Music

St. Peter’s greets the Ancoats visitor as a historic symbol - and a defiant snub to urban decline

The third in our series of unusual venues takes us to Ancoats and tells a tale of industrial boom and bust.  Perhaps as a plot to mystify the London record label bosses at Rough Trade…

The blank façade belies a Tardis-like interior, where nature has defiantly taken hold

Manchester International Festival is making use of a fair few unusual venues this summer; we find out more about one of them. I’ve always admired urban explorers, those intrepid trespassers who slip into derelict buildings…

If you’re approached by someone you can support, why the hell wouldn’t you work with them?

What do you do after running a Manchester music venue for 15 years? Open a restaurant, of course. Those who have walked the streets of the Northern Quarter or watched the Great British Menu will…

Electronic, mashed-up blues provide a soundtrack to Wentworth’s exhibition in a night

Richard Wentworth and friends curate an after-hours experience in Manchester this week – prepare to get lost and found. Fancy a night at the museum? Good. You’ve come to the right place. As the nationwide…

Is that crackling static evidence of the afterlife, or just how suggestible we humans are?

Can the dead speak? An evening of music, sound art and performance is inspired by the idea that yes, they can. “Electric voice phenomena” – depending on one’s suggestibility, it either constitutes evidence of the…

As the name suggests, Karnival is not your usual club night

With Will Tramp! at the helm and the promise of an “immersive” clubbing experience, what’s not to like? The Deaf Institute is no stranger to a good club night or two. With good food and…

The focus is on emerging acts; Florence And The Machine & Jake Bugg cut their teeth here

Liverpool’s new music festival returns – and provides an unusual means of getting to grips with the Scouse city. There was a time when the words “music festival” and “Liverpool” in the same sentence meant…

There are other ways of looking at the world: beautiful, enchanting, frightening

Bristolian trip-hop collective Massive Attack collaborate with Adam Curtis for a provocative visual and musical experience. In what promises to be an event that majors on sensory overload, Adam Curtis makes a return to Manchester…