A monthly music festival in Manchester’s Northern Quarter is already 19 on Saturday. Well, if you’re going to party that often, you can expect to age quicker!
The intriguingly named Carefully-Planned All-Dayer is, as the name suggests, a day-long music festival and kicks off at Gulliver’s at 2pm.
Featuring a raft of up and coming bands from Manchester and beyond, Saturday’s all-dayer promises to be the biggest yet. It boasts Manchester’s own three-piece Faitala and Paddy Steer plus singer-songwriter Yarbo.
MM caught up with organiser Matthew Boycott-Garnett ahead of the event to find out what inspired him to set-up the festival and why this month’s will be the best yet.
“I started putting live music events on because I felt there was something about my own personal taste which should be universal,” he explained.
“When booking acts I look for so many things. Integrity, uniqueness, passion, honesty, brightness, sincerity, weight, escapism, optimism… the list goes on!
“The performance of live music is a wonderful and valuable thing. It should be cherished and respected as such.
“Those brave enough to express themselves in a public environment and to entrust audiences with the fragmented communications of their innermost thoughts and emotions ought to be revered accordingly.”
A band that comes to mind when this is said is Elk, a trio of vocalists whose gleaming vocals interweave with one another, who are performing during the evening.
“There is some specific value in music that really ought to appeal to everyone. My taste has always been something I take very seriously and that’s why I feel suited to orchestrating live music events,” Matthew said.
“Creative, artistic expression can stir something in people in a way nothing else can and because I’ve always been fascinated by that, music has always been a huge deal for me.”
Named after a song by Faraquet, pioneers of the math-rock music movement, Carefully Planned began by helping a Danish band get gigs around the UK.
Since then, they have gathered a large following for their live events, attracting more than 2,000 people at last year’s festival.
Matthew said: “There is so much music in the world and when it’s put together considerately and honestly (when it’s Carefully Planned!); it will always be valuable to other people.
“Music is one of the only things in life that has continually allowed me to feel purely human and truly me, which is extremely important.”
One of the acts performing on Saturday is Bilge Pump, hailing from Leeds. The three-piece formed way back in 1994 and have been playing their erratic brand of ‘art-punk fractured progressive noise, condensed into atonal pop songs’ ever since, despite being labelled as ‘unlistenable guff’ by NME.
“I’m excited about seeing Bilge Pump again on Saturday.” said Matthew. “I first saw them about ten years ago supporting The Mars Volta in Leeds.
“I don’t think I saw them again until they played at the Annual Carefully Planned Festival #2 in October 2012. That was one of my highlights that year. They’re great.”
Silent Front is expected to kick off the night, soaring through their jaunty, fast-paced garage rock, with singles like ‘Mechanical Grip’ and ‘Veil/593’.
Following them will be the haunting, whispery folk of Yarbo, over a plucked acoustic guitar. “I grew up listening to folk music and got into punk/post-punk as a teenager, so a lot of the bands I book tend to lean that way,” explained Matthew.
“I try to think beyond the genre and look towards what each performer is trying to communicate or express.”
Other acts included are Paddy Steer, an eccentric who uses strange recorded sounds to create his electronic music, and Faitala and Papayer, who both create soft indie music, which soars and dips graciously along each track.
The Carefully-Planned All-Dayer begins at 2pm on Saturday February 15 2014, and continues until the last act performs at 11pm. Tickets will cost £5 on the door.
Picture courtesy of Carefully-Planned All-Dayer, with thanks.
