If you love a good curry, but can never quite seem to recreate that restaurant standard when you’re cooking up a storm at home, look no further – because Manchester’s legendary Indian restaurant Zouk Tea Bar is here to show you all the tricks of the trade.
The award-winning Manchester curry house is famous for its high-quality dishes, and proudly shows off its chefs through its Manchester restaurant’s semi-open kitchen.
Found just off Oxford Road, at Zouk diners can watch the chefs hard at work – making fluffy, fresh naans in the tandoor oven and simmering aromatic curries on the industrial-size stoves – from the restaurant floor.
But for those really eager foodies, Zouk is now breaking down that fourth wall and inviting diners into the kitchen to learn tips and tricks from the curry masters themselves.
Video: Zouk Tea Bar
Diners can opt to don their own aprons and take a spin in the kitchen themselves, learning how to cook popular British curry house favourites like chicken tikka masala and lamb rogan josh from the masters themselves.
ADVERTISEMENT
And that’s not all, you’ll also get to grips with how to make onion bhajis, chicken tikka and seekh kebabs from scratch – just as it’s done in the restaurant.
There are also vegetarian and vegan course alternatives available for those who want to learn but don’t eat meat.
ADVERTISEMENT
Zouk’s curry school gives die-hard curry fans the chance to get up close and personal with their favourite dishes, with the kitchen’s best chefs on hand to skill you in you how to properly prepare a selection of different Indian starters and mains.
Starting at 10am and finishing at 1.30pm, all courses run for half a day – and in that time you’ll be initiated into the world of Indian cooking, learning how best to prepare your spice mixes and simmer down dishes for the perfect consistency.
ADVERTISEMENT
Taking place on 18 June, more information and tickets for the British Favourites cookery class can be found on Zouk’s website here.
Feature image – Zouk Tea Bar
Manchester
Rizzle Kicks announce massive Manchester comeback show at Castlefield Bowl
Danny Jones
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.
MANCHESTER. WHO’S READY? FRIDAY 11 JULY 2025 ‼️
We told you that more shows are coming and we’re so buzzing to announce that we’ll be playing Castlefield Bowl this July. This is going to be a big one and we’d love to see you all there.
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.
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.”
Featured Images — Blacksocks (press Images supplied)
Manchester
Blossoms’ ‘Five Nights in Manchester’ residency – everything you need to know
Danny Jones
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
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…
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?
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.
ADVERTISEMENT
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:
Your Girlfriend
Perfect Me
Oh No (I Think I’m in Love)
What Can I Say After I’m Sorry?
I Can’t Stand It
Getaway
If You Think This Is Real Life
Big Star
Slow Down
The Keeper
Care For
Honey Sweet
Gary
I Like Your Look
At Most a Kiss
My Favourite Room
Encore:
Nightclub
There’s a Reason Why (I Never Returned Your Calls)
Charlemagne – obviously…
A glimpse at what the Blossoms stage will look like for the ‘Five Nights in Manchester’ shows.
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.
ADVERTISEMENT
Get ready to say hello to an eight-foot-tall gorilla and have what we already know is going to be an amazing week.
Georgina Pellant -
31st May 2022 
