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Ska legends Madness announce huge UK arena tour, with date in Manchester
How to get tickets. (Contains affiliate links)
Madness have just announced details of a huge UK arena tour, which will include a show here in Manchester.
The ska legends, one of Britain’s best-loved bands, will kick off their C’est La Vie 2023 tour this winter and will hit major cities across the UK.
The 13-date tour promises to be packed with hits from the group’s decades-long music career, which includes 12 studio albums.
They’ll be performing at the AO Arena on Saturday 9 December.
Madness were one of the biggest bands of the late 1970s and early 1980s and were credited with being at the heart of the ska two-tone revival.
They’ve had 15 top-ten singles and have won masses of awards, including a prestigious Ivor Novello.
They even performed on top of Buckingham Palace as part of the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations.
The group famously emerged from the backstreets of Camden Town in the late 70s and recently released a three-part original docu series with TV channel AMC about the beginnings of the band in the area.
Madness are responsible for some of the best-known tracks of all time, including Baggy Trousers, House of Fun, It Must Be Love, and Our House.
Their C’est La Vie 2023 tour will show off new songs from their forthcoming album as well as diving into their huge back catalogue.
The Lightning Seeds will be the special guests for the entirety of the tour.
Madness said: “WOT-a-tour this promises to be! We can’t wait to be back out on the road, doing what we love best. Roll on November.”
Tickets for all shows will go on general sale at 9:30am on Friday 28 April from See Tickets here.
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Full Madness 2023 tour dates
- 30 November – Aberdeen P&J Live
- 1 December – Glasgow OVO Hydro
- 2 December – Newcastle Utilita Arena
- Mon 4 December – Cardiff International Arena
- Tue 5 December – Nottingham Motorpoint Arena
- Thu 7 December – Liverpool M&S Bank Arena
- Fri 8 December – Leeds First Direct Arena
- Sat 9 December – Manchester AO Arena
- Mon 11 December – Brighton Centre
- Tue 12 December – Bournemouth International Centre
- Thu 14 December – Sheffield Utilita Arena
- Fri 15 December – London The O2
- Sat 16 December – Birmingham Utilita Arena
Featured image: Publicity picture
Audio
Inspiring new 360° immersive David Bowie experience to open in Manchester
Emily Sergeant
Music lovers will get a glimpse inside the mind of a creative genius when a new immersive experience opens later this year.
Factory International has this week announced its programme of events for the upcoming autumn-winter season, and by far one of the stand-outs on the list has to be the return of Lightroom for a new 360° experience called David Bowie: You’re Not Alone – which is set to immerse audiences in the iconic performances and creative mind of one of the world’s most visionary and influential artists.
Bringing together a wealth of visual material from a wide range of sources, the experience combines rare performance footage, photography, drawings, lyrics, personal notes, and audio recordings from the late Bowie himself.
You’re Not Alone will showcase some of Bowie’s landmark performances that redefined popular culture, using a mix of iconic, rarely seen, and even never-before-exhibited material.
Selected from thousands of hours of film in the vaults of the David Bowie Archive in New York, you can expect to see everything from Space Oddity and Diamond Dogs, through to Heroes, Black Star, and more.
Each track has been newly reconfigured by multiple Olivier and Tony award-winning sound designer, Gareth Fry, to utilise Lightroom’s specialised spatial audio system.
The 360° experience is set to be both a multimedia spectacle and an intimate self-portrait in one, giving audiences a unique insight into Bowie’s perspective on the subjects that were most important to him, like theatricality, spirituality, songwriting, and the transformative power of creativity.
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David Bowie: You’re Not Alone is being made in close collaboration with, and has been authorised by, the David Bowie Estate.
It’ll run at Aviva Studios from 8 December 2026 through to 10 January 2027.
Featured Image – Supplied
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Parklife has quietly added a major DJ set from Happy Mondays’ Bez
Daisy Jackson
Parklife has quietly added a DJ set from Bez this afternoon, joining an already stacked festival line-up.
Eagle-eyed users of the Parklife app (aka, us) have spotted that as the big weekend nears, a few new stages have popped up on the plans.
And that’s included a new Beatbox Stage, which on Saturday will host a mega set from the icon that is Bez, from Happy Mondays.
Bez isn’t the only nostalgic name who’s been added to the line-up for Saturday – the Beatbox Stage will also host a set from Artful Dodger.
The 2000s garage icons will be taking to the stage at 3pm for a set that will hopefully include their massive hits like Moving Too Fast, Re-Rewind (with Craig David), and Woman Trouble.
On Sunday, the newly-added Beatbox Stage will be hosting DJ Fat Tony, who you might know for getting stuck into the middle of the Beckham family feud – but he’s also one of the most in-demand A-list DJs, having spun for icons like Madonna, Prince, and Elton John.
Parklife has also quietly added a few secret sets to the bill, which we’ll be keeping a close eye on.
They join existing Parklife headliners including Calvin Harris, Zara Larsson, Chris Stussy, Sammy Virji, Skepta, and East End Dubs.
On Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 June, thousands of music-lovers will be flocking to the fields of Heaton Park ready for this year’s instalment of Parklife.
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Featured image: The Manc Group
Daisy Jackson -
21st April 2023 
