The Skinny Northwest June 2013

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J O U R N A L I S M

Northwest Issue 03 June 2013

MUSIC Toro y Moi Queens of the Stone Age Dope Body Ex-Easter Island Head Camera Obscura ART Rachel Goodyear Theo Vass FACT Turns Ten Matthew Denniss BOOKS Evie Wyld Nicholas Royle vs David Gaffney

THEATRE Manchester Sound: The Massacre Andy Field: Zilla Liverpool Arab Arts Festival FOOD The Biospheric Project COMEDY Judah Friedlander FILM Joss Whedon on Much Ado About Nothing Mat Whitecross

CLUBS Horse Meat Disco oOoOO Matias Aguayo FASHION Zoe Hitchen

MUSIC|FILM|CLUBS|THEATRE|TECH|ART|BOOKS|COMEDY|FASHION|TRAVEL|FOODOCTOBER |DEVIANCE LISTINGS 2010 THE| SKINNY 1

erika lindberg freestyle surfer

brItIsh summertIme Is here

#CelebrAtethesuN rekOrderlig.COM

/reKOrDerlIG

THE DUNWELLS NIGHT & DAY Tuesday 04 June

TRAMPLED BY TURTLES NIGHT & DAY Thursday 20 June

SIMONE FELICE SACRED TRINITY CHURCH Saturday 22 July

NICK MULVEY CORNERHOUSE Monday 01 July

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC HALL Tuesday 02 July

HALF MOON RUN THE DEAF INSTITUTE Wednesday 17 July

TORRES* THE CASTLE Tuesday 23 July

SAM BRADLEY NIGHT & DAY

KIDS IN GLASS HOUSES MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2 Friday 04 October

LIAM FROST THE DEAF INSTITUTE Friday 04 October

FAT FREDDY’S DROP MANCHESTER ACADEMY 1

P.12 QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE

P.14 JOSS WHEDON - MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

P.28 THEO VASS - UNPLANNED CHANGE, 2011

P.36 MYKKI BLANCO

Monday 21 October

DAUGHTER THE RITZ Saturday 26 October

THE GROWLERS THE DEAF INSTITUTE Saturday 26 October

LOCAL NATIVES THE RITZ Saturday 26 October

LONDON GRAMMAR SOUND CONTROL

Photo: Leah Henson

Monday 03 June

Friday 04 October

Photo: Chapman Baehler

Coming Up

Tuesday 29th October

WARPAINT MANCHESTER ACADEMY 1

JUNE 2013

Wednesday 30 October

NICK CAVE & THE BAD Tuesday 23 July SEEDS HE’S MY BROTHER SHE’S MY O2 APOLLO | SOLD OUT Sunday 10 November SISTER* THE CASTLE RADICAL FACE Friday 20 September THE DEAF INSTITUTE Wednesday 20 November THE TREATMENT SOUND CONTROL BETH HART Wednesday 02 October THE RITZ Friday 06 December BONOBO O2 ACADEMY LIVERPOOL NIGHT BEDS GORILLA

Issue 03, June 2013 © Radge Media Ltd. Get in touch: E: hiya@theskinny.co.uk T: 0161 236 1114 P: The Skinny, First Floor 8 Tariff Street, M1 2FF The Skinny is distributing 22,000 copies across Liverpool and Manchester, a wide range of advertising packages and affordable ways to promote your business are available. Get in touch to find out more.

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Contents

ts .co.uk

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Lauren Strain Jamie Dunn Laura Howarth Dave Kerr Ryan Rushton Ana Hine Keir Roper-Caldbeck Alexandra Fiddes Peter Simpson Bram E. Gieben

Production Production Manager Designer Sub Editor

Amy Minto Thom Isom Bram E. Gieben

Sales/Accounts Northwest Sales & Marketing Manager Sales Executives

*FREE ENTRY SHOW - FACEBOOK.COM/MUSICINBETA 1 8 819 8 4 4 87

Editorial Northwest Editor Film & Deputy Editor Events Editor Music Editor Books Editor Deviance Editor DVD Editor Fashion Editor Food Editor Staff Writer

Printed on 100% recycled paper

Accounts Administrator

Caroline Harleaux Isobel Patience George Sully Tom McCarthy Solen Collet

Lead Designer

Maeve Redmond

Editor-in-Chief Sales Director Publisher

Rosamund West Lara Moloney Sophie Kyle

28/05/2013 18:27

June 2013

Contents UP FRONT 06

Opinion: An introduction to The Skinny’s June issue; Bette Davis gets the Hero Worship treatment; Mystic Mark gazes deeply into his BALLS., and one writer is fed up of people referring to this year’s Palme d’Or winner as a ‘lesbian film’. Plus: Shot of the Month, Stop the Presses, Skinny on Tour and Online Only.

LIFESTYLE 26

Travel: Abroad is overrated. Visit the home of our sister publication and muddy yourself up biking in backcountry Scotland, or cycle naked in Manchester.

Yes, cycle naked in Manchester.

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Deviance: Why do we patronise the elderly when it comes to love and sex?

One writer asks us to reconsider our attitudes; while performance artist CHRISTEENE attempts to refute whatever you might have thought of drag.

08 Heads Up: Your daily guide to the best events in Liverpool and Manchester throughout June.

FEATURES

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With new LP Half of Where You Live, Gold Panda has poured past struggles into something inclusive and kaleidoscopic.

He talks about travel, Japan, and not wanting to seem too much of a techie.

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One of the words we’ve learned from our Scottish counterparts this last three months is ‘brawsome’. That’s Queens of the Stone Age for you.

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What do you do to unwind after making a billion dollar comic-book movie? If you’re Joss Whedon, you round up all your mates and shoot a Shakespeare adaptation in your Malibu pad.

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With Lego men and dinosaur shoes, Andy Field lets you in on his vision of the future in disaster play Zilla.

Populating her nocturnal scenes with humanlike animals and people turned feral, Rachel Goodyear is one of the Northwest’s most exciting artists. We encounter trysts and trinkets in her studio.

FACT’s Mike Stubbs turns his institution ‘inside out’, while Matthew Denniss questions the limits of modernism in a new exhibition at Bureau.

Who are we to ignore The Stone Roses’ resurrection? We speak to director Mat Whitecross and actor Elliott Tittensor about their love letter to the Manc rockers, Spike Island.

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Over three albums, Toro y Moi has refined a relaxed, solstice-friendly sound combining hazy pop with R’n’B subtleties. He talks about astral jazz, and some of his crappier jobs.

Granta Best of Young British Novelists star Evie Wyld introduces us to her verdant, questing second novel, All the Birds, Singing.

It’s a pretty momentous occasion that we get to use the word ‘crepuscular’: find out how San Francisco’s oOoOO merits a term often applied to the er, sleeping patterns of rodents.

The Skinny

07 ED HARCOURT SOLD OUT

Fashion: With her film Pattern Power, project {Un}titled and new brand/zine/ ethos AIM LOW + M—SS, Zoe Hitchen is making waves (actually, no, she’s making stripes. And dots. Patterns, generally).

Music: You know the score: rekkids, reviews; Ex-Easter Island Head are our New Blood, and Dope Body tackle the Dirty Dozen.

Clubs: Highlights slavers at the thought of A Love from Outer Space and Livity Sound, and filth-merchants Horse Meat Disco saddle up for a trot to 2022NQ. Film: There’s a higher than usual amount of romance this month, with Before Midnight, Much Ado About Nothing and Like Someone in Love – so that’s date night sorted. If you’re single, there’s always Apatow romp This Is the End.

The shipping forecast

The Scandinavian Church

MONEY

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leaf

THE WYTCHES

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The shipping forecast

LAMBCHOP

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The Kazimier

JULY

01 MATTHEW E. WHITE leaf

03 SIC ALPS & LUCID DREAM blade factory with lpool psych fest

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Art: Realism: An Exhibition and Andrea Cotton and Naomi Lethbridge in review.

SEPTEMBER

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Books: David Gaffney and Nicholas Royle discuss short vs long form fiction over a cheeseboard. As you do.

27 - L’POOL INTERNATIONAL - 28 FESTIVAL OF PSYCHEDELIA

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Theatre: We discover a fringe programme of retro sci-fi and penguins at The Lass O’Gowrie, and preview thriller The Man Who Woke Up Dead and Dina Mousawi’s affecting Return.

Aguayo has some firm beliefs, on display in new album The Visitor.

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Food & Drink: Manchester International Festival’s experiment in urban farming, The Biospheric Project, offers us a glimpse into a possible future; plus something truly upsetting in Phagomania.

06 WOLF ALICE

AUGUST

“You’re talking to me about ‘pushing

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JUNE

DVD: There are three five-star movies on offer this month: two are classics (De Palma’s Blow Out and Carlos Saura’s Cría Cuervos); the other, Neighbouring Sounds, might be film of the year; plus, win stuff in Competitions.

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20 boundaries’, but this is flawed”: Matias

Protestors and pleasure-hunters collide in the Library Theatre Company’s new production, Manchester Sound: The Massacre, which takes audiences to a secret location on the eve of the Peterloo Massacre and at the height of 1989 rave.

Showcase: Theo Vass uses drawing and other practices including film and site-specific installation to explore how images and spaces codify the sensory world.

REVIEW 35

LIVERPOOL LISTINGS

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Comedy: Fred Fletch gets a first-hand lesson in self defence from Judah Friedlander.

Listings: Where to go, what to do, and which things to marvel/dance/laugh/cry/ sit stunned in revulsion at in Liverpool and Manchester.

Out Back: Carey Lander takes us through Camera Obscura’s fifth album, Desire Lines.

07 SCOTT & CHARLENE’S WEDDING the shipping forecast with bam!bam!bam!

Camp and Furnace

NOVEMBER

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LOW

Liverpool Anglican Cathedral

Tickets on sale from ONLINE: Ticketweb / Bido Lito! / Ticketline IN PERSON: Probe Records (School Ln) & The Brink (Parr St) FOLLOW ON TWITTER: @HARVEST_SUN @LPOOLPSYCHFEST

Contents

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Editorial

Hero Worship: Bette Davis Sarah Perks, artistic director of Cornerhouse, Manchester, tells us why she’s seduced by Bette Davis, the queen of Hollywood’s golden years

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egree show season is upon us, and The Skinny iz in ur faculties, drinking ur free winez. We’re also interested in the, erm, art, of course, and we were all very excited to come across the work of Liverpool John Moores University School of Art and Design student Theo Vass, whose fine line drawings and site-specific projects, which respond to and converse with some of the city’s often overlooked areas and their communities, constitute this edition’s Showcase.

Representing Manchester in Art this month is Rachel Goodyear, whose at-first enchanting, on-second-glance haunting depictions of humans, creatures and wildernesses gone awry set the tone for an issue that seems to take a slightly skew-whiff notion of nature as its theme, from author Evie Wyld’s portrayals of a lush, sweltering Australia in which characters attempt to free themselves from the dark secrets of their past, to cover star Gold Panda discussing how global travel and the heat and sweat of South American rainforests have helped bring him out of his shell and make a dynamic, searching second album, Half of Where You Live. Meanwhile, in Theatre, evolution of a technological kind goes too far in Andy Field’s participatory trilogy Zilla, leading to a cataclysmic cityscape that you control (if this whole flora/fauna/apocalypse thing I’m riffing on is sounding a bit tenuous by now, gimme a break yeah? It’s 00.21am and I’m off my tits on Gold Bears.)

Oh, wait! Wait! Bear with me: this whole thing totally carries on in Food & Drink’s focus on The Biospheric Project, Manchester International Festival’s living, working experiment into urban farming, and... oh fair enough, I give up. Parallel to all this future-gazing, we pay tribute to some hefty bits of Northwest heritage: in Film, up-andcoming actor Elliott Tittensor enthuses about director Mat Whitecross’s love letter to The Stone Roses, Spike Island, while a trip to the rehearsals

of the Library Theatre Company’s secretive new production Manchester Sound: The Massacre reveals something of how director Paul Jepson and writer Polly Wiseman intend to intertwine the stories of young revolutionaries on the eve of the Peterloo Massacre in 1819, and revellers at the height of Manchester’s rave generation in 1989. Elsewhere, Liverpool’s pioneering FACT celebrates its first decade; Joss Whedon chucks out a Shakespeare adaptation in 12 days like it’s nothing, and Judah Friedlander delivers a sermon on karate.

This issue of The Skinny was brought to you by the velvety swaddling of Spotify’s Private Session mode, and the inspiring vista of our new galaxy floor, which was sprayed, glittered and lacquered by Hayley at Dirty Work Paint Shop in Affleck’s Palace. Check the pics on our Facebook page out; it’s bonkers. [Lauren Strain] Our cover illustration is by Anna Beam, and is a response to Gold Panda’s new album Half of Where You Live (released on 10 Jun via Ghostly International/ NOTOWN Recordings).

Anna hails from Baltimore, Maryland, but now lives somewhere between London, Manchester and the Moon. Yep, Earth’s moon. For more information about her space travels, go see work by the performance collective she’s a part of, the Volkov Commanders, at www.volkovcommanders.co.uk.

You can check out more of Anna’s works on paper in her upcoming solo show, A Frog In My Bar-b-que Sauce, at Cornerhouse, Manchester, from 11 July-20 August. www.annabeam.com

Shot of the Month

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struggle to name my heroes. There are a lot of people I admire, of course, particularly artists, filmmakers, writers and musicians. I struggle to go too far with worshipping anyone, which is good in case you ever meet these people. However, I didn’t struggle to name my cat – I simply tried to think of a great female movie star and Bette Davis just sprang out. She is not just a good actress, she’s an amazing one, but I’m just as seduced by the real Bette. Or as close as you can get to someone you don’t really know and have never had the chance to meet.

In 1940, Picture Post declared, ‘Bette Davis would probably have been burned as a witch if she had lived two or three hundred years ago’.

That’s no bad thing, she was a hard-working, unconventional force of nature, constantly smoking and carrying around a reputation for being difficult. From interviews, I’d say she was a strong, honest woman with an opinion, trying her best not to compromise in her work or life. Later Bette wrote to the people behind the Bette Davis Eyes song and said “Thank you, I love it!”

She was not, immediately, always the first choice, starting out in bit roles on Broadway, failing screen tests, not getting the roles she wanted, and even unsuccessfully suing her studio for intentionally giving her crap roles. Her ability to take on strong, edgy characters won her many rewards, if rather cementing her feisty attitude in the public’s minds. As if evidence is really needed as to her genius, look here at this Variety advert she placed in 1962:

Situations wanted - women artists. Mother of three - 10, 11 & 15 - divorcee. American. Thirty years experience as an actress in Motion Pictures.

Mobile still and more affable than rumor would have it. Wants steady employment in Hollywood.

(Has had Broadway).

Her life story is fascinating: four marriages, three divorces, and three children. In the 30s, the press had a field day about her earning so much more money than her first husband, ‘Ham’.

In the 40s her second husband, Arthur, tragically dropped dead in the street. She said none of them were ‘man enough’ to be Mr Bette Davis. I’m sure she was scary, and a bit crazy, but I’m certain she was never the trait that I fear in people the most… boring.

To me, she’ll always be Charlotte in Now, Voyager (1942), Margo in All About Eve (1950) and wow, how amazing was she as Jane in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962).

And for the considerable future she’ll also be my cat.

Sarah is co-curator of Cornerhouse’s current exhibition, Anguish and Enthusiasm: What Do You Do With Your Revolution Once You’ve Got It. On until Sun 18 Aug, free Sarah set up Cornerhouse Artist Film in 2011. Two of its feature films are currently in production: Jamie Shovlin’s Rough Cut (UK release date in Dec) and Rosa Barba’s Subconscious Society, premiering in New York in Nov (UK release Jun 2014) www.cornerhouse.org

The Skinny on Tour

DOPE BODY BY ALEXANDER BELL

This month you could be in with a chance of winning a copy of The Last Banquet by Jonathan Grimwood, courtesy of our good pals at Canongate Books. All you need to do is head along to www.theskinny.co.uk/about/competitions and lodge your guess of where this copy of the April issue of The Skinny ended up. (In case you're wondering why it's the Scottish and not the Northwest edition of the April Skinny, it's 'cause our editor-in-chief was so keen to escape that she didn't even wait around 'til we'd run off the presses. Yeah thanks Ros!*) Is that a fairy chimney in the background?

Yes, that's definitely a... fairy... chimney. Ahem.

Competition closes midnight Sunday 30 June. Winners will be notified via email within two days of closing and will be required to respond within one week or the prize will be offered to another entrant. Full terms and conditions can be found at www.theskinny.co.uk/about/terms. *we're just jealous.

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Chat

THE SKINNY

There’s Nowt So Queer As Labels

You’ll have seen the headlines: ‘Lesbian Film Wins Palme d’Or.’ But why do only same-sex love stories have their orientation declared?

Words: Helen Wright

IT'S CHEAPER UP NORTH! Take a look at all that mass-produced tat cluttering up your life. Go on, look at it! Now chuck it all on a bonfire and head across to the Chinese Art Centre in Manchester this month. There, London design initiative The Poundshop have set up shop, giving you the opportunity to purchase beautiful, one-of-a-kind designs for less than you’d spend on a round on a Friday night. The Poundshop acts as a platform for local designers to sell their goods under the strict brief that the product is to be sold within the affordable price bands of £1, £5 and

Online Only Eyes to the website

The world’s foremost visual arts festival, Venice Biennale, kicks of this month and Jac Mantle, Scotland’s art editor, will be there, dispatching back rolling reports from the cornucopia of national pavilions. www.theskinny.co.uk/art Two of the UK’s major film festivals fall in June: Doc/Fest in Sheffield and Edinburgh International Film Festival. We’ll be reporting from both. Keep an eye on www.theskinny.co.uk/ film 5:14 Fluoxytine Seagull Alcohol John Nicotine, the debut solo album from Malcolm Middleton, is re-release in June. Read our interview with the one-time Arab Strap man, where he talks about his debut record, his ever-maturing muse and

June 2013

with Mystic Mark ARIES After being on the waiting list years about your depression, fol for lowing a groundbreaking 36 hour medical procedure you become the recipient of the world’s first ever pig brain transplant.

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here was a meme circulating around Facebook not long ago featuring an inquisitive velociraptor asking why ‘gay marriage’ was a thing when people don’t talk about ‘straight marriage’.

The answer, of course, is that labelling others incurs power, while going unmarked implies inconspicuous normality and social acceptability.

Similar thinking could be applied to the use of ‘gay’/non-use of ‘straight’ in cinema. How come films espousing heterosexuality are just films, while those about same-sex love are relentlessly classified accordingly?

The question popped up again recently when this year’s Palme d’Or – the Cannes film festival’s highest accolade – was awarded to Blue Is the Warmest Colour. Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche, maker of excellent realist-melodrama The Secret of the Grain, it’s a tale of two females falling in lust, love, and then out of both. Sounds intriguing. I can’t help but feel annoyance at the film’s ‘lesbian’ tag, though.

The term has been plastered all over Blue Is the Warmest Colour’s write-ups. Meanwhile, nobody mentions the straightness of fellow Cannes competitors the Coen brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davies or Asghar Farhadi’s The Past, despite it wafting off both of their trailers. And the power games don’t stop there. According to filmmaker Lynne Ramsay, who sat on the festival jury,

BALLS.

TAURUS Waiting in line at the bank a cold revolver pushes into your spine while a hushed voice demands you put everything you have into the bag.

Complying with these orders you turn to see the bank manager tuck the gun into his waistband, write you out a deposit slip and make a swift getaway through the door into his office.

BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR

GEMINI Your priest explains that Jesus is inside you, like a squatter.

CANCER During a routine check-up your doctor is surprised to discover a full set of adult human teeth growing out of your sphincter. He sends you to the dentist to have them removed and replaced with a set of clacking anal dentures you have to clean and glue in every morning.

“...people saw beyond that it was a lesbian love affair. It was a love affair that everyone can identify with.� This is a common hetero tic: a piece of art is branded homosexual and simultaneously praised for reaching some dreamland of conveniently nonspecific universality.

Reactions to Andrew Haigh’s Weekend (2011) illustrated this perfectly. Lauded for speaking to everyone, its story and images in fact revolve around what it’s like to be gay: physical

awkwardness; dealing with heterosexism; fear of showing affection in public. Yet, somehow the praise showered on Weekend missed these details, alongside an opportunity to actually learn something about sexual identities. Critically, perhaps, paying attention to what is really gay or lesbian in a film – and if Blue Is the Warmest Colour is worth its accolade, it will contain such particularities – would mean also considering what it is that makes a film heterosexual.

£10. Chinese Art Centre, Manchester, 8–22 Jun. Launch: 8 Jun, 10am–6pm. www.chinese-artscentre.org

by Alissa Bennett and the other Adam Scovell’s short story A Screaming Breeze. There will also be specially commissioned music from Liverpool psychedelic trio Cove, and others. Location: Drop The Dumbells, 34 Slater Street, Liverpool, 27 Jun, 7pm. www.artshaped.org

VIRGO Tired of that bloated feeling?

Later this month when an extraterres trial civilisation starts mining Uranus for its inexhaustible supplies of natural gas, you’ll start to feel lighter, more energetic and less clogged.

THE UK’S ARAB FILM FESTIVAL kicks off at Cornerhouse this month. Programmed to accompany the exhibition Anguish and Enthusiasm, the festival presents a specially curated season of North African films, with a special focus on Egypt.

Included in the season are In the Shadow of a Man, a doc that gives four Egyptian women the opportunity to speak of their fight for the future of their country (6 Jun), multi-strand narrative melodrama One-Zero (16 Jun) and Lust, Egypt’s official entry for the Academy Awards in 2011 (24 Jun). www.cornerhouse.org

LIBRA After finally getting rid of your rat infestation you find a family of humans living in the basement.

Exasperated, you put down some poison and try to hide your food, but they keep having bowls of your cereal. Eventually you find the adult male stuck to the 9ft glue trap you left in the loft, dehydrated and scared. It must have been up there for days. Squeamish about having to kill it yourself, you cover it with a bit of rug and hit it with a plank until it stops squealing.

LIVERPOOL INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF PSYCHEDELIA wants ‘to expand your mind and enrich your soul’. With the line-up it’s recently announced, it has all the ammo to do so. Here are just a few of the acts that will be melting faces at Psych Fest: Clinic, Moon Duo, Fuzz, Dead Meadow, Peaking Lights, White Manna and Hookworms.

Liverpool Psych Fest takes place at Camp and Furnace, 27-28 Sep. Tickets, priced from ÂŁ40 for a weekend pass. For more info go to www.liverpoolpsychfest.com ART SHAPED PRESENTS THE GHOSTS, a one night only exhibition of two video works (The Ghosts and Room 309, both on loan from Christian Ehrentraut Gallery, Berlin) by New York based artist Sue de Beer. The screenings coincide with the launch of Issue 2 of the Art Shaped Zine, which combines two zines, one a monologue

And finally, CONGRATULATIONS TO TABITHA MOSES for winning this year's Liverpool Art Prize and the People’s Choice Award!

LEO Hours of late night research in the backwaters of the internet leads you to uncover evidence of a previously unknown conspiracy theory. Despite what the mainstream media want you to think, JFK was actually killed by a tiny gun the CIA hid inside his skull.

SCORPIO As bad luck would have it, this month you meet and marry your anti-soulmate.

SAGITTARIUS Following in the footsteps of Jesus you decide to make wine out of your own blood. The brewing is successful, with tasters commenting on the oxygen-rich bouquet, with hints of iron and notes of hepatitis C.

falling foul of the Mayor of Falkirk over at www.theskinny.co.uk/music Chillwave guru Chaz Bundick, known down the disco as Toro y Moi, has kindly donated a boatload of swag for you, dear reader, to run away down the street with. With his full back catalogue of albums on vinyl, a 7� boxset, a 12� of his Les Sins side project and much more besides, click on www.theskinny.co.uk/competitions to enter.

Multi-award winning investigative journalist, broadcaster and documentary maker Neil Mackay has spent years reporting on the people at the centre of crime and violence. We ask if this proved good groundwork for his debut novel. www.theskinny.co.uk/books Werner Herzog is currently the subject of a major retrospective down at the BFI Southbank in London Town. Which gives us the perfect excuse

to dig into the Bavarian maverick’s 1972 masterpiece, Aguirre, the Wrath of God. www.theskinny.co.uk/film It’s degree show season. That means one thing: loads of parties. And if we’re not too hammered we’ll also be gauging the work from the 2013 graduates throughout June. Check www.theskinny.co.uk/art to read our thoughts and look out for the most talented young artists appearing in future Skinny Showcases.

CAPRICORN Running out of conbut desperate for sex, you try doms squeezing your battered penis inside one of the balloons you forgot to blow up for your child’s birthday party.

AQUARIUS Lifeless Mars gets Venus again with a new moon, clog pregnant ging up the solar system with another Los Angeles composer, beat-maker and singer extraordinaire Baths is back with his second record aimless unemployed ball of rock, orbitfor Anticon – he tells us about his battle with ing the sun and collecting free handouts of its sickness, his love of dark music, and why Obsidian precious solar energy. is the record he was born to make. www.theskinny.co.uk/music PISCES As the pork scratching is laid on your tongue someone in the darkness says, “Body of Lucifer.� You swalAnd lastly! Read our music editor’s report from low and reply, “Amen.�

Primavera. www.theskinny.co.uk/music twitter.com/themysticmark

Chat

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ÓLAFUR ARNALDS

CAMERA OBSCURA

Sun 9 Jun

Mon 10 Jun

Tue 11 Jun

A momentous date in the student calendar, the Parklife Weekender lays claim to its new home at Heaton Park this year. As well as the weekend's stellar line-up of live acts, the afterparties are well worth a look in, with 16 clubnights taking place across the two days – highlights include Hoya:Hoya (with Jackmaster) at The Roadhouse and Content at South. See listings for full details

Catch the newly commissioned exhibition by New York-based photographer, filmmaker and writer Moyra Davey, Hangmen of England – a collection of photographs she took while in Manchester and Liverpool. After she'd taken the photos, she mailed them back to the two cities, individually folding and taping each one. Tate Liverpool, until 6 Oct, Free

Manchester-based MONEY have been kicking around for a little while in various guises – Youth, Books and Meke Menete. Recently signed to Bella Union and releasing their debut album, The Shadow of Heaven, later this year, they're beginning to bloom into something pretty special. Catch them in an intimate live show to see for for yourself. Leaf, Liverpool, 7.30pm, £7

JACKMASTER

KEVIN AYERS

Sat 15 Jun

Sun 16 Jun

Previous years have seen tributes to Fleetwood Mac, Prince and ‘One Hit Wonders’, but Liverpool party throwers Married to the Sea are now turning their attention to David Bowie for the latest edition of 10 Bands 10 Minutes. A hunky dory (gerrit?!) line-up includes Hawk Eyes, Clang Boom Steam and Loose Moose.

The Kazimier, Liverpool, 8pm, £5

The debut edition of Liverpool Calling will be taking over The Shipping Forecast and St Luke’s ‘Bombed Out’ Church for one day only. Catch the likes of Brightonbased stalwarts British Sea Power alongside Liverpudlian natives, Amsterdam. The Shipping Forecast and St Luke’s Church, Liverpool, 12pm, £19 (wristband)

MONEY

MARRIED TO THE SEA

BRITISH SEA POWER

Thu 20 Jun

Fri 21 Jun

Sat 22 Jun

It's time to dig out the old tux, squeeze into that prom dress, spike the punch and hurl chunks in the back of a limo: to conclude their 'Prom Com' film season (90s rom coms set in American high schools), FACT will be hosting an All American Prom, complete with balloon arch, live band, prom king and queen, and photos to take home to the ’rents. The Kazimier, Liverpool, 9pm, £7

This’ll be your last chance to catch the joint exhibition of work by Matthew Denniss and Matthew Houlding, The Utopian Buck Stops Here. Both artists explore architecture and cultural mining through very different methods – Denniss uses film and found footage, while Houlding creates complex architectural models using recycled materials. Bureau, Manchester, Free

We’re going a little bit loco for The Kazimier’s annual Krunk Fiesta. They’re adopting the theme of La Tomatina – y'know, the one with tomato hurling – which is surely a sign of good things to come.

Expect 25 acts (including Lunar Modular and Melt Yourself Down) crammed into a 12-hour fiesta spanning three stages. The Kazimier, Liverpool, 3pm, £10

10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU

KRUNK FIESTA

MATTHEW HOULDING

Wed 26 Jun

Thu 27 Jun

Fri 28 Jun

Part two of the Bummer Camp series – sorta like summer camp for grown ups, but campers can expect fewer toasted marshmallows and more gender terrorism and drag rap. Headlining is Kansashailing group Ssion – pronounced ‘shun’, as in ‘passion’, ‘destruction’ – best known for their extravagant live performances. Islington Mill, Salford, 9pm, £6

Deep Hedonia and The Kazimier are joining forces to bring you a summer of free electronic and experimental music, and they’re calling it Sequence – taking place on the last Thursday of every month until September. The second edition will see Afternaut manipulating sounds for your enjoyment, with support from Mitternacht and more. The Kazimier Gardens, Liverpool, 7pm, Free

Long-running clubnight Dots and Loops is celebrating its seventh year of indie, post-punk, and shoegazey shenanigans at Kraak. To mark the occasion they’ve lined up a monster night including a two-hour DJ set from Sonic Boom, a set of much anticipated new material from Manchester rockers Plank!, and support from Weird Era and Mind Mountain. Kraak, Manchester, 8pm, £6

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AFTERNAUT

PLANK!

THE SKINNY

Photo: Anna Isola Crolla

Glaswegian indie-popsters Camera Obscura return after a four year hiatus – and a brief spell over Portland way to work with producer/living legend Tucker Martine (R.E.M., Beth Orton) – for a jaunt across the UK with their newly released album, Desire Lines. Consider this a warm up gig of sorts before festival season kicks in. Academy 2, Manchester, 7.30pm, £11

Photo: Julien Bourgeois

Returning to Manchester for the first time in three years, Icelandic multi-instrumentalist Ólafur Arnalds will be performing at the RNCM just two days before his cousin, Ólöf Arnalds, appears at TAKK. Confusing? Not at all. Expect his usual otherworldly blend of ambient/classical/electronic pop. RNCM, Manchester, 7.30pm, £15

Photo: Simon Bray

We begin June with a long overdue visit from Iceland’s Ólafur Arnalds, setting the international tone for the month, while those crazy cats at The Kazimier continue the trend with their annual Krunk Fiesta. Finally, we salute our neighbours across the pond with an All American Prom and Islington Mill’s Bummer Camp.

Wed 5 Jun

Photo: Nata Moraru

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Compiled by: Laura Howarth

Photo: Shaun Bloodworth

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Heads Up

Tue 4 Jun

Fri 7 Jun

Sat 8 Jun

In 2010 he donned a nude suit, fur coat, blonde wig and face paint, and sat atop a plinth in Trafalgar Square for Antony Gormley’s One & Other perfomance installation. In this new cabaret performance, Dickie Beau uses found sound and lip-syncing to explore gender, sexuality and the ethics of drag in modern discourse. Contact, Manchester, until 8 Jun, 7.30pm, £10 (£6)

Exploring the role of critical dialogue in the development of work, Processing, an exhibition of new pieces by photographers Kevin Casey, Stephen King and McCoy Wynne, presents an often unseen part of the creative process. On display will be written responses to the artists' work from critics Joni Karanka, Linda Pittwood and Kenn Taylor. The Cornerstone Gallery, Liverpool, until 29 Sep, Free

Sean Johnston and Andrew Weatherall – those veterans of, well, everywhere's clubbing scene – bring their touring night A Love from Outer Space to Liverpool.

Pitching up in Haus for a night of slo-mo disco, their eclectic tastes will make for an enthralling five-hour set; and the party continues ’til late with Carpe Diem at the Pickett. Haus Warehouse, Liverpool, 10pm, £10

KEVIN CASEY

A LOVE FROM OUTER SPACE

Thu 13 Jun

Fri 14 Jun

It's that time of year again: school's out for summer, and students from The University of Salford's School of Arts and Media are gearing up for a right old shindig to show off their work. In a range of interesting venues across Salford, students from all disciplines will be taking part in a full-on degree show/festival. Various venues, Salford, until 16 Jun, Free

Khaled Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner makes its way to the stage thanks to an adaptation by playwright Matthew Spangler and the creative direction of Giles Croft. Spanning cultures and continents – from the fall of the Afghan monarchy to the rise of the Taliban – it's a tale of betrayal, told from amid recent history's most turbulent events. Liverpool Playhouse, until 6 Jul, £12

A three day festival celebrating all things hoppy, curated by local experts and brewers. For the Liverpool Craft Beer Expo, you can expect a selection of cask and keg beers, and a pop-up whiskey lounge. The kitchen will also be on hand to offer specially paired treats to compliment/soak up the booze. Camp and Furnace, Liverpool, until 16 Jun, 4pm, £7.50 (evening pass)

CREATE AT SALFORD - CARA PEENEY

THE KITE RUNNER

Photo: Robert Day

Wed 12 Jun

CAMP & FURNACE

Tue 18 Jun

Wed 19 Jun

A crossover exhibition spanning the LOOK/13 photography festival and the Liverpool Arab Arts Festival (7-16 Jun), I Exist (In Some Way) is a response to the LOOK/13 theme, ‘Who do you think you are?’, comprising the work of 11 Arab photographers who use their cameras to explore identity in the Arab world. The Bluecoat, Liverpool, until 14 July, Free

Showing us what happens when you cross the Pixies with Throwing Muses and then add a dash of sibling madness and the occasional drug bust, The Breeders are back and touring with their Last Splash line-up in support of a 20th anniversary reissue of LSXX. Fact fans: Manchester is where they played their first show, back in 1992. The Ritz, Manchester, 7pm, £20

It won’t be the last you see of Manchester School of Art's graduates, but it is your last chance to catch an exhibition of their work. Their Degree Show spans fashion, fine art, graphic design and textile design, to name but a few, and is made extra special 'cause the school is also celebrating its 175th birthday. New Art School and John Dalton West Building, Manchester, Free

THE BREEDERS

I EXIST (IN SOME WAY)

Photo: Kevin Westenberg

Mon 17 Jun

MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY

Mon 24 Jun

Tue 25 Jun

The last chance to take in the uniquely unconventional work of German jeweller Karl Fritsch in his first solo UK exhibition. His highly sought-after rings are individually handmade using precious and non-precious materials, juxtaposing tarnished gold with rusty screws and precious gems. And for upwards of £100 you could even snag your own.

Manchester Art Gallery, Free

David Sedaris, author of Me Talk Pretty One Day and Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, is back in a rare UK appearance with his latest book, Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls, a collection of cautionary travel tales told with the author's usual sardonic wit. Enjoy a cheeky glass of vino as you likely split your sides laughing. Waterstones Deansgate, Manchester, 6.30pm, £5 (£3)

What started life as a two-song cassette of harmonica and bass solos has grown into the delightfully bizarre noise pop act that is Deerhoof, who find their creative force in the unknown and the unplanned. With their 11th DIY album – Breakup Song – in tow, they take to the UK for a mini tour before they hit up ATP in Iceland. Gorilla, Manchester, 7.30pm, £10

KARL FRITSCH

Photo: Karl Fritsch

Sun 23 Jun

DAVID SEDARIS

DEERHOOF

Sun 30 Jun

Mon 1 Jul

Local fashion designers West Wolf are turning their attention to throwing parties, blending art, live music and fashion into one night: Experiment One. Live music comes in the form of Die Hexen, Bernard and Edith, Sad Eyes and Obsidian Pond, with live projections from artist John Carroll – and of course, there'll be West Wolf clothing for sale.

St Margaret’s Church, Manchester, 7.30pm, £3

With summer just around the corner (er, maybe), now's the time to give your wardrobe an overhaul and start dressing the part. See The Deaf Institute transformed into a cave of undiscovered, pre-loved treasures for their monthly BricBrac Vintage, with clothing, shoes, accessories and homeware ripe for a rummaging. The Deaf Institute, Manchester, 10am-6pm, Free

Following the release of his debut album, Big Inner – a refined gospel blues/pop affair that snagged a not-tooshabby four Skinnies in the pages of our sister publication back in January – Matthew E. White is stepping out on tour, taking in some of the UK’s finer establishments, including Liverpool’s favourite tea emporium, Leaf. Leaf, Liverpool, 7.30pm, £11

DIE HEXEN

June 2013

Photo: Shay Rowan

Sat 29 Jun

BRICBRAC VINTAGE FAIR

MATTHEW E. WHITE

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Photo: Sara Padgett

DICKIE BEAU

Photo: Lee Jefferies

Thu 6 Jun

Evolutionary Fervour To Berlin-based producer Gold Panda, the success of his debut LP Lucky Shiner came as a shock. He tells us how embracing his previous struggles – and travelling the world – has fed into his kaleidoscopic new album, Half of Where You Live Interview: Simon Jay Catling Photography: Gemma Harris

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ot every artist aspires to better their profile, as not all artists can handle the internal turmoil that success brings; the outside forces it attracts promise to build a ‘career,’ yet simultaneously threaten to impede creative thought. In the autumn of 2010, Gold Panda found himself dragged away from his bedroom and his Akai MPC2000XL – the machine he’d employed on his debut LP, 2010’s Lucky Shiner – and into the glaring sunlight. Even as the music press fell over themselves to place him in end-of-year lists and run feature upon feature about the new electronic hope, the then-Essex based producer – real name Derwin – began to feel conflicted.

Having suffered from depression in his younger years – it still shadows him today – his interviews around the time seemed weighted with a dawning realisation that, where music was once his own private wormhole, it was now getting tugged wide open and away from his control. “It was hard to accept I was doing OK,” he admits of Lucky Shiner’s aftermath.

Among the many cruxes of his discomfort at his newfound popularity was the need to tour; in several interviews he spoke of his trepidation of playing live, and of the long periods spent away from home. “I hate it,” he told The Quietus at one point (albeit half-retracting it shortly after). Yet, nearly three years later, he’s still here; in fact, it’s the very process of touring that’s informed new album Half of Where You Live. As surely as internal struggle occurs with success, similarly you’ll never know how it’ll resolve itself until you’re caught in its eye. For Derwin, he’s succeeded in transforming a point of inner discord into something that acts as motivation – in short, travelling the world beats sitting at home with his thoughts.

“I made music to stop me being depressed and down on myself,” he explains. “But I was maybe overly emotional with the older stuff; then I turned 30, lost a bit of hair, toughened up a bit and my life changed completely after that last record. I’m able to pay rent on my own flat and be a bit more grown up.” Perhaps it’s his age that’s shielded him from the blast of his own impact; having spent long enough cooling down from the hot flush of adolescence and performing life’s mundane play for a time, he has a greater perspective on his success than younger peers might have. “I’m trying to be positive and make

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the most of it,” he insists. “To actually go out and do this is still a big thing for me, and I need to do it to keep myself motivated. Otherwise I’ll just go very introverted and shut myself away from stuff.

I’m forcing myself to do it so that I get out there, meet people, make tracks and see things.”

So he travels. Our conversation takes place while he’s on a Los Angeles balcony, and he talks of playing mountainsides in Seattle, of tropical storms in the Philippines and playing under a roof of leaves. A trip to São Paulo informed the percussive 808 claps and hi-end scuttling of Brazil, lead single on the new album. Japan and the Far East remain a frequent point of reference too, in track titles like Enoshima, My Father in Hong Kong 1961 and Junk City II, and in the oriental sounds that frequently pop up in the fabric of the overall record – a trait shared with his previous work. Derwin is reticent to place much of a narrative upon any individual elements or passages, but even he admits that Japan’s influence on him holds strong: “I actually try to avoid those sounds because I didn’t want it to become gimmicky, like, ‘Oh, Gold Panda just likes Japan,’ but they often tend to end up making my favourite tracks,” he says. Having watched post-1980s Japanese financial crash anime and the dystopian films of Takashi Miike, the producer first visited the country in 1999 and has been back several times, including to teach English there for a spell. There’s a sense of history repeating itself in Japan, a country whose debts run at over 235% of its GDP. Of his last trip there in April, Derwin says: “I’d never been asked ever in my life for money in Tokyo, not even by the homeless – they keep themselves to themselves in these blur tarpaulin shacks under buildings – but I got asked three times for money for food this time... it’s pretty unheard of, and a bit scary for a country once doing so well.”

If Berlin, where he now lives, informs Half of Where You Live, then it’s not in the obvious way that you might expect of a record written by a house and techno-loving producer treading its streets. Derwin didn’t move there for music, and he claims he actively sought out “the most expensive, family-friendly, posh area I could find,” ignoring all the fashionable neighbourhoods suggested to him by friends. “I don’t want that anymore,” he says. “When I get home

from tour I don’t want to go clubbing. I want to chill and relax, do some food shopping.” His is a relatively insular way of living and creating, with a home studio set-up (“I really enjoy those moments where I wake up at 1am, or I can’t sleep and get an idea and I can just put it down straight away”), and the occasional forage around local record shops – his 2011 DJ-Kicks compilation on !K7 offered a glimpse into his crate-digging activities in between albums, veering from Closer Musik to Matthewdavid and Pawel.

“I don’t want to become one of these internet forum gearheads with loads of technical knowledge but no tunes” Gold Panda

“A couple of record shops near me specialise in old house music,” he enthuses. “I can name all the drum machines in those records and I like the way it sounds like they were just pressing ‘record’ and playing and muting stuff in and out.

There was a comment under a YouTube video of this old track I’d found for someone that said ‘this is shit, it’s so basic,’ as if all music in 2013 has these ridiculously complex beats. But I think it’s great that these records were just basically drum machine, jams and a bit of synth. It influenced me to make this record.” Following suit, he’s discarded Ableton and his laptop, and returned to “how I made music before even Lucky Shiner...”

That is, with a couple of drum machines, a synth, a sampler and an 808 drum machine. “The 808’s a machine that you hear referenced all the time in

MUSIC

popular music these days – but they never sound like a real 808. Every time you play one the drum sounds are never exactly the same, because the circuit board heats up and it takes a bit to get going,” he says, fondly. “The physical interaction with it is so nice. All this footwork and trap stuff that claims to use an 808 never does, and if it does it’s a sample from a CD. Sequence-wise it can’t do all those crazy timings.”

Gold Panda material has always maintained a certain breadth, containing enough intermingling layers so as to constantly toy with and bewitch the senses; but they’re never applied as a means to an end. Both the use of repetition and focus on one or two main melodies ensure that components are placed around relatively simple, direct structures. It’s an approach that is, in part, a reaction to the bloated plug-in addictions of some of Derwin’s younger contemporaries. “On a lot of electronic tracks these days I’m like, ‘fucking hell, this kid’s like 21 and I could never have done that,’” he says. “But musically I find them boring, they’re like demos for Cubase or something. You’re expecting the voiceover guy any second advertising the software’s possibilities. I find it soulless, and I don’t want to become one of these internet forum gearheads with loads of technical knowledge but no tunes.”

Half of Where You Live certainly has tunes – and if they’re not of the same brash hue as You, Lucky Shiner’s breakout track, they’re perhaps all the better for it. In particular, Community and We Work Nights are gradual earworms that whirr and tick around the cortex. “But I still don’t believe that I’m doing this seriously and that people like my tracks,” Derwin ponders aloud, his familiar, self-effacing doubt slipping into what’s been a comparatively positive conversation. “I’ll do a show and think, ‘God, no one liked that,’ then I’ll get 50 Twitter replies saying it was brilliant – I need those positive responses! They make me feel like I should continue doing it, because there’s nothing else that I feel like I’m good at. I mean, I don’t even feel like I’m good at this… but I don’t know what I’d do without it.”

Half of Where You Live by Gold Panda is out 10 Jun on Ghostly International/NOTOWN Recordings He plays Electric Brixton, London, on 12 Jun www.iamgoldpanda.com

THE SKINNY

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I Think I Lost My Headache “I

’ve got midgets everywhere, man.” Josh Homme’s chasing his kids around the kitchen of his Los Angeles home, drinking in a few more days of domestic bliss before a tour bus whisks him away for the foreseeable. “Let me pass my midget to my wife,” he says, handing his 22-month-old boy over to mother and part-time Australian punk rock queen Brody Dalle as he sits down to chat. “Yeah, there are short people living in my house,” he fondly remarks of their growing brood. “I’m gonna have like ten, I want people to think I’m Mormon.”

Returning to the fray with their long-awaited sixth studio album this month, “an audio documentary of a manic year” according to Homme, it seems a lifetime ago since the desert dwelling kings of peyote-laced psychedelic rock were in our midst with 2007’s fast and loose Era Vulgaris.

As a sombre, accomplished and at times uncomfortable record that carries the scars of a band determined to shed its own skin once more, don’t expect …Like Clockwork to plunge its fangs into your neck on the first date in quite the same way as its predecessor. Had Homme shook his demons once recording was complete? “As soon as the record was done, I was done,” he exhales with a sigh of relief. “It’s almost like it’s your monkey now,” he laughs. “It’s a good monkey, but also you should spank it every once in a while.”

Why so keen to get it off his back? By the band’s own account, the genesis of ...Like Clockwork was heavy. Heavy, because of Homme’s

As Queens of the Stone Age purge their doubts with the most serious album of their career, Josh Homme stops to count his midgets

surprise showdown with his own mortality when he briefly “died on the operating table” during what should have been routine knee surgery in 2010; a profound experience that left him recuperating, bed-ridden for four months. In an effort to reclaim Homme’s mojo, in 2011 the band embarked on a year-long lap of honour for their rough-hewn but fully formed 1998 self-titled debut. Homme speaks candidly about the mission statement: “I really wanted to make almost like a trance blues James Brown record, but that just wasn’t there for me. I was hoping that playing the first record would really inspire me and make me fall in love with music again. But I think I was just lost, looking for something in the dark. In that dark I found this record. I wish I had enough control over what I do, to sort of wield it around. And there’s been moments when I have, but this is not really one of them.”

Heavy, because Joey Castillo – a rigid fixture in the band since joining the ranks in late 2002 – made an abrupt exit in the middle of ...Like Clockwork’s recording sessions. Back to the proverbial drawing board, then? “Yeah, we were maybe about a third of the way in, so there was still a lot of work to do,” band multi-instrumentalist Dean Fertita recalls. “That was an emotional thing for us – we love Joey to death.”

“It was a rough week,” Homme concedes.

“So I called my friend Dave [Grohl].” With Castillo out and Grohl back on the drum stool, Sir Elton John – introduced to the band via his

chauffeur, another friend of Homme’s – also came knocking on the studio door. “Three days later, Elton was there, so that was a big come-together moment for a lot of reasons,” says Fertita. “It refocused us and our commitment to seeing [this album] through. He made the comment when he came in: ‘so have you got a ballad for me?’ We were like ‘no, we want to do a rock song with you in the room and with everybody else.’ We had a completely inspiring afternoon with him. I mean, I started playing piano when I was six… did all the usual, learning classical, then got my Elton John songbook. So this was mind-blowing. We were all just staring at the guy.” Homme agrees that the experience galvanised the group: “By the time Elton had left there was this excitement in the studio. It was like we had sat in the same catapult together and pulled the chord. There’s time to craft songs, but that wasn’t really one of them – it was time to just throw down.”

Then, the news that Queens’ former Songs for the Deaf incarnation had also reconvened for the occasion (albeit temporarily) set their fan community alight in late January; once-regular co-conspirators Mark Lanegan and Nick Oliveri joined the party for a growling gang chorus cameo on the album’s most swaggering rocker, If I Had A Tail. “It wasn’t really until someone started asking me about the marquee value of these guests that I really thought about what they meant,” says Homme with hindsight. “It was really helpful for me, because it made me think ‘why the

Interview: Dave Kerr

fuck did you do this?’ Then it all dawned on me in about two seconds: this was the moment when I needed my friends. It was just a nice distraction away from the record for a second. Like, ‘come over here, let’s just hang out, drink some tequila and we’ll figure out something cool to do.’”

“I’d rather fail and die by my own sword than let somebody else choose” Josh Homme

So did the band just need some good oldfashioned chaos to unlock the recording? “I would say that chaos needs to be at the forefront of what happens here,” Homme affirms. “I’m not a control freak, I don’t want it to be perfect, I don’t want it to be my way, I want it to be the way that’s on the verge of explosion. After all these years, we’ve gotten to this place where it’s us now. I think it’s OK to transition that. There was a time I really wasn’t all that comfortable singing, I was like, ‘what if we had three singers?’ It came from

≥ SUMMER CONCERTS A summer of extraordinary music from the original Manchester band.

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THE SKINNY

JOSH HOMME

Although determined to hit the road (“it all starts next week”), Homme hints that another Queens album might arrive sooner than we think, referencing the dark before the dawn of Iggy Pop’s first two ‘Berlin period’ solo albums, written, recorded and released in swift succession

within the same year. “Part of me thinks it would be great if this was the point-counterpoint that The Idiot and Lust for Life are, y’know? I love those records so much; they came out in a quick period of time. The Idiot is very dark and Lust for Life is sorta like, ‘tah-daaah!’ I would love

to answer this album with a ‘tah-dah!’ at some point.” Some point soon? “Yeah, absolutely,” he assures. “I think six years is far too long.” ...Like Clockwork is released via Matador on 3 Jun. Queens of the Stone Age play Download Festival on 15 Jun www.likeclockwork.tv

AT THE BRIDGEWATER HALL www.halle.co.uk

Saturday 15 June, 3pm Beside the Seaside, Beside the Sea!

Saturday 13 July, 7.30pm Classical Extravaganza

Alasdair Malloy has dug out his bucket and spade to take us on a trip to the coast, with a lively concert for all the family inspired by the sea.

A night of great classics including: Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture, Holst The Planets: Jupiter, Elgar Enigma Variations: Nimrod, Tchaikovsky Swan Lake: excerpts and much more

Stephen Bell conductor | Alasdair Malloy presenter | Hallé Children’s Choir

Stephen Bell conductor

Saturday 29 June, 7.30pm Ol’ Blue Eyes is Back

Sunday 21 July, 7.30pm The Last Night of the Hallé Proms

All Sinatra’s greats including: Come Fly With Me, I’ve Got You Under My Skin, Let’s Face the Music and Dance, Luck Be A Lady, New York, New York, My Way and more.

All the traditional Last Night favourites including: Rule, Britannia!, Fantasia on British Sea Songs, Pomp and Circumstance March No.1, Jerusalem and many more

Roderick Dunk conductor | Gary Williams vocalist

Stephen Bell conductor | Sarah Fox soprano PwC Under 26 tickets available

www.halle.co.uk | 0844 907 9000

June 2013

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Photo: Chapman Baehler

a cool idea, but it also came from being a bit of a pussy about it. You chase down the best ideas you have in the moment you have them and you don’t apologise, you just move.”

Looking back at the end result on the eve of its release, did the band surprise themselves?

“No, it honestly scared me more,” Homme says.

“There’s a part of me that’s releasing this record, and I do mean releasing it – and saying ‘goodbye!’ to it, in a way that I never have before. I’m saying, ‘thanks for kicking my ass, and I’m so glad to see you go. I deserved it, I needed it, and I got it. And I don’t want to do that again, if that’s cool?’ Now I’m not complaining, that’s just part of the gig.

I wasn’t complaining then and neither were the guys, but I had to ask them, ‘if you want to make a record with me right now, in the state I’m in, come into the fog. It’s the only chance you got.’

We’re trying to hang our toes off the edge here, and that’s where you can fail. But I’d rather fail and die by my own sword than let somebody else choose or play it safe. I just feel like musical safety equals death. You want me to make the same record I made before? Don’t hold your breath; because you’re probably gonna pass out.”

Actors Assemble We speak to director, writer and wannabe stuntman Joss Whedon about his switch from Avengers’ billion dollar comic-book franchise to Much Ado About Nothing, the low budget Shakespeare adaptation he shot in and around his Santa Monica home

JOSS WHEDON ON SET

“T

he director’s job is to secretly want to do everybody else’s job. If you’re not a wannabe, you’re going to miss out on something.

Being a wannabe actor focuses me on performance. I love wardrobe. I would make costumes in a heartbeat for a living. I love stunts. I love creating stunts. I love throwing myself about like an idiot. Everything there is; I’m interested in.”

So this is Joss Whedon: director, writer, producer, comic-book guy, cinematographer, geek-pleaser extraordinaire, composer and actor.

Last year the 48-year-old nailed hyper-feature Avengers Assemble, the third highest-grossing film of all time. His fan following is legendary; every new project earns him cult status. But in conversation, Whedon is thoroughly humble, unostentatious and articulate, with a genial, nuanced voice on the quiet side of gravelly. As soon as we sit down to speak he points to my battered brown leather boots and mouths “love those!” with a grin. I suspect it’s to put me at ease. It works.

After completing principal photography on his superhero roll call, Whedon could forgivably have sunk into his blossoming, fan-fed laurels for some well-earned downtime before rounding on Avengers 2. Instead, he spent a 12-day break from explosive primary colours occupied with a new challenge. Surrounded by a company of close

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friends, all alumni of previous works like Buffy, Firefly and Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Whedon began shooting Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing on a micro-budget, at his home in Santa Monica, California.

It seems there was very little ado involved in his decision. Whedon tells me Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof first read the text in his backyard eight years ago. Things evolved naturally enough, and he wanted the film to showcase both actors. His wife, Kai Cole, convinced him to take the plunge and film Much Ado instead of taking a break from work. According to Whedon, this was pretty insightful advice: “I’ve never had more fun in my life, or felt more rested.”

The resultant adaptation is a jewel of concentrated appreciation for Shakespeare, for Whedon’s friends and for the directness of the task at hand. “It makes it easy as a filmmaker when you’re working within the constraints of so little time and money,” Whedon explains. “[The play] is very accessible; it’s very modern, both in its cadences and in its storyline. And after all these years I finally figured out, after just being amused by it, how dark and manipulative and strange and cynical a romance it is.”

This new figuring of Much Ado About Nothing takes place in a crisp, suburban compound peopled with immaculate, sophisticated characters

that swoon and banter in orbit around its selfcontained setting. Wound about with barbed exchanges between its heroes Beatrice (Acker) and Benedick (Denisof), interactions are knowing, adult, and augmented by the genuine insight of the actors. Whedon keeps things elegant and aspirational. “Leonato’s estate [where most of the action takes place] is like the Kennedy compound,” he says. “Everybody is rich, fabulous, well-dressed and drunk.”

Whedon, for the first time, relinquished scriptwriting duties to another party: a fellow scribe he refers to as “the spear guy”. So, aside from a few elisions for the sake of expediency, this Much Ado is bona fide, not from-concentrate Bard, and its language remains as intricate and elusive as any work that splashed from a quill. So how did Whedon cope with interpreting it?

“The great thing about Shakespeare is you can see a Shakespeare film and then take the same text and make it your own,” he explains.

“You have a take on why [the characters] are talking about something, or why they’re talking about it so much, or what this person’s actually going through. Then the text becomes coherent, and musical, and beautiful. I learned more about actors on the first Shakespeare reading than I have before or since.”

In another first, Whedon had a hand in composing the film’s seedy, noir score, which leaks indelibly into the diegetic sound in one particularly suave soirée scene. He seems pleased his efforts were noted. “It was really terrifying. I’m not qualified but I felt like this is an opportunity I’m never going to get again. Probably the best moment of the entire thing for me was when we were recording some strings. A cellist asked me, ‘Did you meet the actors?’ And I realised: Oh my god, she just thinks I’m a composer – that’s so legit!” This last part is whispered with a mix of awe and pride.

While Much Ado’s music is velvety and languid, the film’s aesthetic can only be described as ethereal. Light melts over everything, pooling across flat surfaces, smudging shadows and sculpting the actors’ already beautifully sculpted faces. The cinematographer, Jay Hunter, had worked with Whedon previously on Dollhouse.

To achieve such a singular look with such limited means necessitated preparation. “Our lighting package rose in the east and set in the west,” Whedon says. “He [Hunter] spent a day in the house just figuring out where the sun was going

FILM

Interview: Kirsty Leckie-Palmer

to be. We based our schedule on it. We obviously had lights to augment the interiors, and occasionally for the exteriors when the light was changing faster than we were shooting, but we wanted naturalism. We wanted it to feel very found, like an overheard conversation.”

For the most part, it does feel like a singular, found moment in time. These characters seem forever fixed within the finite walls of their setting, their purpose to discover and appropriate a text that has been repeatedly interpreted and echoed for generations. But while inhabiting a poignantly insular vision, Much Ado never feels small or constricted. Its composition and editing imbue every frame with a sense of revelation. Whedon wanted to evoke the richness and glamour of his settings using mirrors, glass and windows to shoot through. “[It’s] something I’d like to do all the time,” he says, “but particularly in a movie that’s all about lies, and manipulation and misunderstandings, the more you can warp the frame a little bit, the more it speaks towards what’s going on.”

“I love throwing myself about like an idiot” Joss Whedon

So apart from Shakespeare, where does Whedon seek inspiration? “Anywhere, in anything... My dad once said, ‘Great art doesn’t come from inspiration. Great art comes from something you saw before that worked.’ I did have a particular thing that I was going for when I was talking about noir comedies. Even though we think of it as a very urban thing, most of the great noirs are in LA where there aren’t any giant buildings – it’s all sprawled out. Unfaithfully Yours.

The Apartment. The Grifters. Movies that are as dark as they are fun, and they have that seedy grandeur. That seemed like the place from which to start.”

Much Ado About Nothing is released 14 Jun by Kaleidoscope Film www.whedonesque.com

THE SKINNY

Apocalypse 2.0 Pull on some fuzzy monster slippers and play pocket god with Andy Field, as he hands us the power to bring our cities to the verge of collapse in his interactive theatre trilogy Zilla

ZILLA

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espite the vaguely pastoral overtones of his name, London-based live artist, curator and self-identified ‘maker of unusual things’ Andy Field has long showcased a mild obsession with two far less bucolic themes in his work: the sprawling modern metropolis, and societies on the brink of catastrophe.

These two preoccupations dovetail perfectly in Zilla, the sequential trilogy of installation-slash-performance pieces he’s about to bring to Manchester in its entirety for the first time. Subtitled ‘a three-part disaster movie for the stage’, Zilla repeatedly switches perspective on the viewer, offering contrasting but consistent views on a conurbation in the shadow of imminent meltdown.

Part one – featuring a rotating cast of Lego characters, a giant street map and a pair of fuzzy-toed monster slippers – sees the audience assume the role of godlike observer, choosing where and how their ant-like subjects are dotted around a top-down cityscape prior to the onset of their own mini-apocalypse.

Parts two and three unfold, respectively, as a sort of twisted PowerPoint poem based on Google Street View images of the city it’s being performed in and, finally, as a take-home card game in which each of us gets to continue and personalise the story in our own back yards. On consecutive nights in Manchester, parts one and two will be offered in sequence either side of an interval (with part three being what happens at

Photo: Ludovic Des Cognets

Interview: Mark Powell home), with viewers able to experience all angles in a single evening, or choose standalone snippets of Armageddon to fit their hectic urbanite schedules.

Taken as a whole, the show is by turns funny, sad, hypnotic and ridiculous – a scaled-down epic that thrusts our cities and our dreams of them into stark yet oddly consoling relief.

“I guess the best analogy I can think of,” Field suggests, “is that Zilla makes you aware of the stains and marks on the window, rather than just looking through the window at what’s on the other side. You notice the act of the story being told as much as the story itself – which is sort of how it’s tended to work with disaster movies, because they follow such a familiar format. Whether you’re watching The Towering Inferno, Earthquake or The Poseidon Adventure, you know exactly what’s going to happen. It’s right up there on the poster – the movie’s called Earthquake, and there’ll be a picture of rocks breaking and people screaming and subway trains derailing… and yet, as an experience, there’s something weirdly comforting about that.”

A quick rifle through the lengthy roster of genre classics suggests he’s right. Despite our long-standing obsession with disaster movies, particularly during their 1970s heyday and a notable revival in the early 2000s, a consistent feature is how little they really attempt to engender any actual sense of dread or foreboding. Instead, we’re left to watch it all unfold, passively, as though peering through the glass of a formicarium. This is arguably key to their appeal – as Field

notes, “Something like three of the top five films in 1974 were disaster movies, and you just don’t achieve that level of popularity by simply bumming people out. There’s definitely something else going on here, something between morbid curiosity and cosy reassurance.”

Zilla generates precisely this air of doomflecked complicity – an atmosphere, almost, of macabre play – that, by its conclusion, feels very much like an audience piloting the show headlong towards its own event horizon. And, in the relative safety of the performance space, why not?

After all, it’s been suggested by more than one scholar that modern disaster films are effectively an updating of the Frankenstein/Prometheus model, based on our mass suspicion that technology and progress might have taken us beyond the point where we’re ever fully in control.

“I think there’s a lot in that,” Field agrees, “because a kind of grotesque hubris always seems to be a contributing factor somewhere along the line. In many ways it can be quite cathartic to just look on from a distance as all that comes crashing down.” If you’ve ever fantasised about having one foot in a fuzzy monster slipper when it does, Zilla might offer precisely the sort of catharsis you’re looking for.

Zilla, Contact, Manchester, 13 and 14 Jun (Part 1 at 7pm, Part 2 at 9pm), £8 (£5) to see one part, or £12 (£8) for the double bill www.contactmcr.com www.andytfield.co.uk

Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse and Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company present

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“Exhilarating” With Ben Turner

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June 2013

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Other MIF highlights include:

Massive Attack v Adam Curtis Thu 4 – Sat 13 July Mayfield Depot

Mikhail Baryshnikov & Willem Dafoe

The Old Woman DIRECTED BY

Robert Wilson

Thu 4 – Sun 7 July Palace Theatre

Eric Owens Cameron Carpenter

Michelangelo Sonnets DIRECTED BY

Peter Sellars

Thu 4–Sun 7 July Albert Hall

Neneh Cherry AND

RocketNumberNine

Fri 5 – Sun 7 July Pavilion Theatre, Festival Square

Dave Haslam In Conversation Rob da Bank & Kevin Cummins, Delphic, Jamal Edwards, Neneh Cherry Fri 7 – Sat 20 July Pavilion Theatre, Festival Square

Rob da Bank

Nikhil Chopra Coal on Cotton A live performance over 65 continuous hours

FRI 5 – SUN 7 JULY Whitworth Art Gallery

FREE

A-Z journey through Manchester’s greatest hits, featuring live visuals from the work of legendary photographer Kevin Cummins Sat 6 July 1980s Sat 13 July 1990s Thu 18 July 2000s Fri 19 July 2010 & beyond Pavilion Theatre, Festival Square

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THE SKINNY

Creatures of the Night As she prepares for her upcoming solo exhibition at The International 3, Rachel Goodyear invites us to her studio and into a parallel reality inhabited by uncannily human animals, and animalistic humans

Interview: Sara Jaspan

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elicate drawings and ‘quirky’ illustrations have been somewhat fashionable these past few years, at home on the walls of cooler independent shops and bars, trying to appeal to a crowd who might position themselves as arty. Yet the drawings of Salford-based artist Rachel Goodyear stand quite apart from all this.

Cocooned in a sea of white paper, they emerge from the page like briefly crystallised moments, commanding a space and attention entirely their own – and they have a knack for getting under the skin.

Discussing Goodyear’s work in Untitled magazine back in 2005, artist, writer and curator Dave Beech described the somewhat uncanny effect of her images – it is, he says, “as if the world had been tapped lightly and everything had stumbled into unfamiliar positions.” This captures it perfectly. Tucked away in her studio at Islington Mill, armed with pencil and paper, Goodyear has created a world not unlike our own – populated with animals, people and nature – yet one where everything is somehow askew.

style, a fully fledged drama is played out. The centre stage is dominated by a sort of ‘dance of death’ performed by masked couples to the music of a lone violinist, who watches over the proceedings from on high. Arching over the scene is some bizarre counter-plot; grizzly bears catapult docile, unresisting girls across the sky, while others stand in line, calmly waiting their turn in what Goodyear describes as a twisted “circle of life.” In another surreal work, girls and bears join hands, balancing together on the branches of an accommodating tree, supplanting a swarm of angry crows, which hovers over them menacingly (Hitchcock associations abound).

Blood, claws, teeth, whips and masks all feature prominently in Goodyear’s work – however, perhaps the most unsettling aspect of the inhabitants of her paper-based world arises from a different source. She locates it neatly, describing how, while the animals are not anthropomorphised, “they are more human than most, while the people that I draw are starting to become more feral as their social boundaries begin to drop away.” It is this ‘dropping away’ of behavioural limits, and the struggle for power that unfurls, that is the stuff of the very best psychological thrillers.

Goodyear studied fine art at Leeds Metropolitan University and recalls how, at the time, she experimented widely, dabbling more often in sculpture and installation than anything else. Yet she was always drawing, always conversing in a language of lines, which acted as a kind of conceptual basis for all her other work. Despite this, it wasn’t until she left art school in 2000 and returned to Manchester that these works first escaped the pages of her sketchbook and found their way on to studio and gallery walls. Islington Mill in particular set the stage for her “very first Rachel Goodyear exhibiting experience”, and provided a nurturing environment in which to test out new ideas and It is a kind of through-the-looking-glass receive valuable critique and support from those realm, where delicacy extends little further around her. Now, she says, “I feel very fortunate than the graphite lines upon which it is built, to have witnessed [the Mill’s] development over and a sinister mood prevails. Its populace has a the years into the richly diverse and inspirational touch of the folkloric about it, though it is hard place it is today.” As has been the case for many to know from what distant origins its characof the city’s artists, the Mill has “always been a ters spill. Wolves, bears, deer and birds co-exist special place of inspiration” for Goodyear, and alongside young girls, masked men, and scantily over the years her studio has become filled with clad women; together, they engage in a narraan interesting array of images, postcards and arttive that seems present though uncertain, like a ists’ books, as well as figurines, ticking clocks and dream (or, more often, a nightmare). This is quite other bits and bobs, including a pair of vintage deliberate on Goodyear’s part: she prefers to rollerblades. (There is, too, the comforting smell leave things open, hinting at a story just enough of toasted teacakes – the remnants of breakfast.) for things to take seed within the viewer’s mind, Goodyear highlights the importance of her then letting our imaginations do the rest. She move back to Manchester in connection with describes her work as an exploration of “desire, the changes in her practice. “I didn’t originally fear, greed, envy and deceit” – yet despite such intend to remain here this long,” she recalls, “but heavy themes, she resists becoming too seriI very quickly stumbled into great places like The ous, frequently exercising her power to make us International 3, Castlefield Gallery and Islington laugh as well as flinch, colouring everything with a Mill and found an art scene that I really enjoyed rather dark, enigmatic sense of humour. being a part of.” She describes how those beOn the run up to her latest solo exhibition, hind The International 3 in particular, directors Artificial Night, at The International 3 gallery Paulette Terry Brien and Laurence Lane, have of(located just behind Manchester Piccadilly train fered her “incredible support over the years and station), Goodyear gives me a sneak preview of have played a huge role in the development of my her latest body of work. “It’s much bigger, for a practice. They have given me invaluable guidstart,” she jokes, and this is quite true. Forming ance,” she adds, and “greater confidence in the the centerpiece of the exhibition is a huge – and possibilities for my practice and in myself.” hugely haunting – paper triptych over which, in She also cites a number of other important contrast to Goodyear’s earlier, more reticent factors that helped precipitate her transition

June 2013

VALLEY, 2013

towards a practice so tightly focused upon drawing: with specificity, she recalls how “a friend went to New York and brought back the catalogue from a MoMA exhibition called Drawing Now: Eight Propositions. I was leafing through and suddenly found there was this whole new world of artists that draw and who were having conversations about it.” This revelation triggered a chain of other discoveries, including places like the Drawing Room in London, and an increasing awareness of the presence of drawing within contemporary art (she points to figures such as Paul Noble, whose work was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2012).

For Goodyear, drawing is “almost like a language, or a world that has started to gradually evolve.” She admits that she can, at times, become lost within this world – a scary thought,

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given the menacing environment her drawings depict. Yet to stand safely on the viewer’s side of her paper-plain surface, gazing into the other, can be a rather threatening experience in itself as we struggle to make sense of an alternate world. Is it fantasy? Fairytale? Dreamland? Or, perhaps, the human subconscious made visible?

Whatever the classification, Goodyear’s work is something to behold – and, perhaps, to lose yourself in.

Artificial Night, The International 3, 8 Fairfield Street, Manchester, 28 Jun–2 Aug, Wed-Sat 12pm-5pm www.international3.com www.rachelgoodyear.com

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Photo: Andrew Brooks

“The people that I draw are starting to become more feral as their social boundaries begin to drop away”

Future Imperfect A joint exhibition at Manchester’s Bureau gallery sees Matthew Denniss inspect the dreams – and failings – of modernist architecture

STILL FROM ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE, ELIMINATE THE NEGATIVE, 2013

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he built environment and the optimistic attempts by 20th century architects to press ‘fast forward’ to the future provide the starting points for two video pieces by Matthew Denniss, showing as part of a joint show with Matthew Houlding at Manchester’s Bureau gallery. The exhibition sees the two artists apparently emerge from opposing camps, with Houlding expressing sympathy with futurist designers’ utopian ideals by developing a series of fantastic, imagined architectural models, and Denniss taking a more critical view.

The Utopian Buck Stops Here, Denniss’s 2012 video that also provides the exhibition’s title, uses archive footage of Brasilia – the modernist

capital of Brazil – that the artist found on the internet. Obtained quickly in unspoilt, spectacular rainforest in the 1950s, the clips offer an effective study in how humans can dramatically alter their surroundings to suit economic or political ambitions. “I wanted to go to Brasilia,” Denniss says. “But it turned out that I didn’t need to go all that way. By using footage from the web I could actually make the film more directly and more quickly.”

An accidental breakthrough in his practice, the cutting and pasting of found video is something Denniss sees as a blessing of the modern age, but no more groundbreaking than collage techniques. “Artists have been working

with found images for a long time,” he says. “From British pop artists looking at American culture by clipping things out of newspapers, it’s a welltrodden path. I’m trying to use YouTube in the same way.”

Soundtracked by Denniss reciting bleak visions of the future from HG Wells’ The Time Machine, the narrative undermines the architectural achievements of Brasilia’s gleaming white buildings and intricately planned boulevards.

Denniss explains that the words fitted the moving image as a result of coincidence rather than planning – yet they successfully evoke the author Robert Hughes’s assertion that ‘nothing dates faster than people’s fantasies about the future’, a sentiment that chimes with Denniss’s own misgivings regarding Brasilia’s development and the exploitation of Brazil’s natural resources.

A second video, this year’s Accentuate the Positive, Eliminate the Negative draws more strongly on Denniss’s sculptural practice (he is one of 10 nominees for this year’s Broomhill National Sculpture Prize), with the artist dressing as radical thinker, author and architect Buckminster Fuller to build and then burn a model of Fuller’s most enduring legacy – the geodesic dome, a lightweight spherical structure constructed from triangular segments to provide strength. “He had a ruthless logic,” Denniss says of Fuller. “He worked out the shape of the

Interview: Rob Allen

dome, but it was later found to already exist in carbon atoms. Nature is ruthlessly logical, finding the best solutions to the problems it faces.

Fuller had also found the strongest, most logical solution.”

At 21 minutes, the video tribute is a thorough document, condensing the painstaking 18hour, by hand construction of the large wooden dome. But it’s what the film doesn’t reveal to the viewer that resonates most for Denniss. “Halfway through the filming a group of people who had been taking part in a residency came over and started to take part,” he recalls. “They got really involved in the discussion of how to burn it down.

It took on a life of its own. Then, while it was burning we had tea around it. That element of chance is something I’d like to develop further.”

As a developing artist, the Goldsmiths graduate admits he’s still experimenting as he flirts with drawing, sculpture, performance and film. But as an award nominee with an exhibition in his home city, his reflection on his progression – “This year has been a good year” – feels something of an understatement.

The Utopian Buck Stops Here, Bureau, 3 Hardman Square, Spinningfields, Manchester, until 21 Jun, free www.bureaugallery.com www.matthewdenniss.com

Glitch in the Matrix Fancy seeding a forest on Bold Street, taking a virtual bike ride or polling against capitalism? FACT’s tenth anniversary exhibition, featuring augmented reality and an indoor fracking site, asks us tough questions about our real and digital environments Interview: Lauren Strain

“F

ACT is a safe place to have risky conversations,” announces Mike Stubbs, director of the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT), Liverpool. In the case of the institution’s forthcoming tenth anniversary exhibition, Turning FACT Inside Out, those conversations include fracking, capitalism, and the schism between the virtual and the real environment.

They’re big, outward-looking issues for a birthday show to tackle, especially where many arts hubs might instead have chosen to stage a retrospective celebrating a decade of their own achievements. But, as Stubbs says, “with the tags ’Art, Media, Film’, we’ve got the license to talk about all sorts of things in society which are taboo, or not normally discussed openly. It’s really important that we remind everybody that that’s what it’s all about. It’s not about beautification and making things lovely.”

Co-curated by Stubbs and Aneta Krzemien, five new commissions by HeHe, Katarzyna Krakowiak, Manifest.AR, Nina Edge and Uncoded Collective join work never before seen in the UK in what Stubbs describes as an “occupation” of – rather than mere exhibition in – FACT’s galleries, atrium and surrounding public spaces.

With Fracking Futures, Parisian duo HeHe – Helen Evans and Heiko Hansen – will turn Gallery 1 into a noisy industrial landscape “complete with earth tremors and flames.” Known for their

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provocative art events-cum-media campaigns, perhaps most notably Nuage Vert (‘green cloud’) in which, in 2008, they projected a fat emerald laser beam onto the thick emission from a smokestack in Helsinki – thus forcing the city’s residents to confront the reality of their energy usage – HeHe are no strangers to button-pushing art with a socio-political bite; nor is American artist Steve Lambert, whose touring Capitalism Works For Me! True/False installation will be set up in the building’s entrance, encouraging visitors to respond with a black and white ‘yes’ or ‘no’ (no fence-sitting, please).

At the same time as prompting visitors to analyse their own stances on divisive, global topics, the exhibition aims to challenge what FACT itself – as both a building and organisation – is, and what it is willing to be. “It’s us deconstructing people’s perceptions of what an arts centre is, by working with artists who are fundamentally deconstructive and attempting to repurpose,” Stubbs explains. Taking this idea to its literal extreme are cyberartist group Manifest.AR, whose six commissioned ‘augmented reality’ games propose to remodel the FACT building and the city, enabling visitors to ‘write’ in the sky with airplane trails, ‘plant’ burgeoning flora and fauna on Bold Street, and ‘delete’ office blocks and vehicles, all through a mobile device.

“This is the first time [Manifest.AR have]

CAPITALISM WORKS FOR ME! TRUE/FALSE

been invited into an institution without them hacking it,” Stubbs jokes sardonically, referring to the American collective’s recent ‘uninvited interventions’ at MoMA in New York and the Tate Modern in London, where “neither institution knew they were having their exhibition, but about 1500 people turned up one day at MoMA, and they didn’t understand why these people were walking around the space holding their phones up.”

Elsewhere, for installation TranseuropeSlow – titled after Kraftwerk’s Trans-Europe Express album – Uncoded Collective have been recording bicycle journeys through the outskirts of Liverpool, which can be experienced on a bike in the building’s foyer; Krakowiak’s Chute will allow us to listen to the sonics of FACT itself, and Nina Edge’s Ten Intentions, a ‘communication experiment’ using Siri voice recognition software, sounds more than a little Black Mirror.

Exploring this confluence – or gulf – between the real and the virtual is Stubbs’ pet fascination, and is increasingly the main thrust behind FACT’s programming. “Most of us experience digital space through social media, but increasingly

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that will shift into a whole range of services and environments, and the relationships that come with it,” he elaborates. “And how do they in turn inform the way that we go about real life? We’re learning lots of new protocols and customs, super quickly without even thinking about it, because we haven’t got time to think. People have multiple identities across digital space, and it’s really shifting their view of the built environment.

We’ve got a society where the cities still look like they were built on medieval, Roman or turn of the century industrial revolution models, but the way that we are now immersed in ubiquitous digital media means there’s a clash in the way we’re conceiving of the world. That’s probably the thing which excites me most about the future of FACT going forwards: engaging with those questions more and more.”

Turning FACT Inside Out, FACT, Liverpool, 13 Jun-25 Aug, free The launch on 13 Jun will see the participating artists animate their works with special performances (6-8pm, free), followed by a party at The Kazimier Garden with Optimo (JD Twitch) (8pm-late, donation) www.fact.co.uk

THE SKINNY

The Third Coming You’d think it was the early 90s, such is the ubiquity of The Stone Roses on our screens. Spike Island is one of two cinematic tributes to the Manchester rockers out in June. We speak to its director, Mat Whitecross, and star, Elliott Tittensor

Interview: John Nugent

SPIKE ISLAND

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pike Island, 1990. The Stone Roses – heroes of the burgeoning ‘Madchester’ movement, and rock legends in their own lifetime – play the biggest gig of their lives on a reclaimed toxic waste site. The gig becomes iconic almost immediately, designated the title of ‘Woodstock for the Baggy Generation’ – and, 22 years later, forms the centrepiece of a fictional movie. And, in a rather neat act of circuitousness, the key cast and crew of that film will hold their wrap party at the band’s triumphant Heaton Park comeback gig, in 2012.

“It was pretty special,” Spike Island director Mat Whitecross tells me, on the eve of his film’s UK release. “We finished the film on the Thursday and on the Friday we were watching The Stone Roses.”

For Whitecross and his team, it was a fitting culmination to a film that will prove personal to many. In rock history, The Stone Roses are an incalculably huge band – not just for their catchy, anthemic guitar pop, but also for their intensely loyal following. Responding to messianic song titles like I Am The Resurrection and The Second Coming, Roses fans tend to resemble an army of fervent disciples who would follow their godlike heroes into the sun. Spike Island tells the imagined story of five such apostles, a gang of cocky Mancunian teenage lads who make a mishapladen pilgrimage to the famous gig, embarking on a Stand By Me-style coming-of-age journey along the way.

The film had its genesis on the set of the original Madchester movie: Michael Winterbottom’s 24 Hour Party People, in which Spike Island screenwriter and die-hard Roses fan Chris Coghill played the Happy Mondays’ maraca-bothering dance tit Bez. It was here, on set, that Coghill and producer Fiona Neilson first discussed the idea, initially as a TV show. At the time, Whitecross was merely a floor runner, with occasional second unit directing duties.

Born slightly too late to be part of the

June 2013

‘Second Summer of Love’ generation, Coghill, Neilson and Whitecross never made it to the original Spike Island gig, and their hope is that, as much as anything, the film speaks to those who feel like they missed out. “I got into the Roses just after they split up,” Whitecross laments. “I grew up always feeling like I was missing out – something I think you do at that age. You’re constantly feeling like there’s an amazing existence of life that’s happening just slightly out of reach.”

Key to the film’s success was bringing the young cast (most of whom were not even alive in 1990) up to speed with the significance of a band forever showered with superlatives. So Whitecross sent all five on a “Manchester boot camp” to learn the apposite swagger. “We got them to listen to the tunes, we got them to read up on it, we found them magazines from the time.” Everything fell into place, Whitecross says, when the cast arrived on set adorned in the Madchester dress code: bowl haircuts, baggy jeans and bucket hats. The onset atmosphere was “electric”.

“Mate,” lead actor Elliott Tittensor confirms to me in an authentically thick Mancunian accent, “I had the most amazing experience.” Tittensor, whose mother was present at the original Spike Island gig, was already very familiar with The Stone Roses – “if you’re from Manchester, it’s music that crosses generations” – and with co-stars and childhood friends Nico Mirallegro and Jordan Murphy is plain to see onscreen.

But what would the real Stone Roses make of this deeply affectionate billet-doux? It helped that Coghill “basically became the band’s groupie when they reformed, hanging out with them on tour for a couple of months.” As a result, it seems they have given their blessing, not to mention permission for their classic songs to grace the soundtrack (“obviously, the film wouldn’t happen without that”). The band haven’t yet seen the film, but Whitecross is hopeful it will be well received.

“It is very much a heart-on-sleeve love letter to them,” he says. “I really hope they take it the way it’s intended.”

Nearly three decades after coming into being, the recipients of this love letter are suddenly everywhere again, with headline slots at festivals around the world, and a Shane Meadows-directed reunion tour documentary also coming out this month. It is, Whitecross claims, “complete luck” that his film’s release coincides so fortuitously.

“It all came together very quickly, and weirdly.

The week after we got the money and were given the green light, the Roses made their big reunion announcement – which, to be honest, no one ever predicted. People close to the band were completely blindsided by it. So, yeah, we were amazingly lucky.”

“If you’re from Manchester, The Stone Roses is music that crosses generations” Elliott Tittensor

Still, Whitecross is adamant you do not have to have Stone Roses tattoos all over your body (as Coghill does) to enjoy the film. “I’m a fan, but I’m not a fanatic,” he admits, “and I think for me it doesn’t really matter if you like The Stone Roses or not. I think everyone’s had that time in their lives where they’ve wanted to go and do something with themselves.” In contrast to the sunny

FILM

hedonism of the gig, there’s a number of grittier subplots, and the film ends on a bittersweet note, as the close-knit group move in divergent directions. “I think those themes of wanting to make something of yourself should be universal.”

Even passing Roses fans, however, will recognise the visual cues from John Squire’s original album artwork. The opening titles – in which the boys wallop each other with buckets of paint – pay an especially deferential tribute to the famous self-titled album cover, with its Pollock-inspired splatters. “When I first sat down with Chris [Ross, director of photography], the first thing we did was pore through all the record artwork. These kids have grown up on the Roses’ music, and they’ve also grown up on the Roses’ artwork,” Whitecross explains.

“There was a really strong graffiti-style ethos to the artwork. It was a time when things felt pretty terrible, when everything was in decline, when it felt like you couldn’t really feel proud to be British or working class. And then splattering paint would suddenly turn something ugly into something beautiful.”

Back in Heaton Park, something rather beautiful is taking place. A 75,000-strong congregation is kneeling before The Stone Roses’ altar, with high priest Ian Brown leading the ceremony. In the crowd is Elliott Tittensor. He has “such a good time that I went again on the Sunday with my mates.” As well as a small moment of life imitating art (he briefly lost one of his friends in the crowd, just as his onscreen character does), it seems that here, art has carefully and deliberately imitated life. Whitecross was particularly pleased to see that the fireworks he included in his film were near-identical in reality: “Our set had been thoroughly researched by the art department, and they did a fantastic job... Going to the gig really felt like seeing the film come to life again.”

Spike Island is released 21 Jun by Vertigo Films www.facebook.com/SpikeIslandUK

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Other Tongues After five years of travelling and collaborating, Matias Aguayo is finally ready to let us meet his hosts – with crisp, propulsive new LP The Visitor

“Y

ou’re talking to me about ‘pushing boundaries’, but this is flawed because it implies an artist has to be very searching or burdened,” says Matias Aguayo by phone from France, where he’s visiting friends. “I think it’s the opposite. It’s very hard to replicate well what has gone before.

Looking forwards should be easy.”

The prism of retrospection that seems to tower over much 21st century music and art has never shadowed Aguayo. The Visitor, the Chilean producer’s third LP and his first through own label Cómeme, is a record that takes influence from place rather than time, and from individuals over stylistic movements; the Latin sensibilities of its tonally chameleonic, rhythmic core have more to do with inherent heritage than with any actively pursued touchstones.

The Visitor was the first record to be finished at – and, he says, “has the feel” of – The District Union, the new studio that he’s set up in Berlin. Its assembled parts, however, were sourced globally, gathered over a month of recording native percussionists in Rionegro, Colombia, spending time in Buenos Aires, Mexico City, and Paris, and working with German electronic veteran Gudrun Gut at her rural studio, Sternhagen Gut. In addition to featuring plenty of Cómeme’s roster, including Philipp Gorbachev and Alejandro Paz, The Visitor boasts a multilingual, poly-directional range of collaborators, from Chilean 80s new wave figurehead Jorge

and Dirk Leyers respectively – to his previous solo albums, 2005’s Are You Really Lost and 2009’s Ay Ay Ay, and other collaborations, including guesting on Battles’ succulently sweet Ice Cream.

There’s a confidence in his canon that derives from a near-lifetime of thinking alternatively, in part thanks to having experienced the all-too typical attitudes of backwater mindsets confronted with someone ‘different’. “I moved from Chile to Germany and lived provincially from a young age,” he comments. “I was considered a freak, but I just learned early on not to care what people thought of me.”

His music’s inclusivity, however, also comes from his maturity as a person and an artist; he no longer sees any point in dividing lines. “I’ve been making music too long to see myself as part of a cultural discussion where I say, ‘no, I reject what’s happening here,’” he states. “I don’t relate to that anymore.”

The Visitor is released 24 Jun on Cómeme, distributed by Kompakt Matias Aguayo performs ‘all night’ with Alejandro Paz for The Visitor launch party at Plastic People, London, 27 Jun www.musicacomeme.com

FRIDAY 12th JULY

L NA AL IO IV AT T R RN ES EA TE F Y IN SIC HE T MU OF

DF CONCERTS & FOUNDING PARTNER TENNENT’S LAGER PRESENT

González of Los Prisioneros to Juliana Gattas, singer in Miranda!, Argentinian electro-pop mainstays. “It’s fun and it’s a challenge,” Aguayo says of his co-operative way of working. “Making music becomes about opening up a dialogue with others.”

This dialogue can feel quite literal: vocals are important to Aguayo, and the diversity and delivery of language are key in maintaining The Visitor’s continual timbral flux. As he describes it, “It’s a game of different accents. As people we develop very sophisticated melody compositions, intonations and, indeed, rhythms in our everyday speech. I wanted to try and apply that to the music.”

The funnelling of such a multitude of recorded samples, studio tracks and other collaged elements into what amounts to a crisp, propulsive listen full of flavour and surprise proves that Aguayo, as well as acting as curator in choosing his working partners, is also a diligent editor, his maximalist creative approach offset by his precision in cutting and refining. “I like to leave the creative process as free as possible,” he explains.

“There’s a risk of being too controlled – and making music is fun for me! I don’t want to put a criteria on that. I wait and go over the results at the end.”

Aguayo’s singular, freeform philosophies have always left a mark, from his work in Cologne as Zimt and Closer Musik – with Michael Mayer

PHOTO: ROMAN SZCZESNY

Interview: Simon Jay Catling

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20

Feature

CLUBS

THE SKINNY

Blue Monday Presenting two pivotal points in history – the Peterloo Massacre and the explosion of rave culture – the Library Theatre Company’s new site-specific work Manchester Sound: The Massacre takes us to a secret location in search of independence and freedom

Interview: Jacky Hall Illustration: Caitlin Clancy

S

ite-specific works have been serious theatrical business for the past two decades.

Arguably, it all began around 1995, when the Forced Entertainment group drove theatre-goers on a surreal coach tour of Sheffield for Nights in this City, complete with a drunk guide and a grand finale in the city’s bus station. Locationbased theatre seems more popular than ever: this summer, the Edinburgh International Festival hosts the Grid Iron company’s ‘site-responsive promenade’ Leaving Planet Earth, a three-and-ahalf-hour performance during which audiences will travel to a new world. It’s so highly anticipated that it sold out as fast as a Radiohead gig.

Drama and performance have never limited themselves to purpose-built buildings, of course – whether pitching up on a rain-soaked village green or in a concrete multi-storey car park. But site-specific shows aim to go even further, ripping theatre out of the theatre – away from the bourgeois restrictions of red velvet curtains, pre-ordered interval drinks and comfortable flipdown seats. Those are for plays where the local vicar pops around for a cuppa, or anything written by Terence Rattigan. ‘Site-specific’ can also, however, simply be a reductive buzz-term applied to any live performance held in a non-traditional location, with audiences left shivering in dingy rooms and straining to peer past the tall bloke in front.

To Manchester’s Library Theatre Company, ‘site-specific’ doesn’t mean the latter. It means theatre that thrills; that engages with its surroundings, and grips you by the shoulders. Since leaving their home below the city’s Central Library – closed for refurbishment until 2014 – the company have staged two site-specific works.

Two years ago they produced an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Hard Times in Murrays’ Mills, Ancoats. Manchester Lines, a touchingly intimate work centred around a lost property office and staged on the fifth floor of Number One First Street, followed in the summer of 2012. Opening in a secret location on 8 June is Manchester Sound: The Massacre, the company’s third and final site-specific piece before they move in to their new home – called, well, HOME – in early 2014.

An exhilarating collision of two worlds, Manchester Sound: The Massacre is about two different groups of young Mancunians on two very different nights out – in the same location, but in two far apart eras. Half of the action takes place in 1819, on the eve of the chaotic Peterloo Massacre, while the other half occurs in murky underground clubs during the hedonistic summer of 1989.

Conceived by director Paul Jepson, writer Polly Wiseman and artistic director Chris Honer, Manchester Sound: The Massacre has taken 12 months of development. Wiseman, an alumnus of London’s Royal Court Theatre Young Writers Programme, researched the two eras meticulously – with the help of Sarah-Jane Haughey, tasked with conducting and collating interviews about the late 80s acid house scene, and Robert Poole, a research fellow at the University of Central Lancashire. Poole supplied eyewitness accounts detailing the confusion and horror of Peterloo, when, on Monday 16 August 1819, crowds protesting for parliamentary reform were charged by cavalry. Fifteen people were killed and an estimated 700 injured, hacked by sabres and shot by muskets. “Every major campaign for

June 2013

the rights of working people that followed looked back to Peterloo,” Poole explains via email. “It put Manchester on the map as the national centre for working-class movements, and it’s been there ever since – which is why the People’s History Museum is here.”

It’s a grey, drizzly afternoon in Manchester when The Skinny visits rehearsals at Hulme’s Z-arts centre to speak with Jepson. But while it’s miserable outside, inside it’s all costumes and bare feet, and that slightly panicked air of creative activity familiar to an approaching opening night. Rugby league player turned actor Adam Fogerty shares a photo of him trying on a silver wig. He has the look of a leonine Mickey Rourke.

It’s a fitting comparison – Fogerty played boxer Gorgeous George in Guy Ritchie’s Snatch.

In the rehearsal studio, actor Leah Hackett is clambering over chairs and tables. With bouncing curls and sunshine-yellow pumps, she’s the antithesis of Tina Reilly, the bespectacled Hollyoaks McQueen sister she played for two years from 2006 to 2008. Today she’s rehearsing Lizzie, who persuades her boyfriend to join the exciting social upheaval at St Peter’s Field.

As with the rest of the main cast, Hackett also doubles as a character in 1989. “Lizzie and Evie, my 1989 character, are both headstrong young women... well, headstrong teenage girls,” she explains on her way to lunch. “They live in completely different worlds but they’re struggling for the same thing: independence. They’re both exciting characters to play.”

Hackett is one of eight principal actors.

Joining her are the aforementioned Fogerty (playing 1989 Steve and 1819 Nadin), Holby City graduate Pete Ashmore (Sam/Samuel), Doctor Who fan Stephen Fewell (DJ Liberty/Henry Hunt) and Royal Exchange Theatre regular Rachel Austin (Allegra/Jemima). Unsurprisingly for a

play (half) set in acid house era Manchester, there’s also a strong musical strand running through the cast. Dean Anthony Fagan (Liam/ Joliffe) is a funk DJ for Northern Quarter party spots such as Terrace and Black Dog Ballroom, while Northern Broadsides company regular Simeon Truby (Kevin/Tyas) doubles as the play’s musical director. Finally, Janey Lawson (Debbie/ Mary) has past form with site-specific theatre: at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe she starred in The Assassination of Paris Hilton, a play set and per-

“It’s about how people articulate a desire for change, and what it means to be free” Paul Jepson

formed in a nightclub toilet. (“That’s obviously part of her skill set because she’s in a loo in one scene of this one as well,” jokes Jepson.)

The core ensemble will be joined by around 20 cast members from the local community, including many recruited from local youth theatres, whose commitment Jepson praises.

“They’ve all been working really hard already,” he says. “And there’s such a huge tradition of young people getting involved with theatre in this city, especially with Manchester Youth Theatre back in the day.” They are supported by an impressive creative team, including movement director Lucy

THEATRE

Hind of Leeds-based company Slung Low, and award-winning designer Amanda Stoodley, who has been working on the play’s rave setting.

But this is a site-specific piece: so where exactly is the site? Nobody will say. It’s a secret. A big secret. Jepson refuses to reveal all – or anything. “The reason I’m doing that is I want people to have the same experience as I had when I went into the building for the first time,” he says. “It’s a rather splendid place. We want to allow people to take away a memory, to meet on a street corner and be taken off to an arranged party, which is how it kind of happened back in the day.” So is it in a disused building – an old office block for example? “I don’t want to say.” But is it within walking distance? “I suppose so... depending on what you consider walking distance to be.” OK, fine. All we can tell you is: the 120 audience members will meet at a designated place, then be escorted to the secret venue. The experience aims to recreate some of the disorienting excitement of attending an illegal rave. However, unlike an illegal rave, it hopefully won’t include rehydration with ice pops, involuntary gurning and a man leading a dog on a bit of string.

They may be separated by nearly two centuries, but both groups of mates are searching for freedom and self-expression. As Jepson explains: “It’s about how people articulate a desire for change and how they express the need for freedom, and what it means to be free using two quite different places. One of them is [done in] a very personal way, with fun and partying and all that sort of stuff, and one is something very concrete. It’s about how a society organises itself and both of them, I think, have something to say about how people affect the world around them now.”

Manchester Sound: The Massacre, secret location, 8 Jun-6 Jul, Mon-Thu 7.30pm, Fri/Sat 6pm and 9pm, £18-£25

Feature

21

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22

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THE SKINNY

Form and Fusion Over the course of three albums, Chaz Bundick – or Toro y Moi – has revealed himself as something of an anorak, drawing on everything from house to R’n’B. He talks to us about Arthur Russell and astral jazz, and bemoans our lack of modern-day pop auteurs

Interview: Sam Lewis

O

n Chaz Bundick’s most recent album as Toro y Moi, this year’s Anything in Return, he plays the role of lothario. On lead single So Many Details, he croons to a suitor, ‘This ain’t appropriate now, push my hand off your side / There’s no one else around, I just wanna tease your eyes.’ In the accompanying video, he sits impassively in a turtleneck as a doll-like woman dances around him to the track’s bouncing R’n’B groove.

It wasn’t always this way. The 26-year-old now resides in Berkeley, California, but grew up in South Carolina playing indie rock in high school – not the electronic music that he’s honed and explored over three albums. “I really grew up on pop, not house music,” he says, in a call from his Berkeley home. “Listening to, like, Michael Jackson and Prince, and indie stuff too – the Pixies, My Bloody Valentine and Weezer.”

“For the most part my career before this was making sandwiches” Musically, he has a short attention span. His first album, 2010’s Causers of This, became synonymous with ‘chillwave’ – a catch-all label for a kind of blissed-out, hipster-friendly electronica, the aural equivalent of a Hipstamatic filter. Used pejoratively, the term belied the promise of the record, and its echoic synths, sweet hooks and underplayed lyrics. He abandoned guitar music so early on, he says, because “I guess it was... getting bored. And [I was] just wanting to try as many things as possible. Not necessarily being tired of guitars, but wanting to find something else to experiment with.”

Of South Carolina he says: “There’s not much going on, but it’s a nice place to grow up.” That quietude perhaps explains the slightly esoteric nature of Bundick’s music – his records have melded elements of folk, house, hip hop, and phantasmagoric jazz. “Even now there’s not house music or anything in South Carolina – electronic music is definitely something still, to this day, on the down-low there,” he elaborates. “I find that a lot of my favourite electronic musicians are people that sort of found electronic music on their own, their musical background was more than just that.”

His own musical education was somewhat the reverse to that of most people: his Dad gave him a love of indie-rock – he’s “a straight-up into rock kind of guy” – with Bundick’s exposure to jazz coming later. “For a while I felt like jazz music was boring or something,” he recalls. “It took me so long to find out about the kind of jazz that I enjoy – experimental, astral type jazz. The fusion stuff is definitely what I’m into.” His second record, 2011’s Underneath the Pine, drew heavily on 1970s jazz and pop in its acoustic chord progressions, Roy Ayers-esque synth lines and vocal harmonies. Bundick thinks the appeal of that era’s music is “the seriousness that it has, but it’s still accessible. I think that’s the most important aspect of Toro y Moi as a project – accessibility.

And yet still wanting to explore.”

June 2013

TORO Y MOI

‘Fusion’ is an apt word for his music, moving as it does between genres and eras, cherrypicking different sounds and textures. In that respect, Bundick’s work echoes that of Arthur Russell, a similarly eclectic artist from the late 70s and 80s, someone he describes as “one of my favourite songwriters and musicians. He was the full package – he’s got amazing lyrics and amazing songs. He never worried about making it big, he just kept doing what he was doing and that’s all that matters. He was just passionate and motivated the whole time and not worried about the big hit – that’s what everyone’s trying to go for nowadays.”

Bundick becomes animated when the subject shifts to the state of contemporary American pop music. While pop auteurs still exist – the influence of The-Dream, for instance, resounds throughout Anything in Return – most of the singles that dominate the US charts resemble soundalike trance-pop, designed by committee to target as many overseas markets as possible.

“I feel like a lot of musicians are trying to appeal to a ‘world’ audience and it’s not necessary,” he says. “Especially with pop music, everyone’s doing four-to-the-floor now. No one wants a good album, they want the one single that can be reposted, spread and go viral. A huge chorus is all that matters, how it sounds at festivals, about getting everyone amped. It’s not as dynamic as it

used to be. Everything’s so calculated and everyone’s figured out the ‘perfect’ pop song.”

Still, he shies away from describing Anything in Return as his ‘vision’ of what a pop record should be. “It’s everything I’m interested in, from psychedelic rock to fusion jazz,” he says. “I was just trying to make an album that’s contemporary but still shows a lot of my influences from the second album. In terms of the kind of album it’s supposed to be, I don’t even know. I don’t really think that every album should be glorified as the most epic album to come out ever. All you can do is keep making more music, if you’re inspired you’re inspired.”

His recent move to Berkeley perhaps explains his third album’s sunnier sound – reflective of the renewed sense of freedom that comes with leaving your home behind and starting again. His first to involve studio production, it bristles with shiny hooks, while, for the first time, his vocals take centre stage, stepping out of a previous haze of reverb and delay. For Bundick, moving to California was “a different kind of culture shock.

A lot of people, when they think of California, they think of LA. Which is really wrong. Where I live, in Berkeley, it’s a small college town, it’s not big.

It’s right across the bay from San Francisco. It’s a super progressive city. Overall I like it so much more. The food is amazing, the weather is always really good. It’s super chilled.”

MUSIC

Back in Carolina, Bundick worked for years on casual jobs; he laughs when I ask, naïvely, if he ever did shift work, before listing them off. “Oh yeah for sure, man! I started off at Wendy’s. I did fast food, restaurant stuff for a good five to six years. And then I worked at a printing shop that resells printer cartridges. And then I worked at a bagel shop after that. And then I got one summer job that was a graphic design internship. And then I just sort of took off. But for the most part my career before this was making sandwiches.”

This ‘take off’, which he seems to be taking in his stride, has also seen him recently releasing records on Dan Snaith (aka Caribou)’s Jiaolong imprint – instrumental house tracks under the moniker Les Sins – and completing a tour of South America, which “was fun, it was cool to go out there,” he says.

“But personally, I like to do things in moderation,” he continues. “I don’t like going out on the road for too long. It’s good to have a life and still try to... make dinner.” Above all, he’s a compulsive music maker and consumer – or, as he puts it: “I always like to find new music. And I like it weird.”

Toro y Moi plays the Parklife Weekender, Heaton Park, Manchester, 9 Jun Anything in Return is out now on Carpark Records www.toroymoi.com

Feature

23

Photo: Andrew Paynter

Chaz Bundick

Into the Outback We steal some time from Evie Wyld’s cultural expedition of Vietnam to ask her about her new novel, All the Birds, Singing, the enduring Australian landscape, and what animal she would most like to be

hen I’m told my interview with Evie Wyld will have to be conducted via email as she is in Vietnam, and not in London (where she lives and runs the bookshop Review, in Peckham), I register almost no surprise. Partly because I have just reread her debut novel, After the Fire, a Still Small Voice, in which one of the two central characters is conscripted to fight in the Vietnam war; but also because of the lush, exotic descriptions of flora and fauna that litter both her first and soon-to-be-published second book, All the Birds, Singing. It seems to me entirely apposite that she should be gearing up for the inevitable waves of press and events in a country known for its abnormally high levels of biodiversity.

“I’m out here with the British Council,” she informs me. “I’ve had a week in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, talking on panels and meeting publishers. Perhaps I have been asked to come because there is a bit of Vietnam in the first book, but the overall drive from the audiences has been more to do with an interest in contemporary British fiction, an explanation of what the Granta [Best of Young British Novelists] list means, and the process of writing fiction – that sort of thing.” (For those to whom the Granta list is unfamiliar, it’s the publisher’s once-a-decade lowdown on the 20 best British novelists under the age of 40 – and the 2013 roll call features Wyld. It’s a big honour, and one her writing fully merits.)

“I find it harder, the closer the character feels to a version of me” Evie Wyld

Like many novelists, Wyld started off writing short stories. Now, as a crafter of both short and long form works, she is unsure which brings her greater satisfaction. “I never thought I had the ability to write a novel – keeping such a large amount of information in my head all at once seemed like a tragic overestimation of my abilities. So I have been amazed when I’ve finished both of the novels. Short stories are so fantastically satisfying because you can know the length and breadth of them – with a novel, I find it hard to remember exactly which scenes I cut, so for me there is a lot more information flying about than goes into the final draft. Short stories give me more control. But then the lack of control I feel writing a novel can be pretty great too. I don’t know – it’s a draw.”

Her short work is often very short; snapshots of a life or feeling are teased out enough to infect the reader’s brain, finishing suddenly, leaving much to ponder. After the Fire, on the other hand, while not a huge book, feels rangy and epic in its tragic portrait of two men’s lives intersecting across the expanses of Australia. Her new book, All the Birds, Singing, is markedly different, but does continue many of the themes, settings (Wyld grew up in New South Wales) and structures that defined her debut.

“Once the final draft was in, it was a mixture of terror and relief,” she says of the overriding

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emotions so close to the release of All the Birds.

“But now a few people, friends mostly, have read it and didn’t hate it, so that’s the worst over. My mother read it – her comment was ‘there’s a lot of bottom wiping’ which has me a bit stumped, but she’s an enigmatic human being. I find the prospect of friends reading it far worse than potential bad reviews. Bad reviews you can take on the chin pretty well, because you’re allowed to feel like they just didn’t get it – if someone you know you’re on the same wavelength with doesn’t get it, that can be horrible.”

One of the most notable things about Wyld’s two novels is how they avoid the use of a straightforward linear narrative. “The non-linear thing has happened quite organically,” she says.

“After the first book, I thought, right, this time I’m going to keep it simple, but there just came a point in writing it when it became clear that reversing the chronology of Jake’s past just told the story in a better way.” Jake is the (female) protagonist of All the Birds, Singing. One half of the novel charts, in reverse, her adolescent to young-adult life, beginning with her time at an otherwise all-male sheep farm in rural Australia.

In the opening chapter she is using an outdoor shower, enclosed by a wooden frame, when an eyeball appears through a knothole. The eye informs her that it knows a terrible secret from her past and threatens to make it public among the other workers. Thus begins an unravelling of how Jake found herself on the farm, and the past she has been trying to escape. The other half of the novel is told in alternating chapters set in rural England, with Jake trying to manage her own sheep farm, the incursion of an unexpected lodger and a possibly otherworldly presence butchering her flock. Whereas After the Fire was a remarkable insight into the workings of masculine identity and male relationships, All the Birds, Singing keeps the reader inside Jake’s mind at all times; the experiences that shape and define her identity are reflected through voices that morph with her changing age.

“Writing in first person, you initially feel like you’ve got a voice, you’ve got a character and you’re ready to go – the trouble comes later when you want to get expansive,” Wyld notes. “This is my first novel in first person, and I suppose I was experimenting – the barriers that this point of view throw up are hard for me to work within, but I think tightening your pallet means you look for new ways to solve problems, which seems to me always in the interest of bettering your writing.”

And on the decision to see what are, as in her first novel, largely male-dominated worlds from a female perspective, she admits that “writing as a woman was less comfortable for me than the male third person voices of the first book – I find it harder, the closer the character feels to a version of me.”

All the Birds, Singing is a rich and full evocation of the vast Australian wilderness. Wyld’s work has been compared to that of Cormac McCarthy for the mythic qualities they share, but it is in the continuity of peoples, places and customs that the two are bound together tightest.

When asked if Australia will always be a part of her work, she responds: “It’s one of the most vivid landscapes of my childhood, and I think because of that it will always be the first place I go to – I love the space, I love the fact that a character can be totally alone in it, can get lost. Having

Photo: Roeloff Bakker

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Interview: Ryan Rushton

said that, my initial pokes at the third book are English. I think there’s a lot of magic and horror in the melancholic beauty of England, which is what I like about it as a landscape.”

Following on from queries about the strange and exotic animals that populate her books, I ask Wyld – though the question has something of the generic job interview about it – if she had to live the rest of her life as one of these animals, which would she pick and why? But I’m convinced I know the answer before I send my email. In both novels, one animal in particular seems to intercede at important points, jolting the characters with reminders of their mortality, or allowing them to gain insight into previously murky events. There may also be something symbolic and even personal to her in this animal, which is constantly moving and for whom transition is a default

BOOKS

state, as it seems to be in Wyld’s work: the men and women of her books shift between familiar and alien landscapes; her experimentation with the female first-person is a move from the more detached narratives of her first book, and her Australian-English identity is in constant negotiation within her writing.

Sure enough, when I receive my reply, she tells me: “I would be a shark, I would be a massive fat shark, and it would be brilliant. How amazing to swim in the Pacific knowing nothing bad was going to happen to you” – quickly adding, “if we ignore the 100 million sharks killed each year for their fins.” A shark! I knew it. How amazing indeed.

All the Birds, Singing is published 20 Jun by Jonathan Cape, RRP £16.99 www.eviewyld.com

THE SKINNY

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here’s this great Turkish film from last year called Once Upon a Time in Anatolia,” writes oOoOO in an email. “The wind is whipping through every scene. And under the wind, barking dogs in the distance. Something that sounds like pots and pans tied to a fence bumping about.

This is there behind all the dialogue, giving it a weight and intensity it would otherwise lack.

“I try to make music like that more and more.

Like the sounds in a film that animate the emotional qualities of the action in a way that works on the unconscious.”

If you’re new to the music of oOoOO, the first question you’ll probably want answered is, ‘How do I pronounce that?’ In previous interviews, oOoOO has asserted that the name was intended to be unpronounceable, a text-only handle – but since his tracks started to appear on the ultrahip Tri-Angle label in 2010, the general consensus has been to pronounce it ‘Oh’.

Asked if his increasing fame among fans of dark electronic music and ghostly R’n’B has caused him to feel more pressure to reveal details about his identity and personality, he replies: “Yeah I do. And it’s a shame because I realise that playing that game gets me more attention and therefore more opportunities. oOoOO was never meant to be ‘aka Chris Dexter’. Why not just hand me a personalised business card to give out to people instead?”

His first release for Tri-Angle was a self-titled EP, which contained what were to become his signature tracks – Burnout Eyess, Hearts, and Mumbai. The production and aesthetic of these tracks, combining slow, heavy hip hop beats with fragile, treated vocals and delicate synth

June 2013

In a hazy, twilit sonic world, San Francisco’s oOoOO is reconfiguring R’n’B and hip hop as cutting-edge electronic music. The shadowy artist introduces his debut LP, Without Your Love, and his new label, Nihjgt Feelings

patterns, would be much imitated in the emerging ‘witch house’ scene – a movement from which oOoOO was keen to distance himself, from the outset.

For the release of his debut album, Without Your Love, he has founded a new label, Nihjgt Feelings. “Emotion is the thing in music that excites me most,” he says. “It amazes me how small a role it plays in so much music.” Tri-Angle’s stable of artists includes crepuscular, avant-garde composer The Haxan Cloak, ethereal R’n’B maestro Holy Other, and forward-thinking producers such as Evian Christ and Vessel, but oOoOO is the first among them to set up his own imprint. “I’d wanted to start a label even before I was doing oOoOO,” he reveals.

In an interview with Notion magazine in 2010, he stated that, “America is brutal and creates a lot of anger and sadness for intelligent people, especially if they’re poor.” How does a view like this affect the music he creates? “Choosing to dedicate your life to ‘art’ in America is to choose insecurity, unless you were born into some money,” he answers. “It’s not so brutal in Europe.” He points to systems such as state healthcare and arts grants, and a belief that art “isn’t necessarily a financially returnable investment, but [is] worth putting money into for its own sake.”

He also believes the European music scene is better organised, along more egalitarian principles: “Almost everyone I know who’s toured Europe will tell you they prefer playing shows there. Touring in America you feel like a hustler at the bottom end of society. The one good thing I will say about the brutality of America is this: when you choose to dedicate your life to

Interview: Bram E. Gieben

oOoOO

something as precarious as music, there’s no middle of the road, half-assed option. You have to be amazing or you’re fucked... You get a lot of innovation and beauty forced out of that brutality.”

An emotionally rich narrative driven by strange sounds, obscure feelings, and a creeping, sometimes oppressive sense of space and distance, Without Your Love is an intense listen, charged with conflicting emotions and a cold darkness. There is a pervasive loneliness to its sparse beats and stretches of almost-silence. “I

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mastered a language,” oOoOO says of the progression from his EPs to the album, “and now I’m finally getting to write the poetry.” If you’re yet to experience Nihjgt Feelings, you’ll know them intimately by the time the needle lifts.

Without Your Love is out on Nihjgt Feelings on 24 Jun www.facebook.com/NihjgtFeelings www.soundcloud.com/ooooosounds

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Photo: Victor Lundmark

Nihjgt Falls

Out to the Backcountry

It’s cold and it’s raining, and you probably can’t afford a holiday.

Sod it – embrace the mud, the wet and, well, the sod, and get on up to Scotland to bike your way through the bludgeoning wind

Words: Kate Ball

here are few places on earth that can match the beauty of the Scottish Highlands.

Combine that with some of the most liberal land access laws in the Western world, and it’s little wonder Scotland can lay claim to some of the best mountain biking on earth.

Trail centres are the obvious place to start mountain biking – the grading systems offer the perfect introduction to the sport. But once you’ve exhausted your favourite route, it’s time to head out and explore some natural singletrack – the kind that led the International Mountain Biking Association to hail Scotland the world’s top mountain biking destination.

It’s the abundance of natural singletrack in the Highlands that has really put Scotland on the cycling map. In particular, Skye, Wester Ross and Lochaber have become synonymous with the backcountry biking movement. If you want to leave behind the crowds and experience natural trails in their most visceral, dramatic form, this is the place to be. Here you will find endless miles of empty trails in stunning scenery. Rugged mountains drop down to white sand beaches and though the climbs may be steep, the descents are breathtakingly good. A word of warning though, the riding here is steep and technical, and you should be prepared for the fact that every so often you’ll have to carry your bike up a slope, jump a stream or wade through a river.

Fraser McGlone is a professional mountain biker who lives and trains in the Highlands, and says the wild nature of the riding is what makes the area so special. “Riding in the Highlands is a free range version of riding compared to man made trail centres – you are properly out in the wild with nature. You can go on big adventures without seeing a single person and cover a huge variety of terrain that just can’t be replicated anywhere else. Whatever the weather, the scenery is amazing and it’s just so good to get into the mountains.”

Andy McKenna, founder of Go-Where Scotland, a mountain bike holiday company specialising in exploring the Highlands, agrees. “I find backcountry riding so special – just being a tiny little ant in these huge landscapes puts everything in its place. We have clients visit us from all over the world, and whether they want to kip in a

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he prospect of navigating confusing cycle lanes, traffic and potholes is often enough to make would-be bikers think twice about venturing on to city roads, despite cycling’s widely acknowledged benefits to health and the environment. “Most current measures are designed to get bikes out of the way of cars, not the other way around,” says cyclist Mike Armstrong, who uses his blog Mad Cycle Lanes of Manchester (madcyclelanesofmanchester.blogspot.co.uk) to raise awareness of cycling and call for better provision for cyclists in the city. “It’s no good shoving bikes on to pavements in some places only to prosecute people for cycling on the pavement in others.”

But with international Bike Week spanning 15-23 June, and grassroots organisations deciding that June is Manchester Bike Month (incorporating mini-festivals like the North West Velo Fest), there’s apparently never been a better time to get ‘pedal ready’ – and things could be changing. In a culture where many motorists currently see cyclists as a nuisance, it seems Greater Manchester transport chiefs have finally

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Photo: Andy Mckenna

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candle-lit bothy or a five star hotel, the one thing everyone takes away is just how unique the riding in Scotland is.”

Backcountry riding is all about adventure.

It’s about getting out into the hills with your friends and exploring new areas. The advantage of a bike is you can cover long distances in a relatively short amount of time – and in Scotland that means you can go from mountain to river valley to coast in a single day. Just two hours north of the Central Belt is all you need to travel to find yourself in another world. There’s not much better than sitting round a stove in a bothy with

your pals drinking whisky after a long day on the bike. It’s a mini adventure without the massive price tag, and you can do it frequently, safe in the knowledge you’ll get a different experience every time.

Although adventure is where the appeal of backcountry lies, there are a few sensible precautions you do have to take. Do your research before you go – there are plenty of websites and guidebooks that offer reviews so you know what you’re letting yourself in for. You’re in Scotland – at some point on your ride it’s inevitable that it is going to rain. Or snow. Or blow a hooley. Or

You don’t need to book a getaway to take a trip. Travel together, sustainably, and even, erm, naked during Manchester Bike Month recognised the need for a shift in attitude – and though the city still has some way to go before it reaches Amsterdam levels of bike friendliness, things are starting to improve. Plans are afoot to get three times as many Mancunians on to their bikes over the next 12 years as part of the Velocity 2025 bid, which aims to tap into national funding to create a much-needed new network of cycle routes linking homes, jobs and leisure venues, and consultations about transforming Manchester’s busiest cycle route, Oxford Road, with segregated cycle lanes are also currently underway. “Cycling is good for you, good for your wallet and good for the world,” comments councillor Andrew Fender, chair of the Transport for Greater Manchester Committee.

The official movement towards providing a better network is encouraging, but only echoes work that community groups have been pushing for a while; and there are a growing number of initiatives in the Northwest to support cyclists into the saddle and raise confidence among those on the roads. Voluntary groups and small enterprises share bike maintenance skills and,

last year, having realised there was a need for secure, low-cost bicycle storage in Manchester, social entrepreneur Dipak Patel set up Popup Bikes (popupbikes.co.uk) in a railway arch on Corporation Street. As well as being a safe place to keep bikes, Popup Bikes offers affordable repairs and incorporates a coffee shop hosting events such as bike jumble sales and film screenings, and is fast becoming “the social glue for the cycling community,” says Patel; “a place where people can meet and exchange stories and talk about cycling and non-cycling issues.”

Sociability is an important part of the cycling experience, and organised groups provide safety in numbers for those who might otherwise feel discouraged from taking to two wheels. One such group is TeamGlow (teamglow.net), which was set up in 2011 to provide a supportive network for female cyclists across Manchester and the Northwest, who often lack visibility and find it hard to feel included in the male-dominated cycling community. As well as providing advice on everything from buying a decent bike to cycle maintenance and building up technique and

TRAVEL

all three. Pack for every eventuality and cram as many spares in your bag as you can carry. This style of riding isn’t designed to be easy, so make sure you carry enough food and water to keep you going and always, always pack a map of the area. Lecture over. Now go ride your bike. www.trailscotland.co.uk go-where.co.uk www.dmbins.com www.visithighlands.com www.mountainbothies.org.uk

Interview: Natalie Bradbury skills, TeamGlow hosts at least one organised ride a weekend, from short rides to long distance tours, and members are encouraged to challenge themselves to venture further. “I went from feeling like an isolated woman on a bike to being part of a group of women,” explains TeamGlow founder Glynis Francis. “I wanted to leave cycling for women in a better place than I found it and see other women have the pleasure of a social cycle ride and fresh air.”

Manchester Bike Month offers ample opportunities to team up with other likeminded cyclists, whether taking on a long distance challenge such as Manchester to Chester (leaving Platt Fields Park, 23 Jun), or something less gruelling, like a cyclists’ float in the Manchester Day Parade (2 Jun). Other highlights include a film night (Popup Bikes, 15 Jun), a unicycle taster session (The Yard Theatre, 13 Jun) and even a bike naked ride (All Saints Park, 14 Jun). Let’s hope it’s warmed up by the time of that last one. www.bikemonthmcr.org

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Old People Sex: A Cultural Blindspot

One writer would like to see more public displays of elderly affection, preferably of the normalising and hot-blooded kind

Words: Rebecca Chan Illustration: Noa Snir

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f there’s anything that makes me rage and cringe at the same time, it’s hearing older people being described as ‘cute’. I first became aware of the habit when it circulated in my adolescent friendship group circa 2004, and it has been making my skin crawl ever since. It’s so deeply offensive, yet so well meant, that you have to wonder how such an attitude could come to be so pervasive.

Perhaps there are fewer roles for older people in the community than there should be, or perhaps there is a lack of communication between the generations that needs to be remedied. However, as this is Deviance, I want to focus on the significance of the fact that there is a void in the public imagination in the place that older sexuality should occupy. It’s as if you hit 60 and your genitals fall off and smooth over.

A friend of mine made the interesting point that the sexual encounters of old people receive the same kind of treatment as gay relationships in mainstream culture. They are hammed-up and hinted at, often providing light comic relief, but never taken as seriously as young, heterosexual relationships. While a trawl through the specialist stockist’s shelves might get you the elderly erotica you are so deprived of, you can absorb ‘mainstream’ youth sex culture just by going to see the occasional new cinema release, or having the TV on in the background while you’re cooking.

Admittedly, it’s a distorted, Hollywood kind of culture in which women are bikini waxed to within an inch of their lives and the word ‘anal’ causes people to choke on their drinks, but regardless, some kind of sexuality is acknowledged, which is more than can be said for the cultural blindspot that is elderly sexuality.

I can’t remember the last time a director showed an older man undressing an older

woman, or filmed a wrinkly hand caressing a wrinkly back. As a side note, if this idea makes you cringe – why? It can’t be the whole icky grandparents connotation, that’s ridiculous; an older person shouldn’t remind you of your grandparent any more than Mila Kunis should remind you of your sister. Perhaps this is indicative of the broader concern here – that older people are no longer being dealt with as individuals; rather, they are being reduced to a homogenous social category. This all takes place within the context of a media industry in which depictions of beauty are horrendously limited. In such a world, crow’s

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hat does ‘drag’ mean to you? Is drag simply the act of throwing on clothes of the opposite gender and having a good old laugh? Or is drag merely a tawdry form of gender tourism that flies dangerously close to reinforcing negative stereotypes? Is it possible for drag to truly be an act of subversion and reappropriation, twisting, warping and questioning the gender norms under which we live every day?

The last several years have seen a re-awakening of interest in drag, and a renaissance in the art itself, as a whole new generation of Tumblrliterate young folks push at the boundaries of fashion and gender expression. The US TV show RuPaul’s Drag Race has become a break-out cult sensation, gaining a huge, non-queer audience and tuning them into the styles, attitudes, language and politics of drag. But this new drag resurgence brings with it its own problems, particularly a smoothing off of some very rough edges to appeal to the mainstream, and a toning down of the social and sexual commentary that drag has always been renowned for.

Fear not, though, because while drag is becoming more popular and accepted by the day, there are still pockets of serious subversion out there; none more so than the Texan sensation CHRISTEENE. The work of Austin-based

June 2013

feet, cellulite and spider veins are death. They are, problematically, also facts of life.

Opposing age with sexiness, and reinforcing this with a total lack of sexual representation in cinema, only serves to make the ageing process more devastating than it need be. Seeing the depiction of your generation’s sexuality go from hot-blooded affairs to bashful, awkward encounters (perhaps a kiss on the cheek here and there) is likely to make anyone feel a little disenfranchised. Sex is an adult activity, and giving elderly romance the same kind of cinematic treatment as puppy love helps to inform a cultural norm

We find out how performance artist CHRISTEENE is reclaiming drag for a new generation of artists and fans

performance artist Paul Soileau, CHRISTEENE is a self-confessed “skank” (in the same way that Brooke Candy proudly proclaims herself a “slut”) who pushes the boundaries of drag, sex, performance, gender and expression further than any queen since The Divine David, or even Divine herself. She does this to a soundtrack of bass-heavy futuristic beats that would make Diplo proud, eschewing the drag cliché of pop hit parodies, and her videos and live shows display a penchant for the über-outré.

The track Bustin’ Brown is about the cultural appropriation of anal sex (heterosexual = good vs homosexual = bad), and fittingly features a video set in a giant anus. As part of her live show she is known to wear a butt-plug attached to a helium balloon and to “set it free” during the performance. In an era where almost every artist from Katy Perry to Tyler, The Creator are proclaimed as weird and edgy for simply re-enforcing cliché, CHRISTEENE is the real deal: a blast of dirty, funky, sexy air we’ve not smelled since Peaches switched to musicals.

“CHRISTEENE is an electrically charged, dangerous product of our times with a heart of gold, and is used as a very striking yet approachable communicator to the masses,” explains Soileau. An artist this genuinely provocative is

never without their detractors, of course (even those within the LGBTQ community), and Soileau is no exception. This shouldn’t be too surprising, though: CHRISTEENE exists to make us question our own assumptions, to shake us out of smug complacency, regardless of whether we happen to be liberal or conservative.

“The stew has been stirred and hot sauce has been thrown in” Paul Soileau

“I think that the reactions that come from this work are so very important and need to be heard. All of them,” says Soileau. “When it all first started with the video for Fix My Dick, there were a ton of negative comments... especially from this one person who I think of as a kind of internet comment bully... This person was so very upset on so many levels. I was called racist,

DEVIANCE

that infantilises older generations.

Of course, this is just one component of a larger social problem that Hollywood alone cannot fix, but surely some representation from someone who isn’t Meryl Streep would help? In any case, we can’t keep portraying ‘old people sex’, for lack of a better term, as all blushing and no banging. It contributes to a culture that turns women into ‘little old ladies’ and which aligns sex, and sexiness, singularly with youth. Worst of all, it promotes and perpetuates the kind of culture in which a 14-year-old can off-handedly refer to an old person as ‘cute’.

Interview: Niall Connolly

homophobic, transphobic, classist, and the next Shirley Q. Liquor. Wowee! This is rough. I’m thinking, I’ve never experienced this kind of an attack before and it’s personal. It’s angry. It’s throwing labels at me. But at the same time it’s fuckin’ gorgeous and necessary. The stew has been stirred and hot sauce has been thrown in. Good. Very good.”

This willingness to listen to her critics is yet another aspect of what sets CHRISTEENE apart from more conventional drag queens, who tend to shrug off criticism as people “not getting it.”

The discourse CHRISTEENE is engaged in genuinely feels like an ongoing conversation, developing with outside input, as opposed to simply being harangued by a person with a point of view.

This ability to shock with genuine substance (and, of course, some brilliant music) is what sets CHRISTEENE apart, and is helping to shape how we define ‘drag’ at a time when it has never been more popular.

CHRISTEENE makes her debut UK live appearance at Islington Mill on 21 Jun. Presented by Tranarchy and Off With Their Heads, Bummer Camp Pt I also features guests Kurt Dirt, Zsa Zsa Noir and Tranarchy Soundsystem Tickets are £6 adv, or half price when bought with a ticket for Bummer Camp Pt II, which follows on 26 Jun with SSION www.christeenemusic.com

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JAMAICA STREET, 2012

Theo Vass T

heo Vass has just completed his BA in Fine Art at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). During his three years living, working and studying in the city, he has, he says, recognised an atmosphere of creative potential that derives from a place where hardship and communal support coexist – accordingly, many of his projects have interacted directly with his environment and its communities (see United vs Liverpool, opposite).

Vass describes himself as interested in and troubled by the process of making images and spaces that codify the sensory world. For his LJMU degree show exhibition, he has constructed an environment that presents a timeline of objects, comprising framed drawings, projection and film, which, he explains, are “systemised representations of ideas around space, going from enveloping sensation to detached spectacle.”

SQUARE NOT SQUARE, 2010

“Throughout my studies I’ve been involved with extra curricular collaborative art activities, often site specific. On the foundation course I made an installation with art student Liam Peacock in a derelict factory in Brantham, Essex. It involved organising scattered material into sculptural forms, stacked pallets and stretched found material. I was beginning my investigation into a response to spaces, through site specific installations and drawing: taking what I find, in its disorganised state, and exploring systems and codes to represent or reorganise material.

“I broadened the collaboration idea when I curated a project with six art students as a site specific response to Cairns Street in Liverpool in September 2012. This involved working with the few residents living there, responding to the abandoned buildings and setting up a community drawing workshop.

“I’m currently working on a collaborative project with artist Joseph Hulme, and looking to set up a studio in Liverpool.” www.theovass.com

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SQUARE NOT SQUARE, 2010

SHOWCASE

THE SKINNY

PROJECTED LANDSCAPE, 2012

UNITED VS LIVERPOOL, 2012

June 2013

SHOWCASE

UNITED VS LIVERPOOL, 2012

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Food News June brings yet more meat to Manchester, in the form of chargrilled BBQ at Grillstock and posh ground meat sandwiches at Byron burgers. Over on the west coast it’s a liquid diet, with Liverpudlians chasing craft beer with the finest tequila Words: Naters Philip Illustration: Caroline Dowsett

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pparently it’s summer, and that means two things: festivals and barbecues. So it’s with open arms that we welcome the arrival of Grillstock festival to Manchester. It’s exactly what it says on the tin: two days of meat and music. Stop by the King of the Q competition, where barbecue gets real as teams from all over the world get ready to grill their way to a perfectly charred victory – and if that fires up your spirit, take part in the hot wings competition (only those with Icarus blood need apply).

Don’t forget to treat your ears though, as there’s some serious music on the bill. We recommend Manchester’s own Riot Jazz as Saturday’s highlight; the nine-piece are a modern brassy take on the vigorous hedonism of music from New Orleans. Sultry and hot, they’re the perfect compliment to your chargrilled day. Albert Square, Manchester, 8-9 Jun, tickets vary in price, www.grillstock.co.uk/manchester-festival.

In Liverpool, saying that you’re into craft beer is a bit like saying you’re into breathing. The Liverpool Craft Beer Expo will be showcasing all things independent; with over 50 different locally brewed ales to try you’ll soon be forgetting that mass-produced rubbish you were drinking before. But it’s not just ale sampling that’s on offer – the festival is there to encourage genuine interest, with live brewing experiences and storytelling. We would advise you mix ale with grub, which is in deliciously plentiful supply from the venue’s ever-loving kitchen. Camp and Furnace, Liverpool, 14-16 Jun, tickets £6.50-£7.50 (limited availability).

If you’re barmy about burgers, then you might have heard of Byron, an originally Londonbased burger restaurant. And there’s one opening in Manchester – exciting stuff for those of you who like to live on the wild side, because their meat comes served standard as medium rare.

They’re a well-known chain due to their simplicity, offering an American-inspired, Scottish-supplied, courgette-fries-with-a-side-of-Prosecco

gastro-diner. But seriously, the food is delicious.

Get yourself down to Deansgate on opening day, 6 Jun. Be there and be hungry.

Flavour of Liverpool invites you each month to the repast of its many independent food and beverage suppliers, and this month will be no exception. The bods behind this project have teamed up with Liverpool’s home of tequila, El Bandito, to have a tasting night set in the artisan chic of that finest of independent coffee shops, Duke Street Espresso. If you’re like me and the difference between a good tequila and a bad one is the price or the time of night, then consider yourself educated after this evening as Danny ‘Mr Mezcal’ McNeill talks you through his recent trips around Mexico and tequila production.

Tickets must be reserved and you can do so via the Facebook event page. Price includes a drink on arrival, snacks and a coffee after the tastings.

Duke Street Espresso, Liverpool, 20 Jun, £15, www.facebook.com/dukestespresso.

Around the World in 20 Drinks: Croatia A taste test of two of Croatia’s finest spirits this month, as we crack into presents from other people’s holidays and accidentally discover the recipe to Scotland’s greatest export Words: Peter Simpson

Phagomania: Poo Me a Rainbow

Gabriel Morais tells us exactly why we are looking at his Colourful Shits

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Interview: Lewis MacDonald

ey, so what are you up to for the next four and a half days?”

“Oh, you know, I’m just going to eat one foodstuff for 36 hours. I can fit in three consecutively.”

“What, you’re only going to eat one kind of food for 36 hours? Three times? In a row?”

“Yeah, it might be tricky but I’ve got all the food in, ready to go.” “...”

“They have to be strongly coloured too. So I’ve got beetroot, Fruit Loops cereal and sweetcorn in.”

“But... why?”

“Oh, I’m going to try and take a shit at the end of each session and photograph it.”

“Ahh, I see, that makes total sense now!”

“Gee, I know, sorry I should have said that to start with. Silly me!”

Welcome to Gabriel Morais’s world. And if, like myself, you are not grossed out yet by this Brazilian copywriter’s endeavours, then you might join me in raising your cap to this fellow.

This is the kind of fleeting thought that some people might entertain for all of two seconds, but this guy had the stomach to see it through – that’s creative dedication right there.

It wasn’t only a desire to see how much the food we ingest affects our body that led Gabriel, driven by curiosity, to undertake the project. “I think most people don’t want to know how bad the food they eat everyday really is,” he states.

“When you see a piece of poop completely green like the one I had after eating 3.5kg of cereal, I think it makes people see more clearly.”

OK, admittedly he didn’t eat each food type back to back. One good reason was quality control, to make sure the end product was really only the result of that one particular food, but also

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Photos: Gabriel Morais

“H

for Gabriel to cope with the challenge. “My body wasn’t really happy about it, I could feel myself weaker and more vulnerable.” But that wasn’t the greatest obstacle of the whole escapade.

“The hardest part was to prepare the plate for the shootings after I had pooped on it,” Gabriel admits. Yep, if you had been wondering – directly on the plate. “I had to clean the plate, make sure it looked good,” he adds, “wiping here and there, moving the poop sometimes... thank god it was my own.” Perhaps too much information, but we

are with him on that last point.

Well, the dirty work paid off and the unusual project has gained Gabriel a lot of attention from across the globe. But where could he go from here? “I’m gonna make Frankenstein insects by soldering their pieces together. I think it has great potential to be a success just like Colourful Shit.” Does nothing faze his curiosity? www.gabrielmorais.net/Colourful-Shit

FOOD AND DRINK

hen people that you know leave you to go on fun overseas holidays, they tend to bring back one of two things – a massive Toblerone, or a selection of miniature alcohols from the places they’ve been. Well, this column isn’t called ‘Round the World in 20 Airport-sized Swiss Chocolate Bars,’ is it? No, we have foreign booze. Croatian, to be precise, with two liqueurs to try courtesy of the Balkan state with the memorably-good 1990s football team.

First up is Kruškovac, which looks a lot like Irn-Bru in both the bright orange colour, and the weird shine and glint of both liquids that seems to say, ‘I’m very bad for you’.

Give it a sniff and the similarities continue – this stuff is ridiculously sweet, with an aroma best described as off-orange. You can never quite be sure what it is, but it seems like there should be some oranges in there. As for the flavour, it tastes like pears.

This is probably because it’s made of pears, but there are also elements of peach and mandarin in there. It really tastes like Irn-Bru as well; if Coca-Cola ever want to nip those pesky Scottish upstarts in the bud, then they should set their scientists on Kruškovac and get them to engineer out the booze. You’re welcome, big business!

On to drink two, Orahovac. This is a darker, richer beverage, and by that I mean it smells like brown sugar and paint thinner. It’s made from green walnuts along with various spices and fruits, and it’s definitely your more common ‘suspicious overseas spirit with unpronounceable name’.

A slightly malty but mainly sweet taste, a weird syrupy consistency and an acidic finish all combine for something that – without wishing to offend – is ‘interesting’ at best. Interesting is what you want from a holiday gift, though, and it sure beats a Toblerone. Well, I’d have liked a Toblerone as well. Holiday tip: bring your friends booze AND chocolate, you never know when they might bring it up.

THE SKINNY

Pastures New A major experiment in urban farming, The Biospheric Project puts into practice both ancient and recent technologies to produce food on a ‘hyperlocalised’ scale. Its originators share their vision of a more sustainable future

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ith a theatre and music-centric programme, the biennial Manchester International Festival (MIF) is ostensibly a festival of art and culture, but as Jennifer Cleary, the event’s director of Creative Learning, explains, it “has always had an interest in exploring the urgent stories of our time.” This year, these urgent stories extend to issues of food production and distribution, both in terms of environmental impact and health. Food – the obtaining, preparation, eating and disposal of it, our attitudes towards it – is also, of course, deeply interwoven with culture and community.

It is this relationship, as well as the development of new food farming technologies, that is at the heart of The Biospheric Project, a co-initiative between MIF Creative, the festival’s community-orientated arm, and Salford’s Biospheric Foundation (a working experiment in urban food farming that, for around a year, has been distributing fresh fruit and vegetables via a ‘vegbox’ scheme to local residents in the area surrounding its Salford site). Within The Biospheric Project, architects, scientists, designers and researchers will work together with local people and the general public to develop practical and innovative new ways to produce food on a ‘hyperlocalised’ scale – a term introduced by Vincent Walsh, director of the Biospheric Foundation, to describe a system whereby food grown at the project will then be sold in a whole-foods shop, only 78 steps away.

The festival’s interest in urban food production dates back to 2011’s Vertical Farm, which was inspired by professor Dickson Despommier, a pioneer of research into high-rise farming.

Cleary recounts how the project “was intended to bridge the 2011 festival and the 2013 festival, to create a vertical farm in Manchester.” However, as the festival conducted feasibility studies into Despommier’s chosen site, a tower block in Wythenshawe, they encountered insurmountable complications. “There were various problems with the building,” Cleary relates; “the size and condition, plus the ability to bring in different sources of income, as we needed to use it as an events space and an academic space, as well as

June 2013

to grow food.” The original site had to be abandoned – although MIF have continued to work with the community there to secure funding in order to run their own sustainable food project, Real Food Wythenshawe – but when the MIF team became acquainted with the Biospheric Foundation, they recognised a chance to realise their original aims: “The guys at the Biospheric Foundation had a vision to create a vertical farm over 10 years and were already tenants at the Biospheric Project site,” Cleary explains. The resulting partnership has, in turn, enabled the Biospheric Foundation to radically accelerate their plans, as Walsh confirms: “We’ve just about put the foundations down,” he says, “and without MIF I wouldn’t be at this stage now, the plan was to be at this stage in around seven years. The festival came along and helped to push the project forwards.”

“Projects like this could start a revolution in the way cities feed themselves” Jennifer Cleary

The Biospheric Project site, an ex-printworks and plot of land on the banks of the River Irwell, is currently under renovation in anticipation of the festival, with a freshly muck-spread forest garden nestled in among tower blocks, and a few working examples of growing technologies already up and running indoors. By the time the festival opens on 5 July, there will be several distinct spaces ready for visitors, which are what make the site so ideal: “It’s right next to the river,” Cleary says, “with a plot of land outside where we can look at outdoor growing, a big flat roof space so that we can look at roof growing,

Interview: Lauren Velvick Illustration: Hannah Bitowski

and two floors inside; one of which is for indoor technological growing systems, and one of which is an events space... it’s a site with much more potential, and, more importantly, it came with a group of people with that commitment to take it on for 10 years.”

During the festival, a programme of free events will provide visitors with the opportunity to explore how ancient growing techniques, such as aquaponics and vermiponics, are being updated and put to use at the project. “How we can merge our new technologies with ancient technologies is a really interesting thing,” says Walsh, explaining how these growing systems relate to the way most of our food is produced now. “From a sustainability point of view, as we develop these systems we can monitor them with the same kind of intensity that you find within a monoculture farming system (growing a single crop over a wide area). You can either develop massive monoculture systems that produce massive amounts of food, [which is what] in some ways made cities possible, but at the same time have a massive environmental impact – or you can turn around and look at how we can develop very intense localised food systems that allow for biodiversity and carbon stores, and facilitate education, discussion and research, whereas monoculture systems just produce food.”

Among the project’s events programme will be a series of talks exploring the topics of sustainability, urban planning and food. “We’ve got some of the leading voices from architecture, design and food culture, and from the Institute of Sustainable Cities, New York, talking about how important food is to cities, and how projects like this could start a revolution in the way cities feed themselves,” Cleary explains. There will also be a tour departing from Albert Square, in which participants will walk to The Biospheric Project, demonstrating the Salford site’s close proximity to central Manchester.

While these grittier discussions concerning the socio-political issues around urban food production are undoubtedly interesting and important, The Biospheric Project also offers something that is, in essence, quite simple: a

FOOD AND DRINK

practical and realistic way to provide healthy, nutritious and abundant food for a community, satisfying at least some of the scepticism regarding whether the technologies and theories presented could actually work. Walsh explains that it is essential the project is able to function as a food provider in competition with supermarkets and take-aways. “We mapped all the places to eat in Salford, 63 places, and only two selling local produce,” he says. “While [other initiatives] are telling customers to eat more healthily, we are trying to provide the resources for those customers to use.”

With its boldly interdisciplinary approach, ideally The Biospheric Project will be able to fill in a few gaps in current thinking, illuminating how environment, community, well-being and food are linked in an urban environment – and possible ways in which this relationship can be harnessed, leading to a more sustainable future. Crucially, its events aim to explore and represent these vital issues in ways that non-experts can understand and experience. “It’s very much about people being able to come in, chat to the people who are running the site, see the different spaces, try your hand at being able to do different things, taste different things that’ll be made from the crops that are being grown,” Cleary says.

And once the touring, tasting and tryingout of the festival is over, The Biospheric Project will continue, with ambitions to produce enough crops to supply local restaurants as well as residents – always in collaboration with the surrounding community. “Sustainability isn’t something that happens within policy houses, or academic research,” Walsh affirms, emphatically.

“It is a people’s activity. You have to take part to make it work. We can do as much theoretical stuff as possible, to find out what sustainability means for cities, but to actually make that happen we have to be active on the ground.”

The Biospheric Project, Irwell House, Salford, 5-21 Jul. A programme of events, including tours, talks and workshops, runs from 6-21 Jul. Events are free, but booking is essential www.mif.co.uk/event/the-biospheric-project

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Aim High SHOWstudio and Manchester School of Art alumnus Zoe Hitchen’s multimedia fashion and photography project {Un}titled is set to take Manchester by storm. She tells us about her influences and ambitions

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anchester creative Zoe Hitchen is a true all-rounder in the art world. Having graduated from Manchester School of Art – part of Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) – in 2009 with a BA in Design and Art Direction, Hitchen now specialises in fashion film, photography and creative direction under the guise of {Un}titled. She also takes time out of her own practice to pass on her wisdom to students across the school’s faculty as a lecturer and tutor. Hitchen is enthusiastic about this latest role: “I really enjoy being back and working with a new generation of students,” she says. “I find their energy and enthusiasm so inspiring, not forgetting the wonderful staff at MMU. There is a great amount of talent within the academic staff too!”

Since the beginning of her studies, Manchester School of Art has played an important part in Hitchen’s growth as an artist and designer. Her first introduction to photography came when she was studying her art and design foundation course there. “I had a ‘photography induction’ where I learned black and white photography and from that point I seldom saw daylight again. I was hooked and spent most days in the darkroom,” she recalls.

Without wanting to focus her work too early on, Hitchen continued with her initial plans to undertake her degree in design and art direction.

It was this course that led her to her ultimate passion. “My interest in film, or I should say ‘fashion film’, came later in my degree,” she says.

“I discovered SHOWstudio; I was completely fascinated. I didn’t know much about the fashion industry at that point, but I knew I wanted to be in the studio and behind a camera filming.”

It wasn’t long after her graduation that Hitchen was offered a dream job – to work with Nick Knight at SHOWstudio. How did she find the transition from studying in Manchester to working in London? “I don’t want to lie and say it was easy; I was terrified. Having only been to London a couple of times and knowing only a few people, I did feel like Dick Whittington! London was a little

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overwhelming for me at first. I had to adapt to that fast paced lifestyle and environment quickly; fortunately I thrived off it, I still do.”

Even with the thrill of working in the exciting hub of the capital, Hitchen will never forget her Manchester roots. “I love Manchester!” she says. “I was born here, it’s my home, it’s where I studied and so it was fantastic to be invited back

by Manchester School of Art as a guest lecturer, and now as a member of staff, part-time tutoring across disciplines. Needless to say it’s changed since I left in 2009; there’s a new impressive art school building and as a result the facilities are even better.”

wonderful new, young director/producer of musical theatre, Daniel Wood.”

It was with Wood that she directed film content for a concert production of the musical Rent, and she’s full of praise for Wood’s work.

“Daniel has a great vision and an enormous amount of faith and trust in me to bring something different, visually, to the stage. The concert starred Kerry Ellis of West End and Broadway fame. The tour lasted ten nights across the UK and received much acclaim. It is by far one of the best new experiences outside of fashion that I’ve had since leaving SHOWstudio.”

Hitchen’s first solo fashion film venture after leaving SHOWstudio was a collaboration with ‘haute coiffeur’ and designer Charlie Le Mindu.

“I’ll always remember it,” she says. “Rankin had selected me as part of his Dig the New Breed of fashion filmmakers and to feature in his North London gallery. This set off a chain of events, one of which was my introduction to Charlie Le Mindu. On this occasion, like every film, it’s a result of the working relationships between a team of people. From the first meeting with Charlie Le Mindu (having never met him prior to the Zoe Hitchen project) and his fabulous stylist Anna Trevelyan, I knew that we were all going to create a ‘wildcard’ fashion film because we were laughing from the Manchester does, however, have its down minute we started discussing ideas. I worked sides, she jokes. “It still rains, which is why I find with the most wonderful team of people.” the new addition of a ‘roof garden’ quite amusThe film was shown as part of several maing, but I’m hoping the students will design some jor fashion events including Paris and London umbrellas or some other wonderful solution to fashion weeks, and at international fashion film dodge the rainfall.” festivals. She describes it as being very surreal, In 2012, Hitchen decided to leave her role as adding: “I feel very honoured to be invited to first assistant to Knight to embark on her solo di- these events.” recting career as {Un}titled. “One of the reasons Hitchen’s most recent collaboration was I chose to leave SHOWstudio is that I wanted to with creative consultancy Patternity, which collaborate with others, and go on my own adven- resulted in the bold and dramatic fashion film ture,” she explains. “I am very passionate about Pattern Power. It gathered a lot of social media ‘fashion film’ as its own genre, but also [within] attention: “I’ve known Anna Murray and Grace performance and across the whole creative arts. Winteringham, the founders of Patternity, since Recently I got to explore film and performance as 2011 when I was collaborating with fashion deI collaborated outside of fashion, this time with a signer Craig Lawrence,” she explains. “Patternity

“I like to keep the creative process as organic as possible”

FASHION

STILL FROM ZOE HITCHEN'S PATTERN POWER, 2013

developed some amazing metallic hosiery for Craig’s SS12 collection from some of my photographs. We’ve all remained friends and collaborators ever since. Pattern Power was a really special collaboration as it was Patternity’s first major exhibition, and we also included a piece of Craig’s archive that was shown at his first retrospective at the V&A Museum.”

Pattern Power includes strong graphics and starkly contrasted visuals. Does graphic design play a major part in Hitchen’s filmic style? “I don’t intentionally strive to have a particular aesthetic or style,” she says. “I think that’s something that evolves and changes throughout your life and experiences. I like to keep the creative process as organic as possible and experiment and push ideas further from project to project.” She does admit, however, that having a degree in design and art direction does inspire her work whether she “intends it to or not”.

So what’s next on the cards for Zoe Hitchen?

Well, she’s excited to announce another huge collaborative project: along with Ian Anderson of The Designers Republic and Tim Collard of Collard Manson, Hitchen will be introducing the highly anticipated AIM LOW + M—SS (‘aim low and miss’), a new fashion brand, fanzine, sporadic music-night and 24/7 attitude, described as “the ubiquitous multiple choice tick box public vote of no-list celebrity success – a personal vote for hyperbole free happiness neither totally nailed nor smashed, not ‘put down,’ high-fived or dragonapproved – not the richest, fastest, strongest, biggest, thinnest, sexiest... just a wonderful life neither more nor less ordinary.” That sounds like something we can get behind.

See more of Zoe Hitchen’s work at: www.zoehitchen.com www.zoehitchen.tumblr.com @zoehitchen www.aimlowandmiss.com

THE SKINNY

Photo: Courtesy of Zoe Hitchen

Photo: Courtesy of Zoe Hitchen

Interview: Jessica Campbell

Karl Fritsch: Put a Ring on It Manchester Art Gallery is currently home to a collection of jewellery designer Karl Fritsch’s weird and wonderful creations. We take a look at the techniques and approaches used by the celebrated craftsman

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estled in between Manchester Art Gallery’s world renowned art collections, which stretch from the historic to the contemporary and everything in between, is a jewellery exhibition like no other. Until 23 June, the gallery is playing host to the first UK solo exhibition from internationally acclaimed jewellery designer Karl Fritsch, whose unique and boundary pushing pieces of work are sought for exhibitions and by collectors across the world.

The unusual (and sometimes quite bizarre) collection features handcrafted pieces of jewellery where every process, from the soldering to the setting, has been completed by Fritsch himself – making each individual piece truly unique, right down to his fingerprints leaving their mark within the metals as a design feature. His work doesn’t place importance on perfection, but rather on each piece having a different story to tell.

Fritsch utilises traditional precious materials that you would expect to find in fine jewellery, such as gold and gemstones, and uses processes such as oxidisation, where he purposefully tarnishes and distresses these materials and combines them with non-precious objects. Even rusty screws are used to create pieces that are both ornate and ‘decayed’, or ‘neglected’, at the same time. The once bright and polished gold and silver materials are unrecognisable, reduced from their former glistening glory to their dull and dark oxidised form. These oxidised bands,

Words: Amie Gee

often intricate and delicate, are juxtaposed with beautifully cut glass and gemstones, often piled high on top of each other and within the designs of the manipulated metal.

Some pieces feature nails piercing through gemstones and holding them in place, cut cylinders of gemstones interlocking and protruding through mounds of black metal, and show-stopping miniature sculptures, including – in one case – a jewel-encrusted bronze cow sitting proudly on top of a ring, which itself would be considered unwearable by most due to the sculpture’s size and weight.

Fritsch’s pieces completely break the boundaries of jewellery design and show that it is possible to work even non-precious materials into something exquisite. His designs are praised as wearable pieces of avant-garde art, with each piece exciting and intriguing. Over his career, he has never failed to surprise with his lavish, ornamental and often outrageous collections. A jewellery show of this calibre and exclusivity is rarely seen in the UK, and is a must-attend event for anyone interested in design – and many of Fritsch’s pieces are also available to purchase, with prices starting from (a pretty reasonable) £100.

Manchester Art Gallery, until 23 Jun, Mon-Sun 10am-5pm, Thurs until 9pm, free www.manchestergalleries.org

Christian Dior: Hardcore

GARNET RING, 2012 KARL FRITSCH

A selection of Christian Dior pieces – including an outfit from his revolutionary New Look line – pitches up at Manchester Gallery of Costume this month. We survey what’s on offer

CHRISTIAN DIOR WITH MODEL DOROTHY EMMS, 1957

June 2013

Photo: TopFoto

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hristian Dior (1905-1957) was a revolutionary. One of the most important and influential couturiers of the 20th century, he stunned Parisian society and the wider world with his iconic New Look post-World War II. From 12 June, the changing exhibitions gallery and the stunning first floor dining room at the Manchester Gallery of Costume welcome a unique new exhibition. Christian Dior: Designer in Focus comprises a selection of rare couture from both the London and Paris fashion houses (with six and nine pieces respectively). Only a handful of collections outside of London have any examples of Dior’s Paris-labelled garments, so this is an exceptional chance for those in the Northwest to see them close up.

The exhibition proudly showcases one of the New Look outfits from Dior’s first Corolle – or Figure 8 – collection (designed and made for spring/summer 1947). With its long, full skirts, prominent shoulders and tiny cinchedin waists, this collection caused an instant sensation, sweeping away the utilitarian styles of wartime. Upon seeing the collection, Carmel Snow, the Harper’s Bazaar editor-in-chief, exclaimed: “It’s quite a revelation, dear Christian.

Your dresses have such a new look!” We can’t wait to see one of these iconic outfits for ourselves.

For those interested in the history of the royal family, also being shown is a black ribbed

FASHION

Words: Rosie Green

silk cocktail dress, which was commissioned by the Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson, in 1949. Another piece that is sure to be an exhibition highlight is a unique silk-lined, printed lilac cocktail gown designed by a young Yves Saint Laurent, who worked for the Dior fashion house from 1955 (he started at 19 years old) before replacing Christian as chief designer after his early death in 1957.

More significant pieces include the first Dior outfit donated to the Gallery of Costume in 1984: the beautiful black cocktail dress from 1956 was sold by the famous Manchester institution Samuels, one of the Northwest’s most prestigious fashion stores until its closure in 1968. The show will also give the viewer a first chance to see a number of Dior items recently acquired – several were bought at auction last year – for the Gallery of Costume’s internationally important collections.

Christian Dior designed under his own name for only a decade, but his influence on the design world has long continued, and does so to this day. So head along, see some of the best in 20th century fashion, and celebrate the era of hardcore Dior. [Rosie Green] Manchester Gallery of Costume, Platt Hall, Rusholme, from 12 Jun (until 12 Jan 2014), Mon-Fri 1-5pm, Sat/Sun 10am5pm, free www.manchestergalleries.org

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The Forestry Commission by arrangement with SOLO present

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Gig Highlights

Sun Sounds

Big Deal's upcoming June Gloom album may seem appropriate to our clearly climate change-fucked surroundings, but your event horizons look decidedly sunnier with the likes of Splashh, Ólöf Arnalds and MONEY brightening up a venue near you

Free and unfenced, Africa Oyé is a true community festival that this year marks its first couple of decades in action with a broad and stimulating line-up

Words: Gary Kaill

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Words: Laura Swift

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the aptly titled June Gloom – should fit the Soup Kitchen basement to a T. The next night (12 Jun), the same venue welcomes San Francisco’s The Fresh & Onlys – perhaps deserving of a bigger slice of the love for all things woozily Californian than they’ve so far been afforded – before they stop off at Liverpool’s East Village Arts Club on 13 Jun as part of a rare UK tour. Their most recent album Long Slow Dance jettisoned psychedelia in favour of a more robust hold on melody, and they’ve always been a sharp live prospect.

Once upon a time, Pet Shop Boys were permanent chart fixtures – as uncool as any commercially successful major label concern. Nearly three decades on, and they’ve found themselves scoffing at the fickle demands of fashion and namedropped by numerous next-generation electro innovators. The old men of electro pop are at Manchester Arena on 20 Jun: expect a show.

If you’d like to forget everything you thought you knew about singer-songwriter conventions, pay a visit to David Thomas Broughton, who returns to Salford’s Kings Arms pub on 24 Jun with support from Rachael Dadd and Ichi.

DO NOT MISS: The Breeders, The Ritz, Manchester, 18 June

Photo: Chris Glass

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hen Kim Deal brings the original line-up of The Breeders to town on 18 Jun for the Manchester leg of their LSXX tour, it will mark not only the 20 years since the release of their Last Splash album, but also a smaller, perhaps more meaningful anniversary. Those of us more, ahem, 'experienced' gig-goers try hard to keep the past in perspective, but there are moments in history that laser their place in the memory – and the 4AD 'house' tour that, in 1988, saw Boston's Throwing Muses lay waste to the UK with support from the soon-to-be-huge Pixies is deserving of at least a couple of chapters in the canon. When Deal plugs in that battered Fender Precision and

f you didn’t throw a massive weekend-long festival in Liverpool’s Sefton Park in celebration of your 21st birthday, you did it all wrong, mate. One of the UK’s biggest live celebrations of African and Caribbean music, Africa Oyé has grown from humble beginnings as the odd gig here and there in 1992 to a park-straddling two-day affair bringing together music, dance, food, fashion, and arts and crafts, all for resolutely zero pence – and this year celebrates its 21st anniversary and its solid track record of having brought such names as Tinariwen, Femi Kuti and John Peel favourite Kanda Bongo Man to Merseyside with a line-up hailing from Zimbabwe, Ghana, Cuba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria.

Riding the success of their 2012 album Rising Tide, young Zimbabweans Mokoomba and their energetic, Tonga-influenced infusions are likely to be among the programme’s highlights; as are Atongo Zimba’s thoughtful, searching MONEY songs, sung in a mixture of Fra Fra, Hausa, Ga, English and Twi and exploring themes of power Broughton’s ramshackle approach might at first and respect within relationships, everyday life, look ill-advised, but there’s daring in the way he and love, romance, and spirituality. Having been tosses his material into the wind, never being based in the UK for the last 10 years, he brings quite sure where it will land. Is it folk? Sort of. along his Ghanaian band to accompany him on Perhaps. But Broughton is unique, and deservhis two-stringed lute, the ‘koliko’, a traditional ing of more than lazy compartmentalisation – his West African instrument that he learned to play compositions are often fragile, but they’re robust and make as a child under the tutelage of his enough to survive their creator’s artful dismangrandfather. tlings. On a similar note, on 1 Jul Liverpool’s Leaf hosts Matthew E. White, whose debut Big Inner fuses folk and soul to devastating effect.

Finally this month, promoters Hey Manchester! bring Nancy Elizabeth to the fittingly rarefied International Anthony Burgess Foundation, on 30 Jun (she also plays Leaf, Liverpool, on 20 Jun). The Manchester-based OSIBISA singer will be playing songs from her third album, Dancing, which came about almost by accident; Elizabeth had no firm plans for a new record but, A recent addition to the line-up is singerlittle by little, the songs made themselves known. songwriter Jay and his band, who festival direcDancing adds an electronic sheen to her previous tor Paul Duhaney witnessed in performance at the Atlantic Music Expo in Praia, Cape Verde, in alt-folk explorations – and, backed by her new April – Duhaney was so impressed that he booked band, this hometown date concludes a short UK them for not one but two performances at this run. Highly recommended. year’s Oyé. Delivering a seemingly effortless hybrid of hip hop and reggae with his group of seven young Cape Verdean musicians, Jay offers a fresh-faced and boundlessly energetic festival show – and with Cape Verde’s minister of culture, export officer and the band’s manager having all clubbed together to organise his trip here, he seems to us to come with a pretty strong seal of approval.

Elsewhere on the bill are Ghana’s longstanding Osibisa and powerful performer Black Prophet, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s nine-piece ZongZing All Stars; and if all these rousing anthemics get too much for you, there are more than 80 stalls of arts, crafts and nosh in the Oyé Village, and workshops in drumming and percussion, and African and Caribbean dance.

Finally, if you feel pretty terrible about having a wicked 48 hours just shambling about from one gig to another for basically nothing, you can the scene of that debut, The International, is of contribute to keeping the festival free – and open course long gone; The Ritz is a loftier proposition!). Take this opportunity for a rare audience to all – long into the future by donating. with a genuine indie legend. [Gary Kaill] Photo: Julien Bourgeois

t’s June. June! Does anyone know how that happened? Have the elements even noticed?

No matter: both Liverpool and Manchester are blessed with a hatful of unmissable gigs this month.

Manchester kicks things off with a difficult choice for indie pop kids on 5 Jun, with Splashh playing Soup Kitchen in advance of the release of debut album Comfort, and Camera Obscura over at Academy 2. Hackney tykes Splashh’s psychinfluenced guitar attack has led to a formidable live reputation and a raft of glowing reviews, but if you like your indie pop more classically styled, maybe head over to Oxford Road where the return of the Glaswegian stalwarts should be worth a look. Led by the irrepressible Tracyanne Campbell, whose observations on life and love are as candid as they are sardonic, Camera Obscura have quietly become an exceptional live proposition – and new album Desire Lines looks set to continue the popularity they accrued with their fourth record, My Maudlin Career, which was their most successful to date.

Iceland’s Ólöf Arnalds makes a welcome return to Manchester on 6 Jun, only two days after her cousin, Ólafur Arnalds, plays at the Royal Northern College of Music on 4 Jun. This year’s Sudden Elevation was Ólöfs first English language album, but the chill of her fragile, spartan soundscapes remains – and Icelandic-inspired café Takk, on Tariff Street, should be the perfect setting for her oblique, baroque compositions.

Here’s a gig that requires of its audience an extra level of focus and involvement – chatterers beware.

Liverpool hits back with a pair of intriguing shows. Wolf Alice frontwoman Ellie Rowsell is a bewitching presence, and the group’s new single Bros references 90s indie favourites Belly and Hole – never a bad thing. Catch them at The Shipping Forecast on 6 Jun. Liverpool’s gig highlight of the month, however, is surely MONEY at Leaf on 11 Jun. The band’s hometown of Manchester knows them inside out by now, with the four-piece having racked up a series of gigs in oddball venues and on leftfield bills over the past two years – but now it’s Liverpool’s turn to find out why the buzz surrounding their rise is palpable, and why singer Jamie Lee carries with him more than a sliver of enigma. Expect to hear much of their forthcoming Bella Union debut.

Also on 11 Jun, Big Deal return to Manchester, where the American duo’s scuzzed up, lo-fi dream pop – more of it forthcoming on

steps out in front of a crowd hungry to hear the likes of Cannonball and Divine Hammer again, it will be 25 years – and just a few days – since she first set foot on a Manchester stage (though

Africa Oyé, Sefton Park, Liverpool, 22-23 Jun, 12.30-9.30pm, free www.africaoye.com

June 2013

MUSIC

Preview

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Doubters wondered whether Victoria Hesketh had been too easily distracted from her to-do list in the four years since debut Hands, but new album Nocturnes scoffed at those concerns, its 90s grooves a cool, monochrome remodelling of its predecessor’s glitter-pop dazzle. Returning to stages smaller than the ones where her last tour concluded is the inevitable result of extended absence – but, as tonight’s intimate, explosive performance demonstrates, a step down doesn’t have to be a step back.

The 2013 live set-up is fittingly reduced.

Gone are the backing singers, costumes and

lamé backdrops: in their place, a tidy three-piece provides potency and punch. With fan favourites – Meddle, Earthquake, a euphoric Stuck on Repeat – scattered only sparingly, the new stuff squares up to the old. Here’s where Hesketh delivers: in the shadows of her new adventures, there beats an irresistibly dark heart. Motorway and Crescendo swell and burst, and All for You, pared down to just voice and keyboard, silences the chatterers. Remedy is dusted off, galvanising the crowd and pointedly bridging the whole aesthetic shift. “Dancing is my remedy” indeed – isn’t self-medication always the best approach?

Back in the rudest of health, a rejuvenated Little Boots is cause for celebration. [Gary Kaill]

ITAL & AURORA HALAL

Ital & Aurora Halal

The Dancehouse Theatre, Manchester, 24 May

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LITTLE BOOTS

How To Dress Well Leaf, Liverpool, 20 May

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From the very beginning of tonight’s gig, Tom Krell, aka ethereal R’n’B singer How To Dress Well, establishes his stage presence as a perfectionist with tendencies towards control freakery. He introduces himself to his audience by commenting on the temperature and, shortly afterwards, complains about the sound of clicking camera shutters (though that’s fair enough).

Later on, when a rogue squeak comes from one of the microphones, he seems visibly startled.

Krell clearly wants to put on a real show tonight, creating the environment exactly as he wants it. A huge projection screen looms behind him, showing short films of people, lights, and

and producer opens with plenty of mystery and leftfield tones; quickly, all heads in sight are bobbing to her dubby, minimalistic, heavy electronics. She makes the synths and sequencers seem easy to manipulate, as does her collaborator, 100% Silk’s Ital, who goes one better by melding raw and upfront 4/4 beats with more immersive, deeper accents, carving out acid noises that won’t do him any disservice among fans of Objekt and the like. Of course, at 10pm on a Friday night, in one of the most unusual non-clubs around, it’s difficult to imagine the level of mayhem this could cause a few hours later, in a room a few metres underground – but it’s not impossible, given the power of these dance mutations that are targeted at the feet, not just the mind. [Martin Guttridge-Hewitt]

Photo: Alexander Bell

Arriving at this ballet school turned venue on Oxford Road, you can’t help but feel a sense of disservice. The art deco-inspired, 1930s rough diamond that is the Dancehouse is overlooked in favour of so many other, less charming spaces, yet it’s one of the more interesting places to see performances in the city, despite half the population thinking it’s closed, left to rack, ruin, and the spirits that apparently haunt the theatre.

As such, Aurora Halal’s live set is particularly fitting. Following an hour or so of inspired 80s footage in PPU Video Party 2 – montages crafted from archive footage, old adverts, posteffects and animation – the Brooklyn-based VJ

industrial smelting. He demands that the volume be turned up again, and again. We are here to be overwhelmed – and we often are. From the simple, almost traditional R’n’B efforts of Running Back and Ready for the World to the earnestly powerful Suicide Dream 1, this is a set to which you can dance or cry, or both.

Most of the songs performed are taken from latest album Total Loss, which charts Krell’s journey as he comes to terms with death – from morbid ecstasy to melancholic shoe-gazing, and back again. He is often shocking – as when he looks forward to his brother’s death on new song Blue.

The set culminates with loose-limbed belter Set It Right, and he departs with no intention of an encore. That would be relinquishing control, and that can’t be done. [James Hampson] MYKKI BLANCO

Suuns

The Kazimier, Liverpool, 17 May

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“The old guard don’t talk about rock’n’roll no more,” hisses Ben Shemie through clenched teeth. “Music won’t save you.” It’s the opening song, and Suuns are already decrying the importance of it all? A glance to our right tells a different story – as torrid blasts of electronic white noise punch new holes into our eardrums, a middle-aged man dances frantically to the driving pulse that underpins the whole glorious mess. A faded bucket hat sits atop his unkempt, greying locks as he careens wildly from side to side, interspersing each jerk with effusive shouts of “YES! FUCKING COME OOONNN!” He looks like the reanimated corpse of every Spike Island casualty you’ve ever met, and tonight he’s more alive than any of us.

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Review

The ruckus the Montreal quartet raise is tense and brittle; like Clinic’s finer moments stretched to breaking point on a rack, then fed repeatedly through a mangle to the strains of Suicide’s Cheree on constant loop. Tracks from latest album Images du Futur form the backbone of the set, with the nervous rhythms of Powers of Ten feeding ominously into 2020’s ludicrous, piercing squalls of guitar.

Suuns are far more than merely passable on record, but tonight their furious magnificence transforms The Kazimier into a sea of nodding heads and shit-eating grins. As truly wracked closer Pie IX sends us dazedly towards the exit, our newly bent minds think back to the shadows cast by our dancing friend. Music may not save us, but Suuns sure feel pretty redemptive. [Will Fitzpatrick]

Photo: Thom Isom

Gorilla, Manchester, 14 May

Mykki Blanco

Islington Mill, Salford, 16 May

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The DJ’s beats instigate little more than gentle foot-tapping among the audience; but there is an undisclosed buzz in the room that hints at electric anticipation. Then, New York resident Michael Quattlebaum, aka Mykki Blanco, seizes the stage in all-black attire – a cropped wig, bra and leather shorts.

The metronomic tapping becomes a bassheavy thud, and the crowd begin to jerk their bodies uncontrollably. Blanco’s greeting of “Hey Manchester!” is met with matter-of-fact yelps of “Salford!”

The room belongs to Blanco: she clambers on top of amps to mark her territory, MCing a flurry of aggressive lyrics before extending an invitation to the crowd to join her onstage.

MUSIC

YungRhymeAssassin, from the 2012 EP Cosmic Angel: The Illuminati Prince/ss, begins naked, without support from the DJ, and renders the audience totally at Blanco’s mercy. With hyperactive thumps and crashes, the track develops into urgent synth-pop.

A swift costume swap sees Blanco don attire, complete with baseball cap and shorts, that would make her look at home in Odd Future.

The change is heralded by one of her signature tracks, Wavvy, and its driving bass and artificial jangles have a powerful effect on the audience, heads bouncing in unison.

Blanco’s first visit to Salford carried the intent of spreading the gospel of her fearless rap/ wonky hip hop hybrid. She executes this task to blinding effect – and with relentless charisma.

[Edwina Chan]

THE SKINNY

Photo: Leah Henson

Little Boots

The Dirty Dozen Prior to a night of fierce sweating, Baltimore noise-rockers (and March Track of the Month champions) Dope Body try to muster some love for this month’s clutch of tracks, and debate whether or not that’s a marimba in there

Crystal Fighters – You & I [from the album Cave Rave, out now via Zirkulo] Andrew Laumann (vocals): Crystal Fighters? Is that really their name? I’ve never heard of these.

Zachary Utz (guitar): Wow. They really got all bases covered there, right?! That sounds like about three different bands in one.

David Jacober (drums): This is not what a record by a band called Crystal Fighters should sound like. It’s like some TV vacation ad. It’s like, “Hey – come to Hawaii!” Too upbeat.

AL: This is really bad. (2) Sivu – Bodies [single out 3 Jun, via Third Rock] DJ: No, I don’t like that drum sound.

John Jones (bass): You’re always looking out for the drum sound! You never like the drum sound.

DJ: So, so over-produced.

AL: Sivu? Is that what he’s called – Sivu? Mmm...

JJ: Those vocals, they’re really… oh, I don’t know.

They’re not even vocals.

ZU: This has that electro sound that everyone’s doing right now.

AL: Take it off, man. (2) Solar Year – Magic Idea [from the album Waverly, out 24 Jun via Splendour] JJ: Look at Dave listening to the drums.

DJ: Well it’s not actually drums, is it?

JJ: There’s some marimba in there, Dave.

DJ: There is no marimba!

The Skinny: Is dance music not really your thing?

AL: I like hip hop. I listen to a lot of new hip hop, a couple of hip hop stations in the States. You know, we don’t really listen to much that’s like the music we play. Maybe a bit of Zeppelin, classic stuff, you know.

DJ: The dance and R‘n’B stuff around right now, it’s like, so over-produced, it’s ridiculous. It’s like a competition, who can squeeze the bass and really push everything out of the mix. But, hey, this is okay.

AL: I don’t hate it…. (4) Marvin – Tempo Fighting [from the album Barry, out 3 Jun via Africantape] AL: Whoa! Led Zeppelin!

JJ: This is like Hendrix – but, you know, not actually good.

AL: No, no, no, no, no, no.

ZU: Who are these guys?

The Skinny: They’re from France. The press release says they’re ‘infused with the venom of The Jesus Lizard.’

AL: Really? Well, we get those kind of comparisons. Shit, we should get these guys to write our press releases!

DJ: Too much reverb.

ZU: Everybody’s using too much reverb these days.

DJ: I really like this picture of the castle on the cover. That’s definitely the best thing about it, I’d say.

The Skinny: John? You’re shaking your head again.

JJ: It’s just not good. Not good at all. (3) Haust – No [from the album No, out 10 Jun via Fysisk Format] DJ: Oh shit! Is this Dave Mustaine?! Megadeth!

AL: [Mimics death metal vocal stylings] Die die die! Argh argh argh!

ZU: Where the fuck are these guys from?

The Skinny: They’re from Norway. Stalwarts of the black metal scene, apparently.

AL: Well, there you go. This is just funny, man!

Who listens to this shit?

The Skinny: You’ve heard enough?

ZU: We’ve heard more than enough.

AL: Hey, we’d better find something nice to say about something soon. Deftones said something nice about our record [see the March edition of the Dozen]. We can’t look like the fucking bad guys. (0) Arrows of Love – The Knife [single out 3 Jun, via Urban Fox Records] DJ: It won’t play? Let me see. You know, this doesn’t even look like a proper CD. It looks like someone just scrawled on a blank CD and stuck it in there.

AL: Do we need to hear it? Should we maybe just review it from the press release? Can I have it?

[Reads bio] ‘Arguably the most suspenseful single from album Everything’s Fucked’? Mmm. OK. That’s pretty fucking cool right there.

DJ: Are they all girls?

Interview: Gary Kaill Photography: Alexander Bell

AL: They look like all guys.

DJ: No, wait up. Two girls, two guys. I think.

ZU: I think we would have maybe liked this one.

DJ: Oh, it’s playing now? Wait. [Listens] Yeah, well maybe we should stick with what we said anyway…

The Skinny: No-one keen? [Shaking heads.] (3) Kyte – You & I [from the album Love to Be Lost, out 17 Jun via Eastworld Recordings] AL: Kyte? With a ‘y’? OK. This is not really anything.

The Skinny: It’s their fourth album – English band.

DJ: It’s just too clean. It’s just…

ZU: Mmm. This doesn’t really do anything for me.

I don’t get it.

JJ: [Shakes head] I don’t know what to say. It’s just OK but… it’s not.

The Skinny: Try another track?

AL: No. (2) Kid A – BB Bleu [single out 3 Jun, via Technicolour] DJ: Seriously? Is this band really called Kid A? Do you think they know? Why would you do that?

Man, this had better be really good if they’re going to make a fucking statement like that!

The Skinny: It’s a she.

DJ: Oh OK. What’s her real name? Does she have a real name?

The Skinny: Ann Alexander Thweatt. She’s American – from Virginia.

JJ: Oh, I’m from Virginia.

The Skinny: Well, maybe Kid A’s from the bad part.

JJ: Man, it’s all bad.

DJ: This isn’t great. All that electro looping, fragile female vocals.

ZU: Yeah, this is pretty obvious. You hear a lot of this.

AL: Put the next track on. [Listens] Oh that’s a little better. I like that.

The Skinny: It’s a remix. It’s the same track.

AL: Oh is it?! Shit! (3) Brtsh Knights – If I Was To [single out 10 Jun, via Technicolour] AL: Can I see the press release before we hear it?

The Skinny: It might put you off.

AL: Give it to me. [Adopts cod-British accent] British… Britsh… Brtsh? ‘Brtsh Knights are nostalgic for a time of unrestrained love making and splendour and extravagance, in a faded kingdom…’ That’s pretty heavy.

DJ: See, that’s a lot more interesting than the actual record. (3) Live Footage [the band liked this (!), so took the CD, and because The Skinny hadn’t been awake enough to remember to note down the track and album before this happened, we don’t know what either of them were. But Live Footage are an electroacoustic duo from New York – www.livefootagebrooklyn.com – and their mysterious fourth album is out later this year] AL: Are there any vocals?

The Skinny: I think it’s instrumental.

AL: It’s cool. Chilled. Kind of thing we’d maybe play on the bus after a gig.

DJ: It’s nicely crafted.

JJ: This is the first thing we’ve heard that makes me want to listen to another track.

DJ: It’s kinda cinematic.

JJ: This is the best one, for me. It’s well produced, well played. Can I have this? (8) The Bevis Frond – Just Cause (Wins Wars) [from album White Numbers, out now via Woronzow] ZU: Oh Jesus! This is like the most ridiculously predictable guitar playing. I could tell you right now what’s gonna happen next. You can see every chord change coming.

AL: Who are these guys?

The Skinny: They’re real veterans. This is their 21st album.

DJ: Their 21st album? Really? I’d expect to be a whole fucking lot better than this if I’d made 21 albums!

AL: I did not think a band called The Bevis Frond would sound like Bon Jovi.

ZU: You see, that’s not how you play guitar. How he’s putting in all those little licks and bends.

That’s how I’d teach kids starting out to play guitar back home, give them something to make them sound a little cool.

AL: Not good. We definitely hate this one! (1) TRACK OF THE MONTH: All We Are – Utmost Good [single out 17 Jun via Obsenic] AL: Who’s this? All We Are? OK. I like that name. What does the bio say?

The Skinny: That they’re ‘the Bee Gees on diazepam.’

JJ: It says that? Really?

AL: Seriously, we’ve definitely got the wrong guys doing our shit!

DJ: What’s diazepam?

ZU: It’s a relaxant, like Valium.

AL: This is really nice.

DJ: I like the production. It’s got real craft.

JJ: Vocals are good. I like it.

DJ: It’s really understated, it’s good.

The Skinny: Leave it on?

AL: Yeah, leave it on. Let’s see where it goes.

The Skinny: You liked something!

ZU: We’ve been trying really hard, man. (8) www.dopebody.tumblr.com

June 2013

RECORDS

Review

37

Album of the Month Palms

Palms Ipecac, 24 Jun

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Despite escalating popularity at the time they called it quits, there’s a feeling that ISIS – not wishing to “push past the point of a dignified death” – inspired all the bong lighting they possibly could within the niche domain of thematic post-metal by 2010. So it’s a surprise to find three of their mainstays – bassist Jeff Caxide, drummer Aaron Harris and guitarist Clifford Meyer – enjoying a productive afterlife as Palms.

Deafheaven

Baths

Emika

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Sunbather, Deathwish Inc., 10 Jun San Francisco’s Deafheaven brought a great crossover record to the table with 2011’s Roads to Judah, a dramatic debut that used the passionate aggression of black metal as a starting point for more adventurous means. With Sunbather, they’re constantly merging grand, lush melodies together with the intensity of extreme music: Dream House, the first cut, sounds like Mayhem jamming with My Bloody Valentine.

The record’s sprawling, blastbeat-studded movements are broken up by three brief interludes, which range from pretty, gentle guitar parts (Irresistible) to ambient soundscapes spliced with vocal samples (Please Remember, Windows). On the main songs, George Clarke’s rasp is tastefully interlaced with moody, ever-changing instrumentation. Vertigo is the colossal, multi-sectioned centrepiece; none of its 14 minutes feel padded out. Ultimately, Deafheaven’s songwriting talents have improved in a big way here; each track is more consciously built around the bigger picture, making for a consistently gripping, emotionally cleansing whole. [Ross Watson]

Obsidian, Anticon, out now In contrast to the lo-fi, spider-webbed textures of 2010’s Cerulean, Obsidian is constructed from solid blocks of stuttering, precision-tooled beats, intricate piano refrains, found sounds, and the layered, choral falsetto of Will Wiesenfeld. Inspired in part by a life-threatening bout with E coli, and research into subjects such as the Black Plague and Dante’s Inferno, it’s a darker-hued collection.

Minor chord refrains and baroque song structures proliferate, and the lyrics return unerringly to themes of death, pain and suffering (‘Are you maybe here to help me hurt myself?’

Wiesenfeld pleads over the stately electro of Miasma Sky; while on the propulsive Obituary, he murmurs feverishly: ‘Death pirouettes through the flicker of the wick and makes you sick...’).

Incompatible subtly echoes Anticon’s past glories, while No Eyes has a woozy, minimal beauty; but it’s the ambitious No Past Lives, with its disorienting time-changes and shoegaze guitars, that provides the album’s peak. Complex, challenging and incredibly rewarding. [Bram E. Gieben]

A follow-up to her self-titled 2011 debut, Emika’s DVA sees the artist collaborating with Hank Shocklee of The Bomb Squad on production duties, and recording with fellow Czech and soprano Michaela Šrumová, whose operatic voice opens the album, before it descends into the bass-heavy, horn-inflected Young Minds. The beats, rooted in electro and synth-pop, are a perfect, moody accompaniment to Emika’s treated, reverb-shrouded vocals.

She Beats nods to dubstep’s synonymous towering synths, while After The Fall and Primary Colours offer a polished take on the kind of moody, retro-futurist synth-pop of Chromatics.

Elsewhere, the strings of the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra swell and fill the exquisite Dem Worlds, while the pianoled Sleep With My Enemies exudes a fragile menace. At 15 tracks, it’s a sprawling album, its strengths revealed in isolation, rather than when taken as a whole. A spellbinding dream-pop cover of Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game is worth the price of admission alone.

[Bram E. Gieben]

Serengeti

Sorrow

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On the go since 2007, Lightning Dust’s boy-girl duo of Amber Webber and Josh Wells (of Black Mountain) – singer and producer respectively – have evolved through two previous albums, incarnations that saw them characterised as a dreamy folk duo on 2007’s eponymous debut, and a more experimental pop band on 2009’s Infinite Light.

On Fantasy, Wells has chosen to create a suite of tracks using the MPC 2000, lending the album a common vibe to fellow Canadian synth-pop innovators Purity Ring.

Gentle synth-pads and hip hop/R’n’B-influenced drums soundtrack Webber’s strong, tender vibrato vocals, which pull the album’s feel back towards dream-pop, occasionally echoing the likes of Beach House, or even Julee Cruise. Occasionally tending towards the saccharine, the tracks are rescued from tweeness by their sheer simplicity, elegantly constructed pads and beats keeping things focused and raw. Mirror is a standout, with melancholy lyrics and clean, glittering 80s synths. [Bram E. Gieben]

Kenny Dennis LP, Anticon, 24 Jun Serengeti’s last LP for Anticon, C.A.R., had a refreshing sense of fun and humour to its loosely-scribbled hip hop beats, with Jel and Odd Nosdam joining Serengeti for the recording sessions. A follow-up to last year’s Kenny Dennis EP, this album continues the story of Kenny Dennis, the Brian Dennehy-obsessed rap ‘star.’ It’s a running in-joke, with Serengeti playing Dennis and recounting stories like his feud with Shaquille O’Neal (the basketball star insulted his moustache); detailing his exploits in first-person, rambling raps.

Beats constructed from rough-cut samples of jazz, funk and soul underpin these hazy, surreal rants – Crush ‘Em contains a comparison of British and American sports; Laser Tag is a slice of stoner reality about, you guessed it, Laser Tag. Delightfully shambolic, restlessly inventive and strangely compelling, the fusion of intentionally messy diss-raps and freestyles with experimental, rickety beats is testament to Serengeti’s cracked and psychedelic vision. Weird, in a good way. [Bram E. Gieben]

Zomby

James Holden

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With Love, 4AD, 17 Jun Excepting its mammoth run-time, With Love feels similar in both form and execution to Zomby’s previous album, Dedication. This time the shadows are a little deeper, perhaps; the tone almost wistful on occasion – in fact, the overall effect of the music can almost be likened to a grime/house/hardcore-centric approximation of James Kirby’s work as The Caretaker, as the listener is presented with a hypnotic patchwork of looped memories and abstracted feelings.

Zomby’s commitment to short tracks and abrupt endings also carries over from Dedication, but on an album as long as With Love it really serves to underscore how slight many of Zomby’s ideas are – not to mention how happy he is to repeat himself. With Love certainly serves as a fine showcase for Zomby’s singular vision but it also paints a picture of an artist in his comfort zone; a one-time maverick who has started, at last, to sound somewhat predictable. [Mark Shukla]

Review

DVA, Ninja Tune, 10 Jun

Lightning Dust

Fantasy, Jagjaguwar, 24 Jun

38

Although at pains to iterate that this is not ISIS mark II, it’s impossible to ignore the inherent similarities of their slow-burning, ambient passageways. What steers Palms away from some cynical retread, though, is a voice that’s unreservedly pushed to the fore; in walks Deftones’ none-more-versatile caterwauler, Chino Moreno.

What follows is a fertile union, alternately meditative and primal in execution; lead track Future Warrior sees both band and singer exploring their dynamic range and hitting new timbres as understated crescendos perpetually threaten, crash, and recede. On paper it’s a well-worn formula that could be damned in lesser hands, but Palms use their pedigree to avoid any obvious moves throughout this gloriously cathartic offering. From the bruising odyssey of Mission Sunset to a chiming, Cocteau-esque lullaby like Tropics, fans of ISIS’s swansong and Moreno’s apparently abandoned Team Sleep project should find plenty to stand in dumbstruck wonder of here. The rest should give it time. [Dave Kerr]

The Inheritors, Border Community, 17 Jun Having previously pushed the boundaries of techno on his 2006 debut, James Holden’s longawaited sophomore album delves even deeper into the rhythmic roots of the genre, employing guitars, live percussion, a host of analogue synths and some involving studio trickery to create a statement on dance music which acknowledges the roots of the form while pushing fearlessly on into new territory.

Opener Rannoch Dawn rejoices in a scuzzy krautrock atmosphere, recalling Can and NEU! with its stripped-down drums, feedback and guitar textures. Elsewhere, A Circle Inside A Circle takes cues from experimental synth soundtracks, sounding like an outtake from Popol Vuh’s score for Aguirre, Wrath of God. The Caterpillar’s Invention, loaded with pulsing saxophones, builds towards an explosive jazz fusion climax. Impressive title track The Inheritors sounds like John Carpenter playing synth at a warehouse rave. While perhaps not what Holden fans were looking for or expecting, it’s an impressive, intricate meditation on the weirder corners of electronic music’s history. [Bram E. Gieben]

RECORDS

Dreamstone, Monotreme, 3 Jun Bristol’s Sorrow is at the forefront of the postdubstep movement, taking cues from the more atmospheric, musical end of the Hyperdub spectrum; he is one of the producers helping to define the intersection of electronic shoegaze and post-club garage. Tracks like opener Elixir are as focused on their reverb-saturated, gently repeating, miasmic soundscapes as they are on their intricate beat-work.

While comparisons to Burial are perhaps inevitable, there are more differences than similarities, principally in tone – Sorrow’s work is gently melancholic, but warm and pretty, with none of the urban claustrophobia of the London producer’s work. Vocalist CoMa, who features on two tracks, provides breathy, layered refrains, which Sorrow loops into gently undulating patterns.

Although not offering much to mark him out from his contemporaries stylistically, Sorrow’s debut is elegantly polished, with an epic sweep on tracks like the string-led Embrace. The perfect soundtrack to wake-and-bake Sundays and late-night trysts.

[Bram E. Gieben]

Gold Panda

Half of Where You Live, Ghostly International, 10 Jun

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Gold Panda’s second album picks up where Lucky Shiner left off, offering a leftfield, inventive take on various electronic forms. Junk City takes its time to kick in, starting with sampled static and washed-out synth tones before coalescing into bubbling, Chi-house keys and 808 drums.

An English House nods to classic electro and early house in its rhythmic structure, with a gentle sampled vocal looping in the distance.

Brazil’s stuttering electro percussion and pitch-bent synth melodies are summery and euphoric, while Community’s jacking house beat and delicate keys are warm and blissful, restrained rather than intense. It is this gentility, this feeling of euphoric pleasure, which defines Half of Where You Live – along with a creative and refreshing take on the rhythms and sounds of early house, techno and acid. Artists like Phuture and Ron Hardy are subtly referenced, creating a retro rhythmic framework that fits perfectly with the summery vibe of Gold Panda’s exquisite melodies.

[Bram E. Gieben]

THE SKINNY

oOoOO

Gastric Band

Quickbeam

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Without Your Love, Nihjgt Feelings, 24 Jun Like fellow Tri-Angle associates Balam Acab and Holy Other, the 'witch-house' tag simply doesn't fit oOoOO's debut album. It is perhaps better described as ethereal R’n’B – vocal samples from commercial 90s pop are used as melodic flourishes and rhythmic pad-hits.

His melancholic songs, sung by oOoOO himself and collaborator Laura Clock, recall Rodney Jerkins at his best – plaintive, brokenhearted rhythm and blues, rather than the shiny, aggressively sexual noughties variant. There are three tracks to rival previous highlights such as Burnout Eyess (Stay Here, the gorgeous 3:51 am, and the title track). He couches these lo-fi perfect-pop moments in tape experiments, spectral vocal snatches and sound-sculpture on Sirens and the claustrophobic Crossed Wires; and narcotic dub techno on Mouchette and Misunderstood. [Bram E. Gieben]

Glasgow’s Gastric Band are tight. There is barely an ounce of fat on debut album Party Feel: a wild-eyed odyssey encompassing all manner of weird and wonderful sounds. Opener It’s Good But It’s Not Right sets a high benchmark: as fidgety guitar lines snake across double-drummed rhythms, this playful voodoo jazz establishes Gastric Band’s perpetually off-kilter credentials.

The dynamism continues with Dustin Binman (notable for awesome power-riffs); the no-nonsense Brad Shitt, which hungrily rifles through tempos as locked-together guitars dance up and down fretboards; and Sexy Grandad, a warped array of volatile percussion and tricksy quasi-melodies. By which point anyone in their right mind will be ready for something less forcefully kinetic – a craving Gastric Band astutely sate with Under A Glass Table’s eight minutes of comparatively cogent prog. Easy listening it ain’t, but it's well worth dropping a few pounds for. [Chris Buckle]

Quickbeam, Comets and Cartwheels, 3 Jun This Glasgow-based quartet have been honing their ethereal, meditative folk for three years, and the record evinces an impressive maturity.

With Monika Gromek’s delicate vocals as a centrepiece, the band weave a backdrop of guitar, piano, harmonium and cello, a combination that maintains a dreamily hypnotic atmosphere throughout. In its studied simplicity and emotional directness, the end result sounds something like a folk-tinged take on Low’s glacial post-rock.

Quickbeam are more inclined than such forebears to vary the volume and pace: forthcoming single Immersed builds into a brief crescendo of deft piano arpeggios and strings, while Home ups the tempo and throws shoegaze guitars into the mix. These moments vary the texture and palette of the record, although not its tone, which remains unblinkingly heartfelt and sincere.

[Sam Wiseman]

Matthew Herbert

Camera Obscura

Anna Von Hausswolff

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The End of Silence, Accidental, 24 Jun Utilising a single ten-second audio recording as the sole sound source for an entire LP, Matthew Herbert has created one of his boldest and most thought-provoking releases to date. The recording in question is of a pro-Gaddafi plane bombing Ra’s Lanuf during the 2011 Libyan civil war; Herbert created bespoke sample instruments, each using different elements of the sound, which were then played live by his quartet – ingeniously marrying electronic manipulation with a free jazz approach.

Herbert’s declared intention is to ‘freeze history, press pause, wander around inside the sound,’ although the experience of listening to the stretched and distorted mutations that comprise The End of Silence is often more claustrophobic than that implies; the combination of nightmarish inexorability and sonic unpredictability makes it simultaneously visceral and conceptually challenging. Needless to say, it’s not as accessible as some of Herbert’s material, but it’s among his most daring and imaginative work. [Sam Wiseman]

Desire Lines, 4AD, 3 Jun For those unfamiliar with the term, ‘desire line’ is the poetic name given to those winding dirt trails that appear when people walk a certain route enough times, eroding the land with a memory of their journey. But Camera Obscura’s fifth album is no shortcut or re-tread; rather, it’s the sound of a band following their hearts, comfortable and confident in their own skin.

On first impressions, Desire Lines conveys a warm familiarity, from lead single Do It Again’s indie-disco sashay to Fifth In Line To the Throne’s heart-on-sleeve sentiments. But tucked around the expected components is plenty of freshness, from the smooth, muzak-but-good intro of This Is Love (Feels Alright) to the calypso vibe of Every Weekday, via Troublemaker’s synth foundations.

Lyrically, too, the songs excel, with New Year’s Resolution’s desire to ‘write something of value’ answered multiple times over, destining Desire Lines for many revisits. [Chris Buckle]

Ceremony, Republic of Music, 17 Jun If you think the title of Ceremony ’s opening instrumental Epitaph of Theodor sounds grandiose, wait ’til you hear its brooding church organ melody – an imposing herald for its majestic parent album.

Throughout, Swedish songwriter Anna Von Hausswolff’s compositions are toweringly dramatic: whether evoking ruin or resurrection, doom or desire, her spiralling vocals are as radiant as its organ rumbles are deep.

This play of light and shade is integral to Ceremony ’s impact, with a track like Deathbed creating a dark, dangerous atmosphere through ominous drones, then building to a glorious, final-act ascendance. Mountains Crave has a relative levity (despite its ‘rain/pain’ rhymes) while Epitaph of Daniel recalls the haunting, graceful motifs of Angelo Badalamenti’s Twin Peaks work, balancing the foreboding tone that governs the likes of No Body’s tuneless interlude or Goodbye’s mournful undertow. Despite its hefty length and heftier emotions, Ceremony ’s integral beauty makes its navigation an absolute delight. [Chris Buckle]

Sigur Rós

These New Puritans

Tunng

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Kveikur, XL Recordings, 17 Jun Loose and roaring, Brennisteinn – the opening gambit of Sigur Rós’ seventh studio album – is the sound of the band getting nasty. Beneath Jón Þór Birgisson’s languageless vocals, a thin, watery layer of strings tries in vain to assuage a Byzantine bassline that hulks and strains at its shackles.

There’s an abandon to the cannoning, imperfect percussion that might surprise those who’ve become accustomed to thinking of the Icelandic trio (keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson left last year) as purely pedlars of soaring, glassy Gaian ballads. It sets a rupturing, snarling tone that continues into album highlight Hrafntinna, with its clattering metals and roving vocal; into Ísjaki’s barelling drums, the flatlining morse code signals of Stormur, and the foghorn and cautionary choir of the title track.

They’ve not ditched the acrobatic anthemics, of course, and it’s still, ultimately, Sigur Rós; but, overall, Kveikur is their most teeth-out release for a while.

[Laura Swift]

Field of Reeds, Infectious Recordings, 10 Jun These New Puritans’ third LP is a studious affair, as absorbant as it is absorbing (among its many influencers and participators are conductor André de Ridder, basso profundo Adrian Peacock, and professor Andrew McPherson, whose magnetic resonator piano is used on several songs).

It’d be easy to sniff at leader Jack Barnett’s namedrops – Stephen Sondheim, Oscar Hammerstein, Kurt Weill – and to think the methods employed in the album’s making contrived (Barnett insisted on recording his twin brother George’s drums 76 times for Fragment Two; a whole day was dedicated to smashing glass for The Lights in Your Name), but Field of Reeds expertly tightropes the line between curious and curio.

Its lofty ambitions and experiments are tempered by a melodiousness that transcends any accusations of it being a purely academic exercise – the lilting, willowing cello of V (Island Song) and the tilting, persuasive piano of Fragment Two provide just two simple, affecting hooks among many. There is an overall softness to the work, led by the throaty burr of Barnett’s vocal, that makes this a deeply personal, close listen. [Lauren Strain]

Boards of Canada

Queens of the Stone Age

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Tomorrow’s Harvest, Warp, 10 Jun

Tomorrow’s Harvest finds the Sandison brothers turning their backs on the halcyon warmth of 2005’s The Campfire Headphase to deliver an album that speaks the language of trauma and uncertainty while still managing to luxuriate in both texture and tone.

Standout Jacquard Causeway layers lilting synth lines into a neurotic cacophony, and while Cold Earth could be an outtake from 2006’s Trans Canada Highway EP, tracks such as White Cyclosa and New Seeds succeed by pulling BoC out of their somewhat mannered aesthetic and giving respectful nods to both John Carpenter and Cluster respectively.

Although impeccably produced, much of Tomorrow’s Harvest feels tentative in nature (understandable given how long BoC have been AWOL), with numerous tracks petering out before developing into anything particularly engaging. All told, it’s a more than welcome return for the beloved duo, but some way from the glorious second coming that certain fans may have been hoping for.

[Mark Shukla]

June 2013

Party Feel, Armellodie, 3 Jun

…Like Clockwork, Matador, 3 Jun

From Josh Homme’s youth as a prodigious stoner rock visionary in Kyuss to the slick, guitar pop-skewing renaissance man we see at the helm of Queens today, the desert barons’ first LP in six years pauses like an anguished ‘Fuck, I’m 40!’ to stop and look around.

With recording sessions thrown off course by the sudden departure of Joey Castillo, …Like Clockwork emerges a varied beast, riddled with battle-damaged lyrics, a staggering teamsheet (Reznor, Grohl, Lavelle, Sir Elton) and a seductive darkness at its heart.

Although their characteristic levity is buried under the drama, Queens’ ability to thrill remains intact (If I Had A Tail swings in like a wrecking ball from on high), and as their impenetrable façade of Fonzarelli cool begins to slip, a more boldly operatic side begins to reveal itself (see the poignant piano-driven sign-off). A mature, heart-on-sleeve epic, and an acute reminder that we’re still in the midst of a master. [Dave Kerr]

RECORDS

Turbines, Full Time Hobby, 17 Jun Frontiersmen and women of the ‘folktronica’ movement, Tunng have long blended gentle, well-rounded folk melodies with morsels of twee electronic experimentation, making music akin to a cosy hand-knitted cardigan with a high-vis lining. Album number five, with its rustic instrumentation and unisonous him ’n’ her vocals, doesn’t tread radically different ground from the previous four – no great shame, given that winsome formula.

Notably, though, the ‘tronica’ element of their adopted subgenre is dialled down, and with it, Tunng’s trademark sense of quirkiness. Ironic samples and glitchy distortions are noticeably rarer than on previous outings, conceding to a more pared-down, straightforward songwriting approach. Tracks like The Village and Once have a sweet, bouncy simplicity and a wholesome warmth that only the stoniest hearts could begrudge. Only closing number Heavy Rock Warning ventures towards unworldly off-beats; otherwise, Turbines may be the band’s most accessible record to date.

[John Nugent]

The Top Five 1 2 3 4 5

Palms

Palms

Deafheaven

Sunbather

oOoOO

Without Your Love

Queens of the Stone Age

...Like Clockwork

These New Puritans

Field of Reeds

Review

39

BOOK NOW: 0161 832 1111 www.manchesteracademy.net Tickets available from www.ticketline.co.uk

Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PR • Tel: 0161 275 2930

Live Music at the University of Manchester Students’ Union May June

Camera Obscura – Wednesday 5th Mudhoney + Meat Puppets – Friday 7th – Doors 6.30pm DANZIG 25th Anniversary Tour + Misfits Set With Special Guest DOYLE + In This Moment – Wednesday 19th Snakecharmer + Hell To Pay + 3 Lions – Friday 21st MK1 – Sunday 23rd July

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SPECIAL QUADRAPHONIC AV PERFORMANCE WITH SUPPORT FROM DRAWING ENSEMBLE & MORE

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BLACKHOODS & MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON

Aesthetic Perfection – Wednesday 10th The Mend – Saturday 13th MS MR – Monday 15th Ricky Warwick / Acoustic TV – Wednesday 17th Wintersun – Wednesday 17th

MUSIC INSPIRED EVENTS, DESIGN AND PRODUCTIONS

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Trembling Bells & Mike Heron + Ravens – Wednesday 31st August

Texas Is The Reason Last Ever Live Shows – Saturday 3rd Pitbull Global Warming Tour 2013 – Tuesday 6th The B-52’s – Tuesday 13th Highlights for the rest of year

Emily Portman Trio + Ottergear – Friday 6th September Babyshambles – Saturday 7th September Wiley – Sunday 8th September Miles Kane – Saturday 28th September Wheatus – Friday 4th October Fat Freddy’s Drop – Friday 4th October Sleeping With Sirens – Monday 7th October Bowling For Soup Bid Farewell Tour 2013 – Sunday 13th October Children Of Bodom – Monday 14th October

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Suede – Wednesday 30th October Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Friday 8th November For full listings please check out our website:

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@MancAcademy ILLUSTRATION: ELENA BOILS

40

THE SKINNY

Resonant Structures With a fancy for mallets, typewriters and Allen keys, avantgarde ensemble Ex-Easter Island Head, led by Benjamin Duvall, are one of Liverpool’s most involving live acts

Interview: Lauren Strain

EX-EASTER ISLAND HEAD

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ince 2009, Ex-Easter Island Head have comprised an evolving, expanding and contracting cast of characters, on occasion welcoming to their crew 12 Nottingham-based electric guitarists, a 16-strong vocal choir of volunteers and a 27-piece ensemble made up of people aged 18-70.

Conforming to some strict musical principles – as exhibited on their Mallet Guitars series of releases – yet collaborating widely outside their circle, their ethos is one of rigour and inclusivity; their core players are all members of the chameleonic a.P.A.t.T. Orchestra, and they’ve performed with some seriously notable figures in contemporary music, including Philip Jeck and Rhys Chatham.

The band’s Benjamin Duvall proved that he’s got his priorities right by “answering these questions while 30 coppers with dogs are combing my workplace for explosives” and simultaneously “trying to find out how to make a buzzing sitarlike bridge for guitar via the internet.” Good lad.

We feel a bit sad for the Easter Island Head that’s not an Easter Island Head anymore. What happened to it?

An Easter Island head (Moai) that is no longer on Easter Island, is an ex-Easter Island Head. There is one in the World Museum, Liverpool, called Moai Hava, which means ‘one who is lost’, which seems pretty appropriate really. We wrote a piece for him and performed it around the statue with the a.P.A.t.T Orchestra – he’s on the cover of our second record cutting a handsomely imposing figure. His companion, Hoa Hakananai’a, is in the British Museum, London, but they won’t let us write a piece for him – his name means ‘stolen friend’.

In making your debut record, Mallet Guitars One, you reduced the instruments and techniques at your disposal to just three solid body guitars open-tuned to a specific chord,

June 2013

and struck the bodies with mallets to produce resonances. What are the creative benefits of limiting yourselves in this way?

First and foremost, you’re establishing a boundary to work within so you don’t have to spend loads of time exploring and refining a huge range of possibilities. By setting a few rules – no effects, fixed chords, not using the fretboard, etc.

– and with the physical way in which the guitars are configured (laid flat), you’re purposefully changing how you would normally approach the instrument. In this case, the only melodic input we had was determining the three chords; the rest of the work is done by the mallets hitting the body causing the strings to vibrate and produce overtones and harmonics. That then puts you in the position of having to approach the whole piece rhythmically and forget all about riffs, chord changes and the majority of things you know about trying to play the guitar.

Working this way makes you treat the guitar as more of a physical object; a bit more of a playground. The virtue of cheap guitars means that you’re less concerned with how you might damage them so you end up trying all kinds of treatments, from placing objects under the strings to battering them with drumsticks.

You’ve recently expanded your artillery to include Allen keys. Tell us about Allen keys.

A suitably applied Allen key is a bow, slide, capo, sustain pedal, bridge and more, for about 12 pence. The tones and effects you can wrestle from a guitar using a large Allen key is pretty astounding. Sheer alchemy.

For Mallet Guitars Two, you expanded from a duo to four people – and included trumpet in your repertoire. Can we expect a Mallet Guitars Three?

Yes! We recorded it live in a room in our house so

it’s super intimate but with a much more detailed approach. It’s a much broader palette of sounds and techniques. We’ve been playing it live around the UK since January 2012 in support of people like James Blackshaw, Barn Owl, and Tim Hecker.

We’ve also got a recording of our piece Large Electric Ensemble for massed electric guitars and drums, which we’re just about to start mixing, which is a totally different, maximal kind of approach to how we normally work.

Last year you performed on the Island of Iona, which has a population of 125 and an abbey from the Middle Ages. This sounds fucking mental.

Iona is unlike anywhere else really – you can’t take a car on to the island. We left ours on Mull and had to move all our gear across via ferry on a hotel luggage trolley in choppy seas. We played in the one-room library to a third of the island’s population and the atmosphere was incredible – total hush in a tiny room in the middle of nowhere. While we were there we explored all three square miles of the island, climbed to the highest point, recorded an improvisation for singing bowls and voice in a 15th century chapel, ate some delicious locally caught crab and experienced one of the most outrageous discos in the western hemisphere.

What other bonkers things have you done?

Last year was pretty good for crazy experiences – in addition to performing on the Isle of Iona, we also did a ten day residency at an international arts festival in Nottingham that featured 1000 artists from a hundred countries. We played three or four shows over the course of the residency while being put up and fed in student halls with young artists from all over the world. We met so many interesting people and got to see lots and lots of amazing artwork, while partying

MUSIC

Photo: Kirsty Hornby

a great deal. I feel we’ll be seeing collaborations and outcomes from that for many years to come.

In November we were invited to create new work in a 300-year-old tower in Northern Ireland and spent five days as a duo creating a new piece for amplified typewriter, mallet guitars and percussion, A Curfew Tower for Bill Morrison. The Curfew Tower has been operated as an artists’ residency by Bill Drummond/In You We Trust [an arts trust] for about 14 years and is full of previous artworks tucked away in every nook and cranny. It has five floors and really thick walls so we worked from about midday ‘til 2am every day and ended up creating a very personal piece as a kind of musical memorial to my collaborator’s late father. We’re returning to the tower in August this year.

“At the very least people want to see just what the hell you plan on doing with four guitars on tables and a bag full of dinner bells” Benjamin Duvall

You seem to like taking your music to places where people might not normally expect it, and are as at home on experimental programmes – you’ve appeared with Maria Minerva, Forest Swords and Anat Ben-David in the past – as more straight-up line-ups (you’ve supported Ghostpoet). Do you feel a sense of commitment to bringing your music to new environments and audiences?

I think we just want to play wherever we’ll be appreciated. Generally people are pretty receptive to what we’re doing: I guess this is just because it’s so visually different, so at the very least people want to see just what the hell you plan on doing with four guitars on tables and a bag full of dinner bells because they’re mostly not sure what form the music is going to take. The Spectres of Spectacle event you mentioned [with Maria Minerva etc.] was an installation piece for three tape loops of harmonium, voice and prepared bass guitar cycling in and out of phase with each other over the course of about six hours. It was pretty meditative, immersive stuff that you could tune in and out of because it was this discreet, constant presence.

I like to think that for the most part we tend to perform on our own terms precisely because of our unusual setup, but also because the performative aspect of the music is integral to how it is written. It’s all well and good discussing self imposed rules and inspirations but if there’s no concession to making something that people want to watch and enjoy listening to, there’s not much point doing it.

Ex-Easter Island Head perform alongside Outfit and Bird at Blade Factory, Liverpool, 28 Jun, 8pm, free www.exeasterislandhead.com

Feature

41

Clubbing Highlights What’s that, you say? Summer’s a bit of a drought for clubs? Well, we’ve dug around and churned up plenty of opportunities for you to lose your mind in a dark room – or a sodden field – this month, from Parklife’s inimitable roster to Prosumer and Move D Words: John Thorp Illustration: Jonathan Summers-Muir

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hile we love nothing better here at The Skinny than to bring your attention to the Northwest’s hidden clubbing treasures, it’d be essentially impossible to begin this month’s column without acknowledging the Parklife Weekender (8-9 Jun). The Warehouse Project’s festival juggernaut is finally making the transition from Platt Fields and up the Metrolink to Heaton Park, where – hopefully – punters will be offered a little more breathing space. Meanwhile, the sound engineers won’t have to contend with an adjacent school’s exams, and a church, risking the wrath of both God and OFSTED. The event’s commercially focused and somewhat studenty nature might not be to everyone’s taste, but the line-up is inarguably massive, and excellent, with fans of most genres and scenes equally and expertly catered for. At the time of going to press, weekend tickets are sold out, but snuffle one out and, while dodging Capital FM fare like Rita Ora, Plan B and Example, you can expect live sets from the likes of Scuba, Four Tet and Simian Mobile Disco, and whole tents curated by favourites like Heidi and Hudson Mohawke, drafting in Derrick Carter and Breakbot respectively – as well as always reliable DJ mainstays such as Jackmaster, Damian Lazarus, Erol Alkan and Ben UFO. Even post-punk fans can get on board, with The Horrors, Savages and Liars lined up by Now Wave for the Sunday. And that’s not to mention the afterparties. Yikes!

At a slower pace, Liverpool welcomes A Love from Outer Space to Haus (8 Jun, £10). Over the course of the evening, veritable legend of rave, dub and everything more Andrew Weatherall will be joining forces with slo-mo sparring partner Sean Johnston to bring their popular London underground disco to Merseyside. Weird, moody and euphoric, as ALFOS the pair spend the whole night dealing in chuggers, working the crowd into a slow sweat while “never knowingly rising above 121BPM.” Oof. The following weekend, LCD Soundsystem reform in magical cinescope at Camp and Furnace, Liverpool, for a special screening on 14 June of their triumphant Shut Up and Play The Hits show, filmed live at Madison Square Garden in 2011 (£8 earlybird, £11). Though the movie is now available on DVD, it’s fair to say that the likes of Yeah and All My Friends are best experienced among others, with wild, drunken abandon, as they were intended. As well as the film, there’s DJ support from Discoteca Poca’s Paul Hutchinson and Andrew Hill of Abandon Silence, as well as some promising live electronics from local Lunar Modular.

Post-Parklife, and it’s back to business in Manchester’s basements, with the debut of Livity Sound live at Soup Kitchen (14 Jun, £5). A sort of Discogs dream, the label project stems from Bristol and combines the talents of Peverelist, Kowton and Asusu, who individually have been doing some of the most exotic and forward-thinking things with drums and synths in the land – all of which will be recreated with heads down and much hardware, if their recent Boiler Room set is anything to go by. Support comes from local lad on the up, Acre.

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Preview

CLUBS

With the student populace fleeing home for the summer (or, to Croatia), you might have to wait a little longer than usual for a few good parties – but then, like buses, they all come along at once, as evidenced on 28 June, when the shortest night (OK, it’s a week later than the shortest night, but work with me here, yeah?!) sees no end of opportunities to go out into the dark (or, erm, light). First of all, there’s the seventh birthday of electronic-leaning indie night, Dots and Loops, who are offering a bumper event at Kraak featuring a DJ set from Spacemen 3’s Pete Kember, performing as his solo project, Sonic Boom. What will doubtlessly be a raft of fairly mindbending electronica and psych comes with support from a fine bunch of local freak-out merchants, namely Plank!, Weird Era and Mind Mountain. It’s a long night from 8pm, but only £7 for earlybirds.

Meanwhile, in the basement of The Deaf Institute – one of Manchester’s most underrated and pleasingly intimate venues for a good party – Jozef K and Winter Son head up the bill for the Berlin inspired Fortsetzen 3 (28 Jun, £4 earlybird). As both a promoter and a brilliant young DJ not afraid to dig deep, Jozef was one of the forces steering Sankeys in the right direction until its recent end, while Winter Son is best known as one half of cult electronica act Ghosting Season.

Incidentally, the other half is on the decks, as well as representatives from local wax institution Eastern Bloc. Jozef and Winter Son’s debut EP gets off to a nice start this month on Sasha’s Last Night on Earth label, and the pair will be DJing at the Deaf with live 808 accompaniment adding dashes of acid whenever necessary. Spoiler: it’s always necessary.

Completing this unofficial post-solstice party selection, the always reliable Content bring Prosumer to Joshua Brooks for a threehour session (28 Jun, £10). More often than not found around the back of Berghain, expertly eking out the last energies of those out for a Sunday afternoon session during his much celebrated Panorama Bar sets, Prosumer is described by Content as “simply one of the best deep house DJs in Europe” – to which his rabid fanbase is testament. More than that, he has that increasingly rare and genre defying skill to simply blend great music with a real lightness of touch.

Last but not least, it’s difficult to know where to start previewing Move D – or David Moufang, to his pals. With a career spanning nearly a quarter of a century and encompassing everything from jazz guitar to spaced-out disco, it’s probably best to just know that he’s a bit of a living legend, and that you should head to YouTube and seek out his three-hour Boiler Room session with Optimo for a glimpse into his enviable record collection. He’ll be playing at Liverpool’s Fallout Factory on 21 June (£12, tickets only), and earlier in the month in Manchester at The Roadhouse (7 Jun, £8), as part of a Dimensions festival launch. Mr Moufang’s popularity may end up betraying the relatively small capacity of his parties, so it might be worth jumping on board in advance for this one.

Ticket prices are advance unless otherwise specified; some events may be more on the door

THE SKINNY

Get Mucky

BAND ON THE WALL

THE HOME OF REAL MUSIC

Forget flash-in-the-pan scandals: Horse Meat Disco have been dishing up disco dirt for a decade. We catch up with the crew’s James Hillard and Severino Panzetta as they prepare to bring their party to Manchester

Sat 1st June

MR SCRUFF KEEP IT UNREAL 14TH BIRTHDAY Fri 7th June

Interview: John Thorp Illustration: Jennifer Oliver

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DREAD Sat 8th June

RAG TAG ft. WARA & JALI NYONKOLING Fri 14th June

MISTY IN ROOTS Sat 15th June

MAYSA (Incognito) Fri 21st June

SANGUINE HUM Sat 22nd June

AZYMUTH Fri 28th June

BILAL Sat 29th June

CRAIG CHARLES FUNK&SOUL CLUB ft.

DEEP STREET SOUL Thu 11th July

I

June 2013

to London to find gems to take back home, and vice versa. He was also a rather good oboe player in his youth, but can’t think of much oboe/disco crossover, aside from a few Culture Club singles.

Panzetta’s background is quite the contrast to that of Hillard, who spent his childhood in Somerset, the son of a local butcher who just so happened to moonlight as a DJ. “When I moved to London, there wasn’t a scene like in France or in Scandinavia, as people weren’t sticking together,” Panzetta observes. It took a few years for him to make headway with London promoters before becoming part of HMD – but of course, much has changed since then and, away from the club, he has become a crossAtlantic ally of the likes of Luke Solomon and Derrick Carter. The latter even asked Severino to mix a Through The Eyes Of compilation for his Classic Music label – and an original track will hopefully follow later this year.

With DJs nationwide currently fending off a barrage of requests for Daft Punk’s ubiquitous Get Lucky, and almost as many columnists and promoters trying to jump on a very particular groove train, Hillard in particular is cautious about the return of disco, noting that it seems to be back “every other year or so,” and adding that he’s seen more disco revivals than horse meat scandals. As well as keeping their weekly Sunday shift at Eagle London in constant action, the crew are currently working on new, original music – vocals and all – as well as their Rinse FM show. Two hours of disco and funk on what was once a pirate radio station dedicated to grime, their Rinse broadcast is indicative of Horse Meat Disco’s continuing success and relevance in a constantly evolving UK dance music scene. Don’t tell anyone, but disco never dies.

Fri 12th July

SHUGGIE OTIS Sat 13th July

HALF PINT FRI 19th - Sun 21st July

BEER & BLUES WEEKENDER Sat 27th July

CRAIG CHARLES FUNK&SOUL CLUB ft.

LEE FIELDS Sun 28th July

SNARKY PUPPY Tue 30th July

STUART MCCALLUM CHANNEL4 ft. LAURENT DE WILDE + LAURENT ROBIN & PETE TURNER Tickets / Info:

bandonthewall.org ticketwall.org 0845 2 500 500 Band on the Wall, Swan Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester M4 5JZ

Horse Meat Disco play 2022NQ, Manchester, 15 Jun, 10pm-4am, £8 adv Eagle London, Vauxhall, every Sun, 8pm-3am www.soundcloud.com/horse-meat-disco

CLUBS

Preview

Photo © Rosanna Freedman

f you found yourself appalled during the earlier part of this year as the seemingly endless scandal in which cheap, European horse meat was found unlabelled in all manner of everyday food products, then we’re afraid you may have to set your face to stun once more. This sort of thing has been happening for years. London-based DJ James Hillard should know. He named a clubnight after it.

In mid-00s London, in the wake of a wave of funky house and at the peak of trend-conscious electro, Horse Meat Disco set up shop one Sunday evening in a pub, armed with a crate of classic disco records and an eyebrow raising name. “There was another scandal back then, but while it was really insignificant, it stuck out to me. There’s something sleazy and wrong going on with the name,” he agrees.

Since then, HMD as an entity has expanded both its appeal and its roster of DJs, with Luke Howard and Severino Panzetta joining Hillard and co-founder Jim Stanton. They’ve found international success, with the core crew sticking to their ethos of unearthing exciting records old and new to keep a room going early into a Monday morning, and the party has chalked up a loyal following everywhere from Glasgow to Barcelona, as well as birthing three expertly selected and eclectic compilations.

Given the natural underground roots of disco and the gay scene, has Hillard ever been conscious to avoid the club drifting into the realm of ‘the brand’? “A lot of people say it’s a ‘brand’, but I don’t know what that means,” he counters. “I mean, we do a few parties, we’ve put out a compilation, but we haven’t got a clothing line... We like to do parties and have a good time.

My idea of a brand is making shitloads of money, and we’re not making shitloads of money.”

Severino Panzetta, who will be joining Hillard for an HMD appearance at 2022NQ in Manchester this month, began his career as a DJ engrossed in the vibrant Italian club scene of the 90s – but also worked as a record buyer, regularly flying

ULTRAMAGNETIC MCs

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June Film Events LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE

The Act of Killing

Director: Joshua Oppenheimer Starring: Anwar Congo, Herman Koto, Haji Anif, Syamsul Arifin, Safit Pardede Released: 28 Jun Certificate: 15

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Before Midnight

Director: Richard Linklater Starring: Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick, Ariane Labed Released: 21 Jun Certificate: 15

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Few films have explored the moral implications of murder as creatively and powerfully as The Act of Killing. Joshua Oppenheimer’s documentary introduces us to men who were partly responsible for the murder of a million alleged communists in Indonesia in 1965. After hearing them casually recount their actions with an almost boastful air, Oppenheimer invites them to re-enact the murders in the cinematic style of their choosing, which leads to amateurish depictions of brutality in the form of Hollywood gangster movies and musicals.

Allowing killers to indulge in their crimes like this puts The Act of Killing in a moral grey zone, but Oppenheimer’s audacious gambit pays off, particularly with the journey undertaken by Anwar Congo, a former death squad leader forced to contemplate the gravity of his crimes. “I did this to so many people,” he tearfully confesses as the reality of his actions finally hits home. This extraordinary work serves up a series of shocking and surreal sequences, and uses the artifice of filmmaking to expose horrendous truths. [Philip Concannon]

This most unlikely of threequels returns to the story of Jesse (Hawke) and Céline (Delpy), 18 years after they first met on a train and fell in love. The latest instalment restores many elements of the original two films – minimal plot, unfussy camerawork, real-time action, and long uninterrupted scenes of keenly observed quasi-intellectual dialogue between the pair, pontificating on love, life, and happiness.

But where the encounters of Before Sunrise and Before Sunset were spontaneous and romantic, Before Midnight joins the couple – now married – in the midst of a family holiday and a relationship losing its fizz.

Young twins and a messy divorce with an ex-wife have suppressed any last slivers of romance, and, with its extended sequences of passive-aggressive bickering (he’s accused of being a “closet macho”, she of being “fucking insane”), the film is a rather more pessimistic take on relationships. Yet it remains as engaging, illuminating, honest and funny as its predecessors; here’s hoping we revisit Jesse and Céline in another decade or so.

[John Nugent]

This Is the End

Spike Island

Director: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen Starring: Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson Released: 28 Jun Certificate: 15

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Director: Mat Whitecross Starring: Elliot Tittensor, Nico Mirallegro, Lesley Manville, Jordan Murphy, Emilia Clarke Released: 21 Jun Certificate: 15

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This Is the End is like a Who’s Who of contemporary American comedy, with almost everyone who has graced an Apatow production in the past decade making an appearance. The twist is that they’re all playing themselves, with Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel and Jonah Hill among the stars partying at James Franco’s house when the apocalypse begins. As hellfire rains down outside, this small band of celebrities spend their time bickering and working out ill-conceived survival plans, and their interaction is fun to watch – for a while.

The actors are clearly having a ball spoofing their public personas, but at a certain point it appears they’re having a lot more fun than the audience. The loose, improv-heavy approach they indulge in ensures that a number of scenes feel overextended, and the film as a whole is disappointingly shapeless. With most of these performers now pursuing far more interesting projects in their own careers, maybe this is the end for a group of comics whose shtick has started to feel rather tired. [Philip Concannon]

You’d be forgiven for thinking it’s 1990: this month alone the Stone Roses headline the Isle of Wight festival, star in a Shane Meadows documentary, and form the centrepiece of this affectionate slice of fandom. It’s a fictional account of five mad-fer-it pals who make the pilgrimage to “the most important gig in the ‘istory of the world” at the titular island, getting up to booze’n’pills-fuelled mischief along the way.

Bowl haircuts and Mancunian affectations abound in an electric, earnest, hazy portrayal of Madchester’s glory days, but since a bunch of mates going to a pop concert does not, by itself, possess enough narrative oomph to drive a film, the script does over-rely on maudlin Britfilm tropes: the domestic abuse victim, the terminally ill parent, the teenage love triangle. The strongest moments come in depictions of the joys of youthful hedonism and band worship – Christopher Ross’s bold cinematography, in particular, helps capture the potent exuberance of the era. [John Nugent]

Much Ado About Nothing

Like Someone in Love

Director: Joss Whedon Starring: Fran Kranz, Jillian Morgese, Alexis Denisof, Amy Acker, Nathan Fillion, Sean Maher, Clark Gregg, Tom Lenk, Spencer Treat Clark Released: 14 Jun Certificate: 12A

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Shunning doublet and hose in favour of tastefully tailored suburbia, Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing is a lithe, wry look at one of Shakespeare’s lesser-visited works, discovering in dreamy monochrome the sensuousness often lost between iambs. As Claudio (Kranz) and Hero (Morgese) struggle with honour, and Benedick (Denisof) and Beatrice (Acker) clash wits, lines are delivered with a casual insight that transcends posturing.

Quirky innovations include a tinkling, jazz piano-led rendition of Hey Nonny Nonny, and the figuring of Riki Lindhome as Conrade, Don John’s traditionally male sidekick, as a female lover. Whedon shot in 12 days at his own home, with a cast snatched from pre-film works that will delight alumni of Buffy, Dollhouse and Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. While such conditions could easily feel restrictive or distracting, Whedon’s inventive framing, delicate means of shifting focus and glowing, ethereal use of light make for a stylish and absolutely credible vision, about which much ado would be well-earned. [Kirsty Leckie-Palmer]

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Review

Director: Abbas Kiarostami Starring: Tadashi Okuno, Rin Takanashi, Ryo Kase, Denden, Reiko Mori Released: 21 Jun Certificate: 12A

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While Woody Allen’s recent European ventures have produced distinctly mixed results, Abbas Kiarostami’s travels are proving to be much more rewarding. The great Iranian director follows his mysterious Tuscan romance Certified Copy with Tokyo-set Like Someone in Love; from the incredible opening shot onwards, it’s clear Kiarostami’s cinematic language translates perfectly in any setting.

As in his previous film, the director sets us up to expect a familiar tale before he starts springing surprises. A pretty Japanese student (Takanashi) arrives at the apartment of an ageing professor (Okuno). As soon as we think we know how this premise will play out, Kiarostami shifts direction, with the nature of role-playing and human interactions again being his prime interest.

Like Someone in Love exemplifies all of the director’s finest qualities: the unhurried pacing, the fluid approach to story and character, the masterful use of space. Of course, there’s also a central sequence set in a car, although I doubt Kiarostami has ever shot one as lovely and entrancing as this beguiling nocturnal ride. [Philip Concannon]

FILM

Does Prom Com wallow in 90s nostalgia? AS IF! It offers some great teen movies and concludes, like all great teen movies do, with a prom. Other June highlights: a terrifying horror double bill, a day of spaghetti crime flicks, and superheroes come to town Words: Simon Bland

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ummer’s almost here, so let's lock ourselves in dark rooms. Heading to Grimm Up North would be a good place to start. These local horror hounds are hosting a Sanitarium and Static double bill on 20 Jun at Manchester’s Dancehouse Theatre. The former recalls the dark and twisted tales of three mental asylum inmates and stars Malcolm McDowell and horror icon Robert Englund. Meanwhile, Static chronicles the despair of a grieving couple who’re visited by a mysterious stranger following the sudden death of their child. Looking for a quick scare? Look no further.

CLUELESS

Feeling nostalgic? Liverpool’s FACT will be screening a series of 90s high-school classics during their aptly named Prom Com event.

Preppy teen fave Clueless kicks things off on 3 Jun, followed by 10 Things I Hate About You (10 Jun) and American Pie (17 Jun). The season rounds off with an All American Prom at The Kazimier (20 Jun). Dust off your chunky retro cell phone, skip your classes for the day and head down.

Up-and-comers A Small Cinema return with a gun-toting event celebrating Italian police movies. Blazing Magnum Screenings Presents: A Day of Crime takes place in Moston on 1 Jun and features The Italian Connection (La Mala Ordina) and Rome Armed to the Teeth (Roma A Mano Armata), with Mike Malloy’s gripping documentary Eurocrime! The Italian Cop and Gangster Films That Ruled the 70s screened in between.

With more car chases, mafia bosses and gritty violence than you can shake a cannoli at, it’s definitely not to be missed, capisce?

June looks to be a good month for comicbook guys and gals. Not only will Northern cinephiles have the chance to witness Kal-El’s return on Manchester’s eye-watering IMAX screen from 14 Jun, the Heroes for Sale ComicCon hits Trafford Park at the end of the month (29, 30 Jun). Cult stars Doug Jones (Hellboy/Pan’s Labyrinth) and Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters) will be in attendance alongside some innovative events and exhibits. Geeky fun guaranteed.

And finally, Picnic Cinema presents an evening with Bram Stoker’s Dracula at Leighton Hall, Carnforth, 29 Jun. Attendees are invited to either stay for the evening or go the whole hog and camp overnight in the venue’s picturesque grounds. Once there, they’ll be able to enjoy wine tasting, fancy dress frolics, a movie-themed pub quiz and, of course, Coppola’s gaudy vamp flick. A movie event you can really sink your teeth into.

THE SKINNY

Blow Out

To the Wonder

Lore

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Director: Brian De Palma. Starring: John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow Released: Out now Certificate: 18 “So, you’re an ear-witness to an assassination.” Terry is a soundman working on exploitation films who, out one night in the countryside to record background sounds, witnesses – and tapes – the suspicious death by car crash of a presidential candidate.

If the plot of Blow Out (1981) sounds over-familiar to anyone with more than a passing acquaintance with 1970s conspiracy thrillers, the virtuosity of Brian De Palma’s direction quickly blows away any reservations. This restoration on Blu-ray from Arrow Films gives us a chance to appreciate anew the sinuous crane moves, the neon-drenched streets, the immaculate art direction, and the bravura staging that have made the film a cult favourite.

From the gloriously tasteless opening to the jaw-dropping final twist, De Palma balances over-the-top film-making with precise story-telling to create a masterwork of pulp fiction. A lithe, unmannered and immensely likeable central performance by the young Travolta also proves a revelation. [Keir Roper-Caldbeck]

Director: Terrence Malick. Starring: Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko, Rachel McAdams Released: 17 Jun Certificate: 12 The golden hour, that hour before sunset when the humdrum world is transformed by the warm, suffuse light of the dipping sun, has long been a favourite of Terrence Malick, and he leans heavily on its enchanting effect to create the breathtaking images that fill To the Wonder, his story of a cross-cultural romance between the old world and the new.

But the golden hour depends for its magic on its contrast to the other 23 hours of the day; used exclusively, its honeyed glow becomes saccharine. And this is something that Malick has forgotten. His camera moves ceaselessly, on a constant search for the next beautiful image, never deigning to block a scene out dramatically. Dialogue is reduced to impressionistic snatches and self-consciously poetic voice-over; the impressive cast have nothing much to do but exchange meaningful looks through windblown hair. Without contrast, all that beauty becomes as tiresome as a feature length perfume ad. [Keir Roper-Caldbeck]

Adapted from Rachel Seiffert’s 2001 novel The Dark Room, Lore presents the dissolution of the Third Reich through the eyes of a teenage girl raised in its midst, her family’s proNazi world view capsized by defeat. The titular protagonist (an impressive Rosendahl) is a complex creation – too young to share her parents’ complicity, but having assimilated their anti-Semitic values nonetheless. This mix of innocence and ignominy creates a keen dramatic tension, keeping audience sympathies in flux.

Tasked with looking after her younger siblings following her parents’ arrest, Lore journeys through occupied Germany – a tumult of grief, guilt and denial pervaded by terrible suffering.

With careful poetry, director Cate Shortland builds an immersive narrative from vivid, sensory details, lingering on the crunch of eggshells underfoot or the revulsive intimacy of ants crawling on corpses. The result is a stimulating portrayal of an under-examined aspect of Nazism’s terrible legacy. [Chris Buckle]

Neighbouring Sounds

The Parade

Cría Cuervos

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Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho. Starring: Irma Brown, Sebastião Formiga Released: 24 Jun Certificate: 15 Kleber Mendonça Filho’s debut centres on a modern apartment complex and concerns several residents’ everyday dramas.

Initially these seem to be domestic farces but the wry tone is at odds with Neighbouring Sounds’ macabre sound design. From outwith the apartment’s bolted security gates an unnerving cacophony continually rings out: screams of kids, high-pitched drilling, and some metallic clanging too alien to pinpoint.

As well as being an aural treat, Filho's film is a visual one too.

The chief theme is implied long before it's thrillingly revealed, with the modernist architecture imbuing a nefarious vibe despite the cheerful hue of its decor. But Filho’s trump card is that he isn’t afraid to dip his toe in the surreal, with waterfalls of blood and trippy home invasion nightmares punctuated throughout. These keep us on edge: we’re never sure if these violent vignettes will spill over into our protagonists’ real lives. [Jamie Dunn]

Director: Srdjan Dragojević Starring: Nikola Kojo, Milos Samolov Released: 24 Jun Certificate: 15 With equal marriage on the way, it’s easy to forget that in parts of the world being gay can mean daily abuse, violence and even death. Gaybashing in Serbia is not the most obvious material for a comedy, but writer/director Dragojevic takes some chances and has something to say.

Through a complicated series of events, a homophobic gangster reluctantly agrees to arrange security for a Pride march in Belgrade. He’s forced to recruit a band of mostly insane former enemies from across the Balkan states, and slowly learns to trust and respect the much more dignified gay community.

The material is broad and coarse, the homophobic language is pervasive and difficult to take at times, and, yes, it’s a pretty funny film – but it’s also one that isn’t afraid to have an agenda, and Dragojevic’s genuine passion for change in his homeland shines through. A challenging, subversive gem. [Scotty McKellar]

WIN FOUR TICKETS TO THE BIG SPEAKEASY!

Entrants must be 18 or over. Proof of age will be required prior to receipt of your tickets.

Courtesy of High Peak Beer promotions, we have one set of four tickets to The Big Speakeasy to give away so you can take your mates for a day of hops, hotdogs and Harlem swing!

Competition closes midnight Sunday 30 Jun. The winner will be notified within two working days and is required to respond within one week or the prize will be offered to another entrant. Full details of terms and conditions can be found at www.theskinny.co.uk/about/terms

To be in with a chance of winning, simply head over to theskinny.co.uk/competitions and correctly answer the following question:

Director: Carlos Saura. Starring: Ana Torrent, Geraldine Chaplin, Héctor Alterio Released: Out now Certificate: 12 Three years after her precocious debut in The Spirit of the Beehive, Ana Torrent confirmed herself in Cría Cuervos (1973) as an actress of remarkable presence. Her assured performance – innocent and inscrutable – forms the delicate centre to a film of pronounced allegorical purpose, which combines nuanced character drama with echoes of Spain’s political ghosts.

Torrent plays a sensitive child with morbid preoccupations.

Though outwardly peaceful, the newly orphaned Ana is buffeted by tumultuous emotions, with guilt over her perceived role in the death of her fascist father entwined with confused remembrances of her mother’s painful demise. As her fears express themselves in games and fantasies, director Carlos Saura adopts a fluid magic realism, puncturing the narrative with straight-to-camera reflections from the adult Ana (Chaplin) and blurring the divide between reality and dreams. [Chris Buckle]

WIN A PAIR OF TICKETS TO BEAT-HERDER FESTIVAL!

The Big Speakeasy is an All American Beer Festival to be held in Stockport's Victorian Market Hall for one night only, on Saturday 27 July. The festival will see beers from American microbreweries, bourbons and cocktails meet up with classic hotdogs and music from 'Hot Harlem' to recreate the atmosphere of a 1920s Prohibition-era speakeasy. To complete the night, there’s even a ‘Gangsters & Molls’ fancy dress theme.

June 2013

Director: Cate Shortland. Starring: Saskia Rosendahl, Kai-Peter Malina, Nele Trebs Released: Out now Certificate: 15

What year did Prohibition end in the United States of America?

A) 1929 B) 1931 C) 1933

For more information about The Big Speakeasy: www.highpeakbeer.co.uk or on Twitter @thebigspeakeasy For the facts about alcohol: www.drinkaware.co.uk

The Beat-Herder Festival returns to the Ribble Valley in the heart of Lancashire this 5-7 July for another three-day instalment of beats and barminess, DJs and live acts, comedians and drag queens, and much, much more.

Entering its eighth year, Beat-Herder is staying true to its dance origins with an absolutely massive line-up bursting with seminal electronic, reggae, dub, funk, soul and bass artists, including the likes of dance legends Groove Armada, Booka Shade, Jimmy Cliff, Norman Jay MBE, Buraka Som Sistema, Kissy Sell Out, Roni Size, Shackleton (live), Gentleman's Dub Club, Clean Bandit, Roosevelt, Public Service Broadcasting and Bondax, to name a few. Plus with two exciting new areas planned, expect even more crazy surprises than usual!

We have a pair of weekend camping tickets to give away to one lucky reader.

FILM / COMPETITIONS

To be in with a chance of winning, simply head over to theskinny.co.uk/competitions and correctly answer the following question: What is the name of the woodland area at Beat-Herder?

A) Tall Trees B) Toil Trees C) Tiny Trees Entrants must be 18 or over.

Competition closes midnight Friday 21 Jun. The winner will be notified within two working days and is required to respond within 48 hours or the prize will be offered to another entrant. Full details of terms and conditions can be found at www.theskinny.co.uk/about/terms For more information about Beat-Herder: www.beatherder.co.uk

Review

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Andrea Cotton and Naomi Lethbridge

Paper Gallery, Manchester, until 15 Jun

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MATTHEW STRADLING - SEALED

Realism: An Exhibition

The Gallery, Liverpool, until 28 Jun

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Realism as an artistic movement is, by its nature, accessible, and free of artifice and romanticism.

Featuring several contemporary British artists working within the genre, a thoughtfully curated show at The Gallery Liverpool presents modern still life, hyperrealism and portraiture side by side, revealing the aesthetic variety of contemporary realism.

Merseyside’s own Steve Caldwell deals in highly detailed acrylic portraits, so photorealistic that they provoke the viewer to take second and third looks, just to confirm they’re not the work of a savvy Photoshop user. As if to challenge the naysayers, Caldwell has left some of the pieces unfinished, to show the process involved.

Matthew Stradling’s The Mothers is a breathtaking celebration of two identical middleaged women, who stand naked and unapologetic. The artist’s masterful depiction of flesh and the human form is so intensely realistic, it’s unnerving.

Acclaimed figurative artist Sadie Lee’s skilful method of under-lighting her subjects – who are

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Review

scantily clad and caked in make-up – is compelling, exquisite even. In spite of their somewhat grotesque representation, her models betray a subtle dignity, and dare the viewer to create a narrative for them. Contrasting with Lee’s work are Pam Hawkes’ modern-gothic closeups. Hawkes’ fascination with storytelling and religious iconography transcends the traditional imagery and materials that she uses, yielding striking and haunting portraits. Bryan Hible, meanwhile, breaks up the portraiture love-in with tidbits from his Life’s a Game series, which depicts board games mid-play.

Realism is forgiving. If you can’t quite decipher your Courbet from your Daumier, no matter: the genre doesn’t care. This exhibition serves as a grateful reminder that paintings don’t have to be abstract and illusive to be constituted ‘art’, and that, sometimes, the ordinary can be extraordinary. It would be a real shame to let Realism: An Exhibition go unnoticed amid the LOOK/13 festival frenzy. [Frances Barrett] 41 Stanhope Street, Liverpool, Mon-Fri 10.30am-4.30pm, Sat 10.30am-1.30pm, free www.thegalleryliverpool.co.uk

For the sixth show at Manchester’s Paper Gallery, Andrea Cotton exhibits alongside Naomi Lethbridge. Both artists are represented by the gallery, and have a base at Mirabel Studios, where Paper finds its home.

This was my first visit to Paper Gallery, and I was met by three of its four directors – Cotton herself, David Hancock and Simon Woolham – who set up Paper in response to a desire to take control of their own destinies, and out of frustration at the lack of spaces in which to exhibit in the city. Paper’s curatorial direction is to show works on or using paper, in an accessible space, with the works available at an affordable price.

With prices starting at £35, Paper makes it easy for anyone on a budget to become a collector, and 75 per cent of the gallery’s custom comes from passing trade (which is not surprising – the gallery is easy to find, and just a minute’s walk from Victoria train station).

Against the white walls of the small space, Cotton and Lethbridge’s work is striking. Their styles are similar, and both artists use precise techniques and processes. Lethbridge’s work shows a more traditional approach to drawing, using lines to create forms recognisable to the viewer. In her Instruments for Storage series, everyday objects of the not so distant past, such as floppy disks, become suspended, immortalised forms on the white paper. Grouping together objects and ideas, Lethbridge’s classifications are a way of defining history; they represent an acquisition of knowledge.

Cotton’s representational drawings are so precisely detailed that, at first glance, they don’t seem to be drawings at all. Born out of her experience of working in a high security prison, Cotton’s drawings show the monotony and regime of life incarcerated. A painstakingly

ART

ANDREA COTTON - FLOORPLAN

accurate copy of a prison sign, Tin Opener highlights regime in the institution; the utensil can be a weapon, and the sign represents a set of rules. Cotton tells me that her process reflects her surroundings: “That is the nature of the regime,” she says. “You become obsessive, you are aware of your environment.”

A through line can be drawn between the artists’ work: while Cotton’s drawings represent the rigid regime of prison life, Lethbridge’s highlight the freedom of everyday life outside.

As I look at Lethbridge’s Casio Classic Collection, Cotton tells me that in prison, an inmate doesn’t need to be reminded of the time. [Ali Gunn] 14-20 Mirabel Street, Manchester, Saturdays 11am-5pm, free www.paper-gallery.co.uk

THE SKINNY

Head to Head

Authors David Gaffney and Nicholas Royle appear at Didsbury Arts Festival this month. Gaffney’s sometime collaborator SarahClare Conlon chairs a discussion between the two as they debate long versus micro fiction, and the influence of place on writing Interview: Sarah-Clare Conlon Illustration: Catherine Chialton

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t seems you can’t step out of your front door these days without tripping over some kind of multi-arts shindig, and this month, south Manchester’s Didsbury Arts Festival (22-30 Jun) offers a strong literary strand, with Simon Armitage (Didsbury Baptist Church, 30 Jun), Rosie Garland (The Albert Club, 27 Jun) and Jackie Kay (Emmanuel Church, 29 Jun) appearing alongside emerging writers, including newly crowned winner of the Chorlton Arts Festival FlashTag ‘shortshort story’ writing competition Michael Conley (The Parsonage, 26 Jun), and up-and-coming poet Andrew Beswick (Didsbury Library, 29 Jun).

Also on the bill are Manchester-based authors David Gaffney – whose work flies the flag for micro fiction – and Nicholas Royle, commissioning editor of Salt Publishing’s Best British Short Stories series and head of Nightjar Press, a short story imprint and the focus of his festival event.

Gaffney has just issued his fourth collection, More Sawn-Off Tales, through Salt, and has recently finished drafting his second novel; Royle’s seventh, rather confusingly entitled First Novel, was published by Jonathan Cape in January. So what better to get them debating over a glass of Chimay and a massive cheeseboard – y’know, just to put some writerly stereotypes to bed – than the subject of short versus long form fiction?

Gaffney tells how, when he was reading at an event at Essex Book Festival that was celebrating flash fiction (incidentally, both agree they

BOOK OF THE MONTH

hate the term, which makes the act of writing it sound as transitory as the experience of reading it), none of the audience members raised their hands when asked who read short-short stories.

“Novels are easier to sell, with one subject,” he surmises, “whereas short stories are about all kinds of things. If I applied the same amount of time to a novel as I do to stories, it’d take 10 years.”

“Well, you always get a story with your stories,” comments Royle, on Gaffney’s work.

“It’s not just observational writing; not just a vignette.”

Gaffney claims that he “never liked” his first novel, Never Never, which was the first thing he ever wrote – though his stories were published first. Royle picks this up: “I’m interested in authors who don’t like their first novels,” he says.

“People like Philip Pullman, who won’t have his reprinted and won’t even discuss it.” Gaffney wonders whether novelists, as musicians, experience ‘first album syndrome’, and the pair discuss the idea that, often, someone’s so-called first novel actually isn’t – they might have a drawer full of previously written ones. “My favourite novel is Les Gommes by Alain Robbe-Grillet, supposedly his first,” says Royle. “The next one, A Regicide, was published in 1978, but it was written in 1949, so Les Gommes is technically not his first novel – but it was the first novel to be published.”

At the festival, both authors will be

presenting their work in a live setting. Gaffney is quite used to performing, but questions whether live literature is beneficial to the medium or not.

“Well, if you read for five minutes and it’s good, then that’s a good thing,” replies Royle. “But if you read for 35 minutes…”

“The problem for me,” says Gaffney, “is that writers can start writing for performance, especially in Manchester, because there are so many spoken word nights.” Royle agrees, adding that getting into this habit can give rise to a form of literature that is more suitable for “reading on stage than reading on page”. He does stress, however, that reading work aloud is important to the writing process. “Nothing is finished until you’ve read it out loud,” he insists. “You spot stuff, unnecessary repetition... I always make my creative writing students read out loud.”

This is a commitment that could prove tricky for the two writers themselves, since both like to sit in cafes and bars to work. Does their environment affect what ends up on paper? “I can’t help

The Folded Man

By Matt Hill

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David Gaffney and Sarah-Clare Conlon: Sawn-Off Tales, Pizza Express (upstairs), Didsbury, Manchester, 25 Jun, 7.30pm, free Nicholas Royle and Nightjar Press: Nightjars & First Novels, Pizza Express (upstairs), Didsbury, Manchester, 27 Jun, 7pm, free www.didsburyartsfestival.com David Gaffney launches More Sawn-Off Tales at Takk, Tariff Street, Manchester, 13 Jun, 6pm

A Wolf in Hindelheim

All the Birds, Singing

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By Jenny Mayhew

Dirty Work

but write about where I am,” says Royle. “First Novel is set very specifically in Didsbury, where I live, and in a university, where I work.” Royle is interested in urban exploration, while Gaffney is into psychogeography, and they wonder whether places do, somehow, mean something that bit extra to writers. “Maybe the writer reads more into it,” offers Royle. “The writer has a professional responsibility to make something out of it.” It’s an idea worth thinking about; in the meantime, at this month’s festival, it’ll be the turn of Didsbury to make something out of their writing.

By Evie Wyld

By Gabriel Weston

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Dirty Work follows the tribunal of young doctor Nancy after performing an abortion leaves her frozen and unable to help the patient bleeding to death before her. Abortion debate tends to focus, understandably, on the woman having the procedure, but Weston flips the focus on to the doctor and the choices they are faced with in performing this socially divisive surgery.

Nancy is an introvert, entirely focused on succeeding as a doctor, and the first person narrative provides an unemotional yet thoroughly engaging account of her experiences. The narrative jumps between the trial and events in Nancy’s earlier life as she attempts to fathom how she came to assume this role. Nancy believes her work to be the most important thing she has done in her life, and yet she is isolated from colleagues who won’t speak to her, and forced to conceal her work from others – and is starting to lose focus in theatre.

Weston herself is a qualified surgeon and the book builds to the description of what Nancy has never spoken of – what it is like to perform an abortion. Those three pages contain extremely powerful prose – bold, unrelenting fact – and just as the experience stays with the doctor, it stays with the reader. [Rowena McIntosh]

Matt Hill’s debut novel – a dystopian satire in the sharp, graphic style of transgressive fiction, with a central character who thinks he’s a mermaid – is nothing if not eccentric. But Hill, who uses recent political and societal unease to paint a serious, bleak picture of Britain’s future, is aiming for more than mere eccentricity.

It’s 2018. Britain, war-torn, is in a state of collapse: nationalism has swept the country, bringing about all kinds of Orwellian – and often racist – social strictures. We make sense of this nightmarish state of affairs through Brian Meredith. Depressive and wheelchair-bound due to a congenital condition that left his legs fused (hence the mermaid self-mythologising), Brian leads a depraved life of drug abuse and sexual deviance. He may not be your ordinary hero, but then – as Hill is at pains to point out – this isn’t your ordinary novel.

Hill occasionally lets the bizarreness and depravity run away with itself, but The Folded Man, with its well realised fictional world and its oddly captivating, all too human protagonist, is a very promising debut indeed. [Kristian Doyle] Out now, published by Sandstone Press, RRP £8.99

Frau Ute Koenig gave the horizon a searching look with her cool green eyes. Nothing ever happened in Hindelheim, because it was a fictional village in interwar Germany. But now a baby was missing and change was coming. So, too, was Constable Theodore Hildebrandt, in the sidecar of the motorcycle that his son, Deputy Constable Klaus Hildebrandt, was riding into the village.

Theodore, crippled in WWI, gave Frau Koenig a look of disapproval and suspicion. The smudge of ash and moss on her cheek filled him with desire.

Ute could see that Constable Theodore Hildebrandt was crippled in WWI and was a metaphor for the state of the nation. Now she thought about it, all this stuff that was happening in the village could be a metaphor for the rise of the Nazis, who were on the horizon and covered in mist because they weren’t happening yet. She gave them a searching look. ‘This must be why I lived next to a Jew before I married a eugenicist,’ she thought. Feverish rumours began to circle while the flabby prose limped on, crying out for an editor; who was already skim-reading by the misused semicolon on page 43. ‘That Jew might be the wolf in Hindelheim,’ Ute thought. [Galen O’Hanlon] Out now, published by Hutchinson, RRP £14.99

Out 6 Jun, published by Jonathan Cape, RRP £14.99

It feels as though Evie Wyld may be writing the kind of series of novels that is tied together not by recurring characters or plots, but by landscapes, themes and structures. All the Birds, Singing is her second book and, like her first, it deals with the vastness of the Australian outback, relationships at the core of largely male-dominated worlds, and the effects of time on traumatic events.

We meet Jake as she is being confronted by the fact someone at the sheep farm where she works knows the hidden truths of her past and is threatening to expose her. From there, this strand of chapters moves chronologically backwards, peeling off layers of a tragic history, through the terrible events that shattered her childhood and hardened her soul. Alternating chapters take place at a later date, with Jake now running her own sheep farm on an English island and trying to deal with the ghosts of her past.

All the Birds, Singing is written in measured, poetic prose, rich with descriptions of nature and almost mythic in its otherworldly moments.

The characters that revolve around Jake are fully realised, but it is the gradual reveal of how a naïve young girl became a woman stalked by fear and uncertainty that truly gives the novel its power. [Ryan Rushton] Out 20 Jun, published by Jonathan Cape, RRP £16.99

June 2013

BOOKS

Review

47

Venue of the Month: The Lass O'Gowrie A pub with a snug and a 30-seater theatre, The Lass O’Gowrie is at the heart of Manchester’s fringe, and dedicated to doing things a little differently Interview: Conori Bell-Bhuiyan Illustration: Katie Craven

ou can find The Lass O’Gowrie on Charles Street, just off Manchester’s busy Oxford Road at the edge of the city centre. The pub’s intimate upstairs theatre space, the Salmon Room, seats just 30 people, yet has become the busy heart of Manchester’s fringe theatre. But fringe theatre isn’t all The Lass does. The pub hosts everything from classic drama to live comedy, as well as retro-gaming nights and that old favourite: a pub quiz. While the venue welcomes a number of independent theatre companies, roughly half of its shows have been directed and performed by its own in-house company, Lass Productions.

Gareth Kavanagh, pub landlord and the man in charge of the Lass’s theatre space, admits that its involvement in theatre came about pretty much by accident. “I wasn’t really interested in theatre when I first started at the Lass,” he says, “but I was very into retro TV and was always digging up old lost scripts.” It wasn’t until Colin Connor, an actor, writer and Lass regular,

suggested turning a meeting room into a small stage that The Lass O’Gowrie’s theatre potential was realised. The idea quickly took off and now the theatre is well known as a place for new and upcoming writers to see their work performed, and for people to come to watch things they could never see anywhere else.

Inspired by Kavanagh’s interest in cult TV and archive scripts, The Lass O’Gowrie develops its own unique take on productions to tempt an audience that might not normally be so interested in theatre. Reinvented old TV classics and fandoms such as Doctor Who and Blade Runner – alongside live performances of 1960s Coronation Street episodes – and ‘lost gems’ such as Jack Rosenthal’s screenplay The Best, based on the life of George Best, are just a few examples of the theatre’s diverse offerings. As Kavanagh says: “We want to prove that theatre can be anything.”

Festivals form a huge part of the pub’s annual programme. In January, it hosts its very own in-house LassFest, and last July it became a

founding member of the multi-venue Manchester Fringe Festival, a celebration of Manchester fringe theatre that is due to double in size this year. This July, the venue’s long and varied Fringe set list will include the premiere of Suspended in Space (8-10 Jul), a darkly comic drama from Keith Temple about a stuck lift in a sci-fi convention, and Colin Connor’s original Meanwhile (2-4 Jul), previously performed at the 2009 Not Part Of festival. Another drama premieres in the form of

Jess Lee’s Diabetic Penguins (5-7 Jul), and there will also be Dan Thackery’s adaption of Wine of India, a futuristic drama written by Nigel Kneale and last seen over 40 years ago when it was broadcast on the BBC (11-14 Jul).

Cosy, friendly, with real ales and never dull pies, The Lass O’Gowrie is a fine place to enjoy a night of talented and eclectic entertainment. www.thelass.co.uk

The Man Who Woke Up Dead

Unity Theatre, Liverpool, 12 Jun

Waterside Arts Centre, Manchester, 27-29 Jun

RETURN

F

irst performed at The Yard, London, in 2012, Dina Mousawi’s Return is a deeply personal piece that tells the stories of several Iraqi women – their lives and loves under occupation – alongside the narrative of Mousawi’s own journey from Bradford back to her childhood home of Baghdad. Joined by three actors, playing by turns Mousawi’s mother, her grandmother, some of the women she interviewed during her trip (whose words are delivered verbatim), and soldiers, Mousawi fields a complex, sensitively put together patchwork of experiences – “some funny, some tragic, some really political,” she says – presented both onstage and onscreen.

As well as simply giving these women a platform to tell their versions of events, Mousawi wanted Return to question – and even attempt to counter – their representation in Western media. An actor, she never set out to become a producer, she says, but rather felt impelled to make Return as “I was constantly being faced with the fact that all films about the Middle East were always about men, soldiers or terrorists.”

Particularly, she explains, she and the director, Poonam Brah – with whom Mousawi runs the 3Fates theatre company alongside designer Alice Hoult – wanted to zoom in on the real-time, real-term “domestic changes” in women’s lives

48

Preview

as a result of the UK and US occupation of Iraq; especially the ones we might not imagine.

She recounts one such unique, intimate story of a girl who began chatting online with an American soldier; when her father took her to meet him in the Green Zone, they fell in love.

They eloped to Turkey, and now they live in the US, him having left the army and she studying to be a doctor. Another woman told Mousawi of how, because of power outages, “it was really hard on the lovers”; as they couldn’t communicate any other way, they would cycle to each other’s homes to look up at the windows and check their partners were OK. A third talks of how she would recommend to her daughters, who felt trapped in the house, that they go to the library, “because your imagination can let you escape to anywhere you want.” One of these accounts alone would provide basis enough for a feature-length film; the range and depth of stories in Return, from women of different ages, religions, social backgrounds and circumstances, are what give it its power not only as a dramatic piece, but also as a testament to human strength. [Lauren Strain] 7.30pm, £10 (£8), part of Liverpool Arab Arts Festival www.arabartsfestival.com www.3fates.com

Photo: Eva Auster

Return

THE MAN WHO WOKE UP DEAD

I

nspired by film noir, Hitchcock, and Orwell’s classic 1984, The Man Who Woke Up Dead is a dark and richly compelling thriller that sets out to challenge our conceptions of what we believe to be ‘truth’.

During an alternate Cold War, a man wakes on the side of a street with no memories, but with a pressing, urgent sense of paranoia. In the already sinister setting of a 1950s hospital, the play watches this mystery man – along with his nurse and doctor – struggle with new revelations, long buried secrets and their swiftly shifting definitions of reality as the lines between truth and delusion become more and more blurred.

Exploring the relationships between psychosis, paranoia and conspiracy, The Man Who Woke Up Dead is the latest production from young and innovative theatre company Square Peg (Kate Robinson and Michael White), and is being supported by Creative Industries Trafford’s first To The Stage commission. Formed in 2011, Square Peg aim to create three-dimensional, near cinematic performances out of minimalistic stages and only a handful of props.

“The way we approach the stage is very filmic and highly choreographed, but in a very driven, storytelling way,” explains White, founding

THEATRE

member of Square Peg, and star – alongside Robinson, and actor Phil Minns – and co-director of The Man Who Woke Up Dead. “Once we found that language, the way that the play could move very simply with just a few objects and three actors, it suddenly influenced the way that we could write the script. It meant that the script was open to the stage and equally the stage was open to what the script wanted.”

Square Peg believe that the visual and physical elements of a performance are equally as important as the script. This is what has led them to insist that The Man Who Woke Up Dead must maintain utter precision in movement, in order to carry its filmic atmosphere onto the stage. The actors’ ability to convey driving a car live on stage out of not much more than thin air gives credence to White’s assurance that: “If we’re doing a movement, it has to mean something. We have to understand what it is saying to the audience – we’re not just going to fill the stage with random movement.” [Conori Bell-Bhuiyan] 8pm, £8 (£6) www.watersideartscentre.co.uk www.squarepegtheatre.co.uk

THE SKINNY

Photo: David Oates

Y

Ultimate Fighting Champion T

o say Judah Friedlander is best known for his role in 30 Rock is like saying Bruce Lee was best known for preferring to sit down to pee.

Sure, it’s possibly true, but if you were ever to suggest it to his face, your coroner would be recording your sex as ‘puddle’.

Judah Friedlander is, unquestionably, karate-as-fuck. He didn’t write a book called How to Beat Up Anybody to not be the most deadly thing since fuckable beehives. Judah took time out of his busy schedule of ninja crime foiling and summoning hawks during ejaculation to talk to me and since I am in the demographic of people who don’t give a shit what Tina Fey smells like, I was absolutely going to take this opportunity.

Judah: How you doing?

Fred: Well I’ll be honest with you. I’m fucking hungover, so this might be a little all over the place.

J: I’m here for you. Just go with it. I try to be a good role model so I’m here to help you dude.

Let’s just talk karate.

F: So, you’re a karate master right? Is that the right term for you? On a sliding karate-scale from ‘PUSSY’ to ‘20 TIMECOPS,’ where would you rank yourself?

J: ...well, yeah. First of all dude. I’m way above Timecop level. Timecops are kind of pussies. You know, the reason they invent time travel in the future is so that they can try and get away from me. If I try and karate one of those timecops, they jump into one of their time portals to escape my karate. But thing is, in the future I have a time machine too, so when they arrive in the past I’m already there.

F: OK, what are your favourite karate films?

30 Rock star Judah Friedlander teaches The Skinny a thing or two about karate-chopping through time

J: Well, I’ve never been in a karate film because, you know, they film movies at a speed of 24 frames per second... and I move a lot faster than that, so they are actually too slow. But, of films I can’t be filmed in, one of my favourites is Drunken Master 2. Oh, and another, not so well known that I love is Ong Bak? F: The ‘where the fuck’s my elephant?’ movie?

J: [Laughs] Yeah, Tony Jaa. From Thailand. One of the best plots ever. WHO HAS GOT MY ELEPHANT? And then he beats up everyone who doesn’t tell him where his elephant is. That’s all you need.

F: Hey, advice on karate?

J: Sure.

F: What is the best type of environment to fight karate in? I mean, I favour being surrounded by fish tanks and antlers... but I’m no longer allowed at the zoo.

J: Rooftops. Definitely rooftops. It adds an element of danger, PLUS, if you’re on a rooftop, and you’re surrounded by taller buildings and those taller buildings are filled with hot chicks, then those hot chicks are gonna get all horny and you can then totally karate jump or, if you like, karate fly into their apartments and, um, hang out with them for the after-karate party.

F: Holy shit. That’s a point. Can you actually sex a girl without killing them? I mean, third base has got to be a finishing move.

J: Good point. Um I guess it’s the same thing I have to do when shaking hands. Seriously I warn people just to lightly tap my hands because it’s like high fiving a grenade.

F: But seriously, how do YOU defeat someone who feels no pain?

J: You don’t need to feel pain to die. I can kill

someone painlessly. I know how to do a leg kick to the central nervous system that will explode someone humanely and with little to no pain.

F: Other than gentle murder, what are you up to?

J: Comedy album. Stand up. Making a comedy documentary. Missed out on the opportunity to come to [the Edinburgh] festival this year, but everyone keeps telling me how awesome it is.

F: Seriously. Edinburgh needs karateing so hard.

If you do come, how should we prepare?

J: Get in training. Read my book. Forget karate

Interview: Fred Fletch Illustration: Laura Griffin

school. Karate schools aren’t for karate. Firstly, they are inside. Everyone knows most karate happens outdoors. Then there is the lighting. No karate fight happens in good lighting. Padded floors. You show me one bar with a padded floor!

Judah Friedlander is playing at the Soho Theatre, London, 4-6 Jun How to Beat Up Anybody: An Instructional and Inspirational Karate Book by the World Champion Judah Friedlander is out now, priced £12.99 www.judahfriedlander.com

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ILLUSTRATION: ELENA BOILS

June 2013

COMEDY

Feature

49

Manchester Music Tue 04 Jun

Thu 06 Jun

NIGHT AND DAY CAFE, 20:00–02:00, £10

FACTORY 251, 19:00–23:00, £7

TRAMPLED BY TURTLES

The chaotic Minnesota countryrockers play one of their signature energetic sets (aka you have been warned).

ARE WE STRANGERS NOW (LIZ LAWRENCE, PHOEBE KATIS, DAVID SHURR, HAYLEY COLLINS, TOM METCALFE)

THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:30–23:00, £6

Showcase event featuring some of the best up-and-coming musicians around.

BILLY BRAGG (THE LOST BROTHERS)

BAND ON THE WALL, 19:30–22:30, £SOLD OUT

After his 2012 solo tour, Billy Bragg returns to a live setting to air his first new album in five years, Tooth & Nail – which takes a more personal bent, ala his Wilco-collaborating 1998 album Mermaid Avenue.

MMX (PUPPET REBELLION)

SOUND CONTROL, 19:30–22:30, £6

English indie-rockers hailing from Oxford, formerly playing as as Francesqa.

FAIR OHS (BLOOD SPORT, SPRING KING)

THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:30–23:00, £7.50

NORTH ATLANTIC OSCILLATION

The Edinburgh-based postprogressive rock and electronica troupe tour the wares of their second LP, melding almost perfectly subtle electronic beats with a spaced-out guitar sound.

GENTICORUM

ROYAL NORTHERN COLLEGE OF MUSIC, 19:30–22:00, £12

High-powered traditional Quebecois musical trio combining intricate fiddle and flute work, vocal harmonies, foot percussion and guitar accompaniment.

FRANKIE & THE HEARTSTRINGS

THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:30–22:30, £8

Sunderland-based indie rockers touring their latest LP, produced

by Mr Ryan Jarman of The Cribs, no less.

SAMOTHRACE

THE STAR AND GARTER, 19:30–23:00, £7 (DOOR)

Seattle-natives making bluesbased doom since 2007.

YOUNG KATO

SOUND CONTROL, 19:00–22:30, £6

Breakthrough indie-pop lot hailing from Cheltenham and Birmingham.

RNCM LIVE SESSIONS: PART 2

Psychedelic funk and Afrobeat rhythms from the southern trio, touring with their album, Everything is Dancing.

BAND ON THE WALL, 19:30–22:30, £5 (DOOR)

ROYAL NORTHERN COLLEGE OF MUSIC, 19:30–22:00, £15

SEAN PAUL

OLAFUR ARNALDS

The Icelandic multi-instrumentalist returns to Manchester after three years. Expect his usual other-worldly blend of ambient/ classical/electronic pop.

Showcase performance for students from the RNCM popular music degree.

THE RITZ, 19:00–23:00, £25

The pop star making Jamaican dance hall mainstream, famous for multiple songs about the temperature – possible past life weatherman.

THE RUBY LOUNGE, 19:30–23:00, £6

LOWLINE

HEATON PARK, 11:00–23:00, £69.50 (WEEKEND)

New blood from Manchester, serving up intense, anthemic indie rock.

SOUP KITCHEN, 19:30–22:30, £5

Four-piece indie outfit hailing from Manchester, emerging from their Ancoats studio to play some music for y’all.

MUDHONEY (MEAT PUPPETS)

A rioutous, 11-piece jazz band hailing from Manchester, fronted

by MC Chunky.

FITZ (JOHNNY SLY + JONNY WOODHEAD)

TROF FALLOWFIELD, 19:30–22:00, £5 (£3)

Alt folk project of singer/songwriter Sam Fitzpatrick, joined on stage by an accompaniment of close friends to enrich the sound.

SOUP KITCHEN, 19:30–22:30, £7

BORED SPIES

THE RUBY LOUNGE, 19:30–23:00, £6

Made up of various members of Bitch Magnet, Seam, Obedient Wives Club and Pastelpower, this international trio are now touring on the run up to the release of their debut album.

MEGADETH

MANCHESTER ACADEMY, 19:00–22:00, £27.50

The undisputed kings of Yankee thrash are in town. You do the screaming.

TWENTY | ONE | PILOTS

MANCHESTER ACADEMY, 19:00–22:00, £8

Ohio-born synthpop duo on the Fueled by Ramen roster.

DENISON WITMER

THE CASTLE HOTEL, 20:00–23:00, £6

Philadelphia native signed to Asthmatic Kitten, touting his latest album, produced by David Greenwood and featuring guest appearances from Sufjan Stevens and William Fitzsimmons.

50

Listings

FIRE IN THE EMPIRE (JOKERS HOUR)

JABEZ CLEGG, 19:30–23:30, £5

Metal four piece hailing from Chorley.

OLOF ARNALDS (SHIELD PATTERNS)

TAKK, 19:30–22:00, £7.50

Icelandic folk musician and songstress, nifty with a violin, viola, guitar and charango, but with a show-stealing voice. Support comes from Manchester’s Claire Brentnall, aka Shield Patterns.

OUR TIME DOWN HERE (GRADER, THROWING STUFF, THE LION AND THE WOLF, YOUTH)

WÄHLBAR, 19:00–02:00, £5

Goth tinged punk rock five-piece outta Southampton.

Fri 07 Jun

FREE GIG FRIDAY (HOPPER PROPELLED ELECTRIC, GILDED PALACE OF SIN, BLACK RIBBONS, TYLER HATWELL )

THE BAY HORSE, 21:00–01:00, FREE

Fill your Friday night with free live music – guests and DJs selected by a different band each week.

SAMUEL JAMES ROUTLEDGE

THE CASTLE HOTEL, 20:00–23:00, £TBC

Acoustic singer/songwriter hailing from Stockport, chock full of melody and charm.

JOE SATRIANI (MATT SCHOFIELD)

O2 APOLLO, 19:00–23:00, FROM £33.50

American instrumental rock guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, with a touring history that reads like a who’s who of rock, now out on a solo tour.

JACCO GARDNER

SOUP KITCHEN, 18:30–23:00, £6

Multi-instrumental baroque popstress from the Netherlands, creating a unique sound by combining the sounds of harpsichord, strings, flutes and other classical instruments with raw psychedelic effects.

DOWSING (ANNABEL)

WÄHLBAR, 19:00–23:00, £TBC

Chicago-based Indie/Emo fivepiece, touring with their first LP, It’s Still Pretty Terrible.

O2 APOLLO, 19:00–23:00, FROM £37.50

Mr Costello reintroduces The Spectacular Spinning Songbook some 25 years on: a set list chosen by a spinning wheel featuring hits, rarities and unexpected covers.

THE LOWRY, 20:00–22:00, FROM £27.50

Lancashire-born singer/songwriter, touring and awaiting the release of her Northern Soul film.

JAMES SKELLY AND THE INTENDERS

GORILLA, 19:00–22:30, £10.50

MANCHESTER ARENA, 20:00–22:00, FROM £60

The husky-voiced one is touring again, still going strong five decades on.

TODD RUNDGREN

THE RITZ, 19:00–23:00, £19.50

The prolific pop craftsman and producer tours his latest album, State, a fusion of rock, soul, r’n’b and electronica that’s as danceable as it is spiritual.

PARKLIFE WEEKENDER

HEATON PARK, 12:00–23:00, £69.50 (WEEKEND)

BONNIE RAITT O2 APOLLO, 19:00–23:00, FROM £28.50

FRANCES WOOD

LEWIS WATSON

SOUND CONTROL, 19:30–22:30, £7

Fledgling young Oxford singer/ songwriter, best known for his stripped-down YouTube take on Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car. TROPHY WIFE

NIGHT AND DAY CAFE, 20:00–02:00, £6

Catch the melancholic dance-pop troup for their last Manchester show as a band.

Tue 11 Jun BIG DEAL

SOUP KITCHEN, 19:30–23:00, £7

Experimental London duo, all ethereal and lovely like.

RNCM IN THE CITY

THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:00–22:00, FREE

The RNCM sprawls out over Manchester for seven months, rocking up in unexpected venues for their varied programme of recitals.

DAVID ROVICS

NIGHT AND DAY CAFE, 20:00–02:00, £7 (£8 DOOR)

Political activist and musician on a mission, aiming to expose government corruption through song – sorta like musical wikileaks.

Wed 12 Jun RIHANNA

MANCHESTER ARENA, 19:30–22:00, FROM £35

The US popstress plays a series of intimate, ahem, gigs at Manchester Arena.

SWISS LIPS

THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:00–22:30, £7

Mancunian quintet of the danceable electro-pop variety, fizzing along on Balearic-esque beats.

THE FRESH AND ONLYS

SOUP KITCHEN, 19:30–22:30, £7

San Franciscan indie rock fivepiece, touting their latest album Long Slow Dance.

Touring with his debut album, Love Undercover, James is joined by a full band line-up for this UK-wide tour.

SHAODOW AND ZUBY

SOUND CONTROL, 19:30–22:30, £8

The Voice UK contestant, stepping out on her own.

Double headliner thing with Oxford graduate/hip-hop artist Zuby, and DIY rap artist ShaoDow.

THE RITZ, 19:00–23:00, £20

BAND ON THE WALL, 20:00–22:30, £17.50

THE ROADHOUSE, 18:00–23:00, £8

KRS ONE, IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE

The highly respected KRS One and urban activist/rapper Immortal Technique doing a hip-hop heavy double headerliner thing.

AMONG BROTHERS (SCRIBER, GLASS ANKLE) NIGHT AND DAY CAFE, 20:00–02:00, £5

AN EVENING OF WORDS, MUSIC, FILM AND DANCING (STUART MACONIE, JESCA HOOP, MIKE JOYCE)

Hosted by journalist Stuart Maconie and featuring music from The Smiths’ Mike Joyce and the Manchester-based Jesca Hoop – all to raise money for a much needed new heating system for the community centre.

MAYSA (LINA, HONEY LAROCHELLE)

American soul singer and lead vocalist for Incongito.

MACKA B (THE LIBERATION, THE NATURAL VIBES)

MANCHESTER ACADEMY, 19:00–22:00, £12

Influential reggae artist, with a career spanning two decades across the UK and Jamaica.

TRIBAL FIGHTERS (CHEAP JAZZ, BRAVE THE NORTH, GREAT DEEDS)

THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:30–23:00, £TBC

The Manchester based trio making a whammy of toe tapping, head bopping sounds they’re calling babe pop.

BABAR LUCK (CAPTAIN HOTKNIVES, RESEVOIR COOTS)

Fri 14 Jun

An all day long apocalyptic fete taking to the gig room and the ball room, with live bands including Age of Glass and Rapid Pig and DJ sets from Herbal sessions and more.

Fill your Friday night with free live music – guests and DJs selected by a different band each week.

MELT YOURSELF DOWN (CHAMPION LOVER) THE RUBY LOUNGE, 19:30–23:00, £7

Bright new jazz, improv and post-punk collaboration featuring ex-members of Acoustic Ladyland.

THE FAMILY BIZARRE

SOUND CONTROL, 19:30–22:30, £8

Mancunian electro funk bunch led

by Jez Kerr.

MISTY IN ROOTS (DJ MIKEY D.O.N)

BAND ON THE WALL, 20:30–03:00, £12

Classic roots reggae from Southall’s premier dreadlock warriors.

JELLYFISH (THOSE ROTTEN THIEVES, BASEMENT TAPES, BELMEZ FACES) THE ROADHOUSE, 19:30–23:00, £5

Mancunian three-piece grunge/ alt-rock group.

The prolific Canadian singer/ songwriter performs songs from his much-admired back catalogue of elegant melancholic pop songs.

NEARLY DAN

BAND ON THE WALL, 19:30–22:30, £13

Steely Dan tribute act.

SMOKEY BLUE GRASS

TROF NORTHERN QUARTER, 21:00–01:00, FREE

An evening of live music and DJs spanning folk, Americana, rhythm and blues, all washed down with Trof’s impressive selection of small batch and house-infused bourbons.

JAGWAR MA

THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 21:00–01:30, £6

Often two-piece, occasional three-piece hailing from Sydney and making alt-indie music you can dance to.

PET SHOP BOYS

MANCHESTER ARENA, 19:30–22:00, £30

THE BAY HORSE, 21:00–01:00, FREE

Fill your Friday night with free live music – guests and DJs selected by a different band each week.

ESOTERIC RECORDS SHOWCASE (SANGUINE HUM, TIN SPIRITIS, MATT STEPHENS) BAND ON THE WALL, 19:00–22:30, £12.50

A night of modern prog-rock from the esoteric recordings bunch.

SNAKECHARMER (HELL TO PAY)

MANCHESTER ACADEMY, 19:00–22:00, £17.50

Blues rock six piece, made up of members of various rock band heavyweights, including Whitesnake, Thunder and Heartland.

DIE ANTWOORD

THE RITZ, 18:30–23:00, £16.50

South African zef rap-rave group consisting of Ninja, Yo-Landi Vi$$er, and DJ Hi-Tek.

HUNDRED DOLLAR CIGAR (THE MILK PUNX, DUKE & THE DARLINGS) THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:30–23:00, £TBC

Rock and blues trio hailing from Bradford.

TEMPLES (CHARLIE BOYER AND THE VOYEURS)

THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:00–23:30, £7

Neo psych bunch hailing from the midlands/the early 80s with support from the energetic guitar rock five-piece Charlie Boyer and the Voyeurs.

BIPOLAR SUNSHINE

SOUP KITCHEN, 19:00–23:00, £6

Manchester-based Adio Marchant, touring with his his newly released EP, Aesthetics.

BUMMER CAMP (CHRISTEENE, ZSA ZSA NOIR, KURT DIRT)

ISLINGTON MILL, 21:00–06:00, £6

Playing songs from their latest album, Elysium, and other hits from their 20 year career.

Off with Their Heads and Tranarchy are joining forces for Bummer Camp, kicking off with ‘drag terrorist’ Christeene.

O2 APOLLO, 19:00–23:00, FROM £32.50

Sat 22 Jun

HUGH LAURIE

Dr House, touring on the run up to his second album, Didn’t It Rain, which sees the actor/comic/musician ditch New Orleans but stick with the blues.

NORTHERN NOISE LIVE (LOOM)

TROF FALLOWFIELD, 19:00–02:00, £5

The Northern Noise series returns with the very, er, noisy grunge four-piece, Loom. Complete with DJ sets til 2am.

LIZ GREEN (THE GREAT PARK)

INTERNATIONAL ANTHONY BURGESS FOUNDATION, 19:30–22:00, £6.50

Fingerpicked folky loveliness from singer/songwriter Liz Green, all dark and exotic like.

AZYMUTH

BAND ON THE WALL, 20:00–22:30, £15

Jazz/funk from over Brazil way, touring with their latest album, Light as a Feather.

JOSH GROBAN

THE LAST SUNDAY (AGE OF GLASS, RAPID PIG, THE FAMILY WOLVES)

FREE GIG FRIDAY (SUBURBAN SONS)

RON SEXSMITH

ROYAL NORTHERN COLLEGE OF MUSIC, 19:00–22:00, £25

FREE GIG FRIDAY (OK PRESS, GOBBLE DE GOOK)

O2 APOLLO, 19:30–23:00, £42.50

WÄHLBAR, 19:00–23:00, £TBC

THE BAY HORSE, 21:00–01:00, FREE

THE CASTLE HOTEL, 20:00–23:00, £5

Echo and The Bunnymen members Will Sargeant and Les Pattinson team up for their all-new postrock outing.

THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:30–23:00, £TBC

American singer/songwriter, touring with his sixth studio album, All That Echoes.

London-based world folk musician, blending reggae, hip-hop, and any other genre he fancies.

DANIEL BACHMAN

POLTERGEIST

SOUND CONTROL, 19:30–22:30, £12

CAPE COLONY (THIS IS HOW WE FALL, AFTER THE RUSH HOUR, CHASING TRAITS)

THE KING’S ARMS, 19:30–23:00, £5

The delicate and bluesy Manchester folk five-piece launching their EP on the evening.

25th anniversary tour for heavy metal bunch, led by the Misfits and Samhain founder, Glenn Danzig.

Fri 21 Jun

Sun 16 Jun

A Thinking Wishful showcase event with Liverpool’s Cape Colony topping the bill.

BELLS IN THE BIRCHES: EP LAUNCH

MANCHESTER ACADEMY, 19:00–22:00, £22.50

Thu 20 Jun

LISA STANSFIELD

American blues and singer/ songwriter, touring with her 2012 album, Slipstream

DANZIG

NQ LIVE, 18:00–22:00, £10

Regular showcase event offering up a couple of local bands for your enjoyment.

ROD STEWART

Boom-voiced James Allan and co do their thing ahead of the release of their new LP: cue glacial guitars, heavyweight lyrics and mass audience singalongs.

A night of genre-bending, psychedelic Appalachian folk from Daniel Bachman.

NIGHT AND DAY CAFE, 20:00–02:00, £5 (£6 DOOR)

Sun 09 Jun

GLASVEGAS

THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:00–22:30, £15

Melodic six-piece from the northwest of England, led by Scott Anderson’s weighty vocals.

RAMALAMA (SECTION 60, EMPIRE SIGNAL)

Mon 10 Jun

THE RITZ, 18:30–23:00, £18

ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE IMPOSTERS

Damned-inspired London punksters in their fifth decade on the scene.

THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:00–22:30, £9

Canadian indie rock duo keeping it in the family (they’re identical twin sisters) touring with their seventh studio album, Heartthrob.

Wed 19 Jun

MANTRALUNA

UK SUBS

MINERS COMMUNITY ARTS & MUSIC CENTRE, 18:30–00:00, £10

TEGAN AND SARA (WAXAHATCHEE)

THE CASTLE HOTEL, 20:00–23:00, £7

Unapologetic rock bunch from Oldham/London, led by Marco Centore.

SOUP KITCHEN, 19:00–23:00, £6.50

Rock’n’roll four piece hailing from Northwich

MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2, 19:00–22:00, £9

Kim Deal’s revered alternative rockers are back together again for the first time in 20 years, touring their classic album, Last Splash.

FOLKS

Experimental sounds anchored in narrative from the Cardiff-based five piece.

A night of afro pop gospel.

Nigerian born artist Iyanaya, exploded onto the African music scene in 2012 and now setting his sights on the rest of the world.

Sat 15 Jun

A momentous date in the student calendar, the Parklife Weekender will be laying claim to its new home at Heaton Park this year. Highlights include: Toy, Toro y Moi and Savages.

RHEMA PRAISE

Australia, New Zealand and UKstraddling alternative dreamers.

London post-folk musician big on the Celtic lullabies and Caledonian soul.

RIOT JAZZ BRASS BAND

Alternative rock quintet from Manchester, making ballsy guitar pop sounds.

The Copenhagen-based psych and garage duo, aka Christian Skibdal and Mads Bredtoft Gräs.

BLUE ROSE CODE

THE CASTLE HOTEL, 19:30–23:00, £8

ANTWERP MANSION, 22:00–03:00, £6.50

ROOK AND THE RAVENS

SPLASHH

The US popstress plays a series of intimate, ahem, gigs at Manchester Arena.

Fresh faced four-piece hailing from Chorlton, making lively guitar-driven sounds laced with funky grooves.

THE ROADHOUSE, 19:30–23:00, £5

THE CASTLE HOTEL, 20:00–23:00, £TBC

RIHANNA

MANCHESTER ARENA, 19:30–22:00, FROM £35

THE CASTLE HOTEL, 20:00–23:00, £TBC

HOUSE OF CAIN (THE BEAT KEEPERS, CANDIDATE23, DAVID DANIEL)

THE WANDS (THE UNDERGROUND YOUTH)

Thu 13 Jun

ELECTROMOTIVE

Two Manchester bands doing what they do best – mekkin noise.

KRAAK, 19:30–23:00, £TBC

English rock band formed in 1964 in Birmingham, now with 18 platinum discs under their belts.

Quadruple headliner gig with Vasco de Gama, the split personalities of Trojan Horse and the ever-heavy (but beautifully named) Thumpermonkey – all presented by the turbo-prog duo Cleft.

BASE VENTURA, SEX HANDS

Four piece from Buxton making danceable indie tunes.

THE BREEDERS THE RITZ, 19:00–23:00, £20

KRAAK, 19:00–23:00, £3

TROF FALLOWFIELD, 20:00–23:00, £4

The Glasgow-based indie-popsters return after their four-year hiatus, fresh from their set at this year's Primavera in't sunny Barcelona.

IYANYA KUKERE THE RITZ, 18:00–23:00, £25

CLEFT REVEAL ALL (VASCO DE GAMA, TROJAN HORSE, THUMPERMONKEY)

The husky-voiced one is touring again, still going strong five decades on.

MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2, 19:00–22:00, £11

A momentous date in the student calendar, the Parklife Weekender will be laying claim to its new home at Heaton Park this year. Highlights include: Krystal Klear, Lapalux and Pearson Sound.

THE MOODY BLUES O2 APOLLO, 19:00–23:00, £39.50

American grunge rock bunch, formed in Seattle from the ashes of Green River – now touring with their latest album, Vanishing Point, which carries a Sup Pop sticker.

MANCHESTER ARENA, 20:00–22:00, FROM £60

THE INDIEANNES (GRAND OLD JUKE, STOLEN PEACE)

PARKLIFE WEEKENDER

MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2, 18:30–22:00, £17.50

ROD STEWART

CAMERA OBSCURA

INTERNATIONAL ANTHONY BURGESS FOUNDATION, 20:00–22:00, £10 (£8)

Manchester-based singer/songwriter and artist signed to Skinny Dog Records, playing a gig on his home turf.

KASSOMA (FREEDOM OF THE CITY, COLD COMMITTEE, RICK KEVILL)

Sat 08 Jun

Wed 05 Jun

GIDEON CONN (DR BUTLER’S HATSTAND MEDICINE BAND)

ANTWERP MANSION, 12:00–23:30, £3

Mon 17 Jun

FRANKIE VALLI AND THE FOUR SEASONS MANCHESTER ARENA, 19:30–22:00, FROM £45

Frankie Valli and his touring mainstays, The Four Seasons, celebrate the 50th anniversary of their first hit, Sherry.

MARK OWEN

THE RITZ, 19:00–23:00, £25

Hilarious/tragic impression of Britpop from the former Take That star and his talented fringe.

Tue 18 Jun

THE BLUE AEROPLANES (PATRICK DUFF)

THE DEAF INSTITUTE, 19:30–23:00, £10

80s rock band formed from the ashes of Art Objects, out on a mini tour for the first time since 2006.

SESSIONS (BEX MARSHALL, THE FOLK REMEDY, PAT LYONS AND THE SINS, SUBURBAN SONS)

GEORGE THOROGOOD AND THE DESTROYERS

THOMAS RESTAURANT & BAR, 20:00–23:00, FREE

American singer and guitarist, best known for being Bad to the Bone

A eclectic night of blues, jazz, folk and spoken word hosted by Edwin Miles.

THE HUMMINGBIRDS

NIGHT AND DAY CAFE, 20:00–02:00, £5

Hotly tipped for a Mercury Prize in the not too distant future, the Hummingbirds are 6 lads from Liverpool blending Merseybeat heritage with folky rhythm.

O2 APOLLO, 19:00–23:00, £28.50

EXODUS LIVE

ROYAL NORTHERN COLLEGE OF MUSIC, 19:30–22:00, £6

A unique ensemble of musicians from around the world, now settled in Manchester – hear them weave together the sounds of the world and effortlessly blend genres. Part of Refugee Week.

PUNX PICNIC

ANTWERP MANSION, 14:00–01:00, £DONATIONS

All day gig from the Manchester Punx Picnic bunch, with performances from Holiday, Ruffneck Riot, Captain Hotknives and more.

THE SKINNY

Nick Mulvey

The Music Tapes

Cornerhouse, 19:30–23:00, £5

The Deaf Institute, 19:30–23:00, £9

Founding member of Portico Quartet doing a his solo singer/ songwriter thing and touring with his new single, Fever To The Form.

‘aA’ at The Castle (Beat The Radar, Clang Boom Steam, Plant Food Disco) The Castle Hotel, 20:00–02:00, £3

Akoustik Anarkhy presents a night of live music from the Manchester four-piece, Beat the Radar, Liverpool/Ireland’s Clang Boom Steam, and Manchetser’s Plant Food Disco, with aA DJs keeping things going til late.

Sun 23 Jun Random Hand

NQ Live, 17:00–20:00, £8

West Yorkshire foursome moving in brain-pummeling waves of metal, punk and ska.

Experimental pop and performance art project of Julian Koster (of Neutral Milk Hotel) and Robbie Cucchiaro (of The Olivia Tremor Control).

Public Image Limited

The Ritz, 18:30–23:00, £26.50

Post punk outfit led by Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon, re-formed in 2012 and with a new album, This is PiL. The Moods, Rapid Pig, The Taser Puppets

The King’s Arms, 19:30–23:00, £5.00

Three strong line up from the Helmets for Men bunch.

Sat 29 Jun

Stuart Warburton and the Grand Scheme

MK1

Sun 30 Jun

Kings of Leon

Manchester Arena, 19:30–22:00, From £45

Tennessee-hailing quartet made up of three brothers and a cousin, famous for the stadium-sized chanting choruses.

Simon Townshend

Night and Day Cafe, 20:00–02:00, £10

Younger brother of The Who’s Pete Townshend, touring with his latest album, Looking Out Looking In.

David Thomas Broughton (Rachael Dadd and Ichi )

The King’s Arms, 19:30–22:00, £9

Loop-based experimental folk singer/songwriter pondering the the difficulties of relationships and emotional awkwardness via song.

Tue 25 Jun Kings of Leon

Manchester Arena, 19:30–22:00, From £45

Tennessee-hailing quartet made up of three brothers and a cousin, famous for the stadium-sized chanting choruses.

Deerhoof

Night and Day Cafe, 19:30–02:00, £6

ZZ Top

O2 Apollo, 19:00–23:00, From £39.50

Bearded 70s blues rock outfit from Texas, and the only American rock band to stick with the same line-up for 30+ years. Props.

Wed 26 Jun Bummer Camp (Ssion)

Islington Mill, 19:30–01:00, £6

Back for the second instalment of Bummer Camp, this time with sultry electro pop artist, Sssion, playing a full band set for the first time in Manchester.

Maroon 5

Manchester Arena, 19:30–22:00, £37.50

The LA quintet return to Manchester as part of their Overexposed world tour – their words, not ours.

Distractfolk Ensemble

International Anthony Burgess Foundation, 19:00–22:00, £8 (£6)

Vince Kidd (Kliq, Esco Williams)

International Anthony Burgess Foundation, 19:30–22:00, £7

Leaf Label sweetheart hailing from Wigan, out on tour with her deliciously atmospheric folky offerings.

Mon 01 Jul

Smashing Pumpkins (Beware of Darkness)

Manchester Academy, 19:00–22:00, £35

The kings of daring, expansive rock, Corgan’s crew cherry-pick from their rather enviable back catalogue, with some from their new album, Oceania.

Boysetsfire

NQ Live, 18:30–22:00, £13

Political post-hardcore six-piece from Delaware, making brainpummelling music for the past two decades.

Liverpool Music Tue 04 Jun Paloma Faith

Empire Theatre, 19:00–23:00, £29.50

The British singer/songwritercum-actress does her glossy, retro-referencing soul-meetspop thing.

Thu 06 Jun

Dan Haywood’s New Hawks

Leaf, 20:00–23:00, £5

A collection of songs, but also a band, making Poetic English folk.

Wolf Alice

The Shipping Forecast, 20:00–23:00, £6

Four-piece outta London, fronted

by Ellie Rowsell, making unpigeonholeable folky rock with a distinct pop vibe.

Circuit Breaker (Teeth)

The Kazimier Garden, 20:00–23:30, Free

A double line-up of droning soundscape sculptors from the genre splicing Circuit Breaker and one woman guitar and synth loop artist, Teeth.

Widnes-based four-piece doing their rock thing with a mixture of original and cover songs.

Cable Cars

O2 Academy, 19:00–23:00, £6

Ed Harcourt

Swedish Seaman’s Church, 17:30–23:00, £sold out

DIY indie-pop from the Londonbased ensemble, full of beats and hooks.

The English singer/songwriter, playing a series of intimate dates throughout the UK in various churches and cathedrals and sharing songs from his latest LP, Back Into The Woods – a delicate gem he recorded in one evening at Abbey Road Studios.

The Bay Horse, 21:00–01:00, Free

Blade Factory, 19:30–23:00, £tbc

Fri 28 Jun

The Dark Lights (Mercury Fields, E Numbers)

Wählbar, 19:00–02:00, £tbc

Free Gig Friday (Lovechild)

Fill your Friday night with free live music – guests and DJs selected by a different band each week.

June 2013

The Shipping Forecast, 20:00–23:00, £5

Liverpool Acoustic Afternoon (Rachel Nicolas, Derek Kind, Matthew McGurty) View Two Gallery, 13:00–16:00, Free

An afternoon of chilled acoustic music in the relaxed setting of the View Two Gallery.

Mello Mello, 20:00–23:00, £3

Thu 27 Jun The Deaf Institute, 19:00–22:30, £10

A weekend of free rock’n’roll in the Kazimier garden, showcasing some of the regions best-loved rock’n’roll influenced bands.

Nancy Elizabeth

Fri 07 Jun

The Voice UK contestant, touring with her debut album, Before I Sleep.

The Kazimier Garden, 19:00–23:30, £donations

Wet Room’s 1st Birthday (Batalj, Jazzhands, DJ Isocore, Spirit Animals)

Contemporary instrumental and electro-acoustic music from a dynamic group of musicians.

Bo Bruce

Free Rock’n’Roll (Mike Badger and the Shady Trio, The Vermin Suicides, Raw Bones, The Swinging Bricks)

The Ruby Lounge, 19:30–23:00, £7.50

The Voice UK hipster with a scarily high vocal range.

Gorilla, 19:30–23:00, £10

San Franciscan four-piece noise band, gradually evolving into something we’ve yet to identify or pin down.

Touring with his debut album, Love Undercover, James is joined by a full band line-up for this UK-wide tour.

Dislocation Dance

Manchester CLUB Academy, 19:00–22:00, £10

Mon 24 Jun

James Skelly and the Intenders

O2 Academy, 19:00–23:00, £10

Indie rock from the Manchesterbased four-piece, taking inspiration from abso-bloody-lutely everything they hear.

Manchester band formed in 1978 and known for touring with the likes of Orange Juice.

Boy/girl duo fusing traditional dubstep with mainstream production. In baseball caps. Obviously.

Sat 08 Jun

The Words (The Bensons)

Manchester Arena, 19:30–22:00, From £60

The original psych-rock bunch play their 1973 double album, Quadrophenia, live and in its bloody-glorious entirety.

Pearl Jam tribute act.

The King’s Arms, 19:30–23:00, £7

What they’re calling real country music, from the The Grand Scheme and their frontman Stuart Warburton.

The Who

Pearl Jammer Eric’s Live, 21:00–23:00, £5

Fair Ohs

Psychedelic funk and Afrobeat rhythms from the southern trio, touring with their album, Everything is Dancing.

Wet Room are celebrating one year of throwing parties and putting on shows, by throwing a big party and putting on a show with German trash core bunch Batalj, and the percussive psycho punks Jazzhands.

Sun 09 Jun The Moody Blues

Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, 18:30–23:00, £39.50

English rock band formed in 1964 in Birmingham, now with 18 platinum discs under their belts.

Free Rock’n’Roll (Barbieshop, Rory and Ned, Sheepy, Lovecraft)

The Kazimier Garden, 19:00–23:30, £donations

A weekend of free rock’n’roll in the Kazimier garden, showcasing some of the regions best-loved rock’n’roll influenced bands.

Mon 10 Jun

Elvis Costello and the Imposters

Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, 19:30–23:00, £42.50

Mr Costello reintroduces The Spectacular Spinning Songbook some 25 years on: a set list chosen by a spinning wheel featuring hits, rarities and unexpected covers.

Tue 11 Jun Money

Leaf, 19:30–23:00, £7

Recently signed to Bella Union, the Manchester-based MONEY will be releasing their debut album, The Shadow of Heaven, later this year. Watch as they bloom into something pretty special.

Joe Satriani

Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, 19:00–23:00, £37.50

American instrumental rock guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, with a touring history that reads like a who’s who of rock, now out on a solo tour.

Thu 13 Jun Matt Corby (Aussie)

The Kazimier, 20:00–23:00, £8

Aussie singer/songwriter known for his captivating live performances.

The Fresh and Onlys

East Village Arts Club, 20:00–23:00, £10

San Franciscan indie rock fivepiece, touting their latest album Long Slow Dance.

Naam (Mind Mountain)

Blade Factory, 19:30–23:00, £tbc

Brooklyn-based psychedelia bunch led by Ryan Lee Lugar, out on a European tour with their second studio album, Vow. The Wytches

The Shipping Forecast, 20:00–23:00, £6

Brighton band making dark and flowery psycadelia, with surf riffs straight outta 1950.

Lights Out (The Shadow Theatre, The Old Silent, Rawschac, Arc Light) Camp and Furnace, 20:00–00:00, Free

Camp and Furnace brings together local artists to play an acoustic set of their songs.

Fri 14 Jun Dead Belgian

Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, 20:30–23:00, £12

Female led ensemble singing the songs of Jacques Brel.

The Bootlet Beatles

O2 Academy, 19:00–23:00, £20

Beatles tribute act.

Are You Experienced

Eric’s Live, 20:00–23:00, £5

Jimi Hendrix tribute act.

Paddy Steer

The Kazimier Garden, 20:00–23:30, Free

Manchester-based experimental sound-smith, serving up tropical grooves with a full live band.

WYWH (Ambient Drone)

The Shipping Forecast, 19:30–23:00, £4

New solo project of Where We’re West frontman, delivering dreamlike loops and fractured beats.

Eric Brace & Peter Cooper

View Two Gallery, 20:00–23:00, £6

The Grammy nominated singersongwriters head to the UK to promote their latest album, The Comeback Album.

Sat 15 Jun

Skip ‘Little Axe’ McDonald

Blade Factory, 19:30–23:00, £tbc

The American bluesman takes it back to its roots (i.e. raw, stripped-back and intense).

10 Bands 10 Minutes: David Bowie The Kazimier, 20:00–23:00, £5

Ten bands, playing the songs of David Bowie for ten minutes each, with a line up that includes Married to the Sea, Hawk Eyes, Loose Moose and Clang Boom Steam.

Positive Vibration

The Kazimier Garden, 14:00–00:00, £2 (£4 after 11)

All dayer in the garden, celebrating Jamaican music, food and culture.

In Our Defence (CeReal, The Vibes, The Occasion) The Picket, 19:00–23:00, £5

Metalcore five-piece from St Helens, likely playing songs from their Deput EP, A Lesson in Self Control.

Betray the Blessed (Arcane Addiction, Beneath the Depths, What Lies Within, Her Last Goodbye)

O2 Academy, 19:00–23:00, £6

Groove metal band hailing from Liverpool.

Sun 16 Jun Liverpool Calling

St Luke’s Church, The Shipping Forecast 12:00–23:00, £19 both venues

Debut split-venue mini-festival of a thing for Liverpool, spanning The Shipping Forecast and St Luke’s Bombed Out Church.

Lena Chamamyan

St George’s Hall, 19:30–21:30, From £10

The Syrian singer/songwriter performs for UK audiences for the first time as part of the Liverpool Arab Arts Festival.

Tue 18 Jun Blondie

O2 Academy, 18:00–23:00, £sold out

Returning to the UK for the first time since 2011, touring with their ninth studio album, Panic of Girls.

Thu 20 Jun Nancy Elizabeth

Leaf, 20:00–23:00, £6.50

Leaf Label sweetheart hailing from Wigan, out on tour with her deliciously atmospheric folky offerings.

Fri 21 Jun Random Hand

Mello Mello, 20:30–23:00, £4

West Yorkshire foursome moving in brain-pummeling waves of metal, punk and ska.

Mt. Wolf

The Shipping Forecast, 19:30–23:00, £6

The South London dream folksters do their thing in the suitably ethereal setting of the hold, all hazy electronica, acoustic guitar and whisper-quiet harmonies.

Electric Moon

Neville Skelly

Blade Factory, 19:30–23:00, £tbc

Blade Factory, 19:30–23:00, £tbc

Psychadelic acid rock – heavy on the synth ‘n’ fuzz – from the German trio led by Sula Bassana.

Sat 22 Jun Africa Oye Festival

Sefton Park, 12:30-21:30, Free

The UK's largest free celebration of African music and culture, taking over Sefton Park with a two-day feast of live music, food, drink, arts, crafts and fashion.

Bonnie Raitt

Empire Theatre, 19:30–22:00, £29.50

American blues and singer/ songwriter, touring with her 2012 album, Slipstream

Sun 23 Jun Africa Oye Festival

Sefton Park, 12:30-21:30, Free

The UK's largest free celebration of African music and culture, taking over Sefton Park with a two-day feast of live music, food, drink, arts, crafts and fashion.

The Primitives

Eric’s Live, 19:30–23:00, £12

Indie/psych/powerpop fourpiece, fronted by the Coventryborn Tracy Tracy.

Kerry Ellis and Brian May

Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, 19:30–23:00, £39

Unlikely collaboration between musical theatre singer and rock legend.

Martyn Joseph

Palm House, 19:00–23:00, £15

The Welsh singer songwriter takes to the majestic setting of Sefton Park’s Palm House for a acoustic folk set.

Tue 25 Jun Lambchop

The Kazimier, 19:30–23:00, £20

Alternative country types par excellence, Nashville’s Lambchop take to the road armed with their new album, another collection of pleasingly peculiar and melancholy songwriting.

Thu 27 Jun

The Dark Lights (We Were Beautiful, Severed Lips)

Bumper, 20:00–23:00, £3

DIY indie-pop from the Londonbased ensemble, full of beats and hooks.

Lucinda Williams

Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, 19:30–23:00, From £19.50

Country songstress fusing a bit of folk and rock into the mix.

Simone Felice

The Kazimier, 20:00–23:00, £12.50

The former Felice Brothers man tours with his new live band.

Sequence

The Kazimier Garden, 19:00–23:30, Free

A new series of summer events from Deep Hedonia and The Kazimier taking place on the last Thursday of the month – the second edition will see Liverpool’s Afternaut, aka Adam Rowley, manipulating sounds for your enjoyment.

Fri 28 Jun Michael Kiwanuka

East Village Arts Club, 18:00–23:00, £15

British soul artist combining soul and roots influences in one deep and husky-voiced whole.

Outfit (EX-EASTER ISLAND HEAD, BIRD)

Blade Factory, 20:00–23:00, Free

Liverpudlian guitar-pop ensemble playing a selection of new stuff offa their recent EP. Esco Williams Homecoming

Epstein Theatre, 19:00–22:00, Free

Homecoming performance for the MTV Brand New 2012 runner-up – playing a free gig in his home town.

Luke Jackson

View Two Gallery, 20:30–23:00, £6

Young gun roots singer/songwriter hailing from Canterbury, Radio 2 Young Folk award nominated n’all.

Sat 29 Jun

Vince Kidd (Kliq, Esco Williams)

East Village Arts Club, 19:00–23:00, £7

The Voice UK hipster with a scarily high vocal range.

Liverpool native drawing inspiration from jazz and big band music, famously toured with The Coral, and now stepping out on his own.

Hat Fitz and Cara

The Kazimier Garden, 20:00–23:30, Free

Australian/Irish bluesy duo, awash with raw emotion and fiery spirit.

Thin Skins

The Picket, 19:00–23:00, £5

Four-piece alt/indie-rock line-up hailing from Southport, throwing a bit of an end of exams shindig.

Sun 30 Jun The Who

Echo Arena, 19:30–22:00, From £60

The original psych-rock bunch play their 1973 double album, Quadrophenia, live and in its bloody-glorious entirety.

Mon 01 Jul Rufus Wainwright

Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, 19:00–23:00, From £29.50

The American-Canadian singer/ songwriter and composer takes his newest, Mark Ronsoncollaborating, album to a live setting – luscious orchestration and charismatic vocals all well and in place.

Simon Townshend

O2 Academy, 19:00–23:00, £12

Younger brother of The Who’s Pete Townshend, touring with his latest album, Looking Out Looking In.

The Pharcyde (Fat Lip, Slimkid3, J Swift, L.A. Jay)

East Village Arts Club, 19:00–23:00, £20

More in the way of classic 90s hip-hop from the California crew, performing their classic album Bizarre Ride II. Matthew E. White

Leaf, 19:30–23:00, £11

Gospel-influenced singer/songwriter and producer hailing from Virginia Beach, VA – with enviable hair genes.

Manchester Clubs Tue 04 Jun Gold Teeth

The Deaf Institute, 22:00–03:00, £4

Legendary bad boy, mixed-bag night that invites use of the term ‘carnage’.

Moustache

Joshua Brooks, 23:00–03:00, £3

Weekly club night, encouraging partying of the harder variety.

Hit & Run Vs Now Wave (Kaytranada, Darq E Freaker & Werkha) Mint Lounge, 22:00–04:00, £5 earlybird (£6 thereafter)

Student farewell blow-out event, covering bass, garage, d’n’b and dubstep.

Cirque Du Soul #6 (Moon Boots, Will Weaver, Will Burbage, Luke Wolfman, Harvey Maurice)

Gorilla, 22:30–04:00, £8 earlybird (£10 thereafter)

Thu 06 Jun Reggae Thursday

The Deaf Institute, 21:00–01:30, Free

Weekly reggae session at the institute, serving up a blend of roots, rocksteady, onedrop, dancehall and ska.

Play Doubt (Skittle, Broke n English, The Eyez, Dub Phizix)

Mint Lounge, 22:00–03:30, tbc

New monthly event moseying on to the nightlife scene, offering up hip-hop, dubstep, garage and more.

Neil Diablo

Black Dog Bowl, 22:00–04:00, Free

Mr Diablo, of El Diablo’s Social Club, serving up balaeric groovers and disco hits.

1Redlight (Trus’Me, Axel Bowman, Daniel Bell, Trevino) Gorilla, 22:00–04:00, £5

Barcelona’s Off-Sonar kicks off with a preview in Manchester, just in time for the end of term.

From Here to Eternity: Daft Punk Night

The Gaslamp , 21:00–02:00, Free

A night of Daft Punk and From Here to Eternity’s usual mixed bag of tunes.

Fri 07 Jun Karnival

The Deaf Institute, 22:00–04:00, £6

Monthly residents party, with a fusion of house music, tech-house and future bass.

A Love From Outer Space

Islington Mill, 21:00–01:00, £sold out

Andrew Weatherall and Sean Johnston’s rather ace London night makes its now regular trip north, with the mighty duo playing backto-back all night long.

Revolver

The Deaf Institute, 23:00–03:00, £3

Manchester’s premier 60s party, now a bi-monthly reason to get excited. Expect 60s pop, garage, motown, rock’n’roll.

Top Of The Pops ‘13 (Gus Gorman)

Mint Lounge, 22:30–03:30, £2

Get your weekend off to a great start with this healthy mix of dancefloor fillers and guilty pleasures served up by resident and guest DJs.

Night of the Living Dread (Mikey D.O.N, Wizzy Dan)

Band On The Wall, 22:30–03:00, Free (£5 after midnight)

Manchester’s biggest and friendliest reggae party returns.

Paid In Full

Black Dog Ballroom NWS, 22:00–04:00, £2

DJ Da Funk taking over the decks for a night of hip-hop, frunk and dub-step.

Friday Spin Off

Black Dog Bowl, 23:00–04:00, Free

Hip-hop, funk and soul from a rotation of regular faces from the Manchester scene.

Selective Hearing (Move D)

The Roadhouse, 23:00–05:00, £8 earlybird (£10)

A night of techno, house and bass, courtesy of the Selective Hearing bunch.

Centro Disco (Nine Lives, Dave Stead)

KRAAK, 22:00–03:00, £5

A new club night for Manchester, jumping aboard the Nu Disco trend.

Kids Nowadays Parklife PreParty

Wählbar, 22:00–02:00, £tbc

Neil Smallridge Black Dog Ballroom NQ, 22:00–05:00, Free

Effortlessly blended indie, disco, hip-hop and house served up by Neil Smallridge.

Patterns

Black Dog Bowl, 23:00–04:00, Free

WHP resident, Krysko, taking over the decks and playing his blend of soul, disco and house anthems.

Synthetic: Peter Plaznik

Sound Control, 23:00–04:00, £10

New club night bringing uplifting trance and techno along with cutting edge visuals.

Ragtag

Band On The Wall, 20:00–03:00, £6

Showcase night with a line up of global beat artists and DJs. Woo Hah

Trof Northern Quarter, 21:00–03:00, Free (£1 after 10pm)

New Saturday-nighter spanning old school, hip-hop, soul and funk.

Afterlife: Drop The Mustard (Dyed Soundorom, Ed Norris/Oli Hackett, Kaluki DJs) Gorilla, 22:00–04:00, £10

Official Parklife afterparty, with a selection of guests plus resident DJs. Afterlife: Juicy (Mistajam)

The Ruby Lounge, 22:00–04:00, £6

Official Parklife afterparty, with a selection of guests plus resident DJs.

Afterlife: Just Skank (Compa, Just Jorge, Tomfoolery, Manuva and Raasclarke) Dry Live, 22:00–03:00, £8

Official Parklife afterparty, with a selection of guests plus resident DJs.

Afterlife: Idiosync (George Fitzgerald, Guy Richards, Eoin Thomas, Aslan)

Joshua Brooks, 22:00–04:00, £8

Official Parklife afterparty, with a selection of guests plus resident DJs.

Afterlife: Gold Teeth (Madam X, Gin and Chronic, DJ Mixed Race, Sonic, Tingley Terror, James Preterson, Jalsh, Type DJs)

The Deaf Institute, 22:00–04:00, £6

Official Parklife after-party, with a selection of guest plus resident DJs. Afterlife: Fresh Fridays

Underdog, 22:00–04:00, £7

Official Parklife afterparty, with a selection of guests plus resident DJs. Afterlife: Bass Face and Deviate (Lucas Christiano, Henry Rymer, Maden)

Avici White, 22:00–05:00, £8

Official Parklife afterparty, with a selection of guests plus resident DJs. Afterlife: Why Always Me (Szajna, N.A.N.C.Y)

256, 22:00–03:00, £3 (£4 door)

Official Parklife afterparty, with a selection of guests plus resident DJs. Sanction

NQ Live, 23:00–04:00, £8 earlybird (£10 thereafter)

Two rooms of deep house and techno – topping the bill is Monte, a producer who built his sound on a background of drumming.

Matthew and David (Wasps Nest)

Soup Kitchen, 20:00–03:00, Free

Old and new music from the Wasps Nest collective.

Hit & Run Vs Rum & Bass

The travelling club night, self described as ‘burlesque meets bass’, which makes for a vibrant and experience.

Warming up for Parklife with a night of funky Chicago house.

Wed 05 Jun

Limbo presents De Sluwe Vos, of Slapfunk and Extended Play.

A proper Parklife afterparty, complete with guest DJs tbc.

Common, 21:00–02:00, Free (£2 after 10)

Night and Day Cafe, 22:00–03:00, Free

Juicy

Joshua Brooks, 23:00–03:00, £2 adv (£3 door)

All party, no bullshit night of everything from classic hip-hop to disco and funk.

D Tached: Dimensions Festival Launch Gorilla, 22:00–04:00, £3

From the same people who brought you Hit & Run, focussing on house, techno and future bass.

The Summer Fiesta (Mike Skinner)

Black Dog Ballroom NWS, 22:00–04:00, £8

The Streets frontman, Mike Skinner, hits the decks, along with an appearance from a secret guest DJ (MadTech) plus residents.

Limbo (De Sluwe Vos, H2, 5eighty6) South, 23:00–05:00, £8

Well Future (Glowing Palms)

Antwerp Mansion, 23:00–04:00, £5

The Hit & Run residents go head to head with Rum & Bass.

Parklife AfterParty

Wählbar, 23:55–03:30, £tbc

Girls on Film: Parklife Afterparty

Guest DJs on the decks, bringing you music from the past, present, and well, future.

The Deaf Institute regular rocks up at Night and Day for a Parklife after party special/.

Sat 08 Jun

Sun 09 Jun

GOO

The Deaf Institute, 22:00–03:00, £5

Monthly club night tribute to 90s indie – expect Pulp, Nirvana, Suede, Smashing Pumpkins, Pixies and more.

Funkademia (David Dunne)

Mint Lounge, 22:30–03:30, £5 (£6 after 11)

Mancunian nightclub institution – delivering a chronological history of soul on a weekly basis, courtesy of their DJ collective.

Afterlife: From Manchester With Love (Scuba, T. Williams, Adam Shelton, Krysko and Greg Lord, Thick as Thieves, Anton Fitz/Will Orchard)

The Deaf Institute, 22:00–04:00, £8

Official Parklife afterparty, with a selection of guests plus resident DJs.

Listings

51

Manchester Clubs Afterlife: Drop The Mustard and Under (Damian Lazarus, Francesca Lonbardo, Oli Hackett/Ed Norris, Matt Henshaw, Fran Fitzgerald) Gorilla, 22:00–04:00, £10

Official Parklife afterparty, with a selection of guests plus resident DJs.

Afterlife: Metropolis and Ape (Andy C, North Base) The Ruby Lounge, 22:00–04:00, £10

Official Parklife afterparty, with a selection of guests plus resident DJs.

Afterlife: CONTENT (Max Cooper, Ghosting Season) South, 22:00–04:00, £6

Official Parklife afterparty, with a selection of guests plus resident DJs. Afterlife: Hoya:Hoya (Jackmaster, Krystal Klear, Illum Sphere, Eclair Fifi, Jonny Dub) The Roadhouse, 22:00–04:00, £10

Official Parklife afterparty, with a selection of guests plus resident DJs.

Afterlife: Hi Ku (Andres, Shola, Dry Bones, Resetti)

Joshua Brooks, 22:00–04:00, £8

Official Parklife afterparty, with a selection of guests plus resident DJs.

Afterlife: Dry Hump (Henry Bird)

Trof Northern Quarter, 22:00–04:00, £3 (£4 door)

Official Parklife afterparty, with a selection of guests plus resident DJs.

Afterlife: Rum and Bass (Toyboy and Robin) Underdog, 22:00–04:00, £6

Official Parklife afterparty, with a selection of guests plus resident DJs. Parklife AfterParty

Wählbar, 00:00–03:30, £tbc

A proper Parklife afterparty, complete with guest DJs tbc.

Mon 10 Jun Switch

Gorilla, 23:00–04:00, £5

Friday Spin Off Black Dog Bowl, 23:00–04:00, Free

Hip-hop, funk and soul from a rotation of regular faces from the Manchester scene.

Misty in Roots (DJ Mikey D.O.N)

Band On The Wall, 20:30–03:00, £12

Classic roots reggae from Southall’s premier dreadlock warriors.

Livity Sound Live

Soup Kitchen, 23:00–03:00, £5

The live project and label of Bristol trio Peverelist, Kowton & Asusu, blending techno, house and garage.

Tusk

Wählbar, 21:00–02:00, £tbc

Disco, house and general oddities from Manchester’s Tusk.

Sat 15 Jun Horse Meat Disco

2022NQ, 22:00–06:00, £8 adv.

One half of the mighty London quartet, James Hilliard and Severino, take control of the decks for a night of eclectic beats.

Ultimate Power

The Ruby Lounge, 22:00–03:00, £6

A new club night sweeping the nation, offering up nothing but power ballads. It’s like one big communal karaoke night.

Revolver

The Deaf Institute, 23:00–03:00, £3

Manchester’s premier 60s party, now a bi-monthly reason to get excited. Expect 60s pop, garage, motown, rock’n’roll.

Girls On Film

The Deaf Institute, 22:00–03:00, £5

Pink lady cocktails, disco balls, glitz and glamour – a monthly club night where you’re free to let your inner 80s child loose.

Funkademia (Jon Busstop)

Mint Lounge, 22:30–03:30, £5 (£6 after 11)

Moustache

Weekly club night, encouraging partying of the harder variety.

Wed 12 Jun Juicy

Joshua Brooks, 23:00–03:00, £2 adv (£3 door)

All party, no bullshit night of everything from classic hip-hop to disco and funk.

Thu 13 Jun Reggae Thursday

The Deaf Institute, 21:00–01:30, Free

Weekly reggae session at the institute, serving up a blend of roots, rocksteady, onedrop, dancehall and ska.

Neil Diablo

Black Dog Bowl, 22:00–04:00, Free

Mr Diablo, of El Diablo’s Social Club, serving up balaeric groovers and disco hits.

Fri 14 Jun Juicy

The Deaf Institute, 22:00–03:00, £3

All party, no bullshit night of everything from classic hip-hop to disco and funk.

Top Of The Pops ‘13 (Gus Gorman, Christopher Dresden Styles)

Mint Lounge, 22:30–03:30, £2

Get your weekend off to a great start with this healthy mix of dancefloor fillers and guilty pleasures served up by resident and guest DJs. Paid In Full

Black Dog Ballroom NWS, 22:00–04:00, £2

DJ Da Funk taking over the decks for a night of hip-hop, frunk and dub-step.

52

Listings

Weekly club night, encouraging partying of the harder variety.

Patterns

Black Dog Bowl, 23:00–04:00, Free

Saytek

Joshua Brooks, 23:00–04:00, £8

Dusted presents Saytek live, delivering a night of house and techno along with the Dusted residents.

Woo Hah

Trof Northern Quarter, 21:00–03:00, Free (£1 after 10pm)

All party, no bullshit night of everything from classic hip-hop to disco and funk.

Slip Discs Showcase (Bass Clef, Micachu, Chaines, Tom Rose, SLP DJs.)

Soup Kitchen, 19:30–23:30, £6

Showcase event for the experimental music label, Slip Discs.

Thu 20 Jun Reggae Thursday

The Deaf Institute, 21:00–01:30, Free

Weekly reggae session at the institute, serving up a blend of roots, rocksteady, onedrop, dancehall and ska.

Neil Diablo

Black Dog Bowl, 22:00–04:00, Free

Top Of The Pops ‘13 (Gus Gorman, Justine Alderman)

Switch

Gorilla, 23:00–04:00, £5

A new weekly event at Gorilla from the people that brought you Bassface, offering a mash up of house, hip-hop and bass.

The Deaf Institute, 21:00–01:30, Free

Weekly reggae session at the institute, serving up a blend of roots, rocksteady, onedrop, dancehall and ska.

Neil Diablo

Patterns

Black Dog Bowl, 23:00–04:00, Free

Mr Diablo, of El Diablo’s Social Club, serving up balaeric groovers and disco hits.

Gold Teeth

Gorilla, 22:00–03:00, £5

Paid In Full

Get your weekend off to a great start with this healthy mix of dancefloor fillers and guilty pleasures served up by resident and guest DJs.

Get your weekend off to a great start with this healthy mix of dancefloor fillers and guilty pleasures served up by resident and guest DJs.

DJ Da Funk taking over the decks for a night of hip-hop, frunk and dub-step.

Black Dog Bowl, 23:00–04:00, Free

Hip-hop, funk and soul from a rotation of regular faces from the Manchester scene.

Typical Girls Disco

Wählbar, 21:00–02:00, £tbc

A new night showcasing dancable music from girl bands, with added art, zines and DJs.

Lost Control (The Kelly Twins)

Soup Kitchen, 22:00–04:00, £5

Lost control presents the Bristolbased duo, The Kelly Twins.

Disco Electronica Relaunch

Underdog, 22:00–04:00, £7

Well Future (Kickin’ Pigeon)

Funkademia (Trafford Lovething) Mint Lounge, 22:30–03:30, £5 (£6 after 11)

Mancunian nightclub institution – delivering a chronological history of soul on a weekly basis, courtesy of their DJ collective.

Neil Smallridge

Black Dog Ballroom NQ, 22:00–05:00, Free

Patterns

WHP resident, Krysko, taking over the decks and playing his blend of soul, disco and house anthems.

Housemania Meets Audiohouse

The Ruby Lounge, 22:00–03:00, £10 earlybird (£12 thereafter)

London to Manchester link up, with a line-up of DJs set to play all night.

Woo Hah

Trof Northern Quarter, 21:00–03:00, Free (£1 after 10pm)

New Saturday-nighter spanning old school, hip-hop, soul and funk.

Meandyou

Soup Kitchen, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Monthly night of dance music, from the Meandyou residents, Juniper, Arnaldo and Joy Orbison.

Craig Charles Funk and Soul Club

DJ and actor Craig Charles will be manning the decks until 3am, playing his picks of funk and soul.

Paqua, Bing Ji Ling (Phil Mison)

Soup Kitchen, 20:00–03:00, £6

Underground Balearic grooves from Paqua and Bing Ji Ling with support from Phil Mison and Aficionado residents.

Woo Hah

Trof Northern Quarter, 21:00–03:00, Free (£1 after 10pm)

New Saturday-nighter spanning old school, hip-hop, soul and funk.

Black Dog Bowl, 22:00–04:00, Free

Mint Lounge, 22:30–03:30, £2

Black Dog Bowl, 23:00–04:00, Free

Mon 17 Jun

Reggae Thursday

Top Of The Pops ‘13 (Loz Newy)

Sun 16 Jun Micheal Holland and Conor, dishing up radiophonic disco and film score techno.

Thu 27 Jun

Legendary bad boy, mixed-bag night that invites use of the term ‘carnage’.

Effortlessly blended indie, disco, hip-hop and house served up by Neil Smallridge.

Haxan

All party, no bullshit night of everything from classic hip-hop to disco and funk.

Fri 21 Jun

A night of forward thinking electronic music from the Manchester based collective and label, This City is Ours.

Common, 16:00–00:00, Free

Juicy

Joshua Brooks, 23:00–03:00, £2 adv (£3 door)

Fri 28 Jun

Sat 22 Jun

This City is Ours

Joshua Brooks, 23:00–03:00, £3

Mr Diablo, of El Diablo’s Social Club, serving up balaeric groovers and disco hits.

Soup Kitchen, 23:00–03:00, £5

Wählbar, 21:00–02:00, £tbc

Effortlessly blended indie, disco, hip-hop and house served up by Neil Smallridge.

Band On The Wall, 21:00–03:00, £13

Guest DJs on the decks, bringing you music from the past, present, and well, future.

Antwerp Mansion, 21:00–04:00, £10

Black Dog Ballroom NQ, 22:00–05:00, Free

Wed 26 Jun

Manchester native, founder of Eyes Down, and Hoya:Hoya favourite picking the tunes.

Garage and house summer jam, with live performance from Manchester’s Sweet Female Attitude.

Moustache

Neil Smallridge

Joshua Brooks, 23:00–03:00, £2 adv (£3 door)

Common, 21:00–02:00, Free (£2 after 10)

Pureniceness

Gold Teeth

The Deaf Institute, 22:00–03:00, £4

Legendary bad boy, mixed-bag night that invites use of the term ‘carnage’.

Mancunian nightclub institution – delivering a chronological history of soul on a weekly basis, courtesy of their DJ collective.

Weekly club night, encouraging partying of the harder variety.

Soup Kitchen, 20:00–03:00, Free

Monthly club night from the swing ting soundboys, pushing their street and soundsystem music.

Tue 25 Jun

Bedlam Saturday Garlands, 22:00–04:00, £10 (£5)

Juicy

New Saturday-nighter spanning old school, hip-hop, soul and funk.

Swing Ting!

Gorilla, 23:00–04:00, £5

A new weekly event at Gorilla from the people that brought you Bassface, offering a mash up of house, hip-hop and bass.

Funkademia (Les Croasdaile) Mint Lounge, 22:30–03:30, £5 (£6 after 11)

Wed 19 Jun

Disco Electronic returns to the Underdog basement with big plans for the summer.

Jon K (Hoya:Hoya)

Switch

WHP resident, Krysko, taking over the decks and playing his blend of soul, disco and house anthems.

Friday Spin Off

WHP resident, Krysko, taking over the decks and playing his blend of soul, disco and house anthems.

Joshua Brooks, 23:00–03:00, £3

Moustache

Joshua Brooks, 23:00–03:00, £3

Black Dog Ballroom NQ, 22:00–05:00, Free

Neil Smallridge

Tue 11 Jun The Deaf Institute, 22:00–03:00, £4

The Deaf Institute, 22:00–03:00, £4

Legendary bad boy, mixed-bag night that invites use of the term ‘carnage’.

Black Dog Ballroom NWS, 22:00–04:00, £2

Effortlessly blended indie, disco, hip-hop and house served up by Neil Smallridge.

Legendary bad boy, mixed-bag night that invites use of the term ‘carnage’.

Gold Teeth

Mancunian nightclub institution – delivering a chronological history of soul on a weekly basis, courtesy of their DJ collective.

A new weekly event at Gorilla from the people that brought you Bassface, offering a mash up of house, hip-hop and bass.

Gold Teeth

Tue 18 Jun

Mon 24 Jun

Mint Lounge, 22:30–03:30, £2

Block Party

Trof Northern Quarter, 21:00–03:00, free

Another Mof Glimmers night, serving up block party essentials with free house punch ‘til it’s gone.

Paid In Full

Black Dog Ballroom NWS, 22:00–04:00, £2

DJ Da Funk taking over the decks for a night of hip-hop, frunk and dub-step.

Friday Spin Off

Black Dog Bowl, 23:00–04:00, Free

Hip-hop, funk and soul from a rotation of regular faces from the Manchester scene.

Prosumer

Joshua Brooks, 22:00–04:00, £10

Deep house set from Prosumer, let loose for a three-hour set.

Fortsetzen 003 (Jozef K, Winter Son, Ghosting Season, Means&3rd, Gavin Miller, Oliver Byrne) The Deaf Institute, 22:00–04:00, £4

Josef K and Winter Son join forces with Berlin-based party people Fortsetzen to launch their EP on the Last Night on Earth label.

Frank (Alex Arnout)

Underdog, 22:00–04:00, £5

Frank takes to the basement beneath Black Dog Ballroom NWS, with Alex Arnout putting the Funktion One sound system through its paces.

Dots and Loops 7th Birthday (Sonic Boom, Plank!, Weird Era, Mind Mountain) KRAAK, 20:00–04:00, £6

Long-running clubnight Dots and Loops is celebrating its seventh year of indie, post-punk, and shoegazey shenanigans at Kraak.

To mark the occasion they’ve lined up a monster night including a two-hour DJ set from Sonic Boom.

Well Future (Ruf Dug)

Common, 21:00–02:00, Free (£2 after 10)

Guest DJs on the decks, bringing you music from the past, present, and well, future.

Sat 29 Jun POP

The Deaf Institute, 22:00–04:00, £5

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.

Extravagant and flamboyant club night complete with Avant garde entertainers.

Shelter 1st Birthday (Detroit Swindle, Cozzy D, Henry Street Social)

The Kazimier, 21:00–04:00, £10

Liverpool debut for Dutch duo Detroit Swindle, aka Lars Dales and Maarten Smeets – purveyors of fine house Schmame Industries DJs

The Shipping Forecast, 22:00–03:00, Free

Disco, funk and soul from the Schmame Industries DJs.

Sun 09 Jun

Carpe Diem (Sante, Carl Dunne, Henry Street Social, Marc Williams) The Picket, 01:00–08:00, £9

After hours club night regularly pitching up at The Picket with a host of international and resident DJs.

Tue 11 Jun Dirty Antics

Bumper, 22:30–04:00, Free (£4 after 11)

Messy Tuesday-nighter, bring your dirty shoes.

Wed 12 Jun Kill Your TV

Liverpool Clubs Tue 04 Jun Dirty Antics

Bumper, 22:30–04:00, Free (£4 after 11)

Messy Tuesday-nighter, bring your dirty shoes.

Wed 05 Jun Kill Your TV

Bumper, 20:30–05:00, £2

An anything-goes affair – think indie, punk, ska, new wave, electro and more.

Medication

Nation, 22:30–03:00, £5

Taking over the home of Cream, with house/electro, chart and r’n’b spread over three rooms, complete with visuals.

Thu 06 Jun Propaganda

Bumper, 23:00–05:00, Free (£4 after 11)

Student-orientated night playing the best in new and classic indie music.

Juicy

The Shipping Forecast, 23:00–03:00, £3

All party, no bullshit night of everything from classic hip-hop to disco and funk.

Time Square

The Krazy House, 22:00–04:00, £2

Staple student night at the Krazy House, with a mix of music across the three floors (think: rock, indie, alternative, dance and a sprinkling of cheese) Stock Exchange

Chameleon Bar, 20:00–02:00, Free

Ease those double-dip recession woes and dance yourself silly at Chameleon’s weekly Stock Exchange.

Bumper, 20:30–05:00, £2

An anything-goes affair – think indie, punk, ska, new wave, electro and more.

Medication

Nation, 22:30–03:00, £5

Taking over the home of Cream, with house/electro, chart and r’n’b spread over three rooms, complete with visuals.

All party, no bullshit night of everything from classic hip-hop to disco and funk.

Time Square

The Krazy House, 22:00–04:00, £2

Staple student night at the Krazy House, with a mix of music across the three floors (think: rock, indie, alternative, dance and a sprinkling of cheese) Stock Exchange

Chameleon Bar, 20:00–02:00, Free

Ease those double-dip recession woes and dance yourself silly at Chameleon’s weekly Stock Exchange.

Gossip!

Garlands, 22:00–03:00, £4

Student night with 5 rooms of music spread over 2 floors and the occasional theme night.

Fri 14 Jun

Cobra Commander (AK47/247)

The Shipping Forecast, 22:00–03:00, Free

Back to back DJ set from Cobra Commander and AK47/247.

Shut Up And Play The Hits Screening

Camp and Furnace, 21:00–02:00, £10

Rage

The Krazy House, 22:00–05:00, £3

The third installment of Wavy, with Shotty Horroh and Mosh Team topping the bill.

Mixed-bag blow-out night spread out over all three floors – indie, rock, alternative and dance tunes.

The Shipping Forecast, 22:00–03:00, Free

Garlands, 22:00–04:00, £10 (£5)

DJ set in the bar, serving up rare delights and other nonsense.

Sat 08 Jun

A Love From Outer Space (Andrew Weatherall, Sean JohnsTon, Allen and Hutch) Haus Warehouse, 22:00–04:00, £10

Andrew Weatherall and Sean Johnston’s rather ace London night makes its now regular trip north, with the mighty duo playing backto-back all night long.

Rage

The Krazy House, 22:00–05:00, £3

Bedlam Saturday

Extravagant and flamboyant club night complete with Avant garde entertainers.

Alan Culvin (James Francis, Ged Lever, Marc Williams, Lee Charnock, Connect, Ray Oliver)

43 Seel Street, 22:00–04:00, £5

Charity club night raising money for Zoe’s Baby Hospice.

Get Lucky

The Shipping Forecast, 22:00–03:00, Free

A night dedicated to Daft Punk, navigating 90s electro and all the DP hits.

Time Square

The Krazy House, 22:00–04:00, £2

Nation, 22:30–03:00, £5

Chameleon Bar, 20:00–02:00, Free

Medication

Stock Exchange

Taking over the home of Cream, with house/electro, chart and r’n’b spread over three rooms, complete with visuals.

Ease those double-dip recession woes and dance yourself silly at Chameleon’s weekly Stock Exchange.

Thu 20 Jun

Garlands, 22:00–03:00, £4

Propaganda

Bumper, 23:00–05:00, Free (£4 after 11)

Student-orientated night playing the best in new and classic indie music.

Juicy

The Shipping Forecast, 23:00–03:00, £3

All party, no bullshit night of everything from classic hip-hop to disco and funk.

Time Square

The Krazy House, 22:00–04:00, £2

Staple student night at the Krazy House, with a mix of music across the three floors (think: rock, indie, alternative, dance and a sprinkling of cheese) Stock Exchange

Chameleon Bar, 20:00–02:00, Free

Ease those double-dip recession woes and dance yourself silly at Chameleon’s weekly Stock Exchange.

Gossip!

Garlands, 22:00–03:00, £4

Juicy

The Shipping Forecast, 23:00–03:00, £3

All party, no bullshit night of everything from classic hip-hop to disco and funk.

An anything-goes affair – think indie, punk, ska, new wave, electro and more.

Kill Your TV

Bumper, 20:30–05:00, £2

Solo project of German techno musician, David Moufang.

Student-orientated night playing the best in new and classic indie music.

Juicy The Shipping Forecast, 23:00–03:00, £3

Staple student night at the Krazy House, with a mix of music across the three floors (think: rock, indie, alternative, dance and a sprinkling of cheese)

Fri 21 Jun

Propaganda

Sat 15 Jun

Captain Flash

Wed 19 Jun

Bumper, 23:00–05:00, Free (£4 after 11)

Fri 07 Jun The Zanzibar Club , 21:00–03:00, £7

Bumper, 22:30–04:00, Free (£4 after 11)

Messy Tuesday-nighter, bring your dirty shoes.

Thu 13 Jun

Student night with 5 rooms of music spread over 2 floors and the occasional theme night.

Wavy #3

Dirty Antics

Student night with 5 rooms of music spread over 2 floors and the occasional theme night.

As close to being at the last ever LCD Soundsystem show as you’ll ever get – big screen, big sound, smoke and dancing, followed by DJ sets from Lunar Modular and more.

Gossip!

Garlands, 22:00–03:00, £4

Tue 18 Jun

Move D

Fallout Factory, 21:00–04:00, £12

Carl Combover

Gossip!

Student night with 5 rooms of music spread over 2 floors and the occasional theme night.

Fri 28 Jun Michael Kiwanuka

East Village Arts Club, 18:00–23:00, £15

British soul artist combining soul and roots influences in one deep and husky-voiced whole.

The Monthly Review

The Shipping Forecast, 22:00–03:00, Free

Presenting new sound alongside the best of pop and dance, all courtest of DJ’s Ellis and James Binary.

Sat 29 Jun Rage

The Krazy House, 22:00–05:00, £3

Mixed-bag blow-out night spread out over all three floors – indie, rock, alternative and dance tunes.

Circus (Nina Kraviz)

East Village Arts Club, 22:00–04:00, £18

Long running club night, started by DJ Yousef back in 2002, bringing together world-renowned DJs and producers at the forefront of house music.

Bedlam Saturday

Garlands, 22:00–04:00, £10 (£5)

The Shipping Forecast, 22:00–03:00, Free

Extravagant and flamboyant club night complete with Avant garde entertainers.

Sat 22 Jun

Manchester

60s rock’n’roll and raw r’n’b from the Go Go resident, Carl Combover.

Rage

The Krazy House, 22:00–05:00, £3

Mixed-bag blow-out night spread out over all three floors – indie, rock, alternative and dance tunes.

Bedlam Saturday

Garlands, 22:00–04:00, £10 (£5)

Extravagant and flamboyant club night complete with Avant garde entertainers.

Luciano and Friends (Reboot, Andrea Oliva, Argy, Jemmy, Josef K, Lee Rands, Adele Moss) St George’s Hall, 15:00–06:00, £30

One off charity event with more than 17 hours of music spread over three venues.

No Fakin

The Shipping Forecast, 22:00–03:00, Free

Selector set from the No Fakin DJs, spanning hip hop, funk, soul and reggae.

Tue 25 Jun Dirty Antics

Bumper, 22:30–04:00, Free (£4 after 11)

Messy Tuesday-nighter, bring your dirty shoes.

Artful (Rude Kid)

Bumper, 22:00–03:00, £8

The formidable Artful Dodger, now working under the Artful moniker, still going strong after 18 years Djing.

Capitol Theatre A Bright Room Called Day

5–8 Jun, times vary, £8 (£5)

Thought-provoking play by American playwright, Tony Kushner, about a group of artists and political activists in 1930s Germany.

Contact Mother’s Ruin

21 Jun, 7:30pm – 10:00pm, £8 (£5)

A creative collision of cabaret, live art and film starring Alternative Miss World Fancy Chance, EcoWorrier Extraordinaire Timberlina, Nathan Evans and artist Sophie Willan. Each has only 14 minutes to save the planet, how will they do it?

Dickie Beau: Lost in Trans-

6–8 Jun, 7:30pm – 10:00pm, £10 (£6)

A new performance piece from renowned gender disillusionist, Dickie Beau, exploring issues surrounding sexuality through a blend of multi-media, found sound and lip synching.

Mr Bunk: Slapdash Galaxy

12 Jun, 7:30pm – 10:00pm, £10 (£6)

Wed 26 Jun

A proper rubbish puppet show, as in, Jeff Achtem creates magical puppet shows using everyday objects and rubbish.

Bumper, 20:30–05:00, £2

13–14 Jun, 7:00pm – 11:00pm, £12 (£8)

Kill Your TV

An anything-goes affair – think indie, punk, ska, new wave, electro and more.

Medication

Nation, 22:30–03:00, £5

Taking over the home of Cream, with house/electro, chart and r’n’b spread over three rooms, complete with visuals.

Thu 27 Jun Propaganda

Bumper, 23:00–05:00, Free (£4 after 11)

Andy Field: Zilla

Presented by Contact and Word of Warning, Zilla is a disaster movie for the stage told in two parts attempting to look at the cities we live in from a different perspective.

Jenna Watt: Flaneurs

20 Jun, 7:30pm – 10:00pm, £8 (£5)

A poetic performance by Jenna Watt, exploring the idea that ‘the larger the crowd, the less likely it is that anyone will intervene.’

Student-orientated night playing the best in new and classic indie music.

Mixed-bag blow-out night spread out over all three floors – indie, rock, alternative and dance tunes.

THE SKINNY

Theatre Joshua Brooks Live, Laugh, Love Life!

5–8 Jun, 7:15pm – 10:00pm, £7

The Side by Side theatre company present a musical cabaret comedy charting the peaks and troughs of everyday life.

Manchester Arena We Will Rock You

4–5 Jun, 7:30pm – 10:00pm, From £22.50

Surefire crowd-pleaser packed with Queen’s inherently theatrical songs and a witty script by Ben Elton.

Opera House

Scottish Opera: The Pirates of Penzance

11-15 JUN, times vary, prices vary

Scottish Opera join forces with the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company to stage an all-new production of the Gilbert and Sullivan’s favourite. Avast, me hearties, etc.

Bohemian Rhapsody

4–8 Jun, times vary, prices vary

Six all singing, all dancing performers, belting out some Queen classics, including the legendary Bohemian Rhapsody.

Sherlock Holmes: The Best Kept Secret

25–29 Jun, times vary, From £10

The great detective is brought to life once again by BAFTA award winning writer Mark Catley and the critically acclaimed director Nikolai Foster.

Palace Theatre Dirty Dancing

27 May – 15 Jun, times vary, From £19.50

The cult 80s film revamped for the stage, cue Baby and Johnny, plus sexy dancing and hungry eyes. Standard.

The Rocky Horror Show

17–22 Jun, times vary, From £16.73

The latest incarnation of the favourited rock’n’roll musical arrives at the Palace.

Royal Exchange Theatre A Wondrous Place

11–22 Jun, not 16, times vary, £12 (£10)

Four writers challenge the notion that it’s ‘grim up North’ and offer a fresh perspective on four Northern cities: Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield and Manchester.

The Birthday Party

5 Jun – 6 Jul, not 9 Jun, 16 Jun, 23 Jun, 30 Jun, times vary, From £10

The first full length play by Nobel Prize-winner, Harold Pinter, The Birthday Party is a jaunt into the absurd, set in a seedy boarding house on the English coast. Two sinister strangers visit, and Stanley has no choice but to celebrate his birthday.

Secret Location Manchester Sound: The Massacre

8 Jun – 6 Jul, not 9 Jun, 16 Jun, 23 Jun, 30 Jun, times vary, prices vary

The frenzy of the 1819 Peterloo Massacre will collide with Manchester’s late 80s acid house scene in an immersive theatrical experience, taking the audience deep into the world of underground raves.

The Castle Hotel Cabaret in the Pub

17 Jun, 7:30pm – 11:00pm, Free

An evening of bits ‘n’ bobs – a great chance to catch polished and in-progress performances alike.

The King’s Arms The Rise and Demise of Kenneth Kennedy-Smythe

3–8 Jun, times vary, £7 (£5)

A brand new production of the cult dark comedy by Mike Heath – after the American’s attack France for no reason, war correspondent Kenneth is disgraced for speaking out against it and his girlfriend finds herself in a propaganda trap.

June 2013

Double Take: A Feast of Two One Act Plays 8 Jun, 8:00pm – 11:00pm, £8 (£5)

Double bill performance of one act plays, including the dark comedy Jerry and Tom, and the family drama All An Act. Embryo 79

14 Jun, 7:30pm – 11:00pm, £tbc

Mixed bag night that acts as a platform for performances currently in development – you’ll see anything from short films and comedy to poetry and bands of all genres.

The Lass O'Gowrie

Mary Bell by Mary Bell

8-11 Jun, 19:30-22:00, £tbc

Chilling play exploring the life of Mary Bell, who was convicted of manslaughter in 1968 when she was just 10-years-old.

The Lowry Soul Sister

3–8 Jun, times vary, From £22

Touring West End musical inspired by the life and times of Ike and Tina Turner, following the highs and lows of their careers and personal lives.

Noises Off

17-22 Jun, times vary, prices vary

Michael Frayn’s multi-awardwinning farce of a play within a play, following the backstage antics of a touring theatre company.

Our Fathers

6 Jun, 8:00pm – 10:00pm, From £5

A tribute to fathers everywhere, just trying to do their best – inspired by stand-up comedy, contemporary dance, video installation and The Sopranos.

Half a Person

14 Jun, times vary, £10 (£8)

William is the classic twentysomething Londoner in this coming-of age-tale about friendship and love, as told through The Smiths songs.

The Three Minute Theatre

The Lantern Theatre

6 Jun, 7:00pm – 10:00pm, £8 (£6)

8 Jun, 7:30pm – 10:00pm, £10 (£8)

Poe

An original play by Six Lips Theatre celebrating the work of Edgar Allen Poe – set in 19th century Europe, against a backdrop of clock cogs and cobwebs, with a ticking pendulum and something beating below the floorboards.

The 3MT Comedy Sketch Show

15 Jun, 7:00pm – 10:00pm, £3 (door)

Celebrating their 2nd birthday with an evening of new writing, ideas and characters.

Ripples in Concrete

13 Jun, 29 Jun, times vary, prices vary

Director, Charlie Mortimer and writer, Helen East invite you to engage in the development process of their new production about an unlikely relationship between and asylum seeker an her council estate neighbour.

Steal the Show-Case

28 Jun, 7:00pm – 10:00pm, £3

A showcase performance of a new in-house project, about three youngsters who find themselves re-living some of Shakespeare’s most famous scenes.

Waterside Arts Centre The Brave and the New

10–11 Jun, 7:30pm – 10:00pm, £6 (£5)

Cabaret style performance of new and in-progress material from the Rocket Theatre group.

The Man Who Woke Up Dead

27–29 Jun, 8:00pm – 10:00pm, £8 (£6)

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.

Z Arts

Heart’s Core

15 Jun, times vary, £5.50 (£3.30)

As part of Refugee Week, women from Greater Manchester’s refugee and migrant communities share their stories, giving a glimpse into the heart of refugee women’s lives.

The Package

15–16 Jun, 8:00pm – 10:00pm, £10 (£8)

Somewhere between a comedy and a crime thriller, this production, written by Tam Hinton, tells the story of a Yorkshire mobster and his quest to get his hands on The Package. Darkly comic, as per Hinton’s usual style.

Miss Nightingale – The Burlesque Musical

19–22 Jun, times vary, From £15

A burlesque musical set in 1940s war-torn London, telling the story of a Northern girl with dreams of stardom.

The Enough Project

20–22 Jun, times vary, £10

A double bill performance with original pieces written by Emma Adams and Cathy Crabb – both explore the idea of ‘enough’. In a world of financial instability and depleted natural resources, what does it mean to have enough?

Aquaria

27–29 Jun, times vary, From £19

An aquatic ballet performance, telling the story of Aquaria, Goddess of the Deep through aerial acrobatics, fire juggling and more.

The Time Machine

27–29 Jun, times vary, From £10

A re-telling of H G Wells’ science fiction classic, first published in 1895, telling the story of an English scientist inventor and his travels through time.

Verve 2013

28 Jun, 8:00pm – 10:00pm, £10

An athletic dance theatre performance, choreographed by James Wilton, winner of the Sadler’s Wells Global Dance Contest 2010.

Broken Youth

29 Jun, 8:00pm – 10:00pm, £15

Painting a grim picture of modern life, when teenager Misty Sullivan falls pregnant to local wannabe gangster and becomes a prisoner in her own home – as the story unravels, she plots her revenge on her abusive boyfriend.

The Historians

30 Jun, 8:00pm – 10:00pm, From £8

Shell-suited duo, Chucker and Mucker offer a glimpse into 90s Halifax in this moving tale of friendship and home.

Liverpool Empire Theatre One Night of Queen

11 Jun, 7:30pm – 10:00pm, £18.50

Gary Mullen’s acclaimed Queen tribute act.

Halfway to Paradise: The Billy Fury Story

13 Jun, 7:30pm – 10:00pm, £21

Now in its 16th year of touring, Bill Fury’s own band re-live his timeless hits backed by personal movie footage.

The Dreamboys: Fit and Famous Tour

12 Jun, 7:30pm – 10:00pm, £23.50

Errr... the UK’s top male glamour show. As in, there’s more than one, and they are the best.

Spoonface Steinberg

A new play written by Lee Hall (the man behind Billy Elliot) about an eight-year-old, operaloving autistic girl with terminal cancer – not one to succumb to self-pity, Spoonface delivers an inspiring monologue.

Ripples in Concrete

14 Jun, times vary, prices vary

Director, Charlie Mortimer and writer, Helen East invite you to engage in the development process of their new production about an unlikely relationship between and asylum seeker an her council estate neighbour.

The Playhouse Lionboy

4–8 Jun, times vary, From £12

Inspired by Zizou Corder’s best-selling trilogy of novels, telling the story of an 11 year old boy who can speak to cats, his kidnapped parents, and a rescue mission involving a pride of circus lions.

The Kite Runner

13 Jun – 6 Jul, not 16 Jun, 23 Jun, 30 Jun, times vary, £12

Matthew Spangler presents a re-working of the epic novel by Khaled Hosseini – a tale spanning cultures and continents, telling the story of two motherless boys in Kabul and an event that will tear their worlds apart.

Unity Theatre Batboy: The Musical

5–8 Jun, 8:00pm – 10:00pm, £12 (£10)

Part B movie parody, part horror/ comedy, from the composer of Legally Blonde – when a half bat/ half boy is found in a cave in the American south, a local vet takes him in and teaches him to be a normal boy.

Return

12 Jun, 7:30pm – 10:00pm, £10 (£8)

A new theatre piece by British Iraqi, Dina Mousawi, telling the story of what life is really like for Iraqi women displaced by war and the Arab Spring. Return was developed over a year using a collection of perspectives.

Part of the Liverpool Arab Arts Festival.

Le Trait and Le Temps scellé

11 Jun, 8:00pm – 10:00pm, £10 (£8)

Dance performance by AlgerianFrench choreographer, Nacera Belaza – exploring the traditional dance of her homeland and holy rituals.

Funoon Aljazeera Dance Company

14 Jun, 8:00pm – 10:00pm, £10 (£8)

An evening of traditional Arabic dance from the Funoon Aljazeera Dance Company.

A Cosy Murder

25–26 Jun, 8:00pm – 10:00pm, £10 (£8)

Jilted Pig theatre company blend comedy, circus and detective novels in this life-sized game of Guess Who.

The Johnny Cash Story

7 Jun, 7:30pm – 10:00pm, £23

Roger Dean plays tribute to the country music legend.

Evita

Manchester

24-29 Jun, times vary, From £10

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical about the wife of former Argentinian dictator’s wife, Eva Peron.

Sofia National Ballet’s Giselle

1 Jul, 7:30pm – 10:00pm, From £10

Classical ballet about love and betrayal, brought to life with mesmerising sets and lavish costumes.

Epstein Theatre Martini Lounge

22 Jun, 7:30pm – 10:00pm, £20.00

A tantalising night of burlesque performances, carefully pieced together by Liverpool’s own Millie Dollar.

Judy and Liza

29 Jun, times vary, prices vary

Hit musical capturing the highs and lows of Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli’s 1964 London Palladium concert.

Tue 04 Jun

Luke Toulson (Carl Hutchinson Michael Clapham, Amy Gledhill, MC Toby Hadoke ) Jabez Clegg, 19:00–23:00, £5 (£3 members)

Circuit funny man, Luke Toulson presents his gimmick free brand of comedy.

Robert Newman

Gorilla, 19:00–22:00, £3

Author and comedian Robert Newman, reading from his new novel, The Trade Secret.

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.

Comedy Wed 05 Jun

Tue 11 Jun

Ape and Apple, 20:00–23:00, Free

Jabez Clegg, 19:00–23:00, £5 (£3 members)

Paul Savage: Edinburgh Preview (Josh Walker, Laura Machin, Scott Ambrose, Ben Doyle, Kevin O’Sullivan, Sam Smith)

Free weekly comedy night at the Ape and Apple.

Thu 06 Jun

Eddie Izzard: Force Majeure

Manchester Arena, 20:00–22:00, £35

Cross-dressing comic mastermind Eddie Izzard brings his latest show, Force Majeure – that’s French for ‘superior force’, FYI – to a live setting, showing off his linguistic abilities and making us all laugh at the same time.

Stand Up Thursday (Steve Royle)

The Comedy Store, 20:00–23:00, £10 (£5)

Cheat life and get that Friday feeling one day early with a night of comedic delight, from some circuit funny folk.

Big Value Thursdays (Toby Hadoke, Phil Walker, James Meeham, Sam Brady)

The Frog and Bucket Comedy Club, 19:00–23:00, £9 (£6)

A Frog flagship event – with four great acts to enjoy it’s stonkingly great value, too.

Fri 07 Jun

Eddie Izzard: Force Majeure

Manchester Arena, 20:00–22:00, £35

Cross-dressing comic mastermind Eddie Izzard brings his latest show, Force Majeure – that’s French for ‘superior force’, FYI – to a live setting, showing off his linguistic abilities and making us all laugh at the same time.

Doug Segal: I Can Make You a Mentalist The Lowry, 20:00–22:00, £10 (£8)

Award-winning comic, Doug Segal opens the doors to his Mind Academy, turning the tables on the traditional mind-fuckery show and making you, the audience, the mind readers.

The Best in Stand Up (Rich Wilson, Steve Royle, Dave Fulton, John Warburton)

The Comedy Store, 20:00–23:00, £18 (£9)

Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians.

Funny Women Awards 2013

The King’s Arms, 19:30–23:00, £5.00

The funny women awards is back for it’s 11th year, shining a light on the ever-talented female voices of comedy.

Sat 08 Jun

The Best in Stand Up (Rich Wilson, Steve Royle, Dave Fulton, John Warburton)

The Comedy Store, 19:00–21:00, £20 (£10)

Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians.

The Best in Stand Up II (Rich Wilson, Steve Royle, Dave Fulton, John Warburton)

The Comedy Store, 21:30–23:00, £20 (£10)

Leg 2 of The Best in Stand Up – starting at a later time, so if you missed out on tickets to the earlier show, fear not!

Barrel of Laughs (Toby Hadoke, Phil Walker, John Hastings)

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.

Sun 09 Jun New Stuff

The Comedy Store, 19:30–21:30, £3

A chance for those on the circuit to test out some new, never before heard or seen material, with MC Toby Hadoke.

Mon 10 Jun Beat The Frog (Danny McLoughlin)

The Frog and Bucket Comedy Club, 19:00–23:00, £5 (adv) £3 (otd) Free (students)

A 10-act long heckle-fest, as a handful of amateurs take to the stage and try to Beat the Frog – you decide who stays – brutal.

Edinburgh Preview: Gary Delaney (Michael J Dolan, Joe Lycett, John Hastings MC Toby Hadoke )

Tue 18 Jun

Ray Peacock (James Meehan, Liam Pickford, Paul Savage, MC Toby Hadoke)

Jabez Clegg, 19:00–23:00, £5 (£3 members)

One half of the Chortle Peacock and Gamble podcast dream team, doing his stand up thing.

The Worst Comedy Night in Salford

The King’s Arms, 19:30–23:00, Free

Gearing up for Edinburgh Fringe season, Gary Delaney presents his joke-dense stand up routine.

Keeping expectations low with this open mic night of stand up, all are welcome to give it a bash.

Wed 12 Jun

Wed 19 Jun

Reginald D Hunter

The Lowry, 20:00–22:00, £21

The boom-voiced comic continues with his uniquely non-secular approach to comedy.

Hayley Ellis/ Brennan Reece: Edinburgh Preview (Vishnu Patel, James Anfield, Penella Mellor) Ape and Apple, 20:00–23:00, Free

Free weekly comedy night at the Ape and Apple.

Thu 13 Jun Reginald D Hunter

The Lowry, 20:00–22:00, £21

The boom-voiced comic continues with his uniquely non-secular approach to comedy.

Stand Up Thursday (John Moloney, Tom Stade, Nathan Caton)

The Comedy Store, 20:00–22:00, £10 (£5)

Cheat life and get that Friday feeling one day early with a night of comedic delight, from some circuit funny folk.

Big Value Thursdays (Alex Boardman, Steve Shanyaski, Gary Tro, Rich Wall, Wayne Deakin)

The Frog and Bucket Comedy Club, 19:00–23:00, £9 (£6)

A Frog flagship event – with four great acts to enjoy it’s stonkingly great value, too.

Fri 14 Jun

The Best in Stand Up (John Moloney, Tom Stade, Nathan Caton, Mike Gunn, Sean Meo) The Comedy Store, 20:00–22:00, £18 (£9)

Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians.

Sat 15 Jun Henning Wehn

The Lowry, 20:00–22:00, From £12.50

Jolly stand-up German comic, who pretty much seems to have self-appointed himself German Comedy Ambassador to the UK, mores the joy.

The Best in Stand Up (John Moloney, Tom Stade, Nathan Caton, Mike Gunn, Sean Meo)

The Comedy Store, 19:00–23:00, £20 (£10)

Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians.

The Best in Stand Up II (John Moloney, Tom Stade, Nathan Caton, Mike Gunn, Sean Meo)

The Comedy Store, 21:30–23:00, £20 (£10)

Leg 2 of The Best in Stand Up – starting at a later time, so if you missed out on tickets to the earlier show, fear not!

Barrel of Laughs (Alex Boardman, Steve Shanyaski, Erich McElroy, Wayne Deakin)

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.

Sun 16 Jun

Alex Boardman’s Young Guns

The Comedy Store, 19:30–23:00, £6 (£3)

Alex Boardman, one of the writers involved with John Bishop’s Britain on BBC1 presents some fresh blood. Be nice.

Mon 17 Jun

Beat The Frog (Ray Peacock)

The Frog and Bucket Comedy Club, 19:00–23:00, £5 (adv) £3 (otd) Free (students)

A 10-act long heckle-fest, as a handful of amateurs take to the stage and try to Beat the Frog – you decide who stays – brutal.

Rich Massara: Edinburgh Preview (Jack Evans, Banji Ojo, Peter Dawson)

Ape and Apple, 20:00–23:00, Free

Free weekly comedy night at the Ape and Apple.

Thu 20 Jun

Stand Up Thursday (Alex Boardman, Ian Stone, Roger Monkhouse)

The Comedy Store, 20:00–22:00, £10 (£5)

Cheat life and get that Friday feeling one day early with a night of comedic delight, from some circuit funny folk.

Big Value Thursdays (Mike Wilkinson, Mickey D, Gareth Berliner, Will Duggan)

The Frog and Bucket Comedy Club, 19:00–23:00, £9 (£6)

A Frog flagship event – with four great acts to enjoy it’s stonkingly great value, too.

Fri 21 Jun

The Best in Stand Up (Alex Boardman, Ian Stone, Carey Marx, Stefano Paolini, Roger Monkhouse)

The Comedy Store, 20:00–22:00, £18 (£9)

Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians.

Jimmy Carr: Gagging Order

O2 Apollo, 19:00–23:00, £25

Carr tours his new solo show, packed with one-liners, stories and jokes done in his own admitted ‘sick’ sense of humour.

Sat 22 Jun

The Best in Stand Up (Alex Boardman, Ian Stone, Carey Marx, Stefano Paolini, Roger Monkhouse)

The Comedy Store, 19:00–21:00, £20 (£10)

Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians.

The Best in Stand Up (Alex Boardman, Ian Stone, Carey Marx, Stefano Paolini, Roger Monkhouse)

The Comedy Store, 21:30–23:00, £20 (£10)

Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians.

Barrel of Laughs (Mike Wilkinson, Mickey D, Gareth Berliner, Will Duggan)

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.

Mon 24 Jun

Beat The Frog (Dan Nightingale)

The Frog and Bucket Comedy Club, 19:00–23:00, £5 (adv) £3 (otd) Free (students)

A 10-act long heckle-fest, as a handful of amateurs take to the stage and try to Beat the Frog – you decide who stays – brutal.

Sidekick Comedy (Kate McCabe, Jack Evans, Amy Gledhill, Lee Peart, Eddie French )

Via, 19:00–22:30, £3 (£2)

A monthly comedy gig with a line up of delightfully hilarious circuit funny folk.

Tue 25 Jun

Edinburgh Preview: Dan Nightingale (Allyson Smith, Lee Peart and MC Toby Hadoke)

Jabez Clegg, 19:00–23:00, £5 (£3 members)

On the road to the Edinburgh Fringe and trying out some material, the ever-energetic Dan Nightingale does his stand up thing.

Wed 26 Jun

Ro Campbell: Edinburgh Preview (Ajay Fellows)

Ape and Apple, 20:00–23:00, Free

Thu 27 Jun

Stand Up Thursday (Jason Cook, Steve Shanyaski, Terry Alderton) The Comedy Store, 20:00–23:00, £10 (£5)

Cheat life and get that Friday feeling one day early with a night of comedic delight, from some circuit funny folk.

Big Value Thursdays (Danny McLoughlin, Jonny Awsum, Fin Taylor, Phil Pagett)

The Frog and Bucket Comedy Club, 19:00–23:00, £9 (£6)

A Frog flagship event – with four great acts to enjoy it’s stonkingly great value, too.

Fri 28 Jun

The Best in Stand Up (Jason Cook, Steve Shanyaski, Terry Alderton, Jo Caulfield, Markus Birdman)

The Comedy Store, 20:00–23:00, £18 (£9)

Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians.

Sat 29 Jun

The Best in Stand Up (Jason Cook, Steve Shanyaski, Terry Alderton, Jo Caulfield, Markus Birdman)

The Comedy Store, 19:00–21:00, £20 (£10)

Regular night of stand up with five world-class comedians.

The Best in Stand Up II (Jason Cook, Steve Shanyaski, Terry Alderton, Jo Caulfield, Markus Birdman)

The Comedy Store, 21:30–23:00, £20 (£10)

Leg 2 of The Best in Stand Up – starting at a later time, so if you missed out on tickets to the earlier show, fear not!

Barrel of Laughs (Danny McLoughlin, Scott Agnew)

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.

Sun 30 Jun New Stuff

The Comedy Store, 19:30–21:30, £3

A chance for those on the circuit to test out some new, never before heard or seen material, with MC Toby Hadoke.

Laughing Cows (Dana Alexander, Lynne Ruth Miller, Kerry Leigh)

The Frog and Bucket Comedy Club, 19:00–23:00, £7 (adv) £9 (otd)

All-female line-up of comics from the Laughing Cow bunch – a group that has helped the likes of Sarah Milllican and Jo Brand launch their careers.

Liverpool Wed 05 Jun The Laughter Factor

The Slaughter House, 20:00–23:00, £5 (£3)

A monthly event allowing comics to try out new material before the weekend shows – it helps if you think of yourself as a comedic guinea pig.

Thu 06 Jun

Philberto (Karen Bayley, Alex Boardman, Stephen Bugeja)

Comedy Central at Baby Blue, 18:30–23:00, £15

Four top-notch circuit comedians (one of ‘em will be the compere) gathered together for an evening of hilarity.

Fri 07 Jun

Keith Carter as Nige (Chris Cairns, John Fothergill, Gary Delaney)

The Slaughter House, 20:00–23:00, £17.50

Keith Carter presents his comic creation, Nige – a much-loved Merseyside-hailing character.

Philberto (Karen Bayley, Alex Boardman, Stuart Goldsmith)

Comedy Central at Baby Blue, 18:30–23:00, £15

Four top-notch circuit comedians (one of ‘em will be the compere) gathered together for an evening of hilarity.

Free weekly comedy night at the Ape and Apple.

Listings

53

Liverpool Comedy Sat 08 Jun

Gary Delaney (Chris Cairns, John Fothergill, Keith Carter as Nige)

The Slaughter House, 20:00–23:00, £15

Triple headline show with a delightfully hilarious line-up of circuit funny-folk.

Mickey D (Sully O’Sullivan, Ian Stone, Matt Blaize) Comedy Central at Baby Blue, 18:30–23:00, £18

Four top-notch circuit comedians (one of ‘em will be the compere) gathered together for an evening of hilarity.

Four Candles (Nige, Joe Bromehead and Andrew Ryan)

House, 21:00–23:00, £15

Weekly showcase of funny folk – they tell the jokes, you do the laughing.

Philberto (Karen Bayley, Alex Boardman, Stuart Goldsmith)

Thu 27 Jun

Comedy Central at Baby Blue, 18:30–23:00, £18

The Slaughter House, 20:00–23:00, £17.50

Four top-notch circuit comedians (one of ‘em will be the compere) gathered together for an evening of hilarity.

Four Candles (Phil Walker, Tudur Owen and Brendan Riley)

House, 21:00–23:00, £15

Weekly showcase of funny folk – they tell the jokes, you do the laughing.

Thu 13 Jun

Steve Shanyaski (Ray Peacock, Joel Dommett, Brennan Reece)

Comedy Central at Baby Blue, 18:30–23:00, £15

Four top-notch circuit comedians (one of ‘em will be the compere) gathered together for an evening of hilarity.

Fri 14 Jun

Johnathan Mayor (Neil Fitzmaurice, Pierre Hollins, Chris McCausland)

The Slaughter House, 20:00–23:00, £15

Triple headline show with a delightfully hilarious line-up of circuit funny-folk.

Steve Shanyaski (Ray Peacock, Joel Dommett, Damian Clark)

Comedy Central at Baby Blue, 18:30–23:00, £15

Four top-notch circuit comedians (one of ‘em will be the compere) gathered together for an evening of hilarity.

Reginald D Hunter

Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, 20:00–22:00, From £23

The boom-voiced comic continues with his uniquely non-secular approach to comedy.

Sat 15 Jun

Chris McCausland (Neil Fitzmaurice, Pierre Hollins, Johnathan Mayor) The Slaughter House, 20:00–23:00, £15

Triple headline show with a delightfully hilarious line-up of circuit funny-folk.

Steve Shanyaski (Ray Peacock, Mike Newall, Damian Clark)

Comedy Central at Baby Blue, 18:30–23:00, £18

Four top-notch circuit comedians (one of ‘em will be the compere) gathered together for an evening of hilarity.

Four Candles (Toby Hadoke, Ste Porter and Sam Avery)

House, 21:00–23:00, £15

Keith Carter as Nige

Keith Carter presents his comic creation, Nige – a much-loved Merseyside-hailing character.

Jonny Awsum (Phil Ellis, Barry Dodds, Marc Smethurst)

Comedy Central at Baby Blue, 18:30–23:00, £15

Four top-notch circuit comedians (one of ‘em will be the compere) gathered together for an evening of hilarity.

Fri 28 Jun

Tom Stade (Neil Fitzmaurice, Rob Rouse, Daliso Chaponda) The Slaughter House, 20:00–23:00, £15

Triple headline show with a delightfully hilarious line-up of circuit funny-folk.

Dan Nightingale (Phil Ellis, Barry Dodds, Chris Martin)

Comedy Central at Baby Blue, 18:30–23:00, £15

Four top-notch circuit comedians (one of ‘em will be the compere) gathered together for an evening of hilarity.

Sat 29 Jun

Rob Rouse (Neil Fitzmaurice, Tom Stade, Rob Rouse)

The Slaughter House, 20:00–23:00, £17.50

Triple headline show with a delightfully hilarious line-up of circuit funny-folk.

Daliso Chaponda (Chris Cairns, Tom Stade, Rob Rouse) The Slug and Lettuce, 20:00–23:00, £18

Malawian comic, with a career spanning Canada, South Africa and more recently, the UK. Dan Nightingale (Phil Ellis, Barry Dodds, Chris Martin)

Comedy Central at Baby Blue, 18:30–23:00, £18

Four top-notch circuit comedians (one of ‘em will be the compere) gathered together for an evening of hilarity.

Four Candles (Barry Dodds, Sean Percival and Sam Avery) House, 21:00–23:00, £15

Weekly showcase of funny folk – they tell the jokes, you do the laughing.

Manchester

Weekly showcase of funny folk – they tell the jokes, you do the laughing.

2022NQ

Thu 20 Jun

Exhibition of work by creative duo Stannard and Sailor, known for their playful and colorful works with elements of traditional decorative arts, street style and religious iconography – this is their first show together since teaming up in 2009.

Mickey D (Sully O’Sullivan, Ian Stone, Adam Rowe)

Comedy Central at Baby Blue, 18:30–23:00, £15

Four top-notch circuit comedians (one of ‘em will be the compere) gathered together for an evening of hilarity.

Fri 21 Jun

Mick Ferry (Chris Cairns, Silky, Dave Twentyman)

The Slaughter House, 20:00–23:00, £18

Triple headline show with a delightfully hilarious line-up of circuit funny-folk.

Mickey D (Sully O’Sullivan, Ian Stone, Matt Blaize)

Comedy Central at Baby Blue, 18:30–23:00, £15

Four top-notch circuit comedians (one of ‘em will be the compere) gathered together for an evening of hilarity.

Sat 22 Jun

Dave Twentyman (Chris Cairns, Silky, Mick Ferry)

The Slaughter House, 20:00–23:00, £15

Triple headline show with a delightfully hilarious line-up of circuit funny-folk.

54

Listings

Sailor.Stannard

31 May – 15 Jun, not 2 Jun, 3 Jun, 9 Jun, 10 Jun, times vary, Free

Richard Combes: ROI

7–15 Jun, not 9, 10, 12:00pm – 5:00pm, Free

A solo exhibition of oil paintings by the British artist, Richard Combes, exploring the relationship between architecture and people through detailed rendering of abandoned objects and solitary figures.

Bureau The Utopian Buck Stops Here

27 May – 21 Jun, weekdays only, 8:00am – 6:00pm, Free

A new exhibition of work by Matthew Denniss and Matthew Houlding in which both artists explore architecture and environment – while Denniss uses film and found footage to explore the topic, Houlding uses recycled materials to create architectural models.

Art Castlefield Gallery Spaceship Unbound

various dates between 21 Jun and 28 Jul, 1:00pm – 6:00pm, Free

A new exhibition of works cocurated with MadLab, exploring the issues of survival in a post apocalyptic world and taking inspiration from Margaret Atwood’s novel The Year of the Flood.

Chinese Arts Centre The Poundshop

various dates between 28 May and 22 Jun, 10:00am – 5:00pm, Free

A design initiative founded by London-based designers George Wu, Sara Melin and Sarah Gottlieb, aiming to make design more accessible and affordable, with designers selling their work in price bands £1, £5 and £10.

Lee Mingwei: A Quartet and A Living Room

various dates between 28 Jun and 17 Aug, 10:00am – 5:00pm, Free

A new solo exhibition by artist Lee Mingwei, in which he will present two works, a participatory installation of a living room, and the Quartet Project, exploring the sentiments of migrantion.

The Sum of All Parts

13–15 Jun, 10:00am – 5:00pm, Free

For this year’s Stockport BA (Hons) Photography Degree Show, 17 graduates will present their explorations of the limitations and endless possibilities of still photography.

Contact

Blank Media Collective: HandMade Future

various dates between 27 May and 7 Sep, times vary, Free

Collaborative project between Blank Media Collective and Contact, showcasing six up-and-coming artists and offering a new perspective on hand-made crafts.

Cornerhouse

Anguish & Enthusiasm: What Do You Do With Your Revolution Once You’ve Got It

various dates between 28 May and 18 Aug, times vary, Free

Collection of new and recent contemporary art from around the world, exploring the concept of a successful revolution and asking important questions about what defines this success.

Adam Heiss and Martene Rourke: Network Traces

various dates between 30 May and 9 Jul, times vary, Free

A series of photographs that explore the abandoned and forgotten railway lines of Britain, capturing how nature encroaches and claims back the space, or how the lines now exist with an alternative use.

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 1947 New Look collection, a black ribbed silk cocktail dress commissioned by the Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson.

KRAAK

Jonathan Flanders: Say Hi To Other People

4–7 Jun, 7:00pm – 9:00pm, free

Photography exhibition by the ever-talented Manchester-based artist, Jonathan Flanders.

Manchester Art Gallery Karl Fritsch Jewellery

27 May – 23 Jun, times vary, free

The first UK solo exhibition of Germany-born, New Zealand-based contemporary jewellery designer Karl Fritsch. His highly sought after pieces combine precious with nonprecious materials for a uniquely unconventional result.

Radical Figures: Post-war British Figurative Painting 27 May – 16 Mar, times vary, Free

A new collection of works that explores the role painters such as Francis Bacon, Lucien Freud and David Hockney played in the reinvention of figurative and realist art in post-war Britain.

Manchester Craft and Design Centre Every Step: The Design Process of Joseph Hartley

27 May – 29 Jun, not 2 Jun, 9 Jun, 16 Jun, 23 Jun, 10:00am – 5:30pm, Free

An exploration of the Manchesterbased designer, Joseph Hartley’s creative process – with a range of his incredible ceramics on display for his first solo exhibition.

MediaCity

Salford School of Arts and Media Degree Show

12-16 Jun, Various times, Free

Students from The University of Salford's School of Arts and Media are gearing up for a right old shindig to show off their work in a range of interesting venues across Salford.

Nexus Art Café Susan Plover: Cut, Torn and Stuck... A Female Statement

27 May – 10 Jun, times vary, Free

A collection of contemporary collages made from recycled magazines, newspapers and vintage books depicting the conflicting state of female identity in a dark but gentle way.

Paper Gallery

PAPER #6: Andrea Cotton and Naomi Lethbridge

1 Jun, 8 Jun, 11:00am – 5:00pm, Free

The latest in PAPER’s series of two person exhibitions which allow an emerging artist to exhibit their work alongside a more established artist – this series sees Andrea Cotton and Naomi Lethbridge exhibit their collections of intricate ink drawings.

Piccadilly Place Android

8–14 Jun, 1:00pm – 5:00pm, Free

20+ artists respond to the theme ‘Android’, inspired by Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis – works will include animation, site-specific sound works and sculptures.

Salford Museum and Art Gallery Caroline Johnson: There’s a Rainbow in the Road

27 May – 7 Jul, times vary, Free

The first solo exhibition by Salford-based artist Caroline Johnson, presenting her graceful paintings and drawings that capture the sublime beauty and gritty core of the Manchester and Salford regions.

The Holden Gallery

Manchester School of Art Degree Show 2013

15–19 Jun, times vary, Free

End of year show celebrating the achievements of students in their final year at the Manchester School of Art. Head to the New Art School and John Dalton West Building.

The International 3 Rachel Goodyear: Artificial Night

various dates between 29 Jun and 2 Aug, 12:00pm – 5:00pm, Free

A new exhibition by Rachel Goodyear, and her third solo exhibition with the International 3 gallery, in which she presents a dark and haunting parallel reality.

Rafal Topolewski: Solo Exhibition

29 May – 5 Jun, not 2 Jun, 3 Jun, 4 Jun, 12:00pm – 5:00pm, Free

Rafal Topolewski’s first solo exhibition at The International 3, presenting a series of works exploring the roleof image making in the contemporary world. His work is accompanied by a commissioned text writtenby Professor Pavel Büchler.

The Lowry Lowry Favourites

27 May – 22 Jun, times vary, free

A collection of over 400 paintings and drawings from one of Britain’s best loved artists, LS Lowry, including the iconic series of paintings, Going To The Match, on loan from the Professional Footballers’ Association.

Developing: Photographs by Mary McCartney

27 May – 10 Jun, times vary, Free

A striking collection of large scale images celebrating the career of Mary McCartney; known for capturing international stars – such as Helen Mirren, Joni Mitchell and Morrissey – in a off-guard and visually vulnerable state.

My Generation: The Glory Years of British Rock

27 May – 15 Sep, times vary, Free

A collection of around 60 photos by resident Top of the Pops photographer Harry Goodwin – documenting some of the most important musical stars and performances between 1964 – 1973, including Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and The Supremes.

The Penthouse Be Live

8 Jun, 7:00pm – 11:00pm, £5 (£4)

The Penthouse host an evening of live art, sound and installation – a multi-sensory experience not to be missed.

The Portico Library

Yours Sincerely: The Rise and Fall of the Letter

various dates between 6 Jun and 26 Jul, times vary, Free

An exhibition celebrating the art of letter writing, taking place around a conference of the same name and in advance of the Manchester Literature Festival in October.

Whitworth Art Gallery Michael Landy: Four Walls

27 May – 16 Jun, times vary, free

Art and Design Academy BLACKOUT

27 May – 21 Jun, weekdays only, 10:00am – 5:00pm, Free

An exhibition by an international group of artists, exploring the relationship between viewer and subject in photographs. Part of LOOK/13.

LJMU Degree Show

24 May-7 Jun, Various timeS, Free

Graduates from Liverpool John Moores University take to the ADA for a two week exhibition of architecture, fashion, fine art, graphic arts, interior design, popular music studies and product design.

Central Library Searching

27 May – 15 Jun, times vary, Free

As part of LOOK/13, photographer Marc Provins used Google Images to curate his photographs and then print them in a short run of books, these books are now in locations across the city. To find them, visit marcprovins.co.uk/searching

FACT

Turning FACT Inside Out

13 Jun – 25 Aug, times vary, Free

For the summer season at FACT, international artists are tackling some of the world’s most pressing, and literally ground breaking, political issues of today, with a take over event that will see the FACT building and surrounding areas transformed.

Fallout Factory Fabricate: If Truth Be Told

28 May – 15 Jun, not 2 Jun, 3 Jun, 9 Jun, 10 Jun, 11:00am – 6:00pm, Free

The Fabricate collective present a new exhibition of works exploring the boundaries of fact and fiction in photography. Part of LOOK/13.

International Slavery Museum George Osodi: Oil boom, Delta burns

27 May – 1 Sep, 10:00am – 5:00pm, Free

Video installation exploring Landy’s father’s enthusiasm for DIY, which was abruptly halted following a spinal injury in 1977. Images in the video are overlaid with a soundtrack of his father whistling his favourite songs.

Exhibition by internationallyrenowned Nigerian photographer George Osodi, who spent six years documenting the effects of the oil industry in the Niger Delta. Osodi’s aims are not to offend or incite guilt, but to inspire change.

27 May – 16 Jun, times vary, free

Lady Lever Art Gallery

Richard Long: Land Art

Two stone sculptures, White Onyx Line (1990) and Tideless Stones (2008), both made from quarried stone, alongside text works which distill the action and experience of a solitary walk into words.

Callum Innes

27 May – 16 Jun, times vary, free

The Edinburgh-based abstract artist presents a collection that is more about un-painting than painting. Innes works with oil paint and turpentine to strip away layers and reveal underlying colours.

Beryl Korot: Text and Commentary

27 May – 9 Jun, times vary, free

Ground-breaking work comprised of weavings, videos and paperbased scores that, when first shown in 1977, moved the video medium beyond the television’s frame and into art installation.

Nancy Holt: Land Art

27 May – 16 Jun, times vary, free

Photography and film exhibition by land art pioneer Nancy Holt, including Trail Markers, a film made during a visit to Dartmoor, and photographs of her iconic work, Sun Tunnels in The Great Basin Desert in Northern Utah.

Liverpool

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.

Leaf Leaves

27 May – 16 Jun, times vary, Free

An exhibition of portraits taken by Pete Carr in a single day in 2012, showing the many faces that make up the community at Leaf. Part of LOOK/13.

Liverpool Cathedral

Mel Howse: Poverty Over

29 May – 14 Jun, 9:00am – 5:00pm, Free

Touring exhibition of glass, metalwork and enamel by the British artist Mel Howse in support of Christian Aid, exploring the void between those trapped in poverty and those privileged enough to be observing from the outside.

Merseyside Maritime Museum

Titanic and Liverpool: The Untold Story

27 May – 31 Dec, 10:00am – 5:00pm, Free

Arena Studios and Gallery

Something to do with Death: Paul Bywater

30 May – 9 Jun, not 3 Jun, 4 Jun, 5 Jun, 11:00am – 5:00pm, Free

An exhibition by studio member Paul Bywater, showcasing his highly detailed graphite portraits drawn over several months.

A collection of previously unseen archive footage and materials that document Liverpool’s central role in the Titanic story. The exhibition marks the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic.

Metal

Still: Conflict, Conservation and Contemplation

28 May – 30 Jun, not 3 Jun, 10 Jun, 17 Jun, 24 Jun, times vary, Free

A group exhibition exploring our relationship with global water supplies in the era of climate change, featuring work by Peter Cusack, Simon Norfolk, Annette Mangaard, Paul Howard and David Matt plus a brand new commission from Markus Soukup.

Museum of Liverpool

Merseystyle: Photographs by The Caravan Gallery

27 May – 27 Oct, 10:00am – 5:00pm, Free

A new exhibition from the mobile Caravan Gallery, featuring photographs that explore the many elements of the Merseyside and Wirral identity. Part of LOOK/13.

I Exist (In Some Way) 27 May – 14 Jul, times vary, Free

An exhibition of the work of 11 photographers, exploring the concept of personal and collective identity in the contemporary Arab world. Part of Look/13.

Lawrence George Giles: Memory of a Memory

27 May – 14 Jul, times vary, Free

An exhibition of collective memory, inviting individuals to submit a photograph with a description of the memory it brings to light.

The Cornerstone Gallery Processing

7 Jun – 27 Sep, weekdays only, 9:00am – 5:00pm, Free

Open Eye Gallery

A group exhibition by photographers Kevin Casey, Stephen King and McCoy Wynne in which they present new work and ideas and engage in critical reflection with written contributions from Joni Karanka, Linda Pittwood and Kenn Taylor. Part of LOOK/13.

various dates between 28 May and 25 Aug, 10:30am – 5:30pm, Free

The Gallery Liverpool

Charles Fréger: The Wild and the Wise

Part of the LOOK/13. This collection of works by French artist Charles Fréger and Swedish artist Eva Stenram both explore the theme of identity by responding to the festival title: who do you think you are?

Eva Stenram: Drape

various dates between 28 May and 25 Aug, 10:30am – 5:30pm, Free

A series of works by Eva Stenram in which found images – of vintage pin ups and old centrefolds from magazines – are scanned and then manipulated to unusual and jarring effect. The background takes centre stage, leaving the subject as an afterthought. Part of LOOK/13.

Sudley House

20th Century Chic: 100 Years of Women’s Fashion 27 May – 1 Jul, 10:00am – 5:00pm, Free

A collection of 12 evening outfits spanning 1900 to 2000, charting the changing role of women in society throughout this period, and how these changes were reflected in the fashion of the time.

Tate Liverpool DLA Piper Series: This is Sculpture

27 May – 30 Jun, 10:00am – 5:00pm, Free

A new collection exploring the history of modern and contemporary sculpture, charting the artistic trajectory of the art-form throughout the 20th Century – traditional sculptures sit alongside less conventional forms, such as performance and video.

Moyra Davey: Hangmen of England

8 Jun – 6 Oct, 10:00am – 5:00pm, Free

An exhibition by New York-based photographer, Moyra Davey, known for capturing everyday objects to tell a story, and then mailing them back to the city of origin. In this exhibition she presents a series of photographs taken in Manchester and Liverpool.

Chagall: Modern Master

8 Jun – 6 Oct, 10:00am – 5:00pm, £10

A collection of paintings by the Russian Jewish artist Marc Chagall, exploring the universal themes of love, loss and suffering through his unique and poetic style – bold, brightly hued and influenced by folklore and his rich heritage.

The Bluecoat

Adam Lee: Identity Documents

27 May – 16 Jun, times vary, Free

A new collection of photograph’s by Liverpool’s Adam Lee, exploring the notion of identity and possessions.

By creating large-scale prints of bookcases Lee encourages the viewer to speculate on the identity of the owner. Part of LOOK/13.

Sander/Weegee: Selections from the Side Photographic Collection

27 May – 14 Jul, times vary, Free

A joint exhibition with Side Gallery, Newcastle, featuring the classic works of August Sander (18761964) and WeeGee (1899-1968).

The collection features portraits from 1920s and 30s German society and photographs of New York in the 30s and 40s.

Realism

27 May – 28 Jun, not 2 Jun, 9 Jun, 16 Jun, 23 Jun, times vary, Free

An awe-inspiring exhibition from the UK’s most distinguished artists in the genre of realism, featuring everything from Steve Caldwell’s hyperrealism to Pam Hawkes’ portraiture.

The Grand Hall The Liverpool Art Prize 2013

28 May – 8 Jun, not 2 Jun, 3 Jun, 11:00am – 5:00pm, Free

And then there were four. Local artists Kevin Hunt, Tabitha Moses, Julieann O’Malley and Laurence Payot exhibit their work in hope of winning the prestigious Liverpool Art Prize.

The Liverpool Academy of Arts Grahame Ashcroft: The Scene Changes

17–28 Jun, weekdays only, 12:00pm – 4:00pm, Free

An exhibition of brilliantly coloured new paintings by artist Grahame Ashcroft, each one offering a magical, child-like perspective of the world.

Victoria Gallery and Museum The Queen, The Chairman and I

various dates between 28 May and 24 Aug, 10:00am – 5:00pm, Free

A visual project by Kurt Tong, exploring his heritage and family roots through photographs and writing. Part of Look/13.

Walker Art Gallery

Robyn Woolston: Strangers in a Strange Land

27 May – 23 Jun, 10:00am – 5:00pm, Free

The winner of the 2012 Liverpool art prize presents a new collection of work made from waste plastic – Woolston explores the idea of consumption, power and identity, and how connected we really are to the world’s finite resources.

Every Man and Woman is a Star: Photographs by Martin Parr and Tom Wood

27 May – 18 Aug, 10:00am – 5:00pm, Free

Photography exhibition that explores the similarities and differences between the work of Martin Parr and Tom Wood – comprised of photographs taken in the late 70s and early 80s in Liverpool and Ireland.

Double Take: Portraits from The Keith Medley Archive

27 May – 15 Sep, 10:00am – 5:00pm, Free

Photography exhibition from the Keith Medley archive featuring portraits of Merseysider’s from the 1960s. Each sitter was shot twice using the same glass plate negative, resulting in an eerie composition of double images.

ALIVE: In The Face of Death

27 May – 8 Sep, 10:00am – 5:00pm, Free

World-renowned photographer, Rankin explores the theme of death and mortality by capturing images of people with limited time left. Their inspirational accounts will be available to read alongside the images.

THE SKINNY

Doing It Again

As Camera Obscura ready the release of fifth album Desire Lines, we distract Carey Lander from band practice to discuss old friendships and new directions

Interview: Chris Buckle

n the four years since the well-recieved My Maudlin Career, it’s seldom felt like Camera Obscura have been away – what with a certain dinner party game-show and its attendant wine ad sponsor seemingly never off-air, keeping French Navy a regular ear-worm for half the population. But away the Glasgow quintet have been, forced into hiatus by circumstances beyond their control – indeed, beyond anyone’s control. In the press release for imminent fifth album Desire Lines, mention is made of ‘sickness and sadness’, hinting at personal struggles faced over the last few years. But elsewhere, the catchwords are more hopeful, with talk of resilience and survival. On a sunny(ish) bank holiday afternoon, keyboardist Carey Lander takes time away from rehearsals and fills in some of the gaps.

“We finished touring and we’d started taking a break,” she explains, “and then I got ill, and was basically out of action for a year and a half. But the band waited for me, which was really good of them.” While Lander underwent treatment, the band (as well as Lander: Tracyanne Campbell, Gavin Dunbar, Kenny McKeeve and Lee Thomson) started tentative work on new material, demoing songs and occasionally convening for rehearsals, “but otherwise it was generally on hold until we could do things together again.” Now, she says, “it’s nice to be back doing something” – even if the time leading up to Desire Lines’ release seems to be disappearing fast. “If feels like last week we were mixing it,” she smiles. “I still don’t know how lots of elements are going to come together, but hopefully it will.”

High on the agenda is fitting in the aforementioned rehearsals ahead of a wave of radio sessions, festival appearances and tour dates – as much a means of “getting the band’s confidence up” after the longer than usual inter-album gap as a need to nail down arrangements or whatnot (although there’s some of that too, with Lander jokingly rueing, “now’s when you wish you hadn’t done eight keyboard parts when you’ve only got two hands…”). But while Lander expresses certain anxieties about the readying process, she’s also quick to note that, with several albums’ experience behind them now, re-finding their feet isn’t too difficult. “You always think you’re going to be terrible when you get back into the rehearsal room,” she explains. “But when we’ve been doing this for so long, and have played the songs that many times, then really it comes back quite quickly. Despite my negativity and worries, it’s usually not that bad.”

Even the new complication of having a member reside at the opposite end of the country (drummer Thomson, who moved to London last year) hasn’t shaken the dynamic too significantly.

“We don’t all hang out together quite as much as we used to,” says Lander, “but just because, you know, when you get older you don’t leave your house as much...” she laughs. “It’s not that we’ve found new friends or something – still, if I have a birthday party, I can’t think of anyone to invite apart from the band most of the time.” What’s more, in her words, “absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that,” meaning time apart has its benefits. “I think if we get a break from each other, we’re always pretty pleased to see each other when we get to the studio,” she muses, “and that’s no bad thing.”

In typical Camera Obscura fashion, Desire Lines began with bare-bones demos by vocalist and principal songwriter Campbell – ideas on which the whole band subsequently worked, layering and de-layering ’til they found the sounds that stuck. “Before we start any album, we always talk about how we wish it would turn out, whether that happens or not,” says Lander.

In this case, that meant a deliberate move away from the lush string arrangements that marked

June 2013

Photo: Anna Isola Crolla

I

My Maudlin Career. “That was mostly a conscious thing,” Lander affirms. “I mean, we didn’t roll it out, because if the song wanted [strings] we put them on. But we weren’t looking to make another chamber pop, 60s girl group album. We feel like we’ve been there and done that.”

The need to break new ground also influenced the decision to record in the US for the first time, electing to work with Portland-based producer Tucker Martine after two records with Jari Haapalainen behind the desk. “Jari would have made another great album,” says Lander of the decision, “but it seemed a bit too safe and repetitive to work with him again. So we were looking around for ideas – which is quite hard because you don’t really hear about producers that much, apart from the couple of really big names.

It can be a bit of an unknown thing.”

Martine was first mooted by M. Ward, at the time passing through Glasgow on tour (and, on a side note, with whom Camera Obscura will share shows later in the year, co-headlining with She & Him on a raft of Stateside dates). The suggestion stuck and the band packed their bags and headed to Oregon. “It’s a bit of a leap of faith,” says Lander, “because you don’t know that much about the person. You have a few emails and discussions, you let them hear some demos and you just hope it’s going to work out – and it did. He’s a great producer.”

A great producer with an impressive Rolodex, no less, with Martine arranging for Neko Case and My Morning Jacket’s Jim James to join the band in the studio. “Tucker said Neko had volunteered to do any backing vocals we wanted,” says Lander. “She was probably joking, but we were like, ‘Right then, let’s see if she means it!’ So she flew over and just sang solidly for two days and did as many tracks as she had time for.” While both guest contributors are renowned for their powerful pipes, they’re a subtle presence on Desire Lines – always complementary, never front and centre. “They’re always on backing vocals because, as amazing as it is to have those people on

the album, we didn’t want them to take over,” says Lander. “And we wondered how it would turn out – Neko’s got such a massive, strong voice, and we didn’t know how that would work with Tracyanne’s quiet voice. But it was worth the risk.”

“We weren’t looking to make another chamber pop, 60s girl group album” Carey Lander

Personnel aside, opting for Portland offered plenty of additional perks, not least the opportunity to get out of this country and “live a different life for a couple of weeks,” in an area renowned for its vibrant arts scene. “It’s one of our favourite cities in America, and one of the places that seemed like a realistic option to go and record in, because it’s quite music-oriented and cheap to live in,” says Lander. “It doesn’t feel like trying to go and record in LA or something – it’s a different mindset.” From the sound of things, the only downside to the venture was the weather. “It’s a pure beautiful summer there,” she enthuses. “It’s lovely all year round – apart from winter, when it rains as much as it does here. And we went in winter, and it rained every day. Which is probably a good thing when you’re supposed to be in a studio and not getting distracted…”

While it contains notable extensions to the Camera Obscura palette, Desire Lines is by no means a stylistic volte-face. Anyone who’s fallen head over heels for past releases will likely relocate the object of their affections somewhere in its running, whether in the achingly direct way

MUSIC

that Campbell issues Fifth in Line to the Throne’s rending ultimatums, or the foot-stomping, earhugging chorus of Break It to You Gently. “I think you always try to push yourself,” says Lander, “but ultimately we’re the same group of musicians and we like certain sounds. It’s nice to think you can do your fifth album and reinvent yourself or whatever but it’s just not really going to happen. You just have to take each song and make it as strong as you can, and try and have some kind of new ingredient or a new feel. On this album I’ve been learning to use my keyboards more, and introduce a bit more technology and stuff – which I’ve always been a bit baffled by.”

For Lander, the driving Troublemaker – which places Campbell’s dulcet vocals atop a motorik beat while rippling synths and crisp guitar lines interleave beneath – stands out as the track that pushes their parameters furthest. “That’s the song that probably feels the most different from what we’ve done before,” she states. “I don’t know, maybe it’s a bit more modern or something…” She pauses and smiles. “As modern as we ever get anyway.”

Later in the conversation, a comparison is drawn with Yo La Tengo – an act often held up as a textbook example of how to undertake a gradual musical evolution on one’s own terms. “They don’t have to totally reinvent themselves,” Lander says of the Hoboken trio’s appeal. “People can buy it if they like, listen if they like, and that’s fine – it’s only the press that sort of pressure you into thinking you’re supposed to have done something completely different every time, or stormed the charts or whatever. I guess the pressures are different early on in a band’s career, and maybe we’re getting to that point where – hopefully – that pressure is slightly subsiding. Or maybe,” she reflects, “that’s still to come.”

Camera Obscura play Manchester Academy 2 on 5 Jun, and RockNess Festival, Dores on 9 Jun

Desire Lines is out now on 4AD www.camera-obscura.net

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