‘Wonky soul-infused pop with a social conscience’ meets emotionally charged, sonically expansive songwriting.

Please note, the advertised start time is when our doors will open, generally music starts one hour after doors.

Fresh Thursday is a unique regular event that showcases new music alongside a home-cooked meal. For more information about how this event works please read the info at the bottom of this event carefully. Thank you. If you have a dietary requirement you can indicate it by selecting one of the free add-ons when purchasing your ticket.

Please note we are unable to offer refunds. You can click here to view our full refunds policy.

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Described by Rolling Stone Australia as creating “soulful, sophisticated music that feels both timeless and completely contemporary”, Arjuna Oakes is a New Zealand-born, London-based artist whose genre-fluid sound draws on soul, jazz, alternative rock, folk, electronic music, and contemporary classical. Backed by a formidable live band, his songs take on a different life on stage, emotionally charged, sonically expansive, and built around exceptional musicianship.

Arjuna has built a reputation as one of the most exciting acts currently emerging from London’s underground scene, selling out Ronnie Scott’s, performing at the Royal Albert Hall in the Elgar Room, Manchester Jazz Festival, London Jazz Festival, and packing out Brick Lane Jazz Festival in 2026. He has opened for Bilal, Jordan Rakei, Moonchild, and Allen Stone, while earning tastemaker support from Gilles Peterson, Jamie Cullum, China Moses, Harvey Sutherland, Jazz FM, BBC Radio 6, KEXP, and Spotify Fresh Finds.

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Mancunian music-maker Ellen Beth Abdi uses live loops, pokey drums, undulating synths and quietly subversive lyrics to mould her unique sound. ‘Wonky soul-infused pop with a social conscience’.

Ellen’s enchanting and distinctive voice has gained her spots at Maida Vale, Radio 4’s Loose Ends, 6 Music Festival, We Out Here, Manchester O2 Apollo and support slots for Olivia Dean, Hollie Cooke, Ishmael Ensemble, Oscar Jerome and Allysha Joy. She was invited to collaborate live with music legend Angélique Kidjo, opening Aviva Studios for Manchester International Festival 2023 and was selected for Jazz North’s Northern Line programme in 2025.

'One of Manchester’s finest' - Craig Charles

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More about FRESH Thursdays...

FRESH happens every Thursday during our open seasons. It is a platform to bring you fresh new music served up alongside a homecooked plant based meal, board games and candles. It can be hard to get people out to hear music that they don’t know yet & this is why we decided to offer dinner as an incentive to try something new, these gigs are cosy, communal nights and often you get to hear completely new music for the very first time. The music varies across multiple genres but it is usually fairly gentle listening type music & well suited to a relaxed Thursday night. The gigs are seated and during the sets the audience is very music focused & quiet with time to chat in between the sets and at the end when we keep the bar open.

We cook the food from scratch usually and dinner is well suited to lover of vegetables and wholesome cooking, it's usually something like a dhal, veggie chilli, tacos, roast veg or similar, our base line is vegan sometimes with veggie options. We can cater for nut/gluten free meals, but nuts & gluten are used in the kitchen so if you have serious allergies please bear that in mind.

Doors at 7pm, we aim to get dinner ready by 8pm and will bring it to you when its ready… music usually starts around 8pm, sometimes later if it’s a busy night for food (we are a tiny team) and we aim to have the music finished by 10-10.15 pm. We can only guarantee dinner with advance tickets and these days we cap dinner at 60 meals and the food tickets do often sell out.

We hope/think it's obvious that quality music and dinner for £10 is all about culture & community and that these events cost us money… If you can afford to purchase a higher level ‘Cobalt supporters‘ ticket we appreciate the additional help towards costs very much.

Description supplied by the event organiser.