DIVA OF MANCHESTER
In light of a year that has seen the Manchester star rise once again from a brief exodus, I was lucky enough to interview one of its most loved descendants. With the more recent news about ‘The Happy Mondays’ new album, coupled with the mounting success of local band, ‘Rainband’, it was only right to interview a woman that has played a pivotal role in this renewed success, amongst various other projects in and around Manchester. In terms of music, she is the ‘Queen of Manchester’, the self confessed, ‘Ms Manchester’, which led her to change her surname to the city she adores. Continue reading
In a year that has seen ‘Madchester’ re-born, the energy of a landmark period exploded once again at Manchester Arena. After a nineteen year exodus the original line-up of ‘The Happy Mondays’ took to the stage for their homecoming gig, a gig anticipated by thousands. 
In Old Trafford Cricket Ground, one of Manchester’s premier gig venues, a band took to the stage that has endured a steady rise towards world greatness that has spanned nearly a decade. From their first album release in 2003, they have grown from the obscurities of alternative hillbilly blues rock music from the depths of Tennessee to one of the world’s best known recent bands, and their ascendancy shows no sign of diminishing. Tonight, an eagerly awaited crowd gathered to watch the phenomenon that is ‘Kings of Leon’.
We managed to survive two rain filled nights and live to tell the tale. The pin holes in our tent held up despite puddles of water being left in the porch both mornings. Surprisingly, the sun was out and the prediction of all day rain was again proved wrong.
Saturday morning duly arrives at Blackthorn and the first thing I do is check the weather to see that the forecasted all day rain has been pushed back to later in the day. We may even get some sun. Hooray!
The fifth year of Blackthorn arrives and this will be the third year Sonic Bandwagon have attended and covered the festival located within the beautiful setting of Etherow Country Park. Given how great a time we’ve had the past two years, this was a date that’d been saved for a while on the calendar.