Courteeners celebrate 15 years of ‘St. Jude’ at epic Heaton Park homecoming: “It means the world, this is our own backyard”

nme.com:

Courteeeners performed one of their biggest hometown shows to date at Heaton Park, Manchester last night (June 9) to celebrate 15 years of their debut album ‘St.Jude’.The Mancunian indie veterans performed in front of a 50,000 strong crowd with a two-hour set that saw the band perform their 2008 debut LP in its entirety, along with choice cuts from across their catalogue.On the same day that ‘St Jude’ hit platinum status – following it finally hitting Number One upon re-release back in January – the band kicked off proceedings with ‘Aftershow’, before launching into a flurry from the celebrated debut including ‘Cavorting’  ‘Bide Your Time’ and ‘Fallowfield Hillbilly’.Courteeners Heaton Park tonight pic.twitter.com/VzaAiEtL9U— Neil (@Harryhatch) June 9, 2023Speaking to NME moments after coming offstage at the end of the night, frontman Liam Fray attempted to process the palpable sense of occasion. “That was really, really special, I’ll tell you next week how it was because it won’t sink in for a while,” he said.“I don’t know whether it’s because we’re getting older but we’re enjoying these moments more,” he continued. “You’re aware of the mad potential when you put the show on sale, I have to look at that tonight and it has to last me.”Speaking on their enduring status as local heroes, he said: “It’s great because we weren’t cool then and we’re not fucking cool now.

You just get on with it and people like it if you’re not a pretender don’t they?”Though he mostly let the music do the talking on-stage, ahead of an acoustic flurry which included fan-favourites like ‘Please Don’t’ and ‘Smiths Disco’, Fray took a moment to take stock of things, shielding his eyes from the setting sun, letting out a laugh and saying, “Fucking.