Latest news with #Madchester
Times
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
23 of the best things to do in Manchester
Manchester has always done things differently. This is, after all, the city of Madchester, the indie music scene that started in the late 1980s. It's the land not of curry and rice, but rice and three curries, where a plate of rice is ladled with three different choices at a remarkably reasonable price. This is the city of food halls, over a dozen hugely popular dining zones surrounded by different specialist food kitchens, usually in architecturally significant buildings. This is the city whose former docks at Salford have been rebranded as MediaCityUK and now host the nation's broadcasters, and whose former warehouses have been converted into trendy loft apartments and co-working spaces. This is the city of football, with the two Premier League giants Man City and Man United reeling in fans from all over the world. And it is the city of two major performance venues, the cutting edge Aviva Studios and the massive Co-Op Live, which can host 23,500 people. Here's our pick of the best things to do in Manchester. And if we've missed any? Share your suggestions in the comments. This article contains affiliate links, which may earn us revenue You'll need historical context to make sense of downtown Manchester's disorientating mash-up of concrete and glass, red brick and stone. Swot up on the significance of the architecture, the canals, the warehouses and the palatial buildings where merchants arranged their exchanges of goods by signing up for the daily walking tour that leaves from outside the Central Library on St Peter's Square. The library itself, with its extraordinary domed Reading Room D, is one of the first ports of call. Until a couple of years ago the former Worsley New Hall estate, eight miles west of the city centre, was a sorry sight; the decayed house had long since been sold to a scrap merchant and demolished, while its heated walled garden, which had once nourished exotics such as peaches and melon, was in disarray. Luckily the Royal Horticultural Society arrived and transformed it into a designer garden made for modern-day Instagrammers. Spend a leisurely afternoon here admiring the water features, manicured lawns and the woodlands beyond. • Discover our full guide to Manchester So important is the business of football to Manchester that there's a whole university devoted to it: the University Campus of Football Business (UCFB). Two giant teams, Manchester United and Manchester City, create their own economy here, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors every year — some die-hards even stay at Old Trafford's Hotel Football. All in all, the city is a fitting location for the National Football Museum, housed in a giant fin of glass and steel in the heart of downtown, which examines the history and the social impact of 22 players and a ball. Manchester's Northern Quarter has regularly been a stand-in for the likes of period Manhattan and Boston in blockbuster Hollywood movies such as Captain America and Darkest Hour. Its industrial architecture has made a moody setting for the likes of Peaky Blinders and Queer as Folk, so Visit Manchester's self-guided film and TV trail is a natural addition to city tourism. Particularly now that screen tourism, aka set-jetting, is such a growing trend. Given that it has five main higher education institutions, and a student population of over 100,000, it is not surprising that Manchester's music venues are flourishing. You'll find New Century Hall in the NOMA district, 20 minutes' walk north of the city centre and Manchester Piccadilly station. The venue reopened in 2022 and is iconic for its part in the Madchester (indie music and dance) scene. It is also home to a food hall, New Century Kitchen. Manchester has a whole host of great hotels, but the one that stands out for both style and history is the Midland, across the road from the Central Library. It was built in 1903 as a railway hotel for Manchester Central (now a conference centre). Charles Rolls met Henry Royce here, and the Beatles were famously refused access to the restaurant for being inappropriately dressed. The hotel has an opulent tearoom overlooking St Peter's Square, serving cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches (no crusts, of course) and scones with Mrs Darlington's jam, with treats such as blackberry and dark chocolate mousse and Bakewell tart. Innovation and creativity are not just the preserve of the arts in Manchester, eating out is different here too — particularly if you choose one of its growing number of food hall experiences. The pioneer is the Northern Quarter's Mackie Mayor, an airy, light-filled market hall from 1858 which is now lined with individual outlets offering everything from Thai stir-fries to Japanese ramen, all of which can be ordered through one app from the comfort of your seat. Then there's GRUB, five minutes' walk from Manchester Victoria station, with street food inside a converted textile warehouse. Escape to Freight Island, in the former Mayfield railway depot, is a combination of an eatery and music venue, with video screens and dancing. And Society MCR has Indian, Italian and Korean street food traders by the Bridgewater Hall. Manchester's independence and youthful vigour is most evident in the trendy Northern Quarter. It's a place of street art, tattoo parlours, hipster bars, vintage clothing stores and dozens of co-working coffee houses where young professionals can peer into laptops while sipping on oat milk lattes. Be sure to check out Vinyl Exchange, which opened in 1988 and is now the largest seller and buyer of second-hand and rare CDs, records and DVDs in the northwest. The main axis is Oldham Street, and Thomas Street and parallel Edge Street are part-pedestrianised, with outdoor restaurant seating. There's repurposing going on wherever you look in Manchester, but the highest-profile project of recent years has been the conversion of the former Salford docks into a thriving leisure and media hub. After becoming redundant in the 1980s when ocean-growing ships grew too large for the Manchester Ship Canal, the area has been renovated into the hip Salford Quays — a mix of residential and commercial blocks, restaurants and retail, with water sports replacing the spots that were once taken up by ships. It's all located a 30-minute tram ride from downtown Manchester. MediaCity, in Salford Quays, is made up of devolved offices and studios of the BBC and ITV and the hulking, shiny Lowry arts centre, which has a handful of theatres and a gallery space showing some of its 400-strong collection of LS Lowry's artworks. Across the water, via a sculptural-looking footbridge, are two more key institutions: the Imperial War Museum North and ITV Studios, where you can tour the famous cobbled lanes of Coronation Street. Manchester United's Old Trafford dominates the skyline behind. Red or blue? Luckily, you won't have to choose as you can tour the stadiums of both Manchester City and Manchester United. Take a deep breath and revel in the glory as you walk down the players' tunnel and out on to the pitch — the only thing missing will be the roar of the fans. City's Etihad Stadium has the advantage of being walking distance from the centre, and it sits in a campus of sporting facilities that were originally created for the 2002 Commonwealth Games — look out for the velodrome and athletics track. Sit in the dugout and inspect the changing rooms and you'll find it's impossible not to be swept along by the cult of a big team. Frankly, this is a wild-goose chase, because there isn't really a centre to Manchester. It's a city of quarters, although there's a triumvirate of centres of sorts within walking distance of each other. The civic centre is St Peter's Square, dominated by the imposing Victorian gothic Town Hall. Then there's Piccadilly Gardens, the communications centre, with its bus and tram intersection and its patch of greenery with fountains. Finally, the commercial centre is the redeveloped Exchange Square, surrounded by flagship stores on one side and the quaint cottages of the Shambles and the cathedral on the other. • Best places for afternoon tea in Manchester• Best family hotels in Manchester Manchester's reputation as a host for large-scale live performances was partly based on the Manchester Arena, whose capacity for 21,000 made it the largest indoor arena in the UK until Co-Op Live came along. Opened in 2024, with room for 23,500 spectators, Co-Op Live also houses 32 bars. Of about 120 events held at the venue annually, some 100 are music, the rest are a mix of sports, comedy and family entertainment. Meanwhile, out beyond the Museum of Science and Industry on the banks of the Irwell is another new arts venue — Aviva Studios — in a signature building that looks a bit like a moon lander, for affordable live performances of all varieties. See the intricacy and ingenuity with which the new waterways and railways of the Industrial Revolution were interwoven at a basin in Castlefield, where the Rochdale and Bridgewater canals meet and are crossed by a fretwork of ribbed bridges bearing scurrying trains. The warehouses on the wharves here are mostly repurposed, some into bars and restaurants, but you can still spot where the barges were floated right inside. This new cheap transport had the effect of halving the price of coal (and therefore power) in the city, resulting in a massive increase in productivity. Meanwhile the National Trust have transformed the Castlefield Viaduct into a green 'sky garden' walkway similar to those in Paris and New York. The Science and Industry Museum is spread through former brick warehouses and a historic covered market, and you'll find a collection of spinning and weaving machines that triggered the Industrial Revolution (that still work today) at its core. Also worth seeing is one of the world's first railway stations, which dates back to the 1830s, and Stephenson's line that connected Manchester and Liverpool. Look up and note the stark contrast between Deansgate's repurposed Great Northern railway depot and the new skyscrapers of Deansgate Square looming behind while you're in the area; that's Manchester's past and future in one snapshot. They may happily coexist only 100 metres apart, but the gap between the Northern Quarter's Afflecks and the commercial district's Arndale Centre couldn't be wider. Afflecks — described as an emporium of eclecticism — is an indoor marketplace complete with hippy-trippy booths spread over several floors and reached through lurid-walled stairwells, and about 70 traders selling everything from crystals to retro monkey boots. The Arndale, on the other hand, is packed with 200 mass-market high street shops and big-name eateries, and is one of the largest shopping centres in the UK. In its heyday, Manchester's giant Royal Exchange played a significant part in the cotton trade. Today the Edwardian great hall has been reborn as a cultural hub with what looks like an alien spacecraft squatting inside. This seven-sided module, suspended from four enormous columns, showcases innovative theatre, while a studio theatre fills the space once occupied by the toilets. You'll find another example of repurposed trading places just down the road: the ethereal, light-filled Corn Exchange has retained its original Edwardian beauty and is now entirely occupied by a diverse range of restaurants. Manchester grew at a rapid pace during the 18th century, before being heavily bombed during the First and Second World Wars. While there's not much left from the early days, Chetham's Library, founded in 1653, is the oldest public library in Britain. It sprang to life as accommodation for the clergy of the pint-sized cathedral, located just across the way, before the philanthropist Humphrey Chetham turned it into the first public library in northern England. A young Friedrich Engels, an associate of Karl Marx, came here to study the unjust working conditions, releasing the appropriately titled The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1845. Thick sandstone walls, sloping oak floors, and antique volumes of vellum still carry the dust of the Industrial Revolution. Chetham's, which is in a music school, runs 75-minute tours Monday to Saturday. The smell of spare ribs and barbecue sauce is a dead giveaway that you're nearing Chinatown, whose main axes are Faulkner Street and George Street. These roads are lined with restaurants, food shops and karaoke bars, with a number of Japanese, Thai and Korean outlets too. It's more of a late-night district, as is its direct neighbour that runs alongside the Rochdale Canal — Manchester's buzzing Gay Village. Venture to the bar terraces in Canal Street, which vibrate with music and are proudly festooned with rainbow flags. From the front, this pillared portico just up the road from St Peter's Square looks dour and uncompromising. Inside it's far fresher, and has been expanded at the back with modern galleries — some of which have changing exhibitions. Climb the heavily ornamental stairway to see the core of the gallery's collection, with a lot of excellent pre-Raphaelite paintings. There are plenty of big-name brush masters on show, including Rossetti and Waterhouse but the charm of the collection lies in the less famous but beautifully observed canvases depicting the likes of lovers' tiffs and pompous society concerts. It's typical of Manchester's irreverence that the Albert Hall, a grade II listed former Methodist's Hall on Peter Street is now home to one of its most famous bohemian drinking holes: Albert's Schloss. Pilsner is shipped over from the Czech Republic each week for this Mancunian interpretation of a bierkeller, which often has live music. Just around the corner, under the arches of the former Central Station, refreshments are home-distilled and served in giant goblets at the home of Manchester Gin. Green spaces are few and far between in Manchester, but you can let little ones loose in the expansive Heaton Park — keep them entertained here with the boating lake, animal centre, treetop adventure and golf course. The more handsome Fletcher Moss to the south is partly laid out as a botanical garden and is in the sweeping tram-connected suburb of Didsbury, with shops, cafés and impressive musical scene connections: Factory Records — a key label for the Manchester band Joy Division and its spin-off, New Order — had its first offices here. Manchester's ubiquitous trams — part of the Bee Network — are by far the best way of whizzing around town. Frequent, reliable and clean, they snake along the city streets at an easy pace, allowing plenty of time to admire the changing cityscapes. The light blue line to Eccles runs out over the Manchester Ship Canal to MediaCity; the dark blue line runs out to the airport and passes through leafy Chorlton. Hop off here to explore a quirky left-leaning suburb rich in organic delis, independent bars and lifestyle stores. You'll soon see why musical icons such as Morrissey, Badly Drawn Boy and the Stone Roses lived here. • Best Manchester airport hotels• Best hotels in Manchester What are your favourite things to do in Manchester? Please share in the comments below
Spectator
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Spectator
The Dubai influencer craze can't end quick enough
Marcus Fakana, a British 18 year old, has been in prison in the United Arab Emirates since December. His crime? He had consensual sex with a 17 year old British girl on a trip to Dubai. Now, thanks to the granting of a royal pardon by Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Marcus has been freed and is back home in Tottenham. The merciful monarch did this as part of a tradition of releasing lesser miscreants during Eid, the feast that marks the end of Ramadan. The freeing of Fakana is further confirmation that Dubai, the glittering city beloved by TikTok teens and influencers 'generating content', is a very peculiar choice for an earthly paradise, particularly for the British young. As you get older, and new generations start to unroll like a carpet behind you, you begin to not understand new things. This is to be expected. There are the jokes you don't get, the ironies that you miss, the inexplicably heated crazes for the very ordinary. This phenomenon came fairly early for me, while I was still a teenager. I could not, for the life of me, fathom the expectation that one would dissolve into Bacchante-style ecstasies about, say, The Thompson Twins or, a little later, Madchester. So I am an old hand at this. But still, the Dubai influencer craze remains utterly baffling to me. What is the attraction? It has lovely beaches, yes, but so has Great Yarmouth, and in Yarmouth you have the advantage of not being clapped in irons for a perfectly healthy youthful romp, or for sipping at a port and lemon. It's also very much out of kilter with the other current teen manias. You can forget any LGBTQ-ing in the UAE. Article 354 of the Penal Code criminalises 'indecent acts', which includes consensual homosexual acts. Penalties can include up to 7 years in prison, and cross-dressing or public displays of affection may also lead to legal consequences under public decency laws. What Dubai does offer are the trappings of a luxury lifestyle. It is a city of gift bags, eye-wateringly high restaurant receipts and high-end consumer goods of all kinds against a backdrop of thrusting crystal stalagmites of tat that make Trump Tower look positively restrained and tasteful. The vast majority of its content creators celebrate beauty, fitness, fine dining etc. This is the polar opposite of the stylings of the horrible, muddy 'Just Stop Oil/Queers For Palestine' youth cult, but it is equally unlovely. It is supposedly aspirational – but aspiring to what? Luxury and status, presumably, to people who don't understand either – neither the children lapping up this output on the socials nor the slightly older influencers serving it up to them. Young Westerners go to Dubai to – in that especially gruesome phrase – 'generate content'. Anybody over 15 years of age who uses this term in earnest needs to be led gently away with a paper bag over their head, for their sakes as much as ours. Children and younger teens are attracted to glitter and glamour. And fair enough, this is hard to come by in Britain today. But all things are relative – I remember my father telling me how Cardiff was regarded as Sin City in the Wales of his youth because it had a cinema and a nightclub. And I found Hemel Hempstead thrillingly futuristic when I was 6 years old. I think it's much the same dynamic going on here. But as the Fakana case shows, using Dubai for this purpose comes with considerable risks – fun, fun, fun with a side order of mediaeval theocracy. There is even a campaign group, Detained In Dubai, for people who find themselves on the wrong side of the penal code. (There is not, as yet, a campaign group called Detained In Lytham St Anne's.) British citizen Laleh Shahravesh, for example, was arrested in 2019 for calling her ex-husband an 'idiot', and his new new wife a 'horse', on Facebook. How would you relax in Dubai? You don't even know the laws or customs you might be transgressing. An acquaintance of mine was at a café in the Middle East and was getting dirty looks from all around. He eventually realised it was because he was sitting with his legs up, revealing the soles of his shoes – terribly bad form in the Arab world. The latest Dubai danger are events called 'Porta-Potty parties', secretive events organised by ultra-wealthy men who entice young female influencers with extravagant gifts, five-star hotel stays, and large sums of money – with absolutely no strings attached, obviously. Nothing good is going to happen at something called a 'Porta-Potty party'. You'd think the incarcerations detailed by Detained In Dubai would be enough to put people off, but the lucrative lure of clicks, views and likes is too strong. Still, it is time for everybody, not just Mr Fakana, to ditch this dazzling dump and come home.
Daily Mirror
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
All the bars and pubs to drink at before and after Oasis' reunion in Cardiff
Oasis are making their long awaited comeback in just a matter of hours as fans descend on Cardiff to mark the era-defining reunion of Liam and Noel Gallagher this weekend Madchester fever is set to descend on Cardiff in just a few hours as Oasis make their epic comeback in the Welsh capital. Liam and Noel Gallagher have put their decades long feud behind them and will reunite on stage at the Principality Stadium on Friday July 4. Oasis' mammoth world tour kicks off in the Welsh city, before they travel around the UK and Ireland then the rest of the world. Fans have already had a taste of what they can expect as rehearsals have been heard coming out of the stadium. They have been able to piece together a rumoured setlist as anticipation builds for one of the most in demand shows in music history. Doors will open at 5pm on Friday, with plenty of time for fans to get the drinks in before the show. First support act Cast will warm up the crowd at 6pm while Verve frontman and friend of the Gallaghers, Richard Ashcroft will then take to the stage at 7pm. At 8.15pm this Friday, Oasis will make their long awaited comeback and will play for just over two hours before they will end the set for a 22.30pm curfew. Here, the Mirror has rounded up where to head to before and after the historic gig... Pre-shows and afterparties Steinbeck & Shaw The bar and club are hosting their own pre-show and afterparty on Friday. There's plenty of time to soak up the atmosphere as they will be open until the early hours Address: Greyfriars Road, Cardiff CF10 3DP Wales Price: £15 Time: 2pm to 3am Walkabout The sports bar will be playing all of the Oasis hits for their themed bash, as well as other iconic Britpop bands. They will be giving out Liam and Noel masks to those first to arrive. Address: 65-74 St Mary St, Cardiff CF10 1FA Time: 1pm to 2am Mary's The gay cabaret bar will be putting on a day to remember thanks to DJ sets from DJ Joanna, DJ Krys, Amber Dextrous and Miss Kitty. Address: 89 St Mary St, Cardiff CF10 1DW Time: 3pm to 1am Get Oasis updates straight to your WhatsApp! As the hotly anticipated Oasis reunion tour grows closer, the Mirror has launched its very own Oasis WhatsApp community where you'll get all the latest news on the Gallagher brothers and all the information you'll need in the run up to the gigs. We'll send you the latest breaking updates and exclusives all directly to your phone. Users must download or already have WhatsApp on their phones to join in. All you have to do to join is click on this link, select 'Join Chat' and you're in! We may also send you stories from other titles across the Reach group. We will also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose Exit group. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. Afterparties Clwb Ifor Bach The Definitely Maybe themed party promises ice cold beers and three rooms of back to back Oasis nostalgia with indie DJs playing 80s, 90s and 00s hits into the night. Address: 11 Womanby St, Cardiff CF10 1BR Time: 10:30pm to 3am The Bootlegger Expect a non-stop soundtrack of Oasis anthems, Britpop bangers, and rock 'n' roll floor-fillers from the 90s and beyond—all delivered with our signature prohibition flair. Whether you're a die-hard Gallagher fan or just love a throwback night out, this is the place to be after the gig. Address: 5A Womanby St, Cardiff CF10 1BR Time: 10pm to 2:30am Revolucion de Cuba Cardiff The bar and restaurant promise to be dancing the night away to all the Oasis hits. Address: The Friary, Cardiff CF10 3FA Time: 9pm to 11:30pm Pubs and bars close by If an Oasis themed bash isn't quite what you fancy, there are plenty of other bar, club and pub options in walking distance of the Principality Stadium... The Prince of Wales, Wetherspoons Address: 81–83 St Mary St, Cardiff CF10 1FA Opening hours: 8am to 1am Brewhouse Address: 49 St Mary Street, Brewery Quarter, Cardiff, CF10 1AD Opening hours: 10am to 2am O'Neill's St Mary Street Address: 85-87 St Mary St, Cardiff CF10 1DW Opening hours: 10am to 12am Slug and Lettuce Address: 84 St Mary St, Cardiff CF10 1AT Opening hours: 12pm to 1am Brewdog Address: 31 Westgate St, Cardiff CF10 1EH Opening hours: 12pm to 12am Queens Vaults, JW Bassett Pub Address: 29 Westgate St, Cardiff CF10 1EH Opening hours: 10am to 1am
Perth Now
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Happy Mondays star Bez 'rinsing' the Oasis reunion tour with official after party DJ sets
Happy Mondays star Bez is the official DJ for the Manchester Oasis Live '25 Tour after parties. The king of the maracas will be entertaining fans of the legendary Britpop band following their gigs at Heaton Park this summer, at New Century, and he's admitted it's a nice "little earner". The Madchester legend told the Daily Star: 'I've got a little earner out of Oasis going on tour. I'm rinsing it it's true. I'm DJ-ing at the after shows in Manchester if anybody wants to go, Nobody's asked me to do the other ones yet but I can do.' Happy Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder recalled a gross prank the post-punk dance group and Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher carried out back in the day when Noel worked as a roadie for iconic Madchester group Inspiral Carpets - a role he took on in 1990 after a failed audition to be their lead singer. Shaun recounted: "When Noel was working for Inspiral Carpets we used to send stuff, it wasn't emails it was either telexes or letters, and we used to send s*** to Inspirals. They would send s*** back to us. But that was Noel who was sending it all cos he worked for them.' Bez remembers attending Oasis' first ever show at a "scabby little club" in Manchester. He shared: 'I was at their very first gig they played with Noel at Middleton. Every gig were scabby little clubs. (Label boss) Alan McGee came up with Jeff Barrett (colleague) to Manchester and were looking for Manchester bands to sign.' Bez says a lot of Mancunians owe Oasis for bagging record deals. The potty-mouth star said: 'Every **** we knew was signed at one point. Even me next door neighbour f***** got a record deal cos of them!' The Oasis Live '25 Tour - Oasis' first tour in 16 years - kicks off on July 4 in Cardiff. The Supersonic group will play five shows at Heaton Park between July 11 and 20.
Sydney Morning Herald
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
How this British star's teenage efforts to impress girls finally came in handy
Music, you might add, is one of Sturgess's great unresolved loves. Growing up in Surrey, England, he was always in bands, running the gamut from hip-hop to indie. He has never lost his fervour, even as he scaled the Hollywood ladder to A-list acclaim, through movies including 2012's Cloud Atlas and the original 2011 adaptation of David Nicholls' One Day. Loading Tousle-haired, bearded and sleepy eyed, he looks as much a wan troubadour as he does a gleaming celebrity. Even last year he released an album as his alter ego King Curious. Spoiler – it's good. But it's also telling that Sturgess chooses to perform under another name. 'I get it – there's always a bit of an edge to it when an actor puts a record out. It's always, a bit, 'Uh-oh, hold your breath.' And rightly so, I would be exactly the same if I saw an actor put a record out. But the reaction [to his own record Common Sense for the Animal ] was amazing. I was so stoked that all these music magazines really took it on.' It meant that when he first got the script for Mix Tape what he most wanted to know was what was going to be on the soundtrack. Because frankly, if the tunes weren't right, then Sturgess wasn't on board. 'The music made me a little bit nervous because when I got the script it wasn't established what tracks we would be using,' he says. That's also part of the subject in Mix Tape. 'Everyone has such a difficult relationship with music and what tracks were important to them,' he says. 'And Lucy the director [Lucy Gaffy, Totally Completely Fine] was Australian, so I was hoping that she would get on board with the same music I thought Daniel should be listening to. Even my wife and I started arguing about different possibilities for what music he'd like.' Thankfully the tunes are right, at least to my ears – many of the high points of Madchester (the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Tte Charlatans) and the era just preceding it (Joy Division, New Order) are all present and correct. But Mix Tape is also interested in the way we consume music, now and then, and how that affects us. Back then it meant a C90 crafted over weeks from a twin cassette deck. These days it's streaming, shared playlists, likes and comments. 'With the tech now, you just send over a playlist of a track on YouTube to each other, but it doesn't hold the same value, I don't think,' Sturgess says. 'Back then you had to put real effort in to recording a song on a tape, do a bit of artwork on the front, call it something funny and cool …' That doesn't mean that Sturgess is a Luddite. He sees the storytelling possibilities inherent in the new tech. 'On the other hand, phones and relationships is interesting. They provide this secret link to another world in everyone's back pocket and it means that a two-way relationship always has a third party – the phone.' Loading Music also engenders nostalgia, a what-was-I-doing-when-I-first-heard that frisson, and that goes for Sturgess, too. He filmed the Australian sections of Mix Tape in Sydney, taking him away from his home and family in east London and back to a city he last visited when he was barely older than the young Daniel. 'I went to Sydney in my 20s with one of my best mates, who strangely enough is half Australian and half from Sheffield. Back then it was all hostel beds and bars and beaches … I didn't remember much. So it was really nice to go back and get a real idea of the place. It's a wonderful city.' Talking of nostalgia and lost love revisited, it would be remiss to interview Sturgess in 2025 without mentioning One Day. Last year Netflix scored a huge hit with their series adaptation of the David Nicholls comedy-romance, but it was Sturgess who played Dexter in the original 2011 film opposite Anne Hathaway. 'It was actually really nice for me to watch One Day,' he says. 'I'd just worked with Ambika Mod [who plays Emma in the Netflix series] on another TV show that we did for Disney [ The Stolen Girl ] and I was grateful for our friendship because it gave me a personal connection to this new version of One Day that was coming out. It was very nostalgic for me. But I just felt happy for them. They were having their time and we had ours. It was a special time in my life, making that film.' That's the thing with the past. You can't change it. But you can still wallow in the memories and the what-ifs. Now go dig out that old mixtape and see where it takes you.
