As part of the brand-new global music conference and festival called Beyond The Music, which finally lands this Wednesday, a whole host of live music sets will be taking place in the city this week and, the best part is: they’re all free.
Looking to strike a chord with shoppers, tourists and mere passers-by with a number of pop-ups, including a live music stage in Exchange Square, the main hub at Manchester Central and several local hotels, the city-wide event is completely free to attend and is happening this Thursday and Friday.
The series of special one-off Beyond The Music performances are being brought to the general public with the help of Manchester’s Accommodation Business Improvement District (BID), and the likes of local music collective, The Untold Orchestra, who’ll be headlining the main live stage.
The line-up will celebrate Manchester as the iconic music city that it is, home not only to the likes of Oasis, The Smiths, Blossoms and Aitch, but also world-renowned professional orchestras such as The Halle and BBC Philharmonic.
The live music stage is being programmed by Manc orchestra, The Untold Orchestra, a full seven-piece band who are focused on changing the reputation surrounding orchestras and who they are for.
Putting on shows celebrating everyone from Nina Simone, David Bowie and to Drake and local hip-hop acts, as well as hosting creative projects with different artists and communities across Manchester, collaboration is at the centre of what they do.
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Ahead of their busy season of winter shows, workshops and highly anticipated charity launch, The Untold Orchestra x Beyond The Music takeover highlights the original music and poetry of some of the orchestra’s members and collaborators in an afternoon demonstrating again, how much great music there is in Manchester.
Funmi SaysMali Hayes
A total of seven performances will take place on the live music stage in Exchange Square from 12 noon until 7pm on Friday, 13 October, kicking off with smaller ensembles before closing with a full band. The line-up is as follows:
12pm — Indie pop trio, Big Society
1pm — Solo loop cello, Polly Virr
2pm — R&B duo, Mali Hayes
3pm — Five spoken word poets: Esther Koch, Funmi Adeyo, Jack Coverdale & Reneé Stormz
4pm — Electronic pop and soul vocalist, Ellen Beth Abdi
5pm — Electronic pop and soul artist, Yemi Bolatiwa
6.15pm — The Untold Orchestra playing well-known hits, featuring Jenna G and Will Jacquet
Each performance will be around 40 minutes long and, as mentioned, the Manchester Accommodation Business Improvement District has also commissioned a ‘Dawn Chorus’, where a series of intimate classical performances will be carried out in the foyers of six Manchester hotels on Thursday.
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Hotel visitors staying at the Hyatt Regency, The Midland, Moxy, Yotel, Leonardo Hotel Manchester Central and the Kimpton Clocktower will be treated to a series of very special shows performed by students from our proud music studies institution, the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM).
Whether they know it or not, guests will be woken up by beautiful performances that will take place between 8-10am at the Hyatt Regency and Midland, and from 9-11am at all other venues. Not a bad way to start the morning.
As for anyone who’s interested in Beyond The Music Festival proper, the brand-new music series kicks off this Wednesday (11 October) and is set to be quite the collection of shows.
Boasting over 150 different up-and-coming artists from the Greater Manchester area and beyond, playing at 11 different independent venues around the city until Saturday, 14 October — we’re talking Castle Hotel, Band on the Wall, The Peer Hat and more — this new festival is going to make a splash.
You can still grab your tickets to enjoy the latest Manchester festival on top of the free live music sets down below:
A beloved Manc gig venue is hosting a special afterparty following Manichester tribute festival
Danny Jones
A much-loved live music institution in Manchester is set to host a dedicated afterparty for the inaugural ‘Manichester’: the live tribute festival in memory of Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield.
Seeing the grassroots music scene gathering together in moments like this is the kind of stuff that would make the man himself SO proud.
With Manichester 2026 announced this past March and set to take place later this month in honour of the legendary Stone Roses and Primal Scream bassist, tickets for the main event sold out very quickly.
This came as no surprise, of course, but now other Manc venues are joining in toasting the life and career of Mani for one very special evening.
Shared by Madchester.com, who are helping organise the Manichester ’26 along with surviving members of the Mounfield family, as well as Mani’s friends and peers such as his brother Greg and Damon Minchella of Ocean Colour Scene, gig space Gorilla are hosting it.
The small-cap live music room, bar and restaurant has hosted many a special night over the past decade or so – hosting multiple War Child charity shows in the past few years, for instance – and even when they’re not hosting a set themselves, they’re always more than happy to join in the celebrations.
With that in mind, there always likely to pay their respects to the late, great and iconic local musician in some way, but now they’re teaming up with Madchester directly.
Positioned as the official ‘aftershow’ following the mini tribute festival, as you can see, there will be just 600 tickets available, with general admission for the main event already gone as mentioned.
At one point, it looked like the kind-spirited and well-meaning idea might be scrapped altogether after some confusion between the organising partners.
Thankfully, that all looks to have been put to bed, and all those involved can focus on what’s important: honouring Mani in the best way possible – with a load of live tunes and a good time.
In terms of those who will be playing on the night ahead of the aftershow, the likes of the equally legendary Peter Hook, Rowetta, The Kowloons, Jon McClure from Reverend and the Makers, plus many more, have been announced as part of the lineup.
There is also still a ‘AAA’ headliner still yet to be confirmed, so watch this space.
As for the Manichester afterparty at Gorilla, keep an eye out on socials for the ticket link to drop and, hopefully, we’ll see you there for a night to remember.
Rochdale AFC go viral with song choice during promotion party celebrations
Danny Jones
Rochdale AFC are going viral on their return to the Football League, not just because of the remarkable end to their already spectacular season, but over their song choice during the promotion party in the dressing room.
We promise you: even if you haven’t seen it already, you will absolutely love this clip.
For those who haven’t been following their journey over the 25/26 campaign, Rochdale AFC were promoted back to League Two and the EFL proper, after more than a century in the top four divisions came to an end back in 2023.
Thankfully for the Greater Manchester side, who have always served as an important grassroots side throughout the decades, their hiatus wasn’t too long, and scenes inside the Wembley dressing room have been circulating all over social media – especially thanks to the track selection.
— National League on DAZN (@DAZN_NationalLg) May 10, 2026
If Olivia Dean is the artist of the moment, then Rochdale simply have to be one of the teams of the year.
Lifting the National League playoff trophy in the aftermath of a tense 2-2 draw, where the Vallians came back from a two-goal deficit to bring the tie level – thanks to goals from substitute Tyler Smith and Emmanuel Dieseruvwe in the 78th and 96th minute, respectively – you could say they were men in need.
Managing to then survive extra time and make it to penalties, another pair of crucial saves in the shoot-out from starring keeper Oliver Whatmuff, and a decisive miss from Boreham Wood’s Cameron Cox sealed the dramatic win for The Dale.
Breathless stuff.
All that being said, you’d expect some of the usual football-adjacent big win bangers to be heard in the aftermath of a playoff win: ‘Freed From Desire’, chants of ‘We are going up’, ‘Sweet Caroline’ these days, and so on.
But not these lot: they decided to stick on ‘Man I Need’, singing their hearts out and jumping up and down in unison like they were in one of her two recent Manc crowds themselves.
In case you missed it, her Co-op live shows were unsurprisingly incredible, but we’ll admit that seeing a bunch of blokes scream and cheer as they throw drinks in the air and sip suds straight from the shiny cup has definitely added another dimension to our love for this song and the Olivia ‘Deannaissance’.
Not only has the soulful singer-songwriter written one of the best radio hits in recent memory, for our money, but she’s even getting now former non-league footballers choosing her as the soundtrack to their main character moments.
You just love to see it (watch the full highlights HERE).
With Jimmy McNulty’s side having only just narrowly missed out on automatic promotion and the National League crown in that crazy title-decider against fellow entertainers York City, it can’t be denied that they’ve been the other truly box office outfit this term; another late comeback proved it once again.
No side with over 100 points and 90 goals scored should be denied going up and a piece of silverware, which is why, although they’ve been a great advert from the fifth tier, so many are still calling for ‘3UP’. We want more moments like this, please…
Danny Jones -
10th October 2023 
