Featured image and gallery: Gracie Hall
Coventry punk rapper, shortstraw (aka, Erin West), commands the stage and dominates the mic from the get-go. West stomps around the stage with the attitude and aesthetic of the late Keith Flint, scorching through ‘Clean Up’ and ‘Sods Law’, the latter a song about the cost-of-living crisis. shortstraw join the likes of Deadletter, Benefits and Yard Act as artists emerging from the current depressing landscape of UK politics and the reality of those dealing with its consequences.
Formerly known as Daisy Brain, London band Tough Cookie are impressive. Fronted by the eccentric Will Tse, the four-piece bring an amazing energy to the room. ‘Too Anxious’ chronicles a story of how someone with anxiety feels about their own mind, with the line, “Sometimes I wish I could live as somebody else,” ringing true.
Guitarist Jess Ayres, drummer Gavin Sullivan and bassist Dan Hvorostovsky are the other Tough Cookie jigsaw pieces, and conclude their short but fiery set with ‘Something Punk’. A fan favourite set closer, Tse asks the crowd to crouch down as they chant “Something punk, something poetic,” – the only four words in the song – before launching them up into its mega crescendo.
With not even a debut album to their name yet, Liverpool quartet STONE bounce onto stage to a sold-out Manchester Academy 2. Shirtless frontman Finley Power exerts extreme confidence from the first note of ‘I Let Go’, an explosive start about knowing partying and drugs are bad for you, but still indulging anyway.
Only two songs in and Power has already been in to hug the fans at the front barrier. shortstraw joins the band onstage for an unreleased collaboration, ‘Never Gonna Die’, which leans more towards rap than STONE’s usual material.
Teasing their debut album, they jump into ‘Left Right Forward’, with Power launching himself into the audience to crowd surf. Guitarist Elliot Gill has the feverish energy of Flea from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, spinning and jumping around the stage, never once stopping. Drummer Alex Smith is stoically keeping the chaotic energy of the band in time through the show as his beats pull every song together, while bassist Sarah Surrage rocks her side of the stage and joins an epic legacy of exceptionally cool and talented female bassists.
They return for a two-song encore of ‘Waste’ and ‘Leave it Out’. Ending on their debut single ties the evening together as the crowd comes together in one collective messy, sweaty moment that they’ll remember for a long time to come.
Featured image and gallery: Hoang Phan Notebooks were carried from one workshop to another. Writers from different generations sat around tables, sharing manuscripts and listening to each other. Outdoors, small groups strolled along Oxford Road, pausing before buildings steeped in literary history. This was the scene during the Manchester Writing School Summer Festival 2026, held…
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