In a totally random but undeniably lovely bit of news, Liam Gallagher caught a dog rescuer by surprise when he turned up to adopt a stray pup in Thailand. As you were/do.
With the Manc music legend celebrating his 51st birthday this week, we’ve seen plenty of very ‘Liam-esque’ moments floating back onto our timelines but when we came across this recent and completely out-of-the-blue story, we were taken aback — though clearly not as much as this bloke was.
Dog sanctuary owner and social media content creator Niall Harbison has been cultivating a huge audience online for a while now, amassing nearly 650,000 followers on Instagram alone, and has been warming the hearts of people all around the world as he rehomes and nurses stray dogs back to health.
However, although he has a pretty big following of his own, you can imagine his shock when an adoption paper came through for one of his dogs with the name Liam Gallagher on it.
For those who didn’t follow at the time. This was Buttons when she first arrived and “checked herself in”. She was so brave 🥰🥰🥰 pic.twitter.com/KD4WPcGqc2
Liam Gallagher just gave this stray dog a whole new lease on life.
Trying to save and home as many as 10,000 dogs a month and feeding around 800 animals a day, the County Tyrone, Ireland-born activist has dedicated his life to rescuing as many of man’s best friends as possible and even wrote a book called Hope explaining his journey up to this point.
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Having previously struggled with addiction, Harbison ended up flying out to Thailand and setting up his dog sanctuary and earlier this week was paid a visit by none other than the former Oasis frontman and his partner, Debbie Gwyther.
According to Harbison, 43, Gallagher and his missus filled out their paperwork online through a simple Google form like everyone else does and despite hundreds of applications coming his way on a regular basis, he admits he did a bit of a double take when he read this one.
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Speaking to Sky News, the full-time dog rescuer said, “The name on the form was Liam Gallagher, but I thought that’s obviously not him. Then the next line was ‘occupation’, and it was ‘singer’. I thought my mates were taking the p***, but I checked it out a bit more and his details all stacked up.”
Sharing an Instagram story of the two going for what will now be the first of a lifetime of walks for five-month-old female pup, Buttons, Niall said, “[she] is doing so well it’s insane”.
He couldn’t resist the urge to set ‘Wonderwall’ as the soundtrack either. The new album isn’t out yet, in fairness, so he just had to go for a classic.
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Insisting that he “did interviews with him and his lovely [partner]”, who have cats and “just really wanted a dog”, it didn’t take long for Niall to give the couple the thumbs up.
Having now been flown nearly 6,000 miles back to her new home in the UK, Harbison summed it up by saying Buttons has “hit the jackpot”.
One of the best and most distinctive walks in the business.
Featured Image — Liam Gallagher/Niall Harbison (via Instagram)
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Manc music legends James announce 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)
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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 -
21st September 2023 
