House Music in Manchester Friday Night

Superb return of Comic Con Manchester on Saturday. Blog post coming. 

Commonwealth Games are in full swing. We get to see parts on Channel 5, and a little more on BBC Alba. England are in 2nd place on the medals table behind Australia. I’m working through this Commonwealth Games Fit project I set for myself. 

Manchester Day Parade took place yesterday, a celebration of the city by a consortium of different local social groups. More on each of these soon. 

Greater Manchester elects a new mayor on Thursday. Looks like I’ll be going for Greens, with Geraldine Goggins on the ballot. I’m disgusted in Labour’s Zionism, their refusal to accept the ICC’s ruling that Israel is conducting a genocide in Gaza, and their apparent lack of understanding of their own rules on Personal Independence Payment. It’s not an out-of-work benefit. Labour seem unaware of this. Greens, on the other hand, want to properly tax the billionaires, fund the NHS and social care system, build more affordable homes, fund proper mental health support, increase the minimum wage, stop the gig economy and stop corporations from dumping literal shit in our rivers, to name a few reforms. So they’ve got my vote. 

Friday night: Manchester club Joshua Brooks welcomes house music producer Miguel Campbell for Full Circle, a night of deep house. His 2011 hit Something Special is still a banger. 

 

 

Manchester Nightlife are headed there. 3 of us have signed up so far. Be 4th! New Batman spinoff Clayface has finally released their trailer. 

 

 

Clayface was partly filmed in Castlefield Manchester, and also Stockport Centre. Look carefully and you’ll notice Stockport Plaza. Back in September last year, the production of the movie used Castlefield Manchester as a filming location. I took a look. 

Sunday night: The Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony takes place, around 6pm (the exact details aren’t readily available). I’m working through this absurd Commonwealth Games Fit project, with an unrealistic goal of losing nearly 13 kilos. I wouldn’t count on it happening at present. 

That’s this week. Quiet week next week.

Commonwealth Games starts Weds

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This touchtyping project comes to a close on Wednesday. Made some progress. 

The 2026 Commonwealth Games starts Wednesday 23rd. I’ve got a fitness project that I’m going to do in conjunction with that. More to come. 

Saturday: Comic Con Manchester returns to Bowlers Exhibition Centre in Manchester for 2 days of stalls, movie stars, photo ops, Q+A panels and cosplay. I’m looking forward to meeting Carrie Henn – Newt off Aliens – and Bill Duke – Mac off Predator and Cook off Commando. This will be my third attempt to meet him – looks like he’s actually turning up this time. It’s gonna be great. There’s a meetup with Manc Mates with a couple of people signed up. Saturday has sold out, though, so they’ve either bought their tickets or they haven’t. 

No plans for the evening.

Workout in the Park?

 

A little different this week – summer weather means it’s worth doing daytime activities rather than 2am bar crawls. I figured, why not something more healthy and outdoor? 

We’ve got a new park in Manchester. We could utilise Mayfield Park for an outdoor workout session, get some vit D and serotonin in while we have the chance, then get soft drinks and a bit of food to replenish. I’ve set up a meetup on Manc Mates, a group I took over a while ago, which I use for non-nightlife related events. It’s quite different to what I’d normally do, so feels like a bit of a risk. Also I’m not a PT. I’m just a guy who works out. Just wondered if people wanted to do that with me. 12pm on Sunday. 

In other news, looks like this 4-month bot surge on the Blogger platform is over. At one point I got nearly 28k views in a single day. More recently I got 700. Still. I hit 2.8 million overall hits recently.

Cocktails, Chancers and Saunas

Great afternoon in Ancoats Marina, in Finders Keepers bar yesterday.

Scenes at Finders Keepers Ancoats Marina Saturday. Cheong orange mai tai. And a Canada Goose eyeing it up.

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— Matt Tuckey 🇬🇧 (@matttuckey.bsky.social) 5 July 2026 at 21:21

Sat outside in the sun with the Meetup group. I say great, but in actuality, someone turned up without having actually RSVPd on the page. He ordered a drink, drank it, then left the bar without paying. I shouldn’t have done this, but I made a split decision to pay for him just to keep the peace with the bar. 

Found Track, a brewery come serving bar, on an estate just off Oldham Road. I’m not a beer drinker so there wasn’t much for me to slake my thirst, but their pizzas were great. 2 left to Wetherspoons to my crushing disappointment. Remember COVID and Tim Martin, people. He was a twat. 

The rest of us walked to Freight Island behind Piccadilly approach. PBR Streetgang were on the decks, which is a name I recognise from somewhere. I thought it might be Radio 1… Turns out it’s the 1979 ‘Nam movie Apocalypse Now.

 

Didn’t stay out late. 

Today I visited FIX in the Northern Quarter. I got in on a friend’s membership as a +1. Very serene, calming venue with a sauna room, much larger than Oldham Sports Centre’s (which I was in Saturday). Not as hot, but much more organised. 90 minutes allocated instead of 50. Staff applied different oils with orange and other scents. FIX also have 2 on-site plunge baths of cold and very cold. I tried them both for a few seconds. Very quiet venue. No talking allowed. Good to have a sauna experience that doesn't include yonners arguing about Hamas and vaccines, and telling dull stories of their younger glory days. A calming and cleansing experience, physically and mentally. 

Then we got lunch in My Thai, eastern restaurant I’ve had my eye on for ages. Good spicy food.

Desolate Manchester World Cup Streets

Yesterday, England beat Democratic Republic of Congo 2-1 in the round of 32 of the 2026 World Cup. I was in Manchester when it was on, but not to watch the match. Not a football fan. Just wanted to do some 28-Days-Later-style photography of the desolate streets while everyone was packed in the bars.

Finders Keepers - Summer Drinks This Saturday

Put your arms all around it

Take it now that you've found it

It don't need to be no deeper

It's finders keepers

-Mabel 

Sister’s wedding this weekend just gone. A magical time in the woodlands of Swillington Leeds. Great fun. I prefer to leave my family out of this blog as much as is possible, but I have mentioned it was going to happen: this Wedding Fit project is done. More on Saturday. 

Passed 2.8 million hits on the blog. Thanks, readers and bots! 

Also on Saturday: an early doors meetup with Manchester Nightlife. Come join me and (at present) 3 others in sunny Ancoats Marina for a few afternoon drinks, starting in the new Finders Keepers bar. I’ve not been yet but Ancoats seems to be the new up and coming area. Let’s find out at 4pm.

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Summer Solstice Morning Rave

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Up early on a Sunday for a rave. What in the world. Hinterland ran their first prober club event, as I understand it, with their Summer Solstice Morning Rave. This morning welcomed the longest day of the year, so the vegan alcohol free bar welcomed DJ Taurud for some chilled beats and matchas. 

The 9am start was no problem for the dedicated, who included flower-in-hair hippies, barefoot ravers and of course meetup members – some new, some not, all Manchester Nightlife attendees. 

Great music, friendly crowd. I’d do it again. Hinterland keep offering up surprising, diverse events. They’re worth keeping an eye on.

Summer Solstice Morning Rave this Sunday

2 weeks away from my sister’s wedding and the weight is just not coming off, no matter how much bland soup I make and begrudgingly eat. So I’m hammering through this remaining veg, and then fasting. The suit fits me as it is, so that’s a start. If I succeed, it’ll be a bit big. Hugely failing this Wedding Fit challenge. 

Fittingly, the next meetup is in a venue with no alcohol and healthy vegan food. Hinterland bar hosts the Summer Solstice Rave, featuring ‘matcha, coffee and vibes.’ Come join Manchester Nightlife for some daytime partying. The only downside: it starts at 9am on a Sunday. So no Saturday night out. 

 

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Rudy's and Katie's

Last night I went to new Irish bar Katie O’Brien’s on Peter St with the Manchester Nightlife Meetup group. Some new, some regulars. Went for food first with a mate. Were queues everywhere except Rudy’s Pizza on Peter St. 

 

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Met the meetup group in Dirty Martini. Mixed group. Guys, girls, new, regular. 

Went over to Katie O’Brien’s. The Irish bar opened a few weeks ago in the old Peaky Blinders unit with live music, traditional décor and heaving with people. Absolutely roasting upstairs. I couldn’t stay long. The heat was killing me. Surprisingly, we all got in even with members wearing trainers and baseball caps.

Decor from Katie O'Brien's last night

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— Matt Tuckey 🇬🇧 (@matttuckey.bsky.social) 14 June 2026 at 16:04

Come to the new Katie O'Brien's Saturday

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I booked today off to write up a Comic Con that I actually ended up not going to. The guests were interesting but not really my thing this time. 

But this has meant I can get on with other things. Including this one, I have 3 blog posts to write. Also, expect a recipe review on the blog this Saturday. 

But what’s happening in the city? Saturday night: new bar Katie O’Brien’s has opened and is already hugely popular. Manchester Nightlife are headed there Saturday night, first starting on the corner of Peter St in Dirty Martini. 

New Meetup group Manchester Whisky Tasting Events opens with a tasting event on the 13th. I’m dieting for an upcoming wedding, but I’ll be all over some whisky tasting after that, depending on their events. I’m a big single malt fan. I went to a couple of tastings in Oldham about 15 years ago, then again in ‘12 and ‘23 in Scotland. 

My friend Fay has set up Manchester Woman and Guys Having Fun meetup group (sic). It’s got a bit of everything: coffee meets, fitness, food, drink, movies. Keep an eye on it. 

A heads-up for anyone visiting rooftop bar 20 Stories this summer: there’s a £10 door charge which ‘will apply from Saturday 23rd May until Monday 31st August (Bank Holiday) from 5pm onwards.’ I guess if you were the manager and it’s busy season, you may as well make the money.

Views from Sora Sky Bar

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Last night Meetup group Manchester Nightlife met in the lobby of Malmaison near the Town Hall and headed up to their second floor observatory bar Sora for some cocktails and mocktails. Good group. 4 of 9 showed up, plus 1 member who didn’t RSVP, but he’s a regular. Incredible décor, chilled house music, majestic views of the city and fine company from new and regular members. 

After this a few of us took a look at the new Katie O’Brien’s on Peter St, formerly the Peaky Blinders bar. Good atmos, heaving with people, shame about the generic indie and pop music but a popular spot. I’ll be back there next week.

Scenes from Manchester's new Katie O'Brien's bar in Manchester

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— Matt Tuckey 🇬🇧 (@matttuckey.bsky.social) 7 June 2026 at 20:43

 

In other news, Brian O’Halloran – Dante off Clerks – liked my comment about the best films of ‘77, ‘87 and ‘94. Not sure why I picked Dumb and Dumber over Pulp Fiction. (As it happens, both directors – Tarantino and Farrelly – are Zionists anyway.)

Sora Sky Bar Saturday

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More and more sky bars are opening in Manchester, offering cocktails and views of the city. You know me. I love a good cityscape. Come take a look at one of the latest views at Sora Sky Bar, inside the Malmaison, opposite Piccadilly Station. Manchester Nightlife are headed there Saturday. 

A month to my sister’s wedding. Steadily getting fitter.

Kodo

Hmm. Perhaps I wasn’t 100% honest with last week’s post on Castlefield: there was, in fact, a bristling of drama. But to describe it properly, I’ve got to go way back to early 2020. 

It’s March. Our idiot then-PM Boris Johnson shuns the COBRA meetings and locks the country down late, writes ‘bollocks’ across the COVID medical info and allows Cheltenham Festival to go ahead. COVID rips through the community and, as the months go on, 200,000 people die, including a load of my work clients (in the public sector tied to healthcare) and my mate’s dad. 

Early 2021: Pfizer announce a new, fully approved, fully tested and fully safe vaccine. It’ rolled out, and immediately COVID cases start to plummet. We’re heading back to normality. Sadly, a good number of my friends reveal themselves to be anti-vaxxers, and to believe a load of horseshit conspiracies. I try to talk some sense into them, but one thing anyone knows about me: I have no power of persuasion. The only thing I can do is block them and move on. 

Summer 2024: I’ve blocked loads of people. I’ve moved on from entire groups. The few friends I still have are busy with kids and careers. I bite the bullet and shell out to be a Meetup organiser. I set up Manchester Nightlife, a group for nights out in the city with a plan to see some DJs, try some cocktail bars and be the first to visit the new places. As the weeks go on, the group grows as more people join. 

May 2026. I now have 900 members, with more joining all the time. Last week’s Castlefield meetup takes place. I haven’t checked every member that joins, and unbeknown to me, one of the new members, AA, is someone I’d had to block on Facebook – not even that long ago – for spamming my profile with some crank far right website with batshit COVID conspiracies. I didn’t even notice he’d signed up to the event until he rocked up at Barca. He went to the bar. I mentioned this to one of the other group members, and then AA himself brought it up. I explained I just can’t have anti-vaxxers in my social media. 

And that was that. No big argument. We were civil. Then he seemed to leave early. 

Fast forward a week. Last night a few of us met in Roxy Ballroom near the Printworks for this week’s meetup. a new guy mentions that he’d been reading the reviews on the site, and someone had properly gone off at me. The Meetup website hadn’t notified me about this, so it’s news to me. I take a look, and it’s AA. 

‘Gossiping host allowed members to be rude and disrespectful towards me. I had a polite demeanour throughtout. Made to feel unwelcome. Very poor.’ (sic) 

Jesus fucking Christ. Like I've not known him for years. Whatever. The question remains: why would you go to a meetup ran by a guy who you gave some shit to online, and who then blocked you? Did you not think that they would have something to say? 

Whatever. We moved on from Roxy’s to Kodo, a new hidden bar with a Japanese theme.

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All I had to do was find the venue and show them the pic from the website to get in, and then find the actual bar. It’d be good to go back once an upcoming wedding is out of the way and I’m not avoiding alcohol. Good little joint if you can track it down. 

Aside from all that, Magali Gorre liked my pic of us on Facebook. I am out of cereal, so my weight should start to drop soon, and I did a rare Parkrun with the family, getting 36:04. Watergrove in Rochdale is a tough, hilly course. And that’s the week.

Discover Hidden Bar Kodo on Saturday

Well. That IDRA meetup didn’t take off, for whatever reason. Too niche, perhaps. Anyway, I ended up staying in last night. Hence, I accidentally woke up at 5am, when I’d like to have been coming home. 

Also, actor William Forsythe liked my Insta comment about another actor Mike Starr.

I’m off work until Friday. I have a ton to do. Saturday night: Join Manchester Nightlife Meetup as we head to hidden bar Kodo Their location requires a bit of legwork to find, but I’ve figured it out. There’s a door. There’s a code to get in. (I’ve found all of this for you.) Think moody red lights, Japanese décor… and that’s all that’s available online. All you have to do is meet me and the group in Roxy Ballroom, Withy Grove, first. 9pm, Saturday. 

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