It’s now just a week until The Warehouse Project Rotterdam and knowing how good a weekend is at Depot Mayfield, we can’t wait to see what a full bank holiday is like on tour in the Netherlands.
The Warehouse Project was recently voted the best club night in the world (yes, the world), so you know for a fact that their first foray into hosting abroad is going to be just as impressive.
Now, if you’re anything like us then you need to plan ahead of any festival, let alone one overseas, so we thought we’d put together a little gig guide for anyone attending or even those of you who are still on the fence.
Let’s start with the easy stuff: The Warehouse Project Rotterdam kicks off on Friday, 28 April and runs until Sunday, meaning you still have the bank holiday Monday to recover and make your way back home.
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Situated over at RDM Rotterdam, an old shipbuilding facility located on the docks of the city’s canal system, this warehouse of choice can cram in around 5,000 people, so it’s going to be quite the atmosphere in there.
The party kicks off at 8pm on the Friday with curfew at 4am and it’s the same closing time on Saturday only you can get there from 6pm; Sunday is even earlier start at 2pm with a midnight curfew, but you’ll probably be thankful for it in the morning.
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Are there still tickets left?
Yes, lucky for you there are still tickets for WHP Rotterdam and depending on your plans for the weekend you can either grab a single general admission day ticket for £60 for Friday/Saturday and just £45 for Sunday, or secure yourself a full weekend pass for £150 that will cover you for all three days.
Better still, as well as the full WHP Rotterdam weekender pass, if you’re interested in any of the boat and after parties, they’ll only set you back £20 plus booking fee.
Lastly, if you really fancy treating yourself for the weekend, there is the option to upgrade to VIP after booking for £49 per person, which includes Fastlane entry, VIP Toilets and a private bar. Boujee.
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WHP Rotterdam Lineup
As for who you’ll be seeing, in case you haven’t peeped it already, the lineup for WHP Rotterdam is absolutely insane — well up there with any night you could hope for back in 0161 — with big names across all three nights.
With the likes of Bicep, Peggy Gou, Overmono, Seth Troxler, DJ EZ and many more on the bill, it’s easy to see why WHP Rotterdam is set to be one of the biggest nights of the year.
As if this wasn’t enough, you’ve also got boat parties and after-parties once the sets are said and done, and you can also download the official WHP app for a full list of set times to make sure you manage your clashes and don’t miss a second. Here’s who you’ll be seeing:
When it comes to where you can stay for the Rotterdam weekender, there are still a handful of rooms left at the main WHP accommodation hub, King Kong Hostel, which will also be featuring exclusive pre-parties in their in-house bar. Here’s what it has to offer:
King Kong Hotel & Hostel
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Award-winning hostel and hotel in Witte de Withstraat (cool district)
Movie lounge, live entertainment and bar
Mixture of dorms and stylish private rooms from just £50 per person
You can add any available rooms that are left to the rest of your booking and even if choose to simply book an Airbnb as well, RDM Rotterdam isn’t far from the city centre anyway, so getting back and forth won’t involve the usual stress that often follows going to a festival.
Travel
Speaking of travel, there will be shuttle services running from a few key locations in Rotterdam to RDM, including the after-parties after the event.
There are also water taxis which can help ferry you around to and from the venue, not to mention around the city, with more than 50 mooring points available.
As for how you get to Rotterdam itself, well that’s up to you; you can get a Eurostar train from London, a ferry from either Hull, Newcastle or Harwich, or even get WHP coach pick-up from around £90.
You can find out plenty more about travel on the ‘routes’ section of the website and if you want all the logistics sorted for you, you can always just book a full accommodation and travel package.
If that lineup alone doesn’t convince you, Rotterdam is a gorgeous destination and has plenty to offer throughout the day and The Warehouse Project has also put together a helpful city guide so never have to wonder what to get up to in the hours before the party starts.
WHP RDM is the legendary music event’s first-ever international date and it’s set to be a night you’ll never forget — or three, to be precise.
You can grab your tickets HERE and we’ll hopefully see you there!
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.
Danny Jones -
24th April 2023 
