Comedy: Mark Watson presents the New Wave, The Dancehouse, Friday 22 November, 8pm
We’ve had the cinematic French 80s musical New Wave led by unequivocally cool Jean-Paul Belmondo, personified by the breath-taking Jam and the every-breath-you-take Police. Now we have the comedy New Wave, spearheaded by sometimes Welsh, sometimes Bristolian Mark Watson.
Nationally known from his stand-up comedy, obligatory panel show appearances, four books and advertising Magner’s Irish Cider, Watson has taken five of the brightest, upcoming, young, funny people under his wing for his latest tour; Ivo Graham, Mae Martin, Claudia O’Doherty, Ellie White and Liam Williams.
Having conquered the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the quintet of rising stars will be cutting their teeth on the gruelling UK stand-up circuit, stopping in at the Dancehouse. It’s the perfect chance to catch the new acts before they start headlining the Phones 4u Arena where it could be anyone telling jokes on a stage three miles away.
£8-£12. Tickets are available from here.
Mark Watson
Club Night: Satelliti + Barberos, Kosmonaut, Friday 22 November, 8pm-late
NQ hangout and jack-of-all-trades, Kosmonaut, is launching a new live music night to add to their ever growing array of events. Launching this Friday is Kosmonaut Live, unsurprisingly, a live music night at the cocktail hangout once a month.
Not content with playing the usual medley of mainstream music, the night will be opened by Satelliti and Barberos. With names like Rocky Balboa’s cousins the duo are connoisseurs of electronic and techno respectively. Headlining duo Satelliti are self-proclaimed “electro spandex clad progressive noise weasels”. Hmm quite.
For budding hipster freshers, weary and dreary from trips to 5th Avenue and the Printworks, Kosmonaut’s basement bar night is right up your skinny jean and Aztec patterned jumper street.
£4. Tickets are available from here.
Kosmonaut
Museum: Everyday Relics, MOSI, Friday 22 November 2013 - 29 June 2014
Instilled in our early childhood existence is the overwhelming desire to touch things we shouldn’t. Every youthful trip to a museum, shop or scrap heap is intrinsically linked with the words 'do not touch'. Of course the more we’re told not to, the more our curious minds tell us we definitely should fiddle and probably break valuable items.
Opening this Friday, MOSI instructs to mess, caress and touch an oddly inviting array of everyday items as part of their latest exhibition Everyday Relics.
Curated by resident artists Stand + Share and using oyster card-esque technology, overlooked objects will tell us a variety of tales through recorded oral histories, animations and photographs, hinting at their uses and purpose in a former life. Acid house vinyls and retro kettles are just two historically significant items on show; we’re hoping there’s a pair of maracas that projects a hologram of Bez dancing to Kinky Afro.
Information about the free exhibition can be found here.
Karl Marx's kettle... maybe
Music/Club Night: The Happy Mondays, The Ritz, followed by Clint Boon’s Disco Rescue, South, Saturday 23 November
Speaking of freaky dancer Bez, the Happy Mondays are back in town for another gig as part of their 42nd reunion. Milking their comeback for all it’s worth Shaun Ryder and company will be playing their second album, Bummed in full, 25 years on from its release, along with rave anthems 24 Hour Party People and Step On.
In conjunction with the performance will be an after party at South nightclub hosted by former Inspiral Carpet and resident DJ Clint Boon. The combination of joint celebrations for Boon’s 700th DJ set and South’s eighteenth birthday would be enough to incite a wild night, but the added bonus of an appearance from the Happy Mondays should lead to all out carnage in the murky basement venue. If the club hasn’t been destroyed by 8pm expect a varied set featuring Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry alongside Chase & Status and Disclosure.
Tickets for the Happy Mondays are available for £38.25 from here.
Clint and Aaron couldn't wait for their first legal pint
Market: Urban Markets, Greengate Square, Saturday 23 - sunday 24 November, 10am - 5pm Sat and 11am - 5pm Sun
The first of three 'alternative' markets to frequent our 'Things' this week. Not 'alternative' in the sense that it is full of odd people in black selling odd black stuff like stuffed crows and knuckle dusters, 'alternative' in the sense that neither market is involved in any way with that behemothic Christmas operation currently splurged across the city centre like baste over a turkey.
Located on the corner of Chapel Street and Victoria Bridge Street (roughly five minutes walk from St Anns Square), you'll find a slightly less anarchic city centre market in full swing with over 30 traders spread across the weekend with produce from pies and sausages to arts and crafts, plus music and performances. There'll also be grub on offer from those street connoisseurs Guerilla Eats and yes, all that Christmas business too.
Free. More info here.
Urban Market: Unlikely to be this warm though
Sport: Carl Froch v George Groves, Phones 4u Arena, Saturday 23 November, 6pm
The Battle of Britain sees two of the nation’s most impressive fighters attempt to beat 50 shades out of each other. WBA and IBF super middleweight champion Froch is set to defend his titles against the undefeated youngster Groves.
With the usual war of words and press conference mind games done, the time for the fighters to put their fists where their mouth is has come. Maturing like a fine fighting wine, Froch will be hoping to establish himself as one of the best pound for pound fighters around, while Groves needs a major scalp under his belt to cement his credentials as an upcoming force to be reckoned with.
Limited tickets are available still here. But only if you sell a kidney, maybe even both.
Carl Froch V George Groves
Film/Music: Quadrophenia Night, Moston Small Cinema, Saturday 23 November, 6.30pm
Typically English sub-culture Mods have seen somewhat of a revival in recent times with the help of some prominent sharp suited friends. Exponentially cool Liverpudlian rocker Miles Kane, Fred Perry collaborator and part-time cyclist Bradley Wiggins, ex-Smith Johnny Marr and Modfather Paul Weller have all been flying the RAF target inspired flag of late, signalling a noticeable rise in the number of parka wearing disciples about the country.
Taking inspiration from The Who’s superb rock opera Quadrophenia, and subsequent reincarnation as film starring a young disillusioned Phil Daniels, Moston Small Cinema is hosting a special night dedicated to everything great about 60s Mods.
Following a big screen showing of the classic 1979 film, there will be live music from The Atlantics and The Style Selektors playing hits from the soundtrack along with a Northern Soul inspired DJ set from former Special’s saxophone player Drew Stansall. Time to dust off your Lambretta, button your Fred Perry up to the top and bellow “We are the Mods!” all the way to Moston.
Tickets, costing £11, can be bought from here.
Moston Small Cinema
Event: Nitro Circus Live, Phones 4u Arena, Tuesday 26 November, 6pm
Not content with the already gravely dangerous world of motor sports, America, land of excess and elasticated everything, has upped the ante to make traditional dirt bike racing look like toddlers’ tricycle time in the playground.
Danger junkies Nitro Circus have brought their global brand of death defying stunts to the UK. Backflips, somersaults, spins, twists and, of course, pyrotechnics are guaranteed. It's the closest thing you'll get to a modern day Evel Knievel. The maniacs at Nitro Circus won’t be able to recreate all of their amazing aerobatics as seen on MTV, so no bus being driven off the Urbis to land on the Printworks, but in the lofty confines of the Phones 4u they will still put on a show of inspiring impossibility, and anyway, who doesn’t like watching people hurdle ten buses on their push bike.
More information and tickets can be found here.
Nitro Circus Live
Film: The Killing, Cornerhouse, Wednesday 27 November, 1.30pm
The latest offering in the Cornerhouse’s film noir series is a rare treat, The Killing, remarkable for the fact it’s the first feature length film of Stanley Kubrick. Debatably the best director of all time (behind Michael 'Kaboom' Bay), Kubrick is internationally recognised for A Clockwork Orange, 2001:A Space Odyssey and The Shining but infrequently are his earlier works ever cited or remembered.
A classic noir tale sees ex-convict Johnny Clay plotting to steal $2m in a racetrack robbery. All seems in the bag until the emergence of the famed fem fatale threatens to derail the whole situation. Dodgy underworld dealings, hard boiled dialogue and an intricate theft narrative make for a splendid piece of cinema that anchored the end of the noir’s golden age. The fact Kubrick directs is just an added bonus.
Tickets are available from here.
Tour: Friedrich Engels in Manchester, Manchester Tourist Information Centre, Portland Street, Thursday 28 November, 6pm
Engels, with Karl Marx, was the father of communism. The 22 years he spent in Manchester shaped his thoughts and ideas. As the well-known historian Asa Briggs said, ‘If Engels had lived not in Manchester...his conception of class and his theories of the role of class might have been very different. In this case Marx might have been not a communist but a currency reformer. The fact that Manchester was taken to be the symbol of the age in the 1840s was of central importance in modern world history.’ The entertaining tour follows Engels’ footsteps around the city and underlines Manchester’s key role within the world we live.
Since this is Engels' 193rd birthday we finish in a pub for a drink to celebrate this feisty and very interesting man.
£8. Meet 10 minutes before tour time. Tickets here.
Engels Delight
Music: Simple Minds with Ultravox, Phones 4u, Thursday 28 November, 7.30pm
Reunions and ageing rockers are all the rage. It’s nigh on impossible to escape sights like the reanimated corpse of Mick Jagger or Ian Brown looking more like Liam Gallagher’s dad than his contemporary. Next on the list of yesteryear's heroes to take centre stage is 80s triumphs Simple Minds and Ultravox.
Simple Minds, previously performing under the catchy name Johnny & The Self-Abusers, were one of the 1980's most successful bands through hit songs Don’t You (Forget About Me), Promised You A Miracle and Belfast Child. Synthesizer enthusiasts, Ultravox are most well remembered for the crescendo of ballad named after Austria’s capital, Vienna.
Pure 1980s nostalgia echoes in both band's work. Attempts to escape the trappings of their context have proved fruitless leaving them to do the right thing and churn out their much loved classics.
Ticket information can be found here.
Remember, at least one of you has to be looking away from camera for this to be taken seriously
Festivities: Christmas at the Mill, Islington Mill, Thursday 28 November, 4pm
With a majority of this year’s Christmas gifts likely to be bought from Manchester’s festive markets there’s a serious danger of unoriginality come December 25th.
To avoid giving and receiving Oasis coasters again this year it’s worth a trip over to Salford’s imposing Islington Mill for alternative Christmas presents and festive cheer.
The resident artists of the creative hub will be showcasing their latest work, allowing members of the public the chance to purchase ceramics, jewellery and fashion accessories, art, photography and printmaking. With a majority of the items one-offs or limited editions, there’s no danger anyone else will be getting the same stocking fillers this year.
To complete the Christmas atmosphere there’ll be the obligatory mulled wine and mince pies along with a performance from the BBC Philharmonic to mark the occasion. 'Tis the season to be merry.
More information can found here.
Islington Mill
Art: The Vanity of Small Differences, Manchester Art Gallery, Thursday 24 October 2013 - Sunday 2 February 2014
Turner prize winning artist Grayson Perry is exhibiting his work in Manchester. The artist won the award back in 2003 with his pottery collection that depicted horrific scenes of child abuse and violence. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about his success was that Perry was a transvestite, choosing to dress in a pink frilly dress.
The conception of Perry’s work The Vanity of Small Differences was documented on Channel 4, the inspiration for his work being found in the social classes of England. The story of class mobilisation by young Tim Rakewell is depicted on giant tapestries, harkening back to a forgotten process. The six tapestries on display are rich, vibrant and surreal pieces made with fastidious commitment.
This is only the second time Perry’s work has been displayed outside of London, giving an opportunity to see The Vanity of Small Differences before it goes nationwide.
More information about the free exhibition can be found here
The Vanity Of Small Differences
Market: Victorian Christmas Markets, Campfield Market Hall, Tuesday 19 November - Wednesday 18 December
Attempting to rival Albert Square’s Christmas Markets, this year Castlefield have decided to set up their own markets in the form of an indoor Victorian variety.
The mass, over eager consumption of Christmas supposedly began with Queen Victoria’s marriage to Prince Albert, his German heritage forever influencing the way Britain was to celebrate the 25 December as he made the idea of a Christmas tree a common occurrence.
Funnily enough this fact was omitted from much of history leaving Prince Albert to be remembered forever as the bloke with a piercing through his German sausage.
Organiser and designer Jodie Bannister said “we wanted to recreate the romance of a Christmas that is quintessentially British. The Victorian theme is a perfect way to bring back British traditions and hosting it in this wonderful venue makes it all the more special.”
Housed in the lofty Victorian hall, the market will sell the usual nick nacks as well as some intriguingly sounding traditional Victorian cocktails.
Victorian Markets
