MASSIVE TINY PHYSICS & HOOKS
MOSI’s Collider exhibition is bringing CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), ‘the world’s largest ever experiment’, to Manchester over the next four months before heading out on international tour. Not physically of course, 27km of particle speedway buried nearly 200 metres beneath the Franco-Swiss alps isn’t easy to shift by Eddie Stobart. Collider/MOSI/Castlefield/Fri 23 May-Sun 28 Sept/£7 adult, £5 concs/Tickets here
#REDUNDANT #HASHTAG
Also at MOSI this week is #HookedOnMusic: Everyone recognises a hook when they hear one (part of a song that catches the ear of the listener, usually a lyrical line or melodic phrase), but scientists aren't sure why. Join music lovers around the world to explore the secret science of songs. #HookedOnMusic/MOSI/Castlefield/Sat 24 May-Sunday 1 June/FREE/More here
Collider
DOTTY LOT
Returning for a third consecutive year, the fittest music festival in the calendar sees you tear-arsing around town trying to catch as many of the 100 acts, spread across ten venues, as you can. Starting as early as 2pm on the Friday, the final acts will crawl off the stage at 3am on Saturday morning. That's thirteen hours of music for £22. Not bad eh? Luckily, the venues are close enough (The Ritz, Gorilla, Sound Control, Deaf Institute and more) you won't need your Hi-Tech runners on. Headlining are Peace, Drenge and Real Estate. Dot to Dot Festival/Around Oxford Road/Fri 23 May/2pm-3am/£22 tickets here/
Gigwise's '18 bands you must see at Dot to Dot' - great list if you can't be bothered to dig out the good'uns yourself.
HE’S THE NUTS
By claiming the fastest-selling album of 2014 so far, Caustic Love, the bit-Scottish, bit-Italian singer has cemented himself as one of the most soulful, exciting and rambunctious acts around. Queen Wailer Adele recently said that Paolo Nutini’s recent studio performance of single Ironsky was 'one of the best things I've ever seen'. He’s probably the best thing to come out of Paisley, besides Gerard Butler, David Tennant and the House of Stewart. He’s up there anyway. Paolo Nutini/O2 Apollo/Sat 24 May/Tickets £30 here
FINAL FOOD FIGHT
B.Eat Street's turbo-charged food event has been grabbing Castlefield by the balls every Friday night since early March and slapping them about with a load of naughty food (and booze, naturally). The Victorian Upper Campfield Market Hall has welcomed Yang Sing, Solita, Reds True BBQ, Lucha Libre and Ning, amongst others to Friday Food Fights to battle it out with smaller-scale food vendors for your custom.
The FFF chaps have saved a one-off special parting shot for the final event, with Prestwich's fine-dining restaurant Aumbry and head-chef Mary (off the telly) Ellen-McTague dishing up a menu that would make your tongue jump out of your head and sprint like buggery into Friday. Friday Food Fights/Upper Campfield Market Hall/Castlefield/Fri 23 May5.30-11pm/FREE entry (£3 charity donation)/@beatstreetmcr
WOODY & THE GIGOLO
If you were to imagine all of the least likely characters for career-goofball Woody Allen to play, a pimp would be up there, alongside an Ultimate Fighting champion and a bison. Still, pimp he is, to writer-director-lead John Turturro's gigolo. Turturro plays a Brooklyn florist who goes along with his pal Murray's (Allen) plan to make them a quick buck. Fading Gigolo/Cornerhouse/Opens Fri 23 May/Various times/Tickets here
Friday Food Fight
P-AN-P-AN-P-AN-O
Considered one of the most talented and respected pianists of his generation, Benjamin Grosvenor joins Camerata chief Giovanni Guzzo, and principal cellist, Hannah Roberts, in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, while conductor Gábor Takács-Nagy will bring sizzling energy to Beethoven’s iconic Fifth Symphony, supposedly imagined by the composer while walking through Prater Park in Vienna eating a Yellow-hammer. Manchester Camerata: The Yellow-Hammer’s Song/Bridgewater Hall/Sat 24 May/7.30pm/Tickets £11-£34 here
ANNIE ARE YOU OK?
Having premiered at the Opera House last week, the show will be closing in Manchester this Saturday before heading out on a UK tour. Irving Berlin’s 1946 musical Annie Get Your Gun is the story of mean-shot Annie Oakley, who falls for the Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show’s star, Frank Butler, when the show comes rolling into town. Featuring Jason Donovan, Norman Pace And Emma Williams, the musical features classics There’s No Business Like Show Business and Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better. Annie Get Your Gun/Opera House/Fri 16 May-Sat 24 May/Confidential £25 best seat offer (PROMOCODE: ManCon)
Annie Get Your Gun
ROCK RISING
A 30-foot rock truck will pitch-up in Cathedral Gardens this weekend with a free concert experience showcasing local bands and emerging artists alongside a pop-up bar and giveaways. The line-up includes Fear The Fallen, the Carnabys and The Answer. Hard Rock Rising Truck Tour/Cathedral Gardens/Sat 24 May/6pm-10pm/FREE/More here
SPINNING AROUND
Now onto Oast House’s third Spinfest of the 2014 summer season, this one’s all about the Yanks (as things tend to be) with music inspired from across the puddle from rock to blues to swing to country and jazz. Live music on the Sailor Jerry stage will come from Dominic Halpin and the Hurricanes, The Nick Steed Blues Band, Lauren Housley, 52 Skido, Three Wheels On and Taylor and the Mason. Spinfest/Oast House/Sun 25 May/Midday till late/FREE/@TheOastHouseMcr
SpinFest 2014
ODYSSEY
If you’re of a certain ilk (professionals over-25) ‘basking in the exclusivity’ of Deansgate’s fancy-pants new member’s club, The Milton Club, will be up your cup of Bollinger. Odyssey returns for the third time this Sunday with a gaggle of DJs, music up high, lights down low and drinks that’ll make you hate Monday. Wait… it’s a bank holiday Monday? Sod it then (Hint: if you’re under-25 bugger off back to 42nd Street). Odyssey/Milton Club/Sun 25 May/8.30pm-4am/FREE before 10pm, £10 after/Booths £250 minimum spend (bargain)/Tickets here
CIL-MI NOW
Signed to a label at thirteen, by the tender age of fifteen Aussie singer-songwriter, Gabriella Cilmi, was topping the charts with Sweet About Me. However, the hyper-sexualised nature of the industry and pressure to conform made Cilmi reconsider. Following a failed career as a brickie and a subsequent lumber jacking injury, Cilmi is back under her own steam with a new barnet and back on tour with her 2013 album The Sting. Gabriella Cilmi/The Deaf Institute/Mon 26 May/7pm/Tickets £9 here
NAUGHTY PUPPETS – Ticket Offer
A smash on Broadway, in the West End and across the globe, Tony-award winning comedy musical comedy Avenue Q will be letting loose a load of unruly, randy, fuzzy, little buggers out onto the Palace stage for a five day stint in Manchester. The show’s premise is that an odd collection of puppets, including Lucy the Slut and a closeted gay banker, living in a crappy New York street get up to all kinds of adult mischief: drunkenness, bonking and singing catchy numbers like The Internet Is For Porn and Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist. Sesame Street doused in gin and clutching a rampant rabbit. Q Avenue/Palace Theatre/Tues 27 – Sat 31 May/£20 best available ticket offer Promo code:ManCon
Avenue Q
LIPS ON FIRE
Hailed by Q Magazine as one of the ‘50 Bands To See Before You Die’, The Flaming Lips, first formed in Oklahoma in 1983, are famed for their eccentric live shows, multi-layered compositions, bizarre lyrics and massive hands. The band have also laid claim to the world’s longest ever song title with: ‘What Is the Light? (An Untested Hypothesis Suggesting That the Chemical [In Our Brains] by Which We Are Able to Experience the Sensation of Being in Love Is the Same Chemical That Caused the Big Bang That Was the Birth of the Accelerating Universe’. Punchy. The Flaming Lips/O2 Apollo/Tues 27 May/Doors 7pm/Tickets £38
THE MODEL, THE POET, THE HORSE
Based on Homer’s The Iliad and penned by one of Britain’s favourite (only known) poet’s, Simon Armitage, The Last Days Of Troy - world premiered at the Royal Exchange - recounts literature’s oldest war poem of two nations at war over some pretty dame who’s done a runner. The pretty dame in this case is model, actress, boffin (double first class degree from Cambridge) and ginger siren, Lily Cole. A tale of ‘east versus west’, it’s not hard to see modern parallels. Except now the giant horse would be a Challenger 2 tank. The Last Days of Troy/Until 7 June/Tickets from £10 here/Royal Exchange/St Ann’s Sq
Y-M-C-A
BARK ADDY
Mark Addy’s new Captain’s Comedy Club is part of new proprietor Keran Douglas-Clark’s goal to ‘encourage new independent creative partnerships in Salford and Manchester’ using the ‘ole canal side pub as a creative outlet for both cities. Renowned Manc comedian Smug Roberts (Phoenix Nights) is to be resident compere and will welcome Junior Simpson, Jojo Smith and Penella ‘Smiling Assassin’ Mellor for the opening night. The Captain’s Comedy Club/Mark Addy/Weds 28 May/Tickets £5 from the bar and £6 on the night
THOSE GOONS AGAIN
You know the Screenfields drill by now: Thursday, 7pm, Spinningfields, grass, £3, film, wet arse, sod it and go boozing. With a remake in the offing, you can't move for cult 80s film The Goonies right now. Still, the next person I see in a Goonies slogan tshirt is getting a five knuckle truffle shuffle. The Goonies/Screenfields/Spinningfields/Thurs 29 May/7pm/£3 on the door/More here
Screenfields
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