What's On Northwest 31 Mar-7 Apr: FutureEverything
It's a big week for Manchester and Liverpool, with FutureEverything now in full swing and Threshold Festival also on its way. Meanwhile, over in Leeds Golden Teacher are gearing up for a DJ set at HiFi, and there's a GRUB Spring Feast to tuck into.
Each week The Skinny team hand pick a selection of the best events from the Northwest cultural calendar to provide you with this here top ten guide to the most exciting goings on for the week ahead. From gigs, plays, and exhibitions, to spoken word, pop-up foodie events, and one-off film screenings, we give you the insider's guide to things to do in Liverpool, Manchester and beyond every Thursday morning.
FutureEverything
Various venues, Manchester. Until Sat 2 Apr, times vary
Last night we popped down to the launch do for this year's FutureEverything, an abundant feast of all things digital and innovative that'll be in full swing until the weekend. The 2016 programme features panel discussions, workshops, the debut performance of Kingdom Come by British artist Gazelle Twin (pictured), Smoke Signals sessions with musicians Jo Dudderidge, Harry Fausing Smith, John Hering and Sara Lowes, and a Friday night party with hotly-tipped producers Nidia Minaj and Nkisi, among others. Read more about what we're looking forward to here.
Photo: Stuart Moulding
Threshold Festival
Various venues in The Baltic Triangle, Liverpool. Fri 1-Sun 3 Apr, times vary
Liverpool's grassroots multi-arts festival Threshold is back, once again fostering emerging talent, new work and avant garde innovation across music, theatre, film, performance and visual arts. This year boasts performances from acclaimed singer-songwriter Natalie McCool (pictured), folk duo Gilmore & Roberts, noise rock trio Barberos and Bathymetry, who've just stepped off stage following a support slot for The Jesus and Mary Chain.
Photo: Stuart Moulding
Not Quite Light Weekend
Various venues, Manchester. Fri 1-Sun 3 Apr, times vary
Not Quite Light is a project by photographer Simon Buckley, whose work captures the outskirts of Manchester's city centre in the half-light of dawn. The project will be celebrated with a weekender of low-light photography workshops, panel discussions, dawn Periscope broadcasts and a charity night of food, music and photography at RedbankCo on Sat 2 Apr with Broadsides Ballads poet Jennifer Reid, The Real Junk Food Project, DJ Pasta Paul and more. You can also catch Simon's exhibition, From Old Mill to the End of the Empire, on loop in the windows of The Hive in Ancoats throughout.
Photo: Simon Buckley
So Flute
The Shipping Forecast, Liverpool. Sat 2 Apr, 10pm
Not long after celebrating their fourth birthday, Manchester favourites So Flute now look set to conquer another area of the Northwest clubbing terrain as they launch in Liverpool this weekend. Residents Werkha, Danuka, Bolts, Yadava and Baloo will all be taking to the decks to spin all the sounds we've come to love – that is, a delicious worldly melting pot of soul, funk, disco, hip-hop, house, Afro, Latin and reggae.
Group Therapy
Gorilla, Manchester. Sat 2 Apr, 7pm
Group Therapy return to Gorilla, this time with a double helping of stellar headliner action bound together by local Phil Ellis. On the bill you'll find Perrier Award nominee and Polygram Award winner for best stand-up at Edinburgh, Adam Bloom (pictured), who's joined by New Zealander The Boy With Tape on his Face – aka Sam Wills, Tape Face or The Boy – a prop comic renowned the world over for his ability to make you laugh without uttering one word.
ADVERTISEMENT | The Hallé play Ravel, Casken, Elgar & Vaughan Williams
The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. Thu 7 Apr, 7.30pm, tickets from £5
Classical music newbies and aficionados alike can get on board with Hallé's concert on Thursday 7 April. It sees the return of John Casken's Apollinaire's Bird, which was a huge success when premiered in 2014, and has since been shortlisted for a Royal Philharmonic Society Award. Works by Ravel, Elgar and Vaughan Williams complete the programme of powerful, compelling music that looks to the Battle of the Somme for its inspiration. Student tickets start at just £5, and there's a free concert programme for Skinny newsletter readers, too – quote Zap when booking.
Photo: Russell Hart
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Golden Teacher DJ set
HiFi, Leeds. Fri 1 Apr, 11pm
A troupe of percussionists, singers, dancers and party freaks, Golden Teacher is a collaboration between Silk Cut and Ultimate Thrush alumni known for a commitment to playful left-field sounds, taking cues from disco, acid house, electronic body music and world beats. Funk Soul Nation will be bringing the Glaswegian outfit to Leeds this Friday for a DJ set, which, like their mastery of the live setting, will no doubt provide more than enough dancefloor food for thought.
Photo: Alexander Bell
GRUB Spring Feast
Sadler's Yard, Manchester. Sat 2 Apr, 12pm
Yep, it seems like yesterday (it was actually two weeks ago) that we were harping on about going to GRUB's latest venture, the first of their monthly bashes at Runaway Brewery, but there's more to come from the street food kingpins, as they host their Spring Feast this weekend at Sadler's Yard with traders including Honest Crust, El Kantina, S'Mores Please and Fancy an Indian. Castlefield Market will also be re-launching on the same day, just down the road at Royal Mills in Ancoats from 10am.
A Girl is a Half-formed Thing
Everyman, Liverpool. Tue 5-Sat 9 Apr, times vary
Aoife Duffin stars in this stage adaptation of Eimear McBride's best-selling debut novel, which charts the many stages of one Irish Catholic girl's life, from birth to womanhood. Tracking the turbulent path that takes her to adult life, the play delves into everything from fraught familial relationships to dangerous intimate liaisons to create a courageous, unflinching contemporary Irish drama.
Photo: Annie Ryan
Barking Tales
Zombie Shack, Manchester. Wed 6 Apr, 7pm
MC Harriet Dyer leads an evening of alternative comedy, where each skit, bit and story must relate to mental health in a bid to help lift the stigma that's somehow still there. She'll be welcoming to the stage headliner Danny Pensive (performed by Northeast character comedian John Cooper), alongside Katie Mulgrew and Jay Hampson, and all profit goes to local mental health charity Manchester Mind, meaning your laughs are going to a good cause, too. Want to know more? Check out our interview with Harriet.
Leon Bridges
O2 Academy, Liverpool. Thu 7 Apr, 7pm
Hailing from Fort Worth, Texas, Leon Bridges is an R'n'B singer, whose voice melts with a soul-slicked quality that puts him up there with late 1950s/early 1960s heavyweights like Otis Redding and Sam Cooke. After signing with Columbia Records at the end of 2014 and releasing his debut album, Coming Home, back in June last year, he's gone from local open mics to touring internationally for a respectable graduation into the much-deserved spotlight.
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