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Elton John at AO Arena Manchester – tickets, setlist, support act and more

Everything you need to know for the huge concerts.

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 30th May 2023

Elton John is set to touch down in Manchester this week as the legendary musician continues his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour.

Elton has just played 10 (yes TEN) shows at the O2 in London, and now he’s heading up north.

He’ll be doing three huge shows at the AO Arena as part of this tour, his final ever.

It’s all ahead of his headline performance at Glastonbury too. We all knew Elton John wasn’t going to retire without a fanfare, come on…

His unparalleled career spans six decades, five Grammy Awards, and a frankly unbelievable 31 studio albums.

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His massive hits include Rocket Man, Saturday Night’s Alright (for Fighting), I’m Still Standing, and Candle In The Wind, which became the fastest- and biggest-selling single of all time after he performed it at Princess Diana’s funeral.

He was also the subject of the award-winning 2019 film Rocketman, starring Taron Egerton.

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Elton has already performed night one in Manchester – you can read our review here.

The tour has had to be rescheduled a couple of times but it is finally here. Here’s everything you need to know if you’re seeing Elton John in Manchester.

When is Elton John performing in Manchester?

Elton is in town for three nights this week (it’s a really big week for live music – Coldplay are just up the road and Arctic Monkeys are on their way too).

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He’ll be performing on Wednesday 31 May, Friday 2 June, and Saturday 3 June.

Tickets for Elton John at AO Arena, Manchester

Unbelievably, there are still a few tickets left for Elton John – and all three dates too.

It’s mostly down to single seats around the arena, which are priced between £136.35 and £807.35 (ouch).

There are also some restricted view tickets on sale, with discounted prices to make up for it – they’re up at £74.45.

Check the latest availability at Ticketmaster.

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Who is supporting Elton John in Manchester?

No one. He’s doing this one solo – to be fair, he’s got enough hits to fill a few hours…

Stage times

Despite the lack of support act, ticket-holders for Elton John are in for a long old night of live music.

The iconic singer is going to fill almost three hours with his hits.

Here are the expected stage times.

  • Doors open – 6pm
  • Show starts – 7.30pm
  • Show finishes – 10.15pm

Elton John’s expected setlist and songs

Elton John performing in 1972
Elton John performing in 1972. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Based on his most recent show in Belgium, here are the songs you can expect to hear.

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Bennie and the Jets
Philadelphia Freedom
I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues
Border Song
Tiny Dancer
Have Mercy on the Criminal
Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going to Be a Long, Long Time)
Take Me to the Pilot
Someone Saved My Life Tonight
Levon
Candle in the Wind
Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
Burn Down the Mission
Sad Songs (Say So Much)
Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word
Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me
The Bitch Is Back
I’m Still Standing
Crocodile Rock
Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting
Encore:
Cold Heart
Your Song
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

How to get to the AO Arena

Credit: AO Arena

The AO Arena is right in the heart of the city centre, so it’s fairly easy to get to.

On foot: The AO Arena is located within the Manchester Victoria Station complex in the city centre, on the corner of Trinity Way, Hunts Bank and Great Ducie Street. You can enter through the station (up the stairs), through the Trinity Way Tunnel, or from Hunts Bank.

By tram: Also super straight-forward – hop off the tram at Manchester Victoria and you’re right by the stairs to the venue. It’s also a short walk from Exchange Square and Shudehill. Trams run directly to Victoria Station from Rochdale, Bury, Altrincham, East Didsbury and the Airport.

By train: While Piccadilly is the city’s largest train station, plenty of trains do pass through Manchester Victoria. You can plan your journey through the National Rail website.

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Parking: The postcode if you’re driving to the AO Arena is M3 1AR. There’s an on-site CitiPark car park with 958 spaces, which can be pre-booked here. Bear in mind that Trinity Way is closed after concerts to allow gig-goers to leave safely, though cars are allowed out of the car park with direction from staff.

About the AO Arena

The AO Arena has a few strict policies to keep gig-goers safe, so make sure to check entry requirements carefully before you travel.

For example, only one small bag per person is allowed, and bags like backpacks, travel cases and laptop bags are not permitted inside the arena.

All bags are scanned on entry to check for prohibited items like laser pens, flares, projectiles, weapons, drugs and alcohol, and even selfie sticks.

Featured image: Publicity picture

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The Chemical Brothers’ Ed Simons on upcoming arena tour, forming in Manchester and how the city influenced them

Danny Jones Danny Jones who are the chemical brothers formed in manchester arena tour tickets

The Chemical Brothers are back and life is good. They never really went anywhere, per se, but they have a new album and a fast-selling UK arena tour, including a date right here in their musical home.

It always surprises us how many people are still unaware that the legendary electronic duo formed right here in Manchester and just how much of our city’s music influenced their unmistakable sound.

Having just released their new record, For That Beautiful Feeling — the tenth studio album in a career spanning nearly three and a half decades — it’s great to know that no matter how much they evolve, you can always spot their signature and that the Manc music scene an integral part in it.

Soon to embark on a fast-selling UK tour with a glorious homecoming at the AO Arena on 27 October, we had the immense pleasure of sitting down with one-half of The Chemical Brothers, Ed Simons, to chat all things past, present and future for one of Britain and the big beat genre’s biggest exports.

Back with more block rockin’ beats and another massive UK tour

So, how much are you looking forward to being back touring new music?

 ”It’s good to be going back indoors — it’s a big thing, you know, we play a lot of festivals; most of them are good but you get a much better sound [inside] and everyone’s in the same place and, hopefully, in the zone.

“[Post-Covid] A lot of people have still missed out on their first experiences of big loud music and big raucous crowds. Maybe some people are waiting to let go again and thrust into it.”

As for the album, first since 2019, what can you tell us about the direction you’ve gone in?

“Yep, well with performing live we really want to play the new music and just rest on what we’ve done before, we want to incorporate the two. It’s exciting for us. People have heard some of [the record] at summer festivals but now it’s is out there are lots of people that want to experience it for themselves.

“There’s always a core thing: some kind of secret thing between us about what we like about our music. It’s not so much a secret as it is the effect it has on other people but, hopefully, it’s evolving and the sound is still fresh. We don’t ever want people to say, ‘Oh, it’s just another Chemical Brothers record’, there has to be some quality to it.

“It’s a pretty rousing album and has the sense of people waking up again out of a long period where things still are difficult for a lot of people, but that sense of fragmentation that we went through in the lockdowns and what it’s like to come out of that.

“We made a lot of music in that period, but we’ve kind of concentrated on the stuff that feels the most rousing and has a bit of get up and provocation to feel alive again.”

The Chemical Brothers are bringing the new music to Manchester in just over a month.

Absolutely — the new singles like ‘No Reason’ definitely tap into that energy. What’s the reaction been like so far?

“Yeah, it’s been good. We had bits of and then had a sort of pressure to put it together into something we could play because we were about to DJ at fabric [in London] a few years ago at a charity gig for a friend of ours and the first time we played it at a club, even a really early version of it, you could feel it had an energy and sounded different. Great bassline too.

“It’s been rewarding and it’s been a really big live track for us this summer and we do a kind of live edit of it, which is fun and fresh.

“The track ‘Tell Me I’m Dreaming’ has also been a really big track. The visual that Flat Nose George [real name Adam Smith] and Marcus [Lyall] put together for that is really crazy, and, yeah, that’s been going down really well. I think that could be pretty huge when played indoors.

“We’ve had versions of it for a long time, but I think the first time we played it was actually at The Warehouse Project in 2021, I think? You know, when things were picking up again and it just immediately had that impact with the loops and the vocal.

“I just associate it with that WHP party in Manchester now and a few DJs have been playing it like Erol Alkan now too, so yeah, it’s kind of a big club track — a strange one but it works.”

chemical brothers arena tour manchester
chemical brothers manchester tickets
The kind of light shows Manchester and the AO Arena can expect (Credit: The Chemical Brothers via Instagram)

Foundations in 0161 and how 90s Manchester influenced The Chemical Brothers’ sound

Definitely, and it doesn’t get much bigger than the AO Arena but what other venues have got fond memories of?

“Well, I know there’s a lot of new venues but given that we’ve been playing Manchester since 1990, we’ve done most venues. We even used to DJ at the Old Steam Brewery [later became ScuBar] which I don’t even know if that still exists [it doesn’t] but yeah we’ve played the Arena and both Warehouses over the past few years and we just love them.

“Victoria Warehouse and WHP are just amazing, you know. Manchester is our second home; we were students there and we’ve still got a lot of friends there.”

“I guess the best memory of the Arena”, Ed chuckled, “was when one of the security guards was walking us back after a said, ‘Corrr, I’ve not seen a crowd like that since Ricky Hatton was here”, adding that it’s a wise-crack that still gets brought up on tour and that all the gig staff here have a “proper good attitude”.

Not too bad a compliment, haha. What about other venues then? Any you’ve still got a soft spot for or have any lasting Manc music memories?

“Well, we were there with all the students and the early ‘Big Barn’ days at Manchester Academy, the indie disco, the house night in a house Thursday; the Wiggly Worm which Justin Robertson ran [went on to become the Millionaire Club] — we were just in and out of all those places and then ended up holding our own club nights.

“We’d hire everything from a swanky bar in town where we’d have to move all our speakers in, to setting up in Pizza Express in Didsbury where we used to go on and party as well.

musicians from manchester
where are chemical brothers from?
Ed and Tom back when they were starting. (Credit: Ed Simons via Instagram)

Amazing. Tell us a little bit about the early days and how you and Tom [Rowland] came to meet at uni.

“Yeah, at the University of Manchester in 1989. We met really early on, pretty much the first week through a mutual friend. We were on this tiny little course on medieval history, so there weren’t many of us, and then I think we were talking about wanting to play the Haçienda, which at that time was the big thing and we’d all heard about it.

“So yeah, we just kind of became friends because we were the only people in this course and we just wanted to go to the Haçienda and I think we ended up going every Friday from September to Christmas. We were just so into the music that Mike Pickering and Graeme Park were playing, and just the whole atmosphere. We also loved buying records together.

“Tom was actually in another band at the time called Ariel, so our thing was just DJing together at first and then after making some more friends about a year into our course we started putting on these nights around town and we got really friendly with a lot of DJs who worked at Eastern Bloc like Robertson and [Richard] ‘Moonboots‘.

It always comes back to Manchester

Ed ended the chat by reiterating that, like many artists who come through here either as natives or otherwise, “there’ll always be a big Manchester connection.”

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chemical brothers manchester days
Then.
chemical brothers tour
Now.
No matter how many years go by, the importance of those early Manchester days has never left The Chemical Brothers.

“We used to buy some really brilliant records that Moonboots would put aside for us and then when we came to London, we were suddenly DJing and playing all these cool records that no one else had heard.

“A really big part of our early career was building that bridge between Manchester and London, and, you know, we were around at the same time as The Stone Roses and we absolutely loved them — that first album had a huge influence.

“There was just that sense of if you’ve got an idea, just try and record it and get it out; there was a sort of can-do feeling about everything and we always feel indebted to that time we spent there. I think without being around all these people and artists printing a thousand white labels, we never would have been exposed to the culture and wouldn’t be coming back to the Arena 34 years later…

“Apparently the lecturer who did that medieval history course still starts his years by telling his students that they’re following in mine and Tom’s footsteps…”

Read more:

You can grab tickets to see The Chemical Brothers in Manchester at the AO Arena on 27 October HERE.

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Featured Image — The Chemical Brothers (via Instagram)/Wikimedia Commons

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Take That announce FOUR massive gigs at Manchester’s Co-op Live arena

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant

Take That are back and they’re heading out on a massive UK tour next year, with not one but FOUR Manchester dates on the lineup.

The beloved Manchester boyband are absolutely no strangers to some of our city’s biggest stages, with several record-breaking tours having taken place within the past few decades – but now, the lads are back at it again and have just been revealed as the latest headliners in the Co-op Live’s massive opening season next year.

Eagle-eyed fans will know the band have been teasing their return for a little while now, and just yesterday, light projections of their iconic logo was beamed onto venues all around the UK to signal an announcement was imminent.

The Co-op Live was one of the venues to get itself a new Take That-themed accessory, so it wasn’t exactly hard to guess what was coming.

But what we didn’t know was that it wouldn’t just be one, but four massive Manchester dates.

Take That’s 2024 ‘This Life On Tour’ tour has just been exclusively announced in the old-school way of live on BBC Radio 2 this morning – with Gary Barlow, Mark Owen, and Howard Donald all appearing on The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show to confirm their long-awaited return.

It’s not just a tour the trio’s announced either, as they’ve also just put out a brand-new single today too, titled ‘Windows’.

The track sees them reunite for their first original composition in over five years, and is said to tell the story of “emerging from the darkness into the light”, as it signals a new chapter for one of Britain’s best-selling bands.

The lads say their new music is ushering-in a new Take That era brimming with “energy, creativity, and a continued desire to challenge and surprise”.

As Manchester‘s newest – and soon-to-be the UK’s largest – live entertainment arena nears closer to officially opening its doors and welcoming visitors, Co-op Live has been slowly revealing the music acts set to grace the stage as part of its huge launch season jam-packed full of events – with beloved US boyband Jonas Brothers announced as the first headlining act back in July, and Eric Clapton later confirmed for his first Manchester gig in a decade.

Current US megastar Olivia Rodrigo also has two nights booked in, Irishman and former One Directioner Niall Horan will be taking to the stage, and fellow Mancs Simply Red are also making a special 40th anniversary return.

And now, it’s Take That’s turn.

Take That will be taking to the stage at Co-op Live on 7, 8, 10 and 11 May 2024 as part of the ‘This Life On Tour’ tour.

The trio will be joined by Olly Murs as the support act in Manchester.

Once again, as part of the highly-anticipated £365 million venue’s “pioneering” partnership, Co-op members will get the chance to gain early access to tickets through a designated presale on Wednesday 27 September at 9:30am, all before the general sale takes place.

General sale tickets are available through Co-op Live from 9:30am on Friday 29 September, and you can grab them here.

Read more:

Co-op Live is officially set to open its doors in April 2024.

Featured Image – Supplied

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