By John Milburn

The Courteeners as a band have provided a soundtrack to the last 5 years of my life. In 2008 I attended V Festival with a large group of lads. The Courteeners were the first band we checked out on the Saturday and it was determined by some obscure method that it was my round at the bar. Carrying somewhere between 8-12 pints of weak lager in a cardboard box I managed to lose my mates in the crowd. The mobile phone networks were saturated by over 100,000 people trying to use phones in an area that is usually populated by wildlife only. (Insert your own punch line about V Festival attendees…) Each attempted text sent that Saturday afternoon was duly delivered on the Monday morning – and calling across the site was a non-event. Resigned to solitude I watched the Mancunian 4 piece (+ part time keyboardist) transcend their early slot in the bill and create an amazing atmosphere with some very raw indie rock. Helped enormously by the feat of having to consume the whole round to myself – which I somehow managed to do during their 60 minute set. That said my recollection may have been rose tinted – but long after I’d reunited with the lads the Courteeners remained my festival ‘find’ of the Saturday.

By John Milburn

Invited at the last minute to see Plan B’s February UK Arena tour, I sped down the motorway to Manchester to see how Benjamin Paul Ballance-Drew has translated his stage show to the expectations of an Arena audience.

I have seen Plan B a handful of times before – at smaller venues and mid afternoon sets at festivals were he has not been the headline act. Notably each of my previous visits have been in support of his soulful concept album – The Defamation of Strickland Banks. The album sold well and married a tale of infidelity, imprisonment and redemption via the medium of a series of promo videos that feel like acts in a movie. Ben Drew is nothing if not ambitious – when I first heard the first single from the album the powerhouse “Stay Too Long” – I tried to locate some Plan B material and in error bought his debut album.