Features

Where Great Escape and Camden Crawl aim at the public as well as industry though, Manchester’s legendary In The City is all about the big wigs flapping their feathers. As such you can quite often catch the best new breed of talent emerging from the UK scene, playing to small but forward-thinking audiences.

This year The Molotovs played for Channel M, delivering the best set of their live career at the moment it counts most. Their quirky French bar-room style pop music is comparable to Vampire Weekend and Fleet Foxes, but with the kind of Alex Turner like swagger that only the Brits can do. Newcomers Little Comets were also a big hitter with a mini A&R frenzy at their show while The All New Adventures Of Us played with The Spinto Band at Night And Day to one of the festivals biggest and sweatiest crowds.

Die! Die! Die! played a secret slot at the Walkabout with their fiery and urgent punk rock, front man Andrew exploding off the stage into the audience with an almost heated exigency. Across the city, The Lead Balloons, Friends of Mine, Optional Wallace and Arc People gave stunning performances, giving the attending press more than enough to talk about. All brilliant bands, all making great music. It’s the diversity you have to love at ITC as it’s not genre specific, but solely quality led.

Detroit Social Club also had hands flapping in applause, their edgy dark pop being championed by event directors who have booked them to headline the events ‘Best of ITC’ showcase happening this Monday 27^th October at the Barfly in Camden, London. They’ll be appearing with other festival highlights Baddies and The Jessie Rose Trip.

This was the first year the vibrant and culturally imposing event was organized without founder Tony Wilson, and there’s certainly a lot of love for the man himself, with the spirit higher this year than ever. It’s a bit more specialized than the likes of Camden Crawl, but with so much fresh talent, ITC is one of the best new music events in the country and a nice chance to take stock of your record collection before the winter months.