Masked-up Manchester rapper Meekz has announced the details of his ‘Can’t Stop The Come Up’ tour, which will see the artist play an intimate hometown show at Manchester Academy 3.
Taking over the 470 capacity venue for one night in 2023 as part of the mini-tour, which also sees him play shows in London and Birmingham, fans will have a rare chance to see Meekz up close in a personal setting.
Earlier this year, the local heavyweight performed at the BRIT awards alongside UK rap champions Dave, Fredo, Ghetts and Giggs – giving a live rendition of his unforgettable verse on Dave’s ‘In the Fire’ to a mainstream audience of millions.
Meekz also impressed at Parklife festival last year, playing on the main stage to a crowd of thousands.
Meekz on the Parklife stage, 2021. / Image: Andrew Whitton
Now, he’s announced he’ll be pulling out all of the stops on tour – ending with a special homecoming show in the new year.
The tour announcement follows the first play of Meekz’s new track ‘Fresh Out The Bank’ featuring Dave which premiered as Clara Amfo’s BBC Radio 1 Hottest Record In The World last night.
Taken from his highly anticipated debut mixtape Respect The Come Up, which has just been released, Meekz has announced himself as the scene’s next superstar.
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The 10-track project includes pre-release singles ‘Respect The Come Up’ & ‘More Money’ and seven brand new songs, plus a remastered version of ‘Take Losses’ – the 2018 cut which helped launch his career after the buzz it created on SoundCloud became too loud to ignore.
Meekz has established himself as one of UK rap’s brightest, most intriguing talents, who slices through the frost of street boasts and menace with moments of profound introspection.
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His music evidently resonates with people on a grand scale: Meekz’s work has racked up 250 million streams to date and he’s approaching 100 million streams on Youtube, with 200,000 subscribers locked into his channel.
Tickets for the new live dates go on sale at 10am on Thursday 24th November and will be available here.
MEEKZ UK TOUR DATES 2023
Wed 22 February Birmingham O2 Institute 2 Fri 24 February London O2 Islington Academy Mon 27 February Manchester Academy 3
Feature image – Meekz
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Inspiring new 360° immersive David Bowie experience to open in Manchester
Emily Sergeant
Music lovers will get a glimpse inside the mind of a creative genius when a new immersive experience opens later this year.
Factory International has this week announced its programme of events for the upcoming autumn-winter season, and by far one of the stand-outs on the list has to be the return of Lightroom for a new 360° experience called David Bowie: You’re Not Alone – which is set to immerse audiences in the iconic performances and creative mind of one of the world’s most visionary and influential artists.
Bringing together a wealth of visual material from a wide range of sources, the experience combines rare performance footage, photography, drawings, lyrics, personal notes, and audio recordings from the late Bowie himself.
You’re Not Alone will showcase some of Bowie’s landmark performances that redefined popular culture, using a mix of iconic, rarely seen, and even never-before-exhibited material.
Selected from thousands of hours of film in the vaults of the David Bowie Archive in New York, you can expect to see everything from Space Oddity and Diamond Dogs, through to Heroes, Black Star, and more.
Each track has been newly reconfigured by multiple Olivier and Tony award-winning sound designer, Gareth Fry, to utilise Lightroom’s specialised spatial audio system.
The 360° experience is set to be both a multimedia spectacle and an intimate self-portrait in one, giving audiences a unique insight into Bowie’s perspective on the subjects that were most important to him, like theatricality, spirituality, songwriting, and the transformative power of creativity.
David Bowie: You’re Not Alone is being made in close collaboration with, and has been authorised by, the David Bowie Estate.
It’ll run at Aviva Studios from 8 December 2026 through to 10 January 2027.
Featured Image – Supplied
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Parklife has quietly added a major DJ set from Happy Mondays’ Bez
Daisy Jackson
Parklife has quietly added a DJ set from Bez this afternoon, joining an already stacked festival line-up.
Eagle-eyed users of the Parklife app (aka, us) have spotted that as the big weekend nears, a few new stages have popped up on the plans.
And that’s included a new Beatbox Stage, which on Saturday will host a mega set from the icon that is Bez, from Happy Mondays.
Bez isn’t the only nostalgic name who’s been added to the line-up for Saturday – the Beatbox Stage will also host a set from Artful Dodger.
The 2000s garage icons will be taking to the stage at 3pm for a set that will hopefully include their massive hits like Moving Too Fast, Re-Rewind (with Craig David), and Woman Trouble.
On Sunday, the newly-added Beatbox Stage will be hosting DJ Fat Tony, who you might know for getting stuck into the middle of the Beckham family feud – but he’s also one of the most in-demand A-list DJs, having spun for icons like Madonna, Prince, and Elton John.
Parklife has also quietly added a few secret sets to the bill, which we’ll be keeping a close eye on.
They join existing Parklife headliners including Calvin Harris, Zara Larsson, Chris Stussy, Sammy Virji, Skepta, and East End Dubs.
On Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 June, thousands of music-lovers will be flocking to the fields of Heaton Park ready for this year’s instalment of Parklife.
Georgina Pellant -
23rd November 2022 
