On June 24th, amidst the Yellow Warning heatwave and a venue ill-prepared for such, fans of Dylan Gossett gathered in their thousands. It was a sweaty affair – to say the least – but that didn’t dampen (gross, sorry) any spirits inside Manchester’s O2 Ritz.

Corey Harper stole hearts as he and his guitar took to the stage to warm up the crowd – an audience that was already packed out and singing along to his music. Telling fans it was his first time in Manchester, the ‘On the Run’ singer received generous applause and folks singing along to his tracks, including his cover of Morgan Wallen’s ‘Cover Me Up’.

As Gossett’s drummer started to kick up a beat, the conversations petered out and by the time Gossett and his band were all on stage, everyone was screaming and joined in on the first line of ‘Lone Ole Cowboy’.

The room was electric and stayed that way all night. Positioned at the back and by the bar – a happy accident, I swear – we were privy to the endless orders of ‘can I get an icy water please’, but that’s probably the only time anyone’s attention was away from Gossett and his band.

Considering he’s relatively new to the scene – he released his first single, ‘To Be Free’, June 2023 – Gossett performed like a seasoned professional. He interacted with his crowd and his band, putting on a show that was both emotive in songs like ‘Flip a Coin’, or up-tempo fun (albeit still poignant) with tracks like ‘Finally Stop Dreaming’.

Gossett also treated fans to a new song, ‘Back 40’, and a beautiful cover of ‘House of the Rising Sun’.

Originally billed to play Manchester Gorilla, Gossett’s fans sold out the venue so quickly that they upgraded to O2 Ritz Manchester and still sold the whole place out. The sheer volume of people was truly apparent in his final two songs.

Gossett closed the main section of his show with his hit single, ‘Coal’, in which the crowd sang every word back to him from the minute he played those unmistakable opening riffs.

Coming back for a one song encore, Gossett played his first single, ‘To Be Free’, that saw him sore to fame across social media. It’s no surprise that the room erupted with a sense of nostalgia that you’d expect from fans of an artist that had been on the circuit for decades. This will be a song that generates such a response for years to come.

With a mega instrumental jam to close the show, it’s worth mentioned the talent up on stage with Gossett on his ‘The Somewhere Between’ tour. Gossett shared the stage with his brother, Blake Gossett, on electric guitar, multi-instrumentalist Gray on banjo and keys, Max Lang on drums, and Mark Mayfield on bass. The band did not trip, falter or miss a beat throughout the entire set – and did I mention how hot it was in there?