Ryan Adams plays surprise show in Manchester
Fans pack out Soup Kitchen following Twitter announcement
Ryan Adams' Manchester-based fans will remember 27 January 2017 for some time, as the much-loved singer-songwriter dropped into the Northern Quarter's Soup Kitchen to play a solo set of songs from his forthcoming album Prisoner. With the album compiled from around 80 songs, written in the wake of his divorce from singer and actress Mandy Moore, the set included recently-unveiled cut Do You Still Love Me? and the notable highlight Doomsay.
"We're against the clock," he announced, with a club night due to start at the venue immediately after the show, although he still found time to improvise two songs: the wry Let's Get Divorced (Why Not?) was composed on the fly in response to an audience member's cheery heckle, while impromptu encore Aren't You Being Unfair On The Dancers? served as a smiling apology to waiting club night revellers.
With the majority of the set sounding reminiscent of both his 2014 self-titled album and the more introspective moments from 2004's Love is Hell, Adams was greeted with an incredibly warm response throughout. He later told the audience that Manchester was one of his favourite cities – "You gave me shit when I sucked, and I deserved it," he explained with a laugh.
Visiting the UK on a promotional tour for forthcoming album Prisoner, that had also included a performance at London's Rough Trade East and BBC session for Lauren Laverne earlier this week. Jacksonville-born Adams had announced via Twitter that he was en route to Manchester that afternoon, later posting, "Anybody wanna come listen to me play some tracks off of #PRISONER at a little place I found tonight?" The show itself was announced 50 minutes before stage time, with the queue swiftly growing to extend round the block from the Spear Street venue.
Earlier this week Adams announced his plans to write two books, one a science fiction novel and the other a memoir of his time in seminal alt country band Whiskeytown. Prisoner is released via his own label Pax Am on 17 February.
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