Neighbourhood Weekender has announced the first wave of acts for next year’s lineup, and there’s some huge names heading to Warrington.
The Victoria Park-based festival is always known to kick-off the summer with an incredible weekend of non-stop live music across three stages, and with the incredible roster of talent announced today, 2023 looks set to be no different.
Local northern legends Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott, and popular indie band The Kooks have both been confirmed for huge slots at Neighbourhood Weekender 2023, alongside the return of Britpop superstars Pulp – who have also today announced they are reuniting for the first time since 2013 for a string of shows next year.
Pulp will headline the festival as part of their ‘What we do for an encore’ live dates.
LET’S GO! First wave of your Neighbourhood Weekender 2023 line-up is here!! 💥💥💥
Announcing the reunion tour and headlining slot, lead singer Jarvis Cocker said: “Three months ago, we asked, ‘what exactly do you do for an encore?’ Well… an encore happens when the crowd makes enough noise to bring the band back to the stage.
ADVERTISEMENT
“So we are playing in the UK and Ireland in 2023, come along and make some noise, and we’ll see you there.”
Alongside Pulp, after a second consecutive UK number one album, legendary duo Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott will return to Victoria Park to close out the main stage on Saturday night.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Kooks will also take to the main stage on the Saturday of the two-day festival.
Neighbourhood Weekender has unveiled its 2023 lineup / Credit: Neighbourhood Weekender | Graham Joy Photography
Those three huge names will also be joined by indie stalwarts The Wombats, The Enemy, and Ocean Colour Scene, alongside festival favourites Jamie Webster, Everything Everything, and The Big Moon.
Pop sensations Anne-Marie, Ella Henderson, and Sugababes have also been announced, as well as two of this year’s biggest breakthrough artists – the Mercury Prize-nominated Self Esteem, and Australian dance duo Confidence Man.
ADVERTISEMENT
A whole host of exciting newcomers have also been announced as part of the first wave lineup, with rising stars CMAT, Courting, English Teacher, and Slant all taking to the stage in May.
There’s some huge names heading to Warrington next May / Credit: Neighbourhood Weekender
Neighbourhood Weekender 2023 is taking over Victoria Park in Warrington on Saturday 27 & Sunday 28 May, with tickets officially set to go on general sale at 9am on Friday 4 November, and you can grab them from the NBHD website, or head on over to Ticketmaster or Gigs and Tours.
Coach packages are also available from official coach partner, Big Green Coach, here.
Fans are preparing to pay tribute to Mani from The Stone Roses ahead of his funeral service
Danny Jones
Stone Roses fans and Greater Manchester locals alike are getting ready to pay their respects to the late, great, Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield, following his tragic passing last month.
As well as details surrounding his funeral being announced earlier this week, the iconic Manc musician’s cause of death has also finally been revealed.
While Hatton’s service featured a high-profile cortège which started all the way from his hometown of Hyde, past multiple landmarks and ending at the Etihad Stadium, those local to Mani’s family home on the edge of Stockport are also being welcomed to help send him off.
It's the funeral of Mani of the Stone Roses on the 22nd. He lived locally. This poster is asking people to line the route of his funeral cortege to "show that he truly was adored". pic.twitter.com/X0DYHl10Hp
He had been struggling with emphysema for some time; he was declared dead at his home in the suburb of Heaton Moor, and is said to have died peacefully in his sleep.
As you can see from the posters put in various places around the area, residents wishing to pay their own tributes to Mani before his private funeral service at Manchester Cathedral are encouraged to line the long street leading down from St Paul’s and Heaton Moor United Church as he heads towards the city.
Departing Parsonage Road from 10am on Monday, 22 December, before turning right onto Heaton Moor Rd, then Wellington and eventually on to the Cathedral, you can expect plenty of people to show up.
One of those people will be his former bandmate and another influential guitarist, John Squire, who is one of many famous musical names to have honoured him in their own way over the last few weeks.
Other members of The Stone Roses, as well as Primal Scream (who he joined in 1996), are expected to join the close family and friends at the service itself.
Nevertheless, we have no doubt that plenty will be observing the funeral in their own way.
So, for those of you also looking to honour him, you know what to do; and to quote the poster itself, “together we can show this local legend and his family that he was truly adored.”
Boyzone to reunite for exclusive New Year’s Eve special on the BBC
Danny Jones
2025 has very much been the year of the comeback – be it Oasis, Britpop fashion in general, or short bobs and pixie cuts – so it’s only fitting that we round off the calendar with one last reunion, as throwback boyband Boyzone are set to feature on a TV special on the BBC this New Year’s Eve.
Turns out ‘All That I Need’ to make a year memorable is a load of 1990s nostalgia.
Now, obviously, despite plenty of other music names enjoying a second renaissance over the past 12 months or so, nothing is ever going to be quite as big as the Oasis Live ’25 reunion tour.
However, if you asked us to guess which group from the era were also going to reunite this year back in January, there’s not a chance we would’ve said Boyzone.
Boyzone are telling us about coming back together for one final run in their most unforgettable concerts yet 🎤
After news first began circulating earlier this week, it has now been confirmed that musician turned presenter Ronan Keating will be getting back together with two of his former bandmates.
Joining the 48-year-old for ‘Ronan & Friends: A New Year’s Eve Party’, ex-Boyzone members Keith Duffy and Shane Lynch are part of an exciting live music lineup.
Other names include actor and singer, Shona McGarty, who recently starred on season 25 of I’m A Celeb, as well as fellow 90s pop artist Louise Redknapp and singer-songwriter Calum Scott.
The exclusive reunion comes after the success of the recently aired Boyzone: No Matter What documentary show.
Spread across three parts on Sky, the docuseries (named after their hit song from 1998) looks back on the career and journey up the charts back in their heyday, all the way up to the present. After seemingly striking a chord with fans and the lads themselves, it looks like they’re not done after all…
Yes, not only is the festive TV special going to see three of the original members performing alongside each other again, but
Here’s hoping that turns into a springboard for something even bigger, and we get a Manchester arena show sometime soon.
As for the programme itself, ‘Ronan & Friends: A New Year’s Eve Party’ will be broadcast on BBC One and made available on BBC iPlayer from Wednesday, 31 December 2025.
Emily Sergeant -
28th October 2022 
