SIDETRACKS & DETOURS 7th June 2026, A Town With A Feel-Good Factor invites you to tell your story oin the radio + UK folk music charts
Rochdale Feel Good Festival headliners
Preview: Steve Cooke
Rochdale Feel Good Festival Summer 2026 has legendary singer-songwriter Gabrielle (below) topping the bill on Saturday, August 8.
The two-time BRIT award winner and pop-soul star will be performing on the main stage at Rochdale Town Hall Square this summer, along with indie rock chart toppers Ash, Starsailor and a host of other acts to be announced, together with live music across indoor venues, a food and drink village and other entertainment.
Gabrielle’s 1999 number one album, Rise, was one of the most successful of the era, certified 4 x platinum, a status matched by her greatest hits compilation Dreams Can Come True.Six of her albums have reached the top 10, including 2018’s Under My Skin and 2021’s Do It Again. With 16 top 40 singles including two number ones, she’ll be bringing sing along anthems to Rochdale including Rise, Out Of Reach, Sunshine Give Me A Little More Time, When A Woman, l Don’t Need The Sun To Shine and of course, Dreams. One of the UK’s most iconic stars, Gabrielle continues to captivate audiences of all ages.On top of her BRIT awards, she’s achieved two MOBO Awards and an Ivor Novello.After earning a new generation of fans during performances on The Masked Singer she’s performed with some of the world’s biggest artists including joining Adele at two sold-out BST Hyde Park shows.
In 2025 Gabrielle embarked on her biggest UK tour, with incredible shows at Manchester’s AO Arena and London’s O2 Arena. Later this year she joins Rick Astley and Michael Bublé on their live tours.Her latest release, Dreams – The Remixes EP features reworkings of her classic debut track by international dance producers and this year she collaborated on the single Sad Song by Middleton born singer/songwriter JP Cooper, a release BBC Radio 2 brought to our attentionby the BBC Piano Room tv series. Sidetracks & Detours carried a review of the track and it can now be found in their easy to navigate archives.ç of more than 1,500 hundred free to read items. Just tap in Gabrielle and the search engine will find it for you !
Indie rock chart-toppers Ash (right) will also be taking to the main stage in Rochdale. The Northern Irish group, behind a stack of hits including Girl from Mars, Shining Light, Goldfinger, Oh Yeah and Kung Fu have cemented their status as one of the UK’s most enduring and vibrant live rock acts over the last three decades. Their debut album, called 1977, went straight to number one in 1996 and they returned to the top spot with Free All Angels in 2001.
Their latest Ad Astra hit the top 20 last year. Known for energetic, melodic, guitar-driven power-pop and fronted by Tim Wheeler, Ash have been rocking stages worldwide since that classic debut album, including headlining Glastonbury, where they returned to for the eighth time last year as well as touring the UK with fellow rockers The Darkness.
Another big name confirmed for the main stage line-up is rock band Starsailor (pictured above) – famous for hit albums including Love Is Here and Silence Is Easy, plus ten top 40 singles including Four To The Floor, Good Souls, Silence Is Easy, Alcoholic and Fever.
Last year the critically acclaimed band, renowned for their melodic indie rock, completed a sell-out European tour celebrating their 25th anniversary and still with the original line-up, they’re sounding as good as ever. Their 2024 album Where The Wild Things Grow reached number two on the Official Independent Albums Chart.
Early bird tickets for the forthcoming Rochdale Feel-Good Festival have already sold out; another phase of discounted tickets (£25+ 7.5% booking fee) are available at rochdale.gov.uk/FeelGoodFestival or phone QuayTickets on 0161 876 2015. VIP upgrade packages are also available.
The festival is organised by Rochdale Development Agency (RDA) on behalf of the council.
Councillor Sue Smith, cabinet member for communities and co-operation, recently said:
“Gabrielle is one of the UK’s most influential singer-songwriters, so to have her performing in Rochdale is very special, together with two hugely popular indie rock bands. Now this festival is bi-annual, it’s more eagerly awaited than ever, with early bird tickets snapped up in record time and second phase tickets selling fast too, which will only increase with these main stage announcements.
Once again, to cut single use plastic, tickets include a re-usable drink cup to be collected upon arrival at the festival site.
The night before the festival (Friday August 7) synth-pop icons Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) are performing a headline show at Rochdale Town Hall Square alongside post-punk legends Peter Hook and The Light, and Manchester’s post-punk/funk band – A Certain Ratio.
This is sure to be an unprecedented weekend of top music right in the centre of our town!
TELL YOUR STORY ON THE RADIO
Hannah´s Bookshelf
by Norman Warwick
Jenny Roche, a wrier and journalist in Rochdale, and a good friend of sidetracks & detorus has sent us news of this intere4sting opportunity for any of our readers,
Can you tell a seasonal story in just 3 minutes? Want to have your work played on the radio? This month, I’m looking for seasonal (Midsummer, Summer Solstice) flash fiction from around the world for inclusion on Hannah’s Bookshelf, the weekly literature show on North Manchester FM.
On Saturday 20th June, I’ll be hosting the Hannah’s Bookshelf Midsummer Special, and as part of my seasonal special, I’ll be playing a selection of my favourite 3-minute stories on the show (broadcast on FM and on digital). Want to be part of it? Submit a recording via my website of your seasonally inflected story (maximum 3 minutes) by midnight on Monday 15th June.
All genres welcome – be they cosy, romantic, scary or sad. The only rules are that stories must be your own original work, have some connection to the season, and be in English (the language of the broadcast). And please ease off the swears – stories have to be radio friendly! All you need is a microphone and a story – the details of how to submit are on my website.
If you aren’t able to submit via a recording and would like another method of taking part, please get in touch for more information.
Please share this call with anyone who you think might be interested – I’d like to cast the net as wide as possible. My favourite seasonal stories will be broadcast on the Hannah’s Bookshelf Midsummer Special at 2pm on Saturday 20th June, on digital radio and 106.6FM.
MANCHESTER FOLK SPOTLIGHT:
FROM ENGLISH FOLK EXPO & SOUND ROOTS
shared by sidetracks & detours
photo 1 TOM ROBINSON WITH ADAM PHILLIPS
Halle at St. Michaels 24th September 2026
preview shared by sidetracks & detours
Coming this autumn, Tom Robinson presents an evening of tall tales and top tunes from half a century working on the wilder fringes of the music industry.
Joined by Adam Phillips, expect encounters with Alexis Korner, Ray Davies, Elton John, Peter Gabriel, Todd Rundgren, Eddy Grant and Brian Eno – alongside classics such as War Baby, Glad to Be Gay and 2-4-6-8 Motorway.
Don’t miss this master songsmith and funny, ferocious live performer’s return to Manchester!
UK FOLK CHARTS
FROM ENGLISH FOLK EXPO & SOUND ROOTS
shared by sidetracks & detours
Kicking off this month’s new entries is Jim Moray’s Gallants at No. 6. Described as the “first essential album of 2026” by Spiral Earth, this album more than ever showcases Moray’s distinctive approach to folk music: rooted in tradition while sounding unmistakably contemporary. It features nine tracks, comprising eight traditional songs alongside one newly written ballad.
No. 8 is The Longest Johns’ latest studio album Ends of the Earth. This album came into fruition thanks to a successful crowdfunding campaign, in which 1500 contributors raised over £85,000 to fund its release and subsequent tour. The beloved shanty singers will be following the demand for their music around the UK, before crossing the seas to Canada and Europe this summer.
Brighton quartet ladylike’s debut EP It’s a Pleasure of Mine, to Know You’re Fine arrives at No. 10. Toeing the line between folk and post-rock, the band’s debut was recorded live with producer Ali Chant. Across four tracks, they explore cycles of renewal and the beauty of persistence, finding poetry in English idioms and the banality of the mundane.
Chris Brains’s fourth album Red Sun Rising comes in at No. 12. Using the rising sun to symbolise new life and fresh beginnings, the album explores hope and the feeling that something is always waiting just around the corner. The songs lean into the repetitive rituals of life, while also touching on the complexities that shape each of our individual paths.
Lemoncello’s second album Perfect Place enters at No. 30. Building on the organic sound explored in the duo’s debut, Perfect Place combines synths and electronic percussion within explorations of both personal and collective themes. The album expresses the way external pressures find their way into intimate relationships and the difficulty of navigating an increasingly unstable world.
In celebration of the summer season, Lady Maisery and Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith have joined creative forces once again; their second collaboration Wakefire: A Summer Album joins the chart at No. 35. It’s a return to the long form, a double length album, befitting its reverence for the longest days of the year; an invitation to a more immersive and unfolding listening. industry.
Landing at No. 36 is The Little Winters by nu-folk singer and clàrsach player Anna McLuckie. Written during a period of transition, the record emerged as Anna relocated from Manchester to London, stirring an unexpected and profound homesickness for Scotland. The album portrays this cycle of emotion: a farewell, the nostalgia that follows and finally a fresh sense of wonder and new discoveries and love for a city still waiting to be explored
Written and recorded in the North Yorkshire moors, Natalie Wildgoose’s EP Rural Hours enters at No. 38. Across 6 tracks, Natalie combines her unusual trembling melodies with analogue tape from her grandfather’s old Akai reel-to-reel recorder, fusing the environments of the people and places that surround her.
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