The Courteeners

The Courteeners are Middleton’s band. Liam Fray grew up there and has never pretended otherwise – the songs are full of specific references to Manchester life, bus routes and pub names and the kind of detail that makes local audiences feel like the music is actually about them. Which it is. That’s the whole point.

St Jude came out in 2008 and landed hard. Not Here, What Took You So Long, No You Didn’t No You Don’t – sharp indie-rock with Fray’s Mancunian drawl cutting through. It went top 5. Falcon in 2010, Anna in 2013, Concrete Love in 2014 – each record slightly different, none of them reinventing the wheel but all of them solid. The fanbase grew steadily, almost entirely through word of mouth and live shows rather than radio play or critical acclaim.

The Heaton Park gig in June 2019 was the peak. 50,000 tickets sold for a hometown show, the biggest solo headline gig by a Manchester band since Oasis at Maine Road. That’s not nothing. Fray stood on that stage and knew exactly what it meant. The setlist leaned heavily on St Jude because the crowd demanded it.

They play the AO Arena regularly now. The Apollo is a regular stop. But the Courteeners’ real territory is the circuit of Manchester indie nights and pubs where their songs are basically the house playlist. They’re a band whose following in Manchester is wildly disproportionate to their national profile, which is fine. They’re not trying to conquer the world. They’re trying to be the best band in Manchester, and on any given Friday night in Middleton or the Northern Quarter, they’ve got a strong case.