Preview: Sounds from The Other City, Salford

When: Sunday 1st May

Where: Various venues in Salford

And so it begins. The summer is hurtling towards us, and Britain’s urban music festivals season begins in kind. Austin, Texas may have South By South West, London may have Gaymers Camden Crawl, but sunny Salford has Sounds From The Other City. The event takes place over 12 hours on 1st May, all within a one mile radius around the Chapel Street corridor. 

This ambitious festival sees the metropolis step out of the shadow of its big brother/next door neighbour Manchester to host 78 live acts across 13 unique and unusual stages, performing in front of an audience of 2000 people.

Part of what makes it so special is the choice of venues, which include the uber-cool Islington Mill, St Philips Church, and Rovers Return (coincidentally, a stone’s throw from the original Granada Studios Coronation Street set), some of which don’t always play host to music. Filling the venues will be some of Greater Manchester’s coolest promoters including Now Wave, Hey! Manchester, and Postcards From Manchester, who have selected the performers for the event.

Speaking to one of the festival's organisers, Duncan, who first came to the event as a punter in 2005, reveals a firm belief in the unique charms of the event. Duncan explained how it has grown steadily up until 2011, which is now its seventh year. So what’s the point of SFTOC, when many punters could just go to Manchester’s Northern Quarter, which is relatively nearby?

“I think it’s to look at places that you’ve never been before, and to explore Salford, because people are a bit afraid of coming down this way”, he explains. “So we book the promoters and give them a bit of money, and they book their favourite bands, and put them in obscure places”, he says, with a typically dry Northern sense of humour.

Venues such as United Reformed Church are special, and perfect for such an event. “We spend quite a bit of time trying to get them on our side. It’s completely different than any other music festival. You couldn’t do this in Manchester. Well, you could but it wouldn’t be as special because most of those venues are used on a day to day basis”.

The venue certainly has an exciting tradition of acts to recommend it, with the Ting Tings playing their second ever performance at the Rovers Return, and Marina And The Diamonds and Egyptian Hip Hop having played early shows in the past.

This year the festival's line-up is equally exciting, with hotly tipped acts appearing alongside established names, including folk troubadour Willy Nelson, Mammal Club, The Wave Pictures, Manchester Proggers Trojan Horse, a spoken word performance from Arab Strap’s Aiden Moffat, D/R/U/G/S, and much, much more.

Oxford’s hotly tipped Fixers, who have been compared to the likes of MGMT and the Beach Boys will also be performing a musical accompaniment to the movie ‘Glitter’, in what sounds like an intriguing experimental performance over at St Philips Church. Frontman Jack Goldstein explains what they have in store.

“We’re really looking forward to it. It’s going to be exciting. We’re taking a film that Mariah Carey was in called ‘Glitter’, and we’re going to perform over it”, says the lead singer. “There’ll be other stuff as well, sonically we’re going to interweave stuff in too.” 

Words: Abbas Ali

Sounds from the Other City takes place on May 1st, in Salford. Find out more here and buy tickets for the event below. 

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