CityLife

Ahh, let's kick up the old Oasis vs Blur thang again. That'd be good for sales wudden it? Thing is though, for all the battles fought, the war was won on a typically phyrric victory by those naughty lumps from Burnage (or as its now known, Henly on Thames)! The overriding legacy of the Brit-pop wars lives on in a tired array of one-dimensional white indie slugdge meisters who've traded their art for haircuts and guitars and the correct cut of jeans. Right! Sign here Mr Couldbe! Funny thing is, for all the enduring, stadium filling, mudfield flinging and slinging success of the Good Ol' Boys, it's ironically Damon Albarn who should be hailed the creative mouthpiece for this generation - his eclectic and groundbreaking work from Gorillaz to TGTB&TQ to Monkey ought to be an inspiration to any starry-eyed youth - in terms of artistic capacity - not the money grabbing, churnoutalot, flash your cash at the taxman approach of the Bohemoth Brothers. But then he goes and ruins my argument by hitting the stadiums and charging an equally extortionate price. Gah!, souls sold all around - the devil needs a new set of shelves for his collection. Poor Graham Coxon, it must have seemed wonderful once.

I think what makes me laugh is the absolute arrogence (and F&&kwiteeners in with this too) of these turgid little bands who claim to be the 'saviours of Manchester music'. For who? When did Manchester music slide into a void of non entity. Correct me if I'm wrong but in the last 15 years (since Oasis Bonehead!), we've had Badly Drawn Boy, Doves, Elbow, I am Kloot - and (gasp) tow Mercury Music prizes from 2 of the aforementioned. Hardly in a rut are we? So who are you saving Manchester music for? The army of deadhead plastic indie louts shambling round acting like nasty little d*cks 'cos thats what Manchester rock stars behave like? Get a grip and aim within your naive reach!

Here goes it, 1. Public Enemy (Manchester Academy June) - incredible show, a non-stop assault from the bomb squad - all's nearly forgiven Flav (well almost - glad he left the viking horns at home). Definite highlight - Fight The Power - especially in light of Obama's subsequent victory. 2. The Aliens (Liverpool Academy October) - close up, intimate, frazzled and frankly ludicrous. Would have been nice to have Steve Mason's Black Affair on the same bill for a sneaky Betas reunion! 3. The Pale Fountains (Liverpool Academy February) - a worthy and forgivably ramshackle reformation of Shack's Head brothers' 80s jangle merchants. Sublime horns from Andy Diagram and a moving homage to the late Biffa McCaffrey! 4. Edgar Jones (Manchester Academy 3 April) - Edgar's almost ridiculous jazz/funk cosmic slop is entertaining as always but would have required less of a pinch of salt in a down and dirty jazz club (say Matt and Phreds before the smoking ban) 5. Nico Icon Play (Lowry November) - alright, its not a gig but as a multimedia musical & theatrical homage to an important figure on the post-punk Manchester scene it gets the essential thumbs up from me! Annoyed to have missed; Mick Head & The Red Elastic Band (Liverpool Academy - twice! Damn you credit crunch) Fleet Foxes (Manchester Academy) N.E.R.D (Manchester Academy) Glad to have missed; Primal Scream (Manchester Apollo) - a lousy album, a poorly packaged NME sponsored tour and a resulting series of half filled venues. Where did it all go wrong? The jams firmly back in place here! Over and out!

".....with the two best singers in the world under one roof" I thought Frank Sinatra and Otis Redding were dead!? I dunno, where's Noel Gallagher's Canadian friend when you need him? fnord

Peter, I believe that festival has lost a great deal of funding from Manchester City Council (I could be worng about this) hence the much reduced agenda. After all, someone has to pay for the Congestion Charge marketing, the ridiculous fiasco that was last year's Rangers match and Pat Karney's Christmas party. Therefore, the arts and music lose out (as usual). Manchester - keeping culture cost effective!

I have nothing but pride and admiration for Elbow's recent (and maybe not so recent) achievements, both artistically and critically. The Seldom Seen kid as a work of art, a sublime classic and its merits will last and last (and hopefully be up there with other so called Manchester classics). They've stuck at it for more than a decade, without winging about the industry, crying about underexposure or blaming everyone else for any misfortune or commercial shortcomings and their talent has bloomed into something extraordinary (not that it wasn't already). It really winds me up when these arrogant and derivative 'indie' bands (you know who you are so stand up and be counted) claim to be the 'saviours' of Manchester Music. Well, thanks to Mr Garvey and co, I'd say Manchester 'MUSIC' is in safe and respectful hands. Oh yeah! See, the problem is, that there seems to be a certain attitude that to be truly representative of Manchester, a band needs to be comparable in some way to Oasis - whether that be in appearance, character or simply the lead singer's name! Elbow are the real deal - they don't sound like Oasis, they don't sound like The Stone Roses, they don't sound like The Smiths, Joy Division, Durutti Column, Buzzcocks or even 10CC (!?). They don't claim to grandeur or demand blind faith appreciation. They are truly different, innovative and special - and that's the point, the true spirit of Manchester music has always born out of originality not superficial swagger!

Yeah, I think there's something in the US immigration policy that states its an offence to bring crap Manc bands into the country with you.

No Manchester show? Best news I've heard in ages. fnord. My most heartfelt sympathies go out to the unfortunate people of Sheffield, Glasgow, London and Cardiff. Chin up folks, they'll be gone soon.

Professional Songwriter in Writes New Songs Shocker! Can't wait three years for the next album only to find Noel's left these '"classic mindblowing epics in a similar vein to Champagne Supernova'" in the can again for some inexplicable reason. Well he's done it with the last three records, so why buck the trend!

You have to laugh don't you, well you don't have to but it helps! Trust me! Hero of the year eh? For what exactly? Hmm let me think, 1. For rampantly criticising the choice of Jay Z as a headliner at Glasonbury? Yeah, cos that wen't down well didn't it - Wonderwall intros and all that - saw him the object of public ridicule for his banal white-man narrow mindedness in the face of musical eclectism. Ironic that Obama could be considered a hero by fulfilling the civil rights dream of realising the challange that a black man might be elected president of the USA. Whilst Noel basically advocated a rather tepid argument that a major player in what is intrinsically a black music form should not be allowed to realise the challenge of headlining what is essentially considered (according to Mr G) a white guitar-based festival in Britain! Dig out your 'soul' Noel, I've got a spare plastic spoon if you need it! 2. By churning out a half-realised album of dad-rock psychedelia (there's more to psych than backwards guitars and Sgt Pepper Noel), openly admitting that the best songs were left in the can and blaming Liam! Stand up for your own inadequacies Noel, I'm sure you could have put the release back and roped your workaholic sibling into finishing them if you could have been bothered. What a treat for the fans, 50+ minutes of B-side worthy material and Soundtrack Of Our Lives outtakes. And copping the Doors in 2008 - sooooo laboured!. 3. Boldly announcing 3 huge Manchester dates for the summer - hooray, pints of p**s at the ready! AFTER - upsetting your Mancunian fan base by not including any dates in the original tour. AFTER - ensuring that the hardcore Manchester fans shelled out for Liverpool or Sheffield tickets thinking that these might be the nearest they get to see em. AND - announcing a Thursday date AFTER hardcore fans *(fools) queued all night to get their grubby little mits on tickets for the Saturday show - thereby wasting their time and efforts to end up going to the SECOND night after all! Ouch! Hero of the year - yeah I'll give you that - for proving just how stupid we all are. Result!