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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Embrace announce intimate live show in beloved Bury music venue
Danny Jones
British alternative veterans Embrace have announced another intimate show here in Greater Manchester, only this time it’s over in Bury at a stunning small-cap arts venue.
It’s not often you get to see such a long-standing band play outside of the city centre so far into their career, especially in gorgeous grassroots spaces like this one.
A fellow Northern outfit, they’ve often been lumped in with that ‘post-Britpop’ era of music, and plenty throw around the so-called ‘dad rock’ label, but honestly, we couldn’t care either way: they remain among the UK’s perennially underappreciated underdogs that never get old, as far as we’re concerned.
Revealing a handful of new live dates for their album launch this summer, they’ll be making just two appearances in the North West on the run.
Writing in the post, the group said: “We’ve lined up a run of exclusive UK dates in venues that are some of the smallest we’ve played in years. It’s going to be special, but capacity is extremely limited.”
As you can see, besides the Jacaranda Baltic in Liverpool, the only other place in this region where they’re set to play for this mini tour is The Met over in Bury.
One of the most beautiful gig spots, not just in the town but in all the 10 boroughs, for our money, the room only holds around 400 standing and roughly 250 seats.
For seasoned artists like this lot, who are more used to playing big festival stages and big domestic headline tours – which they’re also doing later this year – it’s sure to be a special night.
Toasting the release of their ninth studio LP, Avalanche, this spin-off on the tried and tested in-store format wouldn’t be possible without the help of local record store, Wax and Beans, who are promoting and hosting the show.
But we can’t lie, there’s something about the idea of seeing them decades on from when they first tightly-packed out crowds of this size.
If you want to be part of the Embrace album launch tour, you can get ready to grab your tickets at 10am this Friday, 27 March, right HERE. And speaking of great record shops…
Niall Horan is heading back to Manchester with a massive arena show just announced
Daisy Jackson
Niall Horan will be back in Manchester this year on a huge newly-announced European arena tour.
The former One Direction star (and chart-topper in his own right) has just announced his Dinner Party Live On Tour tour.
The tour comes in support of his upcoming fourth solo studio album, Dinner Party, which promises to be ‘cinematic and organic’.
Niall Horan will be performing at the Co-op Live in Manchester this September, along with gigs in other UK cities including Sheffield, Glasgow, and Newcastle.
He’ll then head right across Europe, playing music from his multi-Platinum-selling songbook.
Niall first shot to fame as one-fifth of One Direction, but has one of the group’s strongest solo careers, with three chart-topping albums and massive hits like Slow Hands, Heaven, and Our Song.
Niall Horan is heading back to Manchester with a massive arena show just announced
He’s also worked on some exciting collaborations with the likes of Anne-Marie, and most recently Myles Smith.
£1 from every ticket sold for Niall Horan’s Dinner Party tour will be donated to the LIVE Trust, which is dedicated to protecting, expanding, and supporting grassroots music across the UK.
Niall Horan will be at the Co-op Live in Manchester on Friday 25 September.
Tickets will go on sale from 10am on Thursday 2 April HERE.
Danny Jones -
21st September 2023 
