Let's stop for a minute and contemplate everything that Devin Townsend has done to make his headline appearance possible. He has assembled a backing band of British based musicians especially for the performance. A backing band that only met Devin this Saturday just gone and have had under a week to become a well drilled unit. He has put together an entire British based road crew from scratch just for this show. And he has traveled over from his native Vancouver and spent ten nights isolating in a mid price chain hotel room in Manchester, just so he can play for an hour and a half on Friday night.

There is dedication, there is being a man of your word and there is Devin Townsend. This is about far more than just fulfilling a commitment, this is another notch on the bed post of Devin's titanic love affair with this country. The “By A Thread' series of shows happened here, “The Retinal Circus” happened here, the full Ziltoid Live performance happened here and it was Blighty that embraced his irreverent world view long before anyone else. Christ we even let him soundtrack a Cbeebies programme.

He may be Canadian but he is still a national treasure. The effort, the ongoing relationship and the fact that he has a back catalogue like no other means that Friday is destined to be special. It will be a "I was there" moment to savour and remember. There, who said that worldwide pandemics don’t have silver linings.

Playing: Friday, 13th August 2021

Stage: Ronnie James Dio Stage

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