The Lovely Eggs

Event information

We’re delighted to be helping The Lovely Eggs celebrate 20 years – plus very special guests Frank Skinner and Polite Bureaux!

For the last 20 years, for The Lovely Eggs being in a band is a way of life. It’s about art. It’s about creativity and expression. It’s about following your own path and doing things your own way.

To celebrate two decades of operating on their own terms – spewing out music, records, art and television shows – the cult band will mark their 20th anniversary with a very special show at Academy 2 in Manchester.

‘You’ve got to hand it to The Lovely Eggs over 20 years and still making, distributing and promoting their music completely independently. In today’s climate, that’s no mean feat. It’s something to be fucking applauded – Rough Trade

‘Manchester is like a second home to us,’ says Holly. ‘It’s where we played some of our earliest gigs and the people who have come to our shows throughout the years have always brought the party.’

‘We’ve got great memories over the years from playing everywhere from Fuel and Gulliver’s to the New Century Hall and The Ritz. It’s always been great and we love coming back,’ says David. ‘We’ve had so many sold out shows in Manchester and there’s not many places we haven’t played but Academy 2 is one of them.’

Operating in a world when true authenticity is hard to find, The Lovely Eggs are one of the most exciting, innovative and genuine bands around. Welcome to their world. Welcome to Eggland.

Don’t miss the chance to celebrate 20 years with the Eggs plus very special guests at Academy 2 on Thursday 30 October.

Main support in Manchester will be Frank Skinner. Frank Skinner’s live career began in 1987 when he spent £400 of his last £435 booking a room at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Four years later in 1991 he returned to the city and took home comedy’s most prestigious prize, The Perrier Award.

Frank created The Frank Skinner Show (ITV), which is widely credited as setting the tone for the modern comedic chat show. With David Baddiel, he created and presented both Fantasy Football and Baddiel & Skinner Unplanned, and, alongside The Lightning Seeds, the pair also wrote the seminal football anthem Three Lions. Frank has also created and hosted three series of Frank Skinner’s Opinionated for BBC2, hosted seven series of BBC1’s Room 101 and seven series of Portrait/Landscape Artist of the Year for Sky Arts. He has presented documentaries covering passions including Muhammad Ali (BBC1), Elvis (BBC4) and investigating the life of George Formby (BBC4). As well as this, Frank has also co-presented three series of Sky Arts Road Trips with Denise Mina ; Boswell and Johnson’s Scottish Road Trip (2020), Wordsworth and Coleridge Road Trip (2021), and Pope and Swift (2022).

His 2019 stand-up show, Showbiz, has enjoyed a sold out national tour and subsequent sold out residency at the West End’s Garrick Theatre. His latest tour, 30 Years of Dirt, had two West End runs in 2024.

Opening the show are Polite Bureaux. Polite Bureaux recently released their second DIY studio album, EXCEPT YOUR SKiNT — poems and stories written by their dad about run-ins and daily life in Bradford. Songs trace the ups and downs of everyday life: buying scratchcards to pay for petrol, a cycling proficiency gone wrong, meeting a work coach called Colin, losing teeth, buying a van that crumbles to dust, and even using the dog’s shampoo when the Head & Shoulders ran out.

The project was started by Joseph Smith — a broken beat-maker and sharp-tongued lyricist — joined on stage by his sister Maya Lili and rave enthusiast Viv Maher. Together they deliver an intoxicating mix of spoken word, electronic beats, and punk energy.