Without music, there is no Manchester as we know it.
The buzzing atmosphere in our great city was built by roaring guitars, scratching vinyls, shimmering strobe lights and booming microphones.
But the pandemic has halted the satisfying, rhythmic hum that used to echo through the city air on a daily basis.
And it’s been sorely missed.
The enormous support that came flooding in for United We Stream – a Manchester-based broadcasting platform that showcased quarantined performances from dozens of musicians and raised the best part of £400,000 for the night-time economy – showed that millions care about live music.
But now more action is needed.
Without it, 30-50% of the live music workforce will become unemployed, 90% of grassroots venues will close, and the industry will lose at least £900 million.
That’s we’re asking you, our readers, to join us in supporting Let The Music Play – an initiative set up to save live music across the UK.
United We Stream
The campaign asks the government for three things:
1. A clear conditional timeline for reopening venues without social distancing
2. An immediate comprehensive business and employment support package and access to finance.
3. Full VAT exemption on ticket sales.
If these aims can be achieved, the music industry just might have a fighting chance.
Ed Sheeran, Dua Lipa and Paul McCartney have all signed a letter addressed to Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden calling for help.
Radiohead, The Cure, Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, Johnny Marr, Dizzee Rascal, Primal Scream, The Rolling Stones and Coldplay have also joined the cause.
Albert Hall Manchester
In the meantime, we need to do our bit.
Contact your local MP. Share the initiative online. Spread the hashtag #LetTheMusicPlay. Donate to causes wherever you can.
Music has shaped our region. It’s given us so much.
Now it’s time for Manchester to give back.
Head over to the Let The Music Play website to learn more about how you can support this essential initiative.
Audio
US rising star Reneé Rapp announces huge Manchester arena gig as part of European tour
Emily Sergeant
Reneé Rapp has just announced a European leg to her upcoming tour, and she’ll be stopping off in Manchester for a huge arena gig.
In just a few short years, Reneé Rapp has become a star… and her star is only rising higher.
At just 25-years-old, the critically-acclaimed musical theatre and TV actress has pivoted to become an undeniable pop sensation and film star – and an iconic figure in interviews too… which isn’t a job, but it should be – after landing her breakout role as Regina George in the Mean Girls musical on Broadway back in 2019.
Even though she chose to reprise her role as Regina George in the 2024 movie adaptation of the Mean Girls musical, since 2022, Rapp has largely turned her attention to her solo music career.
Reneé Rapp will be performing at Manchester’s AO Arena next March / Credit: Supplied
2022 saw Rapp release her debut EP, Everything to Everyone, before she then went on the channel her raw talent and authentic voice even further, and release her first full-length studio album Snow Angel in 2023.
Both 2024 and 2025 have been big musical years for Rapp too – so much so that she has now amassed more than 1.4 billion streams and counting across her entire discography.
An already-successful 2025 is about to become even more successful, as Rapp’s second album, Bite Me, is expected to be released on 1 August, and she’s also heading out on a highly anticipated US tour from late September through to late October.
Following on from her US tour, Rapp has today announced that she’ll be heading across the pond to Europe in the new year, and will be making her way over to Manchester to take to the iconic AO Arena stage in March 2026.
Amsterdam, Berlin, and Paris are just some of the other cities Rapp will be visiting before Manchester, ahead of closing out the tour at London’s Wembley Arena.
Reneé Rapp will be playing a huge gig at the AO Arena in Manchester on Wednesday 18 March 2026 as part of the ‘Bite Me Tour’, and tickets officially go on sale next week – with both pre-sales and general sale available.
The Three+ presale will begin on Wednesday 30 July at 10am, and the AO Arena presale will start on Thursday 31 July, again at 10am, before general sale launches on Friday 1 August at 10am.
Oasis are clearly doing something very deliberate for the as-yet-unconfirmed Live ’25 reunion album
Danny Jones
We’ve still not emotionally recovered from Oasis’ five homecoming nights in Manchester, and after seeing that the band just released a live recording of ‘Cigarettes & Alcohol’ from Heaton Park, it’s taken us right back to Friday, 11 July, and we can’t stop thinking about a Live ’25 album.
In fact, while the live record of the reunion world hasn’t been confirmed just yet, we’re becoming increasingly convinced that this is exactly what fans are going to get – and following the second Live ’25 concert capture dropping this week, we’re almost certain we know what they’re doing.
And if so, you can consider the vinyl of the ‘Oasis Live ’25‘ LP already in the basket.
Many of you might have already thought the same thing, but for anyone it hasn’t yet clicked for, let us explain; we got the live taping of ‘Slide Away’ from the Principality Stadium in Cardiff to start with, i.e. the first stop on the world tour. Here’s a snippet of how it sounds:
Have we listened to it pretty much non-stop ever since? Yes, but concentrate, that’s not the point we’re getting at; we think Oasis are doing something very specific for their almost inevitable Live ’25 album.
Up next was the aforementioned ‘Cigs and Alcohol’, performed and recorded on home turf right here in 0161, and released in honour of their magnificent Manc comeback.
More accurately, the live version of the song is plucked from their unforgettable opening evening at Heaton Park, as opposed to any of the other five dates.
Can you see where we’re going with this yet?…
With their place of birth having waited more than a decade and a half to hear the first few iconic chords that signal the start of the timeless Oasis classic and a pure rock and roll blowout, you can literally hear the energy from the crowd in your ears.
If you haven’t heard it dozens of times already, take a listen for yourselves and feel free to Poznań wherever you happen to be reading this:
That first Poznań for #OasisManchester hit like a chuffing freight train. 🔥
Upon checking the date of the Cardiff recording of ‘Slide Away’ was taken from, we noticed that they had also chosen the inaugural night of the entire Live ’25 tour, i.e. their very first live show in 16 years.
While we’re aware an official Oasis reunion tour album is technically still TBC, if you see a third live track released after the first of their SEVEN shows in the capital get underway this Friday (25 July), you can pretty much bank on the special live release being all but nailed on.
So, not only are we getting an Oasis Live ’25 reunion documentary from the man behind Peaky Blinders, but it looks like they’ll be providing fans with a virtual tour and a chance to experience/relive the gigs aurally, with each of the 23 tracks on the setlist being pulled from a different city on the world tour.
Now, while this isn’t an entirely unheard of idea in the world of live albums, that’s not all.
Better still, if our suspicions are correct and the next drop is taken from night one of Oasis Live ’25 in London (bonus points if you can guess which tune they go for), then the entire thing will capture the sonics and atmosphere at its best: propped up by the utter euphoria of a dream finally being realised.
We’re sure they could pull the audio at any part of the set, from any old date, and it would sound great, but nothing is like the palpable ecstasy you could quite literally hear on the opening nights in Cardiff, Manchester and, no doubt, Wembley. Having said that, the final farewell was pretty biblical too.
Put simply, isolate any night of the world tour and there’ll be something unique in the master.
Die-hards have been waiting what feels like a lifetime to finally see their favourite band in the flesh again; actually, like many of us here in Greater Manchester and indeed all over the world, some were simply too young to experience the Britpop craze and ‘Oasis Mania’ the first time around.
They obviously have a huge following not just in the UK and Ireland, but all over: the US, Japan, across South East Asia and throughout most of South America – you only have to watch clips or even hear Noel Gallagher talk about Buenos Aires to not how ‘mad fer it’ they are over there.
For a lot of fans, this IS their 1990s moment, and even those who sadly didn’t manage to get tickets have a chance to almost feel like they were there.
One thing’s for sure: if/when the Oasis Live ’25 album arrives, that Manchester buzz will take some beating in the unofficial contest to see who loves the legendary British rock band the most.
The Manc -
2nd July 2020 
