Onward, Manchester.

Into the Wild: Welcome to Wilderness Festival

Emily Barker — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 20:43:41 +0000

“Are you sure you need that much fancy dress?” my boyfriend asked as I reeled off the 10 or more items from face paint to a tigers tail I had crammed into my bag. “You just don’t understand,” I moaned, trying to work out a way to fit an Indian headdress into already over-packed rucksack …

Breakfast at Gorilla

Samantha Bradey — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 20:34:48 +0000

I clocked him before he reached our table gliding serenely, lighter than air, across the polished exposed floorboards. ‘Strumming my pain with his finger…,’ Lauryn Hill purred from the PA system. I stared at his tray, my eyes popping out my skull at the sight of the oreo cookie garnishing the glass. Pathetically grateful and desperate for sugar. The …

Welcome to Avenue Q

Emily Barker — Sun, 13 May 2012 17:33:42 +0000

In the year that Jim Henson’s Muppets got their big screen revival and Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey – the story of Kevin Clash, the man behind the infamous puppet – hits UK screens, it seems appropriate that the award-winning Broadway puppet musical Avenue Q should embark on its first UK tour. For those who …

Have One On Us #6: BrewDog Manchester

Onward, Manchester — Sat, 12 May 2012 12:45:15 +0000

We’re only just recovering from the almighty hangover we acquired following the BrewDog launch night last Thursday, so apologies for the delay in sharing our thoughts with you. To open, a rather grandiose statement that is nevertheless absolutely true: without BrewDog, the microbrewing revolution would not have progressed at the same pace these last few years, and as …

The One Where We Went to See Friends at the Academy

Samantha Bradey — Wed, 09 May 2012 21:48:14 +0000

I had a bit of a moan in my SFTOC post about delayed running times. I guess this is a little “square” of me. After all, “it’s rock ‘n’ roll, man.” If a train I was expecting to catch were to run 45 minutes late I would complain loudly, possibly in writing (well, maybe I’d compose …

Sounds From the Other City

Samantha Bradey — Mon, 07 May 2012 21:56:33 +0000

Sounds from the Other City is a one-day independent music festival set up by Maurice and Mark Carlin seven years ago after they decided they wanted a platform for promotors to showcase the best new artists emerging from Manchester and beyond. Having established its pedigree by hosting ‘career-changing performances’ from Marina and the Diamonds, The Ting Tings and The Whip, I …

X-Men: Regenesis, part three

Kristian Jackson — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 14:27:10 +0000

Starting with issue #260.1, Christos Gage took over X-Men Legacy from the title’s long-serving writer Mike Carey, who has probably done more for the franchise than anyone since Grant Morrison exited New X-Men back in 2004. Gage’s first issue suffered from a few problems: the need to establish the cast of characters he’ll be using …

The Trouble With Trof

Kristian Jackson — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:28:41 +0000

In which we consider the increasing homogenisation of Manchester’s bar scene. At the start of the year it was announced that Zecol, the company that operates the Trof chain, had taken over The Green Room and Albert Hall Brannigans, two sites that had fallen into disuse some months earlier. In an interview with Manchester Confidential, …

2012 in film: part one

Samantha Bradey — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 10:56:40 +0000

Shame An unflinching look at sex addiction starring Michael Fassbender as Brandon and Carey Mulligan as his damaged, destructive sibling. Set in a nightmarish New York geared toward making sex as cheap and easily accessible as possible, this is a difficult film filled with grim, explicit scenes. What drives Brandon relentlessly toward fulfilling his desires is never …

2012 in literature: January

Kristian Jackson — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:54:46 +0000

As is customary in January, I’ve found it hard to settle into a book for any significant amount of time, flitting from one piece of literature to another on whims, leaving a good few in progress even though I was enjoying them. Give it another month and maybe I’ll have found my focus. I started the year …