Show: The Cake & Bake Show, Manchester Central, Fri 4 – Sun 6 April
Ever met anyone that didn’t like cake? Exactly. There’s only Humpty Dumpty and he’s been dealt with.
Last year’s show attracted 27,000 visitors and scooped the British Media Awards Event of the Year. Welcoming TV chaps Simon Rimmer from Sunday Brunch and Eric Lanlard from Baking Mad to the stage, visitors can pick up baking tips, watch live demonstrations, join competitors from the Great British Bake Off on stage and buy a million things to plonk on a cake from the marketplace.
Let's get baked
Film: Noah, Various Cinemas, Opens Fri 4 April
There came a point in 2010 when all hope for Russell Gladiator Crowe faded. Straight after that guff Robin Hood. So when news came of a loosely-based biblical epic titled Noah, you feared the worst. Time for the critical flood gates (thank you) to be thrown open. Like that other Noah one, Evan Almighty. Lord what a howler.
However, Noah has as yet been reasonably well received. Well, it hasn’t been panned, and that’s practically like winning an Oscar for this type of film. Crowe is Noah, naturally, a beefy eco-warrior family-man trying to save God’s ‘creation’ from going under the surface. It’s the bible roughed up. Swords, fire, blood and Hermione. Drink: El Capo, Tariff Street, Northern Quarter, Opens Fri 4 April
You can barely stand still in Northern Quarter without someone erecting a new bar on your head. The other day I stood still for ten seconds in Stevenson Square and a mixologist tried to climb into my ear.
El Capo, meaning ‘the boss’, is a new venture by the chaps from Whiskey Jar (next door) and promises to be a ‘new tequila and tapas bar in the NQ ‘hood’ introducing real Latin flavour to Manchester’. The bar will stock over 70 tequilas and launch a ‘hedonistic cellar restaurant’ a few weeks later. If the opening party is anything to go off we'd bring a hipflask, mind. It's roughly 47 deep at the bar. @ElCapoNQ
El Capo
Exhibition: From Street To Trench, Imperial War Museum North, Opens Sat 5 April
From Street To Trench: A World War That Shaped A Region is a new exhibition by IWM North detailing the vital contribution the North West made to the WWI. With 2014 marking 100 years since the outbreak of the war, the museum has collected together over 200 objects, films, recordings, photos, letters and artworks.
As the North West was a major focus for recruitment, many left the region for the first time to serve across the globe. The exhibition reveals previously unpublished stories of soldiers, sailors and pilots who fought in all of the major campaigns, from Gallipoli in Turkey to the Somme in France and Ypres in Belgium. Explore the impact of the conflict on life in England by stepping into Stockport Market in 1914, walking down a northern terraced street, and following the journey of many to the trenches of the Western Front and beyond.
IWM North
Music: EPMD, Gorilla, Sat 5 April, 7pm-10pm
You’re best chance to see a Rap duo you’ve never heard of. Still, there's worse ways to drop £25... Pizza Express for a start.
Once described as the ‘rap equivalent of a rock and roll band’, EPMD stands for Erick and Parrish Making Dollars. Street. Hailing from Long Island, the duo have been active for over quarter of a century and are regarded as the most influential underground hip-hop group from the late 80s to early 90s. Before the inevitable solo projects and financial disagreements… involving one breaking into the others flat to nick some booty. Musicians ay? Who’d have ‘em? The pair kissed and made up in 2006.
EPMD
Dance: Lord Of The Flies, The Lowry, Until Sat 5 April
William Golding's classic dystopian novel of stranded young boys turned savage has been adapted into a new dance-theatre production by Director Matthew Bourne's New Adventures and choreographed by Oliver nominated Scott Ambler.
The production sees local dancers from the region alongside professional dancers as the stranded schoolboys are transported from a desert island to a deserted theatre as they form gangs, turn cannibalistic and go generally ape shit.
Lord of the Flies
Family: Power From Muscle To Machine, MOSI, Opens Sat 5 April
‘See how machinery – big and small – has whizzed and propelled Manchester into life.’
MOSI is showing off all its muscle in the run up to Easter, firing up everything that wizzes, swooshes and bangs on from water to steam, gas to diesel and electricity from the museum’s arsenal of nineteenth- century machinery. Find out how Manchester has created, harnessed and used power over time and see how machinery - from the very small to the extremely big - has pumped, dragged and propelled Manchester into life.
FREE. More here.
'Now tell me we don't look the dogs in these hats'
Markets: Urban Markets at Old Granada Studios and Levenshulme Market, Sat 5 - Sun 6 April
There’s a brace of corking weekend markets for Manchester here:
Old Granada Studios first weekly Urban Markets:
As the TV lot jump ship, the former 14-acre home of Corrie on Quay Streets is undergoing a cultural and artistic facelift with a view to becoming a city centre hub for pop-up markets, fairs, fashion shows, festivals, foodie events, exhibition spaces, music events, theatre, art, anything really. This Saturday welcomes the first gourmet and street food market, BITE, while Sunday sees the Finders Keepers bric-a-brac, antiques and flea market. More here.
Levenshulme Market, Handmade and Home:
Saturday is market day in Levenshulme Station car park. The first Saturday of each month is a crafty one, Handmade and Home offers all sorts of gubbings for your castle: soaps, cushions, art, vinyl, coasters, throws, stitched stuff, jewellery, aprons, candles, wooden gifts, bowls and sheep art. Eh? The house and home traders will be bolstered by all the usual food offerings like All About Cheese, Bobby’s Bangers and Orchard House pate. Because a market without food is like dancing without music. Stupid. 10am-4pm. More here.
Old Granada
Run: Asics Greater Manchester Marathon, Old Trafford, Sun 6 April
Billed as the 'flattest, fastest and friendliest' marathon in the country, this is the 38th installment of the Manchester Marathon following the first back in 1909. The race begins and ends at Old Trafford taking in Stretford, Sale, Timperley, Altrincham and Urmston with thousands expected to be lining the route to cheer the runners on.
Music: Justin Timberlake, Phones4U Arena, Mon 7 – Tues 8 April, 8pm
A man of many reinventions and comebacks (not least in thirteen films) Mr JT, now 32, has once again rebranded himself, this time as a tuxedo-wearing Sinatra-cum-Jacko. It’s now seven years since JT’s FutureSex/LoveSounds sold ten million albums, with last year’s 20/20 Experience developing a prog soul-pop that bowled over critics, the Memphis-born white-Pharrell just keeps on impressing. He’s also designed an award-winning golf course. No really he has. Show off. Not even Trousersnake could save MySpace, mind.
Tickets £arm-and-a-leg from here.
Seen my Britney impression?
Tour: FREE Entry To Manchester United Museum, Old Trafford, Through April
Wary that fans were becoming a little grouchy with the team’s on-the-pitch slump, the club have decided to give something back to the fans off-the-pitch. You know, keep ‘em sweet. And with Malcolm Glazer reportedly unwilling to sacrifice his head, or even a toe, the marketing team have come up with this instead. Not only can Utd fans visit the city’s ‘Best Large Visitor Attraction 2013’ for free for the whole of March, but they can now do the same for April, and for every month from now on until the team starts being good again.
Old Trafford Tour
Art: Jonathan Yeo: Portraits, The Lowry Special Exhibitions Gallery, Until 29 June
Self-taught Jonathan Yeo is one of Britain best portrait painters, especially well known for his paintings of performers, artists and politicians including: Kevin Spacey, acting as Richard III, Damien Hirst dressed in chemical protection suit, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Parkinson, Prince Philip, Dennis Hopper, Grayson Perry and Idris Elba. The exhibition includes additional paintings, drawings and preparatory materials especially for The Lowry.
Jonathan Yeo
Music: Elbow, Phones4U Arena, Weds 9 April
Thirteen years after their Mercury-nominated debut, Elbow are celebrating topping the album charts for the first time after the release of their sixth studio album, The Take Off And Landing Of Everything. Local lads dun’ good, the band are heading back to their hometown for this one off arena show. Unassuming and wary of the limelight, Elbow have dug out a name and reputation for themselves through years of hard graft, tireless music making and impeccable craftsmanship. One of Manchester’s finest exports.
Tickets £33 are sparse, last few here.
