Music in the North
Johnny James, Managing EditorGigs are coming in hot this spring – from long-awaited returns to one-offs you’ll blink and miss if you’re not careful.
Our picks drift between the raucous, the cosmic and the quietly devastating, including the resurrection of one of Manchester’s most elusive cult bands, a confessional piano set with zero filter, and the answer to the question: what happens when one of the North’s most beloved DIY festivals takes over Manchester’s biggest, shiniest arts space?
John Talabot goes deep at The White Hotel with an all-nighter built for heads-down hedonists. DIIV hit Leeds for the first time in almost a decade. And BC Camplight strips it all back at Rough Trade Liverpool – just him, a piano, and a set that walks the line between stand-up and breakdown.
Then there’s Surround Sounds, throwing two decades of SFTOC chaos into one genre-melting, in-the-round free-for-all – featuring the miraculous return of WU LYF. And Manchester Psych Fest returns with cult heroes, warped visuals, and a full-day trip you may or may not remember.
It’s a good time to like your music weird, loud and a bit feral.
