The Lumineers are gearing up for their return to live shows after that enforced two year break due to the coronavirus pandemic, and Manchester is always a favourite date on their world tours.
Not least thanks to a very memorable night here with a certain Mr Wayne Rooney.
For it turns out that Manchester United legend Wayne, being a huge fan of The Lumineers' American folk rock, took it upon himself to show the band the sights and sounds of the city after a previous arena outing for the Denver hitmakers.
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Not only that - but bold Wayne even encouraged the band to sing along with him to fan anthem, Slow it Down, in a classic old boozer in the city centre.
The Lumineers' co-founder Wesley Shultz tells the Manchester Evening News: "We went to a football game in Manchester that one time, I'd never experienced a sporting game that felt like the Olympics, the stakes were high.
"Afterwards, we got to spend time with Rooney and he sang Slow It Down with us in a pub, we closed down a pub!
"We had a beautiful time hanging with him in the pub.
"The pub owner took us to this back room and it was like a shrine to him with all the photos in there, and he was looking at me winking, that was a crazy experience, I was getting to know him there in a pub."
Reflecting on that past experience today, Ho Hey star Wesley beams: "I got to walk into a place that I didn't know a lot about, compared to the amount of access we got given, so that was a really special memory in Manchester."
Wayne is among the thousands of fans who will no doubt be delighted to see The Lumineers back out on tour, off the back of their lockdown-inspired album Brightside.
The band will call at Manchester's AO Arena on Wednesday March 2 before heading to London and then on to Europe.
Wesley, along with fellow band founder Jeremiah Fraites, says writing and recording their fourth studio album was a chance to gain something good from the pandemic, at a time when the band, like the rest of the world felt so powerless.
He said: "Writing the album, it was a feeling of a start, middle, and finish - there was something empowering about that, at a time when we all felt powerless, that this was something you could tap into and do.
"It's been so frustrating, every day there's been news you think it could go either away, but I'm seeing dominoes falling away and there now seems to be some unification of people deciding to live with Covid as a reality.
"I finally feel like the tour is actually going to happen. This tour we so desperately want to do now whereas for a long time it felt almost irresponsible to do this."
The band last came to Manchester in 2019, touring their "deeply personal" album III, which played to rave reviews including a five star review here in the Manchester Evening News.
Wesley says: "For us that was the best tour we've ever been on with the album III. It was deeply personal, about my mother in law and her struggles with alcoholism and trying to help her through that, so to see that album connect to a lot of people was surprising, we did it as passion, not related to something commercial, something we felt strongly about, for it to connect so well was gratifying."
Fans can expect something "next level" for the band's return though - as Wesley says for all musicians being able to return to the stage is "like a rocket launching".
He says: "Seeing any band, whether it's us, or anyone in this immediate aftermath of the pandemic, there's genuinely something like a rocket launching - every band you see is like a kid in a candy store.
"You don't always appreciate what you have when you have it, whoever you see in these next few months, you're going to see a different side of these bands, we're genuinely happy to be up there.
"This is different, you can't really make that up, it feels like we've been waiting at the start line for two plus years.
"You're going to see a beautiful side of not only us, but also the audiences I think."
The Lumineers play Manchester AO Arena on Wednesday March 2, tickets available from £42.10
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