What's On Northwest 10-17 Dec: Jamie Woon

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.

Steve Bug + Matthew Dear
Hidden, Manchester. Fri 11 Dec, 10pm

Warehouse party specialists PlayitDown make their long-awaited Hidden debut with a stunning lineup that's well on the way to selling out. Headed by Poker Flat imprint founder Steve Bug, we're equally excited that he'll be joined by the legendary Ghostly International co-founder Matthew Dear (pictured), who'll be making his first appearance in Manchester for several years – have a gander at our interview with him from the archives.

Abandon Silence Christmas Party
Buyers Club, Liverpool. Sat 12 Dec, 10.00pm

From Levon Vincent to Floating Points and Move D, it's fair to say Abandon Silence have hosted some colossal lineups over the previous 12 months, as well as having a hand in new Liverpool bar and venue space Buyers Club. With a formidable lineup that includes DJ sets from Warp duo Darkstar – more on their 2015 LP Foam Island here – and electronic pop favourite Jamie Woon, their Christmas party is the perfect place to kick-off the festive season?

Photo: Andy Von Pip

Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages
Home, Manchester. Fri 11 + Sun 13 Dec, times vary

This music and film event sees Benjamin Christensen's 1922 silent film Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages paired with a brand new live electronic/acoustic score from singer-songwriter Josephine Oniyama, and musicians from the University of Salford. The ensemble promises synthesisers, drum machines and samplers, alongside Oniyama's distinctive voice, scoring a series of vignettes that explore the theory that witches of the Middle Ages were subject to the same hysteria as turn of the century psychiatric patients.

Follow
FACT, Liverpool. Fri 11 Dec-Sun 21 Feb, times vary

Investigating the use of image and identity as ever-changing concepts that can be bought, sold, mimicked, endorsed, deleted and validated through a single click, Follow takes a step back from the accelerated world of social media and asks, What impact is the internet really having on how we think about ourselves and those around us? Exhibition highlights include new work by LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner, Cécile B. Evans and Debora Delmar.

Photo: Commercials (It's not possible, it's real). Commissioned by FACT and Metal, with additional support from CANVAS

Château le Bomb
The Castle, Manchester. Wed Dec 16, 7.30pm

Right before Christmas is a bold time to launch a new comedy night, but that hasn't deterred Château le Bomb who – in a fresh format – take the stand-up stars of tomorrow and get them to work on new material against the clock. Skinny favourite Liam Pickford (he was our Spotlight a couple of years back) is among the first batch of laugh merchants trying their luck.

Photo: Debs Marsden

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STATK 1st Birthday
24 Kitchen Street, Liverpool. Sat 12 Dec, 10pm

Reaching their first birthday, STATK celebrate by continuing to bring some of the newest names in European techno to Liverpool. For their anniversary bash they've enlisted the talents of Parisian DJ and producer Lazare Hoche, who recently put out his first full length, Access, on his own label and which features tracks from Luke Solomon, Point G and Nimbus Quartet. If you're thinking about New Year's Eve already, meanwhile, have a look at our Liverpool picks.

Track Brewery Christmas Fair
Track Brewery, Manchester. Sat 12 Dec, noon

Track and SQUAWK Brewery combine at the former's home under the Piccadilly arches this weekend for the inaugural Track Brewery Christmas Fair. As well as the two breweries holding their first brew tap across ten lines, GRUB Mcr will be on hand to provide food, and more than 20 independent artists and makers will be selling their wares, while money will be being raised for homeless charity Mustard Tree.

Rachel Holmes on Eleanor Marx
Portico Library, Manchester. Thu 10 Dec, 7pm

Rachel Holmes (pictured) on Eleanor Marx says it all, really: biographer Holmes takes on the subject of Eleanor Marx, pioneering trade leader, feminist and internationalist – and the daughter of Karl Marx. Holmes will be in conversation with journalist Anita Sethi discussing Eleanor's little-known literary history, as well as the tragedies in her life – check out our in-depth preview here.

New Dickensian
The Lantern Theatre, Liverpool. Thu 10 Dec, 7.30pm

New Dickensian writers Dean Johnson and Mark Reed present a satirical take on some of Charles Dickens classic tales of social inequality. Johnson asks if we have returned to the bleak bedlam of Dickens' age, including telling the story of one Ethan Shrewd, a high-flying and ruthless stockbroker, and his beleaguered junior partner, single parent Rob Cadgit. The audience have also been asked to bring along tinned or dried food, which will be donated to those in need this Christmas.

Doc'n Roll
FACT, Liverpool. Fri 11-Sun 13 Dec, times vary

UK music documentary film festival Doc'n Roll makes its first regional visit, dropping into FACT with five full-length docs to screen and a Q+A around punk provocateurs Sleaford Mods – recently featured in our top 50 albums of 2015 – following a showing of their film Invisible Britain. Among the other films to be showcased are Theory of Obscurity, about 60s music collective The Residents, and a history of the New York-spawned Latin Boogaloo in We Like It Like That.

Photo: Sleaford Mods

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