Well hello there, you fine music-loving folks. If you’re here it’s because you love good tunes and are always on the lookout for new local artists and, lucky for you, Manchester is always full to bursting with ’em.
All that being said, it’s a good job you’ve just stumbled across a new regular series from The Manc Audio, where we’ll be spotlighting all the best Manc music we’ve been listening to over the course of each month throughout 2024.
We’re in the privileged position of being able to keep in the loop when it comes to the sheer wealth of 0161’s up-and-coming bands, solo artists, DJs and more, and we’re all about sharing the wealth as the saying goes.
So, let’s not faff about any further, here are five Manchester artists we’ve been listening to this January and we hope you’ll like them too. Let’s ‘av it, shall we?
Manc bands we’ve been listening to over the past month
1. Sugarstone
First up on the list is Sugarstone, an alternative rock band originally from Preston but now based in Manchester who are spearheading the synth-punk movement here in 0161.
They’ve gone through a bit of a makeover and sound change recently, moving away from the glam approach over the last 18 months or so and opting for a slightly heavier but still with lots of distorted sounds and plenty of electronics remaining in the mix.
Each month we’re going to pick out three tracks we reckon you should start with and for this first entry, we’re spotlighting ‘Hostile’ and ‘Tender Hook’ off their latest EP for that more in-your-face approach they’re leaning towards lately, as well as ‘Can’t Help My Machine’ for keeping the digital presence alive.
Alternative electronic at its finest as we see it. Porij are pretty popular in The Manc office and for good reason: they sprawl in their variety of sounds, can somehow suit almost every mood imaginable and seem to draw influence from almost every genre and culture you can think of.
Some call it art pop but all we know is it’s dancey and we LOVE it. And we’re not the only ones: they’ve collaborated with the likes of Metronomy, as well as Greater Manchester locals Interplanetary Criminal and rising spoken word artist Antony Szmierek, not to mention being ripe for remixers.
We’re slightly obsessed with their current single ‘My Only Love’ released earlier this month but ‘Nobody Scared’ is undoubtedly their biggest track and it’s not hard to see why (the chillest of bops) and so many could come in the third but we’ll settle on ‘Lose Our Minds’ for now. Ask us again later and it’ll change.
In at number three is Balancing Act. They’ve got everything from third and fourth record Arctic Monkeys, and frontman Kai Jon Roberts certainly exerts plenty of that Alex Turner swag here and there, to moments of Cage The Elephant or maybe even Radiohead in parts.
There isn’t any other place to start with these lads than their most popular track, ‘A Little More Time’ — the kind of tune that feels like you’re sat smoking a cigar and sipping a drink in a cabaret bar — ‘Cheshire Smile’ it’s probably our second favourite and more of indicative of their indie roots and then the beautiful ‘Rabbit Hole’. That should you a little taste of everything.
Like any band with the potential to go far, these guys still feel like they’re doing plenty of experimenting when it comes to their sound and, if anything, we’d say it’s in those moments when they shine the most.
Now these lot just make us so happy. Well, sad-happy to be more specific. The indie girl band have absolutely nailed those often upbeat and catchy melodies with slightly less jolly lyrics that always make for a great song.
If you’re looking for comparisons, you’ll get a bit of HAIM in the all-girl and often bass-driven funk but with the harmonies almost closer to something like The Staves. You get more of the latter the further you go back, having first started out in 2021, but they quickly draw other parallels with The xx and The Corrs.
Having not long finished up a short run of shows with the lovable Leigh local, The Lottery Winners, they’ve got a lot of love among other Manchester artists. As for the songs we’re picking out, you can’t argue against arguably the best known ‘Bad Tattoo’ with Alex Amor, ‘Yellow and Gold’ was one of their first tracks we ever heard so it’s going in there, and the immensely catchy ‘How About It?’.
Last but not least, we’re finishing with a bunch of absolute ragers in the form of Witch Fever, who never fail to deliver that more aggressive brand of post-punk, grunge and all-around reliable rock. Lead singer Amy Walpole has labelled everyone from the Cancer Bats to Sugarstone themselves as influencing the band’s sound and there’s plenty more in there too, believe us.
We don’t think it’s getting too far ahead of ourselves to tip this furious four-piece for big things, having toured with fellow hardcore lovers Hot Milk and scored some decent festival slots over the past couple of years. Walpole’s voice alone is almost as if Dolores from The Cranberries loved screaming her head off even more over even heftier guitar riffs and had the added attitude of early Wolf Alice.
If that doesn’t sell you, these aren’t for you. The title track from their debut album Congregation is just immense; ‘In Birth’ is a perfect slope towards their heaviest stuff, and we have a real soft spot for 2019’s ‘Bezerk(h)er’, which incidentally happens to be one of our favourite track titles for a long time — and we usually hate it when artists mess with punctuation.
And that’s it for your first edition of our new monthly look at the best up-and-coming Manchester artists that are getting us very excited.
2023 was an absolute belter for new music in our region and across the North West in general, for that matter, and we can’t wait to see what this year has in store for us.
Finally, the best part about this series is that we want you to let us know about all the best new tunes you come across too; this is a collective effort, guys — don’t let us down.
See you in Feb and be sure to keep tuned into our Audio page this year if you know what’s good for ya’.
US rising star Reneé Rapp announces huge Manchester arena gig as part of European tour
Emily Sergeant
Reneé Rapp has just announced a European leg to her upcoming tour, and she’ll be stopping off in Manchester for a huge arena gig.
In just a few short years, Reneé Rapp has become a star… and her star is only rising higher.
At just 25-years-old, the critically-acclaimed musical theatre and TV actress has pivoted to become an undeniable pop sensation and film star – and an iconic figure in interviews too… which isn’t a job, but it should be – after landing her breakout role as Regina George in the Mean Girls musical on Broadway back in 2019.
Even though she chose to reprise her role as Regina George in the 2024 movie adaptation of the Mean Girls musical, since 2022, Rapp has largely turned her attention to her solo music career.
Reneé Rapp will be performing at Manchester’s AO Arena next March / Credit: Supplied
2022 saw Rapp release her debut EP, Everything to Everyone, before she then went on the channel her raw talent and authentic voice even further, and release her first full-length studio album Snow Angel in 2023.
Both 2024 and 2025 have been big musical years for Rapp too – so much so that she has now amassed more than 1.4 billion streams and counting across her entire discography.
An already-successful 2025 is about to become even more successful, as Rapp’s second album, Bite Me, is expected to be released on 1 August, and she’s also heading out on a highly anticipated US tour from late September through to late October.
Following on from her US tour, Rapp has today announced that she’ll be heading across the pond to Europe in the new year, and will be making her way over to Manchester to take to the iconic AO Arena stage in March 2026.
Amsterdam, Berlin, and Paris are just some of the other cities Rapp will be visiting before Manchester, ahead of closing out the tour at London’s Wembley Arena.
Reneé Rapp will be playing a huge gig at the AO Arena in Manchester on Wednesday 18 March 2026 as part of the ‘Bite Me Tour’, and tickets officially go on sale next week – with both pre-sales and general sale available.
The Three+ presale will begin on Wednesday 30 July at 10am, and the AO Arena presale will start on Thursday 31 July, again at 10am, before general sale launches on Friday 1 August at 10am.
Oasis are clearly doing something very deliberate for the as-yet-unconfirmed Live ’25 reunion album
Danny Jones
We’ve still not emotionally recovered from Oasis’ five homecoming nights in Manchester, and after seeing that the band just released a live recording of ‘Cigarettes & Alcohol’ from Heaton Park, it’s taken us right back to Friday, 11 July, and we can’t stop thinking about a Live ’25 album.
In fact, while the live record of the reunion world hasn’t been confirmed just yet, we’re becoming increasingly convinced that this is exactly what fans are going to get – and following the second Live ’25 concert capture dropping this week, we’re almost certain we know what they’re doing.
And if so, you can consider the vinyl of the ‘Oasis Live ’25‘ LP already in the basket.
Many of you might have already thought the same thing, but for anyone it hasn’t yet clicked for, let us explain; we got the live taping of ‘Slide Away’ from the Principality Stadium in Cardiff to start with, i.e. the first stop on the world tour. Here’s a snippet of how it sounds:
Have we listened to it pretty much non-stop ever since? Yes, but concentrate, that’s not the point we’re getting at; we think Oasis are doing something very specific for their almost inevitable Live ’25 album.
Up next was the aforementioned ‘Cigs and Alcohol’, performed and recorded on home turf right here in 0161, and released in honour of their magnificent Manc comeback.
More accurately, the live version of the song is plucked from their unforgettable opening evening at Heaton Park, as opposed to any of the other five dates.
Can you see where we’re going with this yet?…
With their place of birth having waited more than a decade and a half to hear the first few iconic chords that signal the start of the timeless Oasis classic and a pure rock and roll blowout, you can literally hear the energy from the crowd in your ears.
If you haven’t heard it dozens of times already, take a listen for yourselves and feel free to Poznań wherever you happen to be reading this:
That first Poznań for #OasisManchester hit like a chuffing freight train. 🔥
Upon checking the date of the Cardiff recording of ‘Slide Away’ was taken from, we noticed that they had also chosen the inaugural night of the entire Live ’25 tour, i.e. their very first live show in 16 years.
While we’re aware an official Oasis reunion tour album is technically still TBC, if you see a third live track released after the first of their SEVEN shows in the capital get underway this Friday (25 July), you can pretty much bank on the special live release being all but nailed on.
So, not only are we getting an Oasis Live ’25 reunion documentary from the man behind Peaky Blinders, but it looks like they’ll be providing fans with a virtual tour and a chance to experience/relive the gigs aurally, with each of the 23 tracks on the setlist being pulled from a different city on the world tour.
Now, while this isn’t an entirely unheard of idea in the world of live albums, that’s not all.
Better still, if our suspicions are correct and the next drop is taken from night one of Oasis Live ’25 in London (bonus points if you can guess which tune they go for), then the entire thing will capture the sonics and atmosphere at its best: propped up by the utter euphoria of a dream finally being realised.
We’re sure they could pull the audio at any part of the set, from any old date, and it would sound great, but nothing is like the palpable ecstasy you could quite literally hear on the opening nights in Cardiff, Manchester and, no doubt, Wembley. Having said that, the final farewell was pretty biblical too.
Put simply, isolate any night of the world tour and there’ll be something unique in the master.
Die-hards have been waiting what feels like a lifetime to finally see their favourite band in the flesh again; actually, like many of us here in Greater Manchester and indeed all over the world, some were simply too young to experience the Britpop craze and ‘Oasis Mania’ the first time around.
They obviously have a huge following not just in the UK and Ireland, but all over: the US, Japan, across South East Asia and throughout most of South America – you only have to watch clips or even hear Noel Gallagher talk about Buenos Aires to not how ‘mad fer it’ they are over there.
For a lot of fans, this IS their 1990s moment, and even those who sadly didn’t manage to get tickets have a chance to almost feel like they were there.
One thing’s for sure: if/when the Oasis Live ’25 album arrives, that Manchester buzz will take some beating in the unofficial contest to see who loves the legendary British rock band the most.
Danny Jones -
31st January 2024 
