Monday 8 March is an important date in the calendar for women around the world – it marks 110th annual International Women’s Day (IWD).
It’s a day that celebrates the women and the women’s rights movement, raises awareness of equality and justice, and fundraises for some amazing women’s charities.
In some countries the day is a public holiday and is celebrated in the way that we would traditionally celebrate Mother’s Day, with gestures of flowers and small gifts being given to women. Whilst the UK doesn’t quite recognise it on this level, there is normally a big series of events. But as this year’s IWD falls within lockdown restrictions, it’s no surprise that celebrations will be held virtually.
The official theme for this year’s IWD is #ChooseToChallenge. The key message is to “celebrate women’s achievement, raise awareness against bias and take action for equality”. So, to mark the event in keeping with this year’s theme, Manchester-based record label, Do As You Please (DAYP), will be hosting an online showcase of female music talent.
DJ Giles will be playing the event.
The DAYP 12-hour display will be held this Saturday (March 6) from 11am to 11pm. There’ll be eight mixes to enjoy from some of the best women in the business – not just from Manchester but representing the entire UK.
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Joining the lineup is a whole host of radio presenters and DJs including Emma Rose from Pie Radio, Spin City co-founder Tañ, and London’s Kloyd, as well as DJs ThtGrl from Manchester’s Not Bad For A Girl collective, Norfn Gyal, Aletha, Saachi and Giles.
Women have been underrepresented in the music industry for years – especially in electronic music scene which is massively male-dominated. You only have to look at a festival lineup for a bit of proof. But this is the case in all aspect of the industry, as just 21.7% of popular music artists and 2.1% of producers are said to be women.
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Reasons for this are up for discussion – but how long do you have?!
Really, it boils down to limited opportunities, stereotypes and bias – and the stats speak for themselves as just 5 of DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs were women in 2019.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CL9cH1UhiDK/
Inclusivity, equality and diversity is paramount to the ethos of DAYP and this is the drive behind their IWD celebration this weekend. The label’s founder, Niall Roche, said: “At Do As You Please, we have a strong outlook on artist development and proper impartial opportunities within the music industry.
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“We’re only a relatively new business but it’s become blatant that there is massive gender inequality within dance music and I’d like to find and support this generation’s female talent so that the next generation have role models to look up to.”
Aletha will be playing the event.
Tune in via the DYAP website here and let’s all celebrate IWD in true 2021 virtual style.
Music
Enter Shikari announce biggest Manchester gig to date on new UK arena tour
Danny Jones
British rock band Enter Shikari have just announced their biggest Manchester gig EVER as part of the UK leg of dates on their upcoming arena tour.
This is going to be massive.
Formed in St Albans back in 1999, it seems hard to believe that they’ve been at this for more than a quarter of a century already, as the alt-rock and electronic-influenced outfit still has just as much raw youthful energy as they did back then – especially on stage.
With that in mind, the latest raft of Enter Shikari live shows will see them head up and down the country, as well as across Europe and Australia.
We’re excited to today announce Enter Shikari’s return to the arena stages of the UNITED KINGDOM, EUROPE and AUSTRALIA.
Sharing the news on social media, the band wrote: “We’re excited to today announce Enter Shikari’s return to the arena stages of the UNITED KINGDOM.”
2026 UK dates include not only a pair of nights at London’s legendary Ally Pally, but their first-ever Glasgow arena show, and their Co-op Live debut here in Manchester.
The statement continues: “We’ll also be playing some of our biggest ever shows in EUROPE, including our first ever German headline arena show. For all these shows, we will be joined by our good friends Holding Absence [great band], as well as the wonderful The Callous Dao Boys from Atlanta, Georgia.”
Shikari will be heading down under first this coming May, where they’ll be supported by Grandson, but more importantly, here in Great Britain, “all tickets sold for UK shows will once again include a £1 donation to the Music Venue Trust.” You love to see it.
Having come up thanks to being platformed by small-cap venues across the nation, it should be a no-brainer for all bands to “support them in their endeavours to help protect and preserve grassroots level touring in the UK.”
We had the good fortune of chatting to them back when we were still going by The Manc Audio (now Audio North) ahead of the mini Manchester residency, and you could tell they still have no intention of slowing down all these years later.
As the boys go on to add in their post: “exclusive ‘Future Historians’ and mailing list fan presales start tomorrow [Wednesday 28 January] at 10am […] So if you’re not yet signed up to the mailing list, you’ve got time to correct that.
Official Co-op members can also enjoy exclusive early access via the venue from the same time tomorrow; meanwhile, general admission goes live at 10am GMT this coming Friday, 30 January.
Get ready to grab your tickets for the most massive Manchester show in Enter Shikari history on 19 November right HERE.
There’s plenty of other big stuff happening at Co-op Live already this year – arguably none more so than the 2026 BRITs. Find out more down below.
Featured Images — Press shots (supplied)/Audio North
Music
Manchester United officially launch second Adidas fashion collab with The Stone Roses
Danny Jones
After several weeks of teasers, the latest fashion collab between Adidas, Manchester United and The Stone Roses has officially revealed.
We have no doubt this one will be lapped up just as quickly as the first.
Following images of the new Stone Roses x Man United kit and the focal point of this new collection being leaked online earlier this month, the second drop by Adidas has now been unveiled in full.
Releasing another stylistic video to the tune of the legendary Manc band’s famous anthem, ‘I Wanna Be Adored’, players both past and present from the men’s and women’s team star in the launch video.
As you can see, not only did the players get involved with the shoot as expected, but the clip also includes a snippet of archive footage featuring a young Ian Brown in a short but profound talking head.
The Stone Roses frontman, and indeed other members of the band, have never made their love of United a secret – none more so than the late, great Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield – and the supporters have also shared plenty of it back.
Be it through ‘This Is The One’ being chosen by Gary Neville as the official walk-out song at Old Trafford and various chants sung to Stone Roses tunes, to the previous collab back in February 2024, the two iconic cultural brands pretty much go hand in hand.
Besides the next multi-coloured paint-splashed shirt, which leaked first, as well as a new bucket hat (again, very era appropriate), there are scarves, a graphic design t-shirt, two sets of shorts and even two different pairs of shoes.
Images of the white Stone Roses trainers also popped up in leaks across various Man United fan accounts on social media, but few had seen the black ZX 600 Adidas trainers until now.
What do you make of the latest batch of lifestyle fashion from the club?
Meanwhile, with just days left in the transfer window, it remains to be seen whether new interim manager Michael Carrick will be rewarded for his first two wins against the top two in the league with any reinforcements before the end of January – but there are some rumblings…
Hannah Starkie -
4th March 2021 
