Ramona and The Firehouse is launching an in-house radio station this week as part of a huge new live entertainment programme at the venue, designed to champion and support independent musicians and artists across Manchester.
Kicking off on Wednesday 26 January, ‘Ramona Radio’ will host a weekly live radio show from its Swan Street venue – broadcasting a weekly party with guest DJs, servers and the crowd going ‘On Air’ live from the Tipi.
The first event in the new series will see legendary house selector Tristan Da Cunha take to the decks – bringing his expansive genre-spanning vinyl archive along with him.
The venue on Swan Street will launch its own radio station. Image: Ramona and The Firehouse
Promising depth and breadth across a range of genres, house music fans can look forward to hearing some rare gems and genre-defining cuts played out as part of the honorary Glastonbury resident’s set.
The radio show will be hosted by Ramona and The Firehouse’s very own music curator Jonjo, and as part of the new programme whole sets will be streamed live, supported with a new weekly podcast.
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Following on from the Wednesday night radio show launch, the venue will be running parties throughout the week as it launches its new programme ‘The NIght Village’ – with further sets coming from the likes of Onipa, Dance Regular and Manchester art-rock band Everything Everything.
Image: Ramona and The Firehouse
The Ghanian/ London-based afro-futurist collective Onipa will bring their signature high energy performance to Ramona fusing Afrobeat, UK Jazz and electronic music for Thursday night’s ‘Campfire Live’, whilst local champions Everything Everything can be expected to bring their usual blend of alternative and indie to the Tipi later this week.
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The performances will mark the start of a new musical chapter for Ramona, which has already made a name for itself by channelling the techno culture for which Detroit is known from within its sister bar restaurant, The Firehouse.
The sister venue also hosts weekly ‘runway parties’ in its bar every Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with local dance crews acting as the stars of the show – with performances ranging from garage two-step superstars, Dance Regular, to the vogue inspired flamboyance of House of Ghetto.
Ramona Radio will launch this week. Image: Ramona and The Firehouse
Speaking on the upcoming new music programme launching this week, head of music and entertainment at Ramona and the Firehouse, Jonjo, said: “We’ve been curating independent UK-based electronic, jazz and world music since we opened the doors.
“Moving into 2022 we’re ready to take things up a notch with our first bands from the continent, an upgraded sound system and the best up and coming acts and labels every week. And all for free – surely the city’s best kept secret”
At the new late-night parties, music lovers can easily flit between the two venues – soaking up the atmosphere in both, free of charge.
Image: Ramona and The Firehouse
Guests can also enjoy Detroit-style pizza, a killer collection of margaritas plus other inventive and beautiful dishes like their chargrilled chicken, truffle tots, Detroit hot wings and ultra cheesy garlic bread.
To find out more about the upcoming music events, check out the full programme for the Night Village launch weekender below.
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Ramona and The Firehouse Night Village Launch Weekender – Full Programme Thursday 27th January: Campfire Live @ Ramona presents Onipa Arthouse – Dance Regular @ Firehouse presents The Broken Beat – Garage-Dance Crew
Friday 28th January: Everything Everything DJ Set @Ramona Firehouse Presents Vogue – House of Ghetto
Saturday 29th January: Supernature Disco + Joe Redmore (WHP) [email protected]
Sunday 30th January So Flute @Ramona
Sunday 30th January Mikey Don @Firehouse
Feature image – Ramona and The Firehouse
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Pitbull at Co-op Live, Manchester – please, don’t stop the party
Daisy Jackson
How bizarre it must be to be Pitbull. This is a man with, by all accounts, a pretty successful music career – but how bizarre for his trajectory to kick up so sharply now, 20 years after his debut album.
Watching the rapper, now 44 years old, dominate sold-out arenas across the world and become a social media sensation and something of a cult phenomenon is a joy to behold.
Who else could lead tens of thousands of people a night to party wearing a bald cap and a drawn-on goatee? Manchester donned their Pitbull costumes en masse and town looked all the better for it yesterday.
For anyone having even a hint of ‘I don’t get it’ in their minds, you’ve forgotten what nightclubs were like in the late 2000s. An era where we would post 80 blurry photos on Facebook from one night out, and our makeup bags were just Dream Matte Mousse and a kohl eyeliner.
It’s the same era where dance floors were absolutely dominated by Pitbull hits, from Hotel Room Service to Give Me Everything to International Love.
So his tour returning to Manchester feels like stepping back in time for all the 30-somethings in town, who all (myself included) decided to party like there were no consequences (currently staring into my cup of tea and remembering why I don’t usually drink wine on a school night).
The best thing about this gig is the way it strips all pretension away from all 23,500 people inside the Co-op Live. While we’d normally spend hours pampering and preening for a show to look our best, here we all stick a bald cap and a suit jacket on just let loose in a sea of people wearing the exact same uniform. I have never heard so many people breathlessly giggling their way through a show before.
And while the gig itself is quite silly and camp (there are scantily-clad dancers everywhere and the guy in charge of the pyrotechnics is pretty trigger-happy), there are some properly talented musicians on stage too.
Pitbull is backed by multiple percussionists, keyboards, guitars, woodwind and more, and his Latino roots shine with songs like Culo and Gasoline, where the dancers salsa and his hips get extra wriggly.
Pitbull staring out at his fans between songs in ManchesterPitbull brought the party to Manchester
We came because it’s silly but we stayed because it’s GOOD.
Prolific songwriter (‘Life is not a waste of time, time is not a waste of life. So let’s not waste any time, get wasted, and have the time of our lives’), party-starter, and philanthropist (he’s funded tuition-free schools in his hometown of Miami), Pitbull is soaking in every inch of the success that’s come his way.
On stage at Co-op Live in Manchester, the lights come up between songs to Pitbull stood on his little platform, grinning cheesily and looking over his assembled mini Pitbulls like a proud overlord. This man is having the time of his life.
Liam Gallagher teases post-Oasis reunion tour plans online
Danny Jones
Liam Gallagher is at it on social media again, and prior to a random posting spree in the early hours on Monday morning, he might have actually shed some light on his plans after the Oasis reunion tour over the weekend.
As always with anything the ever-vocal frontman says online, we urge you to take this with a pinch of salt.
Nevertheless, we’ve allowed ourselves to get very excited and hopeful that the Live ’25 tour isn’t just a one-off and that Oasis are back for good, at least as far as the younger Gallagher brother is concerned.
The latest excuse to be optimistic comes after Liam responded to a fan on Twitter asking whether or not people thought he would retire after the reunion shows, to which he simply responded:
Retire and make all the haters day not a fucking chance I’m in it right till last breath cmon you know
The co-manager and Ignition Management partner also told the outlet that there was currently no new music in the works. However, it was only recently that Liam himself – responding via X, once again – appeared to tell fans that a new album was already “in the bag”.
As for his response to McKinlay claims back in May, the 52-year-old simply posted: “The only people that will be making any kind of decisions on the future of OASIS will be ME & RKID, so let’s just take it one day at a time.”
He also confirmed the support acts and full reunion band lineup on the platform, too, so he’s not always just shouting aimlessly into the void for his own amusement. One can only hope…
Fingers crossed that both Liam and Noel Gallagher have plans for a VERY big finish to the reunion.
Both brothers are finally back in rehearsals ahead of the worldwide sellout shows this summer, and a number of apparent audio clips revealing how the comeback is sounding have appeared on the internet.
As well as being pictured attending the sessions in London, some supposed ‘setlists’ have also been leaked, though Liam himself has rubbished at least one image as an outright “FAKE” in his replies.
In fairness, the nation and fans all over the globe have waited so long that they’d probably be happy hearing pretty much any combination of songs at this point.
So yeah, only time will tell how serious he was being; then again, these are his most recent posts…
Georgina Pellant -
24th January 2022 
