After what feels like an eternity, everyone’s favourite Geordie is back: Sam Fender’s new album looks like it’s on the way but we’re getting a massive UK arena tour first.
Literally three whole years since his smash-hit sophomore record Seventeen Going Under and having gone without any new releases from Sam besides an exciting feature on Noah Kahan’s ‘Homesick’ back in January, Fender fanatics have quite rightly been losing their minds.
You can consider us firmly included in that group.
Initially confirming the announcement at 10 on Friday, 18 October after a series of teasers online, the 30-year-old has finally shared details of the new ‘People Watching’ tour, suspected to be the name of his upcoming third studio album.
Fans have already heard glimpses of the heavily rumoured title track ‘People Watching’ both in the short social media clips and out on the road, as the North Shields-born indie star and his band have been playing new songs at a handful of gigs at the likes of this year’s Boardmasters festival back in August.
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Although live versions of other as yet unreleased tracks like ‘Nostalgia’s Lie’ and ‘Love is a Long Road’ are out there on the internet, it became clear which song he was going to release first after he posted the lyrics, “I people watch on the way back home”, on his accounts.
He also shared posters outside some of the UK’s biggest venues, like Manchester’s Co-op Live and Leeds’ First Direct Arena, and told fans to get ready with a countdown page on his website.
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Having now dropped the series of dates, we’re buzzing to find out that ‘Sam Fender 3’ and his UK tour are coming sooner than we expected – the gigs themselves as early as December in fact.
As was pretty much inevitable, he then announced that another Manchester date would be added due to “phenomenal demand”, meaning that us Manc fans have an extra chance to be in that crowd, as will those in London and Glasgow. Consider this the best early Christmas present ever!
Set to play Manchester’s Co-op Live on 6 and 7 December 2024, as well as a special hometown gig in Newcastle later that month, he will be launching into the rest of his European dates in March next year. It’s hard to believe this is his first UK tour since spring 2022.
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Better yet, the incredible Wunderhorse will once again be supporting him and £1 from every ticket sold for the UK dates will be donated to the Music Venue Trust in support of grassroots venues. Love this boy.
We’re so glad to have him back and after watching him live a few times now, including at Castlefield Bowl back in 2022, we can confirm he really is one of the best in the country.
General admission tickets go on sale from 10am on Friday 25 October HERE.
We still don’t know the album name for sure or the release date, but we know that ‘SF3’ is coming and we can’t wait to hear the new songs as well as all the hits live. Roll on December!
So good to be back at it!!! We loved sharing some new tunes! Thank you X
Featured Images — Raph_PH (via Flickr)/Press Image (supplied)
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Ticket requests are now officially open for Harry Styles’ one-night-only Manchester gig
Emily Sergeant
The time has come – the ticket request system for Harry Styles’ one-night-only gig in Manchester is now live.
In case you hadn’t heard, it was announced on Wednesday evening after much speculation that Harry Styles would be making a return home to Manchester for a one-night-only ‘intimate’ gig at Co-op Live to celebrate the release of his fourth studio album next month.
Styles is set to share Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally with the world on Friday 6 March – and it’s that very same night he’ll be taking to the stage in Manchester.
Although little is known about what to expect at the gig, the poster for the event does state that there’ll be a ‘special performance of the album’, so it seems fair to say that Manchester will be the first to hear the new set of songs in full live.
And if all of that wasn’t exciting enough as it is, the tickets are only £20 per person.
But, of course, there is a bit of a catch, as this isn’t your regular online queuing up for tickets scenario, this is a ‘ticket request’ system instead.
So, like us – and literally every other fan in the vicinity of Greater Manchester and beyond this week – you’re probably wondering what a ‘ticket request’ system is… what does it look like? How does it work? Basically, what the heck is it? Well, we’ve done a bit of digging around to get to the bottom of it so you’re not left too much in the dark.
According to Ticketmaster’s website, if an artist is running a ticket request, they’ll invite fans to request tickets so you don’t have to compete in a first-come, first-served sale.
This means you can take your time to review the available options and request the right tickets for you.
All you need to do is tell Ticketmaster which shows you’re interested in, the type of ticket you want, and your payment details. Then, if the tickets you request can be fulfilled, your card will be charged and you’ll get emailed instructions to access them in the Ticketmaster App.
Unfortunately, as much as we’d love it to be the case for everyone, submitting a request doesn’t guarantee you tickets – it really is just luck of the draw.
To request tickets, you’ll need to follow these three simple steps:
Select which shows you’re interested in and the type of ticket you want
Add your payment details
Harry Styles ticket requests are now live / Credit: Johnny Dufort (Publicity Picture)
Ticketmaster will then send you a summary email that details the tickets you’ve requested. Your card won’t be charged at this time, but they may charge a temporary £1 authorisation to your card to validate your request.
A maximum of two tickets per person can be requested, which has been set to allow for as many fans as possible to get tickets.
Now, here’s the crucial part – you will need to submit your request for tickets while the window is open until Sunday 8 February at 11pm GMT. After the request window closes, you’ll get a second email by 11:59pm GMT on Tuesday 10 February confirming whether or not your request has been fulfilled.
All that’s left to do now is provide you with the link here and send you on your way… oh, and may the odds be ever in your favour.
Featured Image – Wikimedia Commons
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The story behind Sâlo: the rising Georgian-born Salford artist set be one of the region’s next stars
Danny Jones
We always love stories of people moving to Manchester to be more creatively engaged, but tales of entire families relocating here for a better life and art being born out of it is something truly special – and besides her obvious talent, that’s what has attracted us and plenty others to Sâlo.
This up-and-coming Salfordian artist may have been born around the border between Eastern Europe and Western Asia during a particular fraught time for her country, but she’s been raised and moulded like so many of us by this city’s rich music culture and wider artistic heritage.
She came to the UK with her family as a baby, with her parents fleeing poverty and lingering friction in Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 90s, and their journey as asylum seekers eventually brought them here to the North West.
It was clear from a young age that Sâlo (short for Salome) had a gift for the piano, but it was when her family moved to the Greater Manchester area that her own interest in genres and styles began to develop. Here’s a little snippet of her recent performance at the stunning Stoller Hall.
This short video was taken from her feature in a recent episode of Manchester: Unplugged, the web series by StreamGM that launched just last year and spotlights local songwriters.
Honing in on one of her newest releases, ‘Set Me Free’, which taps into that pure love for the keys.
While this clip shows a stripped-back version of the fully-fledged electronic studio version, with production playing a key role in defining her sound, she blends everything from classical music and jazz to neo-soul as well as drum and bass.
You hear the phrase ‘genre-bending’ thrown around a lot these days, but if this mid-20s star in the making isn’t the epitome of that term, then we don’t know who is.
Speaking more about her background in the short documentary film, which aired on YouTube this week, she talks about her first memory of visiting Forsyth Music Shop in Manchester city centre, and the inspiration behind the track in question.
You watch the Sâlo episode of Manchester: Unplugged in full here.
Detailed in the description of the newest edition of the online show, “Classically trained from the age of four, Sâlo’s journey runs through some of Manchester’s most important music spaces”, including time spent at the RNCM and Chetham’s School of Music and more.
As for the tune itself, not only do the lyrics revolve around a difficult patch in a personal relationship – this being one of the first times she felt like she’s fully opened up and not held back on letting people know what she’s speaking about – but it’s also the first track she’s produced and mixed entirely on her own.
Painstakingly mastered from a small studio at home, she almost “fell out of love” with the song altogether, but getting back to that simple joy of playing piano helped revive her passion for it.
With a stunning voice, natural musical talent when it comes to her instrument, and a great blend of different analogue and digital influences, Sâlo is definitely one to watch moving forward.
Danny Jones -
18th October 2024 
