrated by the latter’s vocal refrain – ‘Lord, let my son live long enough to see that mountain torn down’ – the outfit have not lost their dramatic edge; like all SMZ releases, this is a record which treads a fine line between histrionic and redemptively passionate. [Sam Wiseman]
Blank Realm
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Warpaint [Rough Trade, 20 Jan] Warpaint founder Theresa Wayman’s assertion that the follow-up to The Fool would be a minimalist affair is made flesh on this, the LA quartet’s second album. Raw and elementary, it locks down the their methodology, its songs at first seeming to overlap and merge, impossible to separate. Built on a drifting bed of hazy beats and coloured by Wayman’s spidery arpeggios, it’s far less immediate than their debut and demands real diligence from the listener. Flanked by Wayman and Jenny Lee Lindberg, Emily Kokal’s plaintive vocals are unadorned and often placed mix-front. Largely hook-free, the album’s jam-based origins lead to little shift in either tempo or tone; dreamy trailer Love Is To Die is as upbeat as the band gets here. But venture into Warpaint ’s lower levels and it emerges as a courageous and uncommonly focussed piece; a tacit dismissal of the constraints and expectations of guitar pop. [Gary Kaill]
Grassed Inn [Fire, 13 Jan]
On last year’s Go Easy LP, this Brisbane quartet occasionally let their love of vintage distortion overwhelm their melodic inclinations; Grassed Inn, while similarly in thrall to frazzled psychedelia, manages to keep those infectious tunes at the forefront of things. Daniel Spencer’s endearingly lackadaisical vocals mesh perfectly with the reverb-heavy jangling rhythm guitars, acquiring an added poignancy when the outfit explore melancholy shoegaze noise, as on the closing Reach You on the Phone. Blank Realm have been compared to everyone from the Zombies to Sonic Youth, but it’s on tracks like Falling Down the Stairs that they use their influences most effectively: the gloriously trebly riffage and clattering percussion recall 80s indie highpoints like the Blue Orchids or the Fire Engines, and the quartet combine those elements with an irresistible starry-eyed psychedelia. That adroit understanding of their various musical lineages ultimately makes Grassed Inn a successful progression from Go Easy. [Sam Wiseman]
Pontiak
Hospitality
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“Actually,” remarks Stephen Malkmus, halfway through his sixth solo record, “I’m not contractually obliged to care.” He’s right too – of the many strengths on display throughout his twenty-four year career, sincerity has never been a particularly notable feature. He’s an ironist; a smart-arse who gets more kicks from not giving a fuck than from giving his all. Regardless, Wig Out At Jagbags finds the ex-Pavement man in fine form. Whether snarking at punk purists (Ramble At The Rainbo) or warmly intoning coming-of-age tales (Lariat), it’s genuinely funny (“We lived on Tennyson and venison and The Grateful Dead” is a special moment), while the accompanying Jicks help serve up his most engaging set of pop songs in over a decade. Even with brass embellishments lending an air of overt politeness to proceedings, Wig Out is both slanted and enchanted enough to goof its way into your heart. It’ll stay there too. [Will Fitzpatrick]
INNOCENCE [Thrill Jockey, 27 Jan] With a Stooges-esque two-minute burst of scuzzy riffs and yelped vocals, this prolific Virginian trio launch into their tenth LP with aplomb. The three Carney brothers have been honing their distinctive take on psych and stoner rock since 2005, and beneath the surface there is a distinctive edge to these songs. Ghosts and Surrounded by Diamonds, for example, sound something like Kyuss with a more spaced-out, 70s feel, all chunky riffs and blistering overdrive. Elsewhere, the guitar wig-outs recall the kind of space-rock explorations conducted in Hawkwind’s heyday, as Van Carney’s vocals are buried beneath a whirlwind of heavily distorted wahwah. Yet INNOCENCE also has its quieter moments: the lolloping, frazzled country of Noble Heads and It’s the Greatest bring a melancholy edge to proceedings. It’s ultimately testament to the coherence of the trio’s vision that these changes in tempo feel perfectly integrated. [Sam Wiseman]
Trouble [Fire Records, 27 Jan] There are infuriatingly-fleeting flashes of brilliance on Hospitality’s second album: the subtle, gorgeous key change on the two-line chorus of set highlight Rockets and Jets; the throbbing synth excellence of Last Words, a track that could’ve been lifted straight from the Drive OST and the warm 70s AM drumbeat of Going Out which, combined with Amber Papini’s aloof vocal, recalls Husky Rescue circa Ghost Is Not Real. That such moments sparkle so brightly, however, is due in part to the relative doldrums by which they find themselves surrounded. Too many of the songs are hollow shades of beige: see the loungy Sullivan which, great Scott, sounds like a cut from a sub-par Enchantment Under The Sea pastiche, the forgettable I Miss Your Bones and Morcheeba-aping Sunship which does Hospitality’s chances of nailing a Groove Armada remix no harm at all. The highlights could’ve made a great EP, but the chaff proves too bothersome to sit through. [Finbarr Bermingham]
Peggy Sue
East India Youth
Actress
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Choir of Echoes [Wichita, 27 Jan] Poise, harmony, dexterity: three connotations of Choir of Echoes’ kaleidoscopic Busby Berkeleyquoting artwork that are equally applicable to the songs within. On their third album, alt-folk trio Peggy Sue have gracefully raised their game another notch after the promising developments of 2011’s horizon-broadening Acrobats, revisiting existing metiers and cultivating new ones. In places, it deepens their noir-ish edge, with the narrator of bluesy lead single Idle joining Robert Johnson in his Faustian pact and Electric Light’s uncanny doo-wop stoking the atmosphere and showing off the band’s vocal prowess (while also recollecting 2012’s reimagined Scorpio Rising covers collection). But elsewhere there’s a brighter tone – a contrast nicely encapsulated in album highlight Always Going, which lays ringing, distorted guitars across a light and breezy beat. Shrewd production keeps things buoyant throughits few lulls, ensuring attentions never wander far from its central qualities. [Chris Buckle]
Review
Warpaint
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks Wig Out At Jagbags [Domino, 6 Jan]
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indebted to the aforementioned horror auteur (with secondary shades of label-mates/friends Errors), while the relentless sci-fi pulse underpinning Deesh adds a sinister edge to the track’s crescendo. Elsewhere, Mogwai’s familiar strengths are present and correct, with Master Card boasting big, choppy guitars and Blues Hour building into heavenly walls of noise before masterfully dropping the decibels (a trademark dynamic yet to lose its visceral impact). From the brooding, ragged glory of Simon Ferocious to the sad calm suggested by The Lord is Out of Control’s electrostatic percussion and processed vocals, Rave Tapes is filled with expert contrasts, making this a pulse-quickening return from a band that’s still evolving, and still amazing. [Chris Buckle]
Total Strife Forever [Stolen Recordings, 13 Jan]
Beginning with synth arpeggios and washes of ghostly noise echoing out across sombre piano keys, Glitter Recession announces the depth of East India Youth’s ambition – never settling on a genre or style for very long, the magnificent Total Strife Forever takes in stately, minimal ambient and neo-classical manoeuvres; shoegaze-y dream pop and house with choral flourishes; pulsating, melodic techno; and swaying, fragile indie balladry underpinned by pitch-dark hip-hop kicks. The gorgeous piano playing grounds the record in a classical sensibility, much like the work of Baths; the restless fusion of songwriting and experimental beats recalls Youth Lagoon and Deco Child; the more techno-inspired moments lift the album into realms of shimmering euphoria. A remarkable album of astonishing scope and beauty, with an effortlessly direct emotionality, Total Strife Forever more than delivers on the early promise of this young Bournemouth producer. [Bram E. Gieben]
RECORDS
Ghettoville [Werkdiscs/Ninja Tune, 27 Jan] Billed as the sequel to Hazyville – inadvertently suggesting that 2012’s R.I.P., was, on the contrary, a tangent – Ghettoville is a purposeful back-step for Actress. In the LP’s accompanying statement, he hints at a deliberate devolution, leaving a record that has no ‘decipherable language’; indeed, Ghettoville is a hinterland where textures materialise, mutate and fade, observed and mediated by no one. Many sputter out as quickly as they spurt into life (Image, Don’t), while those that labour under their own glutinous weight continue, perversely, to blot and foam (Forgiven, Street Corp.). Time is a highlight, its brittle, muted bells like the rupture and pucker of fogged glass in winter. Where in his missive he accuses today’s ‘pseudo artists’ of toothlessness, Actress still exhibits snarl: fans of R.I.P.’s Shadow of Tartarus will recognise its paranoia in Frontline and its meat and gristle in Towers. Overall, however, this is a far less bloody affair. [Lauren Strain]
THE SKINNY
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings
Father Murphy
Ásgeir
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Give the People What They Want [Daptone, 13 Jan]
Now over ten years into their career, show no sign of deviating from their authenticity-obsessed soul revivalism; as the title of this sixth LP indicates, it’s earned them an ever-expanding fanbase. Jones’ vocals sound as rich and strong as ever, and the Dap-Kings’ implausibly accurate channelling of vintage, brass-laden soul feels almost uncanny throughout. Much has been made of Jones’ attention to detail in terms of recording equipment and instrumentation, and the warm, analogue textures remain in evidence here; but ultimately it’s the strength of the songwriting – whether on stompers like Retreat!, or sultry slower tracks like Long Time, Wrong Time – which ensures that the LP feels justified in joining the canon of classic soul. It may be more of the same, but that is undoubtedly what the people want. [Sam Wiseman]
Pain is On Our Side Now [Aagoo Records/Boring Machines, 27 Jan] Tackled individually, the four movements that make up Father Murphy’s latest EP are formidably severe: an atonal collection of clanging semi-rhythms, draining drones and ghastly wails; elements found throughout the Italian trio’s enigmatic oeuvre but here taken to extremes. Yet these tracks are split across two single-sided 10”s for a reason, and once paired up and played simultaneously, the pieces slide into place like a Cenobite puzzle box, revealing new dynamics. The first coupling, for instance, sutures the hellish braying of side one to the chopped gabbles and screams of side two, each infernal component amplifying the other’s effect. The conceptual cleaving may render Pain is On Our Side Now a fans-only curio, but members of said sect will be suitably bewitched. [Chris Buckle]
In The Silence [One Little Indian, 27 Jan] Iceland's latest export, Ásgeir Trausti, looking like a cross between Daniel Brühl and the Norse god Thor, is smashing records set by label-mates and fellow islanders Björk and Sigur Rós. First LP Dryd í dauðaþögn is the country’s bestselling debut from a local, and In The Silence is its wholesale translation, re-recorded in English (with the help of John Grant, no less). A first listen might trigger Bon Iver, log cabins, and wistful Scandinavian serenity, but beyond the vaporous vocals and bucolic guitar there’s a richness and craftsmanship to the record which justifies his volcanic, chart-topping ascent. Trumpets and synths bubble up unexpectedly, some tracks swerve with neon electronica, and Grant’s remarkable work in reimagining the source poetry (mostly penned by Àsgeir’s dad) articulates an exultant lyricism, rendering an already enchanting album even more potent for a new audience. [George Sully]
September Girls
Sun Glitters
Damien Jurado
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Cursing the Sea [Fortuna POP!, 6 Jan] So in 2014 girl groups are now very much ‘a thing’ again. You know the type I mean – reverbladen guitars, dreamy vocals and production that would make Phil Spector’s over-sized barnet twitch. Frankie Rose, Veronica Falls and – arguably the pioneers – Raveonettes have all been there, so what chance of Dublin’s September Girls finding room at the table? Well, pretty good as it happens. The five piece tick off various elements and influences as they go, but build plenty of big hooks in with their Ronettes-meets-Mary Chain sound. Another Love Song is a potential dancefloor filler – provided you don’t mind your dancefloor full of awkward, shuffling teens – and former single Green Eyed (originally released on West Lothian’s own Soft Power Records, no less) hisses with urgent menace around chiming guitars. September Girls may have missed a trick by putting this out in January, but there’s much to love here. [Stu Lewis]
Scattered Into Light [Mush, 27 Jan] Sun Glitters is the alias of Luxembourg’s Victor Ferreira, who has carved out a niche for himself in the post-dubstep and chillwave micro-genres with light-filled, airy productions combining neo-shoegaze vocals and pitch-bent R’n’B melodies with complex, glitch-filled beats. On his debut for Mush Records, home at one time or another to the likes of cLOUDDEAD, Thavius Beck and Bibio, he proves why his studied take on this sometimes blandly chilled genre is head and shoulders above his peers. Sara Cappai’s singing anchors the record, pulled into dream-like choral shapes by Ferreira. The beats are suffused with heavenly static, chopped into polyrhythmic patterns that nod to early Anticon, classic Warp, and Tri-Angle’s witchy take on R’n’B, while maintaining a unique identity all their own; on an exquisite acoustic closer, beats are constructed by rubbing coins together. Minimal in places, mind-expanding in others, this is an impressive, richly-textured album from a singular talent. [Bram E. Gieben]
Brothers And Sisters Of The Eternal Son [Secretly Canadian, 20 Jan] “Do not disturb me, let me be,” Damien Jurado sings in quiet resignation over a gently-plucked guitar on penultimate track Silver Joy. It’s these pit-stops of brilliant clarity scattered through the existential fugue which have defined his past three albums – records of transient beauty. With each Richard Swift-produced release, Jurado climbs further into the rabbit hole, becoming bolder with his musical choices, more attached to his themes and detached from his past. Album opener Magic Number, with its smoky, jazz-club drum brushes and the playful bass and spaghetti-western gongs on Silver Donna continue the jammier motifs of Maraqopa, while the effortless, simple-to-the-core melodies on Silver Timothy and Metallic Loud remind us what a wonderful songwriter Jurado’s always been. These past three records have found him chasing himself around his own head, musically and thematically. And on Brothers and Sisters… the textured production, layers of echo and oases of ethereal beauty frame Jurado the dreamer, the paranoiac and the stray in glorious Technicolor. [Finbarr Bermingham]
Patterns
I Break Horses
Guardian Alien
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Waking Lines [Melodic, 6 Jan] From the opening echoes of This Haze onwards, Waking Lines sounds impressively lush and layered – not bad when you consider Patterns eschewed studio time to record it themselves at home. As well as demonstrating their sonic resourcefulness and nuanced grasp of dream-pop dynamics – all swirling vocals, twinkling guitars, atmospheric samples and so forth – the Manchester quartet’s debut evidences clear songwriting talents, with an anthemic edge giving definition to tracks like Blood. But if ‘pattern’ is another way of saying ‘repeated decoration,’ then the Manchester quartet live up to their name a little too well. With a relatively narrow selection of tricks at their disposal, a sense of déjà vu enters somewhere in the second half – a hazy sameness that initially augments the pretty, diaphanous dreaminess, but which over repeated listens diminishes the album’s magnetism. Not quite scaling the heavens then, but for a first stab they’ve come admirably close. [Chris Buckle]
Chiaroscuro [Bella Union, 20 Jan] Chiaroscuro: the technique of managing light and dark in pictorial art. As titles go, this one’s a statement of intent with substance and weight. This second album from these pioneering Swedes reads like a chill rebuke to the horde of boy/girl electro duos currently making waves. At every turn, they unseat expectations: Maria Linden’s vocals buried somewhere in the distance; the brittle nu-rave warp of Faith tussling with the hyper balladry of Denial; the glassy, swirling mix (shades of Vangelis and Donnagio) pricked by astringent, fractured sounds. Their approach is closer to the sonic provocations of Crystal Castles than the pop refinements of Chairlift or Beach House. The epic Berceuse (so named after a composition in 6/8 time, resembling a lullaby) is preceded by its own mini overture, and ascends. Fearlessly, I Break Horses respect and invigorate the form. Throughout this remarkable album, they celebrate their developing artistry and seemingly boundless ambition. [Gary Kaill]
Dum Dum Girls
Cymbals
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Too True [Sub Pop, 27 Jan]
Diversifying her tried-and-tested sound with mixed results, Dee Dee’s third Dum Dum Girls album updates the project’s key reference points by a couple of decades. The fuzzed-up 60s girl group style is still discernable in the cinematic allure of Evil Blooms and Cult of Love’s surf twang, but other elements have wound on considerably from debut I Will Be, taking things in a cleaner, shinier pop direction. The commercial aspirations implied by the chart starlet cover art (not to mention the slick H&M-produced promo for Lost Boys and Girls Club) finds sonic realisation in the album’s de rigeur 80s influences, with Rimbaud Eyes ripped straight from Tango in the Night and echoes of Benatar torch-songs, Siouxie-esque dark drama and a soupcon of Cocteau Twins all hovering in the margins. Unfortunately, it’s often too slick to stick (Are You Okay, in particular, has an undesirable Corrs-ish quality), preventing Too True from quite matching up to its predecessors. [Chris Buckle]
January 2014
The Age of Fracture [Tough Love, 27 Jan] This London art-pop quartet follow their 2011 debut Unlearn by polishing the synth-heavy postpunk of that record into something glossier, but similarly melancholy and nostalgic. The Age of Fracture makes no attempt to hide its influences: it’s impossible to ignore the ghost of New Order’s post-modern pop in tracks like Winter ’98, with its 80s synth-voice stabs; yet Jack Cleverly’s wistful vocals and the muted, reverb-laden guitar lines ensure the sound retains a distinctive edge. The Age of Fracture partly accomplishes this through the ambition and complexity of the song structures: the nine-minute Like An Animal, for example, shifts through mournful, goth synthscapes before ultimately culminating in a haunting, disco-led climax. Another key element is the sharp, intricate sound, assisted by producer Dreamtrak (Hot Chip). Collectively, these dual qualities raise Cymbals above the masses of identikit synthpop revivalists; Fracture sounds like an outfit dreamily distracted by the past, rather than overwhelmed. [Sam Wiseman]
RECORDS
Spiritual Emergency [Thrill Jockey, 27 Jan] The third album from Greg Fox’s project sees the New York avant-rock drummer joined by Alexandra Drewchin on vocals and electronics, Bernard Gann on guitar, Turner Williams on shahai baaja, and Eli Winograd on bass. The results are strikingly original, not least structure: following the ten-minute opener Tranquilizer – an amorphous mass of twisted vocal samples and stabs of percussion – there are three relatively brief pieces, before the closing 20-minute title track. This unorthodox approach is mirrored in Spiritual Emergency ’s characteristically freeform song structures, built around the aforementioned on the shorter pieces. It’s only really on the closer that the outfit’s post-punk/noise influences are made explicit, with Cann’s whirling squalls of distortion and Fox’s frenetic drumming recalling Rhys Chatham. Intermingling that lineage with Fox’s mystical leanings, the LP ultimately conjoins its acoustic and electronic elements in an awkward but distinctive unity. [Sam Wiseman]
The Top Five 1
2 3 4
Mogwai
Rave Tapes
East India Youth
Total Strife Forever
Warpaint
Warpaint
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra
Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything
5
Sun Glitters
Scattered Into Light
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Talent Day | Conference | Open Studio | Experience
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THE SKINNY
Clubbing Highlights Steadily increase the intensity with which you dismantle your New Year’s Resolutions, from a relatively chilled night with Stop Making Sense to a visit from Detroit don Terrence Parker Words: Evie Copland Illustration: Sophie Freeman
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ust because the Christmas festivities are over doesn’t mean the party spirit has to stop. Beat the January blues by filling dancefloors, flooding streets and packing out kebab shops like it’s 2014 – start as you mean to go on! The New Year actually starts off fairly low key, which should give you just enough time to catch your breath and get back to work before your diary starts to fill up with events across Northwest clubland. Whether you’re desperately waiting for the much-needed January pay packet, or even that life-saving chunk of your student loan, Manchester’s Common are taking an understanding approach to your potential post-NYE bankruptcy. The team are throwing out a considerate freebie with Stop Making Sense, their very own Thursday Club that should settle you back into the life of a social butterfly quite nicely on 9 Jan (free entry). Weekly residents Mr Seb Valentine, Benatronic and Luke Warm are on hand to remind you that Thursdays really are the new Saturdays and that, hey, it’s still okay to get your mid-week groove on. Bocuma kick off their new calendar with a pack of local talent taking over Odder Bar on 18 Jan. Handpicked for your pleasure, AJ Christou and Piers Crozier of Resonance Records lead a night of straight up tech in the Southern Quarter (£3 entry OTD). Elsewhere, Factory celebrates its fourth birthday on 19 Jan with South Bronx innovators ESG flying in to take charge of proceedings. One of the most important bands in dance music history, their repertoire spans disco, hip-hop and post-punk. It’s this unique blend that has served to inspire some of the biggest names in modern alternative music, including LCD Soundsystem and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (£19 early bird). Moving towards the tail end of the month, you also have the chance to catch the Manchester leg of Ministry of Sound’s Addicted to Bass album tour at The Ritz. You can thank the team at Dodgy Social for bringing in Southampton’s favourite 2-stepper Artful Dodger on 22 Jan for one night only. Following the takeover from the Wideboys, MC Alistair and Ministry of Sound resident DJAMES join Mr Dodger for a night of garage classics and the promise of an amazing album launch giveaway (£10). We can’t promise how amazing it will actually be. Come 25 Jan and you guys are very much spoilt for choice. Over at Gorilla, Manchester’s newest night, Solar, let minimal maestro Tim Green take over their launch proceedings. Green was awarded DJ Mag’s coveted ‘Best Breakthrough Producer’ award back in 2010, and recent hit Just People enjoyed massive success in Ibiza over the summer, being championed by the likes of Solomun and Davide Squillace. He is also hotly tipped for the coming year, with a string of high profile remixes planned. Our advice is to catch him sooner rather than later. Expect fresh beats and the unexplainable compulsion to do a little shuffle from side to side (£10 early bird).
January 2014
Perhaps the most exciting prospect in the January club schedule sees one of the most respected figures of the Detroit scene visiting Merseyside on 25 Jan, when Terrence Parker tops the Shake a Leg bill at Kitchen Street in Liverpool. The D-town native has established himself as a solid producer and DJ, leaning more towards the gospel side of house music. If his technique on the turntables isn’t enough to impress you, perhaps his trademark use of a telephone headset for mixing will leave you speechless. This is a perfect chance to see a true master at work just days before his widely anticipated new LP drops on Planet E. Well worth a tenner. If novelty headphones aren’t quite your cup of tea, perhaps you’ll be up for a night across town at The Boutique in order to get a deeper vibe on instead. Italian duo Flashmob headline on the final Saturday of the month (25 Jan, £6 early bird). The pair have gradually developed their own brand of warm, chord-driven house over the past few years and have gained support from the likes of Pete Tong and Kerri Chandler. These guys pride themselves on their impeccable mixing ability, blowing minds whenever they play after-hours. The same night in Manchester (25 Jan) also sees Pangaea Festival return to the University of Manchester Students’ Union for its ninth year. This year’s Lost City theme provides the backdrop for Paul Woolford, Greg Wilson and Zed Bias. Tickets only available to students of the university. Meanwhile in Manchester, 31 Jan sees the mystical Sable Sheep running the final show of the month at South for the guys at mute! Famed for his skills in arrangement and design, Sable Sheep crafts music that locks you into a relentless groove, eases you through a hypnotic concoction of soulful beats, before spitting you back out on to the street at 3am. Who doesn’t like the sound of that? It was only a few years ago that Sable Sheep started on the production path. Since then, he has put out three EPs, including an infectious debut effort that drew acclaim from hotshots like Loco Dice and Luciano. He is now releasing on the Moon Harbour imprint and global support for the young German producer is building by the day (£6). Your final option of the month as we go to print is Playground’s second instalment (30 Jan, £6), following their successful launch at the Roadhouse last November. They have sourced minimal tech lord and Minus mainstay Kevin McHugh, aka Ambivalent, to celebrate the occasion. Since his permanent move to Berlin from hometown Washington, D.C., McHugh has been perfecting his immersive soundscapes and skeletal funked-up grooves for your listening pleasure. Remember kids, choose wisely and don’t let those January blues get the better of your New Year cheer. Ticket prices are advance unless otherwise specified; some events may be more on the door
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Preview
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Behind the Scenes: Black Bee Soul Club In which we take a closer look at the ideas and ideals behind the Northwest’s best clubnights – beginning with Paul Bailey and Sam McEwen’s resurrection of the true, crate-digging roots of Northern soul Interview: Daniel Jones Illustration: Gavin Rutherford
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t’s already been a year since Manchester City Council’s planning committee gave a gang of bulldozers the go-ahead to tear down the site of a true Mancunian institution, the Twisted Wheel, condemning its physical presence in the city to little more than a retro stamp on future knockoff t-shirts and coffee mugs. Yes, it will undoubtedly live long in the memory of the aging fanatics who frequented the Sunday sessions towards the end, but, for the youngsters out there, the sweaty basement magic of an uptempo Northern nighter had never seemed more distant. Step in Sam McEwen and Paul Bailey. Tucked away down a dingy back alley just off Stevenson Square, their Black Bee Soul Club has been staking a claim to being the prevailing hive of Manchester’s young soul scene for the past 18 months or so. “The legacy of the Twisted Wheel is undeniable, but it’s not necessarily what we’re about,” McEwen explains. “We’re a couple of guys in our mid 20s who want to cater to a younger audience. It’s all well and good going to nights up and down the country where you get to hear how great the old-timers were back in the 60s and 70s, but we noticed that a lot of clubs in the Northwest were playing a lot of the same stuff each time. To us, that got boring pretty quickly.
“Quite a few of the nights around play a bit slower because of the older following; we’re all about the high energy, uptempo dancers. Play fast, play loud and dance yer arse off. Stuff like Sho ’Bout To Drive Me Wild by Al Robinson, or She Made A Mistake by Connie Austin. They’re regular spins.” The pair decided on Kraak Gallery as their new home after quite a bit of scouting around. The most important foundation for any budding soul night is a wooden floor, which, according to McEwen, is harder to find in Manchester than you might think. “That’s unless you want to go for a characterless wedding venue type,” he confirms, “but yeah, there’s barely anywhere. We fell in love with Kraak straight away. It’s got that nice, gritty vibe and we liked the fact that it’s not right on the high street. You have to do a bit of work to find us.” McEwen is also quick to point out that rarity and price will never be determining factors as to what makes a track worthy of getting a spin at their gaff. Harking back, the ego of certain DJs drew strength from sheer obscurity. Pedigree was judged by how many copies were knocking about or how few units a record sold – such factors, in fact, often ranked just as highly as an
artist’s ability, instrumentation and the sound of the record itself. “You can go from playing a couple of 45s that cost £6 for the pair to a £300 record, and it has no effect on hearing it for the first time and knowing whether it’s a belter or not,” he says. “You shouldn’t just play something for the sake of rarity. A lot of tracks are overlooked because they aren’t considered rare or original, but just because something is in a certain price bracket doesn’t make it any good. Once you put a value on something people will react to that. They get drawn to it. A friend of mine has spent close to a grand on one record. I’m much more attracted to the cheaper end of the spectrum!” he laughs. Since its birth back in 2012, Black Bee has swiftly gathered a loyal following. This includes former Wheel jockey Brian ‘45’ Phillips, who ended up playing a guest set a few months back. “It’s surreal playing alongside some of the original DJs because, when you’re up there, you’re on a level playing field,” says McEwen. “There is no ego. You
play a set, then go join the dancefloor and you soon realise that everybody is the same. Brian had been coming down for a few months before we even knew who he was! It goes to show that the DJ should never think of himself or herself as the star attraction; the people who made the music will always be the real stars.” Of course, one of the more romantic elements of the Northern soul scene was that the vast majority of recording musicians would never come to know the impact that they were making 5,000 miles across the pond. Apart from a few select big names like Edwin Starr or Jr. Walker, there were no icons; instead, it was the distant struggle of every undiscovered Motown reject that unintentionally inspired a humble slice of English culture. Thanks to clubs like Black Bee, that slice still has somewhere to go when it gets dark. Better start practising those backdrops. www.facebook.com/BlackBeeSoulClub
DJ Chart: Varoslav The Paris native shares ten tracks that inform the sound of his fledgling label Rue de Plaisance
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ean-Claude Varoslav Catel is a Parisian selfstarter who cut his teeth directing Berlin’s much-loved Supplement Facts alongside Guy Gerber. In that time, he managed to fine-tune his production method, resulting in a short burst of quality house singles on Percusa, Dirt Crew and Tishomingo. By 2011, his four-year stint at Supplement Facts had afforded Varoslav enough connections among the fresh crop of worthy French and German producers to start building his own label, Rue de Plaisance. Early efforts from David K and Professor Inc. did enough to prick the ears of Detroit icon Norm Talley, leading him to donate his mesmerising Riviere D’etroit EP to the cause last year. The label goes into 2014 off the back of an impressive Idjut Boys re-issue and, with another single from the head honcho himself, Forbidden Love, due to land at the end of this month, it looks sure to continue on a rapid upward trajectory. Check out that track and more as V-man runs us through a few tasteful selections from his eclectic palate.
die; I remember specifically that I bought it at Satellite NYC in 2000. My roots come from hip hop and I’m a major Wu Tang fan.
Ol’ Dirty Bastard – Raw Hide [Elektra] This one is a special record for me that will never
Idjut Boys & Quakerman – Suicide Lover [Rue De Plaisance]
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Preview
Interview: Daniel Jones
KC Flightt – Let’s Get Jazzy (Dope Mix) [TMT] I have the bootleg of this record; don’t quote me but I’m fairly certain that it’s an edit from Kenny Dope. A dancefloor burner even after all this time... straight up housy vinyl vibes. Dialect – Sitting in the Sun (Derrick Carter’s Winter Crazy Dub Reprise) [Distance Music] I have always been a huge fan of Derrick Carter’s grooves and this track epitomises what I love about his production style. It shows the warm Windy City vibes that he was spreading at the time. Moodymann – Silentintroduction LP [Planet E] I can’t make a playlist without including something from the boss. KDJ has made such an imprint in my life and this album is probably one of the best in the entire field of electronic music. Timeless masterpiece.
Originally out on their album on Glasgow Underground, I had the chance to personally meet the Idjut Boys last year. The fact that we decided to re-issue some of their old tracks on my own label really is a dream come true. Dettmann & Klock – Dawning [Ostgut Ton] As I am totally into techno sounds, I decided to select one of the first EPs from the supreme Ostgut stable. It’s the proper template for a timeless techno track; melodic, dark, groovy and deep. DJ Qu – Times Like This [The Corner] Dj Qu is, for me, one of the hottest new talents we have on the scene. I really like his music because it comes from the heart and this record really shows his sensibility. A must have from a great guy with a great vibe. Oskar Offermann – The Fog Burns Off [White] I’ve picked this record for many reasons. The first is that I couldn’t take it out of my bag from the moment I bought it. Oskar is one of my favourite new artists for his eclecticism and his versatility; he delivers so many different moods. The Fog Burns Off is more disco-centric but it shows his
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capability to make a big track nonetheless. Norm Talley – The Journey [Nouveau Riche] A basic sampled house track with an amazing funky aesthetic, great work from a great master. There’s some records from Detroit that you will end up loving for life, this is one of them. Baby Ford – Tin of Worms [Autoreply] This is one of the most magical tracks I’ve ever had the chance to listen to. There’s not so much in the way of complicated drum patterns, FX etc., but Baby Ford’s focus on that pumping minimal sound really shines through. Paul Rutherford – Get Real (Happy House Mix) [Island] The last track is one that I can’t forget, a track that passed years and will stay with me until the end of the days. It’s a classic from the late 80s that I discovered back when I was a club addict. Ricardo Villalobos played it in his set last week which brought it back to mind. Fasten your seatbelt for this one. Fobidden Love by Varoslav with Gaffy and Jaw is out on Rue de Plaisance later this month www.ruedeplaisance.com
THE SKINNY
January Film Events Inside Llewyn Davis
Inside Llewyn Davis
Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen Starring: Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund Released: 24 Jan Certificate: 15
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Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus
Director: Sebastián Silva Starring: Michael Cera, Gaby Hoffmann, Agustín Silva, Juan Andrés Silva, José Miguel Silva Released: 17 Jan Certificate: 15
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The Coen brothers’ latest success is a film about failure. Llewyn Davis (Isaac) is a talented singer-songwriter barely eking out an existence in the Greenwich Village bars and cafés of the early 1960s. Does he lack the spark of genius that turns a good artist into a great one? Or is he simply a man out of time, striving fruitlessly before the 1960s folk music scene really took off? Inside Llewyn Davis is a wintry, melancholy comedy elevated into something more resonant by that inimitable Coen touch. As ever, the editing and camerawork (this time provided by Bruno Delbonnel) is perfectly judged and the cast (including John Goodman, F. Murray Abraham and Adam Driver) is imaginatively chosen, but it’s the sensational lead performance that powers the film. Llewyn is a prickly character prone to alienating anyone who can help him, but the film plays as a deeply empathetic portrait of a struggling artist, with Isaac’s heartfelt performances of Llewyn’s songs proving that, yes, he coulda been a contender. [Philip Concannon]
Consider Michael Cera’s recent film roles. There’s two-timing Scott (Scott Pilgrim vs the World), schizophrenic womaniser Nick (Youth in Revolt), and coke-snorting party animal Michael Cera (This Is the End). This nerdy sweetheart has proved he’s equally adept at portraying nerdy douchebags. For more evidence, see this low-key Chilean comedy from director Sebastián Silva, where Cera plays Jamie, a control freak who’s so uptight and egotistical that he manages to take the fun out of an altered-state road trip with friends to an idyllic beach to ingest some psychotropic cactus. He’s not the only member of his party you want to throttle, though. Tagging along with Jamie and his three Chilean friends is the eponymous Crystal Fairy (blast-from-the-past Gaby Hoffman), a hippy hypocrite who lectures the boys on eating junk food while spouting chakra platitudes and parading around naked. Watching these two monsters’ passive-aggressive spars is a toe-curling joy, and Silva’s freewheeling direction is pleasantly at odds with the angst on screen. [Jamie Dunn]
12 Years a Slave
Lone Survivor
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Director: Steve McQueen Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong’o, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano Released: 10 Jan Certificate: 15
Director: Peter Berg Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster, Eric Bana Released: 31 Jan Certificate: 18
Hunger and Shame proved that Steve McQueen’s artistic sensibility was well-suited to cinema, but 12 Years a Slave is the first time he has adapted his visual gifts to a classical narrative and imbued them with humanism. The true saga of Solomon Northup (Ejiofor) allows McQueen to tell one man’s extraordinary story, but also expose, as Solomon is passed from owner to owner – the avaricious Paul Giamatti, the conflicted Benedict Cumberbatch, the vicious Michael Fassbender – the workings of the slavery machine and the myriad ways in which blacks were subjugated and humiliated. McQueen’s unerring compositional sense often expresses all of this in a single image, as in the shot of Solomon dangling from a noose as plantation life goes on around him, but the director’s gaze, while unsparing, is never exploitative or hysterical. The film is beautifully underplayed with an emotional undercurrent that gradually builds an accumulative force, before all of that anger and sorrow finally explodes to the surface in an unforgettable final scene. [Philip Concannon]
Lone Survivor is apparently the passion project that Peter Berg directed Battleship for, and his enthusiasm for the material is evident in every frame. The film opens with real-life footage of the US Navy SEALs that Berg clearly idolises, before proceeding to tell the story of the disastrous Operation Red Wings in bloody detail. Berg’s film is built around an extended firefight between four SEALs (Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster) and dozens of Taliban insurgents, which is expertly staged but the relentless intensity quickly grows numbing. Enemy fighters go down with one shot while the Americans take countless bullets before finally breathing their last in admiring slow-motion. It all leaves you ample time to wonder what exactly Berg is trying to say – war is hell and SEALs are hard? Is that really it? There is an interesting late twist when a group of Afghan villagers present us with a different brand of heroism, but many viewers will have been turned off by Berg’s military fetishism long before that point. [Philip Concannon]
The Armstrong Lie
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
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Director: Alex Gibney Starring: Lance Armstrong, Reed Albergotti, Betsy Andreu, Frankie Andreu Released: 31 Jan Certificate: 15 The titular ‘lie’ refers to Lance Armstrong’s use of performance-enhancing drugs in all seven of his victories at the Tour de France (since rescinded) as well as his competitive comeback in 2009. Gibney’s film actually started as a fluff piece about said comeback – the remarkable story of one man’s struggle against all the odds. In its place we get an explorative documentary about how Armstrong perpetrated the lie: his ruthlessly competitive nature, the bullying of his teammates, the sinister science of blood doping. Whether or not you have any interest in the sport, there’s a peculiar appeal to watching such an elaborate charade being constructed and maintained in the full view of professional cycling bodies as well as the general public. Despite the constant murmurings from the press, Armstrong was transformed into a symbol of hope against adversity, and his charity, Livestrong, has done incalculable amounts of good for cancer sufferers. While we may deride his actions with hindsight, at the time we were all complicit, caught up in the lie. [Tom Grater]
January 2014
Director: Ben Stiller Starring: Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Adam Scott, Sean Penn, Shirley MacLaine, Kathryn Hahn, Patton Oswalt Released: Out now Certificate: PG Based on James Thurber’s short story, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty stars its director Ben Stiller as an inexpressive, daydreaming underachiever who, provoked by a takeover at the print magazine he works for, finally takes risks and embarks on a convoluted global journey. The takeover is led by a felt-bearded Adam Scott, who plays an even more one-dimensional bastard than his character in Will Ferrell comedy Step Brothers. Two hours of gloopy, insipid, narcissistic wish fulfilment ensues, alongside an uncomfortably extended promotion for dating site eHarmony. Credit goes to Kristen Wiig, for her turns in the more comedic daydream sequences, and it’s encouraging to see a Hollywood actor-director try out such a visually playful feature on a fairly big studio budget, even if that visual language and the cheap, undercooked sentiments at its core mean it won’t feel out of place in the company of the adverts that will precede it at the cinema. Horribly on-the-nose uses of Space Oddity and Arcade Fire’s Wake Up work against it, too. [Josh Slater-Williams]
FILM
Get sleazy at Cornerhouse for its epic night of exploitation; at the Dancehouse, dress code is fishnet stockings and sunglasses indoors, while FACT gives us heartbreaking romance Words: Simon Bland
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elcome to 2014! We’re now only one year away from Marty McFly arriving in the future to tamper with the space-time continuum, but in the meantime there are lots of Northwest film events to check out. First up, why not get real sleazy with Manchester’s Cornerhouse at their Sleazeathon spectacular on 18 Jan? This Grindhouse-esque, all-night celebration of 1970s exploitation promises back-to-back screenings of some outrageous classics. Expect cult zombie fave The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue, slasher granddaddy A Bay of Blood, giallo touchstone The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Tarantino’s Django Unchained inspiration Mandingo, the Tommy Lee Jones-starring Jackson County Jail, and trashy revenge epic Act of Vengeance. Too much for you to handle? Get down to Manchester’s Dancehouse Theatre instead. They’ll be bringing Jake and Elwood Blues back to the big screen for one night only on 16 Jan. John Landis’ seminal work The Blues Brothers perfectly combines humour with unadulterated cool and held the record for the maddest car chase in cinema history for years following its 1980 release. Make attending this screening your own personal mission from God. Then on 31 Jan, the same venue gets a visit from a certain sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania, as The Rocky Horror Picture Show is brought back to life for one last party. Lingerie at the ready, boys and girls.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Over in Liverpool, FACT has a double punch of must-see re-runs starting with director Gary Goddard’s campy-yet-cool 1987 gem Masters of the Universe (22 Jan). Catch a pre-Friends Courteney Cox help Swedish powerhouse Dolph Lundgren battle Frank Langella’s evil Skeletor for the fate of all Eternia in the only big-screen HeMan epic we’ve had so far. Interdimensional swordplay not your thing? Then perhaps you’d like the second of FACT’s must-see January screenings, David Lean’s heartbreaking 1945 melodrama Brief Encounter (26 Jan). This touching story of social status constraints, unhappy marriage and the fleeting potential of happiness is as fresh today as it was during its war-time release (if you ignore the RP accents). Unmissable stuff. And if you love live music as much as you love movies, get down to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic on 3 and 4 Jan for a special screening of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Here, Captain Jack will be joined by a live orchestra performing Hans Zimmer’s irresistible score for a totally immersive experience.
Review
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Virtually Reality
Unity Theatre, Liverpool, 21-22 Jan Unmanned drones are revolutionising military tactics; medical research is prolonging human longevity more and more; voice control, handsfree technology, Siri, artificial intelligence, OK Google, Cleverbot, ‘smart’ robots… Things that were once solely the realm of science fiction novels and bad TV special effects are becoming day-to-day reality as quickly as we can imagine them – and quicker than we can understand what makes them work, and where they come from. Popular Demand, a young experimental theatre group based in Liverpool, are trying to make sense of it all with their new show Virtually Reality. The show explores not only what has happened, is happening and might be happening in the muddled cyber and tech worlds, but also what it might mean for the people in our future. Tom Burroughs, one half of Popular Demand, explains that at its core the play is toying with the idea of the human desire to live forever: “It’s a journey of man’s exploration of trying to become immortal. It’s a journey through modern advancement in science and tech, but also trying to look at all the philosophy throughout history, all the people that have tried to make that happen, and then where we are now.” Popular Demand’s other member, Ed Bixter, jumps in: “We thought we’d tie it all back to how all these advancements will affect human beings. We’re not just looking into robots...” The play itself doesn’t exactly follow a conventional structure. There’ll be lots of projection and carefully crafted soundscapes (Bixter tells me that he wants the stage to be similar to a visual art exhibition, as well as a theatre platform), and the show itself is split into three sections – past, present and future – something Burroughs and Bixter describe as “a mosaic of lots of different things. There are characters from reality, and characters from our imagination… All the stuff in
Wanted! Robin Hood
Wanted! Robin Hood
The Lowry, Salford, until 11 Jan We all know the tale of Robin Hood – of the altruistic outlaw riding through the glen, whose daring deeds overthrow the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham and liberate the serfs. We’ve all watched Kevin Costner swashbuckling in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and laughed at the Pancake Day song in Maid Marian and Her Merry Men. The Library Theatre Company’s interpretation of this classic piece of English folklore is a fun family show exploring some tough moral choices, all brought to life by a hard-working and versatile cast. Ciaran Kellgren’s Robin is as sharp as the sword he carries, leading a band of petty thieves. His merry lads survive in the wilds of Sherwood Forest with their wits and archery skills, robbing from the rich and poor to feed themselves. An encounter with Marian of York begins to change their motivations. Marian’s hand has long been promised to the ruthless Sheriff of Nottingham, Walter Fitzwarren, a role Emilio Doorgasingh fills with menace. She appears sweet and maidenly in a sweeping red cloak with berries in her hair, but Amelia Donkor portrays Marian as a feisty, independent young woman. She may be stuck in a turret waiting to
Virtually Reality
the ‘future’ part of the play is based on research we’ve done. It’s a mixture of reality and letting our imaginations go crazy.” Promising to be quite unconventional, Virtually Reality was thought up by Popular Demand in order to spark debate and, basically, get people talking. They want to show an audience their predictions for the future in the hope that those people will go out, do some research, and come up with a prediction of their own. [Conori Bell-Bhuiyan] 8pm, £8 (£7) www.unitytheatreliverpool.co.uk
be married, but at least she has books to read – unlike her illiterate husband-to-be. Christopher Wright is also excellent as Sir Eustace, the Sheriff’s self-serving steward. Director Amy Leach has previously worked with The Library Theatre for Arabian Nights, the company’s 2012 Christmas show; and, as a veteran writer of family Christmas shows, Charles Way’s script provides rich characters, laughs a-plenty and opportunities for swordplay. It also resists patronising the younger members of the audience, presenting characters with difficult choices: should Robin fight against Walter Fitzwarren when doing so will risk his life? Should Marian send a letter to Queen Eleanor, alerting her to Fitzwarren’s tyrannical rule? And should they both pause for a moment to just admit they fancy each other? Designer Hayley Grindle’s set transforms The Lowry’s Quays Theatre into both the imposing Sheriff’s castle and the rustling forest, as metal chains clang from ceiling. At times they serve as trees on which the Merry Men joyously swing; at others they’re manacles in a hidden dungeon. It’s not only the set that doubles but also the cast: Peter Landi is patient and fatherly as Friar Tuck, and also dastardly as mercenary Guy of Gisbourne. [Jacky Hall] Adults £16.50-£20.50 (£14.50-£18.50); children £10 www.librarytheatre.com
Alvin Baltrop and Gordon Matta-Clark: The Piers From Here
Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, until 9 Feb
Alinah Azadeh: The Gifts of the Departed
Manchester Craft and Design Centre, until 1 Mar
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Alinah Azadeh’s The Gifts of the Departed is poignant in its surroundings, encircled by studio-shops selling handmade homewares and accessories that, at the time of year we visit, are likely destined to be gifts. Displayed on plinths and in glass cases are the results of an ongoing sculptural project that is deeply personal for the artist, one exploring grief and the creative process. The work on show consists of meticulously wrapped objects, which, under their bright bandages and webs of text, are recognisable as cooking utensils, telephones or shoes. On one low plinth encased in glass, what may have once been cutlery is arranged in a circular formation and joined together by words, conjuring up gatherings past, and prompting a consideration of family traditions and commemoration. In an accompanying artist’s blog, Azadeh explains how her life and creative practice were changed completely after the tragic loss of her
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Review
mother, along with the loss of thousands of other lives, in the 2004 tsunami. The background given, with autobiographical details and musings on creativity, is helpful in understanding the significance of these works. Although the sculptures are beautiful and intriguing in their own right, without an engagement with the surrounding context offered by the artist, the depth of meaning could be missed. In one blog post, Azadeh considers ‘what loss can give birth to if we allow and have the courage to let it,’ confirming the sense that these works represent a physical manifestation of the process of grief; with layers of laborious and careful wrapping, objects of significance to the memory of the deceased are preserved and concealed. The act of wrapping is evocative of celebration, mortality and, above all, protection, with Azadeh’s bright, curious and securely bound sculptures encouraging the viewer to muse on the symbolic and emotional importance of gifting, family and ceremony. [Lauren Velvick] 10am - 5.30pm, Mon-Sat, free www.craftanddesign.com
An abundance of space has always lent itself to cultivation of cultures away from social norms, allowing those who occupy it a chance to create living dreamscapes otherwise impossible to nurture within densely populated areas. Whereas Liverpool’s dockland decline was to be rescued by state regeneration, New York’s piers along the Hudson River were left to rot. However, as dereliction displayed the city’s decaying industry, it also allowed hedonistic cultures to blossom behind its metal caverns – and in The Piers From Here, two seemingly opposing perspectives from ‘anarchitect’ Gordon Matta-Clark and photographer Alvin Baltrop depict beauty and poignancy in New York’s architectural and cultural castaways. Matta-Clark’s ‘water-and-light temple’ – a crescent cut into a disused hangar, a sweeping window into Pier 52 – is contrasted by the lulling waves of the Hudson. The incision is not unlike the stained glass of a cathedral, in effect conceiving a secular shrine to post-industrial sublimation. Accompanied by a rough sketch of Matta-Clark’s architectural design, Baltrop’s photos of the piece inspire awe; the degradation of the interior does not so much bathe in the sun as receive deliberate piercings, reflecting the harsh, unnatural landscape along New York’s waterfront. Whereas the work of Matta-Clark evokes something of the near religious, the carnal voyeurism captured by Baltrop reflects a highly personal experience. Focusing on the piers’ sordid undercurrent, Baltrop excels in documenting the cruising, drug dealing, murders and suicides taking place by the Hudson. The collection’s presentation – intimate black-and-white portraits – helps to convey the thrill and danger
THEATRE / ART
Gordon Matta-Clark: Untitled The Piers (two men on dock) 1972-1975
Baltrop found himself in; the degraded studios and vibrant individuals never feel welcoming, but are nonetheless enticing. While you can sense that the cruisers had warmed to Baltrop’s documentation, a certain distance is maintained in those images that capture chilling displays of violence and neglect, aimless wanderers, body bags and police investigators. Between these moments, however, Baltrop frames an intimacy, bringing to the fore the relative freedom of homosexuality at the piers, presenting them as a lurid paradise. [Jon Davies] 10.30am-5.30pm, Tue-Sun, free www.openeye.org.uk
THE SKINNY
Photo: The Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark
The Gifts of the Departed (2013)
Photo: Alinah Azadeh
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Spotlight: 2014, a Comedy Odyssey Comedians and promoters in Liverpool and Manchester reveal their hopes for the regional scene in the New Year Interview: John Stansfield Illustration: Greg Wynne
What would you like to see less of in 2014? Kate McCabe, comedian and Sidekick Comedy founder: “Gong shows. Gigs that rely on weird gimmicks that do nothing for the performer. Maybe fewer people trying to find the very edge of edgy? Edgy is the new hack?” Freddy Quinne, comedian: “Attractive 20 year olds in skinny jeans and cropped t-shirts with no life experience.” Red Redmond, comedian and Dead Cat Comedy founder: “‘Aren’t men and women different?’ or ‘Self-service checkout eh?’ or ‘I HATE MY WIFE!’” Ros Bell, promoter, Group Therapy and XS Malarkey: “The lazy use of the word ‘slag’. Small venues closing down – support your local independent comedy club!” Jack Evans, comedian and Quippopotamus Comedy co-founder: “I’d love to see less conflict between established promoters and the newer pay-what-you-want nights; we’re not competing, we’re collaborating! Smaller, free entry gigs aren’t taking customers from existing nights. Our audiences are precisely the kind of frivolous vagabonds who’d never afford a £10 ticket, but they might in the future.” Paul Blair, Hot Water Comedy: “Drunk stag and hen parties.”
What do you want to see more of? Lee Martin, Gag Reflex Management: “I’d like to see more character and sketch comedy. We have some extremely talented people here in the Northwest and I’d like to see them stretch their comedic legs.” “I’d love to see audiences taking chances more often and going to watch comedians they don’t know from the television. A comedian being on TV is not an indicator of how good they are.” (Ros Bell) “Improv is wonderful and I feel like it’s not as understood and appreciated here as maybe it is back in the States. I’d like some of the stronger, smaller, indie-type gigs continue to serve and nurture new comedy enthusiasts in that community.” (Kate McCabe) “We would like to see more local talent making it onto the bigger stage and reaching a wider audience, and for more people to actually go out and visit one of the region’s excellent comedy venues.” (Paul Blair) “I’d like the media to pull their heads out of their cavernous, overpriced London-centric arses and start paying more attention to the awesome scene we’ve got up here. The BBC moved themselves to Salford and their comedy programming
Russell C Kirk
is still criminally dominated by London-based production companies and wet liberal Oxbridge types called Chauncey.” (Jack Evans) Who do you expect big things from this year? “I’m most excited about Gein’s Family Giftshop. A brilliantly dark sketch troupe who remember the key to comedy – laughs. So many other sketch groups forget to be funny.” (Lee Martin) “Our favourite local Northwest talent would be Adam Rowe, Davey Ash, Rob Thomas, Liam Bolton, and of course our very own resident comedy MC Paul Smith.” (Paul Blair) “Cheekykita, Sheffield-based sketch group Staple/face, Baby Wants Candy (they already are a pretty big deal in the States) and especially
ComedySportz expanding their improv presence in the Northwest.” (Kate McCabe) “Great acts like Liam Pickford, Gein’s Family Giftshop, Will Setchell, Jack Evans and Jayne Edwards.” (Red Redmond) @sidekick_comedy @FreddyQuinne www.deadcatcomedy.co.uk www.grouptherapycomedy.co.uk www.xsmalarkey.com @QuippoComedy www.hotwatercomedy.co.uk www.gagreflex.co.uk
SC
Contemporary Art Space Chester
www.chester.ac.uk/casc Jan. 10th - Feb. 14th 2014 Open: Mon to Fri only. 10am-4 pm. This exhibition at CASC brings together aspects of Russell Kirk’s private and public work. Russell is responsible for a number of annual festivals and parades in Cheshire and surrounding Counties. Most notably Chester’s Midsummer Watch Parade. The exhibition presents some of the elements of the visualisation of the parade, fantastic character objects and Kirk’s expressive narrative drawing. Contemporary Art Space Chester. University of Chester, Faculty of Arts and Media, Kingsway, Chester, CH2 2LB. www.chester.ac.uk/casc t: 01244 515870 Admission free
January 2014
COMEDY
Preview
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Insidious: Chapter 2
Museum Hours
Riddick
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Director: James Wan Starring: Rose Byrne, Patrick Wilson Released: 6 Jan Certificate: 15
Insidious: Chapter 2 takes the elements introduced in its predecessor and runs with them, to mostly good effect. Thanks to Insidious’ shock twist finale (spoiler alert), poor Renai (Byrne) may have suspicions about her husband Josh (Wilson), but we already know why he’s gone full Jack Torrance. Josh is, however, generally left to lurk ominously while Renai, Josh’s mother, and recently-deceased medium Elise’s comedy sidekicks (the film’s weakest links) bear the brunt of the terror. Writer-director James Wan demonstrates a self-assured style, with the first hour filled with numerous familiar, though effective, scare tactics. All the elements of a low-budget, well executed haunted house/possession story are present, and there are plenty of nods to established horror fare. Then the fog-filled realm of ‘The Further’ is reintroduced, along with the inevitable setting up of the third instalment – it’s disappointing that once the actual plot kicks in, the scares vanish. [Becky Bartlett]
Director: Jem Cohen Starring: Mary Margaret O’Hara Released: 13 Jan Certificate: 12A
Director: David Twohy Starring: Vin Diesel, Karl Urban Released: 13 Jan Certificate: 15
In this documentary-fiction hybrid, a guard (Sommer) at Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum strikes up a friendship with a lonely Canadian tourist (O’Hara) present in the city to visit her estranged cousin in a coma. Though there is this narrative through-line, Museum Hours is more a collection of diary musings on larger issues of culture, perspective, art and its relation to life, and the inevitability that all things will fade. The closest comparison might be to say it’s like a non-romantic cut of Before Sunrise blended with Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil. The pair’s conversations and personal musings overlap with beautifully composed visual tours of both the museum’s artworks and the city outside, particularly the more neglected architecture and facets of Vienna. This may make Museum Hours sound like some mannered sermon, but it is in fact one of the most peaceful, bittersweet and uniquely comforting films of late. [Josh Slater-Williams]
After the ambitious first sequel to Pitch Black failed, you can see why producers would want to return to familiar territory, but something still isn’t working. After a coup, Riddick (Diesel) is abandoned on an all-new desert planet with an all-new monstrous alien life form to contend with. Unfortunately he’s also saddled with a messy, indulgent script that’s light years behind the efficient original. There are so many elements jostling for attention that more important factors, like a huge threat, which might produce some tension or motivation, are all but forgotten. Tone is also a problem: cartoonish alien puppies sit awkwardly alongside decapitation and sexual violence. Indeed, despite including genre favourite Katee Sackhoff, this is one of the most jarringly misogynistic films of recent years and a big step backwards from even the first film. None of this is Diesel’s fault, but sci-fi fans deserve much better than this. [Scott McKellar]
You’re Next
The Great Beauty
The Piano
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Director: Adam Wingard Starring: Sharni Vinson, Joe Swanberg Released: 13 Jan Certificate: 18 Actors and directors from a certain subset of American independent cinema star in this knowing slasher film. The first of You’re Next ’s two genre twists is that an attack on a family reunion at an isolated luxury home does nothing to quell the bickering and pettiness from before the first crossbow bolt is fired. The second is that one of You’re Next ’s would-be victims happens to be adept at not just defending themselves, but unleashing their own brand of brutality upon the attackers. The theoretically interesting survivalist backstory of that one character is lazily sketched in the film itself, and a general air of half-baked effort spreads elsewhere. Its macabre humour is limp, and the film’s straight stuff is lacking in any dread or sometimes even clarity, thanks to the use of hand-held camerawork with unclear spatial coherence. This is an anaemic play on formula, bereft of any punch. [Josh Slater-Williams]
Director: Paolo Sorrentino Starring: Toni Servillo, Sabrina Ferilli Released: 13 Jan Certificate: 15 In The Great Beauty ’s grand overture, a smiling tourist snaps the Roman skyline then suddenly falls, as if overwhelmed by the splendour of the city. A similar awe accompanies a first viewing of Paolo Sorrentino’s sixth feature, brimming as it is with luxuriant detail and technical bravado. These assets serve a picaresque narrative that delves into Rome in all its contrasts: the young and the ancient, the glamorous and the vulgar, the pious and the profane. At its centre is Jep Gambardella: a sad-eyed, sharp-witted man-about-town, living la dolce vita among the intelligentsia and glitterati of Rome’s hollow high society. Charmingly played by Sorrentino regular Toni Servillo, Jep walks a tightrope between elation and ennui, the opulent pleasures of each night before giving way to the self-doubts and uncertainties of every morning after. Encounters with saints, sinners and a vanishing giraffe ensue, and the cumulative effect is dazzling. [Chris Buckle]
BOOK OF THE MONTH
Valve #03: A Literary Journal
Asterix and the Picts
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By Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad
Ada (Hunter), a mute, 30-something Scotswoman, is uprooted overseas with her daughter (Anna Paquin) to wed an Antipodean landowner (Neill) she has never met. On arrival at the other side of the world, her beloved piano is abandoned on the shoreline, then sold to rough-hewn local Baines (Harvey Keitel). Slow-burning eroticism is traded for each cold, polished key, as Ada buys back her piano, trading sex for her only mode of selfexpression. Landscapes of misting trees and incessant rainfall drench the screen in pathetic fallacy, while Ada’s shrill, impossible narration contrasts with her tightly-corseted exterior. Campion’s Oscar-magnet has continued to attract reappraisal since its 1993 release; as post-feminist cautionary tale, romanticised portrayal of 19th century New Zealand and gothic melodrama. Taken at its most elemental, The Piano will endure, as only the most pure and haunting of fairytales do. [Kirsty Leckie-Palmer]
The Telling Room: A Tale of Passion, Revenge and the World’s Finest Cheese
Other People’s Countries: A Journey into Memory
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By Michael Paterniti
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The first original Asterix book to be completed by an all new creative team marks a key moment in the series’ history. Will Didier Conrad and Jean-Yves Ferri live up to the imposing canon of Goscinny and Uderzo? Signs are promising with Asterix and the Picts. Conrad’s illustrations substitute seamlessly for those of his predecessor, and Ferri has constructed a narrative that nods to a swathe of the much-loved character conventions, taking us on an old school quest and introducing some more pun-tastic names. When Asterix and Obelix happen across a frozen Pict they must thaw him out and return him to his native Caledonia. Cue a sea voyage, the decimation of a shipload of pirates, and various battles with Roman legionaries to depose the wicked puppet ruler Maccabeus and restore the rightful, native king, the defrosted MacAroon. Scottish readers will surely appreciate the indomitable Gauls’ wee jaunt to the frozen north, and the coincidence of its being released amid the independence debate offers a wealth of cause for speculation within the plot. Could we draw parallels here with the current status quo? Sort of, maybe. And what of the suggestion that Asterix and the Picts rivals the white paper for most pertinent political document in the referendum dialogue? Absolutely. [Rosamund West]
Director: Jane Campion Starring: Holly Hunter, Sam Neill Released: 20 Jan Certificate: 15
Now in its third year, Valve’s combination of new and established writers offering poems and stories with an experimental edge is a winning formula. As you take in these mostly brief pieces a thematic flow stretches between a sequence, offering a continuity and wholeness often absent from other literary journals. This can be seen in the opening four stories that pull into focus death and the ocean through fantastical and parochial lenses. Lucy Ribchester’s The SheSquid’s Embrace is particularly noteworthy in this chain, offering the lonely tale of a mythical beast from the deep, who falls in love with a dead sailor and drags him back to her home. Other highlights include Afric McGlinchey’s poems Out of the Green and Remnants of the Old Century, which work a plethora of intriguing images into beguiling narratives and have something of John Ashbery about them. Elaine Reid’s Trees for Africa is one of the longer pieces; an unnerving story about a woman working at a charity call-centre going in search of the customer who verbally abused her. There are several poems from en vogue names like Ryan Van Winkle and Michael Pedersen, which continue in the high standard they have set elsewhere. If you’re at all interested in what the current crop of voices in the world of Scottish literature have to offer, Valve is essential. [Ryan Rushton]
For anyone who thinks their attention cannot be held by a book about cheese, think again: The Telling Room is a work of literary non-fiction that is simultaneously as thrilling as a fast paced novel and as edifying as a historical work. The book is the culmination of a decade long obsession for Michael Paterniti, who relocated his family to rural Spain in search of the ‘world’s finest cheese.’ At its core, the book tells the story of Ambrosio, a ruined cheese-maker from Guzmán who once made a cheese so exquisite that it was said to have the power to invoke long-forgotten memories. Ambrosio’s story is one of passion, betrayal and blood feuds, yet the book becomes about much more than the maker and his cheese. Paterniti questions the very nature of our modern lives. In a world where fast food and gastrotechnology leave us with a product far removed from the original fruit, vegetable or animal, how can we maintain our connection to the land that begat it? Ambrosio is the ultimate ambassador of slow food, creating a cheese with such care and attention that, for Paterniti at least, it conjures up a sense of the arresting Spanish countryside where it was created. [Rosie Hopegood] Out 2 Jan, published by Canongate, RRP £12.99
By Patrick McGuinness
A memoir from a Belgian backwater doesn’t sound promising. And the contents page, listing titles like ‘Boxes’ and ‘My Suits,’ does little to counteract the apprehension. But for Patrick McGuinness, memories are electrical storms of the mind. His collection of stories and poems transforms Bouillon from a sleepy town close to the French border into a Belgian Ballykissangel. His cast includes eccentric relatives, unsavoury oddballs, and Kevin Keegan. The football legend provides an unlikely connection between the author’s Belgium and the northeast of England. While manager of Newcastle United, Keegan signed a player from Bouillon. The move spawned a cult of Kev in the town, and these days teenage Kevins rub shoulders with the more customary Philippes and Marcels. McGuinness’s fondness for his maternal hometown shows up in his lyrical observations of the everyday. Croissants are regarded as new-fangled; the local gendarme’s policing is so lighttouch ‘it could have been carried out by a modest breeze.’ And he doesn’t shrink from its difficult past – Bouillon’s most famous son became Belgium’s Nazi leader. But McGuinness knows Bouillon can take the rough with the smooth. As he says himself, ‘Less is not always more; sometimes it’s everything.’ [James Carson] Out 6 Mar, published by Jonathan Cape, RRP £14.99
Out now, RRP £5
Out now, published by Orion Children’s, RRP £10.99
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DVD / BOOKS
THE SKINNY
Manchester Music Thu 02 Jan SMOKEY BLUE GRASS
TROF NORTHERN QUARTER, 21:00–01:00, FREE
An evening of live music and DJs spanning folk, Americana, rhythm and blues. JAMIE BROWNFIELD QUARTET
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:30, FREE
A mix of bebop, mainstream swing and New Orlean’s funk from British Jazz Award up-and-comer, Jamie Brownfield.
Fri 03 Jan
THE GRAMOPHONE JASS BAND
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5
Old-timey Jazz-loving seven-piece from up Glasgow way, known for their Late Night Speakeasy at Henry’s Cellar.
Sat 04 Jan
FRANNY EUBANK’S THE BLUES
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5
Original Chicago blues from the Manchester-based Franny Eubank – delivering knock out performances with a harmonica and vocals.
Sun 05 Jan
SOUL SESSIONS (JON KENZIE)
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 19:00–00:00, £5
Monthly event hosted by Matt and Phred’s very own house band. ACOUSTIC BHUNA (ROOK AND THE RAVENS)
BAND ON THE WALL, 18:00–21:00, FREE
A new event pitching up at Band on the Wall will see acoustic sets paired with homemade curry, making for a relaxed sorta Sunday.
Mon 06 Jan
THE 1975 (WOLF ALICE + SWIM DEEP) MANCHESTER ACADEMY, 19:00–23:00, £15
Manchester’s very own alternative indie rock lot, touring with their debut self-titled studio album.
TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA O2 APOLLO, 19:00–23:00, £30
American prog-rock band formed in New York in 1993 by producer, composer and lyricist Paul O’Neill, currently embarking on a worldwide tour for their final performance of The Lost Christmas Eve. JUST HANDSHAKES + SONGS FOR WALTER + SO SEXUAL
THE CASTLE HOTEL, 20:00–23:00, £3
The Leeds-based indie-pop ensemble showcase their nostalgic leanings, heard via vintage string synths and guitars along with Songs for Walter and So Sexual. CHRIS BARNES (FANCY DRESS PARTY)
ROADHOUSE, 19:30–23:00, £4
Acoustic singer/songwriter hailing from the Northwest, merging delicate finger-style sounds with powerful vocals.
Sat 11 Jan
SOUL SESSIONS (LAUREN HOUSLEY)
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5
Monthly event hosted by Matt and Phred’s very own house band. ERIC RANDOM (WRANGLER)
BAND ON THE WALL, 19:30–23:00, £12
Post punk electronic courtesy of Eric Random of The New Hormones, joined on stage by prolific electronic trio, Wrangler.
Mon 13 Jan MAROON 5
PHONES4U ARENA, 19:30–22:00, £37.50
The LA quintet return to Manchester as part of their Overexposed world tour – their words, not ours.
Tue 14 Jan BLIND MONK TRIO
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:30, FREE
Three Northwest musicians putting a fresh spin on the classic, chordless jazz trio format. KATAKLYSM (KRISIUN + FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE)
SOUND CONTROL, 19:00–22:30, £16
Tue 07 Jan
The Canadian death metal gods take to the UK to spread some of their usual mayhem.
MANCHESTER ACADEMY, 19:00–23:00, £15
Wed 15 Jan
THE 1975 (WOLF ALICE + SWIM DEEP)
Manchester’s very own alternative indie rock lot, touring with their debut self-titled studio album. STUART MCCALLUM RESIDENCY
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:30, FREE
Cinematic Orchestra guitarist trying out new material in the realm of beats, electronica, classical orchestration and jazz.
STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS
GORILLA, 19:30–23:00, £17.50
The Pavement mainman tours on the back of his fifth studio album with his band The Jicks. PRATO BELL LUCKIN TRIO
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:30, FREE
Wed 08 Jan
A guitar, bass and drums trio, playing a series of original compositions and arrangements of standards.
MANCHESTER ACADEMY, 19:00–23:00, £15
MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL, 19:00–23:00, £20
THE 1975 (WOLF ALICE + SWIM DEEP)
Manchester’s very own alternative indie rock lot, touring with their debut self-titled studio album. MICHAEL CRETU TRIO
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:00, FREE
Known for weaving together contemporary, classical, folk and jazz styles, the internationally acclaimed musician and composer, Michael Cretu plays a special show as a trio.
FUN LOVIN’ CRIMINALS
Huey Lewis and his NYC hip-hop/ rock ensemble play a special date, hopefully minus the mugsmashing. JESSICA PRATT
THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:30–23:00, £8
Thu 09 Jan
In which San Francisco-hailing freak-folk singer Jessica Pratt graduates from four-track bedroom recordings to actual performances in front of actual audiences. She brings her retro, 60s-vibing self-titled debut out to a live setting.
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:30, FREE
Thu 16 Jan
NEIL C YOUNG QUARTET
Grammy-nominated composer playing feel-good music.
Fri 10 Jan CASS MCCOMBS
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:30–23:00, £9.50
More musically melancholic but lyrically sharp offerings from the US singer/songwriter, all hesitant and delicately rendered as he showcases tracks from his recent 22-track whopper of an LP. DOM AND THE IKO’S
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5
A blend of New Orleans r’n’b and funk from the London-based Dom Pipkin, playing a mix of original material and covers.
January 2014
SMOKEY BLUE GRASS
TROF NORTHERN QUARTER, 21:00–01:00, FREE
An evening of live music and DJs spanning folk, Americana, rhythm and blues. HOUSE OF TREES
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:30, FREE
Classical folk jazz from Sweden, described as Billie Holiday singing Kurt Weill on a Tim Burton movie, which is nice.
Fri 17 Jan BROWN BROGUES
THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:30–23:00, £TBC
Mark Vernon and Ben Mather, better known as Brown Brogues, do that noisy DIY garage rock thing they do so well.
HANNAH TRIGWELL THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:00–22:30, £7
Acoustic pop Leeds songstress heading out on her very first UK headline tour. HACKNEY COLLIERY BAND (MIND ON FIRE DJS)
BAND ON THE WALL, 20:00–23:00, £10
Mon 20 Jan
4TH BIRTHDAY (LIAM FROST + BONE-BOX + RICK KEVILL) SOUND CONTROL, 19:00–23:00, £10
Sound Control celebrate their fourth birthday with a live set from Liam Frost, hailed as the UK’s answer to Bright Eyes, blending delicious alt-folk melodies with heartfelt lyrics – all while navigating hefty subject matter.
Tue 21 Jan
East London all-acoustic take on the brass band, featuring trumpets, trombones, saxes, sousaphone and marching percussion.
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:30, FREE
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 3, 19:00–23:00, £6
MEGAN NICOLE
ESCAPE THE COLOSSEUM (IODINE SKY + TWISTED ILLUSION + IF TODAY WAS YOUR LAST + SEROTONIN)
Rock four-piece hailing from Bury, apparently influenced by boredom. COLIBRA (DRIVEN APART + ANOTHER DEAD HERO)
MANCHESTER CLUB ACADEMY, 19:00–23:00, £7
Progressive alternative metal five-piece, blending varied influences into one cohesive sound, drawing inspiration from the likes of Tool and Mastodon. MANCHESKA
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5
Eight-piece ska band fronted by a four-strong horn section and eight vocalists, playing originals, rare gems and some Jamaican classics thrown in for good measure. LEAVES EYES
SOUND CONTROL, 18:00–22:30, £13
Symphonic metal five-piece hailing from Germany and Norway, formed in 2003 by Theatre of Tragedy front lady, Liv Kristine.
Sat 18 Jan CITY AND COLOUR
O2 APOLLO, 19:00–23:00, £25
Canadian Dallas Green’s alter ego, under which he makes some rather lovely acoustic folk rock sounds. TEMPLEBYS
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5
Contemporary soul and funk five-piece hailing from Preston, formed on the dancefloor during a Craig Charles club set at the Kendal Calling festival in 2009.
STANDING AND LISTENING (CENTIMENTAL + BARBARIANS + THE DDN + 2 KOI KARP) THE CASTLE HOTEL, 20:00–02:00, £4
The Dancing and Laughing lot take to The Castle for an evening of power electronics and experimental music.
EARLY MOJO (WE THE FALLEN + INDIGO SKY + THE ROCKET + STRANGE ROOFTOPS )
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 3, 19:00–23:00, £6
Self-described as three smelly dudes playing smelly music for smelly people; expect a blend of punk, ska and rock from the Manchester-based trio.
Sun 19 Jan
DAN LE SAC VS SCROOBIUS PIP
MANCHESTER ACADEMY, 19:00–23:00, £13.50
Messieurs Dan Le Sac and Scroobius Pip air their new LP, Repent Replenish Repeat, again mapping Le Sac’s fairground-alike electronic beats with Pip’s pent-up lyrical bombardment, squared with wily facial hair, obvs. DEER TICK
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:30–22:30, £11.50
Dirty Americana-styled pseudohillbillies led by guitarist and singer/songwriter John McCauley. ACOUSTIC BHUNA (DEATH TO THE STRANGE)
BAND ON THE WALL, 18:00–21:00, FREE
A new event pitching up at Band on the Wall will see acoustic sets paired with homemade curry, making for a relaxed sorta Sunday. NECK DEEP (ROAM + LANDMARKS + NEXT STOP ATLANTA)
SOUND CONTROL, 19:00–22:30, £6
The European pop-punk lot tour their new LP, Wishful Thinking. LAMB OF GOD (DECAPITATED)
MANCHESTER ACADEMY, 19:00–23:00, £19.50
The groove metal giants take in Manchester as part of their nine date UK tour.
KYLA BROX
UK-based blues and soul singer/ songwriter, redefining her sound as a duo performance, joined by Danny Blomeley on guitar.
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 3, 19:30–23:00, £12.50
The 19-year-old singer/songwriter makes her UK debut.
THE OLLLAM (JOHN MCSHERRY)
BAND ON THE WALL, 19:30–23:00, £14
Irish-American trio who self describe their thing as ‘neo-acoustic Celtic post-rock’. That’ll cover it. DARLIA
SOUND CONTROL, 19:30–23:00, £6.50
Rising Blackpool trio doing their best to spearhead the latest rock revival. CORY CHISEL
THE CASTLE HOTEL, 20:00–23:00, £6
Folk singer/songwriter raised on hymns and Johnny Cash, the result of which can be felt in his resonantly weathered vocals and incisive lyrics.
Wed 22 Jan JAMES ARTHUR (TICH)
O2 APOLLO, 19:00–23:00, £27.50
The 2012 X-Factor winner drops into town to offend some people. DEFEATER
SOUND CONTROL, 19:00–22:30, £12
Massachusetts hardcore metal hellraisers known for actively taking creative liberties when crafting their songs. STUART MCCALLUM RESIDENCY
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:30, FREE
Cinematic Orchestra guitarist trying out new material in the realm of beats, electronica, classical orchestration and jazz.
Thu 23 Jan ADAM GREEN
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:30–23:00, £10
The New York-hailing anti-folk chappie steps out on his own – sans Kimya Dawson or Binki Shapiro, waaaah! – for a solo acoustic tour, taking in venues up and down the country and spreading his pottymouthed cheer while he’s at it. DWELE
BAND ON THE WALL, 19:00–23:00, £20
Neo-soul singer hailing from Detroit, otherwise known as Andwele Gardner, returning to the UK to perform his début album in its entirety, ten years on from its release. ROSEWOOD
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:30, FREE
Mancunian jazz, funk and rock outfit, made up of five young’uns. GOD DAMN
GULLIVERS, 19:30–23:00, £5
Bluesy grunge trio hailing from The Black Country, citing the likes of The Melvins and Pixies as their influences.
MMX (CASPIAN + GOODTIME BOYS + MORE THAN LIFE)
SOUND CONTROL, 19:30–22:00, £6
English indie-rockers hailing from Oxford, formerly playing under the name Francesqa.
Fri 24 Jan CONNAN MOCKASIN
SOUP KITCHEN, 19:30–22:15, £SOLD OUT
New Zealand’s psychedelic son tours his new LP, Caramel, which sees him transferring his interest from dolphins to humans, creating pop music on a whole other plane as he goes. JAMES VINCENT MCMORROW
MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL, 19:00–23:00, £18.50
Wistful Irish singer/songwriter of the folky-pop variety, balanced on just the right amount of nostalgia and sentiment.
LINDI ORTEGA (TOM HICKOX) THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:00–22:30, £10
The Canadian singer/songwriter does her country-styled-popmeets-rockabilly thing, most likely in cherry-red cowboy boots. MAX RAPTOR (FORT HOPE)
SOUND CONTROL, 19:00–22:00, £6
Midlands foursome fusing classic punk attitude with plenty of ballsy riffs and raucous lyrical chants. TERRI SHALTIEL
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5
Terri Shaltiel returns to Manchester with her powerful and soulful voice, offering original 60s and 70s inspired sounds in the realm of Etta James and Roberta Flack. REDD KROSS
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2, 19:30–23:00, £15
Longstanding rock’n’rollers, founded back in 1979 in Los Angeles by brothers Jeff and Steven McDonald (then pre-teens). EXTRA LOVE
BAND ON THE WALL, 20:00–23:00, £7.50
Ten-piece dub reggae bunch hailing from Manchester, serving up danceable tunes by the shed load.
Sat 25 Jan GUNS 2 ROSES
THE RUBY LOUNGE, 19:30–23:00, £10
Guns N’ Roses tribute act. ALLIGATOR GUMBO
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5
Leeds-based jazz musicians playing a mix of styles inspired by early jazz/swing music in New Orleans – which has surprisingly little to do with large reptilian-based stew. THE HEARTBREAKS
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:00–22:30, £SOLD OUT
Alt-rock four-piece hailing from Morcambe, formed around a love for Motown and gritty Northern literature.
Sun 26 Jan
JAWS (BÊTE + CACTUS KNIFE)
KRAAK, 19:00–23:00, £6
Brummy four-piece making carefree, breezy music. And there’s not a shark in sight. WARREN JAMES SKIFFLE SESSIONS BAND
THE LOWRY: QUAYS THEATRE, 20:00–23:00, £18
Country/blues singer/songwriter crafting toe-tapping Americana that he’s calling Skiffle. NATHANIEL RATELIFF
SOUP KITCHEN, 19:30–22:30, £8
Indie folk rock hard-knock from Denver, Colorado, touring with his band of spirited musicians, with his latest release, Falling Faster Than You Can Run, doing all the talking. BLITZ KIDS (HILL VALLEY HIGH)
SOUND CONTROL, 18:00–22:00, £5
Wed 29 Jan
EXIT CALM (HOT VESTRY)
SOUND CONTROL, 19:30–23:00, £7
Alternative four-piece hailing from South Yorkshire, awash with psychedelic influences and drawing comparisons to early My Bloody Valentine. TRIONOMY
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:30, FREE
Trio doing that jazz improvisation thing, with wide ranging influences from Charles Mingus to Stravinsky. LONDON GRAMMAR
MANCHESTER ACADEMY, 19:00–23:00, £14
The indie-pop Mercury Prize favourites take their debut album on tour. SAMANTHA CRANE
THE RUBY LOUNGE, 19:30–23:00, £8
Oklahoma-residing singer/ songwriter tours her fearlessly honest upcoming release, Kid Face, navigating her American roots.
Thu 30 Jan NO GOOD BEATNIKS
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:30, FREE
A collective of musicians operating as a jam band playing around with distorted jazz and improvisation. EAST INDIA YOUTH
GULLIVERS, 19:30–23:00, £6
William Doyle’s one-man experimental soundscapes, built on vocal and instruments that wander down alleyways of electronica, techno, krautrock and pop. WOMENFOLK (LUCY WARD + EMILY PORTMAN + EMMA SWEENEY)
BAND ON THE WALL, 19:30–23:00, £10
Three leading ladies of contemporary folk play a triple headline show from their distinct styles and voices will make for a mesmeric live show. MAYDAY PARADE
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2, 19:30–23:00, £13.50
Emo rockers touring with their latest release, Monsters in the Closet, shouty, strained vocals all well and in place.
THY ART IS MURDER (HEART OF A COWARD + AEGAEON + AVERSIONS CROWN)
SOUND CONTROL, 18:00–22:00, £8
Extreme metal four piece from Australia, dogged in their mission to remain controversial with their latest release, Hate.
Fri 31 Jan
THE SOUL CIRCLE GANG
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5
The fresh and ever-energetic eight-piece will be wowing audiences with a mix of original tracks and covers. JOHN NEWMAN
MANCHESTER ACADEMY, 19:00–23:00, £15
Alt-rock four-piece formed by a band of school friends from Nantwich, fresh off a tour with Mallory Knox and now stepping out on their own to promote their upcoming release, The Good Youth.
The young singer/songwriter and producer does his thing, responsible for a slew of UK dance hits in recent years.
Mon 27 Jan
Innovative English folk musician, still going strong some 40 years on.
FILTHY BOY
THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:30–00:00, £6
Alternative four-piece hailing from south London, touring with their debut album, Smile That Won’t Go Down. LONELY THE BRAVE
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:00–22:30, £9.50
Self-described epic-rock fourpiece from Cambridge, touring with their debut ep, Backroads.
Tue 28 Jan
ZHENYA STRIGALEV’S SMILING ORGANIZM
BAND ON THE WALL, 19:30–23:00, £13
An ever-rotating line-up of musicians, this time featuring Ambrose Akinmusire, Taylor Eigsti, Larry Grenadier, Linley Marthe and Eric Harland, with their vast range of musical influences allowing them to swing between styles. MATT PARKINSON QUARTET
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:00–00:30, FREE
The Leeds College of Music graduate and contemporary jazz drummer plays a full set as part of a quartet. BRIAN MCKNIGHT + ERIC BENET
THE RITZ, 19:00–23:00, £25
Brian McKnight and Eric Benet do a double headline thing, serving up the whole spectrum of deep, soulful r’n’b sounds.
MARTIN CARTHY
BAND ON THE WALL, 19:00–23:00, £19
RX BANDITS
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 3, 19:30–23:00, £12
Groove tech quartet from California, touring their sixth studio album, Mandala. ALGIERS
FALLOW CAFE, 19:30–23:00, £3
Indie-rock duo from Sheffield with a heady and visceral sound, touring on the run up to the release of their debut album, You’re The Captain.
Sat 01 Feb THE WAVE PICTURES
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:30–23:00, £9
Witty indie-pop trio headed by vocalist and guitarist Dave Tattersall, touring their new LP, City Forgiveness. JEFFERSON STARSHIP
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 3, 19:30–23:00, £17.50
Jefferson Airplane founder Paul Kantner and David Freiberg get set to perform their 2,000th concert since they first soared in 1974.
QUEERWOLF’S CLOSET (THE GET + KIT B + KILL PRETTY + TAMSIN MIDDLETON) THE KING’S ARMS, 19:30–22:30, £5
A variety performance from the Margate-based collective of musicians.
KILLSWITCH ENGAGE + TRIVIUM (MISS MAY + BATTLECROSS) MANCHESTER ACADEMY, 19:00–23:00, £20
Formed in 1999 from various members of Overcast and Aftershock, the Massachusetts-based five-piece now have six studio albums and one DVD under their belts – still making loud and angry metalcore, natch. OEDIPUS MINGUS
MATT AND PHRED’S JAZZ CLUB, 21:30–01:00, £5
Septet performing classical and original arrangements in the style of Charles Mingus, led by the bassist, Jon Thorne. THE FLY AWARDS SHOW (SWIM DEEP)
THE RITZ, 18:00–22:00, £10
Brummy lads Swim Deep headline the inaugural The Fly Awards show. DEL AMITRI (THE O’S)
O2 APOLLO, 19:00–23:00, FROM £35
The Justin Currie-led Glasgow rock ensemble take in a retrospective sweep of their entire output.
Sun 02 Feb SKINDRED
MANCHESTER ACADEMY, 19:00–23:00, £17.50
Thu 09 Jan
FREE ROCK’N’ROLL (SALAM RAGES + BUZZ OR HOWL + FREEWAVES)
MELLOMELLO, 21:00–23:00, FREE
Fortnightly event offering up an evening of free rock’n’roll-inspired music by the bucket load.
Fri 10 Jan WHOLE LOTTA LED
O2 ACADEMY, 18:30–23:00, £13
Led Zeppelin tribute act.
Sat 11 Jan
TWELVE CLAY FEET (GLUE MOON + YOUR GOLD TEETH)
THE ZANZIBAR CLUB , 19:30–23:00, £5
A three-strong line-up of alternative rock up-and-comers, headlined by the Cambridge-based indie rockers, Twelve Clay Feet, showcasing their latest album, More Naked Than Obscene. NOVANA
O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–23:00, £10
Nirvana tribute act. JAMES ARTHUR
LIVERPOOL EMPIRE, 19:00–22:30, £28.50
The 2012 X-Factor winner drops into town to offend some people.
THE MELLOMELLO JAZZ COLLECTIVE
MELLOMELLO, 21:00–23:00, FREE
Longstanding Welsh rockers mixing heavy metal, alternative rock, punk rock and reggae into their mash-up mix.
MelloMello’s jazz collective return, serving up a free evening of stomping jazz and swing fusion.
SOUND CONTROL, 19:00–22:30, £8
SUNDAY SIT DOWN SESSIONS (MELLODIGY!)
Mon 03 Feb
Your relaxed Sunday soundtrack is provided by Mellodidy DJs, bringing the funktastic neo classique sounds.
OUR LAST NIGHT (SECRETS + EMPIRES FADE)
Post-hardcore bunch hailing from Hollis, New Hampshire, touring their latest release, Oak Island. LESS THAT JAKE + REEL BIG FISH
MANCHESTER ACADEMY, 19:00–23:00, £18.50
Double headline thing with the ska punk Floridians, Less Than Jake sharing the stage with Californian ska punk lot, Reel Big Fish. There’ll probably be some ska punk thrown around. BILL CALLAHAN
THE RITZ, 19:00–23:00, £17.50
American singer/songwriter also known for his work as Smog, still serving up lo-fi underground rock from his spot on the Drag City roster.
Liverpool Music Fri 03 Jan
PARABHEN LAD EXHIBITION OPENING (THE PENNY ARCADIANS)
MELLOMELLO, 20:00–23:00, FREE
Exhibition launch from Parabhen Lad and music from The Penny Arcadians – made up of various members of Zombina and the Skeletones, White Blacula and more – serving up 20s-style skiffle jazz moves as part their new monthly residency.
Sat 04 Jan
THE VIKTOR NORDBERG TRIO
MELLOMELLO, 20:00–23:00, FREE
Latin jazz trio continue their residency at MelloMello, bringing the groove-tastic, samba filled sounds.
Sun 05 Jan
SUNDAY SIT DOWN SESSIONS (DJ JAZZMAN ANDY)
MELLOMELLO, 15:00–00:00, FREE
Another Sunday of blissed-out sounds, this time provided by Jazzman Andy, ranging from blues to avant-garde and everything in-between.
Mon 06 Jan LIVERPOOL ACOUSTIC
SOUND FOOD AND DRINK, 20:30–00:00, FREE
Weekly open mic night from the Liverpool acoustic bunch.
Sun 12 Jan
MELLOMELLO, 15:00–00:00, FREE
THIS WILD LIFE
KOROVA, 19:00–23:00, £7
Acoustic duo hailing from Long Beach, California, bringing the punk pop sound.
Mon 13 Jan LIVERPOOL ACOUSTIC
SOUND FOOD AND DRINK, 20:30–00:00, FREE
Weekly open mic night from the Liverpool acoustic bunch.
Tue 14 Jan
PARR JAZZ: HOUSE OF TREES
STUDIO 2, 20:30–23:00, £3
Classical folk jazz from Sweden, described as Billie Holiday singing Kurt Weill on a Tim Burton movie, which is nice.
Fri 17 Jan
ELECTRIC LIPS (THE INKHEARTS + HYPER MAGIC MOUNTAIN + THE DUKES OF HAWK + INDIGO MOON) THE ZANZIBAR CLUB , 19:30–23:00, £5
The Liverpudlian trio, Electric Lips, trading in blues-based hard rock headline this night of new music, joined by the likes of indie four-piece, The Inkhearts and psych-rock five-piece, Hyper Magic Mountain. PAUL CARRACK
LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC HALL, 19:30–23:00, £SOLD OUT
Sheffield-born singer, songwriter and former frontman of Ace, Squeeze and Mike and The Mechanics back and a-tourin’ a selection of new tracks and past hits.
Sat 18 Jan
THE SONGBOOK SESSIONS (BLACK MOUNTAIN LIGHTS + HISTORY + EL BORN + RAINBIRD + ROJA + DO DAH FARM + CARL FOULKES-JONES)
THE ZANZIBAR CLUB , 19:30–23:00, £5
A showcase event for new and up-coming music in the area.
Sun 19 Jan
SUNDAY SIT DOWN SESSION (SILENT FILM NIGHT)
MELLOMELLO, 19:00–23:00, FREE
A free event serving up a selection of silent films soundtracked by a live band. THE OLLLAM
LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC HALL, 20:00–23:00, £14
Tue 07 Jan
Irish-American trio who self describe their thing as ‘neo-acoustic Celtic post-rock’. That’ll cover it.
STUDIO 2, 20:30–23:00, £3
Mon 20 Jan
PARR JAZZ (DEAN MASSER + NEIL YATES)
Legendary trumpeter, Neil Yates, playing with a full band lineup.
Wed 08 Jan UNION J
ECHO ARENA, 20:00–23:00, FROM £25.50
Boy band formed in the ninth series of The X Factor, made up of Josh, JJ, Jaymi and George. Joys.
80P (ZEUS! + AARDVARK + JACQUES MALCHANCE) MELLOMELLO, 20:00–00:00, £0.80
PostMusic return to MelloMello for another cut price show, headlined by the ever-terrifying Zeus!, with their mind-mashing brand of fuzz tech bass.
Listings
51
Liverpool Music LIVERPOOL ACOUSTIC
SOUND FOOD AND DRINK, 20:30–00:00, FREE
Weekly open mic night from the Liverpool acoustic bunch.
Tue 21 Jan
PARR JAZZ: DOREEN EDWARDS
STUDIO 2, 20:30–23:00, £3
A gem of the Northern jazz scene, showing off her impressive vocal range with lashings of soul.
Wed 22 Jan GOD DAMN
KOROVA, 19:00–23:00, £5
Bluesy grunge trio hailing from The Black Country, citing the likes of The Melvins and Pixies as their influences
Thu 23 Jan
FREE ROCK’N’ROLL (THE JACKHAMMERS)
MELLOMELLO, 21:00–23:00, FREE
Fortnightly event offering up an evening of free rock’n’rollinspired music by the bucket load.
Fri 24 Jan
NATHANIEL RATELIFF
LEAF, 20:00–23:00, £8
Indie folk rock hard-knock from Denver, Colorado, touring with his band of spirited musicians, with his latest release, Falling Faster Than You Can Run, doing all the talking.
LIVERPOOL ACOUSTIC LIVE (MERRY HELL + MOXIE + JAMESON)
VIEW TWO GALLERY, 20:15–22:45, £6
Three-strong line-up headlined by the blistering folk rock sounds of Wigan’s Merry Hell, supported by Moxie and the US of A’s Jameson. THE SENSATIONAL 60S EXPERIENCE
LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC HALL, 19:30–23:00, FROM £24
The original hits of the 60s performed by popular artists from the time, including The Marmalade, The Swinging Blue Jeans, Chris Farlowe and Steve Ellis’ Love Affair. POLTERGEIST
EAST VILLAGE ARTS CLUB, 19:00–23:00, £10
Echo and The Bunnymen members Will Sargeant and Les Pattinson team up for their all-new postrock outing. LIVEWIRE AC/DC
THE CITADEL ARTS CENTRE, 19:30–23:00, £15
AC/DC tribute act. NECK DEEP
DISTRICT, 19:00–23:00, £6
The European pop-punk lot tour their new LP, Wishful Thinking.
Thu 30 Jan
THREE OF A KIND (DAVE O’GRADY TRIO + BEN HUGHES + THE ROSCOES)
UNITY THEATRE, 20:00–23:00, £10
A trio of bands come together for a night of blues and jazz, headlined by the Liverpool-based Dave O’Grady Trio. FILTHY BOY
THE SHIPPING FORECAST, 19:30–23:00, £5
Alternative four-piece hailing from south London, touring with their debut album, Smile That Won’t Go Down. MARK MORRISS
KOROVA, 19:00–23:00, £9
The Bluetones frontman takes to the road, now a solo entity following the band’s split (and farewell tour) at the end of 2011.
Fri 31 Jan
THE SPEAKEASY BOOTLEG BAND
MELLOMELLO, 21:00–23:00, FREE
Hailing from New Orleans, this tin pan alley three piece bring the sounds of the turn of the 20thcentury to Liverpool. MATTHEW AND THE ATLAS
KOROVA, 19:00–23:00, £6
Dreamy Americana from the Aldershot-born, London-based musician.
Sat 01 Feb
ELECTRO80S (SCORBIE + DJ JACK DERBYSHIRE)
THE CITADEL ARTS CENTRE, 20:30–23:00, £7.50
Electronica tribute act. EAST INDIA YOUTH
KOROVA, 19:00–23:00, £5
William Doyle’s one-man experimental soundscapes, built on vocal and instruments that wander down alleyways of electronica, techno, krautrock and pop.
Sun 02 Feb DEL AMITRI (THE O’S)
LIVERPOOL EMPIRE, 19:00–22:30, FROM £35
The Justin Currie-led Glasgow rock ensemble take in a retrospective sweep of their entire output.
Mon 03 Feb TERA MELOS
THE KAZIMIER, 19:30–23:00, £9
Californian math rock tweaked to freakout, but also melodic at its songwriting core. LIVERPOOL ACOUSTIC
SOUND FOOD AND DRINK, 20:30–00:00, FREE
Weekly open mic night from the Liverpool acoustic bunch.
Manchester Clubs
Sat 25 Jan
FOREVER KINGS (HOBO CIRCUS)
THE ZANZIBAR CLUB , 19:30–23:00, £5
Alternative indie rock five-piece, closing in on their one year anniversary as a band. UNDISCOVERED SOCIETY
O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–23:00, £6
Four-piece hard rock line-up hailing from the Wirral, Merseyside, led (and managed) by the multi-talented Graham Fryearson.
Sun 26 Jan BOBBY WOMACK
LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC HALL, 19:30–23:00, FROM £34.50
Thu 02 Jan SHAKEDOWN
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NQ, 23:00–04:00, FREE
DJ Da Funk taking over the decks for a night of hip-hop, funk and dubstep.
Fri 03 Jan MELTING POT
TROF NORTHERN QUARTER, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£1 AFTER 10)
A new Friday-nighter offering up smooth soul and elevating disco. REVOLVER
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 23:00–03:00, £3 ADV (£4 DOOR)
The great soul survivor – now in his seventh decade of recording – takes a wander through his impressive and extensive back catalogue.
Manchester’s premier 60s party, now a bi-monthly reason to get excited. Expect 60s pop, garage, motown, rock’n’roll.
Mon 27 Jan
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NWS, 22:00–04:00, FREE
LIVERPOOL ACOUSTIC
SOUND FOOD AND DRINK, 20:30–00:00, FREE
Weekly open mic night from the Liverpool acoustic bunch.
Tue 28 Jan PARR JAZZ: TRIONOMY
STUDIO 2, 20:30–23:00, £3
Trio doing that jazz improvisation thing, with wide ranging influences from Charles Mingus to Stravinsky.
52
Listings
PAID IN FULL
DJ Da Funk taking over the decks for a night of hip-hop, funk and dubstep sounds. WELL FUTURE (SAVWO)
COMMON, 21:00–02:00, FREE (£2 AFTER 10)
Guest DJs on the decks, bringing you music from the past, present, and well, future.
Manchester Clubs XFM FIRST FRIDAY (THE CAPE RACE + YOUNG KATO + THE TEA STREET BAND) BAND ON THE WALL, 21:00–03:00, £4 EARLYBIRD (£8 THEREAFTER)
The gig and club combo night continues, with a three-strong line-up including Manchester’s The Cape Race, indie poppers Young Kato and Liverpool’s alternative guitar-pop lot, The Tea Street Band. CLUB X OVER
THE RITZ, 22:30–03:30, £4 (£5 AFTER MIDNIGHT)
Monthly alternative club night offering an eclectic mix of rock, grunge, metal, hip hop, industrial and more courtesy of their resident DJs.
Sat 04 Jan GIRLS ON FILM
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 22:00–04:00, £3 ADV (£5 DOOR)
Pink lady cocktails, disco balls, glitz and glamour – a monthly club night where you’re free to let your inner 80s child loose. CLINT BOON
SOUTH, 23:00–04:00, £5
Mixed-bag night from local DJ ledge Clint Boon. WHOSAIDWHAT?
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NWS, 22:00–04:00, £2
Regular Saturday-nighter, packed with disco, house and funk, with a dash of hip-hop and reggae for good measure. FRIENDS IN COMMON (ROBERT PARKINSON)
PAID IN FULL BLACK DOG BALLROOM NWS, 22:00–04:00, FREE
DJ Da Funk taking over the decks for a night of hip-hop, funk and dubstep sounds.
Sat 11 Jan CLINT BOON
SOUTH, 23:00–04:00, £5
Mixed-bag night from local DJ ledge Clint Boon. WHOSAIDWHAT?
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NWS, 22:00–04:00, £2
Regular Saturday-nighter, packed with disco, house and funk, with a dash of hip-hop and reggae for good measure. FRIENDS IN COMMON (PETER PARKER)
COMMON, 21:00–02:00, FREE (£2 AFTER 10)
THE RITZ, 22:30–03:30, £5
New weekly club night taking the GoGo spot, relaunched as a house party mash up.
New weekly club night taking the GoGo spot, relaunched as a house party mash up. GOO’S 1ST BIRTHDAY
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 22:00–04:00, £3 ADV (£5 DOOR)
The monthly tribute to 90s indie celebrate their first birthday – expect Pulp, Nirvana, Suede, Smashing Pumpkins, Pixies and more. STUDENT HOUSE
The weekly student house and techno night returns to South, keeping you on the dancefloor till the early hours. POP TART
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NWS, 23:00–04:00, £3
Student night delivering cheesy chart tunes and guilty pleasures. REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL
The weekly student house and techno night returns to South, keeping you on the dancefloor till the early hours. POP TART
New weekly event, with the ever-charming Duncan from Dutch Uncles taking to the decks for a vinyl only set of golden age pop and disco.
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NWS, 23:00–04:00, £3
Thu 16 Jan
Wed 08 Jan
House, hip-hop, grime and garage from the Murkage residents.
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 21:00–01:00, FREE
COMMON, 21:00–02:00, FREE
Thu 09 Jan
MURKAGE
SOCIAL BEAT
New weekly club night taking the GoGo spot, relaunched as a house party mash up. BOCUMA
ODDER BAR, 22:00–04:00, £3
Bocuma kick off the new year with some techno sounds courtesy of Resonance Records’ AJ Christou and Piers Crozier.
Sun 19 Jan HAXAN
COMMON, 16:00–00:00, FREE
Michael Holland and Boomkat’s Conor, dishing up radiophonic disco and film score techno.
Tue 21 Jan GOLD TEETH
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 22:00–03:00, £4 ADV (£5 DOOR)
Legendary bad boy, mixed-bag night that invites use of the term ‘carnage’. STUDENT HOUSE
SOUTH, 23:00–04:00, £2
The weekly student house and techno night returns to South, keeping you on the dancefloor till the early hours. POP TART
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NWS, 23:00–04:00, £3
Student night delivering cheesy chart tunes and guilty pleasures.
STOP MAKING SENSE
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 21:00–01:00, FREE
REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL
Common’s regular club-in-a-bar night of hipster bullshit, with Mr Seb Valentine, Benatronic & Luke Warm.
New weekly event, with the ever-charming Duncan from Dutch Uncles taking to the decks for a vinyl only set of golden age pop and disco.
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NQ, 23:00–04:00, FREE
THE RITZ, 22:30–03:30, £10
SHAKEDOWN
STOP MAKING SENSE
Fri 17 Jan
COMMON, 21:00–02:00, FREE
WOO HAH
Wed 22 Jan
DJ Da Funk taking over the decks for a night of hip-hop, funk and dubstep.
House, hip-hop, grime and garage from the Murkage residents.
COMMON, 21:00–02:00, FREE (£2 AFTER 10)
SOUTH, 23:00–04:00, £3
SOUTH, 23:00–04:00, £3
MURKAGE
FRIENDS IN COMMON (NEIL ATKINS)
THE RITZ, 22:30–03:30, £5
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 21:00–01:00, FREE
New weekly event, with the ever-charming Duncan from Dutch Uncles taking to the decks for a vinyl only set of golden age pop and disco.
Regular Saturday-nighter, packed with disco, house and funk, with a dash of hip-hop and reggae for good measure.
THE RITZ, 22:30–03:30, £5
SOCIAL BEAT
SOUTH, 23:00–04:00, £2
REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NWS, 22:00–04:00, £2
New Saturday-nighter spanning old school, hip-hop, soul and funk.
Wed 15 Jan
Student night delivering cheesy chart tunes and guilty pleasures.
WHOSAIDWHAT?
New Saturday-nighter spanning old school, hip-hop, soul and funk.
Tue 07 Jan STUDENT HOUSE
SOUTH, 23:00–04:00, £5
Mixed-bag night from local DJ ledge Clint Boon.
TROF NORTHERN QUARTER, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£1 AFTER 10)
WOO HAH
SOUTH, 23:00–04:00, £2
SOCIAL BEAT
CLINT BOON
TROF NORTHERN QUARTER, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£1 AFTER 10)
WOO HAH
New Saturday-nighter spanning old school, hip-hop, soul and funk.
Manchester’s premier 60s party, now a bi-monthly reason to get excited. Expect 60s pop, garage, motown, rock’n’roll.
Common invite their buddies to take over the decks.
Tue 14 Jan
TROF NORTHERN QUARTER, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£1 AFTER 10)
REVOLVER
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 23:00–03:00, £3 ADV (£4 DOOR)
Common invite their buddies to take over the decks.
COMMON, 21:00–02:00, FREE (£2 AFTER 10)
Common invite their buddies to take over the decks.
Sat 18 Jan
MELTING POT
MINISTRY OF SOUND ADDICTED TO BASS (THE ARTFUL DODGER)
Ministry of Sound serve up a night of all things bass, with a DJ and MC set from The Artful Dodger, and support from MoS residents.
Thu 23 Jan MURKAGE
Common’s regular club-in-a-bar night of hipster bullshit, with Mr Seb Valentine, Benatronic & Luke Warm.
A new Friday-nighter offering up smooth soul and elevating disco.
House, hip-hop, grime and garage from the Murkage residents.
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NQ, 23:00–04:00, FREE
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NWS, 22:00–04:00, FREE
COMMON, 21:00–02:00, FREE
SHAKEDOWN
TROF NORTHERN QUARTER, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£1 AFTER 10)
PAID IN FULL
DJ Da Funk taking over the decks for a night of hip-hop, funk and dubstep.
DJ Da Funk taking over the decks for a night of hip-hop, funk and dubstep sounds.
WALRUS, 20:30–01:00, FREE
COMMON, 21:00–02:00, FREE (£2 AFTER 10)
AUDIOJUNKIES
WELL FUTURE (JONNY DUB)
CactusMCR DJs delve into their collections to serve up some audio yet untold, with a mish mash of genres taking over the bar area.
Guest DJs on the decks, bringing you music from the past, present, and well, future.
Fri 10 Jan TROF NORTHERN QUARTER, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£1 AFTER 10)
Tequila drenched night of classic sleaze and hard rock – expect Aerosmith, Motley Crue and Misfits to name a few.
PUMPING IRON
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 22:00–03:00, £3 ADV (£5 DOOR)
MELTING POT
A new Friday-nighter offering up smooth soul and elevating disco. COMMON, 21:00–02:00, FREE (£2 AFTER 10)
Mixed-bag night of nu cosmic Italio, vintage avant garde disco and lo-fi rhythmic punk funk, as you do.
DUSK TILL DAWN
THE RUBY LOUNGE, 23:00–03:30, £5 (£4)
UPTOWN
A new night landing at Deaf, offering up the best in disco, funk, boogie and party classics.
SOUTH, 23:00–04:00, £3
STOP MAKING SENSE
Common’s regular club-in-a-bar night of hipster bullshit, with Mr Seb Valentine, Benatronic & Luke Warm. SHAKEDOWN
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NQ, 23:00–04:00, FREE
DJ Da Funk taking over the decks for a night of hip-hop, funk and dubstep.
Fri 24 Jan PAID IN FULL
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NWS, 22:00–04:00, FREE
DJ Da Funk taking over the decks for a night of hip-hop, funk and dubstep sounds.
LOST CONTROL (HANNAH HOLLAND + SHELLEY PARKER)
KRAAK, 22:00–04:00, £5
Future garage, house and techno in the Kraak gallery, with Hannah Holland and Shelley Parker on the line-up.
WELL FUTURE (KICKIN’ PIGEON)
BLOCK PARTY
NO-WAVE SOCIAL CLUB
COMMON, 21:00–02:00, FREE (£2 AFTER 10)
TROF NORTHERN QUARTER, 21:00–03:00, FREE
BROOKLYN MIXER, 22:00–03:00, FREE
Guest DJs on the decks, bringing you music from the past, present, and well, future.
Another Mof Glimmers night, serving up block party essentials with free house punch ‘til it’s gone.
SOUP KITCHEN, 23:00–04:00, £2 (£3 AFTER MIDNIGHT)
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NWS, 22:00–04:00, FREE
TOM BOOGIZM
A night of sound system picks from Manchester’s own groove smith, Tom Boogizm.
Sat 25 Jan POP
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 22:00–04:00, £3 ADV (£5 DOOR)
Pop classics in the music hall and glitzy girly disco in the main bar – all of which is designed to keep you dancing all night. CLINT BOON
SOUTH, 23:00–04:00, £5
Mixed-bag night from local DJ ledge Clint Boon. WHOSAIDWHAT?
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NWS, 22:00–04:00, £2
Regular Saturday-nighter, packed with disco, house and funk, with a dash of hip-hop and reggae for good measure.
PAID IN FULL
DJ Da Funk taking over the decks for a night of hip-hop, funk and dubstep sounds.
WELL FUTURE (ALEX HUMPHREYS)
COMMON, 21:00–02:00, FREE (£2 AFTER 10)
Guest DJs on the decks, bringing you music from the past, present, and well, future.
YOUDIG? (RENEGADE BRASS BAND)
SOUP KITCHEN, 21:00–04:00, £5
Funky music for funky people, this time headlined by the Renegade Brass Band, distorting the boundaries of jazz with funk and hip-hop influences. MUTE! (SABLE SHEEP)
SOUTH, 23:00–05:00, £6 EARLYBIRD (£8 THEREAFTER)
Mute! get 2014 underway with a deep house set from Moon Harbour’s Sable Sheep, appearing in Manchester for the first time.
Alternative indie and hip-hop night from the No-Wave bunch, expect the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Hot Chip and Pixies.
Thu 09 Jan TIME SQUARE
THE KRAZY HOUSE, 22:00–04:00, £2
Staple student night with a mix of music across the three floors (think: rock, indie, alternative, dance and a sprinkling of cheese) GOSSIP!
GARLANDS, 22:00–03:00, £4
Student night with five rooms of music spread over two floors and occasional theme nights.
Sat 11 Jan RAGE
THE KRAZY HOUSE, 22:00–05:00, £3
Mixed-bag night spread out over all three floors, serving up indie, rock, alternative and dance tunes. BEDLAM SATURDAY
GARLANDS, 22:00–04:00, £10 (£5)
CRAIG CHARLES FUNK AND SOUL CLUB (HANNAH WILLIAMS AND THE TASTEMAKERS)
Sat 01 Feb
Extravagant and flamboyant club night complete with resident entertainers, including Foxy Grunt and Barbie the hostess with the mostess.
BAND ON THE WALL, 21:00–03:00, £13
THE RUBY LOUNGE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)
A night of alternative rock’n’roll shenanigans.
Wed 15 Jan
DJ and actor Craig Charles will be manning the decks until 3am, playing his picks of funk and soul. FRIENDS IN COMMON (WHITE PEPPER)
COMMON, 21:00–02:00, FREE (£2 AFTER 10)
Common invite their buddies to take over the decks. WOO HAH
TROF NORTHERN QUARTER, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£1 AFTER 10)
New Saturday-nighter spanning old school, hip-hop, soul and funk. SOLAR (TIM GREEN)
GORILLA, 23:00–04:00, £10
A series of events focussing on all-encompassing techno, letting everything but the music slip away. SOCIAL BEAT
THE RITZ, 22:30–03:30, £5
New weekly club night taking the GoGo spot, relaunched as a house party mash up. ELECTRIC JUG
INDIGO, 22:00–02:00, FREE
New club night on the scene, serving up the best of the 60s, ranging from psych and ska to britpop and funk. REACH OUT: MOTOWN
SOUND CONTROL, 23:00–03:00, £1
Reach Out returns in 2014 with an all 60s soundtrack spanning Motown and soul courtesy of Sound Control resident, Daniel Deighan.
Tue 28 Jan GOLD TEETH
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 22:00–03:00, £4 ADV (£5 DOOR)
Legendary bad boy, mixed-bag night that invites use of the term ‘carnage’. POP TART
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NWS, 23:00–04:00, £3
Student night delivering cheesy chart tunes and guilty pleasures.
Wed 29 Jan
REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 21:00–01:00, FREE
New weekly event, with the ever-charming Duncan from Dutch Uncles taking to the decks for a vinyl only set of golden age pop and disco.
Thu 30 Jan MURKAGE
SOUTH, 23:00–04:00, £3
House, hip-hop, grime and garage from the Murkage residents. STOP MAKING SENSE
COMMON, 21:00–02:00, FREE
Common’s regular club-in-a-bar night of hipster bullshit, with Mr Seb Valentine, Benatronic & Luke Warm. SHAKEDOWN
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NQ, 23:00–04:00, FREE
DJ Da Funk taking over the decks for a night of hip-hop, funk and dubstep.
Fri 31 Jan REBEL MUSIC
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 22:00–03:00, £3 ADV (£5 DOOR)
REMAKE REMODEL
GIRLS ON FILM
THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 22:00–04:00, £3 ADV (£5 DOOR)
Pink lady cocktails, disco balls, glitz and glamour – a monthly club night where you’re free to let your inner 80s child loose. CLINT BOON
SOUTH, 23:00–04:00, £5
Mixed-bag night from local DJ ledge Clint Boon. WHOSAIDWHAT?
BLACK DOG BALLROOM NWS, 22:00–04:00, £2
Regular Saturday-nighter, packed with disco, house and funk, with a dash of hip-hop and reggae for good measure. LOWDOWN: PLUMPS DJS + ELITE FORCE
SOUND CONTROL, 23:00–04:00, £10
MEDICATION
NATION, 22:30–03:00, £5
Long-running student night serving up three rooms of house, electro, chart and r’n’b – complete with visuals and occasional fancy dress. NO-WAVE SOCIAL CLUB
BROOKLYN MIXER, 22:00–03:00, FREE
Alternative indie and hip-hop night from the No-Wave bunch, expect the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Hot Chip and Pixies.
Thu 16 Jan TIME SQUARE
THE KRAZY HOUSE, 22:00–04:00, £2
Staple student night with a mix of music across the three floors (think: rock, indie, alternative, dance and a sprinkling of cheese) GOSSIP!
GARLANDS, 22:00–03:00, £4
Lowdown celebrate their fourth birthday with two of their favourite guests; the London-based EDM duo Plump DJs and house DJ Elite Force, aka Simon Shackleton.
Student night with five rooms of music spread over two floors and occasional theme nights.
SOUND CONTROL, 22:00–04:00, £8
Long-running house night with regulars Harri & Domenic manning the decks.
ZUTEKH 5TH BIRTHDAY (RYAN ELLIOTT + GERD + ADAM SHELTON)
Zutekh returns for part one of their birthday celebrations, inviting Detroit’s Ryan Elliott and Dutch producer Gerd to help blow out the birthday candles.
Liverpool Clubs Thu 02 Jan TIME SQUARE
THE KRAZY HOUSE, 22:00–04:00, £2
Sat 18 Jan SUBCULTURE
O2 ACADEMY, 22:00–03:00, £TBC
HEDS-UP
MELLOMELLO, 22:00–03:00, £2
Deep Hedonia and Upitup Records transform MelloMello into a ravecave of sorts, serving up a heady mix of techno, abstract techno and live visuals. RAGE
THE KRAZY HOUSE, 22:00–05:00, £3
Mixed-bag night spread out over all three floors, serving up indie, rock, alternative and dance tunes. BEDLAM SATURDAY
GARLANDS, 22:00–04:00, £10 (£5)
Staple student night with a mix of music across the three floors (think: rock, indie, alternative, dance and a sprinkling of cheese)
Extravagant and flamboyant club night complete with resident entertainers, including Foxy Grunt and Barbie the hostess with the mostess.
GARLANDS, 22:00–03:00, £4
Wed 22 Jan
GOSSIP!
Student night with five rooms of music spread over two floors and occasional theme nights.
MEDICATION
NATION, 22:30–03:00, £5
Long-running student night serving up three rooms of house, Sat 04 Jan electro, chart and r’n’b – complete RAGE with visuals and occasional fancy THE KRAZY HOUSE, 22:00–05:00, £3 Mixed-bag night spread out over all dress. three floors, serving up indie, rock, NO-WAVE SOCIAL CLUB BROOKLYN MIXER, 22:00–03:00, FREE alternative and dance tunes. Alternative indie and hip-hop night BEDLAM SATURDAY from the No-Wave bunch, expect GARLANDS, 22:00–04:00, £10 (£5) the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Hot Extravagant and flamboyant club Chip and Pixies. night complete with resident entertainers, including Foxy Grunt Thu 23 Jan and Barbie the hostess with the TIME SQUARE mostess. THE KRAZY HOUSE, 22:00–04:00, £2 Staple student night with a mix Wed 08 Jan of music across the three floors MEDICATION (think: rock, indie, alternative, NATION, 22:30–03:00, £5 dance and a sprinkling of cheese) Long-running student night GOSSIP! serving up three rooms of house, electro, chart and r’n’b – complete GARLANDS, 22:00–03:00, £4 Student night with five rooms of with visuals and occasional fancy music spread over two floors and dress. occasional theme nights.
Resident DJs spin the very best of the last six decades of controversial icons, from Elvis, The Clash, Chick Berry and Snoop Dogg.
THE SKINNY
Fri 24 Jan
WAX MUSEUM! (DJ TOY + GOLDEN HARVEST INDUSTRIES + SEAN WARS)
MELLOMELLO, 21:00–23:00, FREE
DJs play a selection of oddball gems from the past, turning MelloMello into a wax museum, of sorts.
Sat 25 Jan
ESP! (THE ASTRONAUT PARTY)
MELLOMELLO, 21:00–23:00, FREE
A new monthly event blending immersive surrealist performance with theatre and presentation, this time taking us back to 1969 for the first ever manned mission to Mars by the English Space Programme. RAGE
THE KRAZY HOUSE, 22:00–05:00, £3
Mixed-bag night spread out over all three floors, serving up indie, rock, alternative and dance tunes. BEDLAM SATURDAY
GARLANDS, 22:00–04:00, £10 (£5)
Extravagant and flamboyant club night complete with resident entertainers, including Foxy Grunt and Barbie the hostess with the mostess. TERRENCE PARKER
KITCHEN STREET , 22:00–04:00, £10
Shake a Leg bring the Detroit house DJ Terrence Parker to Liverpool, best known for garnering a reputation as one of the pioneers of the underground Detroit sound, and for his use of a telephone instead of headphones, hence the nickname, Telephone Man. FLASHMOB
THE BOUTIQUE, 22:00–04:00, £6 EARLYBIRD (£8 THEREAFTER)
A night of house music at the hands of the Flashmob DJ collective.
Wed 29 Jan MEDICATION
NATION, 22:30–03:00, £5
Long-running student night serving up three rooms of house, electro, chart and r’n’b – complete with visuals and occasional fancy dress. NO-WAVE SOCIAL CLUB
BROOKLYN MIXER, 22:00–03:00, FREE
Alternative indie and hip-hop night from the No-Wave bunch, expect the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Hot Chip and Pixies.
Thu 30 Jan TIME SQUARE
THE KRAZY HOUSE, 22:00–04:00, £2
Staple student night with a mix of music across the three floors (think: rock, indie, alternative, dance and a sprinkling of cheese) GOSSIP!
GARLANDS, 22:00–03:00, £4
Student night with five rooms of music spread over two floors and occasional theme nights.
Sat 01 Feb CREAM REUNION
NATION, 22:00–05:00, £13
Cream returns to their home at Nation with some old friends. MUMU 6TH BIRTHDAY
SECRET LOCATION, 14:00–08:00, £20
The Liverpool-based techno and house night celebrates six years of existence by hosting another of their all nighters in a secret venue.
Theatre THRILLER 27 JAN – 1 FEB, TIMES VARY, FROM £14
Touring concert celebrating the career of the undisputed King of Pop, paying homage to Michael Jackson’s legendary O.T.T. live performances. DICK WHITTINGTON
13 DEC – 5 JAN, NOT 18 DEC, 25 DEC, 1 JAN, TIMES VARY, FROM £10
The rags to riches tale of a young man and his cat, setting out on a quest to seek their fortune – starring CBeebies’ Ben Faulks as Dick Whittington, and Pudsey the dancing dog.
BRENDAN COLE: LICENCE TO THRILL
25–26 JAN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY
The Strictly Come Dancing choreographer takes his latest theatre show on the road, with his cast of 20 musicians and dancers taking audiences on a journey through ballroom and Latin dance. BUDDY
3–8 FEB, TIMES VARY, FROM £10
The West End show tribute to the Buddy Holly story – serving up all the classics including La Bamba and Johnny B. Goode – continues its feel-good trajectory, some 25 years and counting.
Palace Theatre WEST SIDE STORY
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 11 DEC AND 4 JAN, TIMES VARY, FROM £15
The Broadway musical favourite – featuring lyrics by Stephen Sondheim – returns to the stage 50-odd years after Jerome Robbins transposed a timeless tale of romance and rivalry to the streets of New York. TONIGHT’S THE NIGHT
20 JAN – 1 FEB, NOT 26 JAN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY
Ben Elton’s musical comedy inspired by the songs of Rod Stewart takes to the road under the watchful eye of director, Cjay Ranger and choreographer, Denise Ranger. VAMPIRES ROCK
27 JAN, 29 JAN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY
Steve Steinman plays the undead and evil Baron Von Rockula, owner of the Live and Let Die nightlcub, as he searches for a bride and rocks out through all the classics anthems. MOTOWN’S GREATEST HITS: HOW SWEET IT IS
30 JAN, 7:30PM – 10:30PM, FROM £20.50
A musical celebration of Motown, returning for its 10th successive year, combining all of the greatest hits with slick choreography.
Royal Exchange Theatre THAT DAY WE SANG
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 5 DEC AND 18 JAN, TIMES VARY, FROM £10
First seen when commissioned for the 2011 Manchester International Festival, That Day We Sang returns to the stage, bringing with it all the charm and nostalgia that Victoria Wood intended for her heart-felt love letter to Manchester. WORD IN PROGRESS: HUNGER FOR TRADE
8 JAN, 1:00PM – 3:00PM, £3.50
Manchester Theatre Contact
JONZI D: LYRIKAL FEARTA
30 JAN, 8:00PM – 11:00PM, £11 (£6)
As the Royal Exchange represent the UK in an inter-cultural, performing arts response to the global food crisis, the internationally-renowned playwrights involved with Hunger For Trade invite audiences to contribute to the development of a new piece. BLINDSIDED
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 29 DEC AND 15 FEB, TIMES VARY, FROM £10
An evening of choreopoetry from hip Simon Stephens presents his latest hop theatre legend Jonzi D, including theatrical gem; the story of a girl his acclaimed solo The Letter, which growing up in the arse-end of Stockport at the end of the 70s, explores his response to being navigating love, life, family and offered an MBE. betrayal in one fell swoop as she Opera House falls in love with a man destined to THE PRIDE break her heart. 20–24 JAN, TIMES VARY, FROM £10
Alexi Kaye Campbell’s heart-felt and hilarious play about a love triangle spanning half a century, touching upon the changing views of homosexuality from 1958 to the present day.
January 2014
The Dancehouse THE MAGIC OF PINOCCHIO
8–11 JAN, TIMES VARY, £10 (£8)
The classic tale of Pinocchio gets the panto treatment; based on the original story by Collodi, and brought to life by Micahel Bailey and Andi Mac.
FALLEN 19 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE
The Edge Theatre & Arts Centre
Trapped somewhere between reality and fantasy, two old friends see their lives turned upside down as one falls down a hole and magical creature comes to his rescue, but saving himself will cost his friendship and his relationship.
30–31 JAN, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, £7 (£5)
22 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE
PROJECT XXX
This darkly romantic comedy takes a jaunt into the world of internet pornography as a feminist blogger decides to take her sexual choices into her own hands and film her first time with new love interest, Callum, who is grappling with issues of his own.
The King’s Arms IPHIGENIA
12 JAN, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, £5
Lady Jane Lumley’s translation of Euripides from 1555 (which makes it the oldest play written by a woman in English) gets a reworking by an all-female classical theatre company, touching on the dark humour with a modern feel. CAT AND MOUSE
16–18 JAN, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, £5
A cautionary tale of greed and corruption, told as a biting satire, presenting Aaron and Chelsey as a young and ambitions couple, keen to make it to the top in society. A SALFORD CINDERELLA
23–26 JAN, TIMES VARY, £16 (£10)
The King’s Arms’ resident opera company, Pint-Sized Opera present their version of Cinderella, told using the music from Rossini’s La Cenerentola. STAN
29–30 JAN, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, £6 (£5)
Loose Lips Theatre present their latest theatrical piece, telling the multi-faceted story of all-round not great guy, Stan, examining the consequences of our decisions in a cyber age. LAST CHRISTMAS
6 JAN, 11 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE
A short play centred around Jake and his sister/carer Michelle, following the drama that unfolds around Christmas time as both realise they have no one else to spend the holiday with. YULETIDE TALES
8 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE
Theatre by Number’s latest offering serves up a selection of stories by writer Lindsay Avery, centrered around the story of The Ferryman and a young boy named Sam who swap stories as they cross the river and change their paths in the process. LIFE’S WITNESS
9–10 JAN, 7:30PM – 8:30PM, FREE
A fading author finds his passion and drive for fame and fortune rekindled after the tepid reception of his latest book – first developed as part of The Lowry’s recent Making New Work Showcase. BRAVING FACES
9–11 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE
A darkly chilling thriller in which no one is quite who they seem; a mysterious writer enlists the help of a film student to help him develop his novel into a film, and the plot thickens over a number of writing sessions. THE STORYTELLERS
11 JAN, 12 JAN, 18 JAN, 2:30PM – 3:30PM, FREE
A short piece told through live music and shadow puppetry, focussing on the hidden world of The Storytellers, following a lonely girl as she stumbles around the world and The Storytellers try to lift her spirits with tales. THE WAY MEN BREATHE
17–18 JAN, 8:45PM – 9:45PM, FREE
Centred around a plumber and his apprentice, with the older man determined to teach the younger about more than just fitting boilers; as his lesson takes them well into the night with drinks and a takeaway, the layers of their lives start to unpeel. A PLAY, FOR ACTING
19 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE
A play within a play, with the actors struggling to determine their own identity within the play, and conflict arises due to their differing ideas of what the audience expects.
ERIKA
A rehearsed reading of a monologue; Daniel, 26, has been dumped by his long-term girlfriend, after which he discovers he can timetravel to pivotal points in his life, forcing him to confront events.
The Lowry Studio
THE MAN WHO WOKE UP DEAD
23–25 JAN, TIMES VARY, £8
Square Peg Theatre present a claustrophobic nightmare of Cold War paranoia, inspired by the dystopian world of George Orwell and influenced by 1950s film noir. Part of re:play Festival. AWAY FROM HOME
30 JAN, 1 FEB, TIMES VARY, £8
Written by Rob Ward and Martin Jameson, and directed by Martin Jameson telling the tale of a a male escort as his life is turned upside down when he’s hired by a premiership footballer. Part of re:play Festival. LYAC TRIPLE BILL
13–15 JAN, 7:00PM – 10:30PM, £8
The Lowry Young Actors Company present a triple bill of new works. WRONG ‘UN
16–17 JAN, 8:00PM – 10:30PM, FROM £10
A one woman musical drama about the adventures of Annie Wilde, a Lancashire mill-girl caught up in the midst of the suffragette movement as parliament is poised to grant women the right to vote. ONE HAND CLAPPING
20–22 JAN, TIMES VARY, £8
Thanks to a stage adaptation by Lucia Cox, Anthony Burgess’ tale of global corruption is explored from the perspective of a clairvoyant and his supermarket worker wife. Part of re:play Festival. THE RISE AND FALL OF A NORTHERN STAR
20–22 JAN, TIMES VARY, £8
A one-woman show about MADchester icon, Tracy Star, written by Stella Grundy and directed by Ian Curley, told through creative use of space and through live music mixing. Part of re:play Festival. LUNCH
23–25 JAN, TIMES VARY, £8
Steven Berkoff’s tale of two people trying to cram an entire relationship into a lunch break following a chance encounter – from the awkward small talk to their first fight – returning to the stage as part of re:play Festival. NEWSCRIPT NIGHT
24 JAN, 7:00PM – 10:00PM, £3
Four of the region’s most promising writers present script-in-hand performances of plays written during the first week of re:play Festival, inviting audience members to offer feedback on the short plays. BILLY, THE MONSTER AND ME!
26–27 JAN, TIMES VARY, FROM £3
An interactive family show following Billy on the day he finds a monster in his bedroom, and his family are too busy to play. Part of re:play Festival. TO WALK IN YOUR SHOES
27–29 JAN, TIMES VARY, £8
A verbatim theatre performance exploring the myths surrounding what it means to seek asylum, offering the often silent side a voice. Part of re:play Festival. PITCH PARTY
31 JAN, 7:00PM – 8:30PM, FREE BUT TICKETED
A group of brave creatives pitch their ideas for new stage performances to an audience and a panel of industry experts. Part of re:play Festival. #HANDLESMCR
31 JAN, 9:00PM – 10:00PM, FREE, TICKETED
The winner of the 2012 re:play Festival Pitch Party, Tom Mason, presents his work-in-progress piece exploring how we craft the best possible version of ourselves through social media, drawing on audience interactions through Twitter and Instagram.
The Lowry: Lyric Theatre WAR HORSE
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 20 NOV AND 18 JAN, PRICES VARY
War Horse continues to tour the UK, telling the story of Albert and his beloved horse, Joey, adapted from Michael Morpurgo’s novel. You may as well just start weeping now... CIRQUE BERSERK
23–25 JAN, TIMES VARY, FROM £21
Embarking on a nationwide tour following a sell-out run in London’s Hyde Park, the world’s most dangerous circus acts come to Manchester, including the Globe of Death motorcycle stunt, and a world record-holding strong man.
The Lowry: Quays Theatre WANTED! ROBIN HOOD
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 13 DEC AND 11 JAN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY
A family-friendly new adaptation of Robin Hood – arriving just in time for the festive season – following a fearsome soldier on his return to the rule-ridden Nottingham, and the band of outlaws in Sherwood forest, gearing up to fight for vengeance. THE SPACE INSIDE
15–16 JAN, 8:00PM – 10:30PM, £12
The Centre for Advanced Training in Dance present their end of academic year showcase, exploring the physicality of dance, space, time and music. BURLESQUE! AT THE LOWRY
18 JAN, 8:00PM – 11:00PM, FROM £15
A healthy dose of burlesque in the form of singers, dancers, magicians and acrobats, hosted by the wicked and witty, Rosie Lugosi.
The Plaza
DICK WHITTINGTON: EXTRAVAGANZA PRODUCTIONS
6 DEC – 5 JAN, NOT 9 DEC, 17 DEC, 25 DEC, 1 JAN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY
The rags to riches tale of a young boy and his trusty cat, Tommy as they venture to London where the streets are paved with gold.
Z Arts LOVE&SEX
17 JAN, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, £8 (£5)
A hard-hitting dance theatre show exploring the theme of emotions, pressure and the comedy of sexual relationships, using dance and music to lift preconceptions and dispel myths.
Liverpool Theatre
RUSSIAN STATE BALLET OF SIBERIA: THE SLEEPING BEAUTY 7 JAN, 7:30PM – 11:00PM, FROM £10
The Russian State Ballet of Siberia present their magical re-telling of the classic fairytale, set to Tchaikovsky’s original score.
RUSSIAN STATE BALLET OF SIBERIA: THE NUTCRACKER
8 JAN, 7:30PM – 11:00PM, FROM £10
The Russian State Ballet of Siberia’s retelling of Tchaikovsky’s dance classic, ripe for the festive season with its dreamlike narrative and magical journey of discovery.
RUSSIAN STATE BALLET OF SIBERIA: SWAN LAKE
9 JAN, 7:30PM – 11:00PM, FROM £10
The acclaimed Russian ballet company perform their own reimagining of Tchaikovsky’s classic love story.
Royal Court Theatre
THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO FAZAKERLEY
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 13 DEC AND 11 JAN, TIMES VARY, £14
A journey into the absurd, just in time for the festive season, taking the audience on a romp through space with an all-singing, all-dancing cast. ONCE A CATHOLIC
22 JAN – 8 FEB, NOT 26 JAN, 2 FEB, TIMES VARY, FROM £13
Kathy Burke directs this disturbingly dark, occasionally shocking and fundamentally funny play set in the 50s, following Mary, Mary and Mary at The Convent of Our Lady Of Fatima amidst a world of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll.
The Arts Centre NOISES OFF
7–10 JAN, 7:00PM – 9:30PM, £10 (£8)
STRICTLY COME DANCING TOUR 2014 23 JAN, 8:00PM – 11:00PM, FROM £39
The celebs (we use that term lightly) and dancers from television phenomenon Strictly Come Dancing take to the stage for the annual live tour. We trust you’re suitably excited?
Epstein Theatre SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS: LHK
13 DEC – 5 JAN, NOT 17 DEC, 25 DEC, 1 JAN, TIMES VARY, £16
Family-friendly Christmas panto production of the much-loved classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, starring Crissy Rock and Amanda Harrington.
Ben Elton’s musical comedy inspired by the songs of Rod Stewart takes to the road under the watchful eye of director, Cjay Ranger and choreographer, Denise Ranger.
THE COMEDY STORE, 20:00–23:00, £18 (£9)
STAND UP THURSDAY (STEVE SHANYASKI + JUSTIN MOORHOUSE + MC DAVE WILLIAMS)
THE COMEDY STORE, 20:00–23:00, £12
Cheat life and get that Friday feeling one day early with a night of comedic delight from some circuit funny folk.
Fri 03 Jan
BARREL OF LAUGHS (DANNY MCLOUGHLIN + FELICITY WARD + JASON JOHN WHITEHEAD + MC BARRY DODDS) THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–02:00, £16 (£8)
Three top-notch comics, a sprinkling of Frog compere funnies and a late night disco courtesy of the resident DJ.
THE BEST IN STAND UP (STEVE SHANYASKI + JOHN WARBURTON + JUSTIN MOORHOUSE + TOBY HADOKE + MC DAVE WILLIAMS)
THE COMEDY STORE, 20:00–23:00, £18 (£9)
Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians.
Sat 04 Jan
BARREL OF LAUGHS (FELICITY WARD + JASON JOHN WHITEHEAD + MC DANNY MCLOUGHLIN)
THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–02:00, £17 (£10)
Three top-notch comics, a sprinkling of Frog compere funnies and a late night disco courtesy of the resident DJ.
THE BEST IN STAND UP (STEVE SHANYASKI + JOHN WARBURTON + JUSTIN MOORHOUSE + TONY BURGESS + MC DAVE WILLIAMS)
Sat 11 Jan
BARREL OF LAUGHS (VIKKI STONE + STUART MITCHELL + MICKEY D + MC DAVID LONGLEY)
THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–02:00, £17 (£10)
Three top-notch comics, a sprinkling of Frog compere funnies and a late night disco courtesy of the resident DJ. THE BEST IN STAND UP (JEFF INNOCENT + PHIL NICHOL + KAI HUMPHRIES + MC MANDY KNIGHT)
THE COMEDY STORE, 19:00–21:00, £20 (£10)
Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians. THE BEST IN STAND UP (JEFF INNOCENT + PHIL NICHOL + KAI HUMPHRIES + MC MANDY KNIGHT)
THE COMEDY STORE, 21:30–23:30, £20 (£10)
Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians. TREVOR NOAH: THE RACIST
THE LOWRY STUDIO, 20:00–23:00, £15
The South African comic riffs on established cultural stereotypes from around the globe, with far more playfulness than the provocative title might suggest.
Sun 12 Jan
NEW STUFF (TOBY HADOKE)
THE COMEDY STORE, 19:30–21:00, £3
A chance for those on the circuit to test out some new, never before heard or seen material, with MC Toby Hadoke.
Sun 05 Jan
THE COMEDY STORE, 19:30–21:00, £6 (£3)
Mon 13 Jan
ZAGMUTH
21 DEC – 4 JAN, NOT 22 DEC, 24 DEC, 25 DEC, 26 DEC, TIMES VARY, £10.50 (£8.50)
Take a Hint theatre present a magical Christmas show, promising to serve up a slice of warm, fuzzy festive feelings.
The Playhouse ALADDIN
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 13 DEC AND 18 JAN, TIMES VARY, FROM £10
A rock’n’roll panto adaptation of Aladdin, complete with a rave in a cave and some frothy dance moves.
Unity Theatre 10–18 JAN, NOT 12, 13, 14, 8:00PM – 10:00PM, PRICES VARY
A new musical theatre performance written by Keddy Sutton and Gillian Hardie, following the story of Caz and Britney, a Greggs scoffing pair of laydees, on their winding road from Primark to prison. VIRTUALLY REALITY
21–22 JAN, 8:00PM – 10:00PM, £8 (£7)
An experimental theatre piece from Popular Demand, exploring the consequences of bio-technology and artificial intelligence through movement, soundscapes and imagery. THE BELLS
23–25 JAN, 8:00PM – 10:00PM, £10 (£8)
28–29 JAN, 8:00PM – 10:00PM, £10 (£8)
TONIGHT’S THE NIGHT
Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians.
The Lantern Theatre
25–26 JAN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY
29 JAN – 1 FEB, NOT 26 JAN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY
Thu 02 Jan
The South African comic riffs on established cultural stereotypes from around the globe, with far more playfulness than the provocative title might suggest.
Liverpool Empire
The Strictly Come Dancing choreographer takes his latest theatre show on the road, with his cast of 20 musicians and dancers taking audiences on a journey through ballroom and Latin dance.
THE BEST IN STAND UP (JEFF INNOCENT + PHIL NICHOL + KAI HUMPHRIES + MC MANDY KNIGHT)
THE COMEDY STORE, 19:00–21:00, £20 (£10)
Deborah McAndrew’s adaptation of Leopold Lewis’s classic Victorian melodrama is brought to the stage with live music by Sarah Llewellyn, telling the story of an isolated mountain village.
BRENDAN COLE: LICENCE TO THRILL
Manchester
The Stephen Fry and RSC-backed comedy is brought to the stage thanks to PurpleCoat Productions, cramming in all the drama found backstage at an am-dram show.
SCOTTIE ROAD THE MUSICAL
Echo Arena
Comedy
THE JUDGEMENT OF HAKIN
Last seen as part of the Writing on the Wall Festival 2013, Andrew Sherlock’s shocking drama explores the lengths people will go to to discover the truth, exploring torture, both physical and psychological, and indoctrination methods. THE YEAR OF THE HORSE CHINESE CULTURAL SHOW
1 FEB, 8:00PM – 11:00PM, £12 (£10)
Celebrating the Chinese New Year, and the arrival of the Year of the Horse, China Pearl and Unity Theatre present an evening of dance and music, fusing contemporary with tradition styles.
Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians. KING GONG (MC MICK FERRY)
The night when ordinary folk can have a bash at stand up-all in hope of being crowned King Gong, until next month. Prestigious.
Mon 06 Jan
BEAT THE FROG (DAN NIGHTINGALE)
THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–23:00, £3 (FREE WITH STUDENT ID)
A ten-act long heckle-fest inviting a handful of amateurs to take to the stage and try to Beat the Frog, and the audience decides who stays – brutal! DEAD CAT COMEDY CRÈCHE
SANDBAR, 20:00–23:00, FREE
A brand new comedy night for brand new comedy, offering comedians the chance to hone their craft in front of a friendly crowd (that’s you!).
Thu 09 Jan
BIG VALUE THURSDAYS (VIKKI STONE + RACHEL FAIRBURN + WILL DUGGAN + MICKEY D + MC DAVID LONGLEY)
THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–23:00, £9 (£6)
A Frog flagship event offering up four great acts for stonkingly great value. STAND UP THURSDAY (JEFF INNOCENT + PHIL NICHOL + MC MANDY KNIGHT)
THE COMEDY STORE, 20:00–23:00, £12
Cheat life and get that Friday feeling one day early with a night of comedic delight from some circuit funny folk.
Fri 10 Jan
NAKED CONFESSIONS OF A RECOVERING CATHOLIC
BAND ON THE WALL, 19:30–23:00, £10
Outspoken TV presenter, Terry Christian takes audiences on a romp through his Catholic upbringing, taking in Madchester, Hollywood Stars and Celebrity Big Brother in the process.
BARREL OF LAUGHS (VIKKI STONE + STUART MITCHELL + MICKEY D + MC DAVID LONGLEY)
TREVOR NOAH: THE RACIST
THE LOWRY STUDIO, 20:00–23:00, £15
BEAT THE FROG (DAVID LONGLEY)
THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–23:00, £3 (FREE WITH STUDENT ID)
A ten-act long heckle-fest inviting a handful of amateurs to take to the stage and try to Beat the Frog, and the audience decides who stays – brutal!
Wed 15 Jan COMEDY BALLOON
APE AND APPLE, 20:00–23:00, FREE
Manchester’s oldest underground comedy club returns in the new year with a bang, continuing their quest to put fresh comedic talent in the spotlight.
Thu 16 Jan
BIG VALUE THURSDAYS (JO-JO SMITH + KATE MCCABE + CHRIS BETTS + STEVE HARRIS + MC PHIL ELLIS)
THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–23:00, £9 (£6)
A Frog flagship event offering up four great acts for stonkingly great value.
STAND UP THURSDAY (IAN STONE + IAN COPPINGER + MC ROB ROUSE)
THE COMEDY STORE, 20:00–23:00, £12
Cheat life and get that Friday feeling one day early with a night of comedic delight from some circuit funny folk.
Fri 17 Jan
BARREL OF LAUGHS (JO-JO SMITH + HARRIET DYER + STEVE HARRIS + MC PHIL ELLIS) THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–02:00, £16 (£8)
Three top-notch comics, a sprinkling of Frog compere funnies and a late night disco courtesy of the resident DJ.
THE BEST IN STAND UP (IAN STONE + ROB DERRING + DANNY SLIM GRAY + IAN COPPINGER + MC ROB ROUSE)
THE COMEDY STORE, 20:00–23:00, £18 (£9)
Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians.
THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–02:00, £16 (£8)
Three top-notch comics, a sprinkling of Frog compere funnies and a late night disco courtesy of the resident DJ.
Listings
53
Manchester Comedy
THE BEST IN STAND UP (TOM STADE + ANDREW RYAN + CHRISTIAN REILLY + MC TOM WRIGGLESWORTH) THE COMEDY STORE, 20:00–23:00, £18 (£9)
HAL CRUTTENDEN
Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians.
THE LOWRY: QUAYS THEATRE, 20:00–23:00, £15
Sat 25 Jan
As seen on The Royal Variety Performance, Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow and The Rob Brydon Show, Hal Cruttenden brings his usual brand of simultaneously warm and catty stand-up to the Northwest.
Sat 18 Jan
BARREL OF LAUGHS (JO-JO SMITH + HARRIET DYER + STEVE HARRIS + MC PHIL ELLIS) THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–02:00, £17 (£10)
Three top-notch comics, a sprinkling of Frog compere funnies and a late night disco courtesy of the resident DJ.
THE BEST IN STAND UP (ROB DEERING + DANNY SLIM GRAY + ALUN COCHRANE + IAM COPPINGER + MC ROB ROUSE) THE COMEDY STORE, 19:00–21:30, £20 (£10)
Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians.
THE BEST IN STAND UP (ROB DEERING + DANNY SLIM GRAY + ALUN COCHRANE + IAM COPPINGER + MC ROB ROUSE) THE COMEDY STORE, 21:30–23:30, £20 (£10)
Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians. MIKE WOZNIAK: TAKE THE HIT
THE LOWRY STUDIO, 20:00–23:00, £12
BARREL OF LAUGHS (JONNY AWSUM + NICK DIXON + ALEX BOARDMAN + MC TOBY HADOKE) THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–02:00, £17 (£10)
Three top-notch comics, a sprinkling of Frog compere funnies and a late night disco courtesy of the resident DJ.
THE BEST IN STAND UP (TOM STADE + ANDREW RYAN + CHRISTIAN REILLY + MC TOM WRIGGLESWORTH) THE COMEDY STORE, 19:00–21:00, £20 (£10)
Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians.
THE BEST IN STAND UP (TOM STADE + ANDREW RYAN + CHRISTIAN REILLY + MC TOM WRIGGLESWORTH) THE COMEDY STORE, 21:30–23:00, £20 (£10)
Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians. THE ONLY WAY IS DOWNTON
THE LOWRY: QUAYS THEATRE, 20:00–23:00, £16
Luke Kempner presents an evening of impression comedy, bringing his YouTube hit Downstairs at Downton to the big stage, with hilarious culture and era crashes on the cards as celebrities start appearing at Downton.
Sun 26 Jan
NEW STUFF (TOBY HADOKE)
After his wife’s parents moved in permanently, Mike felt that it was time to get out of the house more, so here he is making funnies with his latest stand-up show.
A chance for those on the circuit to test out some new, never before heard or seen material, with MC Toby Hadoke.
Sun 19 Jan
FUEL CAFE, 20:00–23:00, FREE
MILES JUPP
THE LOWRY STUDIO, 20:00–23:00, FROM £10
The actor/writer/comic presents a night of eloquent ramblings, voicing his opinions on everything from hot drinks, bad balance, navigation and other people’s pants.
Mon 20 Jan
BEAT THE FROG (ALEX BOARDMAN)
THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–23:00, £3 (FREE WITH STUDENT ID)
A ten-act long heckle-fest inviting a handful of amateurs to take to the stage and try to Beat the Frog, and the audience decides who stays – brutal!
Tue 21 Jan
THE WORST COMEDY NIGHT IN SALFORD
THE KING’S ARMS, 19:30–23:00, FREE
Keeping expectations low with this open mic night of stand up, all are welcome to give it a bash. MILES JUPP
THE LOWRY STUDIO, 20:00–23:00, FROM £10
The actor/writer/comic presents a night of eloquent ramblings, voicing his opinions on everything from hot drinks, bad balance, navigation and other people’s pants.
Thu 23 Jan
BIG VALUE THURSDAYS (JONNY AWSUM + BEN LAWES + JACK EVANS + ALEX BOARDMAN + MC TOBY HADOKE)
THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–23:00, £9 (£6)
A Frog flagship event offering up four great acts for stonkingly great value.
STAND UP THURSDAY (TOM STADE + ANDREW RYAN + MC TOM WRIGGLESWORTH) THE COMEDY STORE, 20:00–23:00, £12
Cheat life and get that Friday feeling one day early with a night of comedic delight from some circuit funny folk.
Fri 24 Jan
BARREL OF LAUGHS (JONNY AWSUM + NICK DIXON + ALEX BOARDMAN + MC TOBY HADOKE) THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–02:00, £16 (£8)
Three top-notch comics, a sprinkling of Frog compere funnies and a late night disco courtesy of the resident DJ.
54
Listings
THE COMEDY STORE, 19:30–21:00, £3
QUIPPOPOTAMUS
Fuel’s free stand up night returns for another night of – let’s face it – slightly bizarre comedy.
ANTWERP MANSION COMEDY SHOW (JOHN THOMSON + BIG LEWIS + JIMMY O) ANTWERP MANSION, 19:30–23:00, £5
John Thomson of The Fast Show returns to the comedy circuit to headline this new comedy event hosted at Antwerp Mansion.
Mon 27 Jan
BEAT THE FROG (PHIL ELLIS)
THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–23:00, £3 (FREE WITH STUDENT ID)
A ten-act long heckle-fest inviting a handful of amateurs to take to the stage and try to Beat the Frog, and the audience decides who stays – brutal!
Tue 28 Jan
NORRIS AND PARKER: ALL OUR FRIENDS ARE DEAD
THE LOWRY STUDIO, 21:30–23:00, £8
An evening of dark and surreal sketch comedy, with Norris & Parker switching between roles and their gender-bending sketches relying on weird and wistful characters. Part of the re:play Festival 2014.
Thu 30 Jan
BIG VALUE THURSDAYS (STEVE ROYLE + LUKE TOULSON + PHIL CHAPMAN + PAUL TONKINSON + MC RAY PEACOCK)
THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–23:00, £9 (£6)
A Frog flagship event offering up four great acts for stonkingly great value.
STAND UP THURSDAY (ANDY ASKINS + JOHN WARBURTON + MC JOHN MOLONEY) THE COMEDY STORE, 20:00–23:00, £12
Cheat life and get that Friday feeling one day early with a night of comedic delight from some circuit funny folk. NORRIS AND PARKER: ALL OUR FRIENDS ARE DEAD
THE LOWRY STUDIO, 21:30–23:00, £8
An evening of dark and surreal sketch comedy, with Norris & Parker switching between roles and their gender-bending sketches relying on weird and wistful characters. Part of the re:play Festival 2014.
Fri 31 Jan
BARREL OF LAUGHS (STEVE ROYLE + AL MCWILLIAM + PAUL TONKINSON + MC RAY PEACOCK) THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB, 19:00–02:00, £16 (£8)
Three top-notch comics, a sprinkling of Frog compere funnies and a late night disco courtesy of the resident DJ. THE BEST IN STAND UP (JOHN MOLONEY + ANDY ASKINGS + JOHN WARBURTON + ANDY ROBINSON + MC JUSTIN MOORHOUSE)
THE COMEDY STORE, 20:00–23:00, £18 (£9)
Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians. ROBIN INCE AND JOSIE LONG
THE KING’S ARMS, 20:00–22:30, £10
The Comedy Central podcast-ers take their show on the road, with solo material from both comics and extracts from the Dirty Book Club and Robin’s follow-up Bad Book Club show. DAVID BADDIEL: FAME, NOT THE MUSICAL
THE LOWRY: QUAYS THEATRE, 20:00–23:00, £23
David Baddiel returns for his first full show in 15 years, taking aim at himself as he shares what it’s like to live in – and out – of fame.
Sat 01 Feb
THE BEST IN STAND UP (JOHN MOLONEY + ANDY ASKINGS + JOHN WARBURTON + ANDY ROBINSON + MC JUSTIN MOORHOUSE)
THE COMEDY STORE, 19:00–21:00, £20 (£10)
Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians. THE BEST IN STAND UP (JOHN MOLONEY + ANDY ASKINGS + JOHN WARBURTON + ANDY ROBINSON + MC JUSTIN MOORHOUSE)
THE COMEDY STORE, 21:30–23:30, £20 (£10)
Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians. NORRIS AND PARKER: ALL OUR FRIENDS ARE DEAD
THE LOWRY STUDIO, 19:00–20:30, £8
An evening of dark and surreal sketch comedy, with Norris & Parker switching between roles and their gender-bending sketches relying on weird and wistful characters. Part of the re:play Festival 2014.
Sun 02 Feb
KING GONG (JUSTIN MOORHOUSE)
THE COMEDY STORE, 19:30–21:30, £6 (£3)
The night when ordinary folk can have a bash at stand up-all in hope of being crowned King Gong, until next month. Prestigious.
Liverpool Comedy Sat 04 Jan
ROB ROUSE (DAVID LONGLEY + MIKE NEWALL + MC PHIL ELLIS)
COMEDY CENTRAL AT BABY BLUE, 18:00–22:00, £18
Crude comic par excellence, Rob Rouse is back on the road following the birth of his second child, for which the majority of his chat centres around, well... pretty much crapping and peeing.
ALUN COCHRANE (PHIL CHAPMAN + JUSTIN MOORHOUSE + MC STE PORTER) THE SLAUGHTER HOUSE, 20:00–23:00, £17.50
Alun Cochrane does his thinking aloud, chatty style of stand-up. You do the laughing.
Fri 10 Jan
PHIL NICHOL (ALLYSON SMITH + MC CHRIS CAIRNS)
THE SLAUGHTER HOUSE, 20:00–23:00, £15
Regular triple headline show, with three comics lined up to tickle your funny bone.
Sat 11 Jan
STEVE SHANYASKI (MICKEY D + ROB HEENEY + MC MICHAEL LEGGE)
COMEDY CENTRAL AT BABY BLUE, 18:00–22:00, £18
Eloquent young man making funnies out of everyday, mundane experiences.
ALLYSON SMITH (PHIL NICHOL + MC CHRIS CAIRNS) THE SLAUGHTER HOUSE, 20:00–23:00, £17.50
KEITH CARTER AS NIGE THE SLAUGHTER HOUSE, 20:00–23:00, £12 (£10)
Regular triple headline show, with three comics lined up to tickle your funny bone.
Keith Carter presents the lovable scouse, Nige, renowned for securing Liverpool the title of Capital of Culture, so they say.
Thu 16 Jan
Fri 31 Jan
KEITH CARTER AS NIGE (DAN NIGHTINGALE + HAYLEY ELLIS + MC PETER OTWAY)
COMEDY CENTRAL AT BABY BLUE, 18:00–22:00, £15
Keith Carter presents the lovable scouse, Nige, renowned for securing Liverpool the title of Capital of Culture, so they say.
Fri 17 Jan
KEITH CARTER AS NIGE (DAMIAN CLARK + DANNY MCLOUGHLIN + MC PETER OTWAY)
COMEDY CENTRAL AT BABY BLUE, 18:00–22:00, £15
Keith Carter presents the lovable scouse, Nige, renowned for securing Liverpool the title of Capital of Culture, so they say. CHRISTIAN SCHULTE-LOH (JOHN GORDILLO + MC CHRIS CAIRNS)
THE SLAUGHTER HOUSE, 20:00–23:00, £15
Regular triple headline show, with three comics lined up to tickle your funny bone.
Sat 18 Jan
KEITH CARTER AS NIGE (DAMIAN CLARK + DANNY MCLOUGHLIN + MC PETER OTWAY)
COMEDY CENTRAL AT BABY BLUE, 18:00–22:00, £18
Keith Carter presents the lovable scouse, Nige, renowned for securing Liverpool the title of Capital of Culture, so they say.
JOHN GORDILLO (CHRISTIAN SCHULTE-LOH + CHRIS CAIRNS + MC NEIL FITZMAURICE)
THE SLAUGHTER HOUSE, 20:00–23:00, £17.50
Regular triple headline show, with three comics lined up to tickle your funny bone.
Thu 23 Jan
JONNY AWSUM (ALEX BOARDMAN + SUSIE MCCABE + MC RAY PEACOCK)
COMEDY CENTRAL AT BABY BLUE, 18:00–22:00, £15
Fresh-faced comic bringing his own brand of feel-good musical comedy by the bucket load.
Fri 24 Jan
JONNY AWSUM (ALEX BOARDMAN + BRENNEN REECE + MC RAY PEACOCK) COMEDY CENTRAL AT BABY BLUE, 18:00–22:00, £15
Fresh-faced comic bringing his own brand of feel-good musical comedy by the bucket load.
DALISO CHAPONDA (TOM STADE + JOHN LYNN + MC CHRIS CAIRNS)
THE SLAUGHTER HOUSE, 20:00–23:00, £15
Malawian comic, with a career spanning Canada, South Africa and more recently, the UK. IAN MCMILLAN’S GRUFF GUIDE TO LOST AND FORGOTTEN WRITERS
LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC HALL, 20:00–23:00, £14
Poet and comedian Ian McMillan explores the world’s lost and forgotten writers, accompanied by music from Clara Salaman.
Sat 25 Jan
JONNY AWSUM (ALEX BOARDMAN + BRENNEN REECE + MC RAY PEACOCK) COMEDY CENTRAL AT BABY BLUE, 18:00–22:00, £18
Fresh-faced comic bringing his own brand of feel-good musical comedy by the bucket load.
JOHN LYNN (TOM STADE + DALISO CHAPONDA + MC CHRIS CAIRNS)
THE SLAUGHTER HOUSE, 20:00–23:00, £17.50
Triple headline show with a delightfully hilarious line-up of circuit funny-folk.
Thu 30 Jan
STEVE ROYLE (RAY BRADSHAW + RACHEL FAIRBURN + MC DAVID LONGLEY) COMEDY CENTRAL AT BABY BLUE, 18:00–22:00, £15
Court jester turned stand up comic, Steve Royle left his role as “Mad Edgar” at Camelot theme park in 2000 to pursue a career as an actor, writer, comic and radio presenter.
STEVE ROYLE (MARKUS BIRDMAN + MIKE NEWALL + MC DAVID LONGLEY)
COMEDY CENTRAL AT BABY BLUE, 18:00–22:00, £15
Court jester turned stand up comic, Steve Royle left his role as “Mad Edgar” at Camelot theme park in 2000 to pursue a career as an actor, writer, comic and radio presenter. ANDY ASKINS
THE SLAUGHTER HOUSE, 20:00–23:00, £15
Triple headline show with a delightfully hilarious line-up of circuit funny-folk.
Sat 01 Feb
STEVE ROYLE (MARKUS BIRDMAN + MIKE NEWALL + MC DAVID LONGLEY)
COMEDY CENTRAL AT BABY BLUE, 18:00–22:00, £18
Court jester turned stand up comic, Steve Royle left his role as “Mad Edgar” at Camelot theme park in 2000 to pursue a career as an actor, writer, comic and radio presenter. KEVIN DEWSBURY (MIKE WILKINSON + ANDY ASKINS + MC NEIL FITZMAURICE)
THE SLAUGHTER HOUSE, 20:00–23:00, £17.50
Kevin Dewsbury aims to debunk stereotypes of the ‘gay’ scene through song, jokes, stories and some tales of a more graphic nature.
Manchester Art Artzu Gallery
MICHAEL JOHN ASHCROFT: FROM DARKNESS COMES LIGHT
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 1 JAN AND 1 FEB, TIMES VARY, FREE
An exhibition of paintings of landscapes and cityscapes by the Lancashire-based artist, Michael John Ashcroft, who turned to painting after undergoing surgery for a life-threatening brain tumour.
Castlefield Gallery
RADICAL CONSERVATISM
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 30 NOV AND 2 FEB, 1:00PM – 6:00PM, FREE
Pil and Galia Kollectiv ask if Radical and Conservatism are antithetical terms through a considered look at the work of Yugoslav sculptor, Oscar Nemon, who is best known for his portrayal of figures like Churchill and Thatcher.
Centre For Chinese Contemporary Art TIPPING POINT
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 16 JAN AND 15 MAR, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
A group exhibition by Jamie Lau, Cindie Gottlieb-Cheung and Andrew Lim, responding to the theme ‘tipping point’ through sculpture and presenting an ongoing dialogue in which they share methods and exchange ideas. ANTONY CLARKSON
7–18 JAN, NOT 12, 13, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
Preoccupied with the spread of light within white space following his residency at 501 Artspace in Chongqing, China, Antony Clarkson presents a unique light installation for his open studio. DARIUS CHANG JUI-YU: FIRST STEP
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 4 JAN AND 3 MAY, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
Graduate Darius Chang Jui-Yu presents a showcase site-specific installation, taking over the stairwell.
Art
Manchester Art Gallery
LYDIA MEIYING: CHINESE NEW YEAR PROJECT
16–16 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 14 JAN AND 8 FEB, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
Illustrator and pattern designer Lydia Meiying is the artist-inresidence for the Chinese New Year celebrations, seeing in the year of the horse with a series of workshops and events. See cfcca. org.uk for more details.
Cornerhouse DOUBLE INDEMNITY
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 14 SEP AND 5 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE
A new group exhibition taking inspiration from Billy Wilder’s classic film noir, Double Indemnity, exploring desire, possession and complicity and featuring two newly commissioned works by Ming Wong and Anicka Yi. URGENT COPY
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 7 NOV AND 7 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE
Anthony Burgess’ book covers enjoy a moment in the spotlight in this new exhibition exploring the way his writing is interpreted and represented by artists, featuring rare materials on loan from the International Anthony Burgess Foundation. JAMIE SHOVLIN: HIKER MEAT
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 18 JAN AND 20 APR, TIMES VARY, FREE
Jamie Shovlin cooked up his art movie Rough Cut – a remake of the non-existent 70s film, Hiker Meat – as a low-budget exploitation film crafted from found video clips; his process is laid bare in this accompanying exhibition. GEOFF BROKATE
9 JAN – 4 FEB, NOT 13 JAN, 20 JAN, 27 JAN, 3 FEB, TIMES VARY, FREE
An exhibition of work by Australian photographer Geoff Brokate; best known for documenting the lives of people he has met on his travels, he now turns his attention to the English countryside.
Gallery of Costume
CHRISTIAN DIOR: DESIGNER IN FOCUS
12 JUN – 12 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE
A unique exhibition of Christian Dior’s work, including London and Paris couture with highlights including a piece from his New Look collection, a 1949 black ribbed silk cocktail dress commissioned by the Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson.
Imperial War Museum North SEAN SMITH: IRAQ
4 JUN – 2 FEB, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
A photographic exhibition by the award-winning British war photographer, Sean Smith, documenting the collision of two worlds as local Iraqis and military personnel are forced to co-exist. CATALYST: CONTEMPORARY ART AND WAR
12 OCT – 23 FEB, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
A new exhibition bringing together the work of over 70 artists across photography, film, sculpture, oil paintings, prints and book works to explore our changing perceptions of conflict in a time when our opinions are are so easily influenced by the media.
Instituto Cervantes
MEMORIES OF A LOST SHARK
17 OCT – 1 FEB, 9:30AM – 5:30PM, FREE
An exhibition presented as a visual dialogue between English photographer, James Clifford Kent and Cuban writer, Edmundo Desnoes, made up of 26 black and white photographs and accompanying texts.
RADICAL FIGURES: POST-WAR BRITISH FIGURATIVE PAINTING
A collection of works bringing together artists such as Francis Bacon, Lucien Freud and David Hockney to explore the role they played in the reinvention of figurative and realist art in postwar Britain. HOME, LAND AND SEA: ART IN THE NETHERLANDS 1600-1800
24–23 MAY, TIMES VARY, FREE
Bringing together over 50 paintings from the Manchester City Galleries’ 17th and 18th century Dutch and Flemish collection, including portraiture, landscapes and seascapes from Pieter de Hooch, Gerard ter Borch and Jacob van Ruisdael. A HIGHLAND ROMANCE: VICTORIAN VIEWS OF SCOTTISHNESS
20–1 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE
A collection of popular 19th century paintings and works on paper by Scottish artists is displayed alongside visions of Scotland by artists from England, exploring the changing view of Scotland and Scottishness over the past two centuries.. ALL THAT IS SOLID MELTS INTO AIR
12 OCT – 19 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE
This new touring exhibition curated by Jeremy Deller explores the impact of the industrial revolution on British pop culture through music, film, photography and objects, with Deller’s approach to the materials likened to that of a social cartographer. GRAYSON PERRY: THE VANITY OF SMALL DIFFERENCES
24 OCT – 2 FEB, TIMES VARY, FREE
Inspired by William Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress, artist Grayson Perry created six tapestries to tell the story of class mobility and the influence of social class on aesthetic taste. DAZZLE
25 NOV – 12 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE
An exhibition of wearable art, filling the atrium with small pieces of dazzling jewelry, alongside a display of contemporary silversmith work in the gallery. ART FOR ALL: THOMAS HORSFALL’S GIFT TO MANCHESTER
29 NOV – 8 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE
An exhibition of nature-themed artworks from Manchester’s Thomas Horsfall collection, cocurated by local school children.
Manchester Craft and Design Centre THE GIFTS OF THE DEPARTED: ALINAH AZADEH
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 23 NOV AND 1 MAR, 10:00AM – 5:30PM, FREE
Interdisciplinary artist, Alinah Azadeh presents a new exhibition of work exploring communal rituals and the process of wrapping and exchanging gifts.
Manchester Museum
CORAL: SOMETHING RICH AND STRANGE
29 NOV – 16 MAR, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
Exploring our ongoing fascination with coral, Manchester Museum present an exhibition of objects that will highlight the importance of preserving our marine environments.
Paper Gallery
PAPER #11 (RACHEL WRIGLEY: STARING AT THE ARTEX CEILING)
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 18 JAN AND 1 MAR, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
Following her six week residency at PAPER gallery, the Oldham-based artist explores the possibilities of paper and its sculptural qualities in the hope of presenting a distorted vision of reality.
People’s History Museum
THE PEOPLE’S BUSINESS: 150 YEARS OF THE CO-OPERATIVE
12 OCT – 11 MAY, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
An exhibition exploring the vast history of The Co-operative, from their origins as the Co-operative Wholesale Society in Manchester, to their innovative branding.
The John Rylands Library THE POLARI MISSION
16 AUG – 2 FEB, TIMES VARY, FREE
Two artists embark on a mission to protect and preserve Polaris – an ancient and endangered language – with an exhibition that examines how LGBT groups identify with Polari today.
The Lowry
DEFINING ME: MUSICAL ADVENTURES IN MANCHESTER
28 SEP – 23 FEB, TIMES VARY, FREE
An exhibition charting Manchester’s rich musical heritage through ticket stubs, posters, video and photographs; spanning everything from the Hallé Orchestra’s first performance in 1858 to the present day musical landscape. ALISON GOLDFRAPP: PERFORMER AS CURATOR
19 OCT – 2 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE
To kick off their Performer as Curator series, The Lowry invite English singer/songwriter Alison Goldfrapp to curate an exhibition of work offering insight into the singer’s personal inspiration through paintings, film, illustration and photography.
The Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) BRAINS: THE MIND AS MATTER
20 SEP – 4 JAN, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
On display for the first time outside of London, MOSI present a collection of artifacts, including real brains, artworks, manuscripts and more, showcasing our relationship with this most vital of human organs.
Liverpool Art Dot Art
ROB EDMONDSON: EBB AND FLOW
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 3 DEC AND 17 JAN, 12:00PM – 6:00PM, FREE
A solo exhibition of work by Rob Edmondson, exploring the theme of water through his experimentation with paint and unusual techniques.
Eggspace WINTER BLUES
13 DEC – 19 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE
An open exhibition of work by local artists, offering their interpretation of winter blues.
Exhibition Research Centre HISACHIKA TAKAHASHI: ANTWERP 1967/BRUSSELS 2013/LIVERPOOL 2013
6 DEC – 23 JAN, WEEKDAYS ONLY, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
An exhibition of patterned, glowin-the-dark canvasses – first displayed in Antwerp in 1967, and now brought to Liverpool by curator and artist, Yuki Okumura – offering a unique aesthetic experience depending on the light type (natural, or UV).
FACT
TIME AND MOTION: REDEFINING WORKING LIFE
12 DEC – 9 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE
A group exhibition in collaboration with the Royal College of Art’s Creative Exchange, exploring the workplace through artworks and research projects and placing the subject of shifting from an industrial to a servicebased economy in focus.
International Slavery Museum
BRITISH DANCE: BLACK ROUTES
13 SEP – 23 MAR, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
A new exhibition exploring the experiences of Black British dancers from 1946 to 2005 and shining the spotlight on their contributions to British dance, through jazz, contemporary, ballet and hip hop.
THE SKINNY
LAURA FACEY: THEIR SPIRITS... 31 JAN – 7 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
Jamaican artist, Laura Facey presents an exhibition exploring the cruelty of slavery and the transcendent nature of the human spirit, with her 2006 piece, Their Spirits Gone Before Them sitting at the heart of the exhibition.
Lady Lever Art Gallery THE DRAWINGS OF EDWARD BURNE-JONES
14 JUN – 12 JAN, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
A collection of 26 drawings by the Pre-Raphaelite master, comprising of independent drawings, preparatory studies and designs for stained glass.
Museum of Liverpool
APRIL ASHLEY: PORTRAIT OF A LADY
27–21 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
A exhibition exploring the life of April Ashley, the Liverpool-born Vogue model and actress and one of the first people in the world to undergo gender reassignment surgery.
Open Eye Gallery
ALVIN BALTROP AND GORDON MATTA-CLARK: THE PIERS FROM HERE
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 7 DEC AND 9 FEB, 10:30AM – 5:30PM, FREE
A collection of photographs by Alvin Baltrop and Gordon MattaClark, displayed together for the first time in the UK, focussing on the Piers area of NYC during the mid 70s, an area of dilapidation that mirrors Liverpool’s docklands.
Tate Liverpool DLA PIPER SERIES: CONSTELLATIONS
23 NOV – 31 MAY, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
An exhibition displaying ‘trigger’ artworks surrounded by groups, or ‘constellations’, of artworks from the same period. With the first floor open you’ll be able to see five ‘trigger’ artworks from before 1960, from artists including Picasso and Pollock. ART TURNING LEFT: HOW VALUES CHANGED MAKING 1789-2013
23 NOV – 2 FEB, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, £8 (£6)
The first exhibition of its kind exploring how left-wing values have influenced the production and reception of art across historical periods and geographical locations – artists include Jeremy Deller, Iwao Yamawaki and Tim Rollins. THE OFFICE OF USEFUL ART
8 NOV – 8 FEB, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
A working office and education centre created as part of the Art Turning Left exhibition to explore the idea of usefulness and usership in relation to art, stemming from Cuban artist, Tania Bruguera’s The Useful Art Association. PALLE NIELSON: THE MODEL
8 NOV – 2 FEB, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
A comprehensive display of archival materials from Danish artist Palle Nielson’s 1968 installation and social experiment, The Model – A Model for a Qualitative Society, in which the Moderna Museet in Stockholm was transformed into a playground.
The Bluecoat
EDWARD CHELL: SOFT ESTATE
FILIPPOS TSITSOPOULOS: CABINET OF CURIOSITIES OF MR. BONSAI 30 JAN, 6:00PM – 9:00PM, FREE, TICKETED
Ahead of his performance and video installation at the Sefton Park Palm House later this year, Liverpool-based artist, Filippos Tsitsopoulos offers a preview and performance of his zoological chamber of marvels.
The Brink NATURE’S WAY
17 DEC – 7 MAR, NOT 25 DEC, 26 DEC, 1 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE
Victoria Gallery and Museum REMEMBER THEM.
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 27 SEP AND 1 FEB, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
In Cuidad Juarez in Mexico, over 2000 women have been murdered or have disappeared since 1993, as the families struggle for justice, this exhibition brings together the work of artists trying to raise international awareness, and commemorate those lost.
A joint exhibition of nature photography by Liverpool-based artists, Colin Serjent and Jane Groves.
Walker Art Gallery
The Cornerstone Gallery
Keep up with the ever-growing collection of work in the Walker Art Gallery with this exhibition of recently acquired works, including pieces by Anish Kapoor, Louise Bourgeois, Paula Rego and Yoko Ono.
RACHEL SWEENEY: BODY TOPOGRAPHIES
31 JAN – 14 MAR, WEEKDAYS ONLY, 9:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
An exhibition of photographic works by Rachel Sweeney – a local dancer and part of performance company Orr and Sweeney – exploring the creative links between the body and its environment.
NEW WORKS AT THE WALKER
7 OCT – 23 FEB, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
11 OCT – 16 MAR, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
The Royal Standard
A unique collection of work charting the early development of a British icon with almost 40 pieces on display, dating from between 1960 and 1978, allowing a unique insight into Hockney’s early years.
VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 6 DEC AND 18 JAN, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE
11 OCT – 16 MAR, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
DIFFERENT DOMAIN
Taking place on a variety of platforms and in various formats – including google hangouts and live performance in The Royal standard gallery space – this group exhibition looks at the changing role of art in an online environment.
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THE NARRATORS: WORKS FROM THE ARTS COUNCIL COLLECTION
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Visual dialogues are created between contemporary and modern works in this exhibition of work from the Arts Council’s collection of decorative and fine art, running parallel to a collection at The Royal Standard.
@theskinnyNW
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10 DEC – 23 FEB, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE
Contrasting the 18th-century idea of the Picturesque with modern day motorway landscapes, Edward Chell presents a collection of paintings, prints and found objects exploring history, ecology, roads and travel.
I N D E P E N D E N T
C U LT U R A L
J O U R N A L I S M
Illustration: Jonathan Summers Muir
WIN A PAIR OF HORIZON FESTIVAL TICKETS!
WIN A TRIP TO GLASGOW COMEDY FESTIVAL TO SEE OMID DJALILI!
Horizon Festival returns to Bansko, Bulgaria from 8-14 March. Expect six days and nights of cutting edge electronic music, with the likes of Kerri Chandler, Bondax, Ame, Catz 'N Dogz, Andreya Triana, KiNK, Detroit Swindle and Roy Davis Jr. already lined up, as well as a host of trailblazers on the underground scene. The Glasgow International Comedy Festival has become a renowned annual event in Glasgow’s entertainment calendar. The 2014 festival will once again boast an incredible line-up of talent from around the globe. With over 350 shows in 40 venues across the city, there will be something to suit every age, taste and budget. This year’s festival runs from 14 March–5 April. We’ve a pair of tickets to give away to see Omid Djalili, one of the biggest names at this year’s festival, at The Kings Theatre on 29 March – an overnight stay at the citizenM Hotel and travel for two are included. To be in with a chance of winning, simply head over to theskinny.co.uk/about/competitions and correctly answer the following question:
Omid Djalili isn’t just a stand-up, he’s an actor. In which of these Oscar-winning films did he make a notable appearance? A) The Departed B) No Country for Old Men C) Gladiator Competition closes midnight Sun 2 Feb. Entrants must be 18 or over. The winner will be notified via email within two working days of closing and will be required to respond within 48 hours or the prize will be offered to another entrant. Full terms and conditions can be found at www.theskinny.co.uk/about/terms For more information about Glasgow Comedy Festival: www.glasgowcomedyfestival.com For more information about citizenM Hotel:
With over 30 parties at 20 unique venues both on and off the mountain, Horizon is an electronic theskinny.co.uk/about/competitions and cormusic lover’s dream. Club partners include rectly answer the following question: MadTech Records, Exit Records, Electric Minds, Trouble Vision, tief, Pets Recordings, Solid Who of the below is not playing at Horizon Grooves, Vagabondz, Hit’n’Run… and there’s more Festival 2014? parties still to be announced. You could also take advantage of pro rider demonstrations and tips sessions on the Snow Park, discounted ski/board lessons, spa packages and a whole range of accommodation options. Packages start at £279pp (includes six nights accommodation with pool/spa use, five-day ski pass and full festival pass), and non-skiing packages start at £199pp.
www.citizenm.com
To be in with a chance of winning a pair of Horizon Festival tickets, simply head over to
January 2014
COMPETITIONS
A) Kerri Chandler B) Elton John C) Andreya Triana Competition closes midnight Sun 2 Feb. Entrants must be 18 or over. Winners will be notified via email within two working days of closing and will be required to respond within 48 hours or the prize will be offered to another entrant. Full terms and conditions can be found at www.theskinny.co.uk/about/terms For more information about Horizon Festival: www.horizonfestival.net
Listings
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e th n! ly let ee ab bal r s ob t ve Pr bes ne ve u’ yo
Le Corsaire Passion. Pirates. Pas de deux.
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“a roaring success” Financial Times
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“if you’ve never been to a ballet, trust me, this is the place to start” The Observer
11 – 15 Feb 2014 Tickets from £10* 0844 871 3019 ballet.org.uk/lecorsaire
Generously supported by Swarovski, Le Corsaire Appeal donors and the New Commissioning Fund *subject to booking/transaction fees Registered charity 214005 © Photography by ASH