No one could ever accuse Manchester of being boring, and this year’s news cycle has more than lived up to expectations.
It’s been a year of fighting over cakes, walruses pleasuring themselves in front of children, criminals exposing themselves in silly ways, and celebrities working shifts in takeaways.
There’s been viral puddings, knock-off corner shops, and torrential rain.
We’ve had silly news, far-fetched news, and news that can make our city genuinely very proud.
We’ve spent a few hours looking back on the Manchester news stories that got you all talking in 2023 – and as depressing as your energy bill or GP waiting list may be, at least we’ve had a few laughs along the way.
Tough Sheet
Bolton Wanderers’ new stadium name was one of Manchester’s favourite news stories of 2023
“We need to rename the stadium.”
“What, again?”
“Yeah, I know, again. I think we should come up with something really left-field this time. Something that will generate some headlines.”
“I’ve got just the sponsor boss.”
This, we imagine, is how the board meeting went when the home ground of Bolton Wanderers F.C. went through yet another rebrand this year, when it decided to change its name to the… Toughsheet Stadium.
Social media had a field day over this one – have a look here.
Cake-gate
‘Cakegate’ was one of those Manchester news stories that really spiralled in 2023
When a local baker took a passive-aggressive email thread public, she probably didn’t expect to generate quite so much online debate.
But the Three Little Birds Bakery’s response to a PR request for 100 free cakes for a ‘celebrity client’ was so sassy it went incredibly viral.
She’d written: “Unfortunately as my mortgage provider doesn’t take payment ‘in the form of promotion on the socials’, and my staff can’t feed their kids with exposure on Instagram, I’ll have to decline your very generous offer” – round. of. applause.
The celebrity behind the request willingly came forward, with Corrie queen Catherine Tyldesley saying the whole situation was ‘utterly bizarre’.
A crime-fighting ham sandwich
The incriminating can of Stella, along with the ham sandwich photo, that led to the gang’s collapse. Credit: Lancashire Police
Richard probably didn’t think twice before sending a photo of his lunch – a ham sandwich on brown bread – to his pal, also called Richard.
But the harmless exchange between Dick and Dick led to the downfall of an entire drugs gang.
The pair had been using what was at the time an encrypted, secure instant messaging service, but once law enforcement teams cracked the company’s encryption they were able to prove the identities of ‘Somesnail and Peppershirt’.
Officers used pictures of a ham sandwich and a can of lager, the backgrounds being matched to one of the criminal’s address in Blackpool. Busted.
Northerners were absolutely delighted when a walrus chose the British coastline to chill out in over New Year’s Eve, with hundreds flocking to see the magnificent beast.
His little holiday in Scarborough even led to the local New Year’s Eve fireworks display being cancelled, after the British Divers Marine Life Rescue advised that the loud noises could ‘distress’ the walrus. Surely not as distressing as the sight of him rubbing himself with his flippers lads!?
The name’s Bondy
“How will we know we’ve caught the right man, officer, does he have any identifying features?” Erm… yeah he does a bit.
A police manhunt at the very turn of the new year went viral after officers admitted they’d been unable to locate a man who’d missed his court appearance.
And the man who’d slipped past police wasn’t exactly hard to pick out in a line-up – he’d tattooed his own name on his face.
Not the smartest move for someone taking on a life of crime.
Morrisan
The ‘Morrisan’ corner shop in Manchester
We really expected this to be the next edition of Colin the caterpillar-style lawsuit fun times, but so far, this blatant Morrisons rip-off is sailing under the radar.
A new mini-mart opened near Printworks in July, selling your usual selection of innumerable flavours of Fanta and other soft drinks.
But what really got people in Manchester talking is the copycat store’s signage, which looks exactly like the real deal – except for an ‘a’ in the sign where an ‘o’ should be.
The room where fights happen
The arrival of Hamilton to Manchester – its first-ever UK tour – was bound to cause a bit of a stir, but no one predicted that people would be throwing hands over it.
And yet police had to launch an investigation after a fight broke out between theatregoers during a performance of Hamilton at the Palace Theatre.
Apparently staff at the theatre were having to physically restrain the two who’d decided to start fisticuffs in the crowd.
Tiramisu from a drawer from Onda Pasta Bar in Manchester. Credit: The Manc GroupOnda’s viral tiramisu drawer got Florence Pugh’s seal of approval
We all know that odd stuff goes viral sometimes, but we did not expect a local restaurant’s pudding to reach all the way to Hollywood’s a-list darling Florence Pugh.
Onda’s tiramisu drawer went so incredibly viral that it was viewed tens of millions of time, shared by Florence Pugh herself, and drove so many restaurant bookings that you now can’t reserve a table at Onda until spring.
Nope, not the African Grey, but the world’s most famous fashion house.
If you’d told us last year that the entire Northern Quarter would be brought to a standstill so that a high-fashion Chanel show could parade down Thomas Street, we’d have laughed you into the new year.
But it really did happen, with celebs including Hugh Grant, Kristen Stewart and Aitch in attendance, fleets of black-out vans whizzing around town, paparazzi everywhere, and the eyes of the world on our city.
The Northern Quarter looked incredible through the eyes of Chanel and we should all be very proud that the city was chosen to host the Metiers D’art, honestly.
Music stars getting new jobs
Aitch serving McDonald’s burgers definitely wasn’t on our Manchester 2023 news bingo card. Credit: The Manc Group
Times are tough out there but who knew that even the celebs were struggling to the point that they needed to get side-hustles as delivery drivers?
Aitch was notably polite while working his Maccies shift, and was seen chatting to customers as they came up to the van, saying: “here you go Sir, there you go Sir,” before pausing for a photograph with the McDonald’s team. What a nice lad.
Manchester weather was WEATHERING
Parklife was halted due to a thunderstorm and torrential rain in 2023The mud at Bluedot 2023 means that it will take a fallow year in 2024. Credit: The Manc Group
We know our weather isn’t famed for being good, but Manchester weather really turned on the chaos this summer.
It was properly miserable for weeks on end and caused a fair amount of upheaval for events that took place in 2023.
While Parklife festival started off in blazing sunshine, the whole festival had to be halted on the second day because of a pretty dramatic electrical storm – people were spotted sticking cardboard boxes over their heads to try and stay dry.
We thought we’d made it to the end of 2023 without any more mad news, but then along came Blackpool Tower, gripping Manchester again.
The iconic seaside landmark caught fire on 28 December – except it turns out it wasn’t on fire at all and we’d all just been fooled by a bit of orange netting flapping in the breeze.
That’s not before an entire emergency services team was called out and people evacuated from the area though.
Whoops…
Featured image: The Manc Group
News
What we know about Oasis’ Heaton Park reunion shows based on their first comeback gig in Cardiff
Danny Jones
Ok, so there’s no more need to pinch ourselves or double-take every time we check our phone: Oasis aren’t just back together, they’ve now kicked off the reunion and following those incredible Cardiff scenes, we’re already thinking about what this means for their Heaton Park homecoming.
There simply isn’t a brick-and-mortar Manchester venue big enough to hold as many Manc fans as want, need and deserve to see them back on stage after waiting all this time, so it’s only fitting that barely a month on from Parklife, the massive outdoor space will welcome us all back to witness history.
Quite literally millions of people tuned into various livestreams on Friday evening to see Oasis return at the Principality Stadium, so lots of you will have already seen plenty from the colossal concert – including that bald bloke balancing a pint on his head – but there was, understandably, a lot to take in.
So, with that being said, here’s what we hope, we think, we know about Oasis’ highly anticipated Heaton Park shows based solely on the details we gleaned from Cardiff night one.
The timings (roughly)
For starters, one of the most important things fans will be hoping to know is when Oasis got back on stage, as well as the set times of the other ‘Live ’25‘ support acts.
Liam, as per usual, was the mouthier of the two Gallagher brothers and let the cat out of the bag early on X (Twitter), before being clearly told off by management and deleting the details shortly after; still, it was confirmed that the main event for Friday and Saturday night gets underway at 8:15pm.
However, these things are always subject to change, as both Richard Aschroft and Cast were slightly premature on night one in Cardiff, and who knows what other arenas will be like for the rest of the reunion tour?
Another big debate online that has raged ever since the Oasis reunion was confirmed is the subject of what they’re going to play from their extensive catalogue.
Obviously, most people could rattle off most of the all-time favourites and cobbble together a pretty decent ‘greatest hits’ of Oasis setlist, but people have been more concerned with what the opener, closing track, and encore will be.
Having watched all of these moments back multiple times already, we can confirm the first track was not the old intro, ‘F***in’ in the Bushes’, as many suspected, but ‘Hello’, rather fittingly.
As for the last track in the main running order, the crowd got to bounce up and down to ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Star’ before the legendary ‘Champagne Supernova’ beckoned the very end of the first night in Cardiff.
— The Rock Revival (@TheRockRevival_) July 4, 2025
They’ll still be reactive
That being said, this inaugural comeback show was somewhat of a pilot for the rest of the ‘Live ’25 world tour, which now totals more than 40 dates, and any good artist knows that tweaking the setlist from show to show can be key to not only to success, but keeping things fresh for you and the audience.
As a result, we wouldn’t be surprised if you see Oasis mix things up as the nights roll on, especially when playing multiple gigs in the same city as they’re doing pretty much everywhere for this reunion.
That flexibility isn’t just limited to song choice either: Liam did his famous twist on the ‘Wonderwall’ lyrics and told the crowd, “There are many things that I would like to say to you, but I don’t speak Welsh”, and in case you haven’t seen it already, they also took a moment to honour a late Liverpool star.
There were lots of little details on night one in Cardiff, but this was a very nice touch from Oasis.
A bigger focus on production than ever
The glimpse at the AV presentation seen above is just a small taster too. From the various clips we’ve seen on social media over the last 24 hours or so, Oasis aren’t just back playing music together, but they’ve levelled significantly in terms of production and stage design.
Now, if you’ve ever been to see either of the brothers’ solo shows, you’ll know that football and, more specifically, references to Man City, often feature at some point.
Noel, in particular, has maintained a strong City presence in his set, be it the blue colour palette, the MCFC badge, or even a tall cut-out of manager Pep Guardiola half during most High Flying Birds gigs.
Cardiff night one was no different as his LG instructed the crowd to turn around and do the familiar ‘Poznan’ celebration regularly seen up in the stands of the Etihad Stadium.
Gallagher brothers kick off Oasis world tour with Cardiff show, as Liam tells fans 'do the poznan'.
It was bits of comedy like this that’s been one of the biggest part we’ve missed about Oasis; both Liam and Noel have always been very humorous in their own ways over the years, but they were never funnier than in those old clips you see of them cracking each other up in their younger days.
Despite being estranged for more than a decade and a half and who knows how many years of bad blood overall, they look to have at least put it to one side and what was once a combative back and forth from a distance has circled back around to brotherly banter – or at least we hope it has.
We’re not going to pretend they absolutely adore all of a sudden, but they’re at least trying and recognising each other’s roles.
As you can see, those snaps of them smiling during the first reunion photo shoot back together don’t appear to be just for show.
Seeing the two of them walk out holding hands sent the internet into an absolute frenzy of emotion and had people joking that they were finally going to message their own troublesome relative and at least try to mend fences.
But that was just one small moment.
The duo have always admired and respected their respective talents, but for the first time in even longer than the 16-year hiatus itself, it seems like there’s some genuine love there again. See for yourself:
They’re still as massive as they ever were – if not more so
All this is to say that, in short, Oasis’ first comeback show in Cardiff isn’t just the start of the ‘Live ’25 reunion tour that will span the globe, it’s also confirmation of something people began to question in their lengthy absence…
They really are the biggest and, in so many people’s opinions (including our own), the greatest rock band of all time.
From what we can tell, it feels like one of those watershed music moments where you have be there in person to truly see and believe it – not to be part of some exclusive ‘I was there’ comeback, but because we can’t thing of any other reunion that has had this kind of impact.
Roll on the five nights at Heaton Park and strap in, folks, because you will never forget it.
I've never felt so excited about a gig I didn't even have a ticket for! I'm so glad you had a great time, the clips I've seen looked INCREDIBLE.
Featured Images — Oasis (via X)/Finnlay K (via Instagram)
News
Gallagher brothers pay touching tribute to Diogo Jota on first night of Oasis reunion tour
Danny Jones
It’s official, Oasis are actually back, and during the first date on their reunion tour in Cardiff, the Gallagher brothers paid a touching tribute to Liverpool FC player Diogo Jota.
News of Jota’s passing broke on Thursday morning, after it was confirmed that the Liverpool forward was involved in a car crash along with his brother, Andre Felipe Silva.
Using the iconic track ‘Live Forever’ as the perfect opportunity to pay their respects, the screen behind them flashed up with his shirt.
Here’s the moment it happened:
At Oasis' first concert for 16 years, Live Forever is dedicated to Diogo Jota ❤️pic.twitter.com/tZriAhqVpm
A lovely touch from the Burnage boys and die-hard Blues, not to mention done rather cleverly given the song choice.
Taken from their legendary debut album, Definitely Maybe, the 1994 track is regularly voted ‘the best British song of all time’ – and moments like these only reaffirm why it connects with people so strongly.
What’s even more moving is the slight swell of noise you hear from the crowd; even on a night where quite literally all eyes were on them and the inaugural night of the ‘Live ’25’ tour, they made sure to shed some light on the bigger picture.
You could even see some fans in the crowd holding up Portugal flags in honour of the late LFC star.
Manchester City themselves – who boast a number of Portuguese players like Bernardo Silva, Ruben Dias and Matheus Nune – were among countless clubs who shared their condolences with Liverpool in the aftermath of the 28-year-old’s tragic death.
Scouse support band Cast also dedicated one of their songs to Jota earlier in the evening.
Cast frontman John Power just dedicated Walkaway to Diogo Jota. Power: “This is Walkaway. This one’s for Diogo Jota. Take it easy brother.” #Oasis25#DiogoJotapic.twitter.com/BEGuLaOTaR
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) July 4, 2025
Put simply, Friday, 4 July 2025, at the Principality Stadium was always going to be one that went down as one of the biggest concerts in decades, but this small gesture from a pair of footy fans no doubt made it even more special for any supporters who happened to be in the crowd.
And, indeed, the thousands watching at home, as even before the tidal wave clips began to appear online, there were multiple livestreams of the show on YouTube and various other platforms.
While most of these were ultimately taken down (not before we saw that legend balancing a pint of blue WKD on his head), there was no chance of keeping this one in the building.
We saw the setlist, we heard the noise; we saw them holding hands, and we even saw them hugging as they walked off. On a night were they chose to spotlight family in more ways than one, Oasis and those who are sadly no longer around to see them ‘Live Forever’ in the memory of millions.
Daisy Jackson -
29th December 2023 
