Heavenly | Tulpa
YES, Manchester
18th March 2026
The Skep Wax double bill hits Manchester as Heavenly play their first gig in the city since the early 1990’s to an enthusiastic audience.
It’s been a while since Heavenly last appeared in Manchester. 18 July 1993, from what I can work out, the venue being The Swinging Sporran, more recently familiar as Retro Bar, the Sackville Street venue that sadly closed its doors for the last time in July 2025. Obviously, the various members of the band have all appeared in Manchester in various guises since, but not as Heavenly. Back in 1993, before Britpop took hold, Take That and UB40 were at the top of the ‘Official Charts’ and life was almost unrecognisable from now. The Internet was new and almost non-existent in UK homes. Landlines were standard, mobile phones were huge and rare, and home entertainment was mostly terrestrial television or videos rented from Blockbuster. My point? It’s been a bloody long time…
At the time, Heavenly were in between their second and third albums, Le Jardin de Heavenly, and The Decline and Fall of Heavenly. Now they’re back, and tonight’s gig is in support of their fifth album, Highway To Heavenly, released just 3 weeks ago after a break of almost 30 years. It’s also part of their 22 date World Tour, which sees them travelling from Coventry to Chicago and Paris to Portland.
This evenings gig is sold out, and the room is pretty packed before this evenings support, Tulpa, hits the stage. The band may be familiar to Louder Than War readers, their album Monster Of The Week was No 29 in LTW’s Top 100 Albums of the year, with Ged Babey saying, ‘One of the most exciting new bands in the UK – but with the cool reserve of quietly heroic past-masters. This is a band for the new generation. Teenagers and twenty-somethings who are looking for the new, exciting and original in guitar-based music. This is a band who live in their imagination. Record their daydreams and write about their nightmares. Tulpa don’t need hype and hyperbole. They are the real deal, and sooner or later, the (secret) public will get what they want…the coolest, genuinely Indie-pendant Band in the UK… And who am I to disagree? The quartet fronted by Josie are clearly a hit, playing a number of tracks from their album and a few new ones, including the excellent closer Lighthouse.
It’s an interesting crowd tonight, initially the room looked to be filling up with people ‘of a certain age’, accountants, school teachers etc and those of us who have hung on to our indie credentials but then there also seem to be a large contingent of ‘the TikTok generation’ who have embraced Riot Twee via the various clips posted over the last couple of years.
It’s not long before Heavenly take to the stage to a rapturous welcome, and I’ll be honest, their set is a joy. As well as a smattering from Highway To Heavenly, we’re treated to a greatest hits, with tracks taken from throughout their career. Age has been kind to the band, whilst Fletcher, Rogers, Pursey, Momtchiloff and Button may not look like Indie kids anymore, there is still a ‘look’ about them, akin to your older siblings or cool parents on a parents evening fundraiser.
I’ve been enjoying the new album; however, the songs definitely get a life of their own when performed live. Portland Town is getting things off to a great start with a slightly harder edge. Long-term fans don’t have long to wait, a couple of old favourites: Sperm Meets Egg, and Our Love Is Heavenly. With Good Times, we return to the latest release, and it dawns on me that if anything, the harmonies shared by Amelia and Cathy sound better than ever. Another ‘new’ track follows, Excuse Me, which is about losing touch with people… which, as Amelia say,s will resonate with the older fans more than those who are connected 24/7. Hearts And Crosses is the first offering of the night from 1993’s Atta Girl EP. A classic example of what makes the band so special, sweet saccharin vocals, a jaunty tune, but a punch in the lyrics which will stop you in your tracks.
From here on, new songs are interspersed with classics. Skep Wax, an advert for the label no one else was gonna write one, is followed by She And Me, and then Space Manatee, before Scene Stealing is followed by Me and My Madness with its call and response between our vocalists. Looking at the time, we’re well into the set now, and everyone is loving it. A gent near me is dancing like a marionette whose puppeteer can’t control it with arms flaying in celebration. Deflected is followed by P.U.N.K Girl, and we’re in the home straight as the crowd start to get a little more vocal with their contributions.
Ameila suggests that rather than leave the stage, they just play on. The last track to be played from Highway To Heavenly, Press Return works well in a live environment, sounding more beefed up. It’s possibly one of the first tracks the band have written which is more suited to a club than the college dorms. Atta Girl is the perfect set closer… the room joining in with the line ‘Fuck you, no way’ (a line which is also on a tea towel, a popular piece of merch)
The band leave the stage, and no one is quite sure whether they should start heading to the door; the lights haven’t come on, although music is being played over the PA. Amelia reappears with the rest of the band and asks if they can play more, which is met with huge cheers. Dig Your Own Grave opens a semi-improvised encore before they close with C Is The Heavenly Option, which will have brought them to the attention of a number of the younger fans tonight. Again, the audience joins in as Amelia and Kathy trade lines (the latter taking Calvin Johnson’s part).
As the band leave the stage for the second time, the lights come back on, people start shuffling out and there is a genuine buzz in the air. Gareth, with whom I attended the gig, had last seen the band in 1992 and was grinning from ear to ear; he’s not the only one. Let’s hope there is a lot more Heavenly to come.
~
All words by Iain Key. See his author profile here or find him via his LinkTree
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