Having seen the posters and flyers for Sounds From The Other City all over the place in the last couple of years, I now wonder why I’ve never actually been to this amazing festival. With venues all along Salford’s Chapel Street, it is literally only a short walk away from Manchester’s city centre (where MAPS festival is taking place at the same time), but yet so far from the usual haunts of the Northern Quarter. And let me tell you, it’s worth getting out of your comfort zone and crossing the river for a lovely Sunday afternoon and a rather rowdy night of watching gigs, wandering around Chapel Street, dancing and drinking at venues such as a church, a selection of scruffy pubs, a phone box and Islington Mill.
I spend most of the afternoon hanging out at St Philips church where Jo Rose plays a shockingly beautiful acoustic set on guitar and piano. We agree that most of the songs sound like covers, just because they’re so well done you really can’t believe he’s written them himself. Towards the end of his gig the church is suddenly stormed by dozens of people - Jesca Hoop is on next. And she’s just as great as my flatmate told me when he came back home after seeing her for the first time gushing “I’ve just been to the best gig ever.”
Leaving the church, I wander around Chapel Street, enjoy some glittery cupcakes at the stalls outside the new Oxford, check out the zine library stall, marvel at the knitted decorations that are wrapped around lamp posts and fences, have a look at the art exhibition at Islington Mill, catch a glimpse of a very noisy band with a semi-nude singer and pay a visit to the phone box office just as a lucky winner is receiving a phone call from Andrew WK. Meanwhile, a cup of wine for the walks between the different venues helps coping with the freezing cold weather which isn’t exactly in favour of the festival.
Back to the Angel Centre to see Hot Pants Romance who were described to me as “three girls with hot pants, playing trashy guitar pop”. Can’t go wrong with that can you! And indeed, they are grand. That is, if grand means noisy and perhaps a tiny bit musically challenged, but nonetheless catchy, fun and incredibly confident, then yes, they are grand. It’s all about the accents anyway. Big love, and, you go girls!
Next door at the church it’s time to calm down a little. I watch the fantastic At Swim Two Birds sat on a bean bag in the front row - I wonder if they leave them in for their church services at well. Sadly, the cellist is missing from the usual three piece line-up, but that doesn’t change the fact that this band is one of the most wonderful acts to come out of Manchester (Salford, that is) recently.
Off to the Old Pint Pot to see Egyptian Hip Hop, a much hyped band that unfortunately fails to impress me, which may also be caused by the fact that the venue is absolutely heaving and every attempt to move forward feels like giving birth: “just squeeze past love… PUSH HARDER!”. Downstairs, Islet are tearing the place apart, climbing around like little monkeys, drumming, running, jumping, dancing and leaving a large part of the audience rather excited, judging by the steep rise in twitter posts that mention the band. Back upstairs, Fujiya and Miyagi are playing an okayish show which is just a little meh compaired to last year’s THISISAWESOME type gig at the Deaf Institute. They look tired and not too happy with the sound - happens, I guess. I only manage to catch the last song of The Rural Alberta Advantage, but everyone seems very excited indeed, and from what I can hear they are rather good.
The official part of the night ends at the Kings Arms with a pretty random combination of chips & cheese, a knitted chandelier, an *interesting* music selection, spaced out people upstairs and drunk discussions outside about gig venues in Leeds. Finally at home, I catch a last glimpse of my pretty screenprinted bag which I already covered in red wine stains, a matching tshirt, the stack of zines I collected in random places, and a handful of flyers before drifting off into darkness.
I had a lovely time indeed. Thanks to everyone who organized Sounds from the Other City, all the bands, promoters and people who made my bank holiday Sunday so wonderful. My feet still hurt.
Can’t wait for next year!
b&n magazine is a free and independent zine originally from Germany, now based in Manchester, UK. We're trying to keep it monothematic, which mostly doesn't work out. The articles are either in German or English (or both sometimes) and deal with everything vague related to popular culture, music, politics and feminism.
