Britpop band Pulp is heading over to Manchester for a night of singing along right through to ‘Sunrise’ or until Co-op Live’s curfew.
Jarvis Cocker and co., known more famously as UK cult classic band Pulp, are heading on the road, stopping off at various arenas up and down the country.
Their latest discography addition, their comeback LP, More, just debuted on the UK’s Official Album Charts and in pole position, no less: a very impressive feat that makes that a total of three number ones in their career.
Their eighth album is remarkable in more ways than one, as not only has it become a talking point in the music world, it’s also the band’s first new release in 24 years – an absolute banger as well, by the way.
Cocker and his bandmates are no strangers to the North either, much like our friends over at The Sheff, the Pulp frontman and several members of the lineup, both past and present, are Steel City natives.
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As Britpop lovers and fans of the band ourselves, we’re buzzing about their chart-topping return, but no way as proud as their home city.
Pulp gig guide – all the key info you need to know
Pulp’s last visit to Manchester took place at Castlefield Bowl when they played a show as part of the impressive summer music series, Sounds of the City. Fast forward to 2025, and now they’re taking on the region’s biggest indoor entertainment and live music arena.
Let’s all imagine this picture of Jarvis is him checking the road signs on his way to Manchester
Are there tickets left for Pulp at Co-op Live?
If you’re suffering from ‘The Fear’ of not getting your seat ahead of Pulp’s ‘You Deserve More’ tour, there are limited seats for the Co-op Live show in Manchester HERE.
Don’t wait around, though; these won’t be around for long.
And if you fancy feeling all special and setting yourself apart from the rest of the ‘Common People’ for once (not that the mixer isn’t still the best place to be), why not treat yourself to a luxury concert experience thanks to SeatUnique, where you have access to your own private lounge?
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Pulp 2025 ‘You Deserve More’ tour setlist
Spike Island
Grown Ups
Slow Jam
Sorted for E’s & Wizz
Disco 2000
F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E
Tina
Farmers Market
This Is Hardcore
Sunrise
Something Changed
The Fear
O.U (Gone, Gone)
59 Lyndhurst Grove
Acrylic Afternoons
Do You Remember the First Time?
Mis-Shapes
Got to Have Love
Babies
Common People
A Sunset
What are the stage times for Pulp in Manchester?
Pulp are set to perform at Co-op Live, Manchester on 21 June.
Co-op Live has a strict curfew of 11pm, meaning everyone can stay for the final ‘Slow Jam’ or two without worrying about getting home too late.
Anyone attending can expect the doors to open at 6:30pm with a kick-off time of 7:30pm, which gives you an hour to turn to your friend and ask, “‘Do You Remember the First Time’…we watched Pulp?”
Pulp x Co-op Live afterparty
If you’re not ready go home after the encore and you really do think ‘You Deserve More’, you can always cop yourself a ticket to the afterparty inside Co-op Live’s Backstage Club’ too.
With a DJ set to play indie favourites straight after the show and until late, the party doesn’t stop until you say it does. Tickets are available now.
We recently got to experience it ourselves on our last visit to the arena to watch the one and only Lionel Richie, and it certainly left an impression on us.
We didn’t meet him backstage, but he did call us his ‘cousins’…
How to get to the venue
Tram
For those of you heading to Co-op Live, you’ll be glad to know it’s right next door to a rather famous big blue stadium and its integrated Metrolink stop.
Head along the light blue or orange lines directly to the Etihad Campus or Ashton-under-Lyne, and you can get off the tram literally spitting distance from the arena. You can find the full map HERE.
Trams run frequently on the Ashton-Eccles line to the Etihad stop, with services leaving every six minutes from the city centre, and until 1:00am on Fridays and Saturdays.
Bus
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You can find the full list of bus routes HERE, with the one in closest proximity to the venue being the 53 bus, which runs from Cheetham Hill through to Higher Crumpsall, Old Trafford and Pendleton, leaving just a two-minute walk to Co-op Live. You also get free Bee Network travel with any valid event ticket.
Getting there by car and parking
If you’re driving, there is limited parking available at the venue, but this must be pre-booked ahead of time, and there are designated drop-off areas.
The postcode is M11 3DU and you can follow the signs towards the wider Etihad Campus as you get closer; directions to the adjacent drop-off points will also be signposted.
Keep in mind that congestion on the roads close to the stadium is expected to gather around two hours prior to any event, so if you are travelling on the road, these are the suggested times they provide come event day, though estimates will obviously vary:
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Alan Turing Way (both directions): plan an additional 20 minutes into any journey by road.
Hyde Road (eastbound): expect an additional 15 minutes to be added to your journey.
Mancunian Way (westbound): plan for an extra 10 minutes of travel time.
There are also three park-and-ride facilities near Co-op Live, but be advised that the Velopark and Holt Town stops will be closed post-event to help safely manage crowds:
Ashton West (Ashton line) – 184 spaces and 11 disabled spaces
Ladywell (Ashton-Eccles line) – 332 spaces and 22 disabled spaces
Walk/cycle
Lastly, Co-op Live is only a half-hour stroll from Manchester Piccadilly, and you could even walk along the canal all the way to the front door if you fancy taking the scenic route.
Greater Manchester now also offers the option to hire bikes via the Beryl app, with riders able to locate, unlock, get to their destination and then safely lock up the bike all through an easy-to-use app. There are hire points just near the south-west corner of the Etihad Stadium on Ashton New Road.
For more information on all travel options, you can check out the enhanced journey planner.
Interview | Chatting with Tim Burgess before he chats to Mancunians on their doorstep
Danny Jones
In case you hadn’t heard, local music legend Tim Burgess is coming back to the AO Arena right here in Manchester this February for another intimate evening following the success of his last visit.
Set to include not only an interview but live stripped-back performances as well as Q&A, it’s your chance to see one of our region’s most famous musical sons up close and personal.
Returning for a candid and eye-opening sitdown with local DJ and radio host and Northern music champion, Chris Hawkins, it’s sure to be a special night.
Before posting up in The Mezz (which you can still grab tickets for), we had the honour of interviewing Salford’s very own Tim Burgess ourselves. Here’s what he had to say ahead of the event…
So you’ve returned to the AO again for another intimate gig. What do you love most about these smaller, conversational evenings compared to traditional gigs?
“Live events just have a connection with an audience that no remote link, AI or recording could ever match. From arriving and running through a soundcheck, meeting the arena team and catching up with Chris Hawkins, it all builds up to when the audience comes in.
“Chris and I don’t plan what he’s going to ask, so it’s all on the spot – nothing’s recorded, so you never know what might get said.
“Chris is a fantastic interviewer, and I get to meet everyone over the merch table at the end; I don’t get that at a Charlatans show – they are brilliant, and the tour we did in December was a brilliant experience for all of us.
“Maybe I prefer my bandmates being there when it comes to playing the songs, but it’s a chance for an audience to hear them in a way that they probably haven’t heard them before.
For anyone who hasn’t been to a Q&A-Sides show before, how would you describe the experience?
It’s a brilliantly informal night out – the chance to hear some of the stories behind the songs and 35 years’ worth of recording and touring adventures – plus a few songs with me and a guitar, and maybe a harmonica involved too.
“I’ve chatted to lots of people after the shows, and they always say it was a fantastic insight and that they loved the songs – then I realise they’re talking to me and they’d probably just say that anyway.”
Are there any particular songs that really shine in this stripped-back setting?
“You get to hear them as many of them were written. Particularly, the songs that Mark [Collins] and I came up with – it would usually just be me singing and him with an acoustic guitar, so it’s back to how they originally sounded.
“I’ve got quite a back catalogue of songs I’ve learned, so I’ll maybe keep them a bit secret. Suffice to say, there will be a few Charlatans’ classics, absolutely.”
When you look back on your career so far, are there any moments that feel especially meaningful to share in a setting like this?
“Our audience has grown up with us – lots were teenagers when we started, and I was in my early twenties. We’ve shared moments of grief, triumph, elation and tragedy – it’s just that ours were done in the cauldron of touring and recording with sometimes the eyes of the world on us.
“At times, it’s not been easy, but life will have been tough for our fans too. Chris is brilliant at making it seem like it’s just the two of us, and nothing is off limits – then you might say something funny and two hundred people laugh, and you snap back to realising it’s not the two of us talking in a pub.”
You’ve met and worked with so many iconic artists – are there any stories that always get a great reaction when you tell them live?
“I suppose there are some fairly iconic times – lots of people in the audience would have been at Knebworth when we played there with Oasis. Our situation was made all the more poignant as Rob Collins had died shortly before the show, and we weren’t even sure if we would play.
“It was a real existential moment for us – then there are funny stories of doing Top Of The Pops with a dressing room opposite The Smurfs. A lot has happened in those three and a half decades…
Being a Salford lad yourself, what do you think it is that makes a Manchester crowd so special?
I’m biased, but up until the band started, all my greatest moments happened in and around Manchester, and I was part of that crowd, whether watching [Man] United, seeing a band or losing yourself on the dancefloor of a club.
There’s a sense of feeling at home – there’s a BIG, beautiful world out there, and maybe we won’t tell the Midlands contingent in The Charlatans, but Manchester is always a homecoming for us.
Once again, if you fancy grabbing a last-minute ticket for ‘Tim Burgess – Live and In Conversation’ on Sunday, 8 February, there are still a few available.
The show starts from 7pm, and you can secure your seat right HERE.
Northern veterans Embrace announce new album and special UK anniversary tour
Danny Jones
Northern rock veterans Embrace have announced a new album, as well as a raft of landmark anniversary tour dates in the UK, including a big Manchester gig.Guess you could call it ‘A Glorious Day’…
In all seriousness, we’re big fans of Embrace here at Audio North, and a lot of people across the wider team grew up listening to these lot, either through our parents or as part of our first adolescent forays into music.
Often lumped in with so-called ‘dad rock’, perhaps due to the era and radio-friendly sound they’ve cultivated over the course of their long and successful, albeit somewhat underdog career, it’s merely a sign of their longevity and how palatable their brand of alternative guitar-driven tunes has always been.
LP number nine – simply entitled Avalanche – will be no different, we’re sure.
Pre-order ‘Avalanche’ from our official store for priority access to pre-sale tickets for the tour 👉 https://t.co/LZwz3o7xY5 or link in bio ☝🏻
UK Tour Pre-sale: 4 Feb UK Tour General sale: 6 Feb
Well, the record itself is set to be a highly personal one, according to a recent interview with Clash Magazine, but the boys have always put plenty of themselves into their long-running discography.
As per an official press release, frontman Danny McNamara believes this might be more “honest, open, and raw” than anything they’ve done before.
This being their first new material since 2022, when the band released How to Be a Person Like Other People (album number eight, which recieved largley positive reviews for being similarly introspective), die-hards are understandably hugely excited, with pre-orders already flying.
The Bailiff Bridge-born band were praised on that last outing for returning to something closer to their classic post-Britpop sound, and judging by the latest release, ‘Road to Nowhere’, we’re getting more of that familiar style that fans have grown so fond of over the decades.
Speaking of which, the Embrace boys are celebrating 30 years as a touring band in 2026: an incredible feat for any artist, but we’re always especially proud of those from up North.
Confirming the full news via social media on Wednesday, 28 January, the well-established and long-running Yorkshire group revealed a healthy run of live tour dates for this winter.
Listing a run of a dozen dates in total, Embrace comes to Manchester Academy (1) in mid-November, with Newcastle being the other northernmost show in England.
Surprisingly, there are currently venues booked in their home county, but you may well see special shows announced there in addition to the first batch of 30th anniversary gigs. You can see the full list of tour dates announced down below.
Embrace 30th anniversary UK tour dates 2026
Aberdeen Music Hall – Monday, 9
Glasgow Barrowland Ballroom – 10 Tuesday, 10
Newcastle NX – Thursday, 12
Manchester O2 Academy – Saturday, 14
Nottingham Rock City – Sunday, 15
Brighton Dome – Tues, 17
Bristol Beacon – Thurs, 19
London Roundhouse – Friday, 20
Birmingham O2 Academy – Sat, 21
Cambridge Corn Exchange – Sun, 22
Margate Dreamland – Tues, 24
Torquay Arena – Thurs, 26
Southampton O2 Guildhall – Fri, 27
Cardiff Tramshed – Sat, 28
As for those of you looking to watch them in the city centre, early access will be granted to those pre-ordering the album, which drops on 12 June, from Wednesday, 4 February. General sale tickets will be available the following Friday (6 Feb) at 10am.
You can get ready to grab your tickets for the upcoming Embrace gig at Manchester Academy when they go live right HERE.
Meanwhile, you can hear the band’s new single, which is already becoming a fan favourite Embrace song, in full down below – let us know what you think of it in the comments.
Thomas Melia -
16th June 2025 
