It’s been a mad busy couple of months for Manchester’s clubs as our calendars are filling up rapid with gigs and club nights.
And whilst we’re nearing the end of festival season, music events are still coming in thick and fast.
Here, we’ve pulled together a selection of the club nights taking place this Friday. From garage tunes with DJ Q, to a Mike Skinner DJ set, there’s loads of house, techno, minimal and drum and bass in between.
And the best thing about going out on a Friday? Two whole days to recover…
Read on to find out our top picks.
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The Streets Afterparty
Earlier in the evening, The Streets will be playing Castlefield as part of this year’s Sound of the City event series.
But if you didn’t manage to get down to the Bowl for it, YES’s Pink Room will be hosting The Streets afterparty from 11pm, with a DJ set from the man himself, Mike Skinner.
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He’ll be spinning all the best in drum and bass, hip hop, house and UK garage.
Tickets are £15 on Skiddle right now. Get them here.
The Libero crew are putting on their last Manchester night of the year.
Manchester-based label, Libero, will take over Gorilla on Friday too, in what will be their final show of 2021 here in the city before the brand focuses on their upcoming UK-wide project.
Founders Luke Welsh, Mike Morrisey and Dan Costello will all be playing, of course. And they’ll be joined by Joseph Emmanuel who’ll set the tone beforehand.
Running until the early hour of 6am, there’ll be plenty of house, minimal techno and tech house to go at, if you can last the night.
Tickets will only set you back £6. Skiddle has some here.
Andy C playing WHP back in 2018. Credit: Metropolis/IG
The 12-week long Warehouse Project series kicked off this month with some serious lineups filling out the 10,000 capacity Depot Mayfield.
On Friday, Metropolis will take over the former train depot as part of the season, with one of the biggest drum and bass lineups you’ll find in Manchester all year.
Heavyweights Andy C, Sub Focus and Wilkinson will headline the show, with a huge list of other big names who’ll be warming up for them throughout the night, like High Contrast, North Base, Mark XTC, Mollie Collins and Friction.
If you fancy some house and techno, popular Manchester club night and record label Haus 22 will be joined by Slam at Joshua Brooks. The pre-party will kick off at 7pm in the bar with things moving downstairs to the revamped basement from 11pm.
Scottish duo Slam will be playing a rare all night long set until 4am. The producers have been making music and putting on their own club nights for decades and so have a load of experience in creating top class nights.
Tickets are a tenner. But student and group tickets come a bit cheaper. Find all the info here.
Calling all students: this one is a rite of passage.
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Ghosts of Garage has been making moves in the student scene for the past couple of years. And coinciding with Manchester’s freshers week the popular garage night will visit Hidden on Friday.
Clothing brand turned music label Dr Banana will be appearing, whilst Soul Mass Transit System will make his Manchester debut.
DJ Q will also play an extended UKG set. Plus, expect to see some Ghosts of Garage faves like Tht Girl, and of course Rich Reason, with B2Bs from Mattik and NG.OMA too, all hosted by T-Man.
Originally planned for March, organisers managed to confirm a new date and a new venue, now taking place at Hidden. All previous tickets remain valid though. And early bird tickets are already gone. But you can get first and second release tickets on Skiddle here.
For more music and events head here. And make sure you’re following The Manc Audio to stay up to date.
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Bez and Shaun Ryder are starring in a new gangster movie – nope, not kidding
Danny Jones
No, you didn’t misread the headline and you’re not on acid: Manchester music legends Bez and Shaun Ryder are set to feature in a brand-new gangster film.
Yes, the ones from the Happy Mondays – why are you having such trouble processing this?
Seriously though, we did a little double-take ourselves when we came across this news, but the familiar Manc faces look to be among the ensemble of a brand-new gangster movie by Irish writer, actor, producer and filmmaker, Ciaron Davies.
And this is just a little leak or rumour that may have been blown out of proportion: you can take it from the horse’s mouth as Happy Mondays frontman, Ryder, recently shared the news on social media.
As you can see, the new film is called Geezers and is billed as a “British crime caper” written and directed by Davies, featuring Shaun as hard-man Robbie and Bez as ‘Monk’. If you saw Ryder shaking off that snake biting his hand like it was nothing then you already know he’s hard as nails.
Although it’s not strictly listed as a comedy per se, ‘caper’ would suggest plenty of humour and light-heartedness, so we’re thinking more like The Gentleman, Italian Job, or maybe even Four Lions, rather than a serious crime thriller.
Now, while we’ve seen both of the Salfordians on screen before not only in the likes of music videos, interviews, panel shows and even as two of the funniest guests to ever go on Celebrity Gogglebox, this latest venture will serve as their respective acting debuts.
According to the IMDb page, the synopsis of the film is as follows: “Crime caper about a stolen bag of money. Caught in the crossfire are ‘The Geezers’ a bunch of wannabe criminals who have bitten off more than they can chew. With 24 hours to grab the cash, London may just go up in smoke tonight.”
Shame it’s not set on the mean streets of Manchester, or better yet Salford, but you’ve still very much caught our interest.
You can see the first promotional poster for the film down below.
As for Davies, he has been involved with a number of small-budget TV film projects, as well as appearing in shorts and even video games, so it’s fair to say that getting 62-year-old Ryder and his ever-energetic hype man, 60, involved is quite the coup for his movie-making career.
Although the film has no release date just yet, we know that filming locations having included parts of Warrington and Pinewood Studios, will be produced by Loose Gripp Films and distributed by publishers High Fliers.
Given the high-octane nature of Geezers and its genre, the feature will involve lots of action, stunts, violence and even martial arts – though how much kung-fu these two will have learned for the project remains to be seen…
All we know is that the film is supposedly “coming soon” and if you don’t want to see Bez and Shaun Ryder doing their best impression of a Guy Ritchie gangster movie then you’re lying to yourself. Praying for a Rowetta cameo to put the cherry on top.
Featured Images — Shaun Ryder (via X)/Loose Gripp Films/IMDb
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Blossoms at O2 Ritz Manchester – five-night hometown residency is already a triumph
Daisy Jackson
Blossoms are a band who were born and forged here in Greater Manchester, and now they’re back retracing their steps with a five-night residency across the venues that launched them into the big leagues.
Their star has risen all the way to arena level and headline shows at Wythenshawe Park at this point, especially here in their hometown, so the chance to see them back in these cosy-ish little venues is special, and a little bizarre.
For night two of their landmark sold-out gig series, it was the turn of the O2 Ritz, that sweaty spot off Oxford Road where the floor bounces downstairs and you stick to the carpets upstairs.
Poetically, the first time I ever saw Blossoms was in this very room in 2016, when they had the mid-afternoon slot at Neighbourhood festival and the queue to get in went all the way back to St Peter’s Square.
Since those days, Blossoms have come a long, long way, and their live show has evolved and matured from five lads thrashing on their instruments to this well-oiled, hip-swaying, flares-wearing, chart-topping machine.
There’s even choreography now – how fancy!
A stand-out moment from the show is actually a song from their new, fifth studio album Gary, which is still barely eight weeks old.
A spoof recording of legendary Manchester indie club 42s rings out, then all five band members abandon their stations, slinging keytars and marching drums around their necks so that they can dance together in front of neon signs.
Blossoms have just done their second of five shows in Manchester, this time at the O2 Ritz. Credit: The Manc GroupBlossoms on stage at the O2 Ritz in Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group
Blossoms promised more disco with this album and they bloody meant it. It’s not just the flares and the blow-dries and the moustaches (though those do help) – it’s in the funk and groove that’s gradually crept into their music exponentially with each album release.
This is still indie rock but it’s the most danceable of its genre. Good luck keeping your shoulders from wiggling and jiggling in here. Good luck keeping that grin off your face.
And Gary is one of the most unexpectedly fun albums to be released in the last year – the fact they called it Gary, named after a giant fibreglass garden centre Gorilla, should’ve been our clue. It could border on silly were it not such a masterpiece.
It seems like the only thing Blossoms are trying to prove is that you can be wildly successful without taking yourself too seriously. They just seem like a group who want to have a good time and it’s totally infectious.
Case in point – when each band member is introduced, keyboardist Myles Kellock plays the riff of Satisfaction by Benny Benassi and The Biz. Unexpected.
Blossoms also clearly give a sh*t about their live shows and graft at it – I’ve seen these guys an awful lot and it’s because their tour dates are plentiful and consistently worth the ticket price.
This is definitely the biggest era of their career so far, but have they peaked? Not even close.
Hannah Starkie -
23rd September 2021 
