Since Metro dropped its daily listings section a couple of months back it’s been a struggle for those wanting to keep up to date with music events in the rainy city. CityLife’s print version is handy but is limited by space and frequency, and its digital version is too generic (‘live music at Lime/Dry Bar/the Thirsty Scholar/Night & Day’ anyone?).

Northernights, meanwhile, does a great job of informing us about Manchester’s clubbing scene, and I’m now doing a weekly roundup of folk/Americana/alternative gigs at my new Hey! Manchester music blog – but there’s also a new dedicated events listing site: theshippingforecast.eu.

It’s a pretty minimal service, featuring the name, type of music, venue, time and price for each event – and sometimes just two or three of those. They’re obviously anticipating that anyone who’s interested in seeing Fight Like Apes at the Roadhouse, for example, has the common sense to google it for more information.

The Shipping Forecast is also available around town – at ‘common, the skate shop opposite, abode, fuel, saki bar, ram and shackle’ for starters – as a fold-out print version on nice card. It’s what the Alive guide, which seems to have all but vanished lately, did well a few years ago – but more personable and alternative.

If you have a music event, email listings@theshippingforecast.eu. They promise to include everything received, ‘no music snobbery at all’.

Either Manchester International Festival is taking a liberal approach to announcing this year’s programme, or someone’s jumped the gun:

07-18-2009 20:00

MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL

Dave Haslam presents

And all they had to do was hold out until the press launch at Manchester Art Gallery on 19 March!

Anyway, this could be good… at least we know that Haslam is as pro-Manchester as you’ll get – unlike Rufus Wainwright, who’s having a good go at making Manchester feel well and truly second best. He’s not exactly talking up his opera-writing skills either, is he? And he’s not even sure that it won’t be a disaster.

July looks set to be a fun month!

At some point last week Mancubist had its one millionth recorded view. I’m impressed, particularly as this is only views of individual posts and not things like the homepage or search results. I’m getting roughly 500 visits a day now, with each visitor looking at 5-6 pages.

Subscriber numbers have grown too: over 500 RSS readers, 250 email subscribers and just over 100 followers on Twitter. And I thought the latter was just a flash in the pan.

You’ll have noticed that my posting has been less frequent in the last couple of months though. This is mostly because I’ve been away, working hard and running new things like RainyCityStories.com. I’m also in the process of launching a Manchester music blog – so if you like Mancubist and you’re not averse to a mix of folk, Americana and experimental music, check it out.

Later this month, two of the city’s most established live music nights – Blowout and Friends of Mine – are coming together for Friends of Manchester, a one-day event (inevitably deemed a ‘festival’ – this is Manchester after all).

This ‘12-hour music marathon’ takes place on Saturday 24 January at Jabez Clegg, just off Oxford Road, and – due to strong demand – Kro Bar next door, which is hosting a winter barbecue. I count about 50 bands confirmed so far – including personal recommendations the Longcut, its a buffalo, Ten Bears, Gideon Conn, Jo D of the Travelling Band and Islands Lost at Sea.

Tickets are £9 in advance from www.ticketline.co.uk, Piccadilly Box Office in Zavvi and on 0161 832 1111 – or, until Sunday evening, you can get a £7 early bird ticket here. There’ll also be some available from both venues, plus the Thirsty Scholar and Joshua Brooks.

Friends of Manchester is sponsored by Ben Sherman – but don’t let that put you off.