A brand new gig venue with a late-night bar and restaurant and a plunge pool is opening in Manchester city centre next month.
Canvas will throw open the doors to its ‘next-generation’ music venue at the new Circle Square development just off Oxford Road.
The new three-storey hangout will have live music, club nights, a members’ lounge, and a bar and restaurant open until 4am, seven days a week.
It comes from the team behind two legendary London venues, The Pickle Factory and Oval Space, as well as the MAMA Group, which operated Lovebox and Wilderness festivals as well as the Manchester Ritz, G-A-Y and Hammersmith Apollo.
Canvas comes from the team behind Oval Space in London. Credit: Supplied
Canvas will also welcome creative music, art, wellness and technology programmes.
The 600-capacity gig space itself will host live concerts, album launches and listening parties.
It will be kitted out with cutting-edge technology to deliver a world-class sound and visual experience, with video mapping and projectors enveloping audiences.
Canvas will host panel talks for members. Credit: Supplied
It hopes to create a ‘blank space’ for emerging and underground talent.
The Canvas members’ lounge will invite members to participate in events, panel discussions and wellness classes, and will host some of Manchester’s most enterprising young professionals.
Later this summer, a plunge pool and sauna will be added for members to find their own serenity in the city.
At Your Beat dance classes will take place in a dark room filled with colourful lights and pumping tunes.
Memberships will be held in the form of a Canvas token (an NFT) which will include benefits like free access to gigs and club nights, discounts on food and drink, and part-ownership of the members’ club platform.
They’re priced at £15 per month for under 30s, with a different option for older members.
A food and drink lounge will serve global small plates – curated by Miam Miam Glou Glou – all day, before switching to a late night bar after 10.30pm.
Diners can expect breakfasts like the Persian (Merguez sausage, hummus, spinach, harissa and poached egg) and the Cali (avocado, chilli, lime and egg) with sides of fresh juices, breakfast cocktails and health shots.
The rest of the day, small plates will incorporate dishes including sumac lamp chops, disco fries, and Korean barbecued chicken, plus slow-cooked chicken thighs, steak bavette, and road plum duck leg.
It will also serve sandwiches between 12pm and 5pm every day.
Cocktails will champion ‘a new breed of bartending’, like the Jasmine Margarita (El Jimador Blanco, Muyu Jasmine, silver needle and citrus), the Jungle Bird (Bacardi Cuatro, Appleton 8, Campari, pineapple, galangal and tamarind cordial) and Cafe Torino (Mr Black Coffee Amaro, Martini Rubino and soda).
Dean James, co-owner and co-founder, said: “We’re thrilled to finally open our doors at Canvas. With authenticity at the forefront of everything we do, our key ambition is to provide the most innovative space where emerging music and new talent can grow.
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“We’re incredibly proud of our diverseness; in both what we do and who we are – from our growing Canvas community, right through to our teams.
“By giving people a platform to share and collaborate, Canvas has a really unique way of bringing together artists and audiences from underrepresented backgrounds. We try hard to avoid being polarised – I think it’s this passion that keeps us ahead of the curve and relevant to what our communities actually want adjoin to.
“Through the development of Canvas membership programmes, our long-term vision is to forge an environment that young creatives and grass-roots talent are not only excited to be a part of, but we also hope that they share in a sense of ownership with us too.”
Featured image: Supplied
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Gorillaz announce huge Manchester arena gig on upcoming UK and Ireland tour
Daisy Jackson
Gorillaz are well and truly back, and they’ve announced a huge Manchester gig on the upcoming The Mountain Tour.
The legendary band, created by musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett, will be performing at the Co-op Live arena next spring.
Gorillaz is a virtual band made up of singer 2D, bassist Murdoc Niccals, drummer Russel Hobbs and Japanese guitar prodigy Noodle.
The huge tour announcement comes along with the announcement of their new album, The Mountain, which features a whole myriad of collaborations including Johnny Marr, IDLES’ Joe Talbot and Dennis Hopper.
It’s their ninth studio album and promises to be a ‘playlist for a party on the border between this world and whatever happens next, exploring the journey of life and the thrill of existence’.
The Gorillaz The Mountain Tour will visit arenas across the UK and Ireland next Spring, with support from Trueno, and follows the sold-out 5-star House of Kong exhibition and four triumphant performances at Copper Box Arena.
Manchester will get the new Gorillaz tour first, with the band kicking things off at Co-op Live on 21 March before heading to cities including Leeds, Cardiff, Nottingham, and Liverpool.
The BRIT and Grammy-winning virtual band formed following a collision of mishaps, meetings and pure luck to blow up a pre-digital world.
The album will officially release on 20 March 2026.
General on sale begins at 11am on Friday 19 September HERE.
Gorillaz’ ‘The Mountain Tour’ dates in full
MARCH 21 – Co-op Live, Manchester 22 – BP Pulse Live, Birmingham 24 – OVO Hydro, Glasgow (support from Trueno) 25 – First Direct Arena, Leeds 27 – Utilitia Arena, Cardiff (support from Trueno) 28 – Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham (support from Trueno) 29 – M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool (support from Trueno) 31 – SSE Arena, Belfast
APRIL 1 – 3Arena, Dublin (support from Trueno)
JUNE 20 – Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London (support from Sparks and Trueno)
Featured image: Press image
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The adopted Manc indie pop star with that we’re backing to win the Mercury Prize this year
Danny Jones
The 2025 Mercury Music Prize shortlist is officially out, and we’re proud to say that the North has been well represented once again this time around, with multiple names from the top end of the nation featured among the nominees – including an adopted Manchester-based rising star.
You know what, cratch that: she might as well be a Manc music queen at this point, if you ask.
We may be heavily biased here, but with indie and alt-pop artist CMAT making her way onto the Mercury Music Prize award shortlist this year, our vote is practically already cast.
If you haven’t listened to CMAT yet, then you’re seriously missing out, and following the release of her latest LP, Euro-Country, at the end of August, it’s little surprise she’s earned the Mercury nod.
She may be Irish-born, but the ‘Dubyone Diana’ truly started to make a name for herself in Manchester, and you’re damn right we’re taking her as one of our own.
Moving to 0161 as a teenager with her old band, Bad Sea, she was just 17 when she got here; now 29 and making fairly different music to the kind she did as part of the previous duo, she’s grown massively in popularity over the last few years – and she’s done a lot of it from right here in Greater Manchester.
From playing the city centre music venue circuit to stunning crowds at the likes of Kendal Calling and Glastonbury Festival, she’s come a long way in a relatively short amount of time.
Come on, if this isn’t award-winning energy, then we don’t know what is…
We welcome her to keep leaning into country music as much as she wants.
There’s another reason we want CMAT to win the Mercury Prize
It isn’t just because we’re somewhat biased local fans that we’re putting our money on her winning the 2025 Mercury Prize: she nearly already did this time last year for her sophomore outing, Crazymad, For Me, having released three impressive studio albums in less than 36 months.
“As she was reading it, I had this weird flip in my stomach, that I didn’t want to win the Mercury Prize for THAT record, because I had a feeling I could make something better.
“Two days later, I started to make EURO-COUNTRY. The Mercury Prize put a bottle rocket up my bum, to try and do something a bit more cutting edge and experimental and intense, if that makes sense.”
She signed off by adding, “I didn’t necessarily expect to be nominated again as a result, but I am very happy to have been.” We had a feeling she would, to be honest, hence why she was among our artists of the month – not even a fortnight before the shortlist was announced, no less.
Unsurprisingly, the likes of Fontaines D.C. and Sam Fender are also on there after a standout 12 months for both artists, but we’re sticking with CMAT for our 2025 Mercury Prize winner. After all, surely she can’t miss out two years in a row?
Daisy Jackson -
12th May 2022 
