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Nicki Minaj at Co-op Live, Manchester – stage times, setlist, rescheduled dates and more

Pink Friday 2 is here.

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 30th May 2024

Nicki Minaj will have another go at performing at Co-op Live this week, after her first concert had to be postponed.

The ‘Queen of Rap’ has two slots at Manchester’s huge new arena as part of the Pink Friday 2 World Tour, her largest tour to date.

The first was supposed to be on 25 May, but it was called off a few hours after fans arrived at Co-op Live because Nicki Minaj had been arrested in Amsterdam.

Still, her fans – collectively nicknamed The Barbz – are loyal to a tee and will soon be flocking back to see her performing her many hits live.

She’s managed to rearrange the first night already, and tonight’s gig is set to go ahead as planned.

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If you’re going along to Nicki Minaj at Co-op Live, here’s everything you need to know.

What dates is Nicki Minaj playing Co-op Live in Manchester?

Nicki Minaj will now be playing in Manchester on 30 May and 3 June, after her original show was postponed.

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All tickets for the original date of 25 May should have automatically switched to the new date of 3 June.

If you have any issues, get in touch with your original point of purchase.

And just to note, she does have to go back to Amsterdam the night before the second gig again…

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Are there still tickets available?

Nicki Minaj is coming to Manchester's Co-op Live on her Pink Friday 2 World Tour
Nicki Minaj is coming to Manchester’s Co-op Live on her Pink Friday 2 World Tour

There are actually quite a few tickets still available for Nicki Minaj, especially for her rescheduled date.

Standing tickets are £98.50 each, while seated tickets range from £75.95 to £132.50, plus booking fees.

You might be able to grab a bargain through fan-to-fan resales too.

See the latest availability through Ticketmaster here.

Stage times for Nicki Minaj in Manchester

Nicki hasn’t exactly been punctual on the Pink Friday 2 tour so far, so don’t hold your breath that stage times will remain as publicised.

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Neither Co-op Live nor artist have released stage times just yet, but doors will open at 6.30pm.

Based on previous tour dates, the show should start with a DJ set at around 8pm, before Nicki takes to the stage around 9pm.

When the show was initially delayed last week, Co-op Live pushed its curfew back to 11.30pm, which will be the absolute latest it can end.

If and when exact stage times do get released, we’ll be sure to update this article.

Expected setlist for Nicki Minaj at Co-op Live

Setlists are always subject to change, but the below setlist gives us a good idea of what’s to come from Nicki’s Manchester shows.

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  • I’m the Best
  • Barbie Dangerous
  • FTCU
  • Hard White
  • Press Play
  • Win Again
  • Big Difference
  • Interlude
  • Pink Birthday
  • Feeling Myself
  • Favorite
  • Cowgirl
  • RNB
  • High School
  • Your Love
  • Needle
  • Ganja Burn
  • Chun-Li
  • Red Ruby Da Sleeze
  • Forward From Trini / Black Barbies
  • Barbie World
  • Roman’s Revenge
  • Monster
  • Are You Gone Already
  • Fallin 4 U
  • Right Thru Me
  • Save Me
  • Let Me Calm Down
  • Nicki Hendrix
  • Last Time I Saw You
  • Super Freaky Girl
  • Anaconda
  • I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)
  • Super Bass
  • The Night Is Still Young
  • Moment 4 Life
  • Pound the Alarm
  • Starships
  • Everybody

How to get to Co-op Live and travel info

Tram

Now, as for how you’ll get to shows at Co-op Live, luckily it’s right next door to a rather famous big blue stadium and its integrated Metrolink stop.

Head along the light blue or orange lines directly to the Etihad Campus or Ashton-under-Lyne and you can get off the tram literally spitting distance from the arena. You can find the full map HERE.

Trams run frequently on the Ashton-Eccles line to the Etihad stop, with services leaving every six minutes from the city centre and until 1am Fridays and Saturdays.

Tram travel is free for Co-op Live ticket-holders until 30 June.

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Bus

If you want to take another new and improved arm of Manchester’s public transport system, not only is there a whole host of routes that drop you off close to the venue but there’ll also be a free shuttle bus from the city centre to and from events between 20 April-30 June 2024.

You can find the full list of bus routes HERE, with the one in closest proximity to the venue being the 53 bus which runs from Cheetham Hill through to Higher Crumpsall, Old Trafford and Pendleton, leaving just a two-minute walk to Co-op Live. You also get free Bee Network travel with any valid event ticket.

Getting there by car and parking

If you’re driving, there is limited parking available at the venue but this must be pre-booked ahead of time and there are designated drop-off areas.

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The postcode is M11 3DU and you can follow the signs towards the wider Etihad Campus as you get closer; directions to the adjacent drop-off points will also be signposted.

Keep in mind that congestion on the roads close to the stadium is expected to gather around two hours prior to any event, so if you are travelling on the road, these are the suggested times they provide come event day – though estimates will obviously vary:

  • Alan Turing Way (both directions): plan an additional 20 minutes into any journey by road.
  • Hyde Road (eastbound): expect an additional 15 minutes to be added to your journey.
  • Mancunian Way (westbound): plan for an extra 10 minutes of travel time.

There are also three park-and-ride facilities near Co-op Live but be advised that the Velopark and Holt Town stops will be closed post-event to help safely manage crowds:

  • Ashton Moss (Ashton line) – 183 spaces and 12 disabled spaces
  • Ashton West (Ashton line) – 184 spaces and 11 disabled spaces
  • Ladywell (Ashton-Eccles line) – 332 spaces and 22 disabled spaces

Walk/cycle

Lastly, Co-op Live is only a half-hour stroll from Manchester Piccadilly and they’ve developed a new City Link walking route lined with light installations to help you find your way.

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Greater Manchester now also offers the option to hire bikes through the Beryl, with riders able to locate, unlock, get to their destination and then safely lock up the boke all through an easy-to-use app. There are hire points just near the south-west corner of the Etihad Stadium on Ashton New Road.

For more information on all travel options, you can check out the enhanced journey planner.

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Featured image: Co-op Live

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Sound of the City 2024 | Avril Lavigne at Castlefield Bowl – supports, stage times, setlist and more

Danny Jones Danny Jones Avril Lavigne Castlefield Bowl Manchester gig tickets

If you’re a kid born in the 90s or noughties, get your classic Converse on, an old-school tie out of the cupboard and oversized camo pants with an unnecessary amount of zips at the ready, because pop-rock queen Avril Lavigne is coming to Manchester’s Castlefield Bowl this week.

We hope you still have some kind of emo fringe going on and a spare spiked bracelet or two lying around somewhere, but don’t worry if not – even if Avril seemingly hasn’t aged, the rest of us have.

That’s right, the 39-year-old singer-songwriter who soundtracked the youth of so many Mancs, let alone millions of others around the world, is the very first act of Sounds of the City 2024 lineup and what a way to kick things off.

On the scene since 1999, the iconic ‘Sk8er Boi’, ‘Complicated’ and ‘Girlfriend’ singer is still up there with one of the most iconic voices on the planet and getting her to play her first-ever gig at Castlefield Bowl is some coup for the festival if you ask us. Here’s everything you need to know.

Are there tickets left for Avril Lavigne at Castlefield Bowl?

Now, we’re sorry to break the news to you but Avril Lavigne‘s Greatest Hits show at this year’s Sound of the City is a sold-out event. No surprises there, really.

However, when it comes to big gigs like these, there’s still the chance that you might find a few spares popping up here and there on legitimate resale sites like Twickets, Viagogo, TicketSwap etc.

That being said, we always advise due diligence when it comes to picking up second-hand tickets and we urge you to avoid ticket touts by all means necessary – they’re illegal and the only way to get rid of them as a problem in the gig industry is to ignore them altogether.

Who’s supporting Avril Lavigne in Manchester?

For those of you who are going along to the show, you’re in for another early to mid-2000s treat as the Canadian pop-rock princess is joined by her fellow compatriots Simple Plan as the main support act on this tour.

Made famous by tracks like ‘I’m Just A Kid’, ‘Perfect’, ‘Welcome To My Life’ and a version of the Scooby-Doo theme (oh yeah, that one), they’ve been going almost just as long as Avril and are still releasing new music all these years later, with their last album dropping in 2022.

They even did a collab with Natasha Bedingfield over a decade ago and if you’re wondering whether you’ve heard them before, you most definitely have but, like the Lavigne, it’ll be their first time at the Bowl so you best make it a special one.

Stage times for Sounds of the City 2024

Judging simply from last year’s times, doors to Sounds of the City typically open from 5:30pm onwards and the main event headliners don’t usually start until somewhere between 8:30-9pm.

We’ll confess there’s still a bit of guesswork since details are yet to be confirmed, but you can probably expect Simple Plan to take the stage from roughly 7-7:30pm – but once again, these are always subject to change.

Don’t worry either way, we’ll update you with the final stage times as and when we get them.

The Greatest Hits setlist

As for what the timeless singer-songwriter will be playing on the night, we have the good fortune of this being a tour in support of her recently released Greatest Hits album and having just watched her smash Glastonbury set this past weekend, so we think we have a pretty good idea of the running order.

The order might be tweaked slightly but here’s a guess and what she is likely to play based on the performance at Worthy Farm:

  1. Girlfriend
  2. What the Hell
  3. Complicated
  4. Here’s to Never Growing Up
  5. My Happy Ending
  6. He Wasn’t
  7. Don’t Tell Me
  8. Losing Grip
  9. I’m With You
  10. Bite Me
  11. Love It When You Hate Me
  12. Sk8er Boi

That being said, other favourite tracks like ‘He Wasn’t’, ‘Head Above Water’, ‘Rock N Roll’; ‘Keep Holding On’, ‘Smile’, ‘Bois Lie’; ‘When You’re Gone’ and ‘Nobody’s Home’ could be part of a full 20 track setlist.

Imagine how much a Yungblud guest appearance for ‘I’m A Mess’ and this version of her ultimate ballad (don’t even try to argue) would go off…

Someone get a Yungblud’s flight-tracker going right now and find out if he’s heading to Manchester.

How to get there

Castlefield Bowl (M3 4JR) is on Rice Street just down Liverpool Road which cuts off the main Deansgate strip in the city centre and you can enter Manchester’s much-loved outdoor amphitheatre via Duke or Castle Street.

It’s just a short walk from Deansgate train station or the Deansgate-Castlefield tram stop, where you’ll find regular trams running all over Greater Manchester.

If you’re driving there, Great Northern Warehouse’s (M3 4EE) car park, as well as two other NCPs near Bridgewater Hall and on Quay Street in Spinninfingfields.

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Avril Lavigne Sounds of the City Manchester 2024
Sounds as good as she ever has.
sounds of the city 2024 castlefield bowl
We had a blast watching Blossoms at the bowl in 2023.
Credit: Justin Higuchi (via Flickr)/The Manc Audio

Avril Lavigne rocks up to Castlefield Bowl on Wednesday, 3 July to kick off a great summer of music at Sounds of the City 2024, with the likes of Jungle, The National, Tom Grennan and more.

Aren’t we lucky to get such amazing names filing into the city for such massive shows every year?

As for Avril, we’ll see you there skater boys and girls!

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — Press Images/The Manc Group/Justin Higuchi (via Flickr)

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Five Manchester bands we’ve been listening to this month | June 2024

Danny Jones Danny Jones Up and coming bands in Manchester new music June 2024

Hello there (Obi-Wan Kenobi voice intended), we’re glad to see you’re back for the best new Manchester music that we’ve been funnelling directly into our ears this month.

It seems hard to believe that we’re already in June and six editions into this series; that’s half the year already gone and 30 bands already given a humble nod of approval – and now we have five more for you.

You’re forgiven if you’re new to this monthly round-up so long as you keep up to date with it regularly from now on, and why wouldn’t you? You get five Manchester bands or artists who are doing exciting things to keep us on the music map for nothing and with none of the work involved.

This is what we live for and there are few things we enjoy more than spotlighting rising talent.

Five new up-and-coming Manchester bands

Now, in a rare first for this series, we’re all bands this month but like pretty much anyone that comes out of Manchester’s music scene, they’re all absolutely belting.

Don’t worry, you’ve still got some variety in the genre to get stuck into, so let’s not dilly-dally any further, eh?

Let the tunes commence.

1. Pastel

We’re starting off June’s list of Manchester bands we’ve been listening to with Pastel. Now, we have to make a disclaimer that they are now based in Swansea but these lads started with two cousins from 0161 and have gone on to support the likes of Liam Gallagher at Knebworth, The Charlatans and more.

Playing one of the biggest headline shows to date at Band on the Wall back in May – where they were supported by LG’s son’s band Villanelle – it felt like a bit of a watershed moment for the five-piece shoegaze-inspired band with deep roots here in 0161. They’re only young but we love a homecoming.

We’ve been listening to them for a while now but it feels like they’re starting to pick up some traction, so you best enjoy them as one of your best-kept secrets while you can. Our entry point was ‘Deeper Than Holy’, but their first song ‘She Waits For Me’ is great too and so is their new single ‘Dancing On A Pin’

2. Hot Milk

Second on this month’s list is the emo-fuelled power pop rock group Hot Milk who are also well and truly on the rise, having dropped their debut album A Call To The Void last year, headlined Manchester Academy and recently supported Foo Fighters at their Villa Park show in Birmingham.

Punchy, punky, proudly Manc and with a pair of powerful vocalists fronting the band, you get flavours of everything from Vukovi, Yungblud, Against The Current, Tonight Alive and plenty of other contemporaries. What’s more, you only have to hear the energy from the crowd on their Academy live album to hear how deep their fans already are – they’re going far this lot.

‘Candy Coated Lie$’ is their most streamed song on Spotify and it’s a guess a great place to start, but from there we’d point you in the direction of ‘OVER YOUR DEAD BODY’ for the tasty breakdown alone, and then try ‘AMPHETAMINE’ which features vocals from Julian Comeau of Loveless. Oof.

3. Vulture Authority

From one modern punk-inspired band to another, Vulture Authority almost feels like Manchester’s semi-adopted answer to Idles meets Yard Act, Hello Cosmos and by way of Derby. Honestly, one minute you’ll get a taste of The Reytons, and the next you’re dancing like a prat to some modern ska riff. It’s chaotic.

We’ll confess that we came about these lads by way of them being a featured artist at the end of the Have A Word podcast after local comedian Jamie Hutchinson gave them a shout-out on an episode, but their unapologetic, simultaneously random and yet no-nonsense lyrics and instrumentation, twinned with lots of rolled Rs, Northern gruff and a familiar Manc whine caught our attention straight away.

In fact, the Gorton-based comic features in many of their songs and videos as you’ll see down below and while we’ll admit it’s very rough around the edges, it’s undeniably good fun. We’d suggest starting with ‘Torpedo Moscow’, ‘Working Class Jesus’ and then ‘Last Orders’, which you’ll find below.

There’s politics, football ultras humour, lots of Jamie Hutchinson and wonderful low-budget music videos.

4. Loose Articles

Oh yes, we’ve got even more punk for you and the fact they filmed the music video for their alternative Euro 2022 anthem ‘Kick Like A Girl‘ at the Peveril of the Peak, St George’s Park in Hulme and the ‘No Prawn Sandwiches’ sign outside the Man United pub in Trafford should be all the convincing you need.

Loose Articles are a Mancunian quartet with indie elements juggling the 9-5 like many up-and-coming bands but have now found themselves being championed by BBC Radio 6 Music, on Spotify’s ‘All New Punk’ playlist and also happen to have the best logo in the game: it’s the Stella Artois label…

There’s also another Foo Fighters connection here too, as the local bunch were the opening act for the rock gods’ first night at the Old Trafford earlier this month and got the energy going nice and early – not an easy job. ‘Up The Disco’, ‘Money for Booze’ and the new ‘Mr Manager’ are our recommendations.

5. Stanleys

And for the fifth and final name on our list of Manc bands this month, we’re technically heading out into Greater Manchester and the borough of Wigan to be specific, but we simply couldn’t wait any longer before bigging up the indie four-piece, Stanleys.

Flying the flag for the home of pie barms and the ‘Tics, these lads nail laid-back, melodic and catchy choruses, twinkly guitar picking and have already opened up for the likes of Inspiral Carpets, The Clause and The Libertines, not to mention endless festival slots this year.

They’re also one of six acts supporting fellow native Richard Ashcroft for his massive homecoming gigs at Robin Park next month. The new single ‘He Knows’ has some of the most soft and satisfying vocals to date, our first-ever listen was ‘Look Back’, but ‘A Better Life’ is understandably their biggest tune to date.

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And we’re sad to inform you but that’s your lot for new, up-and-coming, exciting Manchester bands and artists this month; we hope it also goes without saying that we barely even scratch the surface every time we do this.

But the best part is, if you know of a band or musician who is doing exciting things here in 0161 and you think they deserve to be on this list, if you drop them in the comments enough, we just might see it.

But before we say goodbye, make sure to give all these names so love and if you missed last month’s Manc bands we’re listening to, you can find it down below.

Ta-ra for now.

Five Manchester artists we’ve been listening to this month | May 2024

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — Press Images (supplied)/Loose Articles (via Facebook)

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