Harry Styles One Night Only at Co-op Live – he’s right, we do belong together

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Harry Styles One Night Only at Co-op Live - he's right, we do belong together

Harry Styles One Night Only at Co-op Live - he's right, we do belong together

This is not the Harry Styles we left behind in 2023, and he seems quite keen for us all to notice that from the get-go. 

The sequin two-pieces have been packed away, the hair’s been cut into a modern mullet, and he’s into synths now. 

Harry Styles emerges onto an in-the-round stage at Co-op Live and promptly hunches over a sound desk to mix the intro of Aperture. For a horrible moment, I think it’s going to be like a Fred Again concert – but then he straightens up, picks up the mic, and starts to dance, and we collectively realise we’re about to witness something truly special.

The chance to see Harry Styles on a small (hahahahaha) stage like this isn’t likely to happen again, not when he’s selling out record-breaking runs at Wembley Stadium. 

The chance to see him after such a long hiatus, performing brand new music in full, is even less likely.

And the chance to have it all going on right here in Manchester, just days after our city also hosted the BRITs, is (and I don’t say this lightly) an honour.  

Harry Styles One Night Only at Co-op Live. Credit: Netflix

For One Night Only, we hear every song off his fourth studio album (Kiss All The Time, Disco Occasionally) in full – with a few surprises thrown in at the end for good measure. 

The whole thing has been filmed for Netflix, with a handful of cameramen chasing around after Harry on stage.

And there are definitely moments where you are conscious you’re watching a Netflix special being made, like when he ventures down the catwalk for Ready, Steady, Go and no spotlight follows him, but a camera does. 

That’s not a reflection on Harry though, who performs for the audience first and foremost. He seems taken aback at how thoroughly we’ve all studied the lyrics to his hours-old album already, welling up with emotion as he returns to the live stage for the first time in three years.

Harry Styles on stage, in the round, in Manchester

“There’s so much danger in the world,” he says. “But love is powerful and kindness is powerful. The world could use a little extra peace right now.”

Unusually, too, the show had a strict phones-free policy, with the poor venue staff doing their level best to enforce Harry’s wishes to keep cameras in pockets for one night only.

I would love more gigs to be phone free. The crowd is DARK, and present, with both hands in the air, and it lets Harry shine. I don’t believe anyone could honestly say they had a worse night for not being able to film it.

As for those new songs which had their live debut last night, Season 2 Weight Loss makes a lot more sense live, with real thudding drums, than it does on the album (I ranked it my least-favourite of the record); Coming Up Roses translates beautifully with a live orchestra; and Pop is a certified bop that’ll have those stadiums boogying.

Harry Styles One Night Only. Credit: Netflix

If you listened to Dance No More and thought it was set up for a call and response, you were correct, even if we do all clumsily tiptoe around the lyrics a bit.

Carla’s Song is a perfect closer in every setting, whether it’s in your headphones listening to the album or as one final collective moment in an arena.

It wasn’t just the new album we got at the One Night Only – Harry also dug into the archives to play a few extra treats for us all – From the Dining Table (live for the first time in almost a decade), Golden, Watermelon Sugar, As It Was, and Sign of the Times.

The show opens and closes with Aperture, the lead single from the album, and his one night only proves his point from the song – we really do belong together.

Harry Styles One Night Only setlist

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Featured image: Netflix

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