The Hallé Orchestra and Jack Savoretti are to headline a free Bowie-inspired concert for Blackpool’s City of Culture bid.
Blackpool Opera House will host the free gig, called The People’s Stage, on Sunday 26 July, as the town makes its case to become UK City of Culture 2029.
The Hallé Orchestra and singer-songwriter Jack Savoretti will lead the bill at the free event, which runs from 7pm to 9.30pm and is timed to coincide with Blackpool’s UK City of Culture 2029 bid and the arrival of David Bowie: On Tour at Showtown.
The concert, presented in partnership with Elite Competitions, will also feature an all-star house band drawing members from James, The Stone Roses and The Courteeners, along with appearances from Blackpool-born artists Little Boots and Rae Morris. More names are set to be announced.
David Bowie: On Tour, the Victoria and Albert Museum’s touring Bowie archive, will run at Showtown from 30 June to 26 September 2027, and will include more than 100 items from Bowie’s career, among them a Ziggy Stardust-era acoustic guitar and handwritten lyrics. Blackpool is the only north-west venue to host the exhibition.
Each artist at The People’s Stage will perform their own version of a Bowie song alongside some of their own material, backed by the Hallé Orchestra and house band. The evening will be hosted by John Robb, the Blackpool-born broadcaster, musician and Louder Than War founder, who has been made an ambassador for the town.
The bill also includes a newly commissioned Blackpool poem by the poet laureate, Simon Armitage, a piece from the Blackpool spoken-word artist Nathan Parker, the Northern Soul singer Darrell Smith, and Blackpool’s Electric Pink Voices LGBTQ+ choir.
The event has been curated by Saul Davies, guitarist and violinist with James, alongside Spencer Phillips, chair of the Blackpool Heritage and Museum Trust, which runs Showtown, and the composer and musical director Joe Duddell, whose past collaborators include Elbow, James, New Order and the Hallé.
Davies said: “Blackpool’s always had a special magic about it. There’s an energy that gets under your skin and it’s a place that’s given James some unforgettable nights over the years. The Empress Ballroom gigs are the stuff of legend – those crowds, that atmosphere, it stays with you. So when the chance came for me to be part of The People’s Stage and help support Blackpool’s UK City of Culture 2029 bid, it was an easy yes.”
Robb said the concert was intended as more than a gig. “It’s a civic statement,” he said. “It’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity to bring people together in the place that has always known how to entertain the nation, and to say clearly: Blackpool is ready, Blackpool believes, Blackpool belongs on the national cultural stage. It also gives Blackpool residents a stake in the City of Culture campaign and a reason to feel proud.”
The People’s Stage is a free, ticketed event, with 2,500 tickets available through a public ballot that is now open. Terms and conditions apply.
If successful, Blackpool’s bid would bring £10m in funding for a year-long programme of arts and culture events, alongside investment intended to support jobs and the visitor economy. Blackpool is competing against eight other places for the 2029 title, which is awarded every four years and, despite its name, is open to large towns as well as cities.
The bid’s timing lines up with a run of anniversaries for the town, with 2029 marking 150 years of the Illuminations, 135 years since Blackpool Tower and the Grand Theatre opened, while the Winter Gardens turns 150 in 2028.
The People’s Stage takes place at Blackpool Opera House on Sunday 26 July, from 7pm. Click here to enter the ticket ballot and sign up to Back the Bid for Blackpool as UK City of Culture 2029.
Main photo: by Mick Rock
