Music icons and up-and-coming talent: Why Manchester is going all out for the Brit Awards
Manchester is buzzing. As soon as you arrive at Manchester Piccadilly, the city’s biggest train station, you can feel it.
“Move over London,” is the message that appears on screens around the concourse. “It’s Manchester’s turn.”
This is all for the Brit Awards, of course, which tonight will take place here in the city for the first time. The first time, in fact, that in its more than 40-year history, the ceremony has ever been held outside the capital.
Billboards are everywhere. An exhibition by Microdot, probably most recognisable for designing the Oasis album and single covers during the height of their fame in the mid-1990s, sits in the station to highlight the city’s musical heritage.
Head outside and not far away, an art trail with nods to the awards and music has turned walls and spaces into an open-air gallery. And Deansgate station, another of the city’s train stations, has been renamed Olivia Deansgate, in honour of the star joint leading the nominations tonight.
Even in the hotel I am staying at, there are pictures of Brits icons past and present (oh hi, Spice Girls!) pasted on a mirror inside a lift, with a message for guests: “Big names x Big Music x Big Manchester energy x.”
Manchester has been building up to this ever since the announcement was made last year, with activities steadily growing this week.
Yesterday, I spent the day at New Century Hall, which, like so many of Manchester’s music venues, is a space steeped in history. In the 1960s, it hosted acts such Jimi Hendrix and The Kinks, before moving on to all-night Acid House parties of the Madchester era in the ’80s.
After laying vacant for several years, it was reopened in 2022.
During Brits Fringe week this week, it has hosted workshops, vocal classes, networking sessions, panel discussions and performances organised by local music development charity Brighter Sound.
‘I’ve got my dress sorted. I can’t wait’
Yelena Lashimba, who grew up near Chorlton and performs in a rap-rock band called Third Kulture, says the Brits’ move to Manchester is a pivotal moment.
“We don’t have many opportunities where we get to cross paths with the broader industry in the UK,” she told Sky News, ahead of performing with the band yesterday evening. “The city’s expanded so much over the last few years and I think [the Brits move] is very symbolic of the growth that’s been happening in Manchester and the infrastructures that are slowly being built here… it feels instrumental to the growth of the local scene.”
Tonight, she will be among the crowd at the ceremony. “I’ve got my dress sorted,” she says. “I can’t wait.”
Sonny Royle and Casey Bell are two members of Ishango Bone, an electronic alternative rock trio formed about 18 months ago, and like Lashimba were also among around 1,000 people attending Brighter Sound’s Fringe Lab yesterday.
‘Come to Manchester and experience what it has to offer’
“We came here hoping to get some information about the best way to market ourselves and other industry advice, because we’re focused on the music but you want to get your music out there to people in the right way,” says Royle. “It’s interesting just to talk to people at different levels who might be further on in their journey than you are, that have probably had all the same doubts or troubles.”
“As an artist now you have to be an artist and promoter and a business person, accountant or whatever, and things like this help you get your bearings with all of that,” says Bell.
They both agree the Brits’ move to Manchester is significant. “It’s an exciting place with lots of things going on,” says Royle. “Everything being London-centric is not necessarily reflective of the whole country so come to Manchester and experience what we have to offer.”
‘Manchester was electric in the summer because of Oasis’
Indie-soul singer-songwriter Ewan Sim agrees, and likens the party atmosphere to the buzz in the city last year for the Oasis reunion gigs.
“Manchester was electric in the summer because of them,” he says. “There were so many events going on around [the shows].”
And now the city is celebrating the Brits in the same way.
“I’m not knocking London but for the Brits to be coming here, it’s putting Manchester on the map now, again. It’s going to be so inspiring for the next generation coming through, like myself.
“It is such a good thing for the city and it’s about time so I’m happy it’s here.”
Among industry experts there to give advice yesterday was Scott Lewis, label manager at EMI North, which is part of Universal Music Group UK. Based in Leeds and established four years ago, it is the only major label to have a headquarters outside London.
The Brit Awards moving to Manchester is huge, he says. “It is one of the most significant and iconic cities for music, historically, but also now there are creatives redefining what that means, new artists changing the shape of that in the future.
“Artists like Westside Cowboy are an incredible talent, we work with a label here called Home Taping who are doing incredible things, so I think it just gives them and the aspiring professionals and artists an opportunity to see huge things, iconic things like the Brits, on their doorstep and feel closer to the industry.”
For Kate Lowes, director of Brighter Sound, the aim is for the impact of the Brits being held in Manchester to go beyond the show itself.
“The Brits Fringe activity is about really engaging with local musicians and young emerging communities,” she says. “There can be a lack of visibility in music careers and probably, in some instances, a lack of education about that breadth of career pathways as well.
“People have been able to meet this week with professionals who are working at labels, working in publishing, working at events, working in broadcast, working in distribution. There’s a huge range of careers out there and we only see a fraction of them really in the public eye.”
Manchester ‘over the moon’ to get the Brits
Dave Moutrey, director of culture and creative industries at Manchester City Council, is one of the people behind the proposal to bring the Brits here.
He says Co-op Live, which became the UK’s biggest indoor arena when it opened in 2024, is a huge part of why the move has worked.
“Acoustically it is possibly one of the best venues I’ve ever been in for large gigs,” he says. “I think that presented an opportunity which we’ve not really had before. Plus the fact we’d reached a level of maturity as a city around hosting large-scale events where we knew we could do a good job.”
He says he was “over the moon” when they got the gig – and not just for this year, but 2027 as well.
“It is really exciting, and it’s really important for us to be looking forward, isn’t it?” he says. “We’ve got buckets of talent in the UK, and we’ve got lots of that in Greater Manchester and the city, so to be able to link them into this really important event in the music calendar is exciting. And also lots of fun.”
‘We are a creative city – and it’s not just music’
Not far away from New Century Hall, around the city’s Northern Quarter and Ancoats, the Brits Art Trail has brightened the streets, showcasing another side to Manchester’s creative talents as well as the music.
Curated by renowned Manchester artist Stanley Chow and produced by local creative producers Wild In Art, it features work from 21 artists from across the North West.
“We are a creative city and hopefully this will attract more creative people up here,” says Chow. “With the Brit Awards, it seems [in the past] to be an event that happens just on one evening, but with it being in Manchester it’s allowed the city to put on other events surrounding the actual award ceremony, and that obviously just attracts more people into the city. I feel like it’ll help the Brit Awards too.
“And it’s not just Manchester, it’ll be great after Manchester. It might move to maybe Birmingham or Liverpool or Glasgow. I think it brings attention to all these cities.”
For now, though, this is Manchester’s night.