James and Happy Mondays are set to head out on tour together for the first time in 33 years.
The Manchester bands have confirmed they’ll be venturing across the UK side-by-side next year – covering seven stages in ten days including the AO Arena.
The former labelmates at Factory Records will be reunited after more than three decades, playing their hometown gig on 3 December 2021 along with half a dozen other dates in Leeds, Cardiff, Birmingham, Glasgow, Dublin and London.
One of Britain’s biggest and longest-running bands, James have produced 15 studio albums and sold 20 million records since first arriving on the scene in the 1980s – releasing hits such as ‘Sit Down’; ‘She’s A Star’; ‘Laid’ and ‘Come Home’.
Happy Mondays, meanwhile, reformed to their original lineup in 2012 and have just celebrated the 30th anniversary of their beloved party piece Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches (widely regarded as the definitive album of the Madchester era).
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The group have gone on to achieve platinum status in the UK – and fans can expect to hear all their Hacienda hits like ‘Step On’; ‘Kinky Afro’; and ‘Hallelujah’ when they visit the AO Arena next year.
James lead singer Tim Booth says: “We will pack two years of frustration and explosive joy into these gigs. It feels like a new dawn to trumpet a celebratory tour, a week after the first news of hope.
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“We’re playing with the brilliant Happy Mondays.
“We last played with them in 1988, hopefully this time they won’t steal our rider or try and spike my drink…”
Saturday 04 December – London The SSE Arena, Wembley
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Legendary Manchester music bar claps back at reviewer who said ‘kids dancing’ ruined their night
Daisy Jackson
Matt & Phreds is one of Manchester’s most iconic music venues, and it’s just delivered a pretty iconic response to a recent negative review.
A customer left the Northern Quarter jazz bar a two star review because their completely free-to-attend concert was ‘spoilt’ by children.
In their review of their experience, they said that ‘five year old kids were dancing at the front’ of the intimate venue.
And despite praising a ‘fantastic musician singing some great songs and a brilliant piano player’, those little dancers apparently warranted a two-star review.
The Google reviewer asked: “Is this place a serious jazz bar or a kids playground?”
They then suggested that Matt & Phreds should really ‘introduce an age cap’ – a suggestion that the venue is having none of.
Matt & Phreds has shared the feedback online and stressed that ‘music is for everyone at any age’, adding that allowing parents to introduce their children to live music ‘is what Matt & Phreds is all about’.
They wrote: “Imagine being able to go and see a great musician for free and complaining about children enjoying the gig.”
The decades-old venue also shared: “Who knows, exposing children to music from an early age could mean they are inspired and may end up on the M&P stage themselves later in life.”
Kids are welcome at Matt & Phreds – for free – up until 7pm, when the venue switches to an over-18 policy.
The full response reads: “This review on Google made us chuckle. Imagine being able to go and see a great musician for free and complaining about children enjoying the gig. Well this guy did.
“We are on over 18 venue after 7pm so parents being able to introduce their children to fabulous live music, for free, at our early Saturday evening gigs is what Matt & Phreds is all about because who knows, exposing children to music from an early age could mean they are inspired and may end up on the M&P stage themselves later in life.
“I guess somebody didn’t get the memo. Music is for everyone at any age, (so long as it’s before 7pm).
Five Manchester artists we’ve been listening to this month | October 2024
Danny Jones
Hello Manchester, hope you’ve been doing well and finding lots of great new music; even if not, you’ve come to the right place because it’s time once again to dive into five bands and artists from in and around Manchester that we’ve been listening to of late.
We’re not sure what it is necessarily – perhaps all the smaller to mid-level British bands that we loved for many years announcing their break-ups recently – but we’ve been soaking ourselves in pretty much not but groups and mainly infectious indie riffs for the past 31 days.
That being said, we do have a surprise or two on the list this time around and, more importantly, everyone that we’ve spotlighted is obviously brilliant because we’d never lead you astray.
Anyway, enough faffing about, time for you to find some new Manchester artists and music to get stuck into – go right ahead.
Five Manchester bands you should check out this month
First up on our list of five Manchester bands we’ve been listening to throughout October is the still very new and already very good, The Guest List: four mates making very good indie rock with a more old-school vibe that’s almost reminiscent of the early 2000s and a general swagger way beyond their years.
Only formed back in 2021 and are obviously still young lads, there’s already an impressive understanding of building both mature and memorable melodies, which we can only assume has come from soaking up the right influences growing up. They did go viral for a great cover of ‘505’ by Arctic Monkeys too.
They’ve only released a small selection of music so far, meaning you should definitely catch up with all their discography whilst it’s still easy, but we’d pick out ‘161’ as a great example of that impressively reminiscent sound and lyricism, so is ‘Won’t You Leave Me Alone’ and we just love the guitar on ‘Canada’.
2. Larkins
Next up for this month is Larkins and while they have been around for a good long while now, with just a couple of EPs and one admittedly short and sweet debut album between them, they still feel like our little secret somehow.
They’re categorically not by the way: these guys gained some loyal local fans from their humble beginnings up in Glossop all the way back in 2015, unbelievably, and as their Manchester following grew, along with the number of gigs and festival slots,
‘Hit and Run’ – the first song they ever released – remains an effortless indie banger designed to get the crowd jumping and an older track we also still love is ‘Sugar Sweet’, but TV Dream is still their biggest song for a reason. You can start wherever you want with these guys, to be honest, it’s all pretty good.
We also enjoy this slower, synthy sing-a-long, not least because of where it’s filmed…
3. The Apex Singers
In at the middle mark, we’ve got undoubtedly the most talented vocalists we’ve ever put on this list simply due to the level of classical training, range and the sheer amount of people pulling together to make such a fulsome, orchestral sound. They even do workshops but it must be hard to teach this…
A Manchester-based vocal ensemble made of eight incredible voices, the name Apex Singers couldn’t be a more fitting moniker. They can go from soothing and uplifting – like you’re listening to the Elven songs from a medieval fantasy film – to haunting, hallow and utterly tear-jerking times.
It genuinely floors us at times that humans can sound this beautiful. Their recent original song ‘The Mermaid Wife’ is a stunning production and a special shout-out to ‘The Booley House’ which actually started out life as a fiddle solo, but you’ll probably best recognise this old Irish song made famous by Hozier not too long ago.
Special shout-out to The Manc‘s very own Oli for this recommendation.
4. Rolla
The second to last band on our list of Manchester artists we recommend you get stuck into is Rolla, and we’re going from soft to hard and in your face with this one. Do the bucket hats, mod haircuts and shades give off quintessentially Northern rock and roll? Yes. Is that kind of the point? Absolutely.
Make no mistake, this isn’t just another band merely trying to imitate the Britpop sound that was mastered here in 0161 enough now, they’re the real f***ing deal if you ask. Rather ironically rolling Oasis, Stone Roses, The Verve, Shed Seven and more all into one, it’s pretty much a Mancs wet dream.
There are so many tracks that give Liam Gallagher leaning into the mic if that’s what you’re after, but ‘No Violence’ was the first track we heard, ‘When Life’s Thunder Striking’ is the one we fell in love with and we’re quite literally addicted to their newest single ‘We Owe You Nothing’. They’re also doing their bit to help out Salford Lads Club too.
Last but not least, we’re swinging back in the direction of no-nonsense indie yet again with Ventrelles, though there’s also a throwback element sonically here too. This Manchester quartet are still pretty green as well but they seem to have found the niche they’re going for.
Self-described as everything from ‘ScallyGaze/Council Soul/Highrise Psychedelia’ to ‘Fleece Pop’, you can call their so-called sub-genre whatever you want but you’ll definitely get dripping vocals that hark back to the Roses, as well as some Echo and the Bunnymen-esque effects and guitar patterns at times.
‘County Lines’, ‘A Symphony of Sorts’ and their 2023 single ‘Happenstance’ almost reminded us a little of Hard-Fi in spots; we’re not sure whether this was just a moment in time for the band but delays, pedals and shimmery guitars or not, we just can’t wait for them to drop some more tunes.
They also credit some of their sound to Liverpool band Pale Fountains and other contemporaries from the area.
And there’s your lot, five more Manchester artists for you to familiarise yourself with and we hope you get at least some variety from us this month even despite the fact we’re still mourning the likes of Sundara Karma, Jaws, The Native and more.
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Still, it looks like we’re getting back everyone from The Maccabees and Doves to even the Scissor Sisters, so it’s not all bad and we still love stumbling across new bands and artists more than anything.
As always, we encourage you to go back and check out last month’s list and all the other for that matter, and we’ll catch you next time!
The Manc -
16th November 2020 
