Music From The North

Ralph occasionally strays from the path and rather than focus on an individual band or artiste, will feature an event, festival or release by an independent record company. 

Such is the case with today's blog as we're having a look (and a listen) to the release on A1(M) Records of the Music From The North EP.

It's a 9 track EP featuring the music of The Moods, The Nouvelles, The Backhanders and the spoken words of North West poet extrordinaire J.B. Barrington recorded live at Manchester's reknowned and eclectic Band On The Wall venue in the Northern Quarter's Swan Street.




The Music From The North EP; mixed, mastered and produced by award winning producer Dave Tolan in his Hope Mill Studio, is officially available on iTunes and limited edition (300 copies) CD (dedicated to Yvonne Doyle) from tomorrow.

The Music From The North EP had an exclusive on-air debut on Wednesday night, during a special episode of Steve Doyle's Sonic Diary on 94.4FM Salford City Radio. A1(M) Records will be donating copies of the Music From The North CD to the radio station, who will in turn sell them to their listeners in aorder to raise funds towards the much-loved station's ongoing fight for survival.



Ralph will be featuring tracks by the bands on the EP in next Sunday's Indie Show on Radio KC. 


The 9-track EP features live music from The Moods, East Manchester’s premier electro hip hop reggae outfit, The Backhanders with their 'Swirling guitars and intensely-spat lyrics that brim with authentic Strummer soul', The Nouvelles who purvey 'upbeat, powerful, tight and well-crafted tunes' and of course Ralph's Life favourite spoken wordsmith JB Barrington 'His quick fire comedy sits well alongside his machine-gun spoken word performance. He's witty, wise and wonderfully eloquent with his unmistakeable Salford twang'.

Ralph's Top 10 Blogged Band Chart - 12.7.14

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                                                    OK bands you know the score.....

the more hits your blog gets by the fans..... 

the higher you go.....

So Tweet it, Facebook it.....

and generally expose yourself.....

Now Mr Snuggles and me have been sitting with our heads down counting the hits on each bands blog to see who's got which place.  

So here it is.....

The Top Ten Blogged Band Chart .....

No 1.....The Bordellos

The Bordellos are the kind of quirky, lower than lo-fi band that John Peel would have featured and their current offerings, like the sultry 'Between Forget and Neglect' (think Morrissey on Prozac) leading in to the subtly funky 'Elastic Band Man' would probably have seen them playlisted on a regular basis.

No 2..... Wullae Wright

Ralph's previously blogged Wullae Wright and it's proved to be the most well read of any over the last couple of years. Needless to say it was good news when Wullae Wright got in touch to say he was releasing 'Superhero' as a single. The story of the song is no less poignant than Wullae Wright's plaintive vocal which, overlaid on subtle acoustic guitar with an orchestral background is just as heart wrenching as the single's message. 

No 3.....Snippet

Snippet aka Johnno Casson is the quintessential English musician.  Prolific, diverse, entertaining, clever, wistful and whimsical (no more so on his previously released mini-album 'DIY' and the track 'Let's Talk About Us' on which he comments on his winkle (and he isn't introducing us to his pet mollusc Bria

No 4....Wullae Wright

Wullae Wright is capturing the same raw intensity of vocals that an early Robert Plant did.  Not only that his almost psychadelic guitar on the track also has the same haunting tones found on early Zep tracks.  An old rock soul in a young body.

No 5.....Cormac O'Caoimh

It's second time round for Ralph having a listen to Irish singer/songwriter Cormac O'Caoimh. A year ago he'd released his second solo album since leaving The Citadels called 'A New Season For Love' and this time round it's 'The Moon Looses It's Memory' and he's bringing us 14 tracks of love and regret, hopes and dreams, cars and girls, (OK, OK,  I've run out of descriptive song titles). Speaking of 'Love and Regret' and 'Cars and Girls I'm getting hints of...

No 6..... Millie Manders 

Having met the effervescent Millie Manders at the Ralph's Life All Day Charity gig in Proud Camden it seemed like the release of 'Little Big Mouth' was as good a time as any to ask a few questions and see how and why her music matches her outgoing personality.

No 7.....The Holy Orders 

It's almost exactly a year since Ralph first checked out Hull band The Holy Orders and the good news is that The Holy Orders announce the release of their brand new single, the 3 minute feel good 3 minute summer pop song: The New Asbestos on August 4th.  Well, it's a cynical, pessimistic, feel good summer pop song but anyone who is already familiar with last year’s debut album For the Ears of Dogs to Come from Ralph's blog, will expect nothing less.

No 8....The Actions

Normally Ralph only blogs unsigned UK Indie, but now and again some mainstream goodness drops in the kennel that peaks his interest and when 'Indefensible', the new EP by London based Alt/Rockers The Actions arrived it was time for some rule bending (Their first album 'Real' was licensed to Nikita Music, a Brazilian record label and released in Latin America).

No 9... The Backhanders

It's always nice when a hard copy of someones latest release drops through the letterbox, as is the case when; courtesy of the enigmatic Mr Peeps, the niftily designed CD just out by The Backhanders in the style 

No 10.....Book Group

It's been a hectic time in the kennel for new tunes and it was with great interest that news of the new EP by Book Group (due for release may 17th) appeared in the inbox. Ralph took a look last year when they released the 

The Backhanders

It's always nice when a hard copy of someones latest release drops through the letterbox, as is the case when; courtesy of the enigmatic Mr Peeps, the niftily designed CD just out by The Backhanders in the style of a vinyl 7" single arrived and its look fits in with the two tracks contained within.

The Backhanders are a recently formed Manchester four piece who are rapidly forming a steady local fan-base after a series of successful gigs including a sell-out at Manchester's Academy 3 and a support to Twisted Wheel in Kraak Gallery.





Lead track 'Campfire' is a punchy, guitar driven track inspired by and dedicated to the late Joe Strummer. The track came about after they received a photo album from Joe's wife which included some random lyrics underneath the pictures. With her permission they added their own words to create 'Campfire' and it's reminiscent of the direction Joe took with The Mescaleros. The Backhanders pay him fitting tribute.

They've been getting some radio plays and critical acclaim of late with Terry Christian giving their track 'Memory Lane' a spin and John Robb of Louder Than War including them on his list of bands to watch in 2014. Keep your eyes peeled for their Live Streaming on Vidzta on May 11th and some live dates to be announced soon.