Thankfully, our Manchester New Year celebrations are shaping up to be a damn sight better than last year’s locked-down version.
Now that more and more New Year events are getting announced, it’s looking like we’re going to be stuck for choice – and we would not have it any other way right now.
As always, The Warehouse Project comes through strong with their New Year agenda – and they’ve just dropped another cracking set of shows to celebrate the end of another tough year getting back to ‘normal’.
In a first for the city, four of Manchester’s biggest music brands will come together to round off what has been an unforgettable return to live music and events this year on New Year’s Day, whilst the New Year’s Eve event also has some big tricks up its sleeve.
Here’s what to expect.
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New Year’s Eve
The biggest party night of the year, New Year’s Eve is always one for making memories with some huge music lineups. Whilst we weren’t able to see in the new year at Depot Mayfield last year, WHP has pulled off one to remember for the big night on Friday, 31 December 2021.
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Fat Boy Slim and Radio and DJ legend Annie Mac will headline the night, bringing in the new year with another prime NYE slot, alongside Yousef.
Over on the Concourse, Hannah Wants, Redlight, Low Steppa, My Nu Leng plus loads more will be responsible for a house, tech, and bassline driven soundtrack. Then in the Archive, it’ll be over to Emerald, Big Miz, and Joe Motion to spin some funky beats.
With an early start from 8 pm, there’ll be plenty of time to get the drinks in before midnight strikes, too, before rounding things up by 4 am – if you can make it that far.
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New Year’s Day
On New Year’s Day, an extra special party is set for the Depot.
In a first for the city, four of Manchester’s biggest music brands will come together to round off what has been an unforgettable return to live music and events this year.
In a collaboration named ‘The Riot’, Homoelectric, Electric Chair, Repercussion, and The Warehouse Project will join forces to produce the biggest NYD lineup the Depot has ever seen.
Credit: WHP 21
If your New Year’s Eve hangover allows it, from 3 pm until 2 am, you can enjoy five stages of music, each with a different takeover all day and into the night.
The Depot’s usual three rooms will be open for business, with music from the likes of The Blessed Madonna, Todd Terje, Jayda G, and Krystal Klear in the Depot’s main room, with Louie Vega, Hunee B2B Palms Trax headlining the Concourse.
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Over in the Archive, a Homoelectric takeover will see Horse Meat Disco, Leon Vynehall, Shanti Celeste, Sherelle and more.
What’s more – one of Manchester’s most famed pubs, The Star & Garter, will play host to a WHP lineup again.
The venue was recently taken over as part of the inaugural Repercussion Festival back in September, where Sassy J, Greg Wilson, Krysko and Space Afrika took to the decks at The Star & Garter for a special day of music.
Repercussion Festival took over a number of venues in and around the Depot, including the Star and Garter and Temperance Street pictured here / Credit: Zed Bias
For The Riot, though, the pub will have two stages.
Upstairs in ‘The Loft’ you can expect to see Erol Alkan B2B Ivan Smagghe, alongside Nancy Noise and Maurice Fulton. Meanwhile the ‘Downstairs’ stage will feature the likes of Manc legend DJ Paulette, Abigail Ward, and Aficionado.
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And with that extra bank holiday on Monday, 3 January, you might just get away with the hangover for your return to work.
Micheal Bibi Presents Isolate
A third night has also been revealed today.
The brand-new show, Michael Bibi & WHP presents Isolate, has been added to the calendar on 18 December. Although we know there are some very special guests in the pipeline, the lineup announcement and full details will follow soon.
Credit: WHP 21
How to get tickets
Getting hold of tickets for the closing parties is simple.
For previous WHP21 ticket holders, limited pre-sale tickets will go on sale at 6 pm tonight (Wednesday, 27 October).
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The remaining tickets will go on general sale to everyone else from 10 am tomorrow (Thursday, 28 October).
For links and more info, head over to the Warehouse Project website. Here, you’ll also find tickets for the final 20 events that are still to come, featuring Bicep – Live, The Chemical Brothers, Honey Dijon, Jamie xx, Solomun, Avalon Emerson, and hundreds more.
To read more like this, head to our music tab. And don’t forget to stay up to date with music and events in Manchester over on Instagram with The Manc Audio.
Featured Image – The Warehouse Project
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Bez and Shaun Ryder are starring in a new gangster movie – nope, not kidding
Danny Jones
No, you didn’t misread the headline and you’re not on acid: Manchester music legends Bez and Shaun Ryder are set to feature in a brand-new gangster film.
Yes, the ones from the Happy Mondays – why are you having such trouble processing this?
Seriously though, we did a little double-take ourselves when we came across this news, but the familiar Manc faces look to be among the ensemble of a brand-new gangster movie by Irish writer, actor, producer and filmmaker, Ciaron Davies.
And this is just a little leak or rumour that may have been blown out of proportion: you can take it from the horse’s mouth as Happy Mondays frontman, Ryder, recently shared the news on social media.
As you can see, the new film is called Geezers and is billed as a “British crime caper” written and directed by Davies, featuring Shaun as hard-man Robbie and Bez as ‘Monk’. If you saw Ryder shaking off that snake biting his hand like it was nothing then you already know he’s hard as nails.
Although it’s not strictly listed as a comedy per se, ‘caper’ would suggest plenty of humour and light-heartedness, so we’re thinking more like The Gentleman, Italian Job, or maybe even Four Lions, rather than a serious crime thriller.
Now, while we’ve seen both of the Salfordians on screen before not only in the likes of music videos, interviews, panel shows and even as two of the funniest guests to ever go on Celebrity Gogglebox, this latest venture will serve as their respective acting debuts.
According to the IMDb page, the synopsis of the film is as follows: “Crime caper about a stolen bag of money. Caught in the crossfire are ‘The Geezers’ a bunch of wannabe criminals who have bitten off more than they can chew. With 24 hours to grab the cash, London may just go up in smoke tonight.”
Shame it’s not set on the mean streets of Manchester, or better yet Salford, but you’ve still very much caught our interest.
You can see the first promotional poster for the film down below.
As for Davies, he has been involved with a number of small-budget TV film projects, as well as appearing in shorts and even video games, so it’s fair to say that getting 62-year-old Ryder and his ever-energetic hype man, 60, involved is quite the coup for his movie-making career.
Although the film has no release date just yet, we know that filming locations having included parts of Warrington and Pinewood Studios, will be produced by Loose Gripp Films and distributed by publishers High Fliers.
Given the high-octane nature of Geezers and its genre, the feature will involve lots of action, stunts, violence and even martial arts – though how much kung-fu these two will have learned for the project remains to be seen…
All we know is that the film is supposedly “coming soon” and if you don’t want to see Bez and Shaun Ryder doing their best impression of a Guy Ritchie gangster movie then you’re lying to yourself. Praying for a Rowetta cameo to put the cherry on top.
Featured Images — Shaun Ryder (via X)/Loose Gripp Films/IMDb
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Blossoms at O2 Ritz Manchester – five-night hometown residency is already a triumph
Daisy Jackson
Blossoms are a band who were born and forged here in Greater Manchester, and now they’re back retracing their steps with a five-night residency across the venues that launched them into the big leagues.
Their star has risen all the way to arena level and headline shows at Wythenshawe Park at this point, especially here in their hometown, so the chance to see them back in these cosy-ish little venues is special, and a little bizarre.
For night two of their landmark sold-out gig series, it was the turn of the O2 Ritz, that sweaty spot off Oxford Road where the floor bounces downstairs and you stick to the carpets upstairs.
Poetically, the first time I ever saw Blossoms was in this very room in 2016, when they had the mid-afternoon slot at Neighbourhood festival and the queue to get in went all the way back to St Peter’s Square.
Since those days, Blossoms have come a long, long way, and their live show has evolved and matured from five lads thrashing on their instruments to this well-oiled, hip-swaying, flares-wearing, chart-topping machine.
There’s even choreography now – how fancy!
A stand-out moment from the show is actually a song from their new, fifth studio album Gary, which is still barely eight weeks old.
A spoof recording of legendary Manchester indie club 42s rings out, then all five band members abandon their stations, slinging keytars and marching drums around their necks so that they can dance together in front of neon signs.
Blossoms have just done their second of five shows in Manchester, this time at the O2 Ritz. Credit: The Manc GroupBlossoms on stage at the O2 Ritz in Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group
Blossoms promised more disco with this album and they bloody meant it. It’s not just the flares and the blow-dries and the moustaches (though those do help) – it’s in the funk and groove that’s gradually crept into their music exponentially with each album release.
This is still indie rock but it’s the most danceable of its genre. Good luck keeping your shoulders from wiggling and jiggling in here. Good luck keeping that grin off your face.
And Gary is one of the most unexpectedly fun albums to be released in the last year – the fact they called it Gary, named after a giant fibreglass garden centre Gorilla, should’ve been our clue. It could border on silly were it not such a masterpiece.
It seems like the only thing Blossoms are trying to prove is that you can be wildly successful without taking yourself too seriously. They just seem like a group who want to have a good time and it’s totally infectious.
Case in point – when each band member is introduced, keyboardist Myles Kellock plays the riff of Satisfaction by Benny Benassi and The Biz. Unexpected.
Blossoms also clearly give a sh*t about their live shows and graft at it – I’ve seen these guys an awful lot and it’s because their tour dates are plentiful and consistently worth the ticket price.
This is definitely the biggest era of their career so far, but have they peaked? Not even close.
Hannah Starkie -
27th October 2021 
