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The timeline of Night & Day Cafe’s noise row – including a surprise cash offer from Matty Healy

Phew, this was a wild ride.

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 10th April 2024

The battle to ‘save’ Manchester’s iconic Night & Day Cafe seems to have finally come to an end, with a lengthy court battle wrapping up last month.

The historic venue has helped launch the careers of countless bands and played host to intimate gigs from the likes of Ed Sheeran, Arctic Monkeys, Wet Leg, James Bay and Elbow.

A couple of years ago though, a ‘new resident’ in the neighbourhood filed a noise complaint.

And then Night & Day Cafe was slapped with a Noise Abatement Notice by the council.

And then they took the whole thing public, and the row rumbled on and on and on.

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The resident unwittingly at the heart of the media storm (some very famous faces were rallying behind the venue) said that the music was so loud it could ripple their toilet water, Jurassic Park-style.

In a lengthy piece recently published by The Mill, previous residents came forward and backed them up, saying that the flat was ‘uninhabitable’ and a ‘living nightmare’.

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That piece also revealed that Matty Healy, frontman of The 1975, at one time came forward and offered to buy the flat for cash to put an end to the whole thing.

The 1975's Matty Healy reportedly made a cash offer to buy the flat involved in the Night & Day Cafe noise row. Credit; Instagram
The 1975’s Matty Healy reportedly made a cash offer to buy the flat involved in the Night & Day Cafe noise row. Credit: Instagram

But three years after the noise complaint row hit headlines, Night & Day Cafe has been granted permission to continue operating as a gig venue and nightclub, with a few conditions that should end the back-and-forth between them and their neighbours.

Manchester City Council has maintained throughout the ordeal that it has had no intention of shutting down the Oldham Street venue, saying that the Noise Abatement Notice was issued as a ‘last resort’ after months of negotiating and compromising.

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After three years of public statements and court hearings and occasional celebrity endorsements, it looks like Night & Day Cafe can finally go back to what it does best.

And if you also got lost in the whole storyline along the way, here’s a little refresher of what happened and when (it goes back a full decade…)

Night & Day Cafe’s noise row as it happened

The Manc Audio Night & Day DJ takeover night 2

January 2014 – Night & Day is first hit with a Noise Abatement Notice, with thousands (including Johnny Marr, Frank Turner and Tim Burgess) signing a petition to have it removed.

September 2014 – Night & Day is allowed to remain in operation, on the condition that owners meet with residents every three months and to discuss any issues.

August 2020 – A man buys a Northern Quarter flat that neighbours Night & Day Cafe. The world is still under lockdown restrictions and live music is all-but non-existent.

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July 2021 – Restrictions lift and this iconic venue springs back to life with its first event. The noise is so loud inside the neighbouring apartment, the toilet water ripples, Jurassic Park-style. The residents file their first complaint, and meet with the owners of Night & Day to discuss a solution.

November 2021 – After multiple complaints, and multiple meetings with the venue’s bosses, Manchester City Council serves Night & Day with its Noise Abatement Notice. The council received hundreds of noise complaints that year – this was the only one that resulted in a NAN (the rest were sorted out by venues without council involvement).

November 2021 – Night & Day goes public with its Noise Abatement Notice and launches a petition to have the NAN removed. It gains almost 100,000 signatures and is shared by many famous faces in the music industry.

November 2021 – The resident at the centre of the row speaks to the MEN, saying their issue is with the club nights (not the gigs) and that he’s spent thousands of pounds trying to insulate his flat from the noise.

November 2021 – Local artist Paul Hallows, who works under the name himHallows, creates a series of tongue-in-cheek free posters about the whole situation.

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October 2022 – Night & Day pushes its petition to have its NAN removed again, as the venue says its future ‘still hangs in the balance’. It claims that complying with the requirements of the abatement notice ‘would effectively ruin Night & Day’s business’.

November 2022 – Night & Day heads to court for the first time, with celebrities rallying around the venue. Jeremy Pritchard from Everything Everything, Elbow’s frontman Guy Garvey, and Matty Healy from The 1975 all lend their support.

November 2022 – Manchester City Council confirms it’s had five complaints from four different flats – not just the one at the centre of the row.

December 2022 – Blossoms perform at the venue to mark one year to go until the opening of the Co-op Live Arena. They have #SaveNightandDay posters plastered to their equipment.

Summer 2023 – Matty Healy pops up to the flat and tries to buy flat for cash, according to reports in The Mill. The sale fell through because The 1975 were sued for a large sum, after Matty kissed his bandmate on stage in protest of Malaysia’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws.

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January 2024 – Night & Day heads back to court for a three-day hearing. There were several other court appearances over this timeline, but to be honest, we’ve lost track too. They said again ‘the source of the problem is that when the adjoining building was converted from warehouse to flats, no consideration was given to the pre-existing live music venue’.

March 2024 – It all wraps up quickly at Manchester Magistrates’ court, and the NAN is upheld. Night & Day can remain open, but will have to compromise.

Phew.

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Featured image: The Manc Group

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Rizzle Kicks announce massive Manchester comeback show at Castlefield Bowl

Danny Jones Danny Jones Rizzle Kicks Castlefield Bowl tickets

In case you missed it, Rizzle Kicks are BACK and they’re making their return to Manchester in a big way with a massive outdoor show at Castlefield Bowl.

Named as the latest artists to join the Sound of the City (SOTC) lineup for 2025, with only a few acts having been named thus far, the British pop duo will be playing a huge sun-soaked set next summer.

The 2010s hit-makers were a regular presence in the UK charts for a good few years, releasing just two albums in 2011 and 2013 before slipping into a somewhat unannounced hiatus to work on other things.

Jordan Stephens and Harley ‘Sylvester’ Alexander-Sule have both enjoyed multiple other music projects separate from the group, as well as getting into presenting, podcasting, acting and more, so they’ve been plenty busy while they’ve been away. But now they’re back with new music on the horizon too.

Confirming their SOTC festival gig on Monday, 18 November, Rizzle Kicks said on socials: “We told you that more shows are coming and we’re so buzzing to announce that we’ll be playing Castlefield Bowl this July [2025]. This is going to be a big one and we’d love to see you all there.”

The announcement also comes not long after the pair revealed their third studio album is on the way almost 12 years on from their sophomore record, Roaring 20s.

Speaking on their return to the music scene and the upcoming release, Jordan said: “We allude to the fact that we acted off the cultural encouragement and the reality of the time. I think now we’d like to believe that we’ve distanced ourselves from those just through experience.”

The new Rizzle Kicks sound touches on sobriety and paternity, “not just with Harley becoming a father and all the growth that comes with that role, but also in a larger sense as we get older we feel a responsibility to share our wins and our failures”, added the 32-year-old.

Entitled Competition is for Losers, the new studio LP is set to release on 14 February next year just before their official tour gets fully underway in March. Stephens and Sule played their first show together in nearly a decade at KOKO in Camden earlier this month and are eager to get back to business as usual.

Their other Manchester date, which was already announced, is set to take place on 19 March at the O2 Ritz and sold out – along with all the other shows – in just 15 minutes. Wow.

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For those fans dying to be at their Castlefield Bowl gig on Friday, 11 July, you can pre-order Competition is for Losers to access pre-sale from 10am this Thursday.

General admission tickets will be available from the same time on Friday (22 November).

Issuing a call-out to the die-hard Rizzkle Kickers, lovingly referred to by the band as the #tunesquad, they said: “You already know the drill, tickets are going to go fast. LET’S DO THIS.”

You can get ready to grab yours HERE.

It’s not the only one we’re looking forward to at the Bowl either.

Hacienda Classical announces record-breaking show at Castlefield Bowl next summer

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

Featured Images — Blacksocks (press Images supplied)

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Blossoms’ ‘Five Nights in Manchester’ residency – everything you need to know

Danny Jones Danny Jones Blossoms Manchester gigs support acts

The Blossoms boys are ramping up for their ‘Five Nights in Manchester’ residency to round off their UK tour of Gary, the fantastic fifth studio album which released earlier this year to critical acclaim.

Set to play not just one or two but five certifiably fantastic-looking gigs at five different Manc music institutions, each with a special place in our hearts and theirs, the incredible run of nights kicks off this Tuesday, 18 November and will see them play tracks from the album along with their biggest hits.

If you managed to grab yourself a ticket to at least one of these sell-out shows, you’re likely already trying to get things organised in your head to stop yourself from simply tail-spinning into an excited frenzy, so we thought we’d help you out where we can.

From the support acts to stage times, setlists and more, here’s everything you need to know ahead of Blossoms‘ ‘Five Nights in Manchester’.

Blossoms Manchester residency – all the important info

The venues and when they’re playing them

First up on the list is Manchester Academy on Oxford Road, where Blossoms will be starting their Manchester marathon of shows on Tuesday, 19 November – it will be the first time they’ve played the 2,600-capacity room since 2016.

Next up is the O2 Ritz on Wednesday (20 Nov), which many of the band members have said is their favourite venue of the lot given the number of acts they themselves have seen there and arguably their breakthrough hometown gig back in 2015, returning multiple times since then.

In at number three is the historic Albert Hall, where they’ve also taken the stage on a number of occasions, but this time their gig on Thursday, 21 November will see them perform their most polished and sprawling set yet.

The penultimate place hosting Blossoms’ Man residency is the O2 Victoria Warehouse over in Stretford, which will see them start the weekend in style this Friday (22 Nov). A big gig space made for big bands, so they’re a perfect fit.

And lastly, the Stockport boys round out the ‘Five Nights in Manchester’ mini-tour at one of the city’s very best venues full stop: the O2 Apollo. That sloping sprung floor, the stocks and the angle from the top tier – if you don’t know why this place is so special, we just can’t help you…

Who is supporting Blossoms in Manchester?

Perhaps the best part about this entire section of the tour, in our opinion, is that you’re getting a TONNE of different support acts across the five nights.

Not only are you getting different names every night but each Manchester gig will have not one but two warm-up acts, meaning you’ll fans will be treated to a total of 10 up-and-coming artists – and most of them are local too.

From Oldham’s very own Seb Lowe and Earlestown’s The K’s, who both supported them at Wythenshawe Park, to Scots Neon Waltz, local lads Delights; Manc rockers The Guest List; the ‘female Sam Fender’, a.k.a. Siobhan Winifred, London indie pop group Soft Launch, Brummy boys overpass, Leigh’s very-own Lottery Winners AND Liam Gallagher’s son’s exciting new band, Villanelle.

Phew. Let us catch our breath for a second. Sounds like an unreal few nights of nothing but non-stop indie and good times, right?

You can see whose playing where down below:

Set times

With doors opening from 7pm on all five nights in Manchester, you can expect a good half-hour or so for each support act, as well as two intervals to grab yourself a drink, nip to the loo or take a breather from your ape suit (trust us, we’ve seen plenty of people doing it) before the main event.

Blossoms are scheduled to take the stage for their highly-anticipated headline performances at 9pm throughout the residency, so you can plan accordingly depending on how far long it takes you to get to each venue from your location.

Luckily, they’re all in the city centre, so it shouldn’t be too much of a hassle to get to any of them; maybe just give yourself an extra bit of leeway to head to the likes of a busy Oxford Rd and to queue of course.

The concerts so far on this tour have lasted around two hours, meaning you’ll be heading home by 11pm, which should be just enough time to get the earworm that is ‘Gary’ out of your head.

Setlist for Blossoms’ Gary tour

Now, it won’t surprise anyone to learn that most of their current setlist is made up of tunes from the new album, but we’ll warn you now that they won’t be playing Gary in full.

They’ve sprinkled hits from previous albums into the running order and, according to the Leeds show recorded on the ever trusty Setlist.fm, they have the split down as five songs from their debut, four from Foolish Loving Spaces, two tracks from Cool Like You and just one from Ribbon Around the Bomb.

Meanwhile, there’ll be seven songs off Gary. You can see the most recent show from start to finish down below, but you can always expect some surprises from these guys:

  1. Your Girlfriend
  2. Perfect Me
  3. Oh No (I Think I’m in Love)
  4. What Can I Say After I’m Sorry?
  5. I Can’t Stand It
  6. Getaway
  7. If You Think This Is Real Life
  8. Big Star
  9. Slow Down
  10. The Keeper
  11. Care For
  12. Honey Sweet
  13. Gary
  14. I Like Your Look
  15. At Most a Kiss
  16. My Favourite Room

Encore:

  1. Nightclub
  2. There’s a Reason Why (I Never Returned Your Calls)
  3. Charlemagne – obviously…
A glimpse at what the Blossoms stage will look like for the ‘Five Nights in Manchester’ shows.

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And that should be just about everything you need to know ahead of Blossoms’ ‘Five Nights in Manchester’: a once-in-a-lifetime event that’s going to go down in history and Manc music heritage.

They’ve described this as a “lover letter” to the places that helped put them on the map, not to mention a trip down memory lane now more than a decade into their career.

If you were looking for a secret ticket link from us, we hate to break it to you but this thing sold out in a flash. You can of course keep your eye out on resellers like Twickets and SeeTickets but, as always with these things, be careful and due your due diligence.

Get ready to say hello to an eight-foot-tall gorilla and have what we already know is going to be an amazing week.

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

Featured Images — Ewan Ogden (supplied)/The Manc Group

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