Ever miss the old days of proper music telly? We’re talking Freshly Squeezed, Popworld and the T4 days; Kerrang TV and, of course, Top of the Pops. Well, StreamGM’s exclusive online series, Spill The Sound is keeping that throwback format alive and the new season has just arrived.
Spearheaded by the pioneers over at StreamGM and live streaming music platform, Spill The Sound is back for series three of the brilliant live music and talk show series.
Featuring a mix of exclusive sets and laid-back conversations with up-and-coming artists from around Greater Manchester and the North West around new releases, gigs and festival dates as well as local names who just fancy sitting in a bath filled with plastic balls (because why not?), it’s great fun.
Filmed over at StreamGM’s central hub over at The Yard in Cheetham Hill and hosted by TV presenter Louise Schofield, the latest edition of the digital series drops at 7pm on Friday, 29 February.
On a mission to recapture the magic of that oh-so-nostalgic Gen X and Gen Z music programming, StreamGM’s Spill The Sound blends new and unsigned acts alongside established headliners, with the likes of The Lottery Winners, Abbie Ozard, The Covasettes and more having already featured.
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The latest season is already shaping up to be a belter, with rising Oldham singer-songwriter Seb Lowe, Macclesfield‘s genre-bending indie band Cassia, fast-growing Liverpool stars Red Rum Club and plenty of others to come, there are some serious names on this year’s roster.
We’re even lucky enough to be getting a few quick behind-the-scenes interviews with some of the artists ourselves in and around their live performances and sit-downs with Louise, so keep your eyes peeled for them too.
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It might be a smaller scale approach with live performances strictly down the lens and in front of those lucky few that get to have a sneak peek behind the camera — a.k.a. us lucky lot over at The Manc Audio — but you only have to see the space over at The Yard to see how cool the whole set-up is.
Taking place on a bi-weekly basis (that’s once every two weeks, not twice a week), the quirky bathtub-based interview series isn’t like anything on TV and you can watch it completely free over on the Spill The Sound YouTube channel and StreamGM’s website.
Speaking of which, if you’re yet to tune into one of their live streams or stumble across this groundbreaking and grassroots music for all platform, you can learn more about it HERE.
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We’re all about spotlighting new artists trying to make it on our wonderful music scene so it goes without saying that we love what these guys are doing and we’ll keep doing our very best to do the same on our end too.
Manc music legends James announced MASSIVE hometown show
Danny Jones
Greater Manchester music legends James have just revealed a massive hometown show here in the city centre as part of a landmark domestic arena tour.
Daisy bucket hats at the ready.
James is arguably the epitome of what it is to be the understated, underdog British band; they’ve gone about the business of making quality music somewhat quietly for several decades now, but they’ve had a fresh wave of interest over the past year or so
Having opened up for the likes of Catfish and the Bottlemen’s comeback shows, not to mention playing multiple big festival slots in recent months alone, they’ve now announced a huge run of UK arena shows – and nowhere does a James crowd quite like us Mancs.
Details have been announced for our 2026 UK arena tour, and we’re delighted to be joined by very special guests @dovesmusicblog with tickets going on general sale this Friday at 9:30am. Access the ticket pre-sale on Wednesday via our official store: https://t.co/DwpGrAUESZ NBL x pic.twitter.com/A4CWVpCooL
Announced as part of the celebrations around their Nothing But Love ‘best of’ LP, which pulls tracks from James’ whopping 18 studio albums, the new run of UK arena shows in 2026 follows on from numerous noteworthy shows this calendar year.
In addition to the aforementioned outdoor gigs, like their stunning sold-out night at The Piece Hall in Halifax – not too far from frontman Tim Booth’s hometown in Yorkshire – the indie veterans also celebrated a huge landmark in 2025.
Surpassing the milestone of 40 years as a band, with a lineup that’s remained largely intact and only really grown in terms of live session players and touring bandmates.
The new “definitive” greatest hits record also includes two brand-new songs in ‘Wake Up Superman’ and ‘Hallelujah Anyhow’, both of which are produced by Leo Abrahams, who worked with the band on their long-awaited number one album Yummy in 2024 – a feat loooong overdue if you ask us.
As evidenced by the sheer amount of new material they continue to put out and the almost non-stop touring, they remain one of the most prolific artists in the country. FACT.
You can see the rest of James’ upcoming tour dates, including a healthy number of Northern stops in the likes of Liverpool, Leeds and more.
James UK arena tour dates 2026
Fri 2 Birmingham Utilita Arena
Sat 4 Leeds First Direct Bank Arena
Tues 7 Aberdeen P&J Live
Wed 8 Glasgow OVO Hydro
Fri 10 Newcastle Utilita Arena
Sat 11 Liverpool M&S Bank Arena
Mon 13 Cardiff Utilita Arena
Tues 14 Nottingham Motorpoint Arena
Fri 17 London The O2
Sat 18 Manchester Co-op Live
With James returning to Manchester for their Co-op Live arena debut next April, along with a sensational support slot from fellow local legends, Doves (I know, how lucky are you lot?!), you can bank on this one selling out quickly.
General admission goes on sale this Friday, 10 October at 9:30am, so you’d better be ready to grab yours in a flash.
You can find the ticket link HERE, and we’ll see you in the crowd for a good ol’ singalong.
Featured Images — Ehud Lazin/Press shots (supplied)
Audio
Electronic icons Kraftwerk announce first Manchester gig since 2017
Danny Jones
Pioneering German band Kraftwerk have announced their first UK tour since 2017, with fans having to wait almost a decade for another Manchester gig.
Thankfully, they’ll be heading back down the Autobahn and across the channel for a return to our shores soon enough with a long-awaited list of British and Irish live dates.
Kraftwerk remains one of the most groundbreaking groups in the electronic scene to this day, having paved the way for generations of new artists to keep experimenting with the genre in the 50+ years since their formation.
Heading back to Manchester early next year, die-hards will no doubt snap these tickets faster than you can say ‘Das Model’.
For anyone unaware of these veritable legends of electronica and the world of alternative/Euro-synth pop, Kraftwerk formed all the way back in 1970 and went on to shape the modern music industry, bridging the gap between music and the digital age.
Best known for tracks like ‘Computer Love’, ‘The Robots’, ‘Pocket Calculator’ and the aforementioned on named after the national motorway network, they spearheaded futurism in the musical landscape from the outset.
It seems only fitting, therefore, that their upcoming highly anticipated return to the UK comes as part of their ‘Multimedia’ tour.
While they have played a number of live shows all over the globe this year, including an extensive run in the US, next spring will be our domestic visit from Kraftwerk in nine long years.
Credit: Press shot (supplied)
You can see the full list of UK and Ireland tour dates – including a handful of Northern gigs – down below:
Spanning a total of 15 UK dates, as you can see, there will also be tickets to see Kraftwerk nearby in the likes of Liverpool and with our mates over in Sheffield.
Kraftwerk legend Ralf Hütter famously played a set inside our city’s velodrome at the National Cycling Centre for Manchester International Festival (MIF) back in 2009, and has collaborated with the event on multiple ocassions.
In fact, that very performance was seen as a turning point for MIF, so the Manc Kraftwerk connection speaks for itself; O2 members can obviously get pre-sale, but general admission tickets go live from 9am this Friday, 10 October.
Danny Jones -
29th February 2024 
