The BBC Radio 6 Music Festival will return to Greater Manchester this March with a massive line-up of musicians performing in our home city.
Set to take over the O2 Victoria Warehouse between Friday 24 and Sunday 26 March, the bill of performers includes Loyle Carner, Christine and the Queens, and Arlo Parks.
They’ll also be joined by the likes of Wu-Lu, Lava La Rue and The Big Moon, not to mention DJ sets across the weekend and a warm-up show at Band on the Wall from BBC Music Introducing Live.
The station’s flagship event will include global premieres of new live shows, music debuts, surprise guests and major collaborations.
The O2 Victoria Warehouse was the site of the first-ever BBC Radio 6 Music Festival back in 2014, and Greater Manchester will now be the event’s permanent home.
Loyle Carner will use the festival to showcase a brand new collaboration with the AMC Gospel Choir on Friday 24 March, while Christine and the Queens will bring the global premiere of his new live show on Saturday 25 March, and Arlo Parks will perform new music with special guests on Sunday 26 March.
DJ sets across the weekend will come from the likes of AFRODEUTSCHE, Erol Alkan, Daniel Avery, Don Letts, Good Future, Hot Chip, Jamz Supernova, Steve Lamacq, Tarzsa, The Charlatans’ Tim Burgess, Yard Act and BBC Introducing DJs, Emily Pilbeam and Phoebe I-H.
Loyle Carner 2022Christine and the Queens
The main live shows at O2 Victoria Warehouse are set to be complimented by club nights at Band on the Wall and Victoria Warehouse, themed around 6 Music’s Indie Forever and Rave Forever shows and a Morning After Mix live broadcast on the Sunday at RAMONA.
Highlights from the festival will be broadcast on BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC Radio Manchester from MediaCityUK in Salford, as well as on BBC Sounds, BBC Four, BBC iPlayer and BBC Music’s YouTube channel.
Tickets for each separate event will be available from 10am on Thursday 16 February at bbc.co.uk/6musicfestival
Loyle Carner says: “Mad. Six years since we last played 6 Music Festival. Feels good to be back. The show’s evolved a lot since back then, lucky to share the stage with some of my musical heroes. Got a few extra voices coming through to lift us up too. See you soon.”
Arlo Parks
Chris says: “What I will be very eager to share with you for the first time ever will be a glimpse into the second part of the big journey that I started with you guys, with Redcar. Redcar is the first iteration of a very intense musical journey that occupied my two last years. I was heavily inspired by this piece called Angels in America by Tony Kushner when I wrote the music I will unveil to you at that moment. I’m literally so excited to do it that I am for the first time of my life at loss of words in the best way. The follow up of the journey gets into territories that I never explored myself musically before, really. I was a bit obsessed with what rock and roll means today. Very much related to the flesh and to transcendence – to how an incandescent presence inside your own flesh just can transform everything.”
Arlo Parks says: “This is the first time I’ll be introducing my new album in a live setting and I’m so excited. To be surrounded by such innovative, singular artists is a real joy and I genuinely can’t wait for this.”
Wu-Lu says: “I am super excited about playing Manchester again – haven’t been back there in a while! Definitely going to show out, just going to try some new songs and try and do some exclusive stuff! Big shout to 6 Music for showing so much love over the course of our career.”
Lava La Rue says: “The first artist to bring me on a run of shows with them was Christine and the Queens – one of those first shows being in Manchester. It’s going to be exciting joining him on the line up for the 6 Music Festival back in Manny for a full circle moment. I was playing my debut single back on that tour with Chris and now I’ll be playing songs off my debut album at 6 Music Festival.”
The Big Moon says: “We’re so excited to be coming back to Manchester for the 6 Music Festival! Playing Manchester has always been a highlight of our tours, so we’re really excited to be back and this time with a super special surprise.”
Mary Anne Hobbs says: “The most exciting element about the 6 Music Festival is the coming together in a physical space, of our beloved 6 Music listeners, all the crew at the station and artists we love.”
Mark Radcliffe says: “It’s great to welcome the 6 Music festival back to Greater Manchester and particularly exciting that the focus this time will be on new work. It’s all at the Victoria Warehouse. It’s quite dark in there so I have booked an eye test in order to make sure I have the right glasses to see everything.”
Samantha Moy, Head of BBC Radio 6 Music says: “6 Music will be rooted in Salford over time, so we’re bringing the festival back home to Greater Manchester, where it all began, with some incredible performances. You may have seen Arlo Parks, Christine and the Queens and Loyle Carner before, but you won’t have seen them like this before. It promises to be a very special weekend indeed.”
Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham said: “We are delighted to welcome the BBC Radio 6 Music Festival to Manchester. There is a rich musical heritage in Greater Manchester, and a real pride in the independent music scene, and as BBC Radio 6 Music has always supported new and alternative artists, it’s a perfect fit for the festival to have its permanent home in the city for the years to come. There’s so much new Greater Manchester music out there right now that deserves to be heard, which is why we started Artist of the Month with BBC Radio Manchester, and like BBC Radio 6 Music, we want to give emerging talent a platform.”
Full line up for the BBC Radio 6 Music Festival 2023
Friday 24 March, from 6.30pm, O2 Victoria Warehouse
Tarza (DJ set)
Wu-Lu
Loyle Carner
Saturday 25 March, from 6.30pm, O2 Victoria Warehouse
Jamz Supernova (DJ set)
Lava La Rue
Christine and the Queens
Sunday 26 March, from 6.30pm, O2 Victoria Warehouse
Don Letts (DJ set)
The Big Moon
Arlo Parks
Thursday 23 March, from 7.30pm, Band on the Wall
BBC Music Introducing Live at Band on the Wall
Afflecks Palace
Antony Szmierek
Phoebe Green
Club nights
Friday 24 March, from 9pm, Band on the Wall
6 Music’s Indie Forever – nothing but solid gold, upbeat indie bangers from 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq and guest DJs:
BBC Music Introducing’s Emily Pilbeam (DJ set)
Good Future (DJ set)
Yard Act (DJ set)
Tim Burgess (DJ set)
Saturday 25 March, from 11pm, O2 Victoria Warehouse
6 Music’s Rave Forever – rave classics that listeners know and love with a sprinkling of the finest new club sounds from 6 Music’s AFRODEUTSCHE and guest DJs:
BBC Music Introducing’s Phoebe I-H (DJ set)
Hot Chip (DJ set)
Erol Alkan (DJ set)
Sunday 26 March, from 12pm, Ramona
Morning After Mix – Daniel Avery providing a two hour-long DJ set.
Featured image: BBC
Audio
‘The Brand With the 3 Stripes’: adidas returns to Market Street with dedicated Manchester Oasis shop
Danny Jones
Manchester’s famous Market Street adidas store has reopened as quite possibly the most mega and, certainly, the most Manc shop on the high street– thanks to Oasis.
Amidst their already iconic collaboration with the global sports apparel name, Oasis have followed up their recently opened pop-up shop with another bold and (go on, we’ll say it) BIBLICAL building dedicated entirely to the ‘band with the three stripes’.
Or should we say brand?*…
You’ll have to have been living under an entire ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Star’ to have missed this crossover, but it really does have to be visited in person to truly appreciate.
The Oasis x adidas shop is sure to be a big Manchester attraction in its own right. (Credit: The Manc Group)
With tonnes of memorabilia, genuine artist artefacts, a shed-load of every adidas Originals shoe model imaginable; dedicated Live ‘25 tour printing, buckets of buckets hats and simply more merch than you can shake a tambourine at, it’s a genuinely incredible space.
In fact, we’d wager you don’t even have to be a fan of the legendary Britpop band to enjoy the massively overhauled rooms.
Put it this way, if you like adidas, the effortlessly cool nature of Manc culture, or even just really, really good quality sports, street and casual-wear, you’ll get something out of this.
Besides the archive walls, photo-booth (which we spent an inordinate amount of time in) and all the other nods to Noel and Liam, there is still a standard adidas Originals floor upstairs.
With a corner still set aside for the usual football stuff, a whole wall of their different shoes with detailed explanation and story behind each type, plus even more fitting rooms.
The Market St shop is almost unrecognisable compared to what it used to be like – you kind of only recognise because it’s still in the same spot – and it really does feel akin to a home for the much-loved brand, the city that wears its logo not just like a uniform but a badge of honour, and a shrine to our Oasis.
Separate from the pop-up merch stores that have appeared over in Spinningfields, London is the only other place that will be getting a store like this, and with stocks of almost every item available quite literally selling out as fast as tickets did, this is one of the few places you’ll still find them.
With that in mind, we couldn’t help but walk away with our own customised Oasis ‘Live 25 World Tour ‘Jacquard’ football jersey, complete with our own branding on the back. Not quite on the same level as adidas or Oasis, but we’ll take it.
You’re damn right we’re framing this one… (Credit: The Manc)
We also still have a competition for you to win two tickets to see the Burnage boys in the flesh on their ‘Live 25 reunion tour this summer, so don’t forget to enter HERE.
Roll on Heaton Park and please let Oasis’ marriage with the adi-trefoil insignia ‘Live Forever’.
Transport ‘masterplan’ announced as more than 300,000 fans hit Manchester for Oasis reunion gigs
Emily Sergeant
Greater Manchester’s transport ‘masterplan’ has been released ahead of Oasis’ huge run of reunion gigs starting next week.
Manchester is all set for a sensational summer of sound, and as more than 300,000 music fans prepare to descend on our city next week as a little-known band called Oasis (sarcasm detected) reform for the first time in over a decade, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has now announced its plan to transport everyone to and from Heaton Park.
With the Gallagher brothers staging five nostalgia-drenched gigs starting from next Friday (11 July), the transport network wants to make sure no one is left ‘looking back in anger’ over their travel arrangements.
Travel arrangements for the hotly-anticipated reunion shows have involved months of planning by TfGM and its partners, so over the next couple of weeks, you can expect to see additional staff on the network, more frequent, all-double tram services running to Heaton Park from Victoria station, and a shuttle bus service running from the city centre.
TfGM’s state-of-the-art control room will also be operating 24/7 to monitor and coordinate the public transport system and respond to any emerging incidents as they materialise.
Here’s everything you need to know.
Greater Manchester’s transport ‘masterplan’ has been released ahead of the Oasis gigs / Credit: TfGM | Simon Emmett (Publicity Picture)
Travelling by tram
The best way for fans to beat the traffic and get to the 80,000-capacity outdoor venue over the five dates will be to travel using the Metrolink network.
On each night, there will be a six-minute service from Victoria Station to Bury – the only city centre station with a direct tram to Heaton Park – and this service will be capable of carrying 4,000 passengers an hour, with concertgoers travelling from other lines told to change onto a Bury-bound tram at Victoria.
If you have a ticket for front standing, your best option is to get off and on again at Bowker Vale, which is the closest stop to the venue entrance on Sheepfoot Lane, as the Heaton Park stop will be closed at 9pm on all nights.
Both the Bowker Vale and Heaton Park stops are just a few minutes away from the park gates, but as as the Heaton Park stop will be closed at 9pm on all nights, if you have a ticket for front standing, your best option is to get off and on again at Bowker Vale, which is the closest stop to the venue entrance on Sheepfoot Lane.
For the shows on 11, 12, and 19 July, the final trams will leave for the city centre at 2:02am and for Bury at 1:16am, and on 16 July, the last trams will run at 1:32am to the city centre and 12:46am to Bury.
Travelling by tram to Heaton Park is recommended by TfGM / Credit: TfGM
Travel by shuttle bus
Alternatively, there will be frequent shuttle buses from Lever Street in the Northern Quarter from 1:30pm on each event day, with the last bus departing at 7:30pm.
Buses will then start running back to Manchester after the event – with the city centre drop-off point being Shudehill Interchange – from a temporary bus station inside Heaton Park from 10pm, and buses will continue to run until all passengers have cleared the bus station.
Limited shuttlebus tickets, priced at £10, are available, but these must be purchased in advance through the Bee Network app.
Further details on how to buy the tickets can be found on the Bee Network website.
There will be increased congestion and various road closures in place around Heaton Park and the surrounding areas on each of the event dates.
Those who have to drive or need to be dropped off and picked up are encouraged to consider taking advantage of the 24 ‘park and ride’ sites in Greater Manchester, where you can park for free and hop on a tram to your destination.
The park and ride sites on the Bury line are Whitefield, with 331 spaces and 13 disabled spaces, and and Radcliffe with 480 spaces and 22 disabled spaces.
Shuttlebus services will be in operation on all dates of Oasis’ run of gigs / Credit: TfGM
And if all of that wasn’t busy enough as it is, Manchester will also be playing host to a number of other big events during Oasis’ run of shows – including Kool & The Gang at AO Arena and Billie Eilish at Co-op Live.
So as you can see, public transport and roads will be busier than usual during this exciting time, so TfGM encourages everyone to allow plenty of time for their journey and check the Bee Network app or website for the latest travel advice.
Daisy Jackson -
15th February 2023 
