Legendary blues band, The Black Keys, are heading back to Manchester next year, set to play Castlefield Bowl for the very first time. This one’s a biggie.
As the latest headliner announced for Sound of the City 2025, the soulful Ohio rock and alternative duo are returning to 0161 for the third year running, having swapped the AO Arena for Co-op Live this past May, but now they’re set to tick another huge Manc venue off their list.
Confirmed amongst plenty of other big music news released on Monday, 2 December, The Black Keys will be heading to the Bowl as part of a new UK and European tour, with many of the dates including festival slots all over the continent.
While Manchester’s annual outdoor festival has seen some big names in the past, getting an act that boasts this kind of prestige and influence is a huge coup for Sound of the City (SOTC), the lineup for which already looks pretty stacked as it is.
Legendary rock duo @theblackkeys have just announced a run of outdoor headline shows across July 2025 🕺
The Black Keys released their 12th studio album, Ohio Players, back in April: a record heavily inspired by the vibe of band members Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney’s ongoing ‘record hang’ parties, which have become just as big a deal as their live shows themselves.
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Hailed by Rolling Stone, who wrote, “Whether they set their retro-rock wayback machine to Memphis in the Sixties, the Midwest in the Seventies, or Manchester, England, and L.A. in the Nineties, it all flows together like a beautifully paced DJ set”, their latest here took place at YES over on Charles Street.
The album itself – met with vast critical acclaim (including Audio North‘s humble opinion) – was re-released as an expanded Trophy Edition on 15 November and features collaborations with everyone from our very own Noel Gallagher to Beck, Greg Kurstin, Juicy J and more, earning another Grammy nod too.
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Even more excitingly, their latest collab on tour will see the mighty Miles Kane join them on the road for all three UK dates, meaning Castlefield Bowl will welcome the Birkenhead-born solo artists and Last Shadow Puppets star too. What a billing that is.
The other two shows held here on British shores will be at Alexandra Palace Park in the capital and over at Millenium Square as part of Leeds’ Sound of the City lineup for next year.
With a new music video for their latest single ‘Sin City’ having just debuted too, it’s well and truly going to be a Black Keys-heavy day on the office playlist.
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General admission goes live this Friday, 6 December at 9am but fans can also get exclusive presale access which will begin at the same time on Wednesday morning (4 Nov).
You can get ready to grab your tickets to see The Black Keys at Castlefield Bowl and what will no doubt be one of the biggest shows of the summer on HERE – we’ll see you there.
Meanwhile, Manchester’s month-long music series over at its iconic amphitheatre just keeps getting better, with a whole host of UK and global favourites now confirmed for SOTC 2025.
Featured Images — Larry Niehues/Press Image (supplied)/The Manc Group
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Review | ‘This is a night to remember, Manchester’ – Jason Derulo’s Co-op Live debut
Amy Williams
Who’s ready for another throwback night? Because this was absolutely a night already full of nostalgia and one to remember.
American singer-songwriter Jason Derulo hit Co-op Live last night as part of his ‘The Last Dance World Tour’, famous for hit songs like ‘Whatcha Say’, ‘Talk Dirty’, and ‘Savage Love’ – we all remember the Covid TikTok dance, don’t we? – as well as many more.
With over 250 million singles sold and tens of billions of streams, you best believe his one night in Manchester was sold out.
Running through the big hits and everything in between, he and his dancers made it a proper party atmosphere on this fine Saturday evening.
He did his throwback songs and more; from the moment he said, “We’re throwing it back to the beginning, back to 2009″, we knew his first debut single, ‘Whatcha Say’, was about to grace our ears, and that it did.
He also brought back absolute classics like ‘Ridin’ Solo’ (I definitely lost my voice during this one) In My Head and It Girl.
The Last Dance run of shows has seen him visit places like Leeds, London, Glasgow and Birmingham, finishing his UK leg right here in Manchester, before he carries on to Europe, but we’re confident our date had the best crowd so far.
And just when you think this couldn’t get any better, he brought his little boy on stage to say hi to everyone, too – shattered everyone’s hearts.
He has that many hit songs, it wasn’t possible to get through them all, so his DJ halfway through did a mash-up of songs he’s also written and featured in, including ‘I Gotta Feeling’ by Black Eyed Peas, ‘Secret Love Song’ with Little Mix and ‘Replay’ by Iyaz.
We knew his voice was amazing – but can we have a moment for this man’s dance moves, keeping everyone on their feet at Co-op Live tonight, and his dancers made everyone want to start dance lessons tonight too, an absolutely incredible performance by all.
Jason Derulo told the audience, “This is a night to remember Manchester’, and that it absolutely was.
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.
Danny Jones -
2nd December 2024 
