Manchester Pride Sunday 2016

Manchester Pride powered through into it’s third day with the sun shining down and a ton of acts on offer, Chris Park was there to bring you all the best bits.

Sequin Sounds
The energy from this band as they took the crowd through gay anthem after gay anthem on a seemingly nonstop medley. It is true to say that by day three, energy levels are a little low as hangovers are fended off for another day and people are gearing up for a full day and night so the afternoon slots could be seen as a challenge. Sequin Sounds didn’t have any worries there, the crowd were with them as they stormed through Gaga’s Bad Romance, Estefan’s Conga and Madonna’s Vogue. They also did a brilliant version of Take That’s Relight My Fire.

Dean Mac
The next act to hit the arena stage was local lad Dean Mac who brought with him soulful grooves and some sunshine. It was nice to take it down a notch and brave the first beer of the day. He is a definite name to watch out for, his track Romeo is reminiscent of an early Jamiroquai and his cover of Blackstreet’s No Diggity was excellent.

Victors
Up and coming Leeds band Victors came across the Pennines to take it up a notch with their pop infused indie which started with their debut release Tonight and built up to their new release, Breathe.

Frankmusik
Frankmusik was a true star even when his laptop fell on the floor and he had to do some beatboxing to entertain the crowd whilst things got rebooted. His performance was packed with hits such as In Step, Awake and Daybreak. Ex-Hollyoaks actor PJ Brennan even flew over from New York especially to join Frankmusik on stage to sing Better Off As Two.

DJ Paulette
Over in the Gaydio Dance Arena, DJ Paulette was driving the crowds wild with her killer set, from someone who has played at the Hacienda, Heaven as well as internationally, she is always going to deliver.

Canal St Online caught up with DJ Paulette to find out what she thinks about people who bring hate to the LGBT community. “Try and get involved” she says fiercely “Meet people and look inside yourself. Generally with haters it comes from within themselves. If you’re not happy with yourself you can’t be happy with other people. Become at peace with yourself and then you can start to understand people.

Get to know people, move around, be with us not against us”. For more of Canal St Online’s exclusive interview with DJ Paulette please see our YouTube channel www.youtube.com/canalstreetonline.

Shura
Another local done good, Shura seemed really excited to be performing for the crowd, reminiscing about the nights out she’d had down Canal St. Her electropop went down a storm and when the haunting 2Shy rang out through the arena everyone stopped talking to just listen.

Will Young
Excitement for Mr Young’s performance was fever pitch and there were huge queues to get into the arena.  Bursting onto the stage in an unusual dress Will stripped down to a negligee then swapped this for a see through plastic suit. He gave a solid performance with recent hits such as Love Revolution, Jealousy and the anthem Joy, he also treated us to a cover of Bronski Beat classic Smalltown Boy. It felt a little sad that his huge hits Leave Right Now and Light My Fire were missed off however but his walk through the crowd and waving goodbye was pretty dramatic.

Fleur East
Funk and soul queen Fleur East burst onto the stage and gave a polished and smooth performance with tracks from her album such as Baby Don’t Dance, Know Your Name and Breakfast but the two tracks that everyone were waiting for came soon enough with her cover of Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk and recent smash Sax which she ended on.

There is no doubt that she’s an accomplished performer but it did feel a little remote at times and that she could be anywhere.
A great day again in a carpark in the centre of Manchester, onwards now to the last day.

By Chris Park for Canal St Online

Published: 29-Aug-2016: (3872)