If you’ve been paying attention to Manchester’s live music scene this year, you’ll already know about Awesome Friends. BBC 6 Music’s Chris Hawkins relaunched the new music showcase in January 2026 and it’s already sold out three dates — which tells you everything you need to know about the appetite for what it’s doing. The next one lands on Tuesday 19th May at the Deaf Institute, and the lineup is worth clearing your diary for.
Hawkins has form here. He was an early champion of Sam Fender, Wet Leg and The Lathums long before any of them were headlining, and Awesome Friends has already hosted the likes of Wunderhorse, Corella, The Ks and Lime Garden since relaunching. The premise is simple — get the best emerging acts into a room with people who actually care about new music, up close, before the rest of the world catches up. Previous lineups have drawn praise from Adrenaline Mag and Northern Chorus alike, and the sold-out run suggests the word is spreading quickly.
The May bill brings three acts worth knowing about. The Guest List have been one of Manchester’s most talked-about bands since forming in 2021 — melodic guitar riffs, mature lyricism, and an online presence that’s grown to over 400,000 TikTok followers and nearly eight million likes. Tracks London and Loose Tongue, both produced by The Coral’s James Skelly at Liverpool’s Kempston Street Studios, pushed them into wider view in 2024, and they’ve since sold out their first-ever UK headline tour and played festivals including Kendal Calling, Truck and Victorious. Sharing stages with Two Door Cinema Club, The Wombats and Inhaler along the way hasn’t hurt either.
Raynor is nineteen years old, from Peterborough, raised in a Zimbabwean family, and the kind of story that makes you sit up. He was still sitting his A-levels in 2025 when he decided his songs deserved more than voice memos on his phone. He started posting on TikTok, the audience exploded, and now he’s here — debut tracks Brighter Than Before and Minute From the Moment announcing an indie-pop voice that draws from Radiohead and Arctic Monkeys while carving out something distinctly his own. One to watch barely covers it.
Dylan Flynn & The Dead Poets round out the bill and bring a different kind of energy — surging indie rock from Limerick with a pop openness that hits wider than the DIY origins might suggest. Three million streams, sell-out rooms across the UK and Ireland, support slots with Kingfishr, NewDad and The Darkness, and a trip to SXSW in Austin last year. They arrive in Manchester with momentum and a reputation for making rooms feel alive.
Tickets go on sale Friday 24th April at 10am via gigsandtours.com. If the first three dates of Awesome Friends are anything to go by, you won’t want to leave it too long.