Dua Lipa performs onstage during her Radical Optimism tour at Anfield on June 25, 2025
Dua Lipa performs onstage during her Radical Optimism tour at Anfield on June 25, 2025
Liverpool has enjoyed quite the summer of music. First, Radio 1's Big Weekend , seeing around 100,000 people to Sefton Park for three days of music.
This month, attention has turned to the north of the city as and at Liverpool FC's Anfield stadium, before to grace the home of the Reds. The Anfield concerts have become a welcome fixture of Liverpool summers, bringing the world's biggest musicians to our city - this year's cohort have followed , Elton John and The Rolling Stones in recent years.
Having been lucky enough to be there myself for Bruce's second night, when he brought out , I can say how amazing these gigs are. Seeing Bruce was one incredible thing but watching perform live in Liverpool is something that will stay with me forever.
The party has not just been restricted to Sefton Park and Anfield either. Liverpool's glorious hosting of Eurovision in the summer of 2023 has led to a renaissance of the Pier Head being used for concerts.
Having worked so well as the home of the EuroVillage two years ago, the space has been used excellently for the On the Waterfront gigs. It's all meant that we're not even at the end of June and this summer has already seen so many huge gigs across the city of Liverpool.
This place . And when the sun's out, there's nowhere like it. Added to that, Everton's Hill Dickinson stadium will soon provide yet another great option for summer gigs.
I think there is a slight problem, however. This can all be weather dependent and, in the case of the football grounds, there are precious few weeks between Premier League seasons when they can be used for live music.
Lana Del Rey performs live on stage at Anfield on June 28, 2025 (Image: Nicky J Sims/Getty Images for ABA)
The strength in depth of big venues we have in the warmer months is simply not there when it comes to winter.
The was a fine addition to Liverpool's waterfront and has played host to many major events since it opened as the Arena in 2008. It is an attractive building in a great setting, surrounded by a conference facility that is a significant economic player for the city.
But as I've noted before, there is a feeling it is constrained by its 11,000 capacity, affecting its ability to bring in the biggest musicians. I don't always want to compare us with Manchester, but too often these days, arena tours stop there but don't make the journey down the M62.
Our neighbours' 23,500-capacity arena Co-op Live had a difficult start to life, punctuated by a litany of errors and delays which made it a bit of a punchline and . Those issues seem to have been ironed out, however, and it is now competing with the best concert venues on the planet.
Look at its schedule of events and it is littered with huge acts. On the way in the next few months are Drake, Stevie Wonder and Olivia Rodrigo.
But maybe the most telling moment arrived last year when our city's most famous son - the aforementioned Paul McCartney - took his 'Got Back' world tour to the Co-op for two nights. Granted, the British leg of the tour only took in two nights apiece in Manchester and London, but it should not be .
We have to do something about that. As well as , one of Europe's largest indoor venues, Manchester also boasts the existing AO Arena, which holds 21,000 people and still attracts huge names from comedy, sport and music. It is not a bad position for that city to be in.
There should be no reason why Liverpool cannot enjoy such an advantageous position as well. The is still a fine asset, but I think building a second, larger arena could only be a good thing. There are brownfield sites across the city that would be ripe for building such a venue.
People might balk at the idea, suggesting that artists wouldn't play arena shows in two cities 40 miles apart on the same tour. But why wouldn't they want the revenue from 20,000 ticket sales in Liverpool as well as Manchester?
And why wouldn't they want to come to Liverpool? Both and Taylor made a point of hailing the incredible atmosphere that greeted them in Merseyside.
This summer's attendances at Anfield, Sefton Park and down on the Pier Head show the appetite Scousers have to watch these stars grace our home city. Let's make sure it can happen all year round.
Maybe most importantly of all - Liverpool bills itself as a music city. It produced . Among many things, that now has to mean it attracts this generation's biggest stars on every tour.