Sam Fender, Arctic Monkeys, Aitch: Hometown heroes set for huge weekend of live music

Home is where the heart is, and this weekend it’s where a notable number of top bands, singers and rappers will also return to play big open-air gigs.

Arctic Monkeys, Sam Fender and Aitch will head back to where it all began to perform for crowds in Sheffield, Newcastle and Manchester respectively, as well as the Courteeners.

Here’s a look at what to expect as the local heroes prepare to hit the North.

Let’s hope they have the guestlists sorted already, for their own sakes.

Otherwise there’ll be some disappointed old friends and family members.

When Arctic Monkeys headlined Glastonbury Festival in 2013 – as they’ll do again later this month – frontman Alex Turner proudly introduced his band as hailing “from High Green, Sheffield”.

Their current UK tour, in support of their seventh studio album The Car, will first see the now internationally-based superstars swing by their old stomping ground for two nights of rock ‘n’ roll fun ‘n’ frolics.

Drummer Matt Helders recently told the Big Issue that the Sheffield shows will feel “like a victory lap”.

The cries of “Yorkkkshire” that rang out as they headlined Leeds Festival last summer are bound to be amplified as they perform in a park next to the Sheffield Wednesday stadium.

Turner, fans may recall, can be heard directing a taxi driver past the ground towards home after a boozy night out in the city, in the lyrics to the track Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured, from their ground-breaking 2006 debut album.

Another old fans’ favourite, Mardy Mum, has made a welcome return to the band’s set of late, and the Wednesday-supporting singer once dedicated an a capella rendition of the song to his hero, former Owls footballer Chris Waddle in Newcastle.

Fans of both the band and player could well be walking in a Waddle wonderland again this weekend.

Sam Fender, it’s fair to say, is a die-hard Newcastle United fan.

In 2021, the rocker appeared on the BBC Breakfast sofa in Salford in a “really, really hungover” state, having come directly from St James’s Park where he had joined fans in celebrating the club’s Saudi Arabian-backed takeover, marking the end of of Mike Ashley’s 14-year control of the club.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast in a Magpies tracksuit, the “Geordie Springsteen”, as he has become affectionately known, confirmed his saxophone player Johnny “Blue Hat” Davis started playing the team’s anthem, Local Hero by Mark Knopfler, outside the ground and “5,000 Geordies started singing along”.

“I did about 1,000 selfies, got proper mobbed… but everyone was absolutely class and they gave us a lot of cans,” he explained.

The singer, 29, who will follow in the Arctics’ footsteps by headlining Leeds Festival later this summer, cannot afford too bad a hangover after Friday’s gig, as he has to get up and do it all over again the next night, such is the demand.

When the first gig was announced he remarked it would be “a childhood dream come true” to perform at his favourite team’s stadium and “the biggest show we’ve ever done.”

The Seventeen Going Under singer and musician previously said it had been the “best day of his life” when former Newcastle striker Alan Shearer paid him a surprise visit in North Shields around the time his 2019 debut album Hypersonic Missiles topped the chart.

It’s safe to assume that neither will be going to arch rivals Sunderland’s stadium on Saturday to see US pop star Pink perform, though transport bosses have warned the region will be “a lot busier than usual” as a result of the concerts.

In the post Oasis-era, the semi-regular Courteeners summer gig has become a real highlight and ritual of sorts for fun-loving, fist-pumping, fans of anthemic indie rock in Manchester.

The band’s debut album St Jude made its historic, slow-burning 15-year journey to the top of the chart – their first number one – earlier this year.

The record is dripping in local references, from their hometown of Middleton, to Withington and Fallowfield, via several sticky-floored city centre haunts.

Frontman Liam Fray told the BBC they intended to celebrate the achievement by performing the album in full at Heaton Park on Friday.

“We’re going to basically do everything off St. Jude and then almost a greatest hits,” he said in January. “If I think about Heaton Park, the scale of it it just blows my mind, so I tend to put it off until the morning of the gig.

“I’ll just enjoy the next couple of months, play a bit of golf, watch the football, do a bit of cooking,” added the Manchester United fan. “And then I’ll be like, ‘Oh crap, we’d best deal with this now’.

“But it’ll just be such a celebration. It’s a testament to all those people that have supported us.”

The Not Nineteen Forever singer-songwriter hit out at Eminem several years ago, saying the US rapper had “crossed a line” by referencing the Manchester bomb attack in his lyrics.

The same Heaton Park venue will play host to another north Manchester star, Aitch, the following night, as the rapper headlines Parklife’s Saturday line-up

The 23-year-old freestyler, whose Ed Sheeran-featuring track My G was dedicated to his little sister Gracie, who has Down’s Syndrome, told the BBC one of his “main goals” was about to be achieved.

He said he was “buzzin'” and that it felt a bit “unreal” to be topping the Manchester festival bill so soon. “I don’t care what happens after this, I’m happy,” he added.

The star, who also appeared to aim a humorous jibe at Harry Styles while winning at this year’s Brit Awards, previously said he had felt like “the most hated person in Manchester” after a mural of Ian Curtis was painted over with an advert for his album.

The promo for Close to Home was put up over the mural n the city’s Northern Quarter, depicting the late Joy Division singer, which artist Akse P19 created for a mental health campaign in 2020. But Aitch noted he had been left “fuming” at the mix-up, assuring fans it would be reinstated.

All will be forgiven if-and-when he smashes this weekend’s show, which festival-goers – and ground-staff alike – will be pleased to hear is due to take place in the Manchester sunshine and now without the planned tram strikes.

Aitch, another United fan, will perform his headline set as Manchester City aim to complete their treble… or not, as the case may be.