Courteeners have just made history by hitting the top of the charts with an album that was released 15 years ago.
The wildly popular local band’s debut album has just hit the top of the UK Albums Chart, despite being released way back in 2008.
St Jude reached number one over the weekend thanks to the band re-releasing a 15th anniversary edition, featuring remastered tracks, rarities and previously-unreleased material.
It’s a record-breaking achievement, becoming the album with the longest time between release and charting at number one in history – hitting the top spot a staggering 14 years, 9 months and 14 days later.
And Courteeners celebrated their in perfect fashion, with a trip to one of Manchester’s best pubs.
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Liam Fray, Michael Campbell and Daniel ‘Conan’ Moores all headed out for celebratory pints, in Liam’s own bar Smithfield Social, and in one of the city’s most historic boozers.
The frontman shared a photo of them clutching pints of Guinness in Mr Thomas’s Chop House, with their gold Number One trophy perched on the bar.
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He captioned the photo: “Good things come to thems that wait.”
Liam also shared a selfie with the prize, writing: “Wow. Love to everyone involved. This record changed our lives. You guys changed my life. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. NUMBER F***ING 1.”
Courteeners are also only the third band in Official Chart history to reach number one with a re-released album, joining The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. Casual.
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St. Jude includes three Official Top 40 singles (Not Nineteen Forever, No You Didn’t, No You Don’t and What Took You So Long?), and previously peaked at number four.
Speaking exclusively to OfficialCharts.com, Courteeners’ Liam Fray says: “Good Things come to thems that wait. God bless the fans.”
Why you should go to this hidden music festival in a garden centre
Thomas Melia
Manchester’s only direct-from-garden-centre music event, Green Island Festival, is returning with free tickets, big charity projects and more.
Now in its fifth year, Green Island Festival is back for 2025 and its set to be bigger and better than ever before, spread across three dates throughout the summer.
The lineup is as diverse as ever bringing in a range of acts from all over the globe such as Australia to local grassroots talents that deserve a turn in the spotlight.
I sat down with the event organisers for this one-of-a-kind music festival George and Stephan to find out why you should go to this hidden music festival in a garden centre.
What makes your festival different from any other?
George: Definitely the garden centre aspect. There’s an escapism element to it and we’re also doing pretty well at championing the grassroots scene, giving people a platform to showcase their music. We’re trying to not be super focused on one specific type of music or genre this feeds through to our lineups.
Stephan: We’ve been lucky being able to attract different age ranges from 18 and 19 all the way up to 50 and 60 year olds. The people are what make it what it is and they’ve stuck with us from day dot really, it’s one big community. Managing to get a very diverse lineup in place is important too.
Georgegetting the crowd hyped at Green Island Festival.Music festival in a Manchester garden centre? We’re in.
Who came up with the idea to host a festival in a garden centre?
Stephan: George. He walked past the garden centre and thought that’s the perfect place.
We didn’t know we didn’t know each other at first then George found my page (Me Gusta Collective) and I was fully up for it straight away, and since then we’ve been best friends. And, like, I’ve called him like, my best friend.
Manchester is known for its love of music, how did you guys fall in love with music and then eventually fall in love with festival organising?
George: It’s always come pretty naturally to both of us. Stephan’s done lots of work with Band on the Wall and I did various bits at Freight Island and Canvas when it was still open. Our favourite part is when we’re planning and scheming the flow of the festival and lineup.
Stephan: I guess our love of different types of music comes from our upbringings really. I listened to a lot of salsa and my dad used to throw events when I was a kid with family members so creating events has always been around me. I started my first night when I was 19 in Germany after I fell in love with house music and electronic music in Manchester so I feel like the path to creating events has always been laid out but it took me a while to make a living out of it.
Good vibes only at Green Festival Island 2025.Stephanperforming under his DJ alias Atiké.
Stephan, you’ve been a long time supporter of indie artists and local venues, working at band on the wall yourself. So how important is it for you to see local artists reflected in Green Island’s lineup?
Stephan: It’s so important to us. We’ve got the marquee stage which is all about local acts and our bandstand stage too. There’s High Hoops [A Manchester-based Queer club night], which has been going for years now, and same goes to Eves’Drop Collective [A group of female DJs from across the UK] that have been doing bits for such a long time, and Ruf Dug who is a no brainer for the lineup.
George: When it comes to headliners there’s only a handful per day and the rest of Green Island [Festival] is pretty much grassroots music. Paying a fortune for each act isn’t the only way to bring a lot of people together and sell a lot tickets, people are interested in grassroots more than ever.
Tickets are quite reasonably priced, too, with children and under 13’s getting free entry, what made you decide to offer this?
Stephan: We want to make this festival available for families so you would have to pay for every kid to get in, it ends up being so expensive.
George: We worked pretty hard on finding the perfect price point for the festival so it can operate but not break the bank because it’s pretty crazy how expensive tickets are getting now.
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Children and under 13’s can get into Green Island Festival for free.The wonderful Green Island Festival team.
What made you choose a lineup that spans lots of different sounds, rather than sticking to a few main genres?
Stephan: We come from a background of music purists who listened to lots of records to a lot of records. I was listening to African bands who are fully authentic much like grassroots music it’s raw. , raw, it’s fresh. We’ve been able to come up with a lineup that fuses African music, Latin music, sounds from the Middle East with ska, house, drum and bass, even jazz. We know exactly what we want to hear.
George: It’s the appreciation of music across the spectrum, there’s so many different facets to it, and we programme a solid lineup that incorporates all of them. We love a challenge and we love feeding the energy throughout the day, leading to the last little crescendo at the end.
You also give attendees the option to donate £1 to Eat Well MCR with every ticket bought, how important is this charity to the pair of you?
George: We know Kathleen [Co-founder of Eat Well MCR] quite well, she’s always been a huge supporter of us so we do what we can to support whatever she’s got going on. We managed to raise quite a bit of money for them last year. Also, when you’re buying food from our vendors you can add a donation for this initiative which last year 90% of everybody that ordered food added on £1 or more which was very nice to see.
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We also work with Play It Green where we have a levy on our ticket and 50% goes to them so they can plant trees around the world. We want to make our festival more sustainable in the long term and eventually be net zero.
Stephan I know you also have a DJ alias, Atiké, how excited are you to play the festival alongside all acts?
Stephan: I can’t wait, I’m doing a b2b set with Little O who is amazing. I met her on Bandcamp, now we’re playing together. I went all over Dublin to see her and because I grew up in Ireland it’s quite nice to kind of reconnect with that side of me. I asked her if she fancied doing a b2b set with me and she was all for it. We bounce off each other so well.
If you could describe green album festival in three words, what would you choose? George: Inclusive, friendly, vibrant. Stephan: Sunshine, diversity and friendship.
Tickets for ‘Green Island Festival 2025’ range from full price to low-income and neighbours tickets at just £12.50 and entry for children under 13 completely FREE – Get ready to grab your tickets for Green Island 2025 HERE.
Featured Images – Publicity Pictures (via Supplied)
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The UK’s 2025 Eurovision act Remember Monday has announced a Manchester gig
Thomas Melia
After wowing crowds at Eurovision, UK act Remember Monday are set to play venues around the country later this year.
Lauren, Holly, and Charlotte, better known as pop-country trio Remember Monday, are heading out on a UK tour, and they’re stopping off in Manchester.
Known for their hit ‘What the Hell Just Happened?’, the girls have plenty of songs in their catalogue that they’re ready to belt out in style.
This UK trio has been dropping singles since 2019, with ‘Jailbreaker’ and ‘Hand in My Pocket’ being just a couple of them, and went on to release their second EP in October last year titled Crazy Anyway.
As well as being top tier performers, they also have some incredible song names to back it up too, like ‘Big Bottomed Girls’ and ‘What the Girl’s Bathroom is For’.
They may have finished 19 out of 26 countries at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, but they soon shook it off… quite literally, in fact, as one band member Holly lost her wedding ring, before retrieving it not long after.
This tour falls in line with a string of festival dates, including a slot at Capital’s Summertime Ball sharing the bill with Mariah Carey, Will Smith, Benson Boone, and even fellow pop princess, Tate McRae.
Remember Monday are visiting a long list of cities up and down the country on their tour, including Glasgow, Brighton, Liverpool, and Nottingham.
If you want to watch these ‘Hysterical Women’ live in action, Remember Monday are coming to Gorilla in Manchester on 27 October – with tickets available HERE.
Daisy Jackson -
23rd January 2023 
