Venue:
O2 Victoria Warehouse Manchester
Date: 11/03/2026
This has the feeling of a home gig. Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson had her first attempt at cracking the music biz while living in Manchester in her early twenties – it failed. The night before the gig she had been papped at a Canal Street drag night, an event she turned into a bit of a comedy monologue during the show. In fact, parts of this show were more like a Julian Clary (or for older readers Frankie Howard) gig.
The stage setting seemed to be a reference to Snow White, three steps at the centre led up to the Wicked Queen’s mirror that became a video screen. It kicked off with the band playing without her for a few minutes while CMAT entered through the cheering crowd on a stagehand’s shoulders singing Janice Joplining. A rousing version of The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station followed, accompanied by a mass committed chant of; “So, okay, don’t be a bitch, the man’s got kids and they wouldn’t like this” flagged the way this was going. The rest of the set, which was dominated by Euro-Country tracks, saw Ciara rolling on the floor, draping herself over the steps, and -on Take Sexy Pictures of Me- ironically sticking her bum up and flashing her knickers. Everyone on stage actually looked like they were having a whale of a time, particularly when support act Kate J Pearson came on and took co-vocals on a pretty much note-for-note cover of Biology by Girls Aloud. The screen was used for lots of crowd banter between songs, most of it involving tee-shirts: a snogging lesbian couple with tee-shirts logos that read; “My wife is a Virgo” and “I am a Virgo wife”, prompted a show of drummer Hannah Morgan’s “Jesus Loves Lesbians” tee-shirt, Cara had a little convo with a woman who started waving a Gail Tinsley tee-shirt during Coronation St. The extended encore began with Euro-Country, another sing-along to I Want to be A Cowboy, which CMAT confessed was written in loft-room in Chorlton when she was dreaming of escape, and ended with Stay for Something which itself culminated with a high-fiving run through the crowd.
The audience:
Genuinely mixed. Apart from a smattering of fellow 60-somethings, on one side Ms BJB and I struck up a convo with a young couple from Liverpool whose kids were being looked after by grandma, and on the other side a 30-something throuple – dressed as if they had stepped out of a Tikki bar in Waikiki – were unashamedly providing PDAs. A surprising number of tattooed goths of all ages.
It made me think..
Punks not dead, in fact its not even passed
Big fan here. She’s gloriously hard to pin down.
THAT’S why it was busy in town yesterday!
Euro Country is ace by the way.
Thought I’d give this thread a bump. Did think there would be more CMAT (or at least Euro Country) fans here.
It was my choice for album of the year & I am still sticking to it. I think it is a wonderful album & had it on yesterday. Also surprised there is not more love on this site though, I feel it ticks a lot of boxes
I would have been at this gig had it not been Victoria Warehouse, I really dislike this as a venue & was gutted she didn’t do the Apollo.
Went to see her in Berlin the other day. It had been moved to a larger venue (Tempodrom) to accommodate the demand. Great atmosphere pre-gig, young, older (me), lots of dressing up and people up for a great night. She was great – a born entertainer, although not knowing her stuff that well, songs all started to merge into one towards the end. Maybe that was the beers too. Very different experience to seeing a slightly tired-sounding Peter Hook the week before, with a mainly male audience all well north of 40.