There’s a special shelf in grime and rap reserved for genre pioneers; the people credited with bringing a new blend of music to the masses.
Dizzee Rascal and Wiley are known as the guys who got grime going in Britain.
Skepta and JME’s loud and proud lyrics are what helped push the genre outside of the M25.
And Aitch and Bugzy Malone have received important recognition for giving rap a Mancunian tongue.
These seminal artists started the shows. But they didn’t set the stages. Peer closer at the rich history of British hip-hop; and you’ll find figures in the prologue.
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Before Dizzee and Wiley gave grime its own identity, Rodney P and Roots Manuva were clearing the path for the first wave of authentic national rap with their unmistakably English lyricism.
Before the BBK brothers were waxing lyrical, Akala was speaking out about the streets.
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And before Bugzy and Aitch put Manchester on the map, a young lad from Moss Side called RIO was helping to lay the local groundwork.
Now, this member of Manchester’s old guard is making a triumphant return to the scene.
“The king is back,” RIO tells The Manc, revelling in a resurgence he’s been threatening to make for half a decade.
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“These are my fans’ words, not mine.
“I love what the likes of Bugzy and Aitch are doing right now. They’re geniuses. They’ve taken things up a level and I think that’s fantastic.
“But there’s a vacant throne beside them that’s mine. I’m coming back for it.”
The hiatus has been a long one, but the name RIO will ring a bell among music fans who were there when the Manchester grime scene was first taking flight.
At the turn of the ‘10s, RIO was being touted as “one to watch” by the media, and the hype in his hometown had reached fever pitch.
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He’d refined his rhyming in neighbourhood road huddles as a teenager and relentlessly peddled CDs on Market Street; making a few quid on rap shows he helped to set up across the city (Wiley starred on one).
But when he hustled his mixtape into HMV – where it sat alongside iconic genre records like Boy In Da Corner – things snowballed.
Suddenly, RIO was getting shout-outs from record spinners right at the top, including MistaJam, DJ Target, Tim Westwood and DJ Q. He was out on the road with legends like Nas, Rick Ross, T-Pain and Julez Santana. Local Premier League stars Rio Ferdinand and Mario Balotelli were even stepping in to star in his videos.
Manchester had seemingly spawned the next big star. But the journey struck a bump.
Trouble began brewing when RIO’s label, IMA, began gawking enviously at the pop rappers selling six figure albums in the charts. They wanted their signing to do the same.
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“They were desperate to turn me into Tinie Tempah or Tinchy Stryder,” RIO sighs.
“Y’know, they were trying to put the sunglasses on me and make my music like those guys.
“I watch some of my videos from back then and just think – ‘that’s not real’. They’re pop records. Why did I do that?
“I got to do some big things with the label – they got me on Soccer AM and took me to the MOBO Awards. But I wasn’t connecting with my fans.
“I didn’t know any better. I was a kid.”
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Things eventually reached a point when RIO just couldn’t do it anymore. He decided to duck out.
Within four years, he’d gone from rising star to sinking ship; cast adrift from the rap scene where the heavy weight of his mental health threatened to drown his once-promising career.
He briefly came up for air on a few occasions (releasing sporadic singles online). But it wasn’t until recently he felt in the right place to reclaim the reputation he left back on dry land.
“I’ve always known I was good enough,” RIO explains confidently.
“Ability wasn’t what forced me to keep dropping out. It was my mental health.”
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Whenever it looked like RIO might be about to re-emerge, the underground scene would react with excitement. But the rapper would invariably abandon his comeback due to a deep-seated anxiety.
On one occasion, he spent days preparing a return show at Dry Bar, and when the time came to publish the tickets, he hovered his cursor over the “sell” button for several minutes straight, terrified to confirm the event in case nobody showed up.
The gig sold out.
Demand was so great, in fact, RIO had to hastily arrange on a second show to fit in all the fans.
Still, despite the fierce loyalty of his core audience, RIO continued to find reasons to avoid a full-time return.
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“Fear was dominating me,” he says.
“I’d just make excuses – I’m busy with work, I’ve got too much on, whatever. Anytime I teased a return DJs would get excited, but then I’d disappear again and they started to ignore me.
“I don’t blame them. It was like The Boy Who Cried Wolf.”
“For a long time, whenever there was an opportunity, I was like a deer in the headlights, afraid of failure. I actually go out looking for failure now; it’s just another challenge that helps you to grow.
“I thought: How can I teach my sons about courage and adversity if I don’t take this shot?
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“I could see the Manchester scene was moving and I wanted to get involved.
“Now I’m here to stay. I’m on a mission to get back to my rightful spot.”
Other artists in RIO’s position would recognise the past few years as tumultuous. But he doesn’t see it that way. RIO believes the choppy waters have stirred new creativity within him; resulting in the rapper producing the “best music he’s ever made”.
“Artists often reveal the most when they’re at their most vulnerable,” he says.
“This comeback has nothing to do with money. I’ve got my own business where I earn. This is about change. It’s for my fans. Now, they finally get to hear my story.”
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Given how his territory is home to some of the top artists in rap right now, RIO is often asked about his fellow residents lighting up Manchester.
“The game’s as good as it’s ever been up here,” he says.
“But some people need to learn what the real history is.
“A lot of younger rap fans will think the current guys started it all in Manchester.
“But with ‘The Lost Archives’, we’ve been documenting the history and started dropping a track from my back catalogue every Thursday at 7pm, all available for free download, so that will settle that. It will end the conversation of who came first.
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“These guys in the game now… they know who I am.
“My city’s got the best artists in the country as far as I’m concerned. There’s been a whole host of talent come through in the last four years, and rightfully I couldn’t make a return without paying homage.”
“I’m not here to tear things down. I’m here to get involved again.”
RIO describes his style as being in the mould of artists like Dave or Kano; with a renewed focus on adding strings, choirs and brass to his compositions.
He’s been recording his new EP – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly – during socially distanced sessions at a local studio with fellow Manc producer JSD, and he says the music is very different to what his fans have heard before.
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“My latest music is authentic, original and relatable,” RIO tells us.
“Plus, it tells my story. Most of my fans will have never actually heard my story before.
“People know I’m good with lyrics and flows, but I’ve never had the courage to tell them exactly who I am.
“I don’t talk about having a knife in my bag, or cooking and selling drugs. I don’t have videos featuring loads of girls and jewellery.
“I talk about what’s truly happening in my life. I’m a dad; I’ve matured as a person and as an artist.”
RIO has already expressed his excitement at the buzz his second comeback is generating with his old clique of fans. Now, he’s attacking the scene on nostalgic and new fronts.
By releasing The Lost Archives singles produced in the noughties, he’s prompting fans to go looking deeper into the genre’s roots; whilst his upcoming music is aimed at taking things to a higher echelon.
He’s already made a start on another EP, with high hopes for all of his new material.
“People will always naturally gravitate to something if it’s got quality,” RIO says defiantly.
“I’ve been doing this since ‘05 – so I know good music and I know bad music.
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“This latest stuff I’ve been doing… I’m confident it will change the game in Manchester.”
Listen and watch RIO’s journey through the ‘The Lost Archives’here.
Keep up to date with RIO by following him on his socials.: @rioowyamean
Audio
Five Manchester artists we’ve been listening to this month | May 2025
Danny Jones
Oh, hey, didn’t see you there. Come looking for more top Manc tunage, have we? You’re in luck, because Greater Manchester just keeps pumping out top bands and artists all the time, hence why we do this.
If you’re new around these parts, first of all, welcome and secondly, the whole thing is very simple: every month, we round up some of the best talents coming out of 0161 and talk about why we like them. I know, groundbreaking stuff, right?
They don’t have to be born and bred in Manchester, but they do need to have made this their music home – the first the correct career decision they made, the second being working their way into our ears.
So, now all the housekeeping is done and dusted, let’s dive into some delightful new Manchester music, shall we?
Five Manc bands and artists we’ve been listening to recently
1. IST IST
This month we’re starting off with one of those Manchester bands that may not be new but still crop up for us at regular intervals to remind us of two things: first of all, that they’re brilliant and secondly, that they should have featured on our regular round-up of artists a long time ago.
We’re talking about IST IST, who returned with another live, multiple LP-spanning compilation (plus some extras) this past March, which we’ve had on plenty over the past month. It goes without saying that they sound brilliant live, and we feel bad for only just remembering how good and prolific they’ve been.
You always get plenty of New Order, but also White Lies and Editors; Future Islands, The National and lots of other baritone-driven bands that bring that element of melodrama to layer over the instruments themselves. ‘You’re Mine’ might be their biggest track, but ‘The Kiss’ and ‘Exist’ are also favourites.
2. Robbie Cavanagh
Now, we all know that country music is having a real moment right now and we, for one, couldn’t be happier about it, to be completely frank. Though arguably simplistic at times, it’s soulful, often impressively pared-back, and when something does impress you lyrically or technically, it sticks.
With that in mind, we recently realised that award-winning songwriter Robbie Cavanagh has been on somewhat of a comeback since 2023, and we hadn’t noticed until painfully recently. Returning after a six-year hiatus – bar some little ditties during lockdown – his latest project has some of his best work yet.
Fully tilting from folk into country and folk, the stunning vocalist belatedly blew us away with the bluesy single ‘Helpless’ and a gorgeous new collaboration with solo artist, Abby Gundersen (equally talented sister of Noah), but please still start with his 2016 Mahogany Session, where it arguably all began.
Named after Manchester city centre’s famously eclectic indie emporium, Afflecks Palace have never quite blown up in the way they way we thought they would when we first came across them years ago, but there’s still plenty of time and we’ll be damn it if they don’t deserve more regular listeners.
You’ll also be glad to know that, despite the name, they aren’t one of those trite, overly performative bands who wear a stereotypical Manc-ness on their sleeve that we sometimes come across; they’re just good and deserve a lot more recognition for their contribution to the neo-pysch genre.
As for where to start, we’ll admit we prefer their first album; ‘Forever Young’ is noodley and catchy, ‘Everything Is an Attempt to Be Human’ has those shoegazey guitars, but it just doesn’t get better than the incomparable ‘Pink Skies’, which still makes us feel some type of way – we just can’t quite describe.
We just love it. ‘Nu-Madchester’, or whatever you want to call it, its distinct sunniness never fails to tickle a part of our brains.
4. Findlay
Next up is Stockport singer-songwriter Findlay, who released more new music this past February, and has been making indie pop that ropes in plenty of other influences for more than a decade now.
That being said, she’s always experimenting with her sound, as her collabs with Blossoms, Miles Kane, Bill Ryder-Jones, Joris Delacroix have shown, and this latest iteration seems to have her tapping into everything from almost 50s and 60s female soul singers to slow electronic and more.
We love the smooth sexiness and sheer ambition of her latest single, ‘Stay Kinky’ and ‘Waste My Time’ always feels like a late-night chiller fit for music video set in a dingey bar, however, we still have a soft spot for her debut, ‘Your Sister’, with the riff that’s almost reminiscent of ‘Blockbuster’ by Sweet.
Last but not least, it’s the second time we’re featuring a returning artist and it comes in the form of young Alex Spencer, whose journey from busking around the streets of Greater Manchester to sold-out headlines shows and featuring on the likes EA Sports FC 25 (yes, FIFA) is a truly remarkable one.
The charming and still fresh-faced local lad from Droylsden is nothing short of proof that hard work and determination can pay off, and those ‘Bucket List’ dreams really are within reach. Obvious talent aside, this teenager has grafted his arse off and we couldn’t be more proudof how far he’s come already.
He last featured in this round-up back in April 2024 but even in the time between then, he’s released plenty and developed even further as musician, so much so that we’re not going to suggest which songs to try; instead, you can watch our most recent interview with him and relive his last year or so with us.
I’m Alex Spencer and This is my journey so far!
8 years of my music journey summed up in 1 minute 55😅 Thankyou to everyone who’s followed my journey so far, to anyone new or to anyone who doesn’t know my story, I made this video to show where it all started and how I got here❤️ pic.twitter.com/Hi3W7MHMxX
So, the next time you hear someone foolishly complaining that the Greater Manchester music scene ‘isn’t what it once was’, you can go right ahead of show them these bands and artists.
In fact, you could just point them in the direction of this very page and Audio North, in general, as we do this round-up every month and plenty more every week, meaning you’re headphones never dry up.
For instance, you can check out which Manchester bands and artists we were listening to back in April, both new, current and old, down below. We’ll see you again very soon.
Parklife 2025 – dates, line-up, day splits, tickets and more
Daisy Jackson
Parklife is, hands down, the biggest party of the year in Manchester, luring tens of thousands of music-lovers to Heaton Park for two days of live music.
This year’s is shaping up to be the biggest in years, with huge headline slots from Charli XCX and 50 Cent, plus festival favourites like Bicep, Pawsa and Confidence Man.
With just a few weeks to go, festival-goers will be deep in their Parklife prep, whether it’s planning how to get there or what to wear all weekend.
Parklife is now releasing plenty of information about this year’s festival, including VIP upgrades, travel passes, and a few changes to the festival site, including new stages.
So we’ve rounded up a load of essential information you’ll need if you’re heading to the fields of Heaton Park.
When is Parklife 2025 and what times?
Parklife 2025 will be taking place on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 June, at Heaton Park.
Parklife gates open from midday on Saturday 14 and 1pm on Sunday 15 June. On both days the event finishes at 11pm.
Last entry to Parklife is strictly 5pm.
Who’s on the line-up for Parklife 2025?
It’s a whopping year for the Parklife line-up, pulling in two huge headliners – artist of the moment Charli XCX, and hip-hop heavyweight 50 Cent.
Next up will be performances from incredible talent like soul singer Jorja Smith, Parklife favourite Peggy Gou, Pawsa, Bicep, Overmono, Confidence Man, Hybrid Minds, Rudimental, and Chris Stussy.
There’ll also be slots for Mancs like Interplanetary Criminal, Antony Szmierek, and Morgan Seatree.
Sadly, one of the hottest names on the bill, Lola Young, has pulled out of the festival this year, but it’s still shaping up to be a massive weekend.
You can see the full Parklife line-up below.
How to get tickets, and ticket prices
Tickets for Parklife are still on sale, with decent availability for most ticket types – but they’re selling fast as the festival gets nearer and nearer.
Below are the prices for the main ticket options.
Weekend tickets – £164.45 each
VIP weekend tickets – £218.90 each
Saturday day tickets – £95.20 each
VIP Saturday day tickets – £137.50 each
Sunday day tickets – £95.20 each
VIP Sunday day tickets – £137.50 each
How much is a VIP or Backstage upgrade, and what does it get you?
If you’ve already bought a ticket but want to upgrade yourself to VIP, it’s not too late (and speaking from experience, WORTH IT).
You can upgrade your whole weekend to VIP for £72.80 each, or £44.80 each for day tickets.
The Parklife VIP area has jumped across to the other side of the festival site this year and is now right in the heart of the action near the Valley Stage.
From here, you have an exclusive viewing area of the stage, plus exclusive food and drink, priority entry, VIP toilets, a hair and makeup pamper station, and plenty more.
Then there’s a new Backstage ticket type this year, which gets you on-stage access to the Hangar stage, an exclusive viewing area of the Valley Stage, a backstage bar and a chill out area – it’s £165.00 each to upgrade for the weekend.
How to get to and from Parklife festival 2025, plus travel pass
Parklife takes place up at Heaton Park, so it’s a little way out of the city centre – but it’s a doddle to make your way up to the fields.
The festival still advises using the dedicated shuttle bus to get there and back, which is the quickest and easiest route.
The shuttle bus leaves from Lever Street in the Northern Quarter and will drop you right outside the festival site within about 30 minutes.
Alternatively, you can get a Bee Network tram to Bowker Vale or Heaton Park tram stops, and walk up to the gates.
As for getting home, buses will operate from early evening until everyone has safely left the festival site.
Trams will operate on their normal schedule but note that Heaton Park station closes at 9pm on both evenings, so that crowds can be safely managed at Bowker Vale instead.
There’s a special Parklife Travel Pass that allows you to travel on any bus or tram service including the shuttle bus – it’s £8 per day, or £14 for the weekend, and is available on the Bee Network app.
Parklife 2025 festival map and stages
There are some big changes on site at Parklife this year – including The Parklife Stage disappearing altogether.
Now, The Valley will act as the main stage, and there are two brand new stages to check out too.
Both Matinee and Big Top will be new this year.
Magic Sky will move a bit more centrally into the festival site, while the truly impressive Hangar stage dominates the western side of the event.
And at the top of the hill will be the small but mighty G Stage.
What you can and can’t bring to Parklife 2025
There’s strict security in place getting in and out of Heaton Park for Parklife festival, for everyone’s safety, and a long list of what you can and can’t bring with you.
You can bring your own water bottle on site with refill stations all over Parklife, but it mustn’t be larger than 500ml and can’t be metal.
You can also take sun cream as long as it’s 200ml or less and in original containers, and if the weather goes the other way, compact umbrellas are okay.
As for the banned list, it includes obvious stuff like alcohol, drugs, knives, aerosols and flares/fireworks, as well as less obvious things like hoverboards and skateboards, hi vis jackets and selfie sticks.