Pop-punk veterans New Found Glory have just announced their first full UK headline tour in over eight years, and feel free to ‘Kiss Me’ now because they’re coming back to Manchester.
We’re pretty sure we’ve still got a pair of checkerboard Vans that still fit somewhere.
American rock fans of a certain age will be more than familiar with New Found Glory, but for anyone who never had the phase, they’re up there with some of the longest-running pop-punk bands still around.
Having last released music in 2023 with a staggering 12th studio album, they’re still as prolific as they’ve ever been, and they’ll soon be heading back across the pond.
The Florida-formed four-piece first began around Coral Springs in 1997 and have been through plenty of iterations in their nearly three-decade-long career, with five different past members and even more touring musicians (including the likes of Paramore‘s Hayley Williams), but they’re still going strong.
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Now consisting of frontman Jordan Pundik, fellow co-founders Ian Grushka (bass) and Chad Gilbert (lead) and Cyrus Bolooki, who has been in place since 2013.
That being said, with all the chopping and changing – not to mention still plenty of work being done in the studio – it’s been a hot minute since they’ve done a transatlantic tour.
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However, they had to come back some day, and it turns out that day, at least for Manchester, is coming just next month when they’ll be playing O2 Victoria Warehouse.
You can find their rest of the New Found Glory May 2025 UK dates down below:
Fri, 10 May – 02 Academy, Birmingham Sat, 11 May – 02 Victoria Warehouse, MCR Sun, 12 May – 02 City Hall, Newcastle Tues, 14 – 02 Academy, Glasgow Wed, 15 – Rock City, Nottingham Fri, 17 – 02 Academy, Bournemouth Sat, 18 – 02 Academy Brixton, London
Featured Images — Press Shots (supplied)/Audio North
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A$AP Rocky announces huge Manchester gig on new world tour
Daisy Jackson
A$AP Rocky is heading out on a massive world tour, and is including a gig here in Manchester.
The rapper, producer, actor and entrepreneur has just announced his upcoming 2026 tour, the Don’t Be Dumb World Tour, with a whopping 42 dates across the globe.
This will be fans’ first chance to hear his latest album and first release in eight years, Don’t Be Dumb, live.
The huge A$AP Rocky tour kicks off this May in the USA, before heading across to Europe in July.
That leg will include a gig at the Co-op Live in Manchester on Saturday 5 September, one of only three UK shows on the tour.
The announcement has come hot on the heels of the release of his fourth album last week, which Billboard has said ‘not only rewards patience but adds new wrinkles to the rapper’s approach — an evolved relationship with melody and a wiser lyrical slant’.
It became Spotify’s most pre-saved hip-hop album, with one million saves even before its release.
As well as his music career, A$AP Rocky has starred in films including the Golden Globe-winning If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, and has cemented himself as a fashion icon with his work as co-chair of the 2025 Met Gala.
He’s also been announced as the creative director for Ray-Ban, and was appointed as Chanel’s new house ambassador.
General sale for the Don’t Be Dumb World Tour will go live at 9am on Tuesday 27 January HERE.
There’ll be artist pre-sales, a Mastercard pre-sale, and various VIP packages available too.
‘Manc the Biff’: the Co-op Live crowd made the Clyro boys welcome on debut
Danny Jones
It feels like we’ve been waiting a long time to welcome Biffy Clyro back to Manchester, and they really didn’t disappoint on their Co-op Live debut.
Here’s our review of what was a proper rock show.
After a strong lineup of support acts with The Armed and Soft Play (formerly Slaves) injecting plenty of early energy into the crowds, already knew two things: the Scots wouldn’t disappoint, and a Manc crowd NEVER lets you down.
We knew everyone was on top form from the moment the Kilmarnock icons stepped out on stage under a swathe of blankets to the opener from their latest album, Futique.
Once the curtain was eventually lifted during ‘A Little Love’, which has quickly become one of the most popular singles for some time, you could see the sea of fans below start bouncing.
Rolling into the likes of ‘Hunting Season’ and Only Revolutions classic, ‘The Captain’, those bounces quite quickly turned into a healthy-sized pit, and those up in the stands with us finally got on their feet.
That was maybe our only complaint: we love seeing a seated section pretending they’re in standing from their start, but we get it and each to their own, of course.
In fact, the same goes for the rest of the session players joining them on the road this year.
One thing we weren’t expecting was quite how cool the production levels were going to be. We’ve never been Biffy fans for their creativity when it comes to toying with stage design or lighting rigs, but they threw in some fun effects regardless.
Highlights from the night included ‘Tiny Indoor Fireworks’, ‘Bubbles’, and ‘Black Chandelier’, though we were sad not to hear ‘Victory Over The Sun’, and it was especially gutting that one of our favourite tracks from the new record, ‘True Believer’, didn’t end up on the setlist.
Again, you can’t have anything – we’re just glad we got to be there and see a truly great British rock band proving that they are well and truly an arena-level band.
Lastly, even after all the years and an X-Factor cover trying its hardest to take the credit away from them, ‘Many of Horror’ is still an unbelievable rock ballad, and d’ya know who is an unbelievable rock band? “Biffy. F***ing. Clyroooooo.”
Danny Jones -
8th April 2025 
