Yungblud @ AO Arena, Manchester, 25/04/26
- John Hayhurst
- Apr 26
- 3 min read
Confetti, Sweat and Sabbath: a full-throttle arena show with no let-upYungblud pushes his Idols era hard, turning Manchester into a loud, restless singalong
Words - John Hayhurst
Photos - Gary Mather
The Molotovs arrive with no excess, just speed and intent. Fronted by Mathew and Issey Cartlidge, they play a wiry, guitar-led sound that pulls from UK punk and mod revival without turning it into pastiche.
The songs are short, direct and built to land quickly—tight riffs, even daring to tackle a Bowie cover (Suffragette City) there’s no space wasted. It’s closer to The Jam than anything contemporary, and they treat the arena like a blown-up club show, keeping things fast and functional.
‘Today’s Gonna Be our Day’ goes down well and even some fans at the front knew the words.
The Warning shift the sound completely. The Villarreal sisters—Dany, Pau and Ale—bring a heavier, more technically controlled sound.
Where The Molotovs deal in punky bursts, The Warning stretch their songs out, building around thick riffs and precise rhythm work.
Pau Villarreal’s drumming is the anchor throughout, driving everything forward while the vocals stay clear and steady over the top. There’s a technical edge here that stands out.
The arrangements are tight, the dynamics carefully handled, and the whole set feels calibrated for a bigger stage. It feels like proper hard rock with flashes of metal and alternative influences, but never drifts into excess.
Then the house lights drop, the screams are ear bursting and Black Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs’ rolls in, loud enough to rattle the seats. Confetti cannons fire before anyone’s fully settled. Yungblud appears, shades on, leopard-print waistcoat catching the light, and goes straight into ‘Hello, Heaven Hello’. No pause, no easing in. It’s immediate, physical, and already slightly chaotic.
This is the Idols Tour, built around his latest album, and the newer material dominates. The waistcoat is gone by the second song; he’s stripped to the waist, black leather trousers hanging low with chains, already slick with sweat. He moves constantly—running the length of the stage, throwing high kicks, grabbing a guitar for bursts before ditching it again. There’s no dead air. Even between songs, he barely stops moving.
‘The Funeral’ lands early, met with a surge of voices that nearly drowns him out. He lets it happen, stepping back from the mic, arms out, conducting rather than leading. Then it’s back into motion. ‘Loner’ and ‘Fleabag’ keep things tight and fast, the latter turning into one of the night’s defining moments when he pulls a fan onstage to handle some guitar duties. It’s messy in places, but that’s the point—no polish, just contact.
Mid-set, he dips into ‘My Only Angel’, his Aerosmith collaboration, which adds a different texture. It’s looser, swaggering in a way that nods directly to classic rock. That thread runs through the whole show: big gestures, big hooks, but delivered at speed.
The standout comes with his Grammy award winning version of ‘Changes’, originally by Black Sabbath and is probably the reason why he’s shot up the career ladder into a worldwide stadium filling act. He dedicates it to Ozzy with a heartfelt tribute, the arena lifts thousands of phone lights. The tempo drops, the band pulls right back, and for once he stands still. The vocal is precise, controlled, and carries cleanly across the room. It’s the only point in the set where everything narrows to one single focus.
From there, the pace ramps again. ‘Ghosts’ and ‘Zombie’ form the encore, both delivered at full tilt. By now, the confetti has stuck to sweat-soaked faces across the floor, giving the front rows a papier-mâché look. He’s still moving like it’s the first song—high kicks intact, voice holding.
What stands out isn’t just the volume or the scale, but the commitment. This is a proper arena show in the old sense—physical, excessive, built to be felt as much as heard. And he doesn’t pace himself.
He leaves the stage still in motion, as if stopping isn’t part of the plan.
Right now, he is probably the biggest up and coming rock star in the world, it won’t be long before he headlines Download and Leeds/Reading, maybe even Coachella and Glastonbury, but he is still very proud of his Doncaster, Yorkshire roots. The lad from Donny did it reyt !
