Focus on Manchester: LoneLady at Rough Trade mini gig; Shirley Baker photography retrospective

On first hear­ing that jagged, frac­tured gui­tar intro to Intu­ition, I was trans­port­ed back to the days of the late 70s band Gang of Four, my for­mer uni­ver­si­ty col­leagues. Indeed Julie Ann Camp­bell, aka LoneLa­dy, is a bit of a fan­girl for the group, and for that era of spiky, spare post-punk. More recent­ly her per­for­mance at Oslo, Hack­ney, saw her supporting…

Read More

Be part of the process: crowd funding helps artists like The Bedroom Hour achieve their goals

There are sev­er­al fund­ing sites out there oper­at­ing in slight­ly dif­fer­ent ways, but they all have the same objec­tive; offer­ing fans an attrac­tive way to con­tribute towards a cho­sen artist’s cre­ative process. This gets you, the fan, clos­er to the band. And it gives the musi­cians a chance to exer­cise their PR and mar­ket­ing skills by dream­ing up…

Read More