Issue 23 September 2015
This month marks a year since our last print issue, a juncture that might have seen us tail away, but instead has seen us increase frequency to monthly, with plenty of content worth reading each month. Click the ‘Other Issues’ link above to explore what you might have missed over the past year we’ve been online.
With this issue, we welcome new section editors in the shape of David Ewing (Localcheck), Elspeth Vischer (Word Life) and Kate Morris (Stage), so if you’d like to contribute to any of those sections, then email the editor’s first name @nowthenmagazine.com with some examples of your writing and a short outline of your planned article. Elspeth will also be on the lookout for poets and short fiction writers from the Manchester area and beyond who’d like to feature their words with Now Then, so don’t be shy.
As ever, do get in touch with me about writing for any other section of the magazine as well. Your opinions make Now Then what it is.
For your eyes this September, we have a bumper music section with plenty of interviews – Lonelady, Family Ranks and Billy & Andy all answering our questions. Albums and Live sections have been expanded as well – make sure you check out the two pages of reviews covering last month’s Manchester Jazz Festival. And David Ewing gives a resounding thumbs down to cultural stagnation.
Localcheck sees Nathan McIlroy looking back at the success of the inaugural Peterloo Picnic, while Sophia Siddiqui muses about the developing face of West Didsbury’s Burton Road. We highlight the local branches of a couple of nationwide projects, Real Junk Food and Students for Sensible Drug Policy, and there’s more to digest across Stage, Filmreel and Books.
The backgrounds across most of the issue arrive courtesy of Jo Peel, a muralist whose work mimics much of Manchester’s current urban environment – cranes and scaffolding, those indicators of better infrastructure to look forward to. Certainly, it will be interesting to see the city a year from now, and five years from now, as plans such as Velocity and St John’s look to make their mark on the city’s future, and campaigns to protect Pomona Park and make public use of London Road Fire Station gather momentum with your support. Will these changes be for better or worse? Time will tell. If you’d like to have your say, then get in touch. For now, enjoy the read.
