Affiliate

John Bishop vows to keep tickets at £25 as he announces two massive Manchester comedy shows

This article contains affiliate links.

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant - 8th October 2024

John Bishop has announced a massive UK tour to celebrate 25 years of his stand-up comedy career, and he’s coming to Manchester.

He’s not only coming to our city once either, but twice.

It’s been well over two decades since the popular Liverpudlian comedian stepped on stage to perform his first ever stand-up gig on 2 October 2000, and so, in a bid to properly celebrate this monumental milestone and the impressive comedy career that’s followed, Bishop will be touring the UK and Ireland in 2025, and will, once again, step foot on that very same stage he first performed on.

And that stage, just so happens, to be the legendary Frog & Bucket comedy club right here in Manchester city centre.

The Frog & Bucket is known for having launched the careers of some of the country’s most well-known and revered comedians over the years, with John Bishop being just one of those famous names, and he’ll certainly be one of the most famous names to perform there again in recent years.

ADVERTISEMENT

As well as taking to the Frog & Bucket stage for a more intimate live comedy experience on 13 October 2025, Bishop will also be performing a much bigger Manchester venue that same month, the new Co-op Live arena, on 4 October.

Liverpool, Leeds, and Newcastle are some of the other northern locations he’ll be visiting, as well as other major cities like London, Glasgow, Belfast, Dublin, and more.

ADVERTISEMENT

What makes this tour even more special too is the fact that Bishop has vowed that tickets to every show he’ll be performing, wherever the audience member may be sat, will be priced at £25 each to honour his 25th comedy anniversary.

John Bishop: 25 – UK & Ireland Tour Dates 2025

  • Thursday 2 October – Plymouth Pavilions
  • Friday 3 October – The O2, London
  • Saturday 4 October – Co-op Live, Manchester
  • Wednesday 8 October – Utilita Arena, Newcastle
  • Thursday 9 October – Glasgow, OVO Hydro, Glasgow
  • Friday 10 October – P&J Live, Aberdeen
  • Saturday 11 October – First Direct Arena, Leeds
  • Monday 13 October – Frog & Bucket, Manchester
  • Thursday 16 October – Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham
  • Friday 17 October – Utilita Arena, Birmingham
  • Saturday 18 October – Brighton Centre
  • Sunday 19 October – International Centre, Bournemouth
  • Thursday 23 October – Utilita Arena, Cardiff
  • Friday 24 October – M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool
  • Friday 31 October – 3Arena, Dublin
  • Saturday 1 November – SSE Arena, Dublin
John Bishop is playing a massive UK & Ireland comedy tour in 2025 / Credit: Supplied

“I can’t believe that next year it will be 25 years since I first performed at the Frog and Bucket in Manchester,” John Bishop said as the UK and Ireland tour was announced.

“It’s been a rollercoaster, and I can’t thank the fans enough who have supported me all the way.  I wanted to mark the anniversary with a brand-new tour and do something to say thank you, so every ticket throughout the tour will be £25.

ADVERTISEMENT

“I really hope you can come and celebrate with me.”

Read more:

John Bishop: 25 kicks off on 2 October 2025 at the Plymouth Pavilion, and then travels to arenas across the UK and Ireland, before culminating in Belfast on 1 November 2025.

The £25 tickets go on sale this Friday (11 October) at 10am here.

Featured Image – Aemen Sukkar Jiksaw

Affiliate

Influential indie veterans The Wedding Present to embark on 40th anniversary tour

Danny Jones Danny Jones Wedding Present Manchester gig date tickets

Influential indie band The Wedding Present are about to begin a big live tour across the UK for their 40th anniversary, and one stop is right here in Manchester.

As boundary-pushing veterans of the genre for the best part of four decades, The Wedding Present have always been one of the most pioneering auteurs of the Northern music scene, and nothing has changed even after all this time.

The Leeds-formed icons are a favourite not only of ours but even more so among our friends over at The Hoot, and with an artistic legacy as strong as Yorkshire’s, that’s saying something.

David Lewis Gedge’s long-standing project rather quietly announced its major retrospective series of live shows back in June – so quiet, in fact, that we missed it until now – but as they gear up for a handful of very special dates, we’d urge Manc gig-goers to give themselves a Wedding Present.

Gedge and co. will be coming to the O2 Ritz in Manchester for just the second show of merely half a dozen confirmed for The Wedding Present 40th Anniversary Tour, having played the venue many times.

In fact, even after visits featuring live configurations over the years, the current lineup played the Ritz as recently as May 2023; the show was met with strong reviews pretty much across the board, and it seemed to signal somewhat of a falling back in love with the crowds of the North.

For anyone unaware of the self-styled ‘semi-legendary band’ (their PR’s words, not ours), The Wedding Present are probably in similar territory to fellow underdogs and Manc natives, James, when it comes to the amount of music they’ve put out over the years, inspiring generations of those who came after.

You might assume we’d name one of their most famous tracks, ‘George Best’, as our favourite, for rather obvious reasons – but you’d be wrong: it doesn’t get much better than ‘Dreamworld’, if you ask us.

Their rich back catalogue encompasses not only so many different eras but also sounds, styles and various other eccentricities; so much so that their multi-genre-spanning music has even produced its own musical.

But before we dive any deeper down into the rabbit hole, let’s get back on track.

Set to play Manchester on Friday, 10 October, The Wedding Present will be kicking off the tour in Bristol at the start of next month.

There are other dates in the likes of Sheffield, Liverpool, Chester, Holmfirth, Buxton, Newcastle and more, but only a few are officially part of the anniversary tour.

Tickets are live as we speak, so if you fancy going along to see them, you can grab yours HERE.

Read more:

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — Karl Kathuria (supplied)

Affiliate

The K’s book Castlefield Bowl for their biggest ever headline show

Danny Jones Danny Jones The K's Castlefield Bowl Manchester Sounds of the City 2026 tickets

High-flying indie rock outfit, The K’s, are set to play a landmark headline show right here in Manchester, as the local lads have been confirmed as the first act for Sounds of the City 2026.

The cult favourite working class heroes from down the road in Newton-le-Willows have had an incredible couple of years, climbing their way up the ranks around the North, playing bigger venues and festivals up and down the country, and now they’re on a fully-fledged European tour.

It’s been brilliant to watch their rise thus far, and we couldn’t be more buzzing to hear that they’ve booked none other than Castlefield Bowl for the single largest standalone gig of their careers to date, and you can bet The K‘s army will be out in full force.

Announced alongside another massive outdoor venue this week, the toast of Earlestown will be one of several artists set to play the Sounds of City (SOTC) concert series next year.

Confirming Castlefield Bowl alongside the magnificent Piece Hall in Halifax for summer 2026, the four-piece will make their way from Merseyside, not only down the M62 to Manchester but over to Yorkshire for what is one of the most stunning outdoor venues in the country.

These two incredible atmospheric amphitheatres are not only incredible spaces for live music, but in the case of our very own city centre stunner, Castlefield Bowl boasts a capacity of approximately 8,450 – making it comfortably The K’s biggest show yet.

Having opened for the likes of Blossoms at Live From Wythenshawe Park last year, and playing huge festival slots at the likes of Kendal Calling back in just last month, they’re no strangers to big crowds – but this will be something special.

Speaking of Kendal, we were in the field ourselves when the group got to revel in the moment of announcing their second album, Pretty On The Internet, had reached number one just in time for their main stage set.

You can watch the magical moment down below:

Official artist presale access will be available this Wednesday, 17 September from 9:30am by signing up to their mailing list, but general admission tickets for both dates will go live at 9am the following Friday (19 Sep).

You can get ready to grab yours HERE.

Once again, we can only say well done on the number one; having been there to discuss their debut record’s release while they threw plastic balls around a room, we couldn’t be more gassed to see how far they’ve come.

‘SYDTF x’

Read more:

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — Press shot (supplied)/Audio North

More Affiliate

Affiliate

Lewis Capaldi announces huge outdoor Manchester gig at Wythenshawe Park next summer

Affiliate

Iconic musical Annie is returning to the stage in Manchester next summer

Hot Wheels Monster Trucks live show Manchester

Affiliate

A huge Hot Wheels monster truck event is coming to Manchester

Audio

Clint Boon takes us around Manchester's iconic Deaf Institute

Eats

We go meatballs deep with Mira's traditional Neapolitan sandwiches