Hey! Manchester promotes gigs by folk, Americana and experimental bands from around the world in Manchester, England. Read more here, see below for our latest shows, check out our previous shows, contact us, or join our mailing list, above.

Upcoming shows: Chris Brain... Mr Ben & the Bens... Daudi Matsiko... Jolie Holland... Christof van der Ven + Niamh Regan... Ariel Sharratt & Mathias Kom... Giant Sand... Melanie Baker... Sophie Hutchings... Jerron Paxton... Ghostly Kisses... Sounds From The Other City 2024... Francis of Delirium... The Buffalo Skinners... The Handsome Family... Memorial... His Lordship... Florry... Bad Bad Hats... Dana Gavanski... Caoilfhionn Rose... The Lovely Eggs... Rain Parade... Charlie Parr...

When: 7.30pm on Sunday 29 October 2017
Where: The Castle Hotel, 66 Oldham Street, Manchester M4 1LE

PLEASE NOTE: BA is now playing Gullivers, across the road from the Castle Hotel. He’s on at 7.15pm – so arrive early.

We’re delighted to be working with Canada’s BA Johnston for the first time!

BA Johnston is a Canadian songwriter and self-described ‘failed showman on the skids’ who has been touring relentlessly back and forth across Canada in his mum’s minivan for over a decade.

Along the way, his incomparable performances have become the stuff of legend, garnering him a rabid cult following of devoted and only moderately deranged fans, who come back time and again to revel in the sweat and beer-soaked, simultaneously self-abusive and joyous insanity of a BA Johnston show.

BA Johnston’s 11 studio albums are a journey through the mind of a man who has an uncanny ability to pick apart the minutiae of the daily life of the insecure everyperson and put them on proud display in both satire and sincere celebration. He is the blue-collar loser-hero troubadour the world needs now.

BA Johnston’s new album Gremlins 3 is out now on Wyatt Records. It trades territory with songs about cheap beer, drinking beer in an alley, and drinking so much beer that you are worried you will fall out of a canoe and drown. In an effort to branch out and tackle the serious issues of today, there is also a song about being high at work in a Foodland. The album title came from BA’s desire to be sued by someone famous.

Gremlins 3 was produced by Mathias Kom (of The Burning Hell) and the album differs from the other stink burgers in BA’s catalogue as every single song features actual instruments played by actual musicians, and not just the talentless BA Johnston.

This could very well be BA’s swan song. Honestly, it’s 50/50. As minimum wage has now crossed the $10 mark, BA could quit this crap and start making tens of dollars doing something with dignity. Make work at a Giant Tiger or something. For the time being, BA can still be found at some crappy bar near you playing for a nominal cover charge, which people pay even though ‘they only want to come in and have some wings’.

‘Jokes spring eternal from the well of BA Johnston, a comic Stompin’ Tom for our times, all while speaking to the wandering experience of the modern everyperson. His songs offer just as much depth as a more stoic-minded band, but with added n’yucks galore’ – Vue Weekly

PLEASE NOTE: BA is now playing Gullivers, across the road from the Castle Hotel. He’s on at 7.15pm – so arrive early.

Buy tickets now. Tickets are available from the bar (no booking fee), Piccadilly Records, Vinyl Exchange, WeGotTickets.comTicketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

Attend on: Facebook



All shows are 18+ unless otherwise stated.