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honorary manc Rounding up some happening highlights from Manchester and Salford Manchester Jazz Festival Tickets go on sale this Friday 13 February for Manchester’s longest-running music festival, back this Summer for 10 days of jam-packed festival fun and musical vibes across the city this May! Manchester jazz festival (mjf2026) will take place between 15-24 May 2026 at venues and sites across Manchester, celebrating the latest up…
Keep readingManchester:Unplugged debuted in September of last year, and in a beautiful, sweeping cinematic style, Each Manchester: Unplugged film blends intimate storytelling with a reimagined performance, exploring the sparks, setbacks and moments that turn an idea into a song. To quote me, in a previous blog post about the series, if you’re a Manc, a mancophile,…
Keep readingThere is nothing finer than a good farce. And this was a fantastic farce. A bloody, violent, raucous ‘with references to drugs’ farce, but a great farce, with humour at the forefront. It’s New Year’s Eve in a quiet corner of Kent and a killer is in the house… We meet Jonny ‘The Cyclops’ -…
Keep readingIt’s a text that needs little to no introduction. But here’s a quick one: Successful lawyer, Atticus Finch, encourages kindness and empathy in his children, but is pushed to the limits of these qualities himself when he resolves to uncover the truth in a town that seems determined to hide it. Set in 1934 Alabama, To Kill…
Keep readingI get excited everytime I ascend those stairs at Aviva. Not least because they’re sweeping and I enjoy a sweeping staircase. But because without fail I know now I’m going to be stepping into a space that’s going to transform into something exciting, engaging and immersive. With huge state-of-the-art projections and a revolutionary sound system, Bigger…
Keep readingRight, let’s get it over with. Oh no it isn’t and it’s behind you. I’m doing that for both my sake and yours, to remove any temptation to pepper the blog post with panto puns throughout, and so that we can get to the crux of the matter. Rumplestiltskin from The Big Tiny theatre company…
Keep readingIt’s been an emotional week. I don’t think I’m alone in having an unconditional love for animals, whereas my love or actual like for humans is (with exceptions) deeply conditional. Having had more trips to the vet that one would like this week (although an amazing vet – shout-out to MCR vets on The Quays),…
Keep readingWhere shall we start. I had a really lovely, enlightening, informative, heart-warming and entertaining afternoon last Friday in Stockport. Less a frequent flyer than I used to be, this was my first time at the impressive Stockroom, the shared community-focused space which offers up areas for reading, studying, meeting, coffee-drinking, eating, exhibitions and, that day,…
Keep readingLots to unpick. Barrier(s) is a love story, the publicity materials tell me. so. And yes, it is. A very funny, well told, incredibly engaging love story. And I was invested in the characters right off the bat, from the meet-cute in the kitchen at a party (where you’ll always find me…). This love story…
Keep readingI was sat next to a very nice lady at last night’s performance. She turned to me during the interval to ask how I was enjoying it so far. Really enjoying it, I said. I’ve never seen an opera by composer Benjamin Britten before. She responded that he is her favourite operatic composer. I can…
Keep readingIt’s been a month of quiet contemplation. Not to go too deep on a Thursday and stray away from the task in hand, but seeing friends deal with losses and feeling their pain both personally and empathetically, leads to existential thoughts. There are both positives and negatives to this, the former being strength and resilience…
Keep readingSheep. Sheep are iconic. So, let’s see. Sheep stories. So, a few years ago, we were searching for somewhere shiny and new to add to our glamping chops (no poor-taste lamb ref intended). What swung staying on a farm in Ironbridge for me, was not the engineering magnificence of its iron bridge, but a review…
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