Royal Blood’s 2023 has been defined by two things: releasing yet another brilliant record in their fourth studio album, Back to the Water Below, and p*ssing off an entire crowd at Radio 1’s Big Weekend, not to mention even more people watching back home with their viral antics.
With that in mind, we weren’t exactly sure how we were going to feel or what this audience was going to be like before we stepped foot inside the O2 Apollo, but we can confirm the whole storm in a teacup has now well and truly blown over and we didn’t care one bit once they started playing.
The second we heard Mike Kerr’s bass being ripped like both rhythm and lead guitar at the same time, and the pure ‘oomph’ of Ben Thatcher’s unmistakable drum-playing, we completely forgot that they slightly upset the music world just a few months ago and remembered one thing: they’re rockstars and we’ve seen plenty worse.
This was the story of Royal Blood’s return to Manchester and their gig at the legendary venue on Friday night as Storm Babet hit the region — and it was fitting really, given that their set featured ‘Typhoons’, ‘Trouble’s Coming’ and lyrics like “crashed down in a hurricane” in ‘Ten Tonne Skeleton’.
Royal Blood played the AO Arena in Manchester last year but looked at home in the Apollo (Credit: The Manc Group)
Even before we knew what we were in for, the surprisingly dramatic duo delivered a proper entrance, walking out to the iconic theme from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, which was then followed up by an impressive light show that we’ll admit caught us by surprise and really did something epic to the atmosphere throughout.
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It didn’t take long for fans to get off their feet as they kicked the show off with recent single and album opener, ‘Mountains at Midnight’, before the pits started opening up as they got stuck into fan favourites such as ‘Boilermaker’, ‘Loose Change’, ‘How Did We Get So Dark?’, ‘Out of the Black’ and so on.
It’s been a while since we’ve been to a proper rager at the Apollo, so we’re glad that the place is still more than capable of whipping up frenzies like that. We were concerned that there wasn’t much movement during the support act but that’s always the gamble you make with the warm-ups.
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That’s not to say we didn’t enjoy them, by the way; Hot Wax were more than a pleasant surprise with arguably more overall energy on stage than the main event. Although it was clear the vast majority of the crowd were unaware of them prior to the gig, you’d be a fool to not go away and listen to more.
Once you were in the pit, there was no coming out.
With plenty of frenetic on-stage presence and more than enough confidence to remind you they’d be having just as much fun if the crowd wasn’t there, they felt plenty post-punk, a bit funk thanks to the basslines and modern enough thanks to some more intricate strum that made sure they didn’t feel like an old hat throwback.
In a word, they were great; we liked them a lot and it didn’t take long for us to realise why they were a good fit to support Royal Blood, boasting the same ability to go big with their sound using just three instruments as Mike and Ben do with just two.
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And that summed up the night as a whole, to be honest: a total of five musicians (six if you include the headliner’s session player who dipped in on a fair few songs) making a frankly ridiculous amount of noise between them — far more than a trio and just a pair of blokes should feasibly be able to make.
That’s the one thing that, regardless of whatever you think of them post-controversy, has always stunned us about Royal Blood. How do a frontman whose main instrument is a bass guitar and just one drummer make such explosive sounds between them and get people like thrashing like they were a full-fledged five-piece rock band?
We ended up being swept into various different parts of the crowd — always a good sign.
One thing’s for sure, they are well and truly in their ‘rockstar’ era right now, whether you like what comes with that or not. Mike might be four years sober now, with both he and Ben looking more svelte and stylish on stage — not only physically but in their overall presence — but they now look and feel like graduated performers who can command a crowd with a lot more authority than they did when they burst onto the scene with their debut in 2014.
And perhaps that’s why the Big Weekend moment went the way it did; these two are seasoned pros now and have earned a lot of plaudits in the genre over the past decade, so to find yourself playing to nearly 80,000 people who were mainly there to see pop acts probably felt like a loss of control and their frustration came out in the wrong way — even they’ve admitted that.
But that wasn’t the case at the Apollo. As the gig reached its crescendo with ‘Figure It Out’ and Ben stood atop a speaker and began conducting the crowd before jumping into it and preparing them for one last mosh as Mike kept the riff going, it was clear they were back in control and the audience in the palm of their hands.
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Now that’s how you get people back on-side: by simply going out there, making a big old racket and leaving the gig-goers to do the rest. We all know there’s no place that guarantees that more than right here in Manchester.
Royal Blood polished off their return with a big finish.
Oasis promoters drop biggest Knebworth hint yet after securing license around key date
Danny Jones
Not that we’re the type to get carried away, but we’ll confess that our curiosity, interest and general levels of anticipation have been piqued, as Oasis’ main promoters have recently renewed the license to host events at the infamous Knebworth.
My word, is this it? Like the reunion, is it ACTUALLY going to happen?…
We’re sure the raw, uncontrollable excitement will come should it be fully confirmed, but for now, all we know is that our colleagues in music media, SJM Concerts, have renewed the land in and around Knebworth Park and House for live entertainment once again.
Moreover, the company have also done so on a rather fitting date decades on from the original and legendary outdoor gigs.
As can be found on the planning application section of the North Hertfordshire Council website – the county in which the storied Britpop gigs took place – a fresh license to hold new events.
If/when the announcement happens, the already granted permission will allow for a capacity of up to 125,000 and a curfew of 3am.
We know the original Knebworth shows were beyond iconic, but let’s say this would be nailed on to be nothing short of absolutely box office.
Besides having also helped promote Oasis’ colossal Live ’25 reunion tour last summer, it’s also worth noting that they secured said license just over a week before the 30th anniversary of the pair of nights back in 1996: 10-11 August, to be specific.
The licence is said to have come into effect this past Saturday (1 Aug) and is believed to be indefinite.
What added even more fuel to the fire of these well-established rumours over the past year was when Baroness Sharon Taylor of Stevenage told the House of Lords the band would be playing FIVE whole nights at Knebworth in the future, before later clarifying that she was speaking in “hypothetical terms.”
All that being said, it’s fair to say we’ll be keeping a very keen eye on socials over the next few days, in particular, just in case.
The Manc has reached out to SJM for an official comment (surprise, surprise), but we are yet to receive a response regarding the matter.
Your silence speaks volumes, just saying.
This coming Monday, 10 August 2026, will mark the official 30th anniversary of Oasis at Knebworth 1996, and with the likes of ‘Wonderwall’ seeing a chart resurgence as the go-to England anthem at this year’s World Cup, we’re choosing to be optimistic. What about you?
Blossoms deliver most rock and roll performance in years as Declan McKenna joins them on stage
Danny Jones
Last night, we were fortunate enough to be there in the flesh not only to see Blossoms play a special anniversary show in Manchester, but to witness Declan McKenna join them on stage.
A tiny part of us was wondering if we’d see Rick Astley roll out into the venue, but let’s just say we’ll absolutely take this.
Celebrating a decade to the day since the release of the self-titled debut LP – yes, we feel old, too – Blossoms announced the one-off intimate show at The Deaf Institute, a venue they hadn’t played in 12 whole years (good lord…), and it served as much more than a night of nostalgia.
But we’ll admit, the highlight was almost certainly seeing the ‘Brazil’ and ‘British Bombs’ singer join Tom Ogden, Charlie Salt, Josh Dewhurst, Myles Kellock and Joe Donovan on stage for their smallest gig since god knows when.
We’ve gotten somewhat used to seeing the Enfield-born solo artist popping up at random venues across the country and even performing DJ sets at local pubs.
If you haven’t seen that Kylie Minogue clip before, you really need to…
However, we don’t think anyone in the crowd was expecting this cameo, let alone hearing them perform a co-written track off the new record live in front of the audience for the very first time.
As if all of this wasn’t already a bit bonkers and left-field, the song in question, entitled ‘Additional Driver’, was self-admittedly so surprising in SO many ways that Tom felt he needed to explain the full story behind it and why Declan shouted “shoulda got the 192” before they started playing.
Yes, in some kind of Greater Mancunian fever dream, we’ve finally got artists writing lyrics about the region’s most infamous bus route that we’re sure most, if not all of you, can relate to.
But it wasn’t just this moment that had us debating in our heads, ‘are they the best Manc or maybe in Northern band full stop going right now?’, it was seeing them slip so seamlessly back into the more straight-down-the-line indie rock from their first chapter of studio material that did it.
Everyone knows and loves the biggest bangers from that inaugural outing: ‘Getaway’, ‘Charlemagne’, ‘At Most a Kiss’, ‘Honey Sweet’, etc.; but it’s hard to forget just how quintessentially rock and roll tunes like ‘Blow Rose’, ‘Cut Me and I’ll Bleed’, ‘Texia’ and even some of the other deep cuts/early releases are.
Don’t get us wrong, we love how much the dressing up (musically and quite literally) they’ve done over the years as their production, creativity and experimentation has increased, but it’s always hard to beat that feeling you get when finding an artist’s first album – especially one as good as Blossoms‘.
In fairness, listening back to ‘Deep Grass’ all these years later, we’ll still remember how spacey, psychedelic and downright different that intro felt back in the day; it now feels like a fitting end to that maiden outing and the perfect jumping-off point for what has been a real sonic exploration ever since.
For a lad born in SK2 and lucky enough to have seen these lads right from the start, stuff like this will never not feel surreal to me.
Long live ‘Blossoms from Stockport‘, and roll on Songs From The Wedding Cake this October.
Danny Jones -
21st October 2023 
