Airing on Pure 107.8 FM in Stockport, Sonic Bandwagon is a 2 hour radio show brought to you every Thursday from 9pm GMT that focuses on bringing you the best in underground music from all over the world whilst remaining true to North West bands/artists.
In addition, we write reviews on the web site, www.sonicbandwagon.com. Below are some of my favourite reviews over the past few years.
A VOICE TO MAKE YOU CRY
In terms of the UK, ‘Barclay James Harvest’ are possibly the most underrated and best band many people have never heard of. By rights I shouldn’t even know who they are judging by my age, but they are an outstanding, awe inspiring 70s/80s prog rock band from Saddleworth, Oldham, who’ve played a huge part in my musical upbringing having been astutely aware of them for the past twenty five years or so. Continue reading
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
WHAT THE WORLD’S BEEN WAITING FOR
Eight months since the announcement that shook the world, and we finally arrive at the weekend that would see 210,000 people descend upon Europe’s largest park for without doubt the largest and most anticipated reunion in music history. For many of us the eight month wait has been a breeze, considering we’ve already suffered seventeen years of questioning, reliving, wandering, imagining, waiting and hoping for this date. But now, all the ‘what if’s’ were about to be answered in what was a mouth watering resurrection that would hopefully shift the focus of music back to its rightful home. Continue reading
‘THE RETURN OF THE RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE’
‘Cast’ are back with their first album in eleven years, titled ‘Troubled Times’. With a series of gigs announced to compliment the new album, ticket demand has been high, which may have caused the unexpected move from playing Manchester Academy to the HMV Ritz just weeks beforehand, a venue more capable of housing the scores of fans that descended upon this prestigious venue. 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. Continue reading
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.