It is officially twenty years since Courteeners played their first gig, and rather than just blowing out the candles, the Middleton icons are throwing a massive nationwide party. The band have just announced God Bless The Band, a definitive Best Of collection set for release on 28th August—perfectly timed for their sold-out homecoming mega-show at Manchester’s Wythenshawe Park that same weekend.
To keep the celebrations going well into the winter, they’ve also mapped out a headline arena tour for November. Starting in Leeds and winding through London’s Alexandra Palace before hitting Glasgow’s OVO Hydro, these shows are set to be communal, pint-spilling affairs. In a class move, the band are donating £1 from every ticket sold to the newly launched LIVE Trust, supporting the grassroots music venues that gave them their start two decades ago.
If you can’t wait until November, the band are playing a special, “back-to-basics” intimate show at Manchester’s Night & Day this Saturday, 11th April. It’s a full-circle moment for a band that has gone from Northern Quarter haunts to shifting over a million albums in the UK.
The new collection isn’t just a trip down memory lane, either. It features two brand-new tracks produced by Liam Fray and The Coral’s James Skelly: ‘Plus One Forever’ and the current single ‘The Luckiest Man Alive’. The latter is available to stream right now, serving as a soaring reminder of why Courteeners remain one of the most vital live acts in the country.
Tickets for the arena tour go on general sale this Friday, 17th April at 9am. Given their track record for selling out stadiums in minutes, you know the drill—don’t sleep on this one.
God Bless The Band track list:
1. Are You In Love With A Notion?
2. Cavorting
3. Acrylic
4. You Overdid It Doll
5. Pink Cactus Café
6. Summer
7. Take Over The World
8. Bide Your Time
9. Small Bones
10. The 17th
11. Fallowfield Hillbilly
12. That Kiss
13. Lose Control
14. Modern Love
15. Sycophant
16. Hanging Off Your Cloud
17. The Luckiest Man Alive
18. What Took You So Long?
19. Not Nineteen Forever
20. Plus One Forever
Deluxe Album Formats:
21. Sweet Surrender
22. Chipping Away
23. Smiths Disco
24. Sunflower
25. Winter Wonderland
26. The Rest Of The World Has Gone Home
27. International (Acoustic)
28. Beautiful Head
29. More. Again. Forever.
30. 20th Century Boy/Cigarettes & Alcohol (BBC Radio 2 Session – Live At Glastonbury)
31. Here Come The Young Men