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16-year-old Manc busker, Alex Spencer, bags record deal with the same label that launched The Lathums

He's going to be in good company on his way up.

Danny Jones Danny Jones - 30th March 2023

16-year-old busker Alex Spencer’s career has gone from strength to strength in the past couple of years. Now, after starting out singing on the rainy streets of Manchester, he has managed to bag himself a record deal.

You absolutely love to see it.

Young Alex from Droylsden has been entertaining passersby on Market Street and people all around Greater Manchester for some time now, and after years of graft that only a true music-loving Manc could muster, the local lad is taking the next step in his promising career.

Having made the step up from being one of many talented Manc buskers to playing plenty of proper gigs and even serenading the likes of the City squad, he has now been signed by record label Modern Sky and is set to release his first official single this April.

Credit: Alex Spencer (via Instagram)

Since stepping out of his home with a borrowed guitar under his arm as a young boy, Alex Spencer has gone from covering classics by 10CC, Arctic Monkeys and Sam Fender, to playing at the likes of New Century, Band on the Wall, Manchester Academy 3 and even in front of 20,000 at the AO Arena.

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After securing an Arena slot as part of Young Voices’ ones to look out for in 2022 and even getting some airplay on Radio X, the teenager was spotted by the very same record company that launched The Lathums, Jamie Webster, Brooke Combe and even The Coral back in the day.

Now, Alex is focusing on writing songs of his own and has recently finished five for his upcoming EP, one of those being his lead single, ‘A Night To Waste’, with all of them set to be released via Modern Sky.

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This, however, isn’t the first time we’ve come across Alex; The Manc Audio has had the pleasure of chatting and watching him busk on a number of occasions. This was the most recent.

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We’re beyond chuffed to see how far he’s come in such a short space of time and can’t wait to see him go far — which, of course, he definitely will.

Speaking ahead of the release of his debut record, Alex said: “It’s about the life of a teenager who wants to live their life a little and get out of the same old boring suburb. It’s about enjoying a good time with your friends and reminding you that none of us have a night to waste.

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“It’s the same for so many people my age, especially after all the setbacks we’ve had over the past few years with lockdowns stopping us in our tracks.”

‘A Night To Waste’ drops on 25 April 2023; we were fortunate enough to get a sneak peek and, believe us, you’re in for a treat. This boy’s going to be big, so be sure to keep up to date with what he’s got coming next.

Featured Image — Alex Spencer (via Instagram)

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Wet Leg are BACK and coming to Manchester very soon

Danny Jones Danny Jones Wet Leg Manchester gig tickets Victoria Warehouse

One of the best up-and-coming indie bands around is returning after what feels like forever, but it’s actually only been a few years; either way, Wet Leg are back and coming to Manchester.

Their self-titled debut dropped back in 2022 and was met with an overwhelming reaction, picking up three Grammy Awards at a BRIT for Best British Group at the first time of asking.

It did slap, to be fair.

More importantly, fast forward three years and they’re back with a release date for their sophomore record, moisturizer, a brand new single by the name of ‘catch these fists’, as well as a small handful of new tour dates – including a gig at a brilliant Manchester music venue, of course.

The Isle of Wight-founded five-piece, fronted by charismatic duo Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers, will be heading out on a couple dozen live shows across Europe and the festival season circuit, as well as a one-off gig (for now) in the US at The River in LA.

However, just five of those are domestic headline dates, with the gang preparing to delight crowds in London, Birmingham and our friends over in Leeds.

Guess we’ll just have to go to both.

Here in Manchester, Wet Leg will be playing the cult favourite venue, O2 Victoria Warehouse, which just wrapped up this year’s BBC Radio 6 Music Festival programme.

As for the new album, moisturizer is due to release on 11 July, and from the small teaser we’ve been given courtesy of their new single, it sounds like there’s been some experimentation; the guitars and attitude are being dialled up even further, and they’re just as confident as ever.

An absolute jam, as expected.

Best of all, you don’t have to wait long to see them live again, as they’ll be heading out across the country just next month and are scheduled to arrive in Old Trafford on Thursday, 29 May.

Tickets for the Manchester gig and all other Wet Leg UK tour this May will be available for early access to those who pre-order the album online from 10 am local time on Wednesday, 9 April.

General sale goes live at the same time on Friday, 11 April. You can get ready to grab yours HERE.

You will absolutely be seeing us there.

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

Featured Images — Iris Luz (supplied)/Audio North

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Five Manchester artists we’ve been listening to this month | March 2025

Danny Jones Danny Jones Best new Greater Manchester music artists March 2025

Oh, hello there. Did you think we’d forgotten to do our Manchester artists round-up for March? Don’t be daft, it was just a joke – a silly little April Fool’s joke.

This is, without a doubt, one of our favourite times of the month because we get to look back at our music habits in more bitesize pieces rather than feeling like we have to defend a whole year’s worth every time Spotify Wrapped rolls around.

If you don’t know the drill by now, for one, where have you been? Secondly, welcome to the listening party: it’s the period we set aside to spotlight the best up-and-coming, underrated and veteran musicians from Greater Manchester alike – so long as they’re good, we’re happy.

Let’s get into it then, yeah?

Manchester bands and artists we’ve been listening to this month

1. Lusaint

First up on our list for March is a very talented woman by the name of Lusaint – real name Lucy Hopkins, but trust us, this is a stage name set for stardom as far we’re concerned. Manc born and bred, she has the voice and vibe of an old soul with all the talent and style to go up against the biggest around today.

She started gaining followers through her stunning covers of everyone from Kings of Leon and Whitney Houston to Fleetwood Mac, Jason Mraz and many more. That being said, her pop-forward original solo material is hitting our ‘Sweet Tooth’ and then some, so we tried to keep it cool when we met her recently.

If you’re looking for where to start, her latest single ‘Neon Lights’ has an almost laid-back, neo-soul vibe; ‘Sober’ has a bit of Winehouse and Bailey Rae to it, but the best way to sum her up is soulful R’n’B with plenty of jazz and contralto moments sprinkled in there. The piano version of ‘Dark Horse’… Oof.

2. The Lottery Winners

You’re damn right we’re putting them back amongst our Manc artists of the month list because not only have we’ve been listening to their new album non-stop but, in case you hadn’t heard, it’s just gone to number one – their second to date!

Leigh’s very own Lottery Winners need no introduction at this point: they’re becoming an increasingly big name in the indie, pop and Northern scene in general, but they also might just be up there with the hardest working bands going right now.

We could recommend tonnes of songs to kick off with but we’d like to give a big shout to ‘Superpower’, a real bit of genre whiplash that really works, ‘You Again’ with Jon McClure of Reverend and the Makers because it’s just a banger and ‘Turn Around’ because same and it has the cutest music video ever.

3. Push Baby

Now, this next one pains us slightly because Push Baby, as eclectic and interesting as they, are currently inactive as of 2022 following the release of their second full LP, Wow, That’s What I Call Push Baby!, which is brilliant subversion of modern mainstream music.

Made up of lead vocalist Jake Roche, the son of British household names, Coleen Nolan and Shane Richie, as well as multi-instrumentalist Charley Bagnall – both formerly of the boyband Rixton too – this alternative duo were pushing plenty of boundaries before they took a pause to pursue other projects.

Song wise, ‘WHAT YOU GONNA DO?’ is the closest thing to a new NSYNC track as you’ll find, ‘thenineteenseventyfive’ genuinely feels like it could fit on Notes On A Conditional Form if you just swapped out the vocals, and you simply have to start with the first song we ever heard from them: ‘thor’

You get a much different level of production on the studio version than this equally beautiful live recording. We hope they come back.

4. Tim Burgess

Our penultimate pick for this month is a Manc music legend whose music we’ve been exposed to most of our lives, but it pains us to confess were relative latecomers to his solo stuff. The Charlatans frontman had such a large body of work but we’ve finally cracked into properly for the first time.

It won’t surprise you whatsoever to learn the Salfordian icon’s own singer-songwriter records are just brilliant asd everything else he’s done in his career and we’ll feel daft to have waited this long to dive deep. There’s plenty to get through, put it that way.

Everyone’s heard ‘OH My Corazon’ (in fact, we’d wager you’ve heard even more Burgess than you realise), but we’d grown a particular soft spot for ‘Sure Enough – Eyedress Remix’, ‘White’ and ‘Empathy For The Devil’ where he voices go real Ian Brown-esque. We’ll keep digging and get back to you.

The Charlatans’ Tim Burgess to host ‘Merch Market’ in aid of bands
Yet more evidence that he deserves your attention and respect for what he’s done/doing for Manc music

5. Dirty Blonde

Last but certainly not least is another duo that unlike Push Baby aren’t just active but are absolutely rip-roaring through the infancy of their alt rock story already and have all ferocity of a pair of Manc music pioneers that are going to go far – Spill The Sound seem to think so too.

Modern girl rock that kicks you in the face with punchy riffs, catchy hooks, great vocals and plenty of confidence and all-round swagger that makes you think they’re made for this business. You could probably draw all manner of comparisons to contemporaries, but put simply they just sound sick.

There’s not absolute reams to get through yet as the two are ones for the future, but we’ve particular enjoyed ‘Rush’, ‘Run (When I Tell You)’ and you’d be a fool not to take a look at their new single ‘Adore Me’ which achieves exactly what the title says. Love ’em and we look forward to hearing more.

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And we’re sorry to say that’s all she wrote for another month and we apologise to any of you die-hard readers for being a day late to it this time around, we promise we won’t make a habit of it.

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In the meantime, you can always go back listen to our Manc music favourite from February to keep your playlists feeling refreshed – and all the other lists prior, come to think of it.

Catch you next time.

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

Featured Images — Audio North/Wow, Big Legend (press shot)

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