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Sounds of the City 2024 | Loyle Carner at Castlefield Bowl – everything you need to know

Carner's coming to Castlefield's iconic outdoor venue.

Danny Jones Danny Jones - 8th July 2024

Sounds of the City 2024 is now well and truly underway and with Loyle Carner next up at Castlefield Bowl, the party is stepping up another gear.

The British rapper, who has carved out a sizeable space for himself in the overlapping jazz-fuelled and neo-soul spaces, is one of the biggest hip-hop artists in the UK and genuinely might be one of the first names that comes to mind when we think of a chilled voice we love listening to.

Loyle Carner has fast become one of our favourite solo artists in recent years but it’s also worth reminding those who might be new to his music that the London-born lyricist has been at this for well over a decade now.

Now, over a year on from his big slot at BBC Radio 6 Music Festival 2023, the 29-year-old is on his way back to Manchester as the latest act at this year’s Sounds of the City and here’s everything you need to know if you’re going along.

Tickets for Loyle Carner’s Manchester gig

For those of you looking for a last-minute Loyle ticket, you’re in luck because there are still a handful of general admission spots up for grabs.

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At £45 including fees, they’re pretty reasonably priced too, especially for such a big name and what has become a super popular city centre festival of late.

You can grab yours HERE but be quick about it or you’ll be rolling the dice on a reseller.

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Who is supporting Loyle Carner at Castlefield Bowl?

Another reason you can be happy with that ticket price is who you’re getting for the support act too, as opening up for Loyle will be fellow soul and hip hop connoisseurs Children of Zeus, who have a bit of legendary local status.

The Manc duo are both equally respected MCs, producers and beat-makers in their own right, so it’s no surprise their fellow contemporary gave them the nod for the show and it’ll be great to see them taking centre stage in front of a packed-out amphitheatre.

They also epitomise the smooth and RnB-inspired soulful sound that complements Carner’s sounds so well, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed for a live collab.

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Stage times for Sounds of the City 2024

For those who’ve never been, this is your wonderful venue for Manchester’s Sounds of the City festival (Credit: The Manc Audio)

Another thing a lot of people like about Sounds of the City is that the gigs tend to lean a little bit towards the earlier side of gigs, as doors open from 5:30pm and headliners don’t usually take the stage until between 8-9pm, though in Carner’s case, he is currently expected to wrap things up around 9:30pm.

This means you can look at around the 6-7pm mark for the warm-ups but, of course, these things are always subject to change so take that info with a pinch of salt and keep an eye out on socials.

We will update you on timings as we have more details.

Setlist

Now, while many of his recent gigs have been festival slots, so we can’t be too sure of what exactly to expect when it comes to his running order of tracks, you can expect plenty of tracks from his latest album hugo to be in the mix.

Also, thanks to the likes of ever-trusty Setlist.fm, we can at least give you a rough average estimate of what you might be listening to:

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  1. Hate
  2. Plastic
  3. Ain’t Nothing Changed
  4. Georgetown
  5. Desoleil (Brilliant Corners)
  6. Angel
  7. Damselfly
  8. Yesterday
  9. Homerton
  10. Blood on My Nikes
  11. Nobody Knows (Ladas Road)
  12. Still
  13. Loose Ends
  14. Ice Water
  15. A Lasting Place
  16. Speed of Plight
  17. HGU
  18. Ottolenghi (feat. Jordan Rakei)

How to get there

Castlefield Bowl (M3 4JR) is on Rice Street just down Liverpool Road which cuts off the main Deansgate strip in the city centre and you can enter Manchester’s much-loved outdoor amphitheatre via Duke or Castle Street.

It’s just a short walk from Deansgate train station or the Deansgate-Castlefield tram stop, where you’ll find regular trams running all over Greater Manchester.

If you’re driving there, Great Northern Warehouse’s (M3 4EE) car park, as well as two other NCPs near Bridgewater Hall and on Quay Street in Spinningfields.

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For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — Press Images/The Manc Group

Audio

The Wombats at AO Arena, Manchester – the noughties indie disco never REALLY died

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson The Wombats at AO Arena, review. Credit: Joshua Fairbrother

If at some point in your life you sported an extreme side-swept fringe, knee-high socks, and a battered leather jacket you scoured the vintage shops for for months, you know what it means to have a noughties indie disco come to town – and that indie disco is courtesy of one of the genre’s greats, The Wombats.

The Liverpool three-piece were at the AO Arena in Manchester on Saturday evening, in support of their sixth studio album Oh! The Ocean.

The hair’s calmed down a lot (they were the MASTERS of whipping their ‘do all the way back from the crown of their head to their eyebrows) but the energy of The Wombats has done the opposite.

For a relatively chill indie band they’ve got a reputation for causing widespread mosh pits, and Manchester delivers them in spades. 

It’s not just your regular elbow-to-the-face, lose-your-mates-for-a-bit, risk-your-ribcage moshpits either. At one point hundreds of people sit on the floor and pretend to row a giant, grimy boat. At another point there’s a confusing moment where three pits all congregate and everyone stares at each other for a split second before letting loose again. 

They’ve got a lot of music to get through in the two decades they’ve been together, but it’s the debut stuff that has a weird effect on all the 30-somethings in the crowd.

Kill The Director, Moving to New York and Let’s Dance to Joy Division are all the sort of songs that transcend grimy basement nightclub all the way to the UK’s best arena with the same frenetic energy.

The Wombats have also pulled together one of the strongest support line-ups seen in recent years, which in turn pulls in one of the busiest standing sections I’ve ever seen, from the minute the doors open. 

First is Red Rum Club, our pals from across the way in Liverpool, with their signature indie sound elevated by trumpet player Joe the Blow.

Then it’s over to local lads Everything Everything, in their matching acid-washed denim and art rock hits.

As for The Wombats – it’s not every artist who can get the goosebumps going within the first two songs – but chucking in Moving To New York as your second song will do just that. 

Say what you want about the scousers but their comedic timing is unmatched too, whether it’s ribbing each other on stage or stressing that the lyrics of their song are ‘getting college girl drunk, not college girls drunk – a very important difference’. 

There are, including vocals, eight instruments between three of them. Most would summon some sessions musicians, but not The Wombats. 

They’re rock solid as a trio, but the whole show is carried along by their urge for playfulness – from the stage invasion by wombat mascots carrying confetti cannons, to dropping giant colourful balloons from the sky as they wrap up the night with Greek Tragedy.

There’s something pretty memorable about the sight of people determinedly carrying a gigantic pink balloon overhead onto the tram.

Long live indie disco.

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Featured image: Joshua Fairbrother

Audio

JLS announce huge UK tour including Manchester gig

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson JLS have announced a huge UK tour including a Manchester show

Boy band JLS have just announced a huge Manchester gig as part of a new UK tour.

The Everybody in Love singers will be heading out on a new tour, The Club Is Alive Tour, this autumn.

Aston Merrygold, Oritsé Williams, Marvin Humes, and JB Gill shared the exiting news of the new tour dates this afternoon.

JLS will be performing at cities including Manchester, Leeds, and Sheffield, as they head to arenas right across the UK.

And support will come from fellow noughties legend Example, who’s behind massive songs like Last Ones Standing, Kickstarts, and Changed The Way You Kiss Me.

JLS formed on the X Factor back in 2008, when they placed as runners-up to Alexandra Burke.

Then they went on to release five chart-topping angles and hit singles like Everybody in Love, She Makes Me Wanna, and One Shot.

The group parted ways in 2013 but reunited for a huge Beat Again tour in 2021.

And now they’re back again, heading to the Co-op Live this November.

Announcing the news this afternoon, they said: “It’s official! We’re hitting the road this year for “The Club Is Alive Tour” with our very special guests Example.

“Get all the info on JLSofficial.com and make sure to click the link and sign up for presale access to tickets. If you miss that, tickets will go on sale to the public on March 28th at 10 AM.”

Tickets will be on sale HERE.

JLS tour dates in full

  • 6 November – Glasgow OVO Hydro
  • 7 November – Aberdeen P&J Live
  • 8 November – Newcastle Utilita Arena
  • 10 November – Belfast SSE Arena
  • 11 November – Dublin 3Arena
  • 13 November – Liverpool M&S Bank Arena
  • 14 November – Sheffield Utilita Arena
  • 15 November – Manchester Co-op Live
  • 17 November – Cardiff Utilita Arena
  • 20 November – Leeds First Direct Arena
  • 21 November – Birmingham Utilita Arena
  • 23 November – Bournemouth International Centre
  • 25 November – Brighton Centre
  • 27 November – Nottingham Motorpoint Arena
  • 28 and 29 November – London The O2

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Featured image: Publicity picture

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