Assistant are 1/3 French but we don’t really know of any French indie-pop DJs or blogs! Who does? Any tips? Daft to know so little about the scene in the land of all of our dream cheese.

I love @kathrynjoseph11.bsky.social anyway but adding Lomond Campbell to the live thing was a genius idea. And yes, her between song chat is as filthy as we have come to expect 😄 Really enjoyed Lomond's support set of his own stuff too and bought a record. Far too good for a Tuesday 🖤

If you used to follow me on the place that went to shit, you may remember that there are certain songs I post annually in relation to a specific date or event, and I don't even really know why I do it, but yeah, here's one of them 🙂 🇲🇽🏁 youtu.be/8Jv64uhCIrU?...

I often say that for people like me every week is independent venue week: over 200 gigs last year, probably two thirds in indie places. I love them. I support them. I do however despair that that support is still not mutual. By which I mean: VENUES! PUBLISH YOUR FUCKING STAGE TIMES IN ADVANCE!

Post yourself from a different era: me and my dad, 1975

A few weeks ago we went to see young Manchester musician Ellen Beth Abdi, who alongside T-shirts and tapes was selling her own made marmalade (it's genuinely fantastic too). Off to see Mr F on Monday and may well be tempted by this... Any musicians out there doing bread? Complete my breakfast! 😄

Since deleting Twitter I’ve noticed a big drop in my Bandcamp sales. If you’re a music fan, please repost this so people can find me here! I make weirdo alt pop, I hate nazis and love Etsy witches 🖤✨ elisabethelektra.bandcamp.com

That'll be my Friday night viewing sorted then 😄

Post an obscure album in your collection you that always think: 'Surely nobody else has got this?' Bought in a weird second hand shop in Groningen, Netherlands, in 2004. Would love to know how it ended up there...

Honestly not sure if I will be posting much from @krankenhausfest.bsky.social this weekend because the signal's shit and I intend to be having too much fun anyway, but massive shout to @thetradesclub.bsky.social for hosting a brilliant 3 day warm-up. Hebdenhaus? Krankenbridge? Great stuff anyway 💚

How it started / how it ended up... Still processing the fact that this actually happened. Some of my all time favourite musicians from both sides of the Atlantic and indeed the millennium, doing a full Galaxie 500 set. Including the most incredible Fourth Of July beyond my wildest dreams 💚

Lovely little evening of atmospheric electronics at Shoegaze Cafe last night with two almighty Tables Of Cables and one fantastic tape machine. That's @jamesadrianbrown.bsky.social in the green corner and @sulkrooms.bsky.social in the red corner.

Didn't know this morning we were going to see a psych surf band we'd never heard of from Bogota Colombia this evening but it popped up on FB at dinnertime - a pretty last minute gig apparently - so why not? Cheers Los Fuckin Surfer Smokers, you were brilliant 🙂 this is why the Peer Hat is important

All the timings here for @tufflifeboogie.bsky.social Preston Popfest 🎉 🎶 🍡 copied off the facebook event pages for those who don't have that. It's an astonishing lineup!

Screenshot in my case an actual picture of the telly, from a BBC Alba documentary about an independent pie maker (it was 2020 lockdown, there wasn't much to do) with a subtitle caption I'm convinced is a secret lost Mogwai title

Hello to everyone else who gets unfeasibly excited at the mention of new Phil Elverum music 🙂

Of course we're at a gig, and the football should have been over before Loose Articles went on stage, but of course it wasn't... cracking set, finished just as the first penalties were being lined up, everyone got their phones out, and honestly couldn't think of a better place to be for the result ❤️

Got our tickets, this will be our third time there, it really is a fantastic little festival.

I don't know the OP - thread was reposted into my timeline by a mutual - but I have been laughing for ages at this. Well played, Italian tourists, and also amazing that the original image had such reach that they even thought "oh we must do that when we go to Manchester" 😄

Happy #Galaxie500Day if you celebrate www.fullofwishes.co.uk/2014/07/04/f...

You know I bloody love Half Man Half Biscuit, my second most seen band (which seems oddly appropriate) but until a few years ago I was never that arsed about the actual albums except as a source of keeping gigs fresh, the last few have been brilliant though and this one's no exception...

"You know I like sweets... yesterday I had a Victoria sponge... and today... I had another Victoria sponge!" Over 40 years in the business and Shonen Knife still have the best between songs musings 😄 and of course the best two minute pop songs and the energy of people half their age 🎂❤️🍌

Luckily for Cath and all fellow Fall fanz, there are Fall-like elements in my latest book, both from Monsieur Camus and Salford’s finest rockaboogie band.

Officially On Holiday. Breaking with a long (if somewhat accidentally started) tradition of always taking a book about The Fall because I didn't get round to finding one I'd not read yet this year, but this from @richardjamesfoster.bsky.social seems appropriate 🙂

Happy Biscuit Day everyone! youtu.be/Kt7A3fMpP1I?...

As we count down the days to another Primavera, I still consider one of the greatest moments of my many years of attendance was Suicide playing a no-holds-barred Frankie Teardrop in 2011 to a massive festival crowd (many of whom probably didn't know the song) on a hot summer night by the sea...

I think @sulkrooms.bsky.social might have found the second best celebrity endorsed boxed parlour game ever. I say second because 20 years ago my friend Zoe got this in a Nottingham charity shop and in all honesty I still laugh about it about once a month.

An excellent piece on a record that's often underrated even by fans of the band. I used to say it was my fave of the original 3, admittedly partly to wind up other fans who always went for the 1st or 3rd, but sometimes I still think it is for exactly the reasons as this writer a generation later...

Didn't get any decent pictures of Mogwai on Saturday but suffice to say they were brilliant and extremely loud - as were Dinosaur Jr back home in Manchester last night. Thank heavens for earplugs! Also, following HMHB's surprise cover on Friday I got to hear Freakscene twice in 3 days 🙂

I never talk about it at work, what I'm actually doing when I book a Friday off: they basically know I "go to gigs" but no idea what they are actually imagining, if anything. Meanwhile this was our Friday afternoon/evening, the Cumbrian coast path and Half Man Half Biscuit in Ulverston.

Back to Todmorden last night for the second time in a week, but you can never have too many visits to the glorious Golden Lion can you? Exceptional sets from @linesofsilence.com and Purple Heart Parade (and backdrop films a of nearby reservoir), cracking start to the weekend (got a day off today)

Anyone need more geese? Here we go then. Rochdale Canal, Newton Heath, a couple of hours ago.

Another sunny Saturday of hills and music 🙂 Walked up to Stoodley Pike from the Hebden side (a rather bracing uphill, that one!), across the top to Gaddings Dam and down into Todmorden for an absolutely blistering double set from The Jonny Halifax Invocation at the ever wonderful Golden Lion

(Been resisting but it's not working, sorry...) "Fuckin' 'ell, it's Fred Titmus!"

First time at the Rat & Pigeon (I know, finally! Been a few gigs there we'd have gone to if we hadn't been already booked elsewhere) , like it. Proper little old-style pub venue, bloody hot though. And first TTSSFU gig in ages and they're still brilliant 🖤 hope there are more coming soon.

So let me get this straight, the new Pope: ☑️ In his 60s ☑️ From Chicago ☑️ Wears glasses He didn't die at all did he, he just went into hiding for a year so nobody would guess...

Can't believe I forgot to post my best goose babies picture of the year so far, by the Peak Forest Canal near Whaley Bridge on Monday...

As someone who has seen @seapowerband.bsky.social live a ridiculously large number of times, and also the sort of person who keeps a spreadsheet of (all) gigs I've been to, I can confidently say they hardly ever play gigs in March (of any year) for reasons which remain a mystery. Next year they do.

A good Saturday at this time of year has both great music and tiny geese. Plenty of both today thanks to the Rochdale canal from Littleborough to Hebden then an excellent night with Gnod and White Hills at @thetradesclub.bsky.social so yes, a very good Saturday 🙂

Manchester: support Trans rights, independent venues and great new music all at once by buying a ticket to this next Thursday www.fatsoma.com/e/8e55l2hv/t...

Very sad at the loss (really this time) of my neighbourhood venue. The scene it supported in recent years wasn't really mine but that's not the point, great little spot, seen many gigs there going back to Swinging Sporran days. Also I live 160 metres away, why is this the first I heard of the news?

Thank you Canada for (a) not electing a fascist and (b) geese. Anyone need a cheer up today just look at their little faces 💛

Not been in Salford's Sacred Trinity church since 2012 (I looked it up!), used to be a regular spot for all sorts of gigs about 15 years ago, I'd forgotten what a beautiful space it is. A perfect setting for @penelopetrappes.bsky.social and The Seer to fill with spine-tingling sound and atmosphere 🖤

Same to you! Actually don't even know which one I am more excited about, might be #3 on account of the fact that if it is truly about rawlplugs that's a definite first for popular music.

Tempted by this but a bit scared because as many of my friends know, I've long held the belief that Northampton isn't real and is some sort of multiverse/simulation type concept where things are nearly but not quite like reality. I have spent years building a portfolio of evidence of this...

At the quite posh Stoller Hall tonight for the always excellent Richard Dawson, who has managed to snap his Achilles tendon just before his tour, so our front row seats had us largely staring at his knees 😄

How good were @benefitstheband.bsky.social at @thetradesclub.bsky.social last night!? Those new songs debuted in Huddersfield last year (I guess they start tours in W Yorks cos it's not too far to travel for the first night) sounding immense here. Still tickets left for Salford next week and others.

Can one of my Manchester or Calderdale promoter friends sort a gig for this wonderful band please? @greylanternmcr.bsky.social @andy-abbott.bsky.social

First tiny geese of the year, Rochdale Canal in the city centre just behind Rain Bar. Bonus tiny ducks too, out near Cornbrook (11 of them)... Music related ramblings will continue soon but I posted that bio on here months ago so don't say I didn't warn you 😄

Happy Easter! (I don't mind if people are religious or not so long as they don't use it as an excuse to oppress others, but if you don't like platypuses we probably can't be friends 🙂 )