The Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham has launched a brand new Artist of the Month scheme with BBC Radio Manchester to promote music from rising local artists.
Set up on Wednesday, 18 January, the new cultural initiative organised by the mayor and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority will see a new artist spotlighted every month on Radio Manchester, with the scheme open to any and all emerging Manc acts.
The Artist of the Month will be chosen by a panel assembled by Greater Manchester Music Commission and is made up of musicians, promoters, venues and industry leaders, with Burnham himself making the final decision.
Once all the submissions have been reviewed, the mayor will announce the winner at the end of the month during his weekly ‘Hot Seat’ phone-in on Mike Sweeney’s show, before introducing one of their tracks to close the show.
📣 Are you a musician looking to break through in Greater Manchester?
🎧 You could be chosen as the Mayor’s Artist of the Month, have your song played on @BBCRadioManc, and get the chance to perform at one of the country’s biggest venues in 2024.
— Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham (@MayorofGM) January 12, 2023
The BBC Radio Manchester Artist of the Month will be promoted across both the station’s and the mayoral social media channels, with the aim of providing them with access to new opportunities like upcoming festivals and live events.
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For instance, winners will have the unique chance of performing to their growing fan base at the soon-to-be-completed Co-op Live, the UK’s biggest indoor venue, from 2024 onwards.
The combined GMCA and BBC scheme will also have a strong focus on representing the full diversity of backgrounds and genres that make up Greater Manchester’s iconic and ever-thriving music scene.
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Burnham’s love for music is plain to see; from his charity DJ sets to teaming up with The Courteeners to raise even more money for Manchester’s homeless population, he’s someone who clearly knows the power it has to bring people together. You absolutely love to see it.
Speaking in a statement on the GMCA’s website, Burnham said: “Everybody knows how rich our musical heritage is. But it didn’t happen by chance. Our city-region was lucky to have someone like Tony Wilson who relentlessly promoted our music and got it heard around the world.”
For anyone unaware of the important cultural figure, Wilson was not only a radio presenter for the BBC in the 70s and 80, but he was also the founder of Factory Records, responsible for producing Joy Division, New Order, Happy Mondays and more, as well as co-founder and manager of the legendary Haçienda.
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“We need to learn from Tony and do the same”, said Burnham. “There’s so much new music out there right now that deserves to be heard. I want to give emerging talent a platform but also make sure more established acts are getting the recognition they deserve. That’s what Artist of the Month is all about.”
Radio Manchester’s Executive Editor, Kate Squire, said, “we’re proud to be supporting this initiative of the Mayor’s in addition to our work promoting new bands through BBC Introducing in Manchester which has supported the likes of Blossoms, Aitch, Larkins … [there’s] so much talent in Greater Manchester we’re proud to showcase.”
The Chair of the Greater Manchester Music Commission, Jay Taylor, added: “More than ever we need to emphasize the connection between arena artists and the grassroots music venues they started in. This is a great opportunity to highlight and support the amazing talent we have playing on any given night in intimate venues across Greater Manchester”.
Nominations for January’s Artist of the Month are already open, so click HERE to find out more about the scheme and get voting for your favourite up-and-coming Mancunian artists.
Featured Image — Greater Manchester Combined Authority
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Clubland Live is returning to Manchester with an arena show that will be ‘the biggest night of your life’
Daisy Jackson
Clubland will be back with a live arena show in Manchester next year, following massive success and feel-good parties for the last few years.
There’ll be five cities on the newly announced tour, which will fill arenas with classic dance tunes and the full Clubland experience.
As well as Manchester, the tour will visit Leeds, Glasgow, Newcastle and Aberdeen in May next year.
The three-hour action-packed show will bring together some big names from as far back as the 90s in the dance music world, along with some of the biggest new names on the scene.
Each city will have a slightly different line-up, but for Manchester it includes Cascada, Ultrabeat, and Ben Nicky.
The new Clubland show at the AO Arena will be reliving the times where dance music produced the best tunes, energy and feel-good factor from throughout the generations.
Clubland started life as a series of compilation albums in 2002, and become the umbrella brand for an entire movement of commercial dance music, spawning countless classic hits over the years.
That’s included artists like Cascada, Scooter, BassHunter and Ultrabeat amongst many, many more – selling 30 million albums.
And Clubland TV remains one of the most popular music channels on UK music TV, bringing a mix of the both the classics and new tunes to thousands of people every day.
Clubland Live launched in 2008 and played to tens of thousands of people across the UK, in a landmark moment for the dance music industry.
And now it’s back again for a live show at the AO Arena.
Clubland Live will be at the AO Arena in Manchester on Saturday 2 May 2026, with tickets on sale from 10am on Friday 7 November HERE.
Outbreak Festival announces hard-hitting lineup for 15th anniversary in Manchester
Danny Jones
Outbreak Fest is celebrating 15 years in 2026, and they’re toasting the milestone with a hefty lineup full of trash, metal, punk, hardcore and more.
The cult favourite alternative and annual music festival that takes place at the Bowlers Exhibition Centre, a.k.a. BEC Arena, every year has only gotten bigger over the past few years, and their landmark 15th anniversary is set to be another rager.
Approaching a decade and a half of delighting alt-kids and Manc rocks next summer, the Outbreak lineup down in London was always going to be impressive, but we just weren’t quite expecting so many big hitters in just the first wave alone up here.
Here’s the Outbreak Fest Manchester lineup for 2026 so far:
Promising plenty more to come and soon, the festival organisers have already confirmed that there will be a standalone Friday show to kick off the carnage come June 2026.
As explained in the social media post, which has been met with an incredible reaction from fans, “you will be able to upgrade your weekend ticket to include this show once the line-up is announced, if you would like.” Bang for your buck.
They went on to write: “This festival is nothing without the community of people around it. It doesn’t exist without your support, and we are grateful to still be doing this all these years later.”
This devil-horned, weekend-long celebration has always given off a great style and aesthetic, too; we particularly enjoyed their cinematic preview released on Halloween.
Put together by Charles Fitzgerald, a digital content creator who has worked with the likes of Bring Me The Horizon and their frontman Oli Sykes’ Drop Dead clothing range, these are the kinds of teasers we want to see more of…
With names like the resurgent Alexisonfire (set to play their seminal third album Crisis in its entirety), Ipswich rockers Basement, as well as post-hardcore heroes, Touché Amoré, topping the bill, we cannot wait to see what comes next.
Safe to say you should keep your eyes peeled on their social media for more announcements and information on Outbreak 2026.
Following up to the reaction online, they added: “Two-day passes on sale now. That was a crazy reaction to the first announcement and we are grateful.
“Truthfully, we were 60% sold before we announced yesterday! This is us giving you a heads up. If you can, and you f*** with this lineup – get your ticket soon! Thank you.”
General admission went live on their official website on Monday morning, and you really don’t want to wait around with this one; grab your tickets HERE.
Danny Jones -
18th January 2023 
