Mancs were surprised last week by a very special, intimate appearance from grime superstar Bugzy Malone at JD.
The rap sensation hosted a private lock-in event at JD in Manchester, just ahead of his massive homecoming gig at the AO Arena.
Fans got to get up close and personal with Bugzy at the event, where he took part in a Q&A with fellow rapper Specs Gonzalez.
The Resurrection Tour is Bugzy’s last – he’s confirmed that he’ll step back from the touring circuit to focus on music, his acting career, and (of course) his budding fashion line, B.Malone.
Speaking of the sold-out tour at the JD event, Bugzy said: “It’s an emotional thing, you get what I’m saying, it’s The Ressurection Tour and it’s my final tour.
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Bugzy Malone with Specs Gonzalez in Manchester. Credit: JD Official
“A lot of people have gone out their way to support me and it’s a big deal to me.”
He said that performing at the Arena in front of a crowd of 20,000 was, quite simply, ‘sick’, adding: “People that are fans of me are connected to me, so when I get to stand up and perform in front of pure people that I’m connected to, it’s a bit spiritual. It’s mad.”
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He’s a proud Mancunian too, saying: “People never used to take Manchester seriously and then when I started breaking records and making serious money, they take us seriously now.
“So now I’m breaking down doors in the clothing industry so that people behind me can come through and get took seriously.
“People underestimate Manchester, it’s a talented place. There’ll be waves and waves that come through.”
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His foray into fashion has seen him launch his own clothing line, B.Malone, which is stocked in JD.
On the day of the in-store lock-in, he was unveiling his new Skeleton kicks, inspired by the anatomy of a scorpion.
Bugzy said: “Fashion’s obviously something I’m interested in. As I kid I used to like drawing and all that. I’m just trying to do things that I enjoy and that I’m passionate about.
“My fans, the people that message me on Instagram that I connect with, I feel like a lot of them are like younger versions of me, so I try and design them something that they’re going to like, from my perspective.”
He also touched on his accident, which saw him seriously injured after a quad bike crash in early 2020.
It changed his mindset, he said, telling the crowd: “I’m not afraid to die. I’m willing to give it everything to go where I’m trying to go.
“I think sometimes we get a little bit shy in life when you’re trying to believe in yourself whereas now, I don’t give a f***.”
Featured image: JD Official
Music
Posters around Manchester city centre spark serious rumours Charli XCX is set to headline Parklife 2025
Danny Jones
Some pretty big, green posters are popping up around town and, not to get ahead of ourselves, but it looks like they’re hinting at Charli XCX headlining Parklife 2025…
Feel free to lose your bratting minds.
A number of tall, let’s call it ‘apple’ green posters have been sighted in various places across Manchester city centre this Friday, 22 November and the last time we saw this slightly low-resolution, plain black Arial font and colour combo we got a reworked version of Charli XCX’s brat album.
Listen, all we can tell you is that this is almost exactly the same marketing and the letters on the poster simply read, “PL25”. Come on… you do the math(s).
Spotting at least two of the posters for ourselves around both Newton and Thomas Street in and around the Northern Quarter, plenty of people have been double-taking at the simple but bold and undeniably eye-catching portrait posters.
Trust us, we weren’t the only ones stopping to take a picture and frantically send them to half of our phonebook either.
Charli herself hasn’t given us any other clues on social media thus far – to be fair, this one feels fairly obvious to us – but it’s well worth keeping your eyes peeled on her stories as she did plenty of teasing before dropping Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat.
Still can’t get over that actually being the title, by the way.
It’s also worth noting that Parklife themselves recently confirmed that festival fans can expect the 2025 lineup very soon. Check out that colour…
Oh, who are we kidding? That’s not apple green it’s straight-up BRAT green, b*tch. We’re fully getting carried away and you’ll just have to deal with it.
Even if it somehow turns out she’s not headlining it’s certainly looking like she’s going to be there and it wouldn’t be the first time.
Better yet, fans of the pop sensation won’t have to wait too long to see her right here in Greater Manchester because Charli is bringing her already smash-hit tour to Co-op Live next Wednesday, 27 November and in case you couldn’t tell by all the shouting in capitals, we’re very excited.
Roll on ‘PL25’. Other than Charli XCX, who else would you like to see Parklife next summer?
Bez and Shaun Ryder are starring in a new gangster movie – nope, not kidding
Danny Jones
No, you didn’t misread the headline and you’re not on acid: Manchester music legends Bez and Shaun Ryder are set to feature in a brand-new gangster film.
Yes, the ones from the Happy Mondays – why are you having such trouble processing this?
Seriously though, we did a little double-take ourselves when we came across this news, but the familiar Manc faces look to be among the ensemble of a brand-new gangster movie by Irish writer, actor, producer and filmmaker, Ciaron Davies.
And this is just a little leak or rumour that may have been blown out of proportion: you can take it from the horse’s mouth as Happy Mondays frontman, Ryder, recently shared the news on social media.
As you can see, the new film is called Geezers and is billed as a “British crime caper” written and directed by Davies, featuring Shaun as hard-man Robbie and Bez as ‘Monk’. If you saw Ryder shaking off that snake biting his hand like it was nothing then you already know he’s hard as nails.
Although it’s not strictly listed as a comedy per se, ‘caper’ would suggest plenty of humour and light-heartedness, so we’re thinking more like The Gentleman, Italian Job, or maybe even Four Lions, rather than a serious crime thriller.
Now, while we’ve seen both of the Salfordians on screen before not only in the likes of music videos, interviews, panel shows and even as two of the funniest guests to ever go on Celebrity Gogglebox, this latest venture will serve as their respective acting debuts.
According to the IMDb page, the synopsis of the film is as follows: “Crime caper about a stolen bag of money. Caught in the crossfire are ‘The Geezers’ a bunch of wannabe criminals who have bitten off more than they can chew. With 24 hours to grab the cash, London may just go up in smoke tonight.”
Shame it’s not set on the mean streets of Manchester, or better yet Salford, but you’ve still very much caught our interest.
You can see the first promotional poster for the film down below.
As for Davies, he has been involved with a number of small-budget TV film projects, as well as appearing in shorts and even video games, so it’s fair to say that getting 62-year-old Ryder and his ever-energetic hype man, 60, involved is quite the coup for his movie-making career.
Although the film has no release date just yet, we know that filming locations having included parts of Warrington and Pinewood Studios, will be produced by Loose Gripp Films and distributed by publishers High Fliers.
Given the high-octane nature of Geezers and its genre, the feature will involve lots of action, stunts, violence and even martial arts – though how much kung-fu these two will have learned for the project remains to be seen…
All we know is that the film is supposedly “coming soon” and if you don’t want to see Bez and Shaun Ryder doing their best impression of a Guy Ritchie gangster movie then you’re lying to yourself. Praying for a Rowetta cameo to put the cherry on top.
Daisy Jackson -
13th December 2021 
