Courteeners played a sold-out homecoming show at Manchester’s Wythenshawe Park on August 29, performing for 30,000 fans, according to NME. The concert came just one day after the band released their first best-of compilation, God Bless The Band.
The South Manchester bill also featured The Vaccines, who played their 2011 debut album What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? in full, along with sets from The Coral, Getdown Services and Girl In The Year Above.
Courteeners opened the night with “Sweet Surrender” after walking out to Oasis’ “Round Are Way,” then worked through a set drawn from all seven of their studio albums. The show also included “Plus One Forever,” one of two new songs on the compilation, plus a solo acoustic section from Liam Fray that featured “Please Don’t” with a snippet of The Stone Roses’ “Standing Here.”
During the encore, the band played “Not Nineteen Forever” and “What Took You So Long?”, which included a closing snippet of James’ “Tomorrow.” Fray told the crowd the scale of the show was beyond anything the band had imagined, and urged fans to look out for one another.
The Wythenshawe Park concert was the latest in a long run of major Manchester homecoming shows for Courteeners. The band will next head out on a six-date UK arena tour in November, with dates in Leeds, Cardiff, Liverpool, London, Glasgow and Birmingham.
