Music stars lend a hand at Manchester food bank ahead of aid concert

Video report by Correspondent Mel Barham

Musicians from some of the North West's most successful bands have been helping out at a foodbank in Manchester.

They will take part in Music Feeds Live later this month, a charity concert at the city's O2 Apollo venue, to raise money for foodbanks across the country.

Saul Davies from James, Peter Hooton the lead singer of Liverpool group The Farm, and James Walsh from Starsailor, spent the day at Manchester Central Foodbank in the city centre.

There will be more than a dozen artists taking part in the gig on February 27th.

Saul Davies, the guitarist with the band James, has gathered together the line-up, spurred on by an online gig which raised a million pounds during lockdown in January 2021.

He said: "It's delicate, you could say we shouldn't have foodbanks in Britain, but we do have them and they need funds."

The three band members helped fill shelves at the foodbank earlier, which is now helping around 1,300 people a month.

Staff say they are seeing people working full time and the demand for their service is not falling but rising.

The gig will be hosted by football 'rivals' Manchester United's Gary Neville and Liverpool's Jamie Carragher.

Liverpool fan Peter Hooton joked that he was looking forward to meeting Neville to "put him straight on a few things".

Those taking part want to use their voices to raise awareness of the growing problem of food poverty while putting money into the charities that run foodbanks.

Tickets for Music Feeds Live can be bought here.

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