It’s been five long years without new music from pop-punk icons Fall Out Boy – and rather than launching back into our lives with a huge arena show, the American rockers chose one of Manchester’s most intimate venues for their return.
The Grammy-nominated and multi-platinum group announced a very special intimate performance at Band on the Wall just last week, with tickets selling out in minutes.
The chance to see them performing in the 500-capacity venue is the stuff of a former emo kid’s wildest dreams.
Fall Out Boy are here to celebrate the release of So Much (For) Stardust, their first album since Mania in 2018.
They open the show with the first release from the new album, ‘Love from the Other Side’, the room immediately erupting in unified, punk-rock glee. The lads seemingly revel in the crowd belting back the lyrics of the two-week old track.
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Then it’s a jump back 10 years with The Phoenix, a track taken from the album Save Rock n Roll, the record that brought them back together from their hiatus.
Despite Patrick Stump being the lead singer, and all individual members having their own long-standing fan bases, Pete Wentz takes the lead with crowd interactions, talking to us between songs and keeping us hyped during.
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But of course, the 90-minute set gives each member their own time to shine. The band’s 19-song set plays out the band’s last two decades and shows just how far the emo veterans have come.
Three songs in, the four-piece explain they are ‘pretty f**king jetlagged’ and in true Manchester style, a member of the crowd shouts in response: “Do you want a tequila!?” Because if nothing else, us Manc lot know the cure for everything – booze.
Fall Out Boy
The floor bounces underneath your feet as 500 fans jump, dance, and mosh in unison, as Wentz extends a salute accompanied by a grin from ear to ear – after years of selling out huge venues, you can only imagine how greatan intimate one of this size must feel.
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The band perform with a backdrop of two sides of a smiley face, which they go on to explain represents the two halves of the new album, how it was built, and what it means. The second half of the record is based on the movie Field Of Dreams and the quote ‘If you build it, they will come’, acknowledging their five years of no music. Yet still, their fans are loyal as ever, as demonstrated by the enraptured congregation before them.
“It’s been a minute,” Pete says, “But we wanted to get it right so thank you for being patient, it’s almost here.
“Our band would not be a band at all, we probably wouldn’t be playing together if it weren’t for this city and what happened here for the music scene.” He makes nods to Manchester legends Oasis, The Smiths and Stone Roses and then jokingly says ‘anyway, here’s Wonderwall’. The crowd erupts, because who wouldn’t want to hear a live Fall Out Boy x Oasis mashup?
The end of the show is near but the band aren’t letting us Manchester lot go without us having something to remember as our own. After a quick intro from Pete, ‘Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet’ is played to their fans for the first time since 2009. The atmosphere in the room is unmatched and seriously nostalgic – I can almost feel my arm reaching for the heavy black emo eyeliner buried in my drawer somewhere.
The band end the show with ‘Centuries’ and ‘Saturday’, where Pete Wentz ends his night of crowd interaction by climbing into the arms of fans as we channel our teenage angsty selves, because even though So Much (For) Stardust isn’t a throwback record, this was undeniably a throwback show.
Featured image: Publicity picture
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Bez and Shaun Ryder are starring in a new gangster movie – nope, not kidding
Danny Jones
No, you didn’t misread the headline and you’re not on acid: Manchester music legends Bez and Shaun Ryder are set to feature in a brand-new gangster film.
Yes, the ones from the Happy Mondays – why are you having such trouble processing this?
Seriously though, we did a little double-take ourselves when we came across this news, but the familiar Manc faces look to be among the ensemble of a brand-new gangster movie by Irish writer, actor, producer and filmmaker, Ciaron Davies.
And this is just a little leak or rumour that may have been blown out of proportion: you can take it from the horse’s mouth as Happy Mondays frontman, Ryder, recently shared the news on social media.
As you can see, the new film is called Geezers and is billed as a “British crime caper” written and directed by Davies, featuring Shaun as hard-man Robbie and Bez as ‘Monk’. If you saw Ryder shaking off that snake biting his hand like it was nothing then you already know he’s hard as nails.
Although it’s not strictly listed as a comedy per se, ‘caper’ would suggest plenty of humour and light-heartedness, so we’re thinking more like The Gentleman, Italian Job, or maybe even Four Lions, rather than a serious crime thriller.
Now, while we’ve seen both of the Salfordians on screen before not only in the likes of music videos, interviews, panel shows and even as two of the funniest guests to ever go on Celebrity Gogglebox, this latest venture will serve as their respective acting debuts.
According to the IMDb page, the synopsis of the film is as follows: “Crime caper about a stolen bag of money. Caught in the crossfire are ‘The Geezers’ a bunch of wannabe criminals who have bitten off more than they can chew. With 24 hours to grab the cash, London may just go up in smoke tonight.”
Shame it’s not set on the mean streets of Manchester, or better yet Salford, but you’ve still very much caught our interest.
You can see the first promotional poster for the film down below.
As for Davies, he has been involved with a number of small-budget TV film projects, as well as appearing in shorts and even video games, so it’s fair to say that getting 62-year-old Ryder and his ever-energetic hype man, 60, involved is quite the coup for his movie-making career.
Although the film has no release date just yet, we know that filming locations having included parts of Warrington and Pinewood Studios, will be produced by Loose Gripp Films and distributed by publishers High Fliers.
Given the high-octane nature of Geezers and its genre, the feature will involve lots of action, stunts, violence and even martial arts – though how much kung-fu these two will have learned for the project remains to be seen…
All we know is that the film is supposedly “coming soon” and if you don’t want to see Bez and Shaun Ryder doing their best impression of a Guy Ritchie gangster movie then you’re lying to yourself. Praying for a Rowetta cameo to put the cherry on top.
Featured Images — Shaun Ryder (via X)/Loose Gripp Films/IMDb
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Blossoms at O2 Ritz Manchester – five-night hometown residency is already a triumph
Daisy Jackson
Blossoms are a band who were born and forged here in Greater Manchester, and now they’re back retracing their steps with a five-night residency across the venues that launched them into the big leagues.
Their star has risen all the way to arena level and headline shows at Wythenshawe Park at this point, especially here in their hometown, so the chance to see them back in these cosy-ish little venues is special, and a little bizarre.
For night two of their landmark sold-out gig series, it was the turn of the O2 Ritz, that sweaty spot off Oxford Road where the floor bounces downstairs and you stick to the carpets upstairs.
Poetically, the first time I ever saw Blossoms was in this very room in 2016, when they had the mid-afternoon slot at Neighbourhood festival and the queue to get in went all the way back to St Peter’s Square.
Since those days, Blossoms have come a long, long way, and their live show has evolved and matured from five lads thrashing on their instruments to this well-oiled, hip-swaying, flares-wearing, chart-topping machine.
There’s even choreography now – how fancy!
A stand-out moment from the show is actually a song from their new, fifth studio album Gary, which is still barely eight weeks old.
A spoof recording of legendary Manchester indie club 42s rings out, then all five band members abandon their stations, slinging keytars and marching drums around their necks so that they can dance together in front of neon signs.
Blossoms have just done their second of five shows in Manchester, this time at the O2 Ritz. Credit: The Manc GroupBlossoms on stage at the O2 Ritz in Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group
Blossoms promised more disco with this album and they bloody meant it. It’s not just the flares and the blow-dries and the moustaches (though those do help) – it’s in the funk and groove that’s gradually crept into their music exponentially with each album release.
This is still indie rock but it’s the most danceable of its genre. Good luck keeping your shoulders from wiggling and jiggling in here. Good luck keeping that grin off your face.
And Gary is one of the most unexpectedly fun albums to be released in the last year – the fact they called it Gary, named after a giant fibreglass garden centre Gorilla, should’ve been our clue. It could border on silly were it not such a masterpiece.
It seems like the only thing Blossoms are trying to prove is that you can be wildly successful without taking yourself too seriously. They just seem like a group who want to have a good time and it’s totally infectious.
Case in point – when each band member is introduced, keyboardist Myles Kellock plays the riff of Satisfaction by Benny Benassi and The Biz. Unexpected.
Blossoms also clearly give a sh*t about their live shows and graft at it – I’ve seen these guys an awful lot and it’s because their tour dates are plentiful and consistently worth the ticket price.
This is definitely the biggest era of their career so far, but have they peaked? Not even close.
Sophey Donohue -
16th March 2023 
