Norah Jones is on tour promoting her new album called The Fall. I recentley bought her album as a new discovery to my collection and found that it was my cup of tea. Even though I have just come across her you proably know at least one of her 4 albums.

Norah Jones made her debut album in 2002 and has already won 12 Grammys plus more awards and many more nominations. Her music which includes different types of styles like Jazz, blues, pop, soul, folk and country has gone round the world.

Norah Jones will be at the Apollo Theatre on Monday 21st June 2010 – 7.30pm and tickets are available here.

Lily Allen, will be in Manchester in November, by which time I am sure she would have sorted her insomnia.

She has now gone up in my estimation in her love for the game of cricket as per her comments on the Sun, although her motives are not what I would class as a true aficionado, but none the less all positive.

I have to admit I am fascinated by her career, I think it is the way she has used social media to build her reputation and this success has pushed her to the front of the current pop scene, as we are all still coming to terms with Facebook and Twitter.

So if you are a fan I recommend you follow her exploits on Twitter.

To see her in concert she will be in Manchester on Tuesday 17th & Wednesday 18th November 2009 – 7pm and tickets are available from here.

I cannot believe I missed this announcement of Yes on tour in the UK, Yes just happen to be my favourite band alongside Simple Minds.

The line up is without Jon Anderson on vocals, which given his health problems and the reason for the previous cancellation of the tour, it is not surprising. His role has been taken over by David Benoit and has erringly similar unique vocals of Jon, which I am sure will not disappoint the the Yes officialdom, check out the video below.

Jon is of course a lot better and is on tour in his own right at the moment, I assume due to other commitments making it impossible to do the Yes tour this year.

The other missing from the line up is the awesome Rick Wakeman on keyboards, who managed to get a heart attack in his 40’s, no mean achievement in itself. In his case it will be his son Oliver Wakeman taking over the keyboards.

Other than that the group is made up of Steve Howe Chris Squire and Alan White for me the original and the best.

I of course will be hoping to make it to see them at the Apollo in Manchester on Sunday 22nd November at 2009 – 7.30pm tickets can be bought here

The Saturdays after supporting girls aloud, proved themselves worthy of headlining their own national tour in their short career which only started the middle of last year.

They are 5-piece girl pop group who include in their line up former S-Club Juniors members Frankie Sandford and Rochelle Wiseman who first toured in 2008 supporting Girls Aloud. Their début single, ‘If This Is Love’, released in July 2008 was a top-10 hit.

In all honestly I do not know too much about this British/Irish girl band hence the video below. Still I think they made a decent remake of “Just Can´t get enough” by Depeche Mode, which was a classic during the 80´s

They will be at the Manchester Apollo on Friday 19th & Tuesday 23rd June 2009 – 7.30pm and tickets are available from here.

Leon Jackson the 2007 x-factor winner, won at the almighty age of 18, deservedly with such wonderful soft tone in his voice.

Whatever you may think this young lad from Scotland managed to beat 150,000 possible hopefuls, no mean achievement.

Now that he has left Sony it will be interesting how he will take his career forward, no easy task but starting at such a young age will I am sure give him plenty of time to reach new peaks, it is of course just up to him.

Non the less one great way to win hearts is to go on tour so best of luck Leon and we will see you in Manchester at the Apollo on Wednesday 13th May 2009 – 7.30pm.

Tickets are available from here

McFly a pop & rock band had a major influence and huge young following in the UK. There debut album “Room on the 3rd Floor” went to no 1 in the UK and made them the youngest band to ever have a debut album go to number 1, a title taken from the Beetles.

The tour follows there recent release of “Radio:ACTIVE” album the first under their own record label Super Records, so one has to say best of luck to them, I am always impressed when people have the confidence and the ability to take control of their own destiny.

They will be at the Manchester Apollo on Friday 8th May 2009 – 7.30pm and tickets are available from here.

Ultravox, yep that takes me back to the late 70´s and 80´s when I was at school. They typified the new romantics with a unique dress sense with Midge Ure leading the band, who can forget “Vienna”.

They have not been together since Live Aid in 1985 with Warren Cann, Chris Cross, Billy Currie and Midge Ure so this is going to be some special tour with a lot of interest and will be at the Manchester Apollo on Tuesday 14th April 2009 – 7pm, but there doesn’t seem any tickets left still you can still try here just in case.

So if you do not get to see them here is “Dancing with Tears in my eyes”

You have to say as names go seal has to be up there, even though it may sound American he is truly British being born in London. Success in particularly was with a ‘kiss from a rose’, which won him two Grammy Awards for “Song Of The Year” and “Best Male Pop Vocal Performance”. But for me it was Crazy, which topped the charts in three countries.

In addition to this he became noticed when he provided the vocals for Adamski’s track ‘Killer’, which enjoyed phenomenal success and was was in the charts for four weeks at number 1.

Seal will be at the Manchester Apollo on Monday 29th June 2009 – 7.30pm and tickets are available from here.

Anastacia the New York soul diva with the huge voice will be in Manchester, which for me is a great thing and although I maybe a little old in the tooth, I certainly am impressed with her fantastic singing voice and for me one of the best in this genre.

Although of a small stature she is ability to hit the high notes of a soprano, giving her the nick name of “The Little Lady With The Big Voice“.

On top of this being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003, she has made a huge comeback and at the same time trying to bring awareness to breast cancer in regards to screener of girls under the age of 35, a little like the recent influence of Jade Goodie.

Surprisingly she is a bigger hit here in Europe rather than her own country, good for us I say!

She will be preforming at the Manchester Apollo on Thursday 2nd July 2009 and tickets are available from here.

The Bootleg Beatles a tribute band were formed in 1980 by the West End cast of the musical Beatlemania. They played their first gig in March 1980. What I find fascinating is that it took them 10 years before the got noticed in the UK, helped by Oasis who enabled them to support their act, which in turn threw them into the mainstream.

It certainly shows that determination and hard work can pull through. Today they have preformed more than 4000 concerts and have not looked back since. They were also the first Western rock band to tour the U.S.S.R and performed at Glastonbury.

They will be in Manchester at the Apollo Theatre Saturday 12th December 2009 – 7.30pm
Tickets can be purchased from here.tribute band.