There are some seriously good gigs lined up this month in Manchester, from ex-Kasabian frontman Tom Meighan and Queen + Adam Lambert, to some nostalgic acts like JoJo and Avril Lavigne.
And for the most part, there are still tickets available from as little as £16.99. Last month Dua Lipa, Craig David and One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson took to stages across the city to entertain audiences, and now they’ve passed the baton over to Little Mix, Marina and Pet Shop Boys for the month of May.
Blondie put on a show at the AO Arena last night, with more huge artists set to take over city venues throughout the month, as well as the popular Neighbourhood Weekender.
The festival, held at Warrington’s Victoria Park, will see Courteeners, DMA’s, Becky Hill, The Fratellis, Blossoms and Tom Grennan among a host of other artists over the weekend of May 28 to 29.
So if you’re ready to dive back into live music, here are nine Manchester gigs that still have tickets left for their May shows, as well as where to get last minute tickets for Neighbourhood Weekender.
Little Mix
Following their success on the eighth season of The X Factor, Little Mix are a band that need no introduction more than a decade on. The internationally acclaimed global pop success quad-turned-trio are coming to the Manchester AO Arena on May 6 and 7, with limited tickets left.
The band released their sixth studio album, Confetti, in November 2020 featuring hits like Sweet Melody and Break Up Song. The tour, rescheduled from 2021, will see Jade, Perri and Leigh-Anne celebrate their latest album in style.
Tom Meighan
Former Kasabian frontman, Tom Meighan , is currently on an eight-date debut solo tour, and will be stopping off in Manchester for the penultimate leg on May 6 before finishing in Birmingham the following night.
The singer has been teasing snippets of new music on Instagram after he turned his hand to songwriting after leaving the band in which he made his name. Fans will be able to hear his new material at the shows, as well as some of the era-defining classics everyone knows and loves from Kasabian. Tickets for the intimate show at the O2 Ritz are priced at £29.40 for unreserved standing .
JoJo
It’s been 18 years since JoJo became the youngest artist to top the US charts with her hit single Leave (Get Out) at the age of 13.
Now 31, the singer is returning with a string of UK shows - including O2 Ritz on May 9 - and resale tickets are from just £16.99 , but there are also VIP packages that cost upwards of £100 for megafans of the artist. The pop star released her fourth studio album, Good To Know, in 2020, which featured the tracks Man, Lonely Hearts and Comeback before going on to make it to the final on the fifth season of The Masked Singer.
Whitesnake
Hard rock legends Whitesnake are heading to the AO Arena on May 18, alongside Foreigner for a joint tour, with Europe joining them as special guests. The band - which formed in 1978 - enjoyed huge success in the 80s thanks to hits like Here I Go Again, Is This Love? And Still Of The Night.
They had an impressive run of six consecutive top 10 albums during the same decade, spending much of the 90s on tour. In 2020, Whitesnake unveiled The Red, White & Blues Trilogy featuring revisited, remixed and remastered versions of some of their greatest hits, followed by newly remastered and remixed deluxe editions of Restless Heart the following year.
Tickets start from £52.55 with good availability, with some VIP packages left at a higher price.
Marina
Originally known as Marina and the Diamonds , the Welsh singer-songwriter wrote and produced her first EP Mermaid vs. Sailor in 2007. And in true noughties style, self-released and sold it on her MySpace page before being signed by Warner Music Groups 679 Recordings.
In 2018, she announced she would be dropping “And The Diamonds” and begin recording music simply as MARINA , going on to release her LOVE+FEAR album in 2019. The singer - inspired by the likes of Gwen Stefani and Sophia Loren - unveiled her fifth album Ancient Dreams In A Modern Land, in June 2021, announcing UK tour dates for May 2022.
Marina will be at the O2 Apollo on May 20, with resale tickets costing £137.08.
Pet Shop Boys
Pet Shop Boys formed in London in 1981 when vocalist Neil Tennant met keyboardist Chris Lowe, and the duo have gone on to sell more than 100 million records worldwide. And while their first single, West End Girls, failed to make a dent in the UK charts, it was later named by The Guardian as the best UK No 1 single of all time.
Pet Shop Boys were due to embark on their first ever Greatest Hits tour in 2020 but dates were postponed because of the Coronavirus pandemic. In February 2021, they announced that the Greatest Hits tour had been rescheduled to May 2022.
Resale tickets for their May 20 show at AO Arena are from £54.68.
George Clinton
Funk legend George Clinton has been entertaining fans for six decades with Parliament and Funkadelic, releasing more than 40 R&B singles in the 70s - including three number one tracks and three platinum albums.
Clinton’s music has been frequently sampled by other artists, such as Dr. Dre, and worked with the likes of Snoop Dogg, OutKast and Kendrick Lamar. He also continued to tour well into the ‘00s and ‘10s, even joining Mark Ronson, Mary J. Blige and Grandmaster Flash at Glastonbury Festival to perform Ronson’s Uptown Funk.
In 2018, Clinton announced that he would be retiring from touring in 2019 and indicated to fans that Parliament-Funkadelic would likely continue to tour without him. But despite his previous announcement, George Clinton confirmed he would be going back on tour in May 2022 with a string of dates across the UK.
Tickets for his Albert Hall show on May 27 cost £41.70 and are available on Ticketweb.
Bloc Party
Bloc Party are back from their noughties heyday with a bang with new single Traps and their sixth studio album Alpha Games. The band - still lead by Kele Okereka - are coming to O2 Victoria Warehouse on May 31.
The band began in 1999 after Okereke bumped into old school pal Russell Lissak at Reading Festival, recruiting Pete Tong on drums and Gordon Moakes on bass.
In November 2021, they released the new single with news of the album following.
There are still plenty of unreserved standing tickets available from £35 .
Neighbourhood Weekender
One of the biggest indie festivals of the North West returns to Victoria Park, Warrington this month, welcoming both big names and breakthrough new music acts and bands to its three stages.
The Neighbourhood Weekender kicked off in Warrington in 2018 with Courteeners, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Blossoms, Jake Bugg, Editors and The Coral all appearing.
The festival ran again in 2019, but had to be cancelled in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, moving to September 2021.
Now the festival is back for it’s fourth edition from May 28 to 29, featuring Courteeners, Kasabian and Blossoms, who will be joined across the weekend by DMA's, Becky Hill, Tom Grennan, Pale Waves, The Lathums, The Fratellis, Inhaler, The Amazons, The Snuts, Example, Jamie Webster, Wet Leg, Cast, Starsailor, The Bootleg Beatles, Brooke Combe, KYNSY, Tommy Lefroy, Daisy Brain and Pixey.
Two day weekend tickets cost £126 each , with the option to book tickets for just the Saturday or Sunday, too.
