Gigs & Nightlife

Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott announce Manchester gig on autumn UK tour

And they're promising tickets will remain at £30

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 25th August 2022

Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott have announced a return to Manchester on their autumn UK tour.

The tour will include some of their biggest-ever shows as a duo, with support from special guest Billy Bragg at all dates.

They’ll be gigging at the AO Arena in Manchester, as well as the O2 Arena in London and Sheffield’s Utilita Arena.

And despite such massive arena shows on the cards, they’re promising tickets will remain at just £30.

Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott’s tour will be in support of their upcoming new album, N.K-Pop, which is due for release on 7 October.

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Two songs from the album, Still and Too Much For One (Not Enough For Two) have already been released.

Their previous album, Manchester Calling, went straight to number one when it was released in March 2020.

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In 2022, Paul Heaton’s songwriting was recognised with a prestigious Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection.

With some 15 million album sales under his belt, his music career has included stints as the frontman of The Housemartins (the same group that gave us Norman ‘Fatboy Slim’ Cook) and, of course, The Beautiful South, who released 10 hugely successful albums.

Read more: Coldplay announce massive Manchester gigs next summer

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In 2001 Heaton took a break from The Beautiful South – where Jacqui Abbott was lead vocalist between 1994 and 2000 – and released his first solo album Fat Chance, followed by two more solo records.

In 2011, the pair reunited for Heaton’s musical, The 8th, and have since released four albums as a duo.

Earlier this year, Paul Heaton cemented his place in the nation’s hearts by putting £1000 behind the bar of 60 pubs across the UK and Ireland, so fans could have a drink on him on his birthday.

Tickets for Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott’s autumn UK tour will go on sale at 9.30am on Thursday 1 September through Gigs and Tours.

Full tour dates are:

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November
26 SWANSEA Arena
27 LLANDUDNO Cymru Arena
28 BLACKPOOL Opera House

December
1 BRIDLINGTON Spa
2 GLASGOW OVO Hydro
3 STOCKTON Globe
5 PORTSMOUTH Guildhall
6 NOTTINGHAM Motorpoint Arena
8 BIRMINGHAM Resorts World Arena
9 SHEFFIELD Utilita Arena
10 MANCHESTER AO Arena
17 LONDON The O2

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Gigs & Nightlife

Gig review | Catfish at Heaton Park, Manchester – are the Bottlemen properly back?

Danny Jones Danny Jones Catfish and the Bottlemen gig review Heaton Park Manchester 2025

10 months on from their last gig and more than a year since they officially ended their hiatus, Catfish and the Bottlemen finally returned to Manchester for a sold-out show at Heaton Park, and while the reviews online have been mixed, we had a blast heading back to the fields again.

Making their Manc comeback just hours before this year’s Parklife Festival got underway, the beloved Welsh band had stirred lots of worry leading up to the day itself and, in truth, even in the moments leading up to (and after) their stage time.

Apart from their huge headline slot at Reading and Leeds, 2024 was the year of cancellations and controversy, so their fans had plenty of reason to be concerned. Nevertheless, we had faith and kept our spirits high, especially with the weather holding out.

Local legends and indie rock veterans James certainly helped on that front, delighting both die-hards watching from up on the hill and younger gig-goers who may have only heard a few of the big hits like ‘Sit Down’ – though they certainly didn’t heed that message, there was merely jumping up and down.

james catfish and the bottlemen heaton park support set
Some great computer-generated imagery backdropped the set.
catfish heaton park reviews
We watched this thing like a hawk.
You can read our recent interview with them HERE. (Credit: Audio North)

Once the main support act had wrapped up their pretty perfectly timed set, we’ll admit, standing on that grass felt like an eternity, especially considering Catfish had us waiting an extra 15 minutes beyond their expected arrival at Heaton Park.

You could call it fashionably late, but in this case, it saw several people around us uttering, ‘they’re not coming on any time soon’, and some even beginning to walk off.

However, they did eventually arrive just over a quarter of an hour past schedule, and the eruption of cheers from the crowd and a fair few screams from those nearest the barrier signalled what summed up the entire night: we were just so happy to have them back.

Even more notably, in fact, the boys themselves looked to be equally as buzzing, with bassist Benji Blakeway and ever-charismatic frontman Van McCann embracing each other before the opener and the latter flashing that familiar grin all night long.

We’ve heard people debating the sound quality and taking issue with parts of Van’s performance, but we’ll just leave this here and let you decide for yourselves:

One thing’s for sure: the energy was immaculate from start to finish.

From kicking things off with ‘Longshot’ for a limb-worthy intro, to hearing a fully acoustic version of ‘Hourglass’ as the lead singer stood alone on the dramatically lit main stage, soon to be followed up by a plethora of Parklife acts, we’d wager you they’ll remain a tough act to follow all weekend.

Other highlights included an entire park’s worth of people belting every word to ‘Kathleen’, ‘Fallout’, ‘Pacifier’ and pretty much every track they played, as well Van having the crowd repeat the chorus of ‘Cocoon’ as he hung up his guitar from the stand to deliver an ice-old mic drop.

We would’ve loved to hear a fuller set filled with the extended live versions of ‘Oxygen’, ‘Heathrow’ and ‘Glasgow’ too, especially given how many sections of pure instrumentation felt like they were going to transition into another track, but you can’t have everything, I guess.

manchester and the bottlemen flag
Inflatable crocodiles and cracking flags
van mccann manchester heaton park
Credit: The Manc Group
catfish and the bottlemen photos
Eyes and arms wide open
We’re here to urge you not to be drawn in by TikTok reviews – as far as we’re concerned, Catfish were made to headline Heaton Park.

Sure, there might have been a few minor fluffed vocal notes and slightly over-lengthy solos here and there, but after all, it’s a rock show: we want a bit of mess.

The same goes for Van McCann himself, too; we worry that people are starting to forget what a proper rockstar is, and we’re not talking about contriving some kind of Hollywood lifestyle, but certainly getting lost in the music and trashing your guitar so hard that your face is draped in nothing but hair and sweat? Absolutely.

All in all, we think Catfish and the Bottlemen‘s massive outdoor show at Manchester’s Heaton Park and de facto ‘comeback after the last comeback’ was a triumph and even when they’re not absolutely 10/10, they’re still bloody good value live.

As for the question of ‘are they back?’ We think so and certainly hope that ‘Showtime’ wasn’t just released as a way of signalling fans to come along for one last ride before the final curtain call.

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Featured Images — Audio North

Gigs & Nightlife

Parklife 2025 stage times and stage splits for Saturday 14 June

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson Stage times have been confirmed for Parklife 2025 Saturday

Parklife festival is officially underway for another year, with the massive Heaton Park event confirming stage times and stage splits for all of this year’s headliners.

With major performances from Charli XCX, 50 Cent, Bicep, Jorja Smith and Confidence Man (plus loads, loads more), it’s the biggest party in Manchester’s cultural calendar.

This year’s festival takes place on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 June with tens of thousands of people flocking up to north Manchester.

While the forecast is looking a little damp for day one of the festival, that’s never exactly stopped the party spirit for Parklife.

So without further ado, let’s get to planning your Parklife weekend – here are the stage times for Saturday.

Parklife stage times – Saturday 14 June

The Valley

12:00 – 14:15 – Rich Reason & YAMI
14:45 – 15:15 – JD Cliffe
15:45 – 16:30 – Antony Szmierek
17:00 – 17:45 – FLO
18:15 – 19:15 – Rudim3ntal
20:00 – 20:45 – Jorja Smith
21:30 – 22:45 – 50 Cent

The Hangar

12:00 – 13:45 – Nautica
13:45 – 15:30 – Joëlla Jackson
15:30 – 17:00 – Obskür
17:00 – 18:30 – Rossi.
18:30 – 20:00 – Max Dean
20:00 – 21:30 – Mochakk
21:30 – 23:00 – PAWSA

Matinée

12:00 – 13:00 – Leaha
13:00 – 14:20 – Faster Horses
14:20 – 15:40 – sim0ne
15:40 – 17:00 – MALUGI
17:00 – 18:30 – Interplanetary Criminal
18:30 – 20:00 – KI/KI
20:00 – 21:30 – Partiboi69
21:30 – 23:00 – Alex Farell

Magic Sky

12:00 – 13:30 – Niamh
13:30 – 15:00 – Inafekt
15:00 – 16:30 – Beccs Vernon
16:30 – 18:15 – Kyle Starkey
18:15 – 20:00 – Morgan Seatree
20:00 – 21:30 – Steve Angello

Big Top

12:00 – 13:45 – Hold Tight DJs
13:45 – 14:45 – Saint Ludo
14:45 – 15:45 – Champion
15:45 – 16:45 – Surusinghe
16:45 – 17:45 – 4am Kru
17:45 – 18:45 – Y U QT
18:45 – 19:45 – Skream & Benga
19:45 – 20:45 – Joy Orbison
20:45 – 21:45 – NOTION
22:00 – 23:00 – salute presents True Vision

G Stage

12:00 – 13:20 – OBP (Jelsen b2b Stocked Up b2b Simmo)
13:20 – 14:40 – Murphy’s Law
14:40 – 16:00 – Enzo Is Burning
16:00 – 17:20. – L.P. Rhythm
17:20 – 18:40 – Paige Tomlimson
18:40 – 20:00 – Chaos In The CBD
20:00 – 21:30 – Luuk Van Dijk
21:30 – 23:00 – Sally C

For more, download the official Parklife app.

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Featured image: The Manc Group

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