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The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart at Chorlton Irish Centre (22nd May 2009)

hobbsy — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 02:28:35 +0000

In an interview with Nothing Bad magazine Peggy Wang from The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart declares last summer’s Friend Of Mine show at Chorlton Irish Centre as her most memorable gig:

Q: You have toured all over the world with your band (The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart), where has your most memorable gig been?

A: I would have to say the Manchester gig at the Chorlton Irish Center. If I’ve ever been “high on life” it would have been at that show. It was a bunch of sweaty kids moshing to “Teenager in Love” and it just felt so surreal, like I was in a parallel universe, where people think wussy songs about love are actually kind of punk. Afterwards, we sold our merch out the back of our van in a big parking lot, and all these kids were hanging around. I just felt really happy to be contributing to such a quintessential teen moment, when your curfew’s been half an hour extended and you’re just enjoying the finer things in life, like sitting on the hood of a car and pretending to be bored.

I can understand why she’d feel this way. This was truly a beautiful moment: the first days of summer, a brutually hot evening and most of Manchester crammed into that top room beaming beatific smiles and hollering the album back word-for-word at the band. Proper life-affirming stuff.. crazy dancing and crowdsurfing.

It felt as if everyone had been hammering the album obsessively in the preceding weeks and months – I know I certainly had – having been introduced to ‘Young Adult Friction‘ on a crazy car journey en-route to Sam Pridell‘s wedding, somewhere over the majestic Snake Pass.

There’s definitely a Manchester sound to this band, so you can imagine why they feel such an affinity with the place and hold fond memories of the loved-up sweaty audience that night. I remember after the show grabbing a taxi to the Deaf Institute with a few friends (as we’d heard the band were heading there to party). We were lucky enough to chat with Peggy and the band afterwards. Lovely people :)

I didn’t get much chance to take any photos at the gig (too busy dancing like a lunatic!) – but I did film a couple of short clips. I’m not sure if they really capture what it felt like to be there that night, but it’s nice to have some kind of record of the evening:

Everything With You

View in 720p HD on YouTube

A Teenager In Love

View in 720p HD on YouTube

Emmy The Great at Manchester Deaf Institute (2nd June 2010)

hobbsy — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 10:55:11 +0000

Emmy The Great played a charity gig last Wednesday at the Manchester Deaf Institute. It’s fair to say this event flew under the radar of most folk – I only randomly noticed a flyer whilst out and about at the Dot2Dot Festival on Monday night. Lazy Noggin has a nice write-up of the evening, but here’s a couple of photos I shot below:

I was in two minds whether to bother posting them as I’m pretty dissapointed with how they came out. I deliberately left the house with only my 24-70mm lens and no flash – I think the Deaf Institute can be quite hard to shoot without a flash, but I wanted to travel light. I’d also decided that I wanted to film most of the gig on my little Lumix TZ7 (which shoots nice 720p HD video, and currently sells for under £200 on Amazon). Again I don’t know if it was the difficult red stage-lights (or if I’d accidentally changed a setting on my camera) but the quality of video I get from the Lumix is usually much better than this (see my YouTube channel for examples)

Emmy played six songs (including two new ones) and I filmed four of them:

01. We Almost Had A Baby
02. The Easter Parade
03. Exit Night new song
04. Dinosaur Sex new song
05. First Love
06. Absentee

View the videos after the jump

02. The Easter Parade

The audio sounds wonderful in this clip above, but unfortunately it also picks up the guy to my left singing along! Luckily the next two videos are new songs :)

03. Exit Night

04. Dinosaur Sex

I should probably explain the reason the camerawork is a bit wonky is because for the most part I wasn’t watching what the screen was recording

05. First Love

Finally, here is a link to a playlist of all 4 Emmy The Great live in Manchester videos

Photos of Field Music at Salford Islington Mill (26th Feb 2010)

hobbsy — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 02:48:55 +0000

I made a last-minute decision at 9:30pm tonight to jump in a taxi and catch Field Music at the Salford Islington Mill. I’m glad I made the effort as it was a cracking gig, despite not being too familar just yet with their newly-released album Measure (15th Feb). It’s the second time in a fortnight that I’ve been to Islington Mill and come away with mind suitably blown. Beach House the other week is a clear contender for gig of the year… and possibly the decade :)

Here’s a quick photo of Field Music I took after the gig, shot on my pocket camera:

Photos of Beat The Radar at Manchester Moho Live (14th Feb 2010)

hobbsy — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 11:32:59 +0000

Just a quick photo from tonight’s Beat The Radar gig at Manchester Moho Live. I’ll try and upload some more during the week:

Photos of Run Toto Run at Manchester Deaf Institute (16th Oct 2009)

hobbsy — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:11:56 +0000

Last week (before the madness of In The City kicked off) I saw Rachael Kichenside’s band Run Toto Run play live at the Manchester Deaf Institute. I’ve alread posted a video of the band covering Passion Pit’s Sleepyhead from the same concert, but below you’ll find some photos I shot:

Click here to view the full gallery (25 photos)

Photos of Morton Valence at Manchester Electric Boogaloo (20th Oct 2009)

hobbsy — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 13:11:31 +0000

Morton Valence photos from their set at the Electric Boogaloo as part of Manchester In The City 2009

Click here to view the full gallery (16 photos)

Photos of Young British Artists at Manchester Night and Day (20th Oct 2009)

hobbsy — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 11:38:51 +0000

Young British Artists played the Now Wave showcase at the Night and Day on the final night of Manchester In The City 2009. Here are a few photos:

Photos of Taxi Taxi! at Manchester Electric Boogaloo (20th Oct 2009)

hobbsy — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:38:34 +0000

I tweeted on Tuesday night about the Taxi Taxi! gig I’d just seen:

Taxi taxi! were superb. Well worth the walk in the rain from the N&D.seen some amazing acts at electric boogaloo #itcmanchester

On reflection Taxi Taxi’s set was probably the highlight of my In The City 2009…

In the same way that Run Toto Run nursed my cumulative hangover on the final night of ITC last year, this year it was Swedish sisters Miriam and Johanna E. Berhan (aka Taxi Taxi!) that provided the aural Nurofen. Their delicate songs are just breathtaking… head over to the band’s MySpace and take a listen.

I only wish I’d filmed the whole gig – as one song in particular (somewhere in the middle of the set) made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and almost brought a tear to my eye. After four nights of non-stop ITC carnage, this was the perfect way to end an emotionally and physically tiring festival (well, a brief chill-out at least before the madness of The Drums N&D set closed my In The City)

I have a few videos that I might try and post on YouTube later, but my upload speed is so pathetically slow (512Kb) that it takes the best part of a day to upload a 4-minute 700mb HD video. In the meantime, here are some photos I shot of Taxi Taxi!:

Manchester In The City 2009 – Day 3 – Tuesday 20th Oct 2009

hobbsy — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:14:31 +0000

Here’s a list of bands I photographed on day 3 of In The City:

Ray Summers at Manchester TV21
Futures at Manchester Roadhouse
The Tides at Manchester Moho Live (2nd Room)
Apples at Manchester Ruby Lounge
Asakusa Jinta at Manchester TV21
Young British Artists at Manchester Night and Day
Morton Valence at Manchester Electric Boogaloo
Slaggerij at Manchester Studio
Egyptian Hip Hop at Manchester Chicago Rock Cafe
Taxi Taxi! at Manchester Electric Boogaloo
Mount Kimbie at Manchester Chicago Rock Cafe
Hounds at Manchester Studio
The Drums at Manchester Night and Day

Panels I watched:
- Tribes, Fans, Followers panel
(ft. Sean Adams, Anthony Volodkin, Ian Hogarth, Alex Ljung, Joe Cohen)

- Making The Law: The Author Panel
(ft. John Robb, John Niven, Andrew Collins, Mark Hodkinson, Peter Hook, Pete Frame)

- The ITC Hive Panel
(ft. John Robb, Johnny Jay)

Manchester In The City 2009 – Day 2 – Monday 19th Oct 2009

hobbsy — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:50:10 +0000

Here’s a list of bands I photographed on day 2 of In The City:

Woodenbox at Manchester Chicago Rock Cafe
Copy Haho at Manchester Bar 38
Ed Sheeran at Manchester Electric Boogaloo
Culture Reject at Manchester Studio
Life In Film at Manchester Chicago Rock Cafe
Unicorn Kid at Manchester Bar 38
The Hugs at Manchester Chicago Rock Cafe
Onlookers at Manchester Bar 38
Sweet Baboo at Manchester Electric Boogaloo
Hook and The Twin at Manchester Studio
Busker outside Manchester Bar 38
She Is Danger at Manchester Chicago Rock Cafe
The Crookes at Manchester Bar 38
Jesca Hoop at Manchester Electric Boogaloo
I Am Blackbird at Manchester Bar 38

I’ll be working on getting them online and on the official ITC flickrstream this week