Oh yes, it’s that time again – time for our favourite thing: sharing a bunch of great tunes with our mates, i.e. you lot and, of course, they all happen to artists from the wonderful world that is the Manchester music scene.
Be it a band, solo artist or any other configuration you like, we spend a good chunk of our time every month digging through the best stuff coming out of this city and the surrounding boroughs.
Luckily, there’s so much talent around these parts that we never struggle for choice, the only tough bit is singling out a mere handful every few weeks.
It’s tough work, we know, but we keep calm and carry on, for you. You’re welcome. Anyway, enough of that, let’s get stuck into the Manchester artists who’ve released new music or those who’ve simply stood out to us of late.
Five Manc bands and solo artists on our radar recently
1. Antony Szmierek
First up is the local king of spoken word and multi-talented Antony Szmierek from Hyde, whose melodic poetry spans multiple genres from hip-hop and electronic to alternative and even indie notes here and there, but always comes back to one core linchpin: the lyrics.
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Bursting onto the scene with his debut EP, Poems To Dance To, back in 2023 – a title that still pretty much sums up his whole style – we’ve got a lot of love for the teacher who’s split his time between mentoring children with special needs and chasing his dream. Now he gets to go full speed on the latter.
The obvious love for literature runs throughout all of his material but it’s always delivered in such an effortlessly relatable, casual and almost conversational manner, as if you’re just sat in listening to his stream of consciousness. ‘Heaven Is Other People’, ‘The Words to Auld Lang Syne’ and ‘Rounders’ are our entry points, but you’ll get a little something different from all of them – and you’ll definitely dance.
Over to Stockport next and no, we won’t be listening to any ‘it’s Cheshire nonsense’ today because we firmly want to put The Rolling People in our camp as there’s something just so familiar about them even though they’ve only just started putting out music.
The Stopfordian four-piece delivers good defiant British rock with very few frills, often fast-paced and Oasis-sounding in riffs, whilst other times reminding us of Shed Seven and drawing other contemporary comparisons such as The Crooks or resembling Tom Concannon of The Stanleys in vocals only just a touch gruffer.
These lads are still only in college but given how big they sound already, we’re expecting great things from them. For your first listen, there isn’t tonnes to get through but we’d go for ‘Grateful For Nothing’, ‘I’ll Be There’ and their latest single which has seen some love on Radio X, ‘Before It’s Gone’.
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3. Pip Millett
Another big genre swing now and we’re going to the R&B meets funk and soul stylings of the ever-so-smooth Pip Millett, who might just be one of our favourite artists in Manchester at the minute, let alone outright vocalists.
Having hit another boom following her most recent COLOURS performance, we do not forgive if you’re only coming across her (tut-tut) but she’s been pretty prolific when it comes to releasing music ever since 2018 and has already collaborated with Maverick Sabre, Chase and Status, Ghetts and more.
We reckon you won’t find many better singers in Greater Manchester right now and if you enjoy female artists like Jorja Smith, Joy Crookes and Miraa May, you’ll love ‘r Pip. Start with ‘Heavenly Mother’, ‘June’ ‘Slow’ and go from there. We truly think she’s going full global soon enough so enjoy here whilst she’s still kind of our little secret.
4. Alex Spencer
Back to the guitar-driven stuff now and another solo artist who’s been putting in the hard yards for some time now but is finally starting to reap the rewards. It’s everyone’s favourite curly-haired busker, Alex Spencer.
The young lad from Droylsden has gradually gone from chatting with us lot on Market Street and playing City Square at the Etihad before games to now playing for the players themselves, supporting the likes of fellow Manc rising star Seb Lowe on tour and booking his biggest headline shows yet.
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He’s having quite the journey for someone who only just finished his GCSEs back in June 2023 and now that he’s signed to the same label as The Lottery Winners and The Coral, he can really push on. ‘Do What I Wanna’ and ‘Love And Let Go’ are probably his most well-rounded tracks, but we’ve still got a soft spot for his debut ‘A Night To Waste’ as we know the graft that went into getting to that point.
5. cruush
Now to our final act and we have only two moods left: head-bobbing while our hair drapes to the ground or lying up on our backs as we stare up at a starry sky. That’s our best description of how the shoegaze approach of Manchester alt-rock outfit cruush makes us feel.
That new wave space in music can sometimes be a hard-to-define corner of modern music and that’s often why we love it so much but, in the case of this fuzzy-sounding local foursome, those distorted guitars and and floating vocals are textbook.
You get notes of everything from Wolf Alice and Slowdive to My Bloody Valentine and even Drop Nineteens if the lead singer was a girl. They’re everything you want from modern shoegaze and whether it’s ‘Ladybird Song’, ‘Stick in the Mud’ or ‘All My Plants Are Dead’, they never deviate too far from a winning formula we know and love.
Aww, and that’s all she wrote for another month. It always goes so quick.
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We know you’re gutted, we are too but don’t worry, the thing about these regular series and having such a rich pool to fish from is that we’ll be back with more up-and-coming Manchester artists come the end of May – god, isn’t finding new music just the best?
Keep soaking in those tunes, folks, and be sure to let us know who you’ve been enjoying lately in the comments. We thank you in advance.
Oh, and of course, if you haven’t caught up on our picks from last month, look no further.
Featured Images — Pip Millett (via Facebook)/cruush (via IG)/Press Image
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Long-lost verse from iconic local folk song to be debuted at FREE Salford festival next weekend
Emily Sergeant
A long-lost verse from an iconic local folk song is to be played for the first time ever at a free festival in Salford next weekend.
And it’s gearing up to be a “once in a lifetime opportunity” for those lucky enough to hear it.
Almost 75 years after it was written about the Greater Manchester city of Salford, ‘Dirty Old Town’ by legendary folk singer-songwriter Ewan MacColl is now the subject of a new BBC Radio 4 documentary.
During the documentary, an abandoned verse from the iconic song can be heard sung for the first time since 1951 – and next weekend, MacColl’s folk-legend widow, Peggy Seeger, is bringing that same abandoned verse to life in a one-time-only performance at this year’s We Invented the Weekend festival.
In a bid to reclaim the song back for the city it was originally written about, Seeger will be taking to the stage at the free-to-attend festival – which is back by popular demand at MediaCity and Salford Quays on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 June.
Born in the Salford suburb of Broughton in 1915, MacColl came from a family with socialist roots, and started life as a young communist playwright.
He first released ‘Dirty Old Town’ in 1952, after originally using the melody and abandoned verse in a play in 1951, and the song quickly made waves in the UK’s burgeoning folk scene due to its emotive melodies and lyrics – which documentary host, proud Salfordian and broadcaster, Mike Sweeney, discovers as he follows along with Seeger’s recreation.
During the documentary, Sweeney explores the myths around the song, and hears from Seeger about how MacColl’s rigorous approach to songwriting resulted in the abandoned verse being cut.
Salford’s popular We Invented the Weekend festival is returning next weekend / Credit: Mark Waugh (via Supplied)
Sweeney also traces the relationships that led to the song being covered several times, most-notably by bands like The Dubliners and The Pogues – who took it from 1960s folk clubs to audiences around the world, and subsequently led many music lovers to believing it’s an Irish song rather than about Salford.
Peggy Seeger said ‘Dirty Old Town’ is “more than just a song”, adding that it “speaks to those who live anywhere in dirty old broken down industrial cities everywhere”.
She continued: “Salford City FC fans bawl it out, thousands of them. It has been covered by hundreds of singers. Salford was in Ewan bones. He took me to his dirty old town within a week of our three decade partnership. It is a perfect song, a beautiful melody, four economical verses, and has been covered by hundreds of singers each in their own way.”
Seeger and her son, musician Calum MacColl, will take part in an ‘in conversation’ event with Mike Sweeney at the We Invented the Weekend festival to tell the story of the song in the city it was created in.
This will then be followed by an acoustic performance in front of a live audience – with Seeger singing the abandoned verse which never made popular renditions.
We Invented the Weekend 2024 is happening down at MediaCity on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 June, and you can find out more here.
The documentary, titled Archive On 4: Dirty Old Town, will be available to listen to BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds from 6 July.
Featured Image – Wikimedia Commons
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Five Manchester artists we’ve been listening to this month | May 2024
Danny Jones
Oh, how the months roll over; we can’t believe it’s the end of May and we’re on to yet another list of amazing Manchester artistsfor you to get stuck into.
We’re sure you’re already on to most of them, you cultured lot, and even if not, that’s what we’re here for.
If you’ve not found yourself on this monthly series before, the concept is pretty simple: every few weeks we spotlight the most exciting Manchester bands and artists we’ve had on our radar recently.
Revolutionary, we know. But seriously, it’s as important as ever that we big up the names coming out of our region, so let’s not waste any more time, shall we?
It’s always good to see Manc bands drawing big crowds on the festival circuit and they certainly did that. These guys have been making a big name for themselves for a few years now and are even set to headline the Neighbourhood all-dayer in the city centre later this year, so it’s no surprise really.
We’ve been lucky enough to catch them live a few times now but if you’ve never heard their mix of pop-punk, alt-rock and often twinkly 80s-influenced indie before, we’d say start with ‘Television Romance’, work your way to ‘There’s a Honey’ and then ‘Jealousy’. That should give you a good broad-strokes idea.
Next up is another fast-rising homegrown talent in Corella, who finally dropped their debut album, Once Upon a Weekend, at the start of this month and we’ve been rinsing it ever since.
Infectious modern indie typified, we’ve been listening to these lads ever since ‘Barcelona Girl’ and they just keep getting better – as typified by them selling out the O2 Ritz on… oh, would you look at that? It’s tonight.
If you didn’t get a ticket for their landmark hometown show, you can also catch them at NBHD 2024 and as for what tracks you should listen to in preparation, the single from 2017 that we’ve already mentioned is where we started, ‘Drifting’ is in our rotation and simply nothing beats ‘Bloom’. A great running track.
Still riding high on the wave from KOKO 🌊 This tour so far has been the best yet and London was something we’ve only ever dreamt of, but you guys made it possible.
A big genre change now and we’re going modern jazz. Make that spiritual jazz, to be specific, and it’s certainly how we feel when we listen to this bloke: in tune with our spirit.
The Manc trumpeter, composer and producer has a real knack for making music that you want to relax, create and cook to, as well as a whole host of other moods. We often find him playing whilst staring out the window with a brew or with our heads back on the sofa as we close our eyes and simply drift away.
As for your jumping-off points, ‘Calder Shapes’ crops up in our playlists most often but ‘Cherry Blossom’ is a lovely lo-fi option on a chilled Sunday afternoon, and his tune ‘Into Forever’ with his record label’s Gondwana Orchestra is another gentle but transportive favourite of ours. We could go on forever.
He’s not been at Manchester Jazz Festival this year but he’s one of our best in that genre.
4. Rosellas
In at number four, we’ve got Rosellas, who’ve steadily worked their way up through various club sets across the UK and North in particular, even playing City Square over at the Etihad Stadium, and are now starting to gain even more traction.
They can turn their hand to most stuff really, be it the all-important catchy hook, a decent indie bouncer or the equally communal feeling soft, acoustic-driven ballad, but there’s something very 90s/early 2000s and quintessentially Manc about their music.
We’ll admit that we can’t quite place what it is beyond perhaps the guitar riffs themselves, but maybe you’ll have better luck than we have so far. Our trio of picks are ‘Slowdance’, ‘Switch Off’ and ‘Damaged’.
Great track.
5. MALCOLM
Last but not least, we’ve got a band so new to the Manchester music scene that they’ve only got two songs out for you to get stuck into but we’re going to be watching them closely indeed.
Don’t be fooled by the name, they’re a four-piece with hints of everything from Inhaler to Catfish and the Bottlemen, as well as pretty much every current indie band that’s doing anything good in modern indie rock, hence why we think they’re going to pick up momentum quickly.
The best part is, you can get on the bandwagon early by listening to ‘Subconscious’ and ‘C’est La Vie’. Plus, if there’s one thing we know about bands from around here it’s that they graft and we’re going to guess that you can expect another new tune soon enough.