City Centre

Super League Basketball Cup Finals return to Manchester for second year running

Danny Jones Danny Jones SLB Cup finals Manchester AO Arena tickets 2027

Following the roaring success of last season’s epic conclusion, the 2026/27 Super League Basketball (SLB) Cup Finals are returning to the AO in Manchester.

Coming back for a second consecutive edition, the SLB’s domestic cup finals tournament will be taking over the city centre’s historic sporting and entertainment space for what is sure to be an even more exciting contest than the previous.

With the AO having now played host to countless combat clashes, the Davis Cup, reclaiming their status as Manchester Storm’s home ice hockey stadium, not to mention various motorsport events, they’re really is enjoying a great sporting streak.

Intertwining themselves even deeper with UK basketball’s premier division, we’ll be hoping we can carry the home advantage all the way this time around.

Landing early next year, the arena’s bowl will be turned into a basketball venue which will host the top teams and talents throughout Britain.

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Showcasing some of the very best men’s and women’s stars, this is one of the competition’s biggest flagship dates on the national calendar.

Offering clubs the first real chance of winning major silverware in the annual campaign, the organisers are urging fans to grab their tickets earlier than ever this year, with interest in the domestic game increasing constantly.

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Local fans really showed up this past spring.

Set to take place on Sunday, 21 March 2027, next year’s deciders will see the female final tip off in the early afternoon, before the men’s players take to the court for a chance at the trophy.

In Manc basketball news, MCR have confirmed several key signings ahead of the new term, including a former London Lion.

SLB’s Head of Events, Clare Holmes, said in a statement: “We’re thrilled to be bringing the SLB Cup Finals back to the AO Arena for a second consecutive year.

“Last season’s event demonstrated the incredible appetite for elite basketball in Manchester, with a fantastic atmosphere created by supporters from across the country.

“Our goal is to continue raising the bar for our major events, and we’re excited to welcome fans back for another unforgettable day celebrating the very best of Super League Basketball.”

With Liverpool having recently announced a new team and becoming the latest franchise to join the SLB circuit, we’re looking forward to even tighter ties than ever.

Early pre-sale access will be available to fans signed up to the official mailing list from Monday, 10 August, while general admission tickets go live at 10am the following week (17 Aug).

You can get ready to grab yours right HERE.

Teams and fixture date confirmed for first-ever regular season NBA game in Manchester
It’s not the only big basketball fixture coming to 0161.

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Featured Images — Publicity pictures (supplied via AO Arena/MCR Basketball)

City Centre

Blossoms deliver most rock and roll performance in years as Declan McKenna joins them on stage

Danny Jones Danny Jones Declan McKenna joins Blossoms on stage at Deaf Institute Manchester

Last night, we were fortunate enough to be there in the flesh not only to see Blossoms play a special anniversary show in Manchester, but to witness Declan McKenna join them on stage.

A tiny part of us was wondering if we’d see Rick Astley roll out into the venue, but let’s just say we’ll absolutely take this.

Celebrating a decade to the day since the release of the self-titled debut LP – yes, we feel old, too – Blossoms announced the one-off intimate show at The Deaf Institute, a venue they hadn’t played in 12 whole years (good lord…), and it served as much more than a night of nostalgia.

But we’ll admit, the highlight was almost certainly seeing the ‘Brazil’ and ‘British Bombs’ singer join Tom Ogden, Charlie Salt, Josh Dewhurst, Myles Kellock and Joe Donovan on stage for their smallest gig since god knows when.

We’ve gotten somewhat used to seeing the Enfield-born solo artist popping up at random venues across the country and even performing DJ sets at local pubs.

If you haven’t seen that Kylie Minogue clip before, you really need to…

However, we don’t think anyone in the crowd was expecting this cameo, let alone hearing them perform a co-written track off the new record live in front of the audience for the very first time.

As if all of this wasn’t already a bit bonkers and left-field, the song in question, entitled ‘Additional Driver’, was self-admittedly so surprising in SO many ways that Tom felt he needed to explain the full story behind it and why Declan shouted “shoulda got the 192” before they started playing.

Yes, in some kind of Greater Mancunian fever dream, we’ve finally got artists writing lyrics about the region’s most infamous bus route that we’re sure most, if not all of you, can relate to.

But it wasn’t just this moment that had us debating in our heads, ‘are they the best Manc or maybe in Northern band full stop going right now?’, it was seeing them slip so seamlessly back into the more straight-down-the-line indie rock from their first chapter of studio material that did it.

Everyone knows and loves the biggest bangers from that inaugural outing: ‘Getaway’, ‘Charlemagne’, ‘At Most a Kiss’, ‘Honey Sweet’, etc.; but it’s hard to forget just how quintessentially rock and roll tunes like ‘Blow Rose’, ‘Cut Me and I’ll Bleed’, ‘Texia’ and even some of the other deep cuts/early releases are.

Don’t get us wrong, we love how much the dressing up (musically and quite literally) they’ve done over the years as their production, creativity and experimentation has increased, but it’s always hard to beat that feeling you get when finding an artist’s first album – especially one as good as Blossoms‘.

In fairness, listening back to ‘Deep Grass’ all these years later, we’ll still remember how spacey, psychedelic and downright different that intro felt back in the day; it now feels like a fitting end to that maiden outing and the perfect jumping-off point for what has been a real sonic exploration ever since.

For a lad born in SK2 and lucky enough to have seen these lads right from the start, stuff like this will never not feel surreal to me.

Long live ‘Blossoms from Stockport‘, and roll on Songs From The Wedding Cake this October.

Credit: Audio North

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Featured Images — The Manc Group

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