Featured image and gallery: Kaitlyn Brockley

The critically acclaimed four-piece cement their status as Britain’s newest rockstars with an other-worldly set, accompanied by Manchester’s finest new acts.

Expectations couldn’t be higher for English Teacher, fresh from their Mercury Prize win and Maida Vale performance. An unexpected gem spawned in the aftermath of post-punk heights, This Could Be Texas, inspired awe in audiences and critics alike, and a packed O2 Ritz awaits to hear the album in full for the first time since its crowning.

The night kicks off with jangly four-piece West Side Cowboy, who over the past year have garnered a cult reputation amongst the Manchester independent scene for their live act. Freshly signed, they come armoured with a single release (produced by English Teacher guitarist, Lewis Whiting) and a frenetic energy, commencing the start of their set with a rallying cry of “WEST SIDE COWBOY!”

They launch into an energetic set, sharing vocal duties between injecting fun indie music and funky bass lines. The end of the set is more sombre: co-frontwoman Aoife Anson O’Connell stands alone centre-stage in the big venue, small like a choirboy, closing the set with the band gathered around one mic. The anticipation is palpable, immediately grabbing the crowd of Radio 6 dads and hipster teens; this is clearly a band onto big things.

Following is TTSSFU, Manchester’s favourite shoegaze artist – now transitioning into mainstream with her recent signing to major-label Partisan. It’s a quick change for West Side Cowboy’s, Reuben Haycocks and Paddy Murphy, who trade their jumpers for shirts and ties to join TTSSFU as part of her band.

She glides across the stage, ethereal and angelic in an ankle length white dress and bare feet, swooning in ‘At All’, a sweet dreampop song – from her latest EP, Me, Jed and Andy. Next track ‘Growing Older’ dives deeper into her discography, dedicated lovingly to her friends, and ‘Baggage’ is an unabashed love song that Robert Smith would be proud of.

Don’t be fooled by her adoring lyrics and heart-shaped guitar: her ferocity is unleashed in stand-out track ‘I Hope You Die’, a brooding grunge track about “cold-blood murder” which sees her contrast her soaring vocals with howlish, guttural screams. The set closes with a growl “thank you!”, before darting off stage.

Suitably warmed up, Leeds’ own English Teacher burst onto the stage to rapturous applause into ‘R&B’, a frenetic rallying cry against racism in music. The set feels like a victory lap: champagne (surely not prosecco?) pours freely, and iconography from the award-winning album litters the stage.

The band saunter around the stage, lapping up the crowd’s praise before frontwoman, Lily Fontaine, declares: “I want more” in ‘A55′, backed by a driving bass and spiralling synthesisers. Immediately follows is early-EP offering ‘Mental Maths’, displaying their technical prowess as they rifle through time signatures with shredding violins and a wandering bassline.

Social commentary is the shining light of English Teacher: ‘Not Everybody Gets to Go to Space’ speaks of inequality, and the song closes with Fontaine’s powerful vocals seemingly crying into the void. 

We are treated with unreleased track ‘Billboards‘, which is all “about love and God” and sees a build on their maturity, leaning into cinematic ideas introduced on their debut, but still with their signature brand of wonky choruses. ‘Nearly Daffodils’ sees Fontaine unable to contain her excitement as she clambers into the crowd, leaning across the front row barricade to shout with the excited teens who immediately erupt a pit.

The set closes with final album track ‘Albert Road’, but the mutual excitement is too much and the band run back out for ‘Good Grief’, an EP gem requested by an eager fan, to finish the night off in style.