Audio

What’s on at the AO Arena Manchester this May – and how you can still get tickets

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 29th April 2022

There’s a busy month of live music, comedy and entertainment ahead at the AO Arena Manchester. 

The city’s leading venue will be welcoming some big names this May, with a packed schedule of events. 

Expect pop perfection from Little Mix, who will perform three shows at the AO Arena this month, as well as comedy appearances from the likes of Alan Partridge and Chris Rock. 

Music royalty like Blondie, Pet Shop Boys and Alice Cooper will take to the stage over the next month too. 

Read more: Manchester’s AO Arena reveals big £50 transformation plans

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The AO Arena has a range of hospitality packages on hand if you want to watch the show in style, from booking the best seats in the house to having a champagne reception and a waiter service. 

Full details on Prime View and Prime Suites are below. 

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Here’s what’s coming up at the AO Arena Manchester in May, and all you need to know about booking your hospitality packages. 

Blondie – Sunday 1 May

Fronted by the iconic Debbie Harry, Blondie will be joined on this rescheduled tour date by Manchester legend Johnny Marr. 

Tool – Monday 2 May

This strictly no-phones-allowed gig from art metallers Tool will be part of their arena tour of the UK, which is also taking them to London and Birmingham.

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Little Mix – Friday 6 and Saturday 7 May

Pop sensations Little Mix – aka Perrie Edwards, Jade Thirwell and Leigh-Anne Pinnock – will be doing three gigs in two days at the AO Arena on their Confetti tour, with a matinee performance on Saturday afternoon.

Gregory Porter – Sunday 8 May

Grammy Award-winning jazz soul singing sensation Gregory Porter will be in Manchester in just a few weeks, performing hits from his six studio albums. 

Alan Partridge – Friday 13 and Saturday 14 May

Stratagem, a brand new live show from Alan Partridge (aka Steve Coogan) will touch down for two nights that promises to ‘inform, educate and entertain in approximately equal measure’.

Chris Rock – Sunday 15 May

Fresh from his hosting gig at the Oscars, comedic heavyweight and multi-award-winner Chris Rock is bringing his Ego Death World Tour to Manchester. 

Bryan Adams – Tuesday 17 May

One of the world’s most iconic rock musicians is heading to the AO Arena – Bryan Adams’ So Happy It Hurts tour is in support of his 15th studio album – that’s quite the discography. 

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Whitesnake – Wednesday 18 May 

Hard rock stalwarts Whitesnake will be stopping off in Manchester on their eagerly-awaited Farewell tour, alongside Foreigner and Europe. 

RuPaul’s Drag Race – Thursday 19 May

RuPaul’s massive Werq the World tour is sashaying its way to the AO Arena – the all-new production will see Michelle Visage, Asia O’Hara, Plastique Tiara and more travel back in time through several iconic eras. 

Pet Shop Boys – Friday 20 May

Electronic pioneers Pet Shop Boys are back together in front of crowds on the Greatest Hits tour, working through a back catalogue that includes massive hits like West End Girls, Always On My Mind, and Go West.

The Script – Saturday 21 May

With five number one albums, six billion streams and two million ticket sales, The Script will be joined by Ella Henderson on their Greatest Hits Tour. 

Alice Cooper and The Cult – Friday 27 May

Larger-than-life rock legend Alice Cooper and The Cult will come together for a very special co-headline show at the end of May. 

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Years & Years – Saturday 28 May

Olly Alexander, recent star of hit series It’s A Sin and collaborator with Kylie Minogue, will be back at Years & Years in May with The Night Call tour. 

AO Arena Hospitality package information

Prime View packages, designed for couples and smaller groups of friends and family, include fast-track pre-show entry to the Lounge, with a glass of champagne on arrival. 

You also get a seat in the lower tier of the main auditorium (Block 103 or 114) to see the action on stage up close. 

There are Prime View tickets available for all of the below shows. 

There’s still some Prime Suites availability too, for Blondie, Tool and RuPaul’s Drag Race. The Prime Suites package is a full experience for up to 16 guests that includes a private suite, dedicated fast track entry, a buffet, champagne reception, private bar and waiter service, en suite toilets and cloakroom facilities.

To book either Prime View packages or Prime Suites at the AO Arena, you can email [email protected] or call 0161 9501069.

Audio

Manchester artists we’ve been listening to this month | November 2024

Danny Jones Danny Jones New Manchester bands and artists we've been listening to

Well, hello there; fancy seeing you all here – presume you’re waiting on another batch of new Manchester bands and artists you’ve not come across before?

Stupid question, of course you are. It’s the end of the month after all and that’s how we like to start the next one. Best foot forward and all that.

In case you happen to be new here, right about now is the time (as you’ve probably guessed from the title) that we round up five of the best musicians from in and around Greater Manchester that we’ve been listening to recently.

Let’s not muck about any longer, shall we?

Five Manchester bands and artists you should listen to

1. John Bramwell

His S-heavy voice cuts through so much this album in such a satisfying way.

First up on our list is John Bramwell, best known for his years with noughties alternative and indie band I Am Kloot, but he’s been enjoying his solo journey since 2016, and so have we. With his sophomore album released earlier this year, we finally found time to try it out – in a word: stunning.

Hailing from Hyde, the former frontman and guitarist released his standalone debut in 2017, but even before that he released a passion project under the name ‘Johnny Dangerously’ way back in 1989 entitled, You, Me and the Alarm Clock, once called “the best British album you’ve never heard” by The Guardian.

Suffice it to say, the 60-year-old has been on a long and winding road to becoming a straight-up singer-songwriter for some time now and it’s great to hear where his sound has got to. There’s a real 1960s and ’70s feel to a lot of it; we’d start with the title track, ‘It’s Just You’, and ‘I Am The Sky’, which shows a real range to those vocal tones.

2. Hollows

Second on our list of Manchester bands and artists for November is the alternative trio, Hollows, who after stumbling across a little while back we’ve now rediscovered following their release of their latest EP, Running With Scissors.

While it’s by no means heavy, they’re probably the most guitar-driven name on the list this month. We picked up bits of Placebo and even contemporary Smashing Pumpkins at times but, put most simply, they’re just a good rock band and we still think there’s a lack of those around these days.

Their newest stuff is undoubtedly their best but you’ve still got to start with ‘UV Lights’ in our opinion (simply because we did), but from there we’d encourage you’d move on to ‘History’ and ‘Talon’.

3. Oldboy

Shifting over to electronic for a spell, our next nod goes to rising DJ and producer Oldboy. Named after the cult-hit film, his sound certainly carries over plenty of inspiration from movies and TV – and not just because he samples Brad Bitt in Seven on one of his tracks.

Born in York before spending his uni days in Sheffield and eventually landing here in Manchester a few years ago, the rising Northern star – real name Max Carter – does garage, dub and house best but there’s lots of variety on show. He also has his own record label, Front Toward Enemy.

With a catalogue dating back to 2021 and a versatility spanning so many sub-genres, not to mention a truly great selection of instant earworm sampled, he can pretty much turn his hand to anything provided there’s bass and some distortion involved. ‘Grab Di Mic’ is his latest, ‘Find Da Cure’ is a great intro and his ‘Got Yo $’ rightly went viral on TikTok a while back. Give him a spin.

Amidst all these new Manchester bands and lesser-known artists, Oldboy’s live sets are a nice change of pace.

4. The Recreation

Penultimately, we’ll quite literally keep effing and blinding until you listen to the fantastic local five-piece that is The Recreation, who have quickly become a bit of an obsession of ours. They released their second LP this past May and the only thing we’ve been listening to the same amount is their first.

To be completely honest, we’ve only really chimed with the stuff from 2020 onwards, but let’s just say we really struggled to pick our favourite tracks from the Oldham lads because we genuinely love all of it so much. That being said, if you had to push for once from each album, we’d go ‘Summertime 35s’ from their debut and ‘Call Me Back Sugar’ from Love In.

A really special shout-out also has to go to the extremely stripped-back spoken word track, ‘remember the future? interlude’, which delivers such matter-of-fact but surprisingly moving Northernisms that we really urge you to find a quiet corner in a dark room and just experience it. Big up The Rec.

5. Montello

Last but not least are the whippersnappers of the bunch, local lads Montello who were recently got onto thanks to the Stanleys lads, who named this little four-piece one of the names helping fly the flag for the mini music hamlet of Wigan.

When we say young by the way, we’re talking no one much older than 17 in this promising little outfit but they’ve already got a style and a sound that gives the impression of a band that has been at this much longer than they have and there’s definitely some similarities to The Lathums, Stanleys and more.

It’s no-nonsense indie rock and you know we love a bit of that. Better production levels and even more confidence will come as they inevitably mature but, at the minute, they’ve got three tracks you have no excuse not to work through them all. The Wigan scene really is growing and we’re here for it.

They also happen to be playing our Audio North stage at Year’s End Festival next month, so we best see your there and listening to live!

Read more:

And we’re sorry to say it but, once again, that’s all for another month.

We sincerely hope you give these fantastic Manchester-based bands and artists a go over the coming weeks and come back for more recommendations for our final edition of 2024 at the end of December.

What a great year it’s been for music, eh?

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — Press Images (supplied/via Facebook)

Audio

Blossoms, Good Neighbours and more to play sets at a FREE Spotify event in Manchester city centre

Danny Jones Danny Jones Blossoms playing live gig Depot Music Spotify event Manchester

Spotify is bringing some very exciting live performances and DJ sets to an upcoming Manchester event and hometown heroes Blossoms are top of the billing – and it’s free.

Teaming up with global beer brand, Budweiser, the streaming giants are bringing their ‘Music Depot’ show to the city centre for an exclusive and crucially free event which we’re hoping could be the start of a very cool regular music series here in 0161.

Popping up in the massive Diecast warehouse over on Ducie Street, there’ll be plenty of space to dance your pants off into the next day.

Better yet, Blossoms aren’t the only name you can expect to rock up on the night – though we’d be quite happy just getting another chance to see this moment live:

Although the high-flying Stopfordians are set to headline the event, London-based group Good Neighbours – made up of duo Scott Verrill, Oli Fox and their touring band – are also set to perform on the night too.

Having not only seen Blossoms live on a number of occasions this year and caught Good Neighbours at Neighbourhood Festival earlier this year, we can only vouch for how good a time you’ll have watching them if you secure a ticket.

The organisers at the venue, working in tandem with both Budweiser and Spotify are promising an “extraordinary night where music and culture meet like never before.”

DJ sets will also be delivered by festival circuit regular Rowena Alice, Manchester-based old-school R’n’B DJ and host, Chaise, as well as regular BBC Radio 1 Dance Anthems presenter, Tinea Taylor.

As well as the tunes themselves, there will also be exclusive merch giveaways, flash tattoos from Debut Studios, and bars stocked with Budweiser to keep the energy high.

Blossoms at the O2 Ritz
Good Neighbours at NBHD 2024
Whether you’re a big Blossoms head or just love live music, you don’t want to miss this Spotify event (Credit: The Manc Group/Supplied)

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Taking place on Wednesday, 11 December, things kick off from 7pm onwards and the party won’t stop until gone 12:30am. As for the set times, it’s all still a mystery to us – all we can tell you is that this is a strictly 18+ night.

It goes without saying that this free Spotify Presents event is fairly exclusive, meaning tickets are very limited, so you’ll have to be quick about securing a spot in the crowd.

General admission can be accessed via DICE, the app that protects people from touts, with digital passes going live around an hour before the gig is due to start. There is a max limit of two tickets per person and tickets will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

RVSP doesn’t guarantee you a ticket but it’s well worth throwing your name in the hat. Don’t lose all hope either, because even if you miss out you join the waiting list for any more tickets that are released/returned. You can try and grab yours HERE.

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — The Manc Group

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