Almost Alternative

A4 Studios And Gallery A4 Studios are a wonderful non profit organisation founded by artist's. They are aiming to provide low cost accessible studios for people of all abilities, while raising awareness of disabilities and equality in the arts. I fully support their mission and when I was asked to come down and help out with some fundraising I was more than happy to oblige. They have a funding page please donate if you can.  I spent the day helping to man the awesome A Hat And A beard stall. The lovely man who hand makes the items is so obviously talented, I really enjoyed chatting about his work and seeing people's faces as they looked at the stall. He also produces commission pieces and rents larger pieces out.  My partner in crime running the stall, Dani Scum (not Mr Hat and Beard) The performances were amazing. I really enjoyed the sea shanties played on an accordion by Marina Black. A perfect fun start to the afternoon.  Marina Black Marina was f

In the last three days I have seen plenty of hate. I went out in support of my fellow human beings. I went out in support of people having a right to worship without fear. A wonderful friend suggested that we needed to stand with our community and I completely agreed with her. So we looked at what we could do and set up an event on social media. We shared it around and first came the hate.  We were called names and at least one threat was sent to us, but as more and more people showed their love and support the hate was drowned out. I have now received love and support from hundreds of people. I am so truly over whelmed to have been able to stand with all these wonderful people and firmly tell the haters that they only increase my need to and ability to love those they hate.  The haters make me see how truly amazing the people who welcomed strangers with open arms, who cooked for us, chatted with us, hugged us, laughed with us and mourned with us are. These are the people

I am going to be dedicating some blogs to places I love in Manchester, I thought I would start with somewhere beautiful and peaceful that I only found recently.  Church of The Holy Name of Jesus This church is on Oxford Road and I have passed it many times and just not really paid attention, it doesn't seem that impressive but inside is stunning.  On entering you see that it's much bigger than it seems and the stained glass gives the whole place such a magnificent light.  The architecture is breathtaking, the beams, ceiling, arches and windows are everything I want from a Gothic Victorian church. I believe it was built in roughly 1870 and designed by Joseph Hansom. As I walked around I found several little chapels hidden away behind beautiful statues and cut out arch window walls. I really couldn't get over how wondrous the patterns of natural light were in this building.  Anyway St Therese certainly seemed happy t

Home That one place where you feel safe and welcome That one place where you feel accepted A place where you find family A place to make friends The place where you can discover who you are The place where you can learn and grow A place you will always return to A place to be you Manchester has proven today in the face of atrocity to truly be the place I am proud to call home. My heart goes out to everyone who was there and the families who are suffering. The couple of hours I spent trying to contact friends were hard enough so I can only imagine what any of them are feeling.  But even in the middle of such chaos all I can see are people pulling together and helping each other. Manchester is indeed full of bees and our hive will stand strong. The beautiful people of Manchester have given me back my faith in humanity.  Thank you to the emergency services, the staff at the arena, the taxi drivers taking people home, the people giving food and drinks, people offering out

An Exquisite Evening of Ethereal Entertainment  Hosted By Analogue Trash At the Castle Hotel Manchester The evening began with Beinaheleidenschaftsgegenstand an electronic, ambient, industrial trio. I have seen them previously but before they added the third member. They were just as good as I remembered and soon I was sat on the floor relaxing and getting lost in the music. They manage to be soothing, all encompassing and slightly creepy all at once.    Beinaheleidenschaftsgegenstand  The lead singers voice portrays the heartbreak and pain mentioned in the lyrics perfectly, then at other times manages to sound completely robotic. You can clearly see all the members get lost in the music as the performance goes on. The build up to the ending was intense, they gained an extra singer and a metal barrel being used as a drum. The sounds filled the room as the powerful lyrics were spoken, each crash of the barrel ringing out, the music heightening and the words growing loude

A Curious Cabaret Of Sonic Discordance At Maguire's Pizza Bar On Friday the 19th I travelled over to Liverpool for a rather interesting gig, The Battle For Tomorrow, described on the poster as noise doom spoken word clown drone punk poetry brickcore industrial grrrr.  The Battle For Tomorrow is an album of poetry by Adam Probert accompanied by the experimental noise of John E Smoke, but that's skipping ahead a little bit.  Adam Probert The gig was hosted by The Percy Vermin Experiment a master of words, with a marvellous flair for performance.  Percy Vermin The first act was poet, Ellie W Muddy reading three sensational poems. Her reading was impassioned and rousing. One of the poems was accompanied by an atmospheric noise piece making it even more engaging.  Ellie W Muddy Then there was a huge change in pace with Pandemonium, the noisiest clown I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. He provided a fanfare of commotion, an explosion of

International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia Yesterday was IDAHOBIT, previously IDAHO with Transphobia being added in 2009 and biphobia added in 2015. I have been to several IDAHOBIT events but none touched me so much as yesterday's, the theme for it at was family.  A little background, I am Pan/bisexual and gender neutral if I have to label. I am super lucky though. I regularly get crap from people nowadays mainly for my gender but when I was younger it was for liking girls. Crap at school, college, jobs, in the street, anywhere there were people I didn't know well. I have had lesbians hate me because I don't just date women and straight guys who think I'm tainted because I have dated men who have been with other men. My experience of homophobia, biphobia and transphobia has been sometimes violent but luckily not often, possibly more luckily I punch well and it's definitely impacted my life.  I am still lucky though, I was born into a w

What the hell? It appears everything I know about music I have forgotten. I used to put on gigs and club nights and adequately write descriptions of the type of music that would involve. It seems now I don't have to do that all I know is whether it was fun or not.  Rubber Chicken's During Satan's Willy Nepotism was definitely FUN. There wasn't a band I didn't enjoy having a dance to. The venue was definitely interesting.  Wall Decoration Temple Of Boom So my top three fun bands of the evening were.  Kringer and The Battle Katz, hilarious and looked like they were really enjoying being there too. Also I am pretty sure one of them had a cock on his neck. What a face, Kringer and the Battle Katz Revenge of The Psychotronic Man They were great to dance to and really got the crowd going, their suggestions of wall of death and circle pit went down well. Another face, Revenge Of The Psychotronic Man And lastly I really str

Murder By Gaslight at Salford Museum and Art Gallery A Review I know it's only two days since my last Don't go into the Cellar theatre company review but they were in a local Gallery that I love so how could I resist and indeed who would want to try.  The setting for this piece was perfect Victorian theatre in the Victorian room at Salford Museum and Gallery, what more could I ask for. It made for some spectacular imagery. I must add this Gallery is well worth a visit I love this room and the Victorian street is a delight. This is a museum well suited to children and adults alike.   So onto the theatricals. We entered the room and the first thing I noticed was the small but wonderfully detailed set. Every part so well thought out, the medical bag over flowing with papers recalling the details of the dreadful Dr's and the many bottles of poison, definitely made an impact before anyone had even taken to the stage.  Wonderful set design First we met Dr P

Oscar Wilde We arrived in Belper for the Arts festival, super excited for some Oscar Wilde. I love Wilde, he is definitely on my list for when I time travel. I have read everything I can find by him, many times and plenty about him.  But as he said “Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”  So I thought I had best get on with experiencing some Wilde. We arrived at No.28 Cafe to find there was a time change, a few minor difficulties and the reading wasn't going to be for an hour. We had a chat with a lovely man who was organising the events and he recommended seeing the Mill which I am sure would have been delightful but "The only good thing to do with good advice is to pass it on; it is never of any use to oneself." So we headed into town.   Number 28 Cafe photo by me When we came back the room was laid out with flowers on the tables, simple but inviting. We fo