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WHP23 announces final show UP YA ARCHIVES and Sports Banger collaboration

The Warehouse Project proudly welcomes the North’s homegrown and breakthrough talent Nia Archives for a debut UP YA ARCHIVES show at Depot Mayfield

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant - 27th September 2023

This morning the iconic Manchester party series The Warehouse Project (WHP) has revealed its final show for its 2023 season.

The final show is an absolute corker, seeing the series conclude with a curated show from Leeds-born, Manchester-bred record producer, DJ, and songwriter Nia Archives on Friday 8 December.

The BBC Music Introducing Artist of the Year has put together a belting line-up, bringing together the likes of Shy FX, Skream, underground UKG and Asian revivalist Yung Singh, a debut Special Request B2B Clipz, and more for the series’ final show of the season.

Awarded BBC Music Introducing Artist of the Year last year, Nia Archives is set to return this season with her very own debut curated show at The Warehouse Project, UP YA ARCHIVES.

Image: Nia Archives
Image: Nia Archives

No stranger to the Depot Mayfield domain, Nia Archives released a spooky ‘Off Wiv Ya Headz’ remix of Yeah Yeah Yeah’s ‘Heads Will Roll’ earlier this year which was born out of her Halloween set at The Warehouse Project last season.

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A true champion of the DIY spirit and one of dance music’s most exciting prospects, Nia Archives is set to bring her unique sonic palette to the warehouse – taking over the three stages of Depot, Concourse, and Archive.

Joining Nia on the night will be the UK’s finest and freshest talents across DnB, jungle, dubstep, and UKG – including the likes of Shy FX, Skream, Yung Singh, Interplanetary Criminal, salute, a special debut b2b set from Clipz and Special Request, and more announced below.

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Commenting on her first UP YA ARCHIVES at The Warehouse Project, Nia Archives, said: “Am so buzzin to curate ‘UP YA ARCHIVES’ at The Warehouse Project in December!!

“Manchester is a special place to me and am so gassed I’ve got to book so many of ma favourite artists + DJ’s to play alongside me, can’t wait! Tickets on sale Friday @ 10am!!”

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The Warehouse Project and Sports Banger collaboration

Image: Sports Banger

The Warehouse Project has also announced this morning that it has joined forces with London’s independent label and provocateur Sports Banger, which has taken the party and fashion scenes by storm since its conception in 2013.

This 2023 season marks an exciting collaboration as founder, curator, and raver Jonny Banger has designed a capsule collection for WHP23 merchandise.

The Sports Banger x WHP23 merchandise will drop as a limited run featuring heavyweight hoodies and crewneck t-shirts.

Clothing will be available to purchase on-site from this weekend, Friday 29 September, at WHP merchandise stall across the remaining shows this season. Some proceeds from the sales will go to charity partners – Manchester South Central Foodbank and Mad Dogs Homeless Project.

This year also sees Sports Banger embark on a new project as the genre-defying, boundary-breaking fashion collective is set to publish an illustration book Sports Banger: Lifestyle of the poor, rich & famous to celebrate the irreverent brand’s first ten years featuring archive images and essays. The book is due for release on October 26.

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Commenting on the collaboration, the man behind Sports Banger, Jonny Banger, said: “This is an exciting project for us, to collaborate with one of the UK’s long-standing club series.

“We look forward to launching the first capsule collection for WHP23 which features some core Sports Banger designs with a nod to The Warehouse Project and its home city Manchester.”

Featured image – Nia Archives

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Five Manchester artists we’ve been listening to this month | April 2024

Danny Jones Danny Jones Best new Manchester music artists April 2024

Oh yes, it’s that time again – time for our favourite thing: sharing a bunch of great tunes with our mates, i.e. you lot and, of course, they all happen to artists from the wonderful world that is the Manchester music scene.

Be it a band, solo artist or any other configuration you like, we spend a good chunk of our time every month digging through the best stuff coming out of this city and the surrounding boroughs.

Luckily, there’s so much talent around these parts that we never struggle for choice, the only tough bit is singling out a mere handful every few weeks.

It’s tough work, we know, but we keep calm and carry on, for you. You’re welcome. Anyway, enough of that, let’s get stuck into the Manchester artists who’ve released new music or those who’ve simply stood out to us of late.

Five Manc bands and solo artists on our radar recently

1. Antony Szmierek

First up is the local king of spoken word and multi-talented Antony Szmierek from Hyde, whose melodic poetry spans multiple genres from hip-hop and electronic to alternative and even indie notes here and there, but always comes back to one core linchpin: the lyrics.

Bursting onto the scene with his debut EP, Poems To Dance To, back in 2023 – a title that still pretty much sums up his whole style – we’ve got a lot of love for the teacher who’s split his time between mentoring children with special needs and chasing his dream. Now he gets to go full speed on the latter.

The obvious love for literature runs throughout all of his material but it’s always delivered in such an effortlessly relatable, casual and almost conversational manner, as if you’re just sat in listening to his stream of consciousness. ‘Heaven Is Other People’, ‘The Words to Auld Lang Syne’ and ‘Rounders’ are our entry points, but you’ll get a little something different from all of them – and you’ll definitely dance.

2. The Rolling People

Over to Stockport next and no, we won’t be listening to any ‘it’s Cheshire nonsense’ today because we firmly want to put The Rolling People in our camp as there’s something just so familiar about them even though they’ve only just started putting out music.

The Stopfordian four-piece delivers good defiant British rock with very few frills, often fast-paced and Oasis-sounding in riffs, whilst other times reminding us of Shed Seven and drawing other contemporary comparisons such as The Crooks or resembling Tom Concannon of The Stanleys in vocals only just a touch gruffer.

These lads are still only in college but given how big they sound already, we’re expecting great things from them. For your first listen, there isn’t tonnes to get through but we’d go for ‘Grateful For Nothing’, ‘I’ll Be There’ and their latest single which has seen some love on Radio X, ‘Before It’s Gone’.

They also appeared on one of StreamGM’s most recent episodes of Spill The Sound.

3. Pip Millett

Another big genre swing now and we’re going to the R&B meets funk and soul stylings of the ever-so-smooth Pip Millett, who might just be one of our favourite artists in Manchester at the minute, let alone outright vocalists.

Having hit another boom following her most recent COLOURS performance, we do not forgive if you’re only coming across her (tut-tut) but she’s been pretty prolific when it comes to releasing music ever since 2018 and has already collaborated with Maverick Sabre, Chase and Status, Ghetts and more.

We reckon you won’t find many better singers in Greater Manchester right now and if you enjoy female artists like Jorja Smith, Joy Crookes and Miraa May, you’ll love ‘r Pip. Start with ‘Heavenly Mother’, ‘June’ ‘Slow’ and go from there. We truly think she’s going full global soon enough so enjoy here whilst she’s still kind of our little secret.

It’s not her first time either.

4. Alex Spencer

Back to the guitar-driven stuff now and another solo artist who’s been putting in the hard yards for some time now but is finally starting to reap the rewards. It’s everyone’s favourite curly-haired busker, Alex Spencer.

The young lad from Droylsden has gradually gone from chatting with us lot on Market Street and playing City Square at the Etihad before games to now playing for the players themselves, supporting the likes of fellow Manc rising star Seb Lowe on tour and booking his biggest headline shows yet.

He’s having quite the journey for someone who only just finished his GCSEs back in June 2023 and now that he’s signed to the same label as The Lottery Winners and The Coral, he can really push on. ‘Do What I Wanna’ and ‘Love And Let Go’ are probably his most well-rounded tracks, but we’ve still got a soft spot for his debut ‘A Night To Waste’ as we know the graft that went into getting to that point.

Still only 17. Mad.

5. cruush

Now to our final act and we have only two moods left: head-bobbing while our hair drapes to the ground or lying up on our backs as we stare up at a starry sky. That’s our best description of how the shoegaze approach of Manchester alt-rock outfit cruush makes us feel.

That new wave space in music can sometimes be a hard-to-define corner of modern music and that’s often why we love it so much but, in the case of this fuzzy-sounding local foursome, those distorted guitars and and floating vocals are textbook.

You get notes of everything from Wolf Alice and Slowdive to My Bloody Valentine and even Drop Nineteens if the lead singer was a girl. They’re everything you want from modern shoegaze and whether it’s ‘Ladybird Song’, ‘Stick in the Mud’ or ‘All My Plants Are Dead’, they never deviate too far from a winning formula we know and love.

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Aww, and that’s all she wrote for another month. It always goes so quick.

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We know you’re gutted, we are too but don’t worry, the thing about these regular series and having such a rich pool to fish from is that we’ll be back with more up-and-coming Manchester artists come the end of May – god, isn’t finding new music just the best?

Keep soaking in those tunes, folks, and be sure to let us know who you’ve been enjoying lately in the comments. We thank you in advance.

Oh, and of course, if you haven’t caught up on our picks from last month, look no further.

Five Manchester artists we’ve been listening to this month | March 2024

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — Pip Millett (via Facebook)/cruush (via IG)/Press Image

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Co-op Live assures fans arena WILL open this week in time for Olivia Rodrigo and other gigs

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson Co-op Live WILL open this week, it has assured fans. Credit: The Manc Group

Manchester’s huge new arena the Co-op Live has assured fans that it will definitely, actually, for sure open this week.

The staggering new music venue beside the Etihad Stadium has been hit by a couple of high-profile delays in the last fortnight.

Although a test event with Rick Astley went ahead on 21 April, giving a small audience a glimpse inside the state-of-the-art arena, the brakes were slammed on soon afterwards.

Co-op Live pushed its opening date back while it ironed out some kinks, namely ‘power supply issues’, and underwent rigorous testing to ‘run all shows safely’.

That meant Peter Kay was rescheduled to 29 and 30 April… but then got postponed again, along with The Black Keys, who were meant to perform last weekend.

All the delays have left fans panicking that their shows will also be delayed, with some huge shows like Olivia Rodrigo, Take That, and Liam Gallagher lined up in the coming weeks and months.

But Co-op Live has now issued a statement reassuring gig-goers that they are full steam ahead and ready to open as planned this week.

The first act to perform here officially will now be A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie on 1 May (not quite as local a name as they were gunning for, but we move).

He’ll be followed by Olivia Rodrigo and her Guts Tour, who will perform two sold-out gigs on 3 and 4 May.

Olivia Rodrigo has announced a Manchester gig at Co-op Live
Olivia Rodrigo has announced a Manchester gig at Co-op Live. Credit: Nick Walker
Keane 20th anniversary Hopes and Fears world tour Manchester tickets
Keane – Photography by ALEX LAKE insta @twoshortdays WWW.TWOSHORTDAYS.COM
Olivia Rodrigo and Keane will both play Co-op Live in Manchester this week when it finally opens

Then Keane will play the Co-op Live on 5 May to mark 20 years since the release of Hopes and Fears.

Co-op Live posted: “Let’s do this! Less than 48 hours until we kick off our full opening season.

“Our scheduled shows with @aboogievsartist, @oliviarodrigo and @keaneofficial are going ahead.

“Ticket holders can expect an email with everything they need to know about this week’s events to land in your inboxes tomorrow!”

Fans have breathed a sigh of relief at the news, with one person writing: “YAY THANK GOD OMG THIS IS AMAZING WAS LITERALLY HAVJNG A MENTAL BREAKDOWN BOUT OLIVIA BEING CANCELLED.”

Another commented: “THANK GOD!!! 4th mayyyy.”

Someone else posted: “IM SO HAPPY AHHHHHH I’VE BEEN NERVOUS ALL WEEK BUT NOW I KNOW ITS GONNA BE FINE AHHH.”

Olivia Rodrigo fans are BIG believers in an all-caps comment, clearly.

Co-op Live will open in Manchester on Wednesday 1 May.

It’s going to be worth the wait, we’re pretty sure…

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Featured image: The Manc Group

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