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Watch Gary Neville join The Reytons and ‘play bass’ on stage in Manchester

There's an even more moving story behind this one.

Danny Jones - 10th March 2025

Remember when we kind of thought Gary Neville was joining The Reytons on tour? Well, turns out he sort of has – at least for one night, anyway.

The former footballer turned pundit and entrepreneur seems to crop up absolutely everywhere these days, be that in Greater Manchester or otherwise, and we know that he’s proven to be a bit of a jack of all trades since his playing days came to an end.

However, we never thought we’d put Gary Neville and ‘playing bass’ in the same sentence, let alone on stage with one of the fastest-rising Northern bands around, but Rotherham’s very own Reytons have turned that seemingly random combination of words into a reality.

Playing the incredible Aviva Studios venue on Saturday, 8 March, the Manc crowd were in for a treat when the Man United legend and ex-England defender popped up on stage, guitar in hand.

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As you can see, not only did G Nev join for the cult favourite anthem ‘Low Life’ but he made quite the entrance and pyros blasted from the front of the stage.

For anyone needing a bit more context, this all came about following a humorous stunt back in September of last year where the band made it look like the Manc might be standing in as replacement bassist after full-time member Lee Holland broke his arm.

The 50-year-old filmed a skit of him going through a fake audition process as other candidates were ignored and he ended up being selected.

It was pretty funny, to be fair, especially when the final punchline was that he had absolutely no idea how to play bass.

Still didn’t stop him from going ahead and doing a whole photo shoot though, did it? Now they’ve gone even further and brought him out in front of a massive hometown crowd.

Speaking on the cameo, frontman Jonny Yerrell thanked Neville for his support, telling the crowd: “He is honestly one of the most down-to-earth and nicest people we’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.”

Yerrell also went on to highlight their Grassroots Foundation initiative, explaining how they provided full football kits to 50 different grassroots teams in 2024, as well as applauding the Reytons fan base and the wider music community for rallying behind young mum Sophie White in a truly touching tale.

The 22-year-old Rotheram native, who has seen widespread support across Yorkshire, is currently battling a brain tumour; with that in mind, the band raffled off the stage sign from their flagship sell-out performance at Clifton Park performance.

With Sophie in attendance, Jonny announced to gig-goers that over £10,000 had been raised in just two days to help her undergo potentially life-saving treatment in Germany, which finally starts this week (Monday, 10 March 2025). Incredible stuff.

If there’s one thing we love more than a band with a sense of humour and who don’t mind a stunt or two, it’s the kind that does important stuff for their region like this.

And, as Jonny puts it, this is just the start; “We’re planning to do even more this year!”, he says, so don’t expect this to be the last time you hear about these Northern trailblazers doing something brilliant.

Who knows, maybe we’ll see Gary Neville joining The Reytons for their headline set at Tramlines Festival this summer too?

After all, we’ve seen similar before…