Andy Burnham has blind-ranked his favourite British bands, including Oasis, Elbow, The Smiths and Wolf Alice. Check out what he had to say below.
The former Greater Manchester Mayor is now on course to succeed Keir Starmer as Labour leader and Prime Minister, following the PM announcing his resignation last month.
For a while now, Burnham has been linked with a return to Westminster and a future Labour leadership bid, and he returned to the Commons as Labour MP for Makerfield last month. After Starmer confirmed his decision to stand down, Burnham secured the backing of 322 Labour MPs – making it very likely he will be sworn in as Prime Minister on July 20.
Now, in a new interview the MP has done a blind-ranking of five of his favourite bands, placing Britpop legends Oasis at Number One.
Elbow came in at Number Two, followed by Courteeners and Wolf Alice. “I like them a lot,” he said about the latter, adding that he wanted to play it safe and put them at Number Four as he didn’t know what bands would be named next, and thought he would “probably like some things coming a bit more”.
Rounding off the list was The Smiths, although Burnham said that if he had known the bands that would be mentioned first he would have moved them up in the ranking.
Burnham has spoken about his love of music – particularly the Manchester music scene – many times over the years, and even got permission from Oasis to use their hit song ‘Some Might Say’ in a recent by-election campaign video.
Back in 2021, the MP also gave a shout out to The Courteeners during his Greater Manchester mayoral election victory speech, quoting ‘Not Nineteen Forever’ and telling the crowd: “God bless the band. If you know, you know…”
Last week, the Liam Fray-led band backed the politician in his Labour leadership bid and said that he thinks he has done “a fantastic job in Manchester”.
Later this year, Burnham will be joining Steve Coogan in participating in Manchester’s Beyond The Music 2026 – an event designed to “raise, discuss and solve some of the biggest problems facing the creative industries” currently.
The event will bring together major voices in music, tech, film, gaming and content, as well as various political figures. At the 2026 edition, which runs between October 6 and 9, Burnham will convene the ‘All Content Global AI Summit’.
The politician helped confirm that the live event – which he helped found – would be returning in 2026. He said it would continue to explore current issues facing the music industry via keynote conversations, industry showcases and networking opportunities.
“Greater Manchester has always been willing to take a stand on the issues that matter – standing up for the people behind the music, making sure they are recognised, rewarded and able to build sustainable careers,” he explained earlier this year.
He also spoke to NME along with other figures from the music industry in 2024 about the festival, and highlighted the dire need to support grassroots music venues and new artists across the UK.
NME asked him for his reaction to Coldplay making their own ticket levy – after the band announced they would donate 10 per cent of their profits from their 2025 UK stadium shows to save the grassroots – and the later recommendations from MPs to add a £1 levy on arena and stadium gigs.
“I wholeheartedly support it,” Burnham said. “I made a call here last year that the industry needs to do more to give back to support its own grassroots venues, rehearsal spaces and talent development systems. I think it’s brilliant, and I applaud Coldplay for doing that.”
Before then, Burnham spoke to NME in 2023 about the inaugural Beyond the Music conference, and opened up about how he hopes it would help “galvanise” the music industry, particularly as issues affecting it often fall on “deaf ears” at Westminster.
In that interview, he said that “it’s just wrong” that the careers of young musicians continue to suffer due to the way Brexit has impacted touring.
“It’s having a huge impact and there’s growing frustration about it. The whole business of touring in Europe is much more complicated than it used to be…it runs counter to the way music works, to the spontaneity of it,” he said.
“Some people can’t tour now because it’s just too complex. I’ve certainly heard a lot of that, of cancelled shows, missed shows because of hold ups [at borders]. People are struggling to take up opportunities in Europe,” he continued, echoing findings in a report that showed almost 50 per cent of UK musicians were working less in Europe since Brexit.
