Brett Young Brings Heart, Honesty, and Heat to Manchester’s Apollo
- Desh Kapur
- 1 minute ago
- 3 min read
Manchester O2 Apollo – 5th November 2025
WORDS / IMAGES PAUL DIXON
Brett wasn’t lying when he sings “You don’t know what you’re missing”, if you don’t go see him live!
Up first was Sam Fischer, who, in half an hour won over the entire 3500 mancunian audience with a voice that had a vocal range as high as an angel could sing! A highly engaging and unfussy artist who was accompanied only by an acoustic guitar. The half hour whizzed by whilst we experienced a beautiful selection of Sam’s own creations and a couple of re-engineered cover versions. Whitney would have been proud!
It may have been autumn, bonfire night and so many other large shows in Manchester last night, as well as the football down the road….. but the Apollo was rammed….I mean rammed and it was sooo hot in there! Perfect conditions for an evening of fireworks and musical bangers (sorry…had to….it was bonfire night!).
This tour is called “Back to basics” and interwoven through the set, Brett took the opportunity to converse and explain some of the insights to how the songs came about and who they were written for and about. This performance wasn’t all about razzamatazz and flashy production, this was as the equivalent of an intimate songwriters round…but shared with over 3000 people.
Brett gave each song a greater depth and connection with thousands of souls. I suspect that when you have records that have in excess of 600 million streams online, he’s enjoying the human connection of performing these songs live and feeling the warmth and love that eeks back towards the stage in waves.
One story recounted that stuck with me in particular was his desire to write a love song for his wife. A song that carried huge pressure because who would want the first song you write for your wife to be a bad one! He recounted that his overriding memory of that song was that “she liked it”… that was all he needed and he felt happy and accomplished. He continued that shortly after getting married (about 4 months) he found out Baby girl No1 was on the way! Then one night in bed, his 5 months pregnant wife rolled over to him and said “when are you gonna write her a song?” So he called a couple of song writer friends for help….how does he write a song for a daughter he’s not met yet? So a friend of his, John Knight, said he had an idea…. Write a song, to your daughter about your wife! He said “you’ll get double credit!” . You’ll take it home and make a pregnant wife very happy and then when your daughter is old enough to understand….you’ll get credit all over again! That song was “ Lately”.
Brett wove his way through the set, making it feel like we were in that tiny bar, him perched on a stool, in the writers round, sharing these songs and making life that little bit better.
Brett was joined on stage twice in the evening, with Sam Fischer coming back to the spotlight to share the song MERCY as has been the pleasure for audiences across this tour. The other was a surprise for many, a local Manchester artist that has been friends with Brett for many years. Tim Gallagher joined Brett for the final song of the set before encore with a beautiful rendition of Here Tonight.
The evening was brought to the inevitable and incredible crescendo with the worldwide phenomenon that is In Case You Didn’t Know.
The temptation was for more firework related puns to describe the evening and the performance but it felt like a gimmicky end would undermine some incredible songwriting and a performance that will live long for many that attended. There were tears, tears of happiness from many as they strode out into the heavy, smokey and explosive Manchester air.
Thanks Brett. You’re welcome back anytime ‘Rkid.
Set List
1. Sleep Without You
2. Ticket To LA
3. Tastes Like You
4. Catch
5. Kiss To Forget
6. You Didn’t
7. Lady
8. Full House
9. Drink With You
10. You Ain’t Here To Kiss Me
11. Like I loved You
12. Beautiful Crazy
13. This City
14. Mercy
15. Dance With You
16. You Still Got It
17. Who I Do It For
18. That Ain’t Yours
19. Say Less
20. Here Tonight
21. In Case You Didn’t Know
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