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Music memorabilia shop with a difference opens in Manchester, and it’s a shrine to all things 1990s

This place is Manc heaven.

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 31st March 2023

A new music memorabilia shop filled with items created by the legendary design outfit Microdot has opened in Manchester.

For the uninitiated, Microdot – founded by industry icon Brian Cannon – was behind some of the world’s most famous album covers.

The studio created record sleeve artwork for every piece of music released by Oasis and Verve in the 1990s, from the living room of Definitely, Maybe to the sunken Rolls-Royce in a swimming pool for Be Here Now.

Unlike other music memorabilia stores, everything inside the new Microdot Manchester store has been created by the design outfit.

It’s all displayed on walls and rails like a museum – but just about everything is up for sale.

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One exception is a fireplace standing on one wall, which featured on Oasis’s Definitely, Maybe album cover and is currently on loan from Bonehead himself.

Microdot Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group
Microdot Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group
Microdot Manchester. Credit: Supplied

Particularly fascinating are the annotated sketches from Brian, where’s he’s revealed some behind-the-scenes insight into these legendary album covers.

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Like the familiar assortment of items around the pool on Be Here Now? Yeah, totally random stuff picked by Liam and Noel. No significance at all.

And that man with a moustache who pops up on three different Oasis covers, including the D’ You Know What I Mean artwork? It’s Brian’s dad…

You’ll also find walls covered in photo prints, from behind-the-scenes images to pictures of bands on tour, from the Gallagher brothers to John Cooper Clarke.

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The shop is selling rare signed memorabilia dating back to the 1990s, alongside band t-shirts and prints.

Microdot founder Brian Cannon said: “We are very excited to be in Manchester, bringing with us a unique offering, friendly and knowledgable staff, and a great place to hang out.”

Operations manager Ben Mason added: “Manchester, for so long synonymous with musical heritage, is for us the perfect place to launch the new Microdot store.”

Microdot Manchester is located at 6 King Street and is open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm, and on Sundays from 11am until 5pm.

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Featured image: Supplied

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Pitbull at Co-op Live, Manchester – please, don’t stop the party

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson Pitbull at Co-op Live in Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group

How bizarre it must be to be Pitbull. This is a man with, by all accounts, a pretty successful music career – but how bizarre for his trajectory to kick up so sharply now, 20 years after his debut album. 

Watching the rapper, now 44 years old, dominate sold-out arenas across the world and become a social media sensation and something of a cult phenomenon is a joy to behold. 

Who else could lead tens of thousands of people a night to party wearing a bald cap and a drawn-on goatee? Manchester donned their Pitbull costumes en masse and town looked all the better for it yesterday. 

For anyone having even a hint of ‘I don’t get it’ in their minds, you’ve forgotten what nightclubs were like in the late 2000s. An era where we would post 80 blurry photos on Facebook from one night out, and our makeup bags were just Dream Matte Mousse and a kohl eyeliner. 

It’s the same era where dance floors were absolutely dominated by Pitbull hits, from Hotel Room Service to Give Me Everything to International Love.

So his tour returning to Manchester feels like stepping back in time for all the 30-somethings in town, who all (myself included) decided to party like there were no consequences (currently staring into my cup of tea and remembering why I don’t usually drink wine on a school night). 

The best thing about this gig is the way it strips all pretension away from all 23,500 people inside the Co-op Live. While we’d normally spend hours pampering and preening for a show to look our best, here we all stick a bald cap and a suit jacket on just let loose in a sea of people wearing the exact same uniform. I have never heard so many people breathlessly giggling their way through a show before. 

And while the gig itself is quite silly and camp (there are scantily-clad dancers everywhere and the guy in charge of the pyrotechnics is pretty trigger-happy), there are some properly talented musicians on stage too.

Pitbull is backed by multiple percussionists, keyboards, guitars, woodwind and more, and his Latino roots shine with songs like Culo and Gasoline, where the dancers salsa and his hips get extra wriggly.

Pitbull staring out at his fans between songs in Manchester
Pitbull staring out at his fans between songs in Manchester
Pitbull brought the party to Manchester
Pitbull brought the party to Manchester

We came because it’s silly but we stayed because it’s GOOD.

Prolific songwriter (‘Life is not a waste of time, time is not a waste of life. So let’s not waste any time, get wasted, and have the time of our lives’), party-starter, and philanthropist (he’s funded tuition-free schools in his hometown of Miami), Pitbull is soaking in every inch of the success that’s come his way. 

On stage at Co-op Live in Manchester, the lights come up between songs to Pitbull stood on his little platform, grinning cheesily and looking over his assembled mini Pitbulls like a proud overlord. This man is having the time of his life.

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Featured image: The Manc Group

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Liam Gallagher teases post-Oasis reunion tour plans online

Danny Jones Danny Jones Liam Gallagher plans after Oasis reunion not retiring

Liam Gallagher is at it on social media again, and prior to a random posting spree in the early hours on Monday morning, he might have actually shed some light on his plans after the Oasis reunion tour over the weekend.

As always with anything the ever-vocal frontman says online, we urge you to take this with a pinch of salt.

Nevertheless, we’ve allowed ourselves to get very excited and hopeful that the Live ’25 tour isn’t just a one-off and that Oasis are back for good, at least as far as the younger Gallagher brother is concerned.

The latest excuse to be optimistic comes after Liam responded to a fan on Twitter asking whether or not people thought he would retire after the reunion shows, to which he simply responded:

Potentially genuine plans delivered in a mostly sarcastic, entirely unserious and somewhat expletive fashion – we wouldn’t expect anything less.

That being said, just because he delivers things in seemingly free-wheeling tweets (often at stupid o’clock in the morning) doesn’t mean that

For instance, last month, LG responded directly to reports that began circling due to the band’s manager, Alec McKinlay, stating that they had ‘no plans’ to keep working together beyond the reunion shows themselves, and this would be “the last time round” in a recent MusicWeek interview.

The co-manager and Ignition Management partner also told the outlet that there was currently no new music in the works. However, it was only recently that Liam himself – responding via X, once again – appeared to tell fans that a new album was already “in the bag”.

As for his response to McKinlay claims back in May, the 52-year-old simply posted: “The only people that will be making any kind of decisions on the future of OASIS will be ME & RKID, so let’s just take it one day at a time.”

He also confirmed the support acts and full reunion band lineup on the platform, too, so he’s not always just shouting aimlessly into the void for his own amusement. One can only hope…

Leaked ‘Knebworth 2026’ teaser has Oasis fans losing their minds
Fingers crossed that both Liam and Noel Gallagher have plans for a VERY big finish to the reunion.

Both brothers are finally back in rehearsals ahead of the worldwide sellout shows this summer, and a number of apparent audio clips revealing how the comeback is sounding have appeared on the internet.

As well as being pictured attending the sessions in London, some supposed ‘setlists’ have also been leaked, though Liam himself has rubbished at least one image as an outright “FAKE” in his replies.

In fairness, the nation and fans all over the globe have waited so long that they’d probably be happy hearing pretty much any combination of songs at this point.

So yeah, only time will tell how serious he was being; then again, these are his most recent posts…

liam gallagher latest tweets
Credit: Liam Gallagher (screenshot via X)

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Featured Images — Jonnysmirth (via Wikimedia Commons)/Audio North

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