After their inaugural celebration last year, the Northern Music Awards are back for 2025 and they’ve got some incredible guests ready to soundtrack the night.
As if we Northerners needed any more excuses to celebrate and revel in our achievements, we now have an annual award show dedicated to celebrating our music, as we all know it’s the best in the country. Ah, stuff your modesty, it’s the best in the world.
Last year saw a stripped-back set by Liam Fray (The Courteeners), as well as performances by fellow award winners English Teacher, The Ks and a standing ovation for the first-ever ‘Northern Icon’, Lisa Stansfield.
Now returning for just its second ceremony, not only has the location been revealed but so too has the lineup of live performers set to delight crowds on the night.
This time it’s Merseyside who gets to welcome this important music night and it’s taking place at the Liverpool Olympia, a stunning 2,000-cap room and one of the city’s most historic live venues.
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Performers, nominees, and winners alike will be seated in a venue packed with music royalty, as everyone from Manchester’s very own New Order, contemporaries like Jake Bugg and hometown hero Jamie Webster have all played here. Oh yeah, and some band called The Beatles…
One of the most anticipated performances of this year’s show comes in the form of the Stockport superstars Blossoms, who have been touring up and down the country with their latest release, Gary.
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Also helping provide entertainment is indie rockers, The Zutons, who are ready to raise the roof and celebrate Northern music in style, especially after a Richard Ashcroft opening slot last summer.
Chiedu Oraka, an upcoming rapper from Hull, is set to put on a high-octane performance and is also shortlisted for the Newcomer of the Year Award.
Similarly, rising artist and Liverpudlian actLuvcat is also shortlisted and taking to the stage, bringing her unique brand of jazz-influenced romantic rock to her home crowd.
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Also nominated for this same title are The KTNA who opened for R’n’B masterclass Janelle Monáe last summer. Other names include Beth McCarthy, Pixey and Seb Lowe.
As Northern music champions, more or less every region is covered from Greater Manchester all the way to Yorkshire, the North East, Lake District and beyond.
There is once again a great focus being pushed onto festivals at this year’s ceremony too, with the already coveted ‘Festival of the Year’ award going to Beat-Herder in Lancashire – but who will claim it this year and from which specific region?
Nominees include: Kendal Calling (Lake District), Tramlines (Sheffield), Neighbourhood (Manchester), Lytham Festival (Lytham Saint Annes), Parklife (Manchester) and Sound City (Liverpool).
The winner of this award championing live music festivals isn’t picked by officials; instead, it’s decided by public vote.
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There are 16 awards in total with two new trophies courtesy of ‘Album of the Year’ and ‘Industry Rising Star’. Here’s a full list of the awards you can expect at the 2025 Northern Music Awards:
The Northern Music Award 2025, sponsored by Live Nation
Special Recognition Award, sponsored by SJM Concerts
Artist of the Year, sponsored by Ticketmaster
Band of the Year, sponsored by ASM Global
Album of the Year
Music Moment of the Year, sponsored by American Express
Disruptor in Music
Newcomer of the Year
Breakthrough Act of the Year
DJ of the Year
Music and Culture for Wellbeing
Festival of the Year, voted for by readers of The Guide Liverpool
Inspirational Venue of the Year Under 2,000 Capacity, sponsored by Seat Unique
Inspirational Venue of the Year Over 2,000 Capacity, sponsored by Seat Unique
Legendary pop duo Erasure announces huge Manchester arena gig on 2027 UK tour
Emily Sergeant
Legendary pop duo Erasure have announced a UK arena tour next spring, and they’re set to stop off in Manchester.
Andy Bell and Vince Clarke – better known by their duo name, Erasure – have announced details of their long-awaited upcoming 20th studio album today, titled Radio!! Radio!!, alongside details of an arena tour in spring 2027 across the UK and Europe.
Described as a ‘deeply personal’ project, the BRIT and Ivor Novello award-winning duo’s first new studio album in six years sees Bell and Clarke continue to refine and deepen the pop catalogue they’ve been building over the past 40 years.
The album will be comprised of a set of songs about love, loss, and injustice that they hope speaks to our ’empathy-starved times’.
Erasure will take to the road in 2027 for an arena tour that kicks off at Cardiff’s Utilita Arena on 25 April before travelling throughout the UK, including a stop in Manchester at the AO Arena on 1 May, before finishing off in London and heading over to Europe, with more dates to follow.
Vince Clarke will be Musical Director for the tour, but will not be appearing onstage alongside Andy Bell, it has been revealed.
Bell says: “I’m so pleased that we were able to find a way for the tour to work for Vince. He’s always too modest but he’s so much more than the Musical Director, Vince is one of the great loves of my life and everything we do as Erasure we decide together.”
Erasure will be performing at the AO Arena in Manchester on 1 May 2027, and tickets go on presale this Thursday 1 October at 10am, before general sale begins a day later (2 October) also at 10am.
Sir Rod Stewart announces Manchester gig on final ever tour
Daisy Jackson
Sir Rod Stewart has announced his final ever tour, with the legendary singer set to perform in Manchester along with some of Europe’s biggest arenas in 2027.
The ‘The Final Encore’ tour will mark the end of a live career spanning more than six decades, with Stewart kicking off the run in Dublin next spring before heading across the UK and Europe.
The music icon will be heading to the Co-op Live in May next year, with support from synth-pop pioneer Howard Jones.
Announcing the tour, Rod Stewart said: “The time has come to say farewell to life on the road. After more than six decades, The Final Encore will most definitely be my last.
“I’ve been singing the music I love since I was 19 years old, and I’ve had the privilege of taking it around the world to all of you. It has given me a life beyond anything I could ever have imagined, and I hope I’ve given you some fond memories in return.
“I hope you’ll join me so I can thank you the best way I know how… with the music and one hell of a show. See you there.”
The Final Encore is expected to feature many of Stewart’s biggest songs, including Maggie May, You Wear It Well, Tonight’s the Night, Hot Legs, Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?, Young Turks, Baby Jane, Forever Young, You’re in My Heart, Rhythm of My Heart, The First Cut Is the Deepest, Sailing and Have I Told You Lately.
Credit: Denise Truscello Credit: Jonathan Kammen 2007
Stewart has sold more than 250 million records and singles worldwide and has amassed 31 UK Top 10 singles, including six number ones. His career has also seen him inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice and named a Grammy Living Legend.
His touring career has been just as remarkable, with Stewart having performed for an estimated 20 million fans around the world.
That includes his famous Guinness World Record-setting performance on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, where an estimated 3.5 million people watched him perform, as well as a 13-year, 200-show residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace.
Now, after more than 60 years on stage, Stewart is preparing to bring the curtain down on his touring career.
General release tickets for Rod Stewart’s The Final Encore will go on sale from 10am on Friday 2 October, with a number of presales taking place in the days prior.
Rod Stewart will perform in Manchester one last time on Thursday 6 May 2027 – tickets will go on sale HERE.
Thomas Melia -
28th January 2025 
