Renowned as one of the most influential bands of the past 40 years, New Order have announced details of a huge homecoming show at Manchester’s Heaton Park on Friday 10th September 2021.
For what will be their first hometown show in 4 years, New Order’s celebratory night promises to be a defining moment in their illustrious career. Synonymous with inspiring generation after generation with their unparalleled catalogue of hits, New Order return to the city that first gave them their start – and a city forever shaped and influenced in their image.
A quintessential force in British music, their sound has travelled the globe and led the way for millions, from ‘True Faith’, ‘Blue Monday’ and ‘Regret’ to ‘World In Motion’, ‘Ceremony’ and countless more.
Released in 2015, their last album ‘Music Complete’ was adjudged a career highlight by critics and with the release of ‘Be a Rebel’ in September, New Order continue to innovate and point to the future, with Heaton Park primed to be an historic night for a band like no other.
Heaton Park
Speaking about their huge headline return to Manchester, New Order said: “The connection between ourselves and Manchester has played a pivotal role in who we are as a band. We have countless memories from across the city, from our early days starting out, and beyond. We promise to bring a celebration like no other to Heaton Park in 2021, and we can’t wait to see everyone come together for a night we’ll never forget.”
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To celebrate news of New Order’s return to Manchester in 2021, the band will participate in a very special Tim’s Listening Party for their most recent LP ‘Music Complete’ on Tuesday 15th December at 8pm. Use the hashtag #TimsTwitterListeningParty to get involved, as the band share memories and stories as they prepare for Heaton Park next year.
Joining New Order for their special Heaton Park homecoming are two acts whose lineage, sound and attitude perfectly match the legendary headliners. Whipping together the dancefloor like few others can, Hot Chip will head to Heaton Park with a soundtrack destined for huge summer moments. From ‘Ready For The Floor’ and ‘Over And Over’ to cuts from their latest album ‘A Bathful Of Ecstasy’ to the Jarvis Cocker-featuring latest release ‘Straight To The Morning’ – expect Hot Chip to be the perfect dancing partner for a historic night in Manchester. Both will be joined by the critically acclaimed electro-punk sounds of Working Men’s Club, whose self-titled debut album stands as one of 2020’s finest – with an equally ferocious and captivating live show sure to go down a treat as the sun sets on Heaton Park.
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Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor, looking ahead to next year’s show, said:“We’ve learnt a lot from New Order (including how Bernard likes his tea), and they have made some incredible music, marrying the emotional with the electronic, a synthetic, at times icy beauty with rawness and pop melody, and they’ve certainly influenced us, as well as us sharing some of the same influences that have informed their music, like Chicago House, Detroit Techno, or Italo Disco. But they’re always proudly themselves, and it will be a great honour to play on the same bill with them, in their hometown, and for us to be back on stage in Manchester. Can’t wait!”
Working Men’s Club’s Sydney Minsky-Sargeant said:“It’s an honour to play with a band as significant as New Order and on more or less home turf too. I’m sure it’ll be a day to remember and to be supporting New Order in Manchester will be super special.”
Tickets for New Order at Heaton Park go on sale this week, with a special fan pre-sale starting from 9am on Tuesday 8th December – before full general release tickets go on sale at 9am on Thursday 10th December here.
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Has Liam Gallagher just casually confirmed that a new Oasis album is coming?
Danny Jones
Liam Gallagher is playing his usual social media mind games to perfection as it looks like he might have just revealed that a new Oasis album is on the way.
Keeping close watch on his social media needs to be someone’s full-time job, honestly.
The younger Gallagher sibling and his older brother Noel have finally patched things up after a decade and a half and barring a big bust-up on the first day of their upcoming reunion shows, the world will soon be able to see them back touring again next summer.
A comeback on its own was something we never thought we’d actually live to see come to fruition but now it looks like not only will be once again seeing the Burnage boys performing their many hits but they may or may not have been working on a new Oasis album. It all started back in September, actually.
Liam, 52, has been enjoying some playful back-and-forth with Oasis fans ever since the comeback was confirmed in August and the talk of new/unreleased music has been rumbling for a while.
Responding to a fan on 7 September, who asked point blank if it was true that a new album was on the way, “Yep it’s already finished.”
Then, as the days rolled into November, LG began swapping out the usual ‘RASTAS’ and ‘BUMBALCART’ tweets with two very random on-brand and what we presumed were merely innocuous words: “SPIRITUAL” and, most recently, “CELESTIAL”.
For a man who’s said the word ‘biblical’ more times than he’s had hot dinners, we didn’t make too much of it initially, but it was in his response to other fans on Saturday, 2 November and earlier this week that’s started to grab attention.
As always, take this stuff with a big ol’ pinch of salt.
All that being said, the last time he did this sort of stuff it was about the support acts for the Oasis reunion tour and he wasn’t lying then, so who knows? Maybe we really are going to get the long-awaited eighth album from Oasis for the first time since 2008.
Elsewhere, the frontman has been joking that he and Noel are practically the best of friends nowadays and almost pretending that there was never any bad blood, adding that he’ll be on his “best behaviour” when they head out on the road for their first tour date at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff in July.
Liam has also made it clear he’d much rather keep the Oasis reunion train rolling after the ‘Live ’25 World Tour’ ends than return to a solo career – as for Noel, he could always go back to his High Flying Birds project or maybe even switch industries…
Girls Aloud to release ‘Sarah’s Version’ of ‘I’ll Stand By You’ for BBC Children In Need 2024
Danny Jones
Pop royalty Girls Aloud are set to release a special edition of their 2004 song ‘I’ll Stand By You’, simply dubbed ‘Sarah’s Version’, for this year’s Children In Need broadcast.
The iconic British girl group returned earlier this year with a huge comeback nationwide tour which obviously sold out and they also won over crowds with their touching on-stage tributes to late singer Sarah Harding during their live performances.
Harding, 39, sadly passed away back in 2021 following a battle with breast cancer and was mourned across the country, especially here in the North, with a commemorative plaque and large mural of the Stockport-born songstress thrown up in her hometown back in May.
And now, as a way to help raise money for the annual BBC telethon and honour her once again, Girls Aloud will be re-releasing the well-known ballad.
‘I’ll Stand By You (Sarah’s Version)’ features Sarah on lead vocal throughout using vocals we discovered in the vault from the original recording sessions. The track played a key part in our ‘The Girls Aloud Show’ arena tour this summer & was an emotional moment for us all 🎙
Originally a cover of the 1997 track by The Pretenders and given that they were still so early into their career, the Noughties hitmakers naturally did multiple takes before landing on their final edit.
That being said, a version that has been rediscovered in digging through the archived recording sessions features Sarah Harding on lead vocals and now the band are set to let her voice shine through.
Airing for the first time on Zoe Ball’s BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show on Wednesday, 6 November, ‘Sarah’s Version’ has already gone down an instant hit 20 years from its release, with the emotional punch of hearing Harding’s clearly hitting listeners hard.
‘I’ll Stand By You’ went straight to the top of the UK Singles Chart when it was first released and was their second-ever number one. We have a very strong feeling that the importance of this re-release will see it do exactly the same – just in time for Christmas, no less.
Fans were left spellbound during what was casually referred to as ‘Sarah’s moment’ on the Girls Aloud reunion tour, where they truly did allow her singing to become the star of the show:
As if the charity single wasn’t a tear-jerking enough prospect already, ‘I’ll Stand By You – Sarah’s Version’ is also set to be released on 15 November, just two days before what would have been Harding’s 43rd birthday. We’re not crying, you are.
In aid of The Christie and the Sarah Harding Legacy Project, more than £1 million has been raised in the Stopfordian’s memory and for breast cancer awareness through initiatives like the creation of the mural and members of the hospital doing charity runs, bike rides, swims and more.
Speaking on social media, the band added: “The track played a key part in our ‘The Girls Aloud Show’ arena tour this summer & was an emotional moment for us all.”
BBC Children in Need 2024 takes place next Friday (15 November) and highlights from their reunion tour, where ‘Sarah’s Version’ was first heard by the masses, will be shown on ITV at 8pm the following Sunday.
The Manc -
7th December 2020 
