We had the pleasure of going along to see Hello Cosmos play a special one-off show at none other than St Mary’s Church in Stockport town centre on Friday night, just the gig the building has ever seen and given how incredible an experience it was, we hope there’ll be many more.
Picture the scene: it’s a frosty Foodie Friday night in Stockport with people wearing beer jackets and sharing hot street food to keep warm as the tunes ring around the marketplace; then you spot some light off in the background and notice the windows of the old town centre church glowing.
Not only was that our signal to get a move on, finish our scran and head over to the intimate gig, but it was also a beacon of light for other punters to go and check out as they looked for any excuse to come in from the cold.
And that’s pretty much how it happened. Our three-man party was full of SK natives who wanted to see what it would be like to have a church we grew up with turned into a gig venue, so we were always on board, but plenty of other locals had the pleasure of simply stumbling upon tickets at the door.
We don’t think we’d be putting words in their mouths to say they will have been glad they did, as within a few seconds of walking into the oldest parish church in Stockport, we had never seen the already ornate and historical site look so stunning.
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This wasn’t just a case of plonking some speakers and some drums near the altar like some half-arsed church fête, the roof, windows, pillars and various arches were all lit up by various multi-coloured projectors and strobes and it all felt pretty surreal.
If you’ve ever watched any kind of performance at Manchester Cathedral or a similar venue, you’ll know this kind of set-up is nothing new per se, but it did feel like something different for Stockport, especially when one of our party’s last memories was standing at the pulpit to read the Christmas story.
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Then the music kicked off and we have to start by saying we were pretty impressed by the two support acts, Fondabath — fellow Stopfordians who were probably just as surprised to be in St Mary’s as we were — and Big Society, also local lads, both of which gave plenty of reason to go away and listen to more.
Then came the main event, Hello Cosmos, spearheaded by frontman and bass player Ben Robinson, who along with his jumpsuited bandmates wasted no time in transporting the crowd to what felt like a little pocket of space in some alternate reality.
Having had a few drinks and being given kaleidoscope glasses on arrival certainly helped, but it really was a truly audio-visual experience, from the various coloured jumpsuits and neon hula-hooping to the truly mesmerising light show that lit up the church throughout the set.
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It all felt rather fittingly though when you take into account that Robinson is not just a musician but the founder of both Kendal Calling and bluedot Festival — I mean, even their sophomore album Golden Dirt has a glowing spaceman walking through a sea of sunflowers.
If you’ve never heard them before, think post-punk spoken word and almost Yard Act vibes, only if Christopher Ecclestone was on vocals instead. But their sound is truly sprawling, with ‘Fuse’ from their debut record giving the harder-hitting sounds and ‘Loud is Beautiful’ showing how they best intertwine electronics, keys and those oh-so-good horns from sax player Elara.
Be it jumping up and down in unison as the electric violinist played or Ben dropping to his knees to scream his head off, hopping off stage to walk around the crowd with a megaphone or releasing a sea of balloons from above for the big finish, this ‘Live at St Mary’s’ one-off special had a bit of everything.
It went from a little gig on a random winter evening in Stockport to an unforgettable one that SK-born gig-goers like us never thought we’d see in this particular borough of Greater Manchester whose culture and music scene are clearly thriving.
We really hope this is among the first of many — Hello Cosmos helped make it a success and we can seriously see the Live at St Mary’s series taking off if it continues to get the backing.
A company has created some extremely sarcastic greeting and birthday cards mocking Co-op Live
Danny Jones
A UK card company has decided to join in with the pile on over Co-op Live’s chaotic ‘opening’ weeks by creating a series of greeting and birthday cards mocking the arena and its ongoing saga.
If you’re a deeply sarcastic person who struggles to be sincere with those you hold nearest and dearest or simply want to get a co-worker something that says we care that you’re leaving but not so much as to let go without one final dig, these are right up your street.
So, with that in mind, greeting card company thortful – who are just as good at novelty as they are being actually thoughtful when it comes to words – have come up with a few clever little ways of wishing someone a happy birthday or congratulating them on their new home at the arena’s expense.
There’s a new home version of this one too.(Credit: thortful)
Not bad, to be fair.
Tim Leiweke, Chairman and CEO of Oak View Group (which owns and operates Co-op Live), recently released a statement offering his ‘sincere apologies’ and explaining the steps being taken during the venue’s ‘short pause’.
He admitted, “It’s not been the smooth start we had planned for, and I know that has caused a huge amount of disruption and frustration to thousands of people”, adding that they are “working incredibly hard to get the building up and running, and we look forward to welcoming you to the arena from 14 May 2024.”
The London-based card company is known for lots of comedy captions and with every Tom, Dick and Harry taking a pop at the venue already, they clearly thought ‘We might as well join in’.
In fact, they’ve been taking the mick ever since the whole thing kicked off.
The date mentioned above will see Manc music legends Elbow arrive as the venue’s new opening act artists after so many other acts ended up having their gigs pulled and we can only hope and pray that everything is on course for next week.
With more and more names being announced for their 2024 and 2025 calendar left right and centre, the most recent being rapper Travis Scott, it looks as though they’re confident that the arena will open and live up to the expectations it has built up given its billing as the biggest indoor entertainment in the UK.
As for thortful and everyone else, we just have to wait with bated breath to see if there’s set to be another twist in this tale and enjoy the light-hearted jokes in the meantime.
Keane’s Manchester gig has finally been rescheduled after Co-op Live postponement
Danny Jones
Keane’s Manchester gig which should have taken place earlier this month has finally been rescheduled as Co-op Live looks to be back on track.
The Noughties pop-rock band best known for songs like ‘Somewhere Only We Know’ and Everybody’s Changing’ were set to play the brand-new venue on Sunday, 5 May but had to cancel their date just days before after the arena had to once again inform music fans that it was still not ready.
Now though, the four-piece have confirmed they will still be playing Co-op Live this year, only the date has now been moved to 19 October.
We’re pleased to announce that our gig at Manchester Co-op Live will be rescheduled for Saturday 19th October 2024. This show is very special to us and we want to make sure we can give you the best possible experience. Thank you for bearing with us and for your love and support pic.twitter.com/fLYSFOqmQA
Keane’s much anticipated Manchester gig has officially been rescheduled to October.
Celebrating 20 years since the release of their seminal album Hopes and Fears, fans have been waiting a long time for the boys to come back on the biggest stages and have also roped in Wigan locals The Lathums as the support act.
While it’s still a fairly happy ending overall, knowing that the gig will go ahead come the fall, plenty of people have still been left irked by the whole situation, with many now worried about potential clashes and being unable to attend the new date.
Writing on X, one user wrote, “Looking forward to seeing you again [and] it gives Co-op Live plenty of time to get it right”, while another was less forgiving: “Best possible experience would have been to play the AO on the actual date or at least explain why Take That could and you couldn’t.”
Safe to say the arena still has some way to go if they want to restore faith.
OMG! Thank you @keaneofficial dreamy date to come back to the UK for me 💖. And @TheCoopLive you should be so thankful for Keane rescheduling your venue. I was there last Sunday and there were not even lights installed 🤡. Shame on you! Hope the venue to be ready for October
With Manc music legends Elbow now set to be the venue’s official opening act next week on Tuesday, 14 May, while the Co-op Live has so far avoided assuring that the gig will go ahead as planned (that came to bit them in the back-side the last three times), there has been no indication of another postponement.
Surely it can’t happen again, can it?
There are still some tickets left for Keane’s 20th-anniversary show too if you fancy rolling back the years with the lads and don’t worry – we’re pretty bloody sure it’ll be open by then.