Two boroughs, one stage: Oldham and Tameside strike a chord at annual music showcase

The Vale's annual showcase of the very best of Oldham and Tameside returns this June.

In Our Backyard 3 hands the stage over to six top post-punk, indie and experimental bands from across the two boroughs on Saturday, June 20, 2026 from 6-11pm. 

Specialising in discordant, hypnotic repetition, tales of nights out, and radical politics, Tameside's Loose Articles are a punk quartet with plenty to say.  Their music speaks to all those determined to get through the age of austerity with tongue in cheek, and two feet firmly on the dance floor.  

Plying repetition with ragged edges and a sardonic, sarcastic drawl delivered with fierce, in your face, punk-fuelled attitude, both feminine and threatening, Loose Articles are here to make a point.  

Meanwhile, joyous and surreal Oldham band Sugar Crease will take you on a scintillating musical journey, evoking the spirit of Talking Heads, Happy Mondays and Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.  

With two high-spirited frontmen and some outrageously catchy tunes, the group was originally solely intended as a shed-based experimental three piece.  

But in 2023 the line-up expanded to six members, who started to prepare for live performance, culminating in sold out shows around their local Oldham and Tameside area. 

Also on the bill are Shelf, a Saddleworth band you can love for life, who offers up a hypnotic mixture of guitar-based dream pop set, warm layers of ethereal vocals, set against a pulsing wall of sound.  

Beautiful shimmering melodies, refined, finely spun rhythms, golden intertwining harmonies, a fuzzy glow. Kick back and let Sal, Pip, Mat and Dean take you into an endless summer, a timeless place. 

plus44Kaligula is the project of Oldham composer, producer and performance artist Cally Statham.  

Raised between the rock and hard place of British icons David Bowie and Annie Lennox and on-screen legends such as Daniel Day Lewis, plus44Kaligula's creation is a deadpan, surrealist landscape where ego and identity collapse evoking scenes of Rene Magritte and Yorgos Lanthimos – crafting a modern myth for fractured times. 

Mossley post punk outfit Gaol Bird is the new musical home of former Cabbage frontman Lee Wilson Rabello, "The Bird" offer a "vitriolic array of human emotions for cathartic release". 

And Oldham and Saddleworth's Stepford Wives are an alternative band whose sound sits between post-punk tension, grunge grit and melodic indie restraint.  

Their songs deal in pressure, endurance and emotional honesty, favouring atmosphere and dynamics over excess.  

Known for immersive live performances, Stepford Wives makes music that trusts their audience and rewards repeat listens. 

To top it all off, DJ sets from DJ Jason Rushton (The Snug Coffee House) will keep the music banging until midnight. 

The standing show has an age restriction of 14+, and under-18s must be accompanied by an adult. 

In Our Backyard 3 is on Saturday, June 20, 2026, from 6-11pm at The Vale, Unit 2 Vale Mill, Micklehurst Road, Mossley, Tameside OL5 9JL. 

Tickets are £15 with a limited number of pay as you feel tickets available at:  https://the-vale.co.uk/event/in-our-backyard-3/