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Richard Ashcroft and Blossoms to headline Neighbourhood Weekender 2026 lineup

Is this one of their best lineups to date? (this article contains affiliate links)

Danny Jones Danny Jones - 31st October 2025

The first wave of the NBHD Weekender lineup for 2026 is officially out, and Greater Manchester leads the way in terms of headliners, with local music legend Richard Ashcroft and Stockport’s finest, Blossoms, both confirmed for the big slot on the main stage.

Now THAT is how you kick off an announcement.

Yes, Neighbourhood Weekender always promises a healthy dose of Northern acts on the lineup, including plenty of Mancs, scousers and others from Cheshire and the region at large, but to get two much-loved music artists from our boroughs topping the 2026 bill is an absolute treat.

With other noteworthy appearances in the Kaiser Chiefs, DMA’s, Jamie Webster, Example and many more on there already, it feels like next year’s festival is shaping up to be a potential all-timer.

As you can see, the first wave of the NBHD 2026 lineup also includes returning crowd-pleasers like Shed Seven, Razorlight and The K’s.

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Other acts that also caught our eye include our own natives like Arkayla, The Guest List, Luvcat and The Covasettes, just to name a few, as well as rising ‘Britainicana outfit’, Westside Cowboy, who just so happen to star on our most recent round-up of what we’ve been listening to.

In fact, there are a few past Manc bands of the month features on this lineup, not to mention more nearby names in Lucvat, The Royston Club, Keyside, Nxdia and so on, who are all well worth earmarking ahead of the stage splits being announced.

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One name we’re also very excited to see play another big festival crowd is post-grunge four-piece Keo, who recently announced their most “ambitious” tour to date, including what is set to be a massive gig right here in 0161.

As for the headliners, indie heroes Blossoms need no introduction; nor does Wigan’s most famous musical son, with Ashcroft riding a real resurgence at the moment – he’s also one of our artists of the month, naturally.

In fact, confirmation of both Ashcroft and his Oasis Live ’25 support act partners, Cast, being booked for Warrington’s Victoria Park and the next NBHD Fest comes after the 54-year-old confirmed a fellow hometown band for some very big shows of his own.

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The organisers have already promised that a lot more musicians are set to join the lineup for next May Bank Holiday Weekend (Saturday 23- Sun 24 May 2025), and we can’t wait to see who else they rope in for the festival.

Sign-up for pre-sale is set to go live next Thursday, 6 November at 9:30am and, as always, those living in WA1-WA5 postcode get exclusive early access ahead of that from the same time on Wednesday.

As for general admission tickets, they’ll be available from the following Friday (7 Nov) – once again, from 9:30 onwards – and new for this year, there will also be different payment plans via their website.

You can get ready to grab your tickets HERE. See you in the fields!

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Featured Images — Press shots (supplied)/Audio North

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Sankeys shares sneak peek at new venue as legendary Manchester nightclub gears up for return

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson Sankeys shares sneak peek inside venue as legendary Manchester nightclub prepares return

Sankeys has given Mancs a glimpse inside its new venue as the legendary nightclub gears up for its return.

The club was one of Manchester’s top nightlife spots for years, before shutting down seemingly for good almost a decade ago.

Set within Beehive Mill in Ancoats, Sankeys was a true icon of Manchester’s global nightlife scene.

And while the old Sankeys Soap nightlife space is now full of co-working spaces, the spirit of Sankeys is about to be reborn.

The exact location of the new club is still being kept under wraps ahead of its reopening at the end of January, but new renderings have been released to give us a glimpse of how it will look.

Sankeys is promising ‘A reimagined space. New energy. Same legendary nights’.

The new Sankeys Manchester will be a 500-capacity venue, designed to ‘capture the raw underground energy that made Sankeys one of the most iconic club brands in the world’.

It will feature an LED matrix grid installation that will immerse clubbers in ‘light, sound and atmosphere’.

Sankeys Manchester officially opens on 30 January – you can see a glimpse of how it will look below and grab tickets HERE.

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Featured image: Supplied

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The most annoying songs of 2025 according to ‘science’ have been revealed

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant Girl listening music with headphones

A list of the most annoying songs of 2025 according to ‘science’ has been published.

Music fans have already been sifting through their Spotify Wrapped, which came out earlier this month, with searches for it surging an astonishing 5,000% in recent weeks, proving that 2025 has been a memorable year for music.

We’ve had record-breaking releases, viral TikTok hits, and artists pushing creative boundaries across genres.

Despite the hits though, some tracks have sparked debates over how irritating they are – from repetitiveness to ‘harmonic dullness’.

Interested to discover the most annoying song releases of 2025, the experts at SeatPick analysed the most popular songs of 2025 according to official top charts, then measured their repetition, shrillness, harmonic dullness, and filler lyrics to calculate the percentage chance that listeners would find the song to be so-called ‘annoying’.

The most annoying songs of 2025 have been revealed according to ‘science’ / Credit: Jonas Leupe | Ketut Subiyanto (via Unsplash and Pexels)

Unfortunately for one artist – one very popular artist, it has to be said – they have claimed both the top and second spot, and that artist is pop royalty Sabrina Carpenter.

SeatPick’s findings revealed that Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Sugar Talking’ and ‘Tears’, which were both featured on her latest album Man’s Best Friend, are the most annoying songs released in 2025, as the data metrics indicated that nearly half of listeners (46%) are likely to find these songs irritating due to they’re repetitiveness.

Lady Gaga’s ‘The Dead Dance’ ranks as the third most annoying track of the year, scoring high on the ‘annoyingness index,’ with repetition, brightness, and lyrical filler contributing to an overall 45.8% likelihood that listeners would find it irritating.

Rounding off the top four most irritating songs of 2025 is ‘Who’ by BTS member, Jimin, with there being a 45.5% chance that listeners would find his song irritating due to its repetitive hooks and bright, high pitched tones.

When it comes to the list of most irritating TikTok trending songs of 2025, that title went to ‘Dame Un Grrr’ by Fantomel and Kate Linn, with a 45.7% likelihood of being found irritating by listeners, closely followed by ‘She Twerkin’ by Ca$h Out in second, with a 44.1% likelihood of being found annoying by listeners.

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One song we’re sure many of you won’t be surprised to find on the most irritating list is ‘Hold My Hand’ by Jess Glynne, which, of course, initially gained popularity through its use in a Jet2Holiday advertisement, and then later became widely featured in more than 3.4 million TikTok videos.

So, what do you make of these results then? Do you agree? What do you think the most annoying song that came out in 2025 is?

Featured Image – Karola G (via Pexels)

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