I said maybe... you should head down to these Manchester live music bars

Few cities in the UK are as intertwined with live music as Manchester, and the sonic relationship seeps deeper than its arenas and famous gig venues, trickling into the city’s wealth of pubs and bars with music at the heart of the action.

It's a city where new bands start out playing to 20 people in the back room of a pub, jazz musicians squeeze onto tiny stages to serenade their spectators, cover bands get people dancing around tables, and a quiet pint can very quickly turn into a full-room singalong.

Manchester’s live music bars, where the drinks and atmosphere matter just as much as whoever’s onstage, come in all shapes and sizes. There are grassroots champions, eclectic pubs with gig rooms tucked out back, upmarket spots with house bands every weekend, and places that blur the line between cocktail bar, club and live show entirely.

Basically, you're never without choice when it comes to the best live music bars in Manchester, and to make it even easier for you to choose, we've selected a list of our favourites below. Scroll down and check them out!

 

 

YES

Where: 38 Charles Street, Manchester M1 7DB

YES is one of Manchester's best modern fusions of music and booze. Across its intimate, sweaty basement and iconic 250-cap Pink Room, the venue has some of the sharpest programming in the city, and frequently champions the circuit's best new acts.

Throw in one of the best rooftop bars in the city, DJ sets 7 nights a week, top scran from Pepperoni Playboy and Trippy Chippy to go with the pints, and a cool-by-association atmosphere that keeps pulling you back for more, YES has an orbit every self-respecting Manc music lover will gravitate towards.

 

Tickets for events at YES Pink Room or YES Basement 

 

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Star & Garter

 

Where: 18-20 Fairfield Street, Manchester M1 2QF

The Star & Garter is a Grade II-listed pub that has spent decades at the very heart of Manchester's music scene, is beloved by its musical icons, and still feels gloriously untouched by the city growing around it.

Nowadays, its live bills lean towards punk, hardcore, metal, and alternative guitar music, although soul and indie nights still crop up, and its long-running Smiths Disco is part of Manchester club folklore. Basically, if you like your live music bars steeped in a city's culture, with the kind of old-school, no-frills character you can't manufacture, then the Star and Garter has to be on your list.

 

Find tickets for events at Star & Garter - HERE

 

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The Blues Kitchen

Where: 13 Quay Street, Manchester M3 3HN

The Blues Kitchen is basically the go-to for live music when you don't want to plan your whole evening around a gig. Blues, Soul, R&B, Hip-Hop, and Funk dominate the stage, with the rest of the space offering that characterfully dimly lit, polished, cocktail-centric atmosphere we've come to know and love from Blues Kitchen.

With a bar stage downstairs for the regular entertainment, and a main gig room upstairs that covers touring acts, Blues Kitchen is busy and built for dancing; plus, the food here is top-notch and a great way to line the stomach before the evening's boogies. 

 

Find tickets for events at The Blues Kitchen - HERE

 

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Night & Day Cafe

Where: 26 Oldham Street, Manchester M1 1JN

Night & Day is a Mancunian grassroots institution. Since opening in 1991, everyone from Elbow and Arctic Monkeys to Kasabian and Manic Street Preachers, as well as the countless local acts, have been platformed on its famously intimate stage.

The booking policy remains deliberately broad, so one night might bring indie or psych, the next punk, electronic music or a touring singer-songwriter. Saturdays often roll into the free Loose Joints DJ sessions too. All the while it still functions as an actual cafe-bar outside gig hours, and is a great spot for evening boozing, but once a band starts, the entire room becomes the venue.

 

Find tickets for events at Night & Day Cafe - HERE

 

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Freight Island

Where: 11 Baring Street, Manchester M1 2PY

Freight Island is not a traditional live music bar, and that is worth knowing before you turn up expecting a band every night. Instead, its huge indoor and outdoor site hosts a rotating programme of live shows, DJs, themed parties and one-off takeovers of the highest order.

This is a haven of food and drink, with numerous traders operating inside, slinging out quality scran from across the globe, as well as countless spots both inside and out to gather the mates for a session. Freight Island stands alone in its size and range of live music; just be sure to get there in good time, as this place can get PACKED. 

 

Find tickets for events at Freight Island - HERE

 

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SOUP

Where: 31-33 Spear Street, Manchester M1 1DF

SOUP is where things get a little more left-field. Upstairs is a relaxed Northern Quarter bar, but head downstairs and you’ll find one of the city’s best intimate basement spaces for both emerging live artists and properly underground club nights.

There is no neat genre policy here. Gigs can run from post-punk and indie to darkwave, experimental pop and electronic music, while later events dive into techno, bass, trance, grime, baile funk and stranger corners of club music. If you like discovering things before everyone else does, SOUP should stay firmly on your radar.

 

Find tickets for events at SOUP - HERE

  

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The Eagle Inn

Where: 19 Collier Street, Salford M3 7DW

Just across the river in Salford, The Eagle Inn is an old Victorian terrace pub with an 80-capacity venue somehow carved into the back. It is DIY, intimate, and has spent decades at the forefront of the city's underground scene, often providing platforms for bands and club nights before anyone else does. 

The bills are broad but grassroots through and through, with indie, punk, folk, alternative and experimental artists all finding a home here alongside occasional DJs and club nights. There is even a rehearsal room upstairs, so basically, this is a pub genuinely embedded in Greater Manchester’s music community, and long may it continue. 

 

Find tickets for events at The Eagle Inn - HERE

 

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The Castle Hotel

Where: 66 Oldham Street, Manchester M4 1LE

The Castle has been a pub in one form or another since 1776, now with a wonderful little 80-capacity music room that opened in 2010. Since then, this charming old-school boozer has become one of the go-to spots in Manchester to catch the city's grassroots scene. 

Expect indie, folk, alternative bands and singer-songwriters, usually playing to a crowd packed tightly into the eclectic back room. The front remains a lovely traditional pub in its own right, so it works just as well for a pint before the gig as it does as somewhere to stumble across your next favourite band.

 

Find tickets for events at The Castle Hotel - HERE

 

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Gullivers

Where: 109 Oldham Street, Manchester M4 1LW

Directly across Oldham Street from The Castle (and also its sister venue), Gullivers offers a little more room with an Irish charm and a sustained grassroots ethos. Its main upstairs Ballroom holds around 110 people, while the smaller Lounge downstairs handles acoustic shows, comedy and more intimate performances.

The music calendar is equally varied, but indie, folk, alternative rock, punk and singer-songwriters feature heavily, alongside plenty of touring artists still working their way up the circuit. The downstairs pub is unfussy and blessed with a good jukebox, and equally excellent Guinness, making it easy to come for the gig and stay afterwards.

 

Find tickets for events at Gullivers - HERE

 

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Matt & Phred’s

Where: 64 Tib Street, Manchester M4 1LG

Manchester’s best-known jazz club, Matt & Phreds, is a non-negotiable visit when looking for the best live music bars in Manchester. With primarily jazz programming that also dips into funk, soul, blues, Latin, ska, swing and everything in between, this is a true Northern Quarter institution 

There are regular jam nights too, including the Jazz Jam and All Star Jam, where musicians can get up with the house band. Plus, midweek often means free entry and tables around the stage; weekends are louder, busier and much more likely to finish with everybody on their feet. 

 

Find tickets for events at Matt & Phred’s - HERE

 

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The Deaf Institute

Where: 135 Grosvenor Street, Manchester M1 7HE

The Deaf Institute is one of Manchester’s great small gig rooms and bars. Its main hall has tiered seating, a domed ceiling with a disco ball hanging down, and a wall of speakers that make it immediately recognisable. With programming plays host to international and local acts in equal measure.

Whilst the vibe through the day and in the evenings is quite studenty, the live bookings later on cover all the genres under the sun. Whip-Round takes over Thursdays with indie classics, post-punk and new wave, while themed pop, alternative and throwback nights regularly fill the weekends. Whilst it unfortunately doesn't operate as a bar and live music venue at the same time, it's not one to miss when you want to experience a proper set. 

 

Find tickets for events at The Deaf Institute - HERE

 

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Derby Brewery Arms

Where: 95 Cheetham Hill Road, Manchester M8 8PY

The Derby Brewery Arms, better known as the DBA, is a Grade II-listed former hotel and old-school Joseph Holt boozer that has evolved into a cult, queer-focused underground music space, while still retaining plenty of the character of the pub it grew out of.

Its programme sits heavily around Manchester’s alternative electronic scene, with house, techno, electro, breaks, hyperpop and harder club sounds joined by occasional live acts, art events and community parties. Nights regularly spill between the Lounge and its Queer Garden, with promoters such as BENT, MELODÏQ and RISING using the space. It is less somewhere to casually wander in expecting an acoustic singer and more somewhere to check the listings, find something weird and wonderful, and properly get stuck in.

 

Find tickets for events at Derby Brewery Arms - HERE

 

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The Peer Hat

Where: 14-16 Faraday Street, Manchester M1 1BE

The Peer Hat is where you see Manchester’s music scene at its most DIY. Head beneath the pub into the basement and you could find indie bands, punk, metal, experimental noise, folk, electronic acts or a lineup that somehow manages to combine several of those at once.

As a bar itself, it oozes cool and is widely known as the drinking spot of the city's underground scene, with the evenings when live music isn't on being soundtracked by vinyl, usually operated by one of the aforementioned musicians. Always open late, always with great music, a bit dingy in the best way, and a great spot to take the uninitiated, especially through its back alley entrance off Stevenson Square.

 

Find tickets for events at The Peer Hat - HERE

 

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The Whiskey Jar

Where: 14 Tariff Street, Manchester M1 2FF

The Whiskey Jar is one of the safest bets in town if you just fancy turning up and finding somebody playing. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are given over to its long-running free open mic, which regularly brings some seriously good local singers and musicians through the door, whereas Thursday through Saturday, the focus switches to booked performers, with acoustic singers, duos and full bands largely playing crowd-friendly originals, covers and mash-ups.

It all takes place inside a cosy former textile mill, so the live music never feels detached from the bar around it, and it's just a lovely, easy time that never lets you down. 

 

Find tickets for events at The Whiskey Jar - HERE

 

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The Oast House

Where: The Avenue Courtyard, Spinningfields, Manchester M3 3AY

The Oast House is the spot where classic covers-and-pints take stage over cutting-edge grassroots discovery, but that is exactly what makes it such an easy live music option. House bands and acoustic performers play seven days a week, leaning heavily into big singalong rock, indie, pop and soul favourites.

On the last Saturday of each month, Oast House Live expands things into a free all-day live music session with bands and DJs. The huge courtyard really comes into its own in summer, while winter moves much of the action beneath the venue’s enormous heated teepee. Slightly upmarket with the Spinningfields crowd, but one that never disappoints. 

 

Find tickets for events at The Oast House - HERE

 

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Big Hands

Where: 296A Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9NS

Big Hands has long been the Oxford Road watering hole for musicians, gig-goers, students, and anyone who finds themselves spilling out of Manchester Academy. It is dark, cluttered, loud and packed with character, and has one of the city’s best hidden roof terraces tucked away upstairs.

The live bookings tend towards garage rock, psych, punk, alternative and other noisy DIY sounds rather than acoustic background music. Events are not necessarily nightly, so check the listings first, but when a band is squeezed into the bar it feels exactly like a small Manchester gig should.

 

Find tickets for events at Big Hands - HERE

 

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The Fitzgerald

Where: 11 Stevenson Square, Manchester M1 1DB

Hidden above Stevenson Square, The Fitzgerald goes all-in on the speakeasy surrounds: dark lighting, vintage decor, cocktails and enough 1920s influence to make you briefly forget there is a square full of Manchester's loudest and lairiest.  

Live music runs every Friday and Saturday, generally covering jazz, swing, blues, soul and modern acoustic sets before the playlist moves through funk and disco later on. Entry to the regular weekend performances is free, making it a great middle ground between booking a proper jazz show and simply wanting cocktails somewhere with musicians in the room.

 

Find tickets for events at The Fitzgerald - HERE

 

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The Freemount

Where: 28-30 Oldham Street, Manchester M1 1JN

The Freemount is one of the Northern Quarter’s most dependable options when you want live music without buying a ticket. Bands play every night of the week, generally leaning towards rock, indie, soul and big crowd-friendly covers rather than original touring acts.

Weekdays usually see this become a bit more cultured, such as their weekly Tuesday Trad Sessions, but essentially, if you want a packed pub, familiar songs and absolutely no requirement to stand silently watching the stage, this is your place.

 

Find tickets for events at The Freemount - HERE

 

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Bunny Jacksons

Where: 1 Jack Rosenthal Street, Manchester M15 4RA

Bunny Jackson’s is a rock ’n’ roll dive bar first and foremost: cheap wings, pool, darts, loud music and very little interest in taking itself seriously. Live bands regularly appear across the weekend, so if you want it at its most rowdy, that should be the plan. 

The main event is Saturday Bandoke, when the crowd gets to front an actual live band instead of a laptop. Pick a song, take the mic and either discover your hidden calling or butcher it so badly that everybody remembers you anyway. Both are valid outcomes. Both are iconic. 

 

Find tickets for events at Bunny Jackson’s - HERE

 

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Mulligans

Where: 12 Southgate, Manchester M3 2RB

Mulligans does not mess around where live music is concerned: musicians are on from 4pm every day. Downstairs keeps things closer to the traditional Irish pub experience with acoustic sets and folk, while upstairs gives bigger weekend bands considerably more room to get everyone moving.

The soundtrack moves between Irish favourites, folk, indie anthems and classic singalongs, usually accompanied by a lot of (excellent) Guinness and a crowd increasingly determined to provide backing vocals. With more than 170 years of history behind it, Mulligans has the atmosphere nailed before the first chord is even played.

 

Find tickets for events at Mulligans - HERE 

 

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One Eight Six

Where: 186 Deansgate, Manchester M3 3WB

Hidden behind a mirrored door beneath Deansgate, One Eight Six sits firmly at the smarter end of Manchester’s live music bars. Think cocktails, table service and a band playing a few metres away rather than pints and a sticky gig-room floor.

The programme is very R&B, soul and Motown-led: House of Soul takes over selected Thursdays, Fridays bring resident musicians through classic and modern R&B, and Saturdays ramp things up with a full live band covering 90s, 00s and current party favourites. One for getting dressed up and making a night of it.

 

Find tickets for events at One Eight Six - HERE

  

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Want to find out where else in Manchester your nights out can take you? Find lists of all the best clubs, pubs, gay bars, and restaurants in Manchester right here on Skiddle!

 

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