Weekly News : 11/1/10

DELPHIC INSTORE GIG // CATS IN PARIS EURO TOUR // FOM FEST 2010 // URBIS // TWISTED WHEEL // HURTS

Delphic are playing a special instore acoustic set today at 5pm to celebrate the launch of their debut album, Acolyte. You can get hold of the full-length on CD and vinyl. See you there!

Local prog-poppers Cats In Paris have announced a nice little European tour this week. Starting on 4th February, they’ll be stopping off at Paris, Metz and Berlin to name a few places on the 10-date stint. Happy voyaging, dudes!

Friends Of Manchester Festival 2010 – the follow-up to last year’s splendid all-dayer at Jabez Clegg – continues to gather momentum and even more bands. Added within the last 7 days: Gideon Conn, Uncle Jeff, New Street Adventure, Ten Bears, The Heartbreaks, The Planets, The Psychos and The Kings. It’s less than 3 weeks away now, so get your tickets while you still can!

The Marmite of Manchester’s infrastructures, Urbis, is set to become the new home of the National Football Museum. With the current hosts in Preston struggling financially, one of our city’s premier exhibition centres is to close its doors at the end of February and reopen in 2011 as the official museum of our most popular sport. So get down to Urbis in these remaining weeks and check out the current showcases; The Story of UK Hip-Hop, The Curry Mile and Manchester, Television & The City. A retrospective look at the Urbis’ short heritage is planned to be unveiled on January 21st.

Oldham indie-punks Twisted Wheel have announced their plans for the first half of 2010. Currently over in Japan supporting Aussie rockers Jet, they’ll be playing Academy 2 in Manchester on February 12th as part of their UK tour, returning to the North-West for dates in Wigan (5th March) and Blackburn (12th April). The main news however, is the release of a new EP in March – to be followed swiftly by a new album in the summer.

And finally, Hurts, the quietly anticipated duo formed from the ashes of the short-lived Daggers look ready to explode this year. Having just a sole video on their profile for months, they’ve emerged from their record deal signing with Sony/BMG, added more tracks online and announced their first live dates – 22nd February at St. Phillip’s Church in Salford most notably. The BBC declared them as 4th in their Sound of 2010 list. Big things indeed. A limited 12″ of ‘Wonderful Life (Arthur Baker remix)’ is out next Monday. The original is pencilled in for a June release, with the debut album following in August. I’ll leave you with their brand new video for ‘Blood, Tears & Gold’. Enjoy.