Vevo Halloween Gig - Manchester

Last year Vevo ran the first Halloween gig in London but for this year the on-line music channel decided to travel north to Manchester to host the second Vevo Halloween.

Instead of holding the event at one of the traditional venues in Manchester it was the Victoria Warehouse in Old Trafford that was the setting for this year's event. With a theme of survivors vs. zombies it certainly was an unusual night. Most of the audience too had made the effort to dress up in their Halloween costumes.

Entering the arena through an "army base" and then walking through the "zombie maze" where real life "zombies" were on every corner to send a shiver down your spine to the "field hospital" and then into the arena itself, it created a great atmosphere.

Sam Smith was forced to cancel his appearance at short notice as he had lost his voice and was resting on Dr's orders. Rumours that the zombies had kidnapped him were therefore totally unfounded!

It was left to other acts on the bill to uplift the mood with Smith's cancellation. Labrinth opened up the evening. He certainly knows how to work a crowd and Let the Sun Shine sounded good along with Last Time.

Playing to their home crowd Rixton arrived on stage dressed for the occasion wearing suits ranging from Spiderman to a pirate. They sound a lot older than they actually are and could be described as the UK's answer to Maroon 5. It was their #1 single this summer Me and My Broken Heart that closed their set which got the best response.

Suffering from a very bad sound mix Ella Eyre arrived on stage dressed in black leather, the mix may have been all over the place but she made up for it with a very entertaining performance. The Rudimental track that she sang lead vocals on, Waiting All Night and her own solo single, Comeback were the highlights of a set that visually was superb but was let down by a poor mix.

Gorgon City closed the love sets: alternating between their DJ duties on the decks and having guest vocalists performing tracks off their debut album, Sirens, the excellent laser show provided the perfect accompaniment to their house inspired music.

A different night that had a lot of imagination and effort put into it by the organisers, only the full moon was missing!