Hollywood Vampires have announced a raft of massive UK tour dates – which means A-lister Johnny Depp will be back on stage in Manchester.
The supergroup also features Alice Cooper and Joe Perry, of Aerosmith fame.
Hollywood Vampires formed in 2012, named after Cooper’s celebrity drinking club of the same name where the aim was reportedly to ‘drink until no one could stand up’.
Over the years, the supergroup has worked with the likes of Paul McCartney, Dave Grohl, and Zak Starkey (formerly the drummer for Oasis).
They’ve now announced a massive UK tour, including a date at the AO Arena.
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Hollywood Vampires with Jimmy Kimmel. Credit: Facebook, Hollywood Vampires
Depp performed here back in June when he toured alongside musician and friend Jeff Beck.
The Pirates of the Caribbean star last appeared in Manchester shortly after winning his high-profile defamation trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard.
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Hollywood Vampires will be joined by guitarist Tommy Henriksen on the tour next summer.
Cooper said: “I can’t wait to get back with the guys, I really love being in that band.
THE VAMPIRES RISE AGAIN! NEW UK DATES!!!
Wednesday July 5 – Scarborough Friday July 7 – Swansea⁰Saturday July 8 – Manchester⁰Sunday July 9 – London Tuesday July 11 – Birmingham Wednesday July 12 – Glasgow
“My band is great and wonderful, but playing with the Vampires is an entirely different situation.
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“I don’t necessarily do any theatrics at all, I’m just the lead singer, in a band, and the band just happens to be one of the best bands around. It’ll be great to see Johnny and Joe and Buck and Chris and all the guys.
“We’ll be rocking these places, especially the UK, I can’t wait to get to the UK. Lock your doors, put garlic all around, because the Vampires are coming.”
Wednesday 5 July – Scarborough, Open Air Theatre Friday 7 July – Swansea, Swansea Arena Saturday Saturday 8 July – Manchester, AO Arena Sunday Sunday 9 July – London, The O2 Tuesday 11 July – Birmingham, Utilita Arena Wednesday 12 July – Glasgow, OVO Hydro
Featured image: Publicity picture / Ross Halfin
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A$AP Rocky announces huge Manchester gig on new world tour
Daisy Jackson
A$AP Rocky is heading out on a massive world tour, and is including a gig here in Manchester.
The rapper, producer, actor and entrepreneur has just announced his upcoming 2026 tour, the Don’t Be Dumb World Tour, with a whopping 42 dates across the globe.
This will be fans’ first chance to hear his latest album and first release in eight years, Don’t Be Dumb, live.
The huge A$AP Rocky tour kicks off this May in the USA, before heading across to Europe in July.
That leg will include a gig at the Co-op Live in Manchester on Saturday 5 September, one of only three UK shows on the tour.
The announcement has come hot on the heels of the release of his fourth album last week, which Billboard has said ‘not only rewards patience but adds new wrinkles to the rapper’s approach — an evolved relationship with melody and a wiser lyrical slant’.
It became Spotify’s most pre-saved hip-hop album, with one million saves even before its release.
As well as his music career, A$AP Rocky has starred in films including the Golden Globe-winning If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, and has cemented himself as a fashion icon with his work as co-chair of the 2025 Met Gala.
He’s also been announced as the creative director for Ray-Ban, and was appointed as Chanel’s new house ambassador.
General sale for the Don’t Be Dumb World Tour will go live at 9am on Tuesday 27 January HERE.
There’ll be artist pre-sales, a Mastercard pre-sale, and various VIP packages available too.
‘Manc the Biff’: the Co-op Live crowd made the Clyro boys welcome on debut
Danny Jones
It feels like we’ve been waiting a long time to welcome Biffy Clyro back to Manchester, and they really didn’t disappoint on their Co-op Live debut.
Here’s our review of what was a proper rock show.
After a strong lineup of support acts with The Armed and Soft Play (formerly Slaves) injecting plenty of early energy into the crowds, already knew two things: the Scots wouldn’t disappoint, and a Manc crowd NEVER lets you down.
We knew everyone was on top form from the moment the Kilmarnock icons stepped out on stage under a swathe of blankets to the opener from their latest album, Futique.
Once the curtain was eventually lifted during ‘A Little Love’, which has quickly become one of the most popular singles for some time, you could see the sea of fans below start bouncing.
Rolling into the likes of ‘Hunting Season’ and Only Revolutions classic, ‘The Captain’, those bounces quite quickly turned into a healthy-sized pit, and those up in the stands with us finally got on their feet.
That was maybe our only complaint: we love seeing a seated section pretending they’re in standing from their start, but we get it and each to their own, of course.
In fact, the same goes for the rest of the session players joining them on the road this year.
One thing we weren’t expecting was quite how cool the production levels were going to be. We’ve never been Biffy fans for their creativity when it comes to toying with stage design or lighting rigs, but they threw in some fun effects regardless.
Highlights from the night included ‘Tiny Indoor Fireworks’, ‘Bubbles’, and ‘Black Chandelier’, though we were sad not to hear ‘Victory Over The Sun’, and it was especially gutting that one of our favourite tracks from the new record, ‘True Believer’, didn’t end up on the setlist.
Again, you can’t have anything – we’re just glad we got to be there and see a truly great British rock band proving that they are well and truly an arena-level band.
Lastly, even after all the years and an X-Factor cover trying its hardest to take the credit away from them, ‘Many of Horror’ is still an unbelievable rock ballad, and d’ya know who is an unbelievable rock band? “Biffy. F***ing. Clyroooooo.”
Daisy Jackson -
24th October 2022 
