Macclesfield: The Futureheads and Badly Drawn Boy to play Party in the Pews Festival 2023

By Alex Greensmith 25th Nov 2022

The Futureheads performing in August 2021. (Image - CC 2.0 Boardmaster 21 (235) Raph_PH Cropped bit.ly/3EW1F4r)
The Futureheads performing in August 2021. (Image - CC 2.0 Boardmaster 21 (235) Raph_PH Cropped bit.ly/3EW1F4r)

Macclesfield indoor music festival Party in the Pews is back for 2023 at the stunning Grade II-listed Christ Church.

The two-day music festival - which also raises money for good causes - will take place on Saturday May 27 and Sunday May 28.

The festival is working with Macclesfield Town Council to make the event more sustainable, and thanks to Puffer Fish Press once again will be bringing massive named acts to the centre of Macclesfield.

This time the festival will be raising funds to turn Christ Church into a permanent venue.

The music festival will raise money to continue the restoration of Christ Church and turn it into a permanent arts and events venue. (Image - Alexander Greensmith / Macclesfield Nub News)

The big music artists performing at Party in the Pews 2023 are Badly Drawn Boy and The Futureheads.

Badly Drawn Boy aka Damon Gough lives locally, but is known worldwide.

His 2000 album The Hour of Bewilderbeast won a prestigious Mercury Prize. He also composed the soundtrack to the movie About A Boy (starring Hugh Grant), based on the Nick Hornby's book of the same name.

Gough came to triumphant song writing return with his ninth album, Banana Skin Shoes, which was hailed as one of the best albums of 2020.

Badly Drawn Boy performing in France in March 2003. (Image - CC 2.5 Claude-Étienne Armingaud - Claudé Unchanged bit.ly/3tY9ct3)

He's had ten UK Top 40 singles, including 2002's 'You Were Right' which hit No. 9 in the charts. He's also had six UK Top 40 albums.

The Futureheads first emerged at the start of the '00s amidst a burgeoning swarm of guitar bands, the Sunderland quartet, with their proud regional accents and spiky, playful sensibilities, stuck out from the off.

Over the following decade, The Futureheads amassed five critically-acclaimed albums, headlined countless tours and earned an NME Single of the Year accolade for their iconic cover of Kate Bush's 'Hounds of Love'.

Their Kate Bush cover reached No. 8 in the charts in 2005, and would become their biggest hit. The Sunderland band would have seven UK Top 40 hits.

North East guitar heroes The Futureheads are coming to Macclesfield in May 2023. (Image - CC 2.0 Boardmaster 21 (235) Raph_PH Cropped bit.ly/3AHBxrg)

They released their sixth studio album and their first electric guitar release in almost a decade in August 2019, called Powers.

Other performers include Chris Helme, who is the frontman of The Seahorses. The 1990s band formed by Stone Roses' guitarist John Squire, who released their sole and UK No. 1 album in 1997 to an outpouring of adoration from fans at home and around the world, and defined a moment in time for hundreds of thousands of people.

TV and radio celebrity Mark Radcliffe will be performing with his new electronic music project UNE, and joined by his pal Paul Langley.

They'll play electronic music spanning many styles with a plaintive lonely voice at its heart. Their songs are inspired by words from other languages that have no literal translation into English. The music and lyrics have therefore tried to convey the feelings those words invoke.

Mark Radcliffe in 2014. (Image - CC 2.0 Bryan Ledgard bit.ly/3ugbbcF Unchanged)

Californian G Funk soul sounding-band Winachi are also on the bill, as are young Manchester guitar band Dirty Laces.

Macclesfield acts Between Thorns and Konkoma Maximum LoveGarden Orchestra will also be performing, alongside another plethora of unannounced and unsigned acts.

A limited number of early bird weekend tickets have been released for just £40 adult and £30 under 14s plus booking fee.

You can buy them online, but tickets are also available across the town centre.

Tickets can be purchased in-person at Hadfields on Stanley Street, Proper Sound on Chestergate.

You can also buy via tickets through the Facebook page, as well as Skiddle.

The event is organised by Macclesfield resident Jo Lowes.

Party in the Pews 2023 is expected to be extra busy as the Sunday of acts will coincide with the Treacle Market, with performers set to perform just minutes after the market ends.

Macclesfield: Reminisce on last year's festival by clicking here.

Hosting an event in Macclesfield? Advertise it for FREE on our What's On section.

See Also: Sleep Eat Repeat review: Romantic Macclesfield getaway at an affordable price 

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