Music in the North

Johnny James, Managing Editor

Gigs are coming in hot this spring – from long-awaited returns to one-off happenings you’ll blink and miss (unless you’re paying attention).

Our picks drift between the raucous, the cosmic and the quietly devastating, including the resurrection of one of Manchester’s most elusive cult bands, a confessional piano set with zero filter, and the answer to the question: what happens when one of the North’s most beloved DIY festivals takes over Manchester’s biggest, shiniest arts space?

John Talabot goes deep at The White Hotel with an all-nighter built for heads-down hedonists. DIIV hit Leeds for the first time in almost a decade. And BC Camplight strips it all back at Rough Trade Liverpool – just him, a piano, and a set that walks the line between stand-up and breakdown.

Then there’s Surround Sounds, throwing two decades of SFTOC chaos into one genre-melting, in-the-round free-for-all – featuring the miraculous return of WU LYF. And Manchester Psych Fest returns with cult heroes, warped visuals, and a full-day trip you may or may not remember.

It’s a good time to like your music weird, loud and a little dangerous.

Our top picks

John Talabot at The White Hotel

John Talabot at The White Hotel, Salford, 2 August 2025, From £13.00 - Book now

A quietly radical force in contemporary club culture, John Talabot returns to The White Hotel for one of his signature all-night sessions. No cheap thrills, just a slow, hypnotic descent into the good kind of oblivion.

Pia Riverola
John Talabot by Pia Riverola.

BC Camplight: Solo Piano Performance at Rough Trade Liverpool

BC Camplight at Rough Trade, Liverpool, 30 June 2025, From £14.00 - Book now

Uh-oh, BC Camplight’s at the piano again. Expect chaos, candour, heartbreak and hilarity – delivered by one of the most fearless performers in the country.

BC Camplight Portrait
Marieke Macklon

MIF25: Surround Sounds at Aviva Studios

Surround Sounds at Aviva Studios, Manchester, 18 June 2025, From £10.00 - Book now

Sounds From the Other City gets the MIF treatment. The edges stay rough, the spirit stays restless – but now it plays out louder and in the round, pulling the audience into orbit.

A live music performance in a dark indoor venue with colourful stage lighting and a large crowd enjoying the show. The stage features a projection screen displaying visuals, with green and orange lights illuminating the band.
Jody Hartley

Manchester Psych Fest 2025

Manchester Psych Fest at Albert Hall, Manchester, 30 August 2025, From £44.80 - Book now

Manchester Psych Fest is back with 70+ live acts, turning the city into a playground for the ones who like it loud, loose and a little off-centre.

DIIV at Project House

DIIV at Project House, Leeds, 31 August 2025, From £22.50 - Book now

Emerging from a four-year crucible of creative tension and personal reckoning, Brooklyn shoegazers DIIV return to Leeds for the first time in nearly a decade.

the band
Image supplied by Leeds Inspired

Spring/Summer Season at Progress

Spring/Summer Season at Progress Centre, Manchester, Until 31 July 2025, From £0.00 - Book now

Manchester’s open-air club Progress scales up to 5000 capacity and launches a spring/summer season of forward-thinking electronic music and grassroots culture.

PROGRESS
Progress.

Sextile at The White Hotel

Sextile Live at The White Hotel at The White Hotel, Salford, 28 May 2025, From £16.00 - Book now

From sunny Los Angeles to deepest darkest Salford, electronic punk duo Sextile bring an anarchic, serotonin-boosting party to The White Hotel.

Sextile
Ground Control Touring

Outer Waves Festival 2025

Outer Waves Festival 2025 at The Invisible Wind Factory, Liverpool, 24–26 May 2025, From £49.00 - Book now

A new festival is born as Outer Waves brings to Liverpool an inclusive space for all things experimental and underground.

Outer Waves Festival full line up poster 2025
Outer Waves Ltd

Green Island Festival at Hulme Garden Centre

Green Island Festival at Hulme Community Garden Centre, Manchester, 7 June–6 September 2025, From £25 - Book now

Hulme’s Green Island Festival returns this summer, bringing a three-part series of events to Hulme Garden Centre and the iconic NIAMOS.

Festival-goers at Green Island
Green Island Festival

Moin at Band on the Wall

Moin at Band on the Wall, Manchester, 28 May 2025, From £16.50 - Book now

Pursuing a thrilling slash-and-burn ethos to music-making, genre collagists Moin bring their rock-informed, techno-adjacent live show to Manchester.

the band
Image supplied by Leeds Inspired

manchester jazz festival 2025

Manchester Jazz Festival 2025, Until 25 May 2025, 0-£30 - Book now

Jazz lovers rejoice – manchester jazz festival is back with a bumper edition in 2025, as the festival celebrates its 30th anniversary.

Rina Srabonian.
Rina Srabonian.

More music events

Sextile
MusicManchester
Sextile at The White Hotel

From sunny Los Angeles to deepest darkest Salford, electronic punk duo Sextile head to their spiritual home of The White Hotel.

From £16.00
Rina Srabonian.
Until
MusicCity Centre
manchester jazz festival 2025

manchester jazz festival is back this May with 10 days of live music from some of the best northern, national and international musicians operating in the world of contemporary jazz.

0-£30
MusicManchester
Manchester Psych Fest 2025

Manchester Psych Fest, the UK’s trailblazing psychedelic music and arts festival has announced a massive bill for its 2025 edition.

From £44.80
A black woman sat down looking to the left.
Until
MusicLeeds
Sound Out Leeds 2024/25

Leeds International Concert Season is on a mission to push boundaries, expand horizons, and ask the question: ‘What haven’t we heard?’ as it presents its city-spanning Sound Out Leeds series.

From £10.00
Image by Jonathan Schofield.
Spotlight on

Walking Tours in Manchester by Jonathan Schofield

Presenting the best walking tours in Manchester for history buffs, culture enthusiasts, and those looking to scratch beneath the surface of the city.

Take me there

Music in the North

Manchester
Park
Platt Fields Park

Platt Fields Park in Fallowfield is steeped in history, the land having been acquired by the Platt family in 1225.

HOME Manchester
Manchester
Theatre
HOME Manchester

Offering a packed schedule of events and things to do, HOME Manchester is one of the city’s leading hubs for arts and culture.

The MerseyMade building in Liverpool
Liverpool
Shop
MerseyMade West Kirby

In the MerseyMade shop you’ll find bottled gin from the likes of Turncoat Gin, Anfield Gin, Albert Dock Gin and Three Graces Gin. Yep, Liverpool REALLY likes its gin.

Cumbria
Event venue
Penrith Old Fire Station

Main venue for Eden Arts, an artist-led organisation based in Eden in Cumbria creating projects around mass participation, local distinctiveness and digital engagement, from Picnic Cinema to The Winter Droving.

A table with a view of Liverpool at the fine dining restaurant Panoramic 34
Liverpool
Restaurant
Panoramic 34

Panoramic 34 boasts ceiling to floor windows with a breathtaking 360 degree aspect, but there’s plenty more to get giddy about than just the views.

Culture Guides

Hannah Platt 'Playing Out', courtesy of Threshold, photograph by Jules Lister.
Exhibitions in the North

From city-wide art festivals to open-air sculptural installations, we have exhibitions from all around the North, both indoors and out.

Theatre in Manchester and the North
Theatre in the North

Eclectic as ever. You'll find inventive reworkings, world-class contemporary dance and Greater Manchester's inaugural Improv Festival in our guide.

portrait of Lorsung in a dark shirt with dark hair and dark round glasses
Literature Events in the North

We've got laughs and we've got leftfield on the live literature radar this month. Something for everyone, from poets playing with form to short story writers looking long.

Classical Music in the North

Read our latest highlights from the live classical music offer in Manchester and the North, taking in a number of the region's most cherished orchestral forces and venues.