Manchester has been named one of the best UK cities for dog walking this spring.
As the sun shines and the flowers bloom, dog owners across the UK looking for perfect spring walking locations should head to Manchester, according to some new research which has ranked the city among Britain’s best destinations for dog-friendly spring strolls.
Pet-sitting platform TrustedHousesitters analysed a range of factors including dog-friendly venues, trail ratings, walkability scores, access to green spaces, and even the average April rainfall.
Our city particularly excelled when it came to walkability, with a perfect 100/100 score, as well as rating highly for its access to nature, with 20.42% of the city dedicated to green space.
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Manchester has been named one of the best UK cities for dog walks this spring / Credit: Mylo Kaye | Sarah Duffin (via Unsplash)
Despite the higher average April rainfall (68.36mm), which let’s be honest, is hardly a shock to us all, even if the weather has been particularly glorious in recent weeks, Manchester’s combination of excellent urban green spaces and strong trail ratings (4.2/5) helped to secure its top five position.
Manchester is also home to an impressive 117 dog-friendly pubs, restaurants, and cafes too, meaning dog walkers and their furry friends will be spoilt for choice when choosing somewhere to unwind after their springtime stroll.
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Bristol, Nottingham, Brighton, and Edinburgh were the other four cities to make up the top five list, meaning Manchester is the only northern city to feature.
“Giving your pup a chance to explore new paths and experience new scent trails, sceneries, and different terrain is great for their active minds,” explains Dr Lily Richards, who is veterinary surgeon.
The city rates highly for walkability and access to nature / Credit: Gustavo Fring (via Unsplash)
“A good walking trail has lots of opportunities to rest out of the heat and in the shade, as well as wide paths, no steep cliffs, and soft surfaces to prevent paw injuries.”
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While taking in nature is beneficial for owners and their pooches alike, Dr Richards does encourage pet owners to avoid stoney or boggy areas, due to the risk of injury or environmental diseases.
“After your walk, remember to wash off any mud for disease prevention and check for ticks to prevent tick-borne diseases such as Lymes disease, babesiosis, and rocky mountain fever,” Dr Richards continued.
She also advised owners to “be aware of grassy or wooded areas with lots of leaf litter where natural dangers or predators can lie”.
Featured Image – Hiro Takashima (via Unsplash)
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Lola Young cancels all upcoming shows after collapsing on stage
Danny Jones
Rising UK pop star Lola Young has unfortunately cancelled all of her upcoming gigs “for the foreseeable future” after recently collapsing live on stage.
This, of course, includes her scheduled date at O2 Victoria Warehouse in Manchester, as well as the rest of the dates on her breakout world tour.
Young, a BRIT School graduate whose career has taken off over the past year or so, took to social media to reluctantly inform fans that all her remaining shows are now cancelled as he prepares to take some time for herself and recover.
Admitting that it “pains her”, it is clearly the right decision for her overall health, and we hope she returns to full strength soon.
In case you missed the headlines or the clip that went viral online, Lola Young passed out mid-performance during the 2025 All Things Go music festival.
Whilst up on stage at the Forest Hills Stadium in New York, the 24-year-old singer could be visibly seen losing her footing and grasp of the microphone, before dropping it entirely and falling backwards as she lost consciousness.
Not only did this include a serious risk of head injury and/or concussion, but it is not the first time alarm bells have been raised surrounding her welfare in the past few months alone.
Shortly after struggling with in-ear monitors during her biggest-ever show at Wembley for Capital FM’s Summertime Ball, Young also threw up on stage during her Coachella debut.
The London-born artist has opened up multiple times in the past about struggling mentally at times, as well as ADHD and, most notably, her schizoaffective disorder diagnosis, which often revolves around symptoms such as depression, mania, mood irregularities and more
She ultimately had to pull out of a set in Washington, DC, as well; in fact, even before the incident this past Saturday (27 September), she told the crowd she had been having a difficult time.
Lola Young opens up about having a “tricky couple of days” at All Things Go NYC after canceling a Friday concert “due to a sensitive matter.”
Posting after the DC cancellation, Young said: “I love this job and never take my commitments and my audience for granted, so I’m sorry to those who will be disappointed by this.”
Echoing the same sentiment she shared above, she went on to add, “I hope you’ll give me another chance in the future. Thank you to all those who listen and care.
“To all those who love to be mean online, please give me a day off.”
It goes without saying that we wish her all the best, and that it’s worth noting that Lola Young isn’t the first artist who has risked putting entertainment before their own health, which raises real questions around what the industry can do to better safeguard individuals and prevent situations like this.
Featured Images — The Project TV (screenshot via YouTube)/Press shot (supplied)
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Five Manchester artists we’ve been listening to this month | September 2025
Danny Jones
‘Hello… is it more Manc tunes you’re looking for?’ because if so, you’re in the right place, as it’s time to reel off a whole new list of new music and Manchester artists we’ve been listening to over the past 30 days or so.
Give or take – you know how months work.
If you are new around here, it’s all very simple: every few weeks, we round up a load of local bands, duos, solo acts and everything in between to help spread some love and exposure to the wonderful talents that have been stuck in our rotations and so on.
Honestly, it really is that straightforward, and there’s no point in faffing around any longer, so let’s just get stuck into September’s Manc artists of the month.
Manchester music we’ve been listening to lately
1. SHADE
Now, this first one is rather bittersweet, because despite having just gotten back into SHADE, we’ve sadly learned that the lads are seemingly looking to wrap things up as a musical unit in just a matter of days with their final ever headline show right here in Manchester.
The native four-piece band have always managed a good balance of the indie-rock split and, in our opinion, only gotten better with time; the instrumentation is tighter, Luke Owens’ vocals have come into their own, and the overall music itself is better produced.
Unfortunately, the lads never quite got the following we feel they deserved, and for whatever reasons, they confirmed they’re calling time after five years with one last gig at Gorilla. There’s a farewell after-party at Night and Day too, so come help us sing ‘Neverdie’, ‘Break Out’, ‘Lost in The World Together’ and more one last time.
2. Roxanne
From an example of a group coming to the end of the journey to one just at the beginning of theirs, number two is fellow Manc indie and alt-rock outfit Roxanne, who look to be developing a slow-moving, haunting, ethereal wave/shoegaze sound. It’s still too early to tell, but we’re certainly interested.
These guys recently caught some attention via grassroots events at the likes of Stage and Radio, and Mother Mary’s; now they have ours. A minor gripe, ironically, is that these lot are yet to put on the red light and record much studio material – at least nothing that they’ve dropped as far as we can find so far.
On the upside, you can at least be in from the ground floor for when they do finally release stuff, and even from the little demo teasers they’ve shared on social media so far, we think it’s well worth keeping an eye on how their first proper releases fare.
In at number three is someone at the opposite end of the spectrum: New Jersey-born BC Camplight – real name, Brian James Christinzio – who’s been around for some 20 or so years now, releasing plenty of music, but that we’ve somehow only just started cottoning onto now he’s based in Greater Manchester.
Camplight released album number seven just this past June, and it’s nothing short of one of the coolest, most creative, candid and most surprising things we may have EVER listened to. It feels abstract, post-modern and absurdist at times, but the highly idiosyncratic and anecdotal lyrics remind us of John Grant and a slightly calmer sounding Petey USA.
We’ll definitely be working our way backwards through his discography over the coming weeks to see how he’s developed such a unique sound over the decades, but for now we’ll reccommend you start with ‘The Tent’ and ‘Two Legged Dog’, which features Abigail Moss from The Last Dinner Party, as well as the title track, ‘A Sober Conversation‘. Some truly staggering and style-sprawling work.
You can help but wiggle your head and shoulders within seconds of hitting play.
4. Mae Grace
Switching from post-modern vibes to post-punk, next up is a fledgling five-piece fronted by, you guessed it: Mae Grace Williams. Another product of BIMM (British and Irish Modern Music Institute) University’s city centre campus, like Roxanne, they’re also still very early days, but there’s undeniable talent there.
Backed by the monthly ‘New Cult’ nights, which are hosted by indie record label Heist or Hit and held at NQ pub turned live music venue, The Rat and Pigeon, not only must we praise the showcase itself, but we’re not the only ones who have been intrigued by their embryonic stages.
There are elements of spoken word and prog rock guitar at points; we don’t know exactly what genre we’d call it or what they’re even going for in their infancy, but with another gig this autumn supporting Adult Leisure on Sunday, 2 November, your best chance of judging for yourselves is seeing them live.
Last but certainly not least is another Manchester-based project we’ve only just come across, but with just three songs to their name on Spotify, we don’t think we’ve been quite this excited by a local debut for a while now. And for bloody good reason, we think.
Moss Side Sauna Club isn’t just one of the best band names we’ve heard in ages, but the highly alternative, DIY, almost garage-rock act which throws in all manner of distortion, electronics, pedals, and more to build their deeply-layered and admittedly rather noisy experience. MSSC is its own sonic profile.
Even with all the processing and effects, it somehow doesn’t sound too cluttered either – at least not on tape, anyway. We’re yet to see them live for ourselves, but the triumvirate consisting of Will Brooks, Maddy Storm and Sam Craighan have got us gassed with their first trio of tracks. Watch. This. Space.
Would you look at that? We’re done with September’s round-up of new Greater Manchester music we’ve been listening to lately, just like that.
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It wasn’t intentional, but by and large, we really did spotlight some very up-and-coming acts on the scene for the most part. We love finding musicians right at their inception or riding the crest of a fresh wave of interest.
As always, we’ll be back again next month with more for you and in the meantime, you can always look back at Manchester bands and artists, be they new, current or old, that we’ve spotlighted in the past.
Emily Sergeant -
7th April 2025 
