Live music, gigs, and concerts discussion.

[Benjsh]

We've got tickets for it too. Went to see them on their first ever UK at end of 90's and havent missed a Foo fighters tour since. This will be number 17 including festival appearances.

 

[Benjsh]

Wow, that's long overdue for the city. Is it something to do with capacity? Was Anfield before the expansion not usable?

They always play Manchester thats why. I think its only fair us mancs have to trek to Liverpool for a change.

A Utd fan (me) about to walk on the pitch at Anfield. Hahaha.

 

[John_P]

We've got tickets for it too. Went to see them on their first ever UK at end of 90's and havent missed a Foo fighters tour since. This will be number 17 including festival appearances.

Think I must've seen them every time they toured the UK from 2002 to 2019, so the first time in a while for me.

Wow, that's long overdue for the city. Is it something to do with capacity? Was Anfield before the expansion not usable?

I believe there was previously some bizarre agreement with the council to do with the arena.

Prior to the stadium renovations in 2016 (and Anfield Road in 2023/24) I can only ever remember a Hillsborough Disaster Charity Concert in the 90s, and Paul McCartney during Capital Of Culture in 2008 playing the stadium. And McCartney was only because it was a much better idea than building a venue/event space for 40,000 people.

Been great having events in Liverpool, seen Bon Jovi, Taylor Swift, and Bruce Springsteen play the stadium in recent years. Annoyingly I missed The Eagles and Elton John as I was riding coasters in America in 2022.

Already got Foo Fighters, and My Chemical Romance at Anfield next summer. Plus the local papers was saying rumours Lady Gaga might be playing it as well.

 

[Jonathan]

Saw Busted vs McFly in Liverpool on Tuesday. Was a really fun night as both bands have loads of enjoyable songs.

I saw them in Manchester last Wednesday night at the Coop Live. A word on the arena - other than the prices for food & drink being a bit on the expensive side for an arena, both Mike and I were very impressed. Seems to be very tech-savvy, and it just feels like a really good space overall. I'm not even joking when I say we hadn't even been inside the arena bowl itself for five minutes before we'd started trying to plot out how Eurovision could be staged there!

The travel logistics to/from the arena were well-organised, though it was a little unusual to have to go the long way around at Piccadilly to get to the Metrolink platform for the Etihad Campus (down to ground level, outside along the length of the Metrolink platforms, cross the tracks, and then queue to get back in). Manchester City were also at home that night in the Champions League, but it was all completely fine. I suspect this is the main reason why the concert's start time was pushed back to 8pm instead of the usual 7:30pm to help spread crowds out afterwards and stop Metrolink from being completely overwhelmed. We ended up walking back to Manchester Piccadilly for a train to the airport, and the art installations along part of the route were quite nice. We only took a wrong turning once and ended up doing more sides of Piccadilly than we needed, but it helped that the weather was quite mild for November.

As for the concert itself? Absolutely brilliant. Great performances from both bands (with James Bourne's brother Chris filling in for a number of songs, as James was unable to take part in the tour for health reasons), and they all just seemed to be having a lot of fun together. Some songs were missed, of course, but that's to be expected. There were a good number of younger children there as well, which I can only guess was partially down to their parents having grown up with Busted and McFly. We got lucky and ended up in a spot that was technically behind the main stage, and as a result, we were lucky enough to see some of the behind-the-scenes stuff that the techies were doing. This was great to get more of an insight into how everything worked.

 

[John_P]

Yeah I've really liked the Co-op live the two times I've visited. Great set up and felt like loads of space on the concourse. Relatively easy getting the tram back to Piccadilly. Was sat right at the back for Bruce Springsteen, then in the lower bowl for Olivia Rodrigo. Will be in standing for Ice Nine Kills next month, then the cheap seats again for AEW wrestling.