Manchester
Jason Manford, Hammersmith ApolloThursday, 31 October 2013
Mancunian Jason Manford is the kind of chap it would be difficult to dislike. Laidback, casually dressed, smiley and interacting with his audience in a totally unthreatening manner - it's no wonder that that demeanour, coupled with his everyman... Read more... |
Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, ManchesterFriday, 04 October 2013
A “world premiere” of music written by Benjamin Britten just over 70 years ago? Whence this treasure trove of long-lost musical gold? Well, under the title of An American in England, in 1942 Britten wrote the score for a BBC/CBS co-produced series... Read more... |
All My Sons, Royal Exchange, ManchesterWednesday, 02 October 2013
The guilt of knowingly sending our sons to war with defective equipment and fatal results certainly resonates today. Who takes the blame? Do we get ministerial resignations or arms-dealers going to prison? Going back to post-World War II, this is... Read more... |
Hough, BBC Philharmonic, Mena, Bridgewater Hall, ManchesterSunday, 29 September 2013
They did it, and continue to do it, their way. Under the self-confident title of The Mancunian Way, the BBC Philharmonic’s new season aims to celebrate the story of music-making in the city through works, composers and performers with special links... Read more... |
Live_Transmission: Joy Division Reworked, Royal Festival HallSunday, 22 September 2013
From no visible source, the instantly recognisable voice of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis croons the words of “Love Will Tear Us Apart”. But the lyrics aren’t in their familiar setting. Alone, he’s stripped from the band, naked and vulnerable. He’s been... Read more... |
Prom 57: Parsifal, Hallé, ElderMonday, 26 August 2013
So for one last time this season the impossible colosseum of Albertopolis became the Wagnerian holiest of holies – to be precise, the Cathedral of the Holy Grail - and once again I fell in love with the beast transfigured. Justin Way, the one artist... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: R Stevie Moore, Foxy R&B, Looking Good, A Certain RatioSunday, 18 August 2013
R Stevie Moore: Personal AppealIt’s a brave person who whittles down the output of R Stevie Moore to one CD. Since 1969, he’s made at least 175 albums, a significant proportion of which he committed to cassette tape. There are also a similar... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Musician Johnny MarrSaturday, 17 August 2013
Johnny Marr’s second single as a solo artist, New Town Velocity, describes his youthful propulsion by pop music in grey late Seventies Manchester towards a bright, boundless future he duly reached with The Smiths. It surely also describes the... Read more... |
CD: Money – The Shadow of HeavenWednesday, 14 August 2013
“It’s a shame God is dead” sings Jamie Lee on “So Long”, the opening track of his band Money’s debut album The Shadow of Heaven. With a melody rooted in gospel and a musical backdrop ecstatically imbued with the grace of the devotional rather than... Read more... |
CD: Riot Jazz Brass Band - SousamaphoneMonday, 12 August 2013
When I used to work for the much-missed Face magazine, there was a phrase regularly used, only half in jest: “three things is a trend”. Which means that, unlikely though it might sound, hip hop marching bands are now a trend in leftfield club music... Read more... |
Too Clever by Half, Royal Exchange, ManchesterTuesday, 16 July 2013
You know it must be the holiday season when comic caper-loving Told by an Idiot run riot in the Royal Exchange. Expect the theatre of the absurd, with glimpses of Keystone Kops and Marx Brothers-style zaniness. This time, director Paul Hunter has... Read more... |
The Machine, Campfield Market Hall, ManchesterSunday, 14 July 2013
It isn’t so much man versus machine as man versus the man behind the machine. Famously, in 1997 the Russian chess grandmaster and world champion Garry Kasparov faced IBM's supercomputer RS/600SP, known as Deep Blue, in New York City. But behind the... Read more... |
