What's On North 20-27 Apr: Record Store Day

Alongside all the Record Store Day shenanigans, this week there's also the very first Leeds International Festival, Wrong Festival in Liverpool, Manchester Punk Festival and much more

Feature by Jess Hardiman | 20 Apr 2017

Each week The Skinny team hand-pick a selection of the best events from the North's cultural calendar to provide you with this 'ere 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 Leeds every Thursday morning.

VINYL REVIVAL

Get into the groove as Record Store Day (22 Apr) returns for another spin! Grab your limited press of choice, before checking out the best RSD events in Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester, including everything from live all-dayers and DJ takeovers to a special beer from Cloudwater and Common and a BYO vinyl night at Defend Vinyl & Craft Taproom.

Scroll down for more Record Store Day action – namely our favourite record stores in the North and the records that The Skinny team couldn't live without. Long live the vinyl life.


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Our favourite record shops in Liverpool

Whether you're a first-time visitor to Liverpool or a resident with money burning a hole in your pocket, as a music fan you'll be interested in this guide looking at the city's best vinyl outlets...

Best record shops in Leeds and beyond

Think of Leeds' music scene and you'll likely think of its two longstanding independent record shops: Jumbo and Crash. But there are other great stores for a spot of crate-digging too...

Top record stores in Manchester

Manchester’s musical heritage has helped to create something of an unrivalled scene here in the UK, and the city's treasure trove of record shops definitely has something to do with that. Many of them have been going strong since the late 70s and early 80s, encompassing everything from Northern Soul specialists to one-stop shops for technoheads. You might also be surprised to learn that there's a strong scene outside of the Northern Quarter.

The Skinny's Desert Island Discs

With Record Store Day on the horizon, what better way to celebrate the humble long-player than to ask our team the hardest question of all: which one album could you not live without? After much hand-wringing and self-analysis, here are the records our team chose to accompany them when stranded and alone on a desert island...

Also this week:

Leeds International Festival
Various venues, Leeds. Sat 22-Sun 30 Apr, times vary

Leeds' cultural calendar is getting the ultimate shake-up this week with the very first Leeds International Festival. Across a programme of film premieres, performances, exhibitions and conferences, highlights include Empowering Women with Tech – a conference led by broadcaster Lauren Laverne – and a premiere of Do You Want to Win?, a specially commissioned new film from Moving Image about Leeds United. Click here for more.

Wrong Festival
Various venues, Liverpool. Sat 22 Apr, 1pm

New noise-rock festival Wrong lands in Liverpool this month, where we're promised "all varieties of weird and filthy rock music" from a line-up including The Wytches (pictured), Heck, The Cosmic Dead, Part Chimp, Blacklisters and Elevant – set across the Invisible Wind Factory, North Shore Troubadour and Drop the Dumbulls. Photo: Sam Huddleston

Advertisement | Super Sunday
Lowry Quays Theatre, Salford. Wed 3-Thu 4 May, 8pm

Super Sunday is the latest circus show from Race Horse Company, the acclaimed Finnish acrobats with a reputation for madcap acrobatic brilliance. Big on flying and big on stomach-churning thrills, tension builds as the performers casually propel themselves higher and higher on trampolines, teeterboards and with catapults. A single slip and things could be messy! Funny, brave and irreverent, Super Sunday is so exciting that you cannot look away for a second. Edge of your seat stuff!

Manchester Punk Festival
Various venues, Manchester. Thu 20-Sun 23 Apr, times vary

Ready to smack you round the chops with punk rock from across the globe, the volunteer-run, not-for-profit Manchester Punk Festival returns with the likes of The Murderburgers, Denim & Leather, Strike Anywhere, The Toasters, Faintest Idea, Paint It Black, Belvedere (pictured), Martha, After the Fall, The Filaments, Inner Terrestrials and others.

Leeds' Affordable Vintage Fair
Corn Exchange, Leeds. Sun 23 Apr, 10.30am

The UK's largest vintage fair returns to its hometown to take over both floors of the Corn Exchange, treating you all to free entry so that you've got more dollar for rifling through rails of eclectic vintage clobber, accessories and homeware.

Manchester After Hours

The programme for this year's Manchester After Hours – part of the nationwide Museums at Night event on Thu 18 May – has been announced, promising everything from intimate live performances aboard TfGM’s Metroshuttle 2 curated by Hey! Manchester, Bad Language at Elizabeth Gaskell's House, an audio-visual installation from the Engine House collective (pictured) at the Museum of Science and Industry and much more.


Read more news from across the Northwest cultural scene at theskinny.co.uk/news
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