Salford’s beloved Sounds From the Other City festival (SFTOC) has announced it will return to Chapel street‘s pubs, churches and community corners in 2022, bringing new music, performance and art to Salford once again.
Spreading across a host of exciting indie venues, it will celebrate intimate gigs in small spaces – taking over the likes of Bexley Square, Seven Bro7hers Beerhouse, fivefourstudios, Hot Bed Press, Old Pint Pot, Partisan, Porta, Regent Trading Estate, Saint Philip’s Church and The New Oxford.
Manchester International Festival’s new cultural space, The Factory, will also present a stage of up-and-coming artists as part of the SFTOC ahead of its official opening next year.
The festival has released its initial line-up today, welcoming a host of local Greater Manchester talent from across the city to perform following a two-year break.
Names to watch out for on this year’s roster include Manchester’s LayFullStop, Jenna G, OneDa, Katbrownsugar, Mali Hayes, Jazztronica, and LYR (Land Yacht Regatta) – the brainchild of UK Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and his bandmates Patrick James Pearson and Richard Walters.
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Elsewhere, Chandé and Gracie T, fresh off the back of their iconic 2021 B2B Boiler Room set, will bring a mix of garage, funky and classic Asian bangers to Salford.
Joining them on the bill will be much-lauded British electronic music producer Holy Other and Grove, the proudly black and queer Bristol-based producer, vocalist and DJ.
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Many more artists due to appear on the lineup are still to be announced.
This year’s community festival promises to recapture the “true, sweat-drenched, hands-on DIY SFTOC spirit”.
A regular sell-out, despite having taken two years off there’s no doubt that Sounds from the Other City is a genuine DIY success story and has a reputation for championing huge breakout artists at early points in their career.
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In previous years, the festival has housed early performances from a diverse mix of artists including 2017 Mercury Music Prize winner Sampha, Manchester BBC Sound of 2018 nominee IAMDDB, Slowthai, Marina, Alt-J, James Ferraro, Hannah Peel, GoGo Penguin and Black Midi.
SFTOC has been a firm underground favourite with music lovers since 2005, delivering a unique annual event that champions local promoters and celebrates the off-kilter beauty of Salford, the oft-overlooked ‘other city’ to Manchester.
Taking place across the May Bank Holiday, this year the festival will kick off on Sunday 1 May 2022.
Riv Burns, Creative Director for the festival, said: “Coming back from two years without a festival was always going to be daunting.
“The support of our extended community from crowdfunders in 2020, through to purchasing tickets in the back end of 2021 with just a date announced, through to sheer enthusiasm from promoters and artists has been overwhelming and humbling.
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“This first wave of artists is so unbelievably exciting and quintessentially SFTOC, I’m really proud and can’t wait to bring this AND MORE to Chapel St and the surrounding area on Sunday 1st May. It really is shaping up to be a vintage year, full of magic, collaboration and new faces. One you don’t want to miss.”
This year’s artists have been selected by Manchester tastemakers Alphaville, Band on the Wall, Beauty Witch, Big People Music, Daytimers, Fat Out, Good Afternoon, Grey Lantern, Heavenly Recordings, Hey! Manchester, Kiss Me Again, Ladies Music Pub, Love Rain, NIAMOS, Now Wave, Partisan Collective, Reform Radio, Strange Days, Sweet Vibrations Radio, The Factory, Tru Luv and VAM.
The full Sounds From the Other City (SFTOC) 2022 lineup announcement so far:
Call it a Truce – Chandé (DJ) – Contours – Do you Remember the First Time? (DJ) – For Breakfast – Frazer (DJ) – Freya Beer – Glue 70 – Gracie T (DJ) – Grove – Gut Level (DJ) – Holy Other – Isaiah Hull – Jenna G (DJ) – Juke Joint (DJ) – Katbrownsugar (DJ) – Kid Katharsis – LayFullstop – LYR – Mali Hayes – Mandy, Indiana – Modern Nature – Nayana Iz – Obeka (LIVE) – OneDa – Psychederek – Sarah Bates – The Bug Club – The Rebel – Wesley Gonzalez
Huge bakery chain Gail’s confirms move to Prestwich – but spells village’s name wrong in signs
Daisy Jackson
After months of swirling rumours, bakery group Gail’s has finally confirmed it’s moving to Prestwich – but locals have spotted a glaring error at the first hurdle.
The popular artisan bakery will be moving onto Bury New Road, right in the heart of the suburb and directly opposite the new Rudy’s pizzeria.
Prestwich locals have been hearing whispers of a Gail’s arriving for a few months, and finally the London-founded cafe has stuck up signs to confirm it’s on the way.
But the sign contains one crucial mistake – it’s spelled Prestwich wrong.
The red window displays now read ‘Hello Preswich. We’ll be baking here soon’.
One local messaged Gail’s to point out the error and to say it’s ‘not a great first impression for the locals…’.
Gail’s has since confirmed it’s in the process of fixing the signs.
The arrival of both Gail’s and Rudy’s has already caused a stir in Prestwich, which has always been fiercely independent and has only a handful of chains within it (Greggs and Costa are perched by the tram stop).
In fact, one local business-owner shared a moving statement about his concerns for the future of local businesses just a few weeks ago.
First formed in the early 1990s as a wholesale-only operation, Gail’s opened its first cafe on Hampstead High Street in 2005.
Today the brand has more than 100 sites spread across London, Oxford, Brighton and further afield, and is known more as a customer-facing cafe and bakery.
It’s famed for its freshly-baked loaves, cinnamon buns, ham and cheese croissants and coffees, and is likely to go down a storm in Prestwich.
But the signs have been causing a bit of a stir in the wrong way this weekend – in a local Facebook group, one person commented: “Not locals who own it then.”
Another described it as an ‘epic fail’.
And one person said: “Oh the DRAMA of it all.”
Someone else joked: “I cannot wait for Gais to come to Preswich.”
Met Office issues snow warnings for large parts of northern England from this evening
Emily Sergeant
Greater Manchester could be waking up to a winter wonderland as weather warnings for snow and ice have been issued across northern England.
Expected to arrive anywhere from 6pm this evening (18 November) and last until around 10am tomorrow morning (19 November), the Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for snow and ice for large parts of northern England – indicating that “snow may bring disruption to a central swathe of the UK during Monday night and Tuesday morning”.
Weather forecasters say that although most snow is likely to accumulate on higher ground, with five-10 cm on ground over 200 metres, and possibly 15-20 cm over 300 metres, there is a chance that snow may settle at lower levels “within the warning area”.
The Met Office also said that this possible five-10 cm at lower levels is likely to be “more disruptive”, particularly if travelling and if the snow coincides with rush hour, but the likelihood for that is still “uncertain” at this stage.
Greater Manchester could see snow from this evening as the Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning / Credit: Geograph | Pexels
As the rain, sleet, and snow begin to clear on tomorrow morning, ice may form on surfaces that are untreated.
“We have issued yellow warnings for snow and ice as cold weather moves in from the north,” explained Andy Page, who is a Chief Meteorologist at the Met Office.
“This brings snow showers and some ice to parts of Scotland on Sunday night, and then the potential for a spell of snow to lead to disruption to some transport routes across a central swathe of the UK on Tuesday morning.”
⚠️ Yellow weather warning UPDATED ⚠️
Snow & ice across southern parts of Scotland, northern England, the Midlands and north Wales
In addition to the severe weather warnings, a Cold Health Alert has also been issued by the UKHSA, and it covers the north of England and the Midlands right through until Thursday.