Man of the moment Aitch had the entire AO Arena in a meltdown this weekend when he made a surprise appearance with N-Dubz.
The Manchester-born rapper came out on stage on Saturday night after being spotted dancing in the audience.
The 22-year-old joined Dappy, Tulisa, and Fazer to sing his hit single Baby, which samples Ashanti’s song of the same title.
N-Dubz are back on tour after an 11-year hiatus and have sold out not one, not two, but three nights at the AO Arena.
They hit the stage in Manchester on both Saturday and Sunday night, and will be back in early December, to play hits from their back catalogue including Number One, Playing With Fire, and No Regrets.
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The properly noughties night was capped off for many in the audience when Aitch came out to say hello.
Videos shared on social media captured ear-splitting screams ringing out across the huge arena, including this hilarious reaction from one fan who did not cope well.
“Just know that N-Dubz are the only people in the UK that have made timeless music. Correct me if I’m wrong but I can’t think of anyone else that in 20 years can sell out arenas.
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“Basically, what I’m saying is, tonight I’ve realised N-Dubz are the GOATs. F**k everything else, I don’t care what anyone says, I’ll smash all your heads in if you disagree. N-Dubz are the GOATs.
“I was 12 and I had a ball, and now I’m almost 23 and I’ve had a f***ing ball to the same f***ing songs.”
Featured image: The Manc Group
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Parklife 2025 stage times and stage splits for Sunday 15 June
Daisy Jackson
Day one of Parklife festival is done and dusted and we’re heading straight into Sunday – with arguably one of the biggest line-ups the Heaton Park festival has ever had.
For the second day of the massive party in north Manchester, Parklife have pulled together a headline slot from Charli XCX – one of the biggest artists in the world right now.
She’s joined on Sunday’s line-up by the likes of Bicep, Confidence Man, Peggy Gou, Girls Don’t Sync and many, many more.
Parklife has confirmed the stage times for Sunday 15 June so you can get to planning.
So without further ado, let’s get to planning your day two of your Parklife weekend – here are the stage times for Sunday.
Gig review | Catfish at Heaton Park, Manchester – are the Bottlemen properly back?
Danny Jones
10 months on from their last gig and more than a year since they officially ended their hiatus, Catfish and the Bottlemen finally returned to Manchester for a sold-out show at Heaton Park, and while the reviews online have been mixed, we had a blast heading back to the fields again.
Making their Manc comeback just hours before this year’s Parklife Festival got underway, the beloved Welsh band had stirred lots of worry leading up to the day itself and, in truth, even in the moments leading up to (and after) their stage time.
Apart from their huge headline slot at Reading and Leeds, 2024 was the year of cancellations and controversy, so their fans had plenty of reason to be concerned. Nevertheless, we had faith and kept our spirits high, especially with the weather holding out.
Local legends and indie rock veterans James certainly helped on that front, delighting both die-hards watching from up on the hill and younger gig-goers who may have only heard a few of the big hits like ‘Sit Down’ – though they certainly didn’t heed that message, there was merely jumping up and down.
Some great computer-generated imagery backdropped the set.We watched this thing like a hawk.You can read our recent interview with them HERE. (Credit: Audio North)
Once the main support act had wrapped up their pretty perfectly timed set, we’ll admit, standing on that grass felt like an eternity, especially considering Catfish had us waiting an extra 15 minutes beyond their expected arrival at Heaton Park.
You could call it fashionably late, but in this case, it saw several people around us uttering, ‘they’re not coming on any time soon’, and some even beginning to walk off.
However, they did eventually arrive just over a quarter of an hour past schedule, and the eruption of cheers from the crowd and a fair few screams from those nearest the barrier signalled what summed up the entire night: we were just so happy to have them back.
We’ve heard people debating the sound quality and taking issue with parts of Van’s performance, but we’ll just leave this here and let you decide for yourselves:
One thing’s for sure: the energy was immaculate from start to finish.
From kicking things off with ‘Longshot’ for a limb-worthy intro, to hearing a fully acoustic version of ‘Hourglass’ as the lead singer stood alone on the dramatically lit main stage, soon to be followed up by a plethora of Parklife acts, we’d wager you they’ll remain a tough act to follow all weekend.
Other highlights included an entire park’s worth of people belting every word to ‘Kathleen’, ‘Fallout’, ‘Pacifier’ and pretty much every track they played, as well Van having the crowd repeat the chorus of ‘Cocoon’ as he hung up his guitar from the stand to deliver an ice-old mic drop.
We would’ve loved to hear a fuller set filled with the extended live versions of ‘Oxygen’, ‘Heathrow’ and ‘Glasgow’ too, especially given how many sections of pure instrumentation felt like they were going to transition into another track, but you can’t have everything, I guess.
Inflatable crocodiles and cracking flagsCredit: The Manc GroupEyes and arms wide openWe’re here to urge you not to be drawn in by TikTok reviews – as far as we’re concerned, Catfish were made to headline Heaton Park.
Sure, there might have been a few minor fluffed vocal notes and slightly over-lengthy solos here and there, but after all, it’s a rock show: we want a bit of mess.
The same goes for Van McCann himself, too; we worry that people are starting to forget what a proper rockstar is, and we’re not talking about contriving some kind of Hollywood lifestyle, but certainly getting lost in the music and trashing your guitar so hard that your face is draped in nothing but hair and sweat? Absolutely.
All in all, we think Catfish and the Bottlemen‘s massive outdoor show at Manchester’s Heaton Park and de facto ‘comeback after the last comeback’ was a triumph and even when they’re not absolutely 10/10, they’re still bloody good value live.
As for the question of ‘are they back?’ We think so and certainly hope that ‘Showtime’ wasn’t just released as a way of signalling fans to come along for one last ride before the final curtain call.
Daisy Jackson -
21st November 2022 
