Catch tomorrow’s comedy stars today with ten days of Edinburgh previews, big-name stand-ups and intimate gigs across Manchester.

Sarah Frankcom returns to the Royal Exchange with a Tony Award-winning musical about queer lives and the costs of keeping family secrets.

Foundational British synth-pop band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark play in Rochdale, with support from Peter Hook and the Light and A Certain Ratio.

Discover a fast, funny and brilliantly accessible take on Shakespeare, performed in one of Manchester’s most beautiful hidden spaces.

For fans of early Black Country New Road, Champion Trees render stalled lives and small defeats in exacting, wry and self-deprecating detail.

Visit key locations associated with a moment that helped shape the future of the nation, tracing the footsteps of those who stood for change.

Greg Freeman mines local history for character-driven tales of violence, loss and epiphany on his second album, Burnover.

Gothic country ballads, psych-folk drones and pedal steel drawn long and slow. Ora Cogan brings her witchy country to Now Wave’s new (old) pub.

Victory lapping the best album of their career so far, there hasn’t been a better moment yet to catch these North Carolina rockers.

The Peak District is one of the most walked, photographed and painted landscapes in England. Common Ground is interested in what lies beneath it.

Catchy songs, colourful characters and sharp social satire combine in one of the most talked-about queer theatre hits.

Spies, Lies and Deception comes to The Quays, cracking open that window into the shady world of espionage and secret operations.