Buzzin Music

Designed By The Unsigned is a new monthly live music venue for local unsigned bands in the Manchester area.

Whilst local music fans were off to see Manchester legends Oasis, those in the know were heading out to the leafy suburb of Altrincham to see the launch of Designed By The Unsigned, a live music event hosted by Manchester Bands vs Pay To Play.

Fed up with the attitude of many promoters and venues in Manchester of having to sell a certain amount of tickets or make up the short fall to play a gig, Manchester Bands are hitting back by setting up their own monthly event at Altrincham Conservative Working Men’s Club. Now don’t be put off by the name because there is nothing Conservative here.

First on the bill was Scott Lennon formally of Desmond Rebellion starting off the night with a great acoustic set of new songs intertwined with songs from his former band.

Next up were Them Bones who’s high energy and great rock sound really got the night going, and in lead singer Dion have a great front man.

Third on the bill were indie band Satellite Towns. They may be classed as an indie band but unlike many others that are labelled as such, they care about the music they make and not how good they look, and that translated in their performance. From the whimsical Emily Built A Boat to the rockier Close To Midnight you could tell these guys work hard to produce great music.

Last on the bill, and performance of the night, went to The Words. For those of you who have not seen this band before I suggest you do everything you can to see them live, they had the audience in the palm of their hand from the opening guitar riff to the final chord they played.

Considering lead singer Steven kept complaining of losing his voice due to the amount of gigs they have done recently, this was a powerful performance from a very well rehearsed band. All the songs were extremely catchy and for an unsigned band it was as if you had heard the songs before, many of the tunes would sit well in the current charts and not look out of place.

So whilst many people paid £40 to see Oasis, others spent just £3 and saw four great bands and drank cheap beer as well. What more could you ask for?

All the money collected on the night went to the performing acts, so those that attended were contributing to the future of Manchester Music, and not a ticket in sight to fill greedy promoters’ pockets. So it’s 2 fingers up to them I guess!

The next Designed By The Unsigned is on July 18th and from August these nights will take place on the 1st Saturday of the month.