IndependenTs Day at the Fringe

It was a hot night at Kings Arms on stage and off at IndependenTs Day; the "What's The Alternative?..." acoustic special for Greater Manchester Fringe, ending with a grand finale of everyone singing Sympathy For The Devil in a completely unrehearsed and spontaneous closing shot.

The Speed Of Sound opened proceedings with an acoustic drum-less set

Love,
The Wargame,
Seen It All Before,
Day In Day Out
and
returned three hours later for the finale.

Troy Fridge played his first Manchester gig for 25 years and delighted with his beautifully quirky Diana's Kiss about building a time machine to visit Diana Rigg in 1966 and Wishing Boy... a song so memorable that it reminded Jason Edge he'd seen Troy at The Witchwood in 1989

and a rare treat as Rob Coleman was coaxed out of his reclusive-ness to play 
Luke Gallagher performed songs from his forthcoming EP as well as starting his set with the highly appropriate choice of Heatwave followed by Richie Syrett's remarkable blend of Anglicania 

 

Una Baines and her current band Poppycock gave a completely eclectic set ranging from flute driven incense powered floating gossamer lightness to jungle rhythm fuzz drenched menace.

 

Jason Edge of The Electric Stars did a solo set (partly accompanied by Louise Turner on backing vocals) giving an airing to new songs from the as yet unreleased second album as well as stripped away versions of Stoned Again and Isolation from the first.

Turner performed her own set with just piano accompaniment including new songs from her imminent debut album before the grand finale closed the night. Spectacular. A whole festival packed into one evening. And certainly in the words of The Electric Stars it was Beautiful Music For Beautiful People.

 
If you missed the acoustic special the electric Triple Bill is 25th July also at the Kings Arms.

Alternative Poster

Greater Manchester Fringe opens today and runs throughout July, its in its 4th year and goes from strength to strength, we've got two shows this year - Saturday (4th) sees IndepentenTs Day three hours of acoustic independent music with a twist... Turner will be playing songs from her debut album still being recorded, Jason Edge will be playing songs from The Electric Stars forthcoming 2nd album, Poppycock (Una Baines founder member of The Fall), Death To The Strange (fresh from their headline gig at The Ritz), Richie Syrett, Luke Gallagher, Paul Coonium, Rob Coleman and Troy Fridge and DJ Kaiser Matt all join us in a one day indoor festival of IndependenTs. Doors are at 7pm ands we will start at 7pm, at Pub Of The Year winner the Kings Arms.

 

We thought you'd like a look at The Guitar Poster which owes a debt to Man Ray; as does any picture with an f-hole and a curve and was the original design, we went with the superb picture of Turner (taken by Shay Rowan at a previous 'What's The Alternative?...') because it says exactly what the gig is about.

25th July has a return visit from Millie Manders, she played a solo set at the very first 'What's The Alternative?...' at Greater Manchester Fringe last year, this time she's bringing her whole band and her ability to hold an audience with her high energy ska-punk is quite something to behold, this will be really special. But there is more! We also have The See No Evils garage punk from Heavy Soul Records and The Speed Of Sound back to the normal electrified line up making it a triple bill of Fringe-worthy proportions, another three hour epic with each band playing a full set, doors at 7pm on at 7pm.
Long Live Fringe!

mono

Our last gig of 2014 is at Mono in Chorlton on 20 December, DJ from 8pm, Luke Gallagher is doing an acoustic set too, There are three albums to pick from and we like to change the set round a bit so we've been working on some new songs and some old ones Owen hasn't done before and its looking like a 60% different set to our last gig its going to be a good night. Get down there if you can, its free entry.