CMAT
Manchester Academy
25th November 2025

Irish pop/country crossover star CMAT waved goodbye to small venues with a joyous set of bangers.

Sometimes, when you watch an artist on the way up, you can feel it in the air as there is a discernible hum of anticipation. As this mainly young hipster crowd waited for Ireland’s latest pop star Caira Mary-Alice Thompson – aka CMAT – they were tightly wound.

The scream was primal as CMAT appeared on the Academy balcony singing the opening bars of the louche pop gem, Janis Joplining, oozing confidence as her tight six-piece band belted out the refrain at the other end of the venue. The next minute, as if by magic, she was onstage as the band switched to the caustic powerpop of the wonderfully titled The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station, as the tireless CMAT stalked back and forward across the stage fully engaged with her hard won new fans.

Taking a well earned breather, CMAT put on a fake Gallagher accent as she recalled working in TK Maxx in Manchester city centre, as she introduced I Don’t Really Care For You with the memorable line ‘I probably used to clean your piss, which resulted in a short line dancing session with her band. The poppy intensity of When A Good Man Cries had a man in a flat cap unselfconsciously dancing along, before CMAT sauntered onto a raised platform for Have Fun!, which was just that as she got the audience to wave their hands in the air.

Great art is often a response to real life, so the almost unbearably catchy groove of Take A Sexy Picture Of Me was written as a response to the trolls who targeted CMAT, trying to body shame her after a breakthrough Glastonbury show. Clad in a powder blue body suit and gold cowboy boots, CMAT was unashamedly herself, and as the audience sang the chorus, it was the biggest fuck you ever to the inadequate Incels sat in their bedrooms who would shit their pants if they ever had to face this force of nature

CMAT jumped up the steps and onto the platform and back to her winning brand of country pop for the bittersweet piano driven Tree Six Fiore, but it wasn’t all plain sailing as Coronation Street was pedestrian. Although when CMAT noted she wrote it when she lived in South Manchester suburb Chorlton, a couple of miles away, it elicited a loud shriek from one overexcited fan who clearly lived there.

This was undoubtedly the CMAT show as she was a wonderfully natural and uninhibited showgirl, but her band were completely locked into her vision, and she even dragged keyboard player Colm off his podium for a camp as tits duet on a wild Where Are Your Kids Tonight? The violin riff on the wistful Running/Planning was sublime as the band took a bow, but there was no doubt they were coming back for more

CMAT seemed genuinely surprised by the raucous reaction to the country waltz of the title track of her new album Euro-Country about the economic collapse back home after a banking crisis, which she noted was even odder as it was so specific to Ireland.

CMAT went even more country during I Wanna Be a Cowboy, Baby! yelling, “I was born to be a country singer”. There is now a tradition at a CMAT show for her to ask the whole audience to join in the simple  ‘Dunboyne Co. Meath Two Step’, named after her hometown, and there was something profoundly moving as hundreds of people swayed gently from side to side in perfect unison.

Tonight, CMAT waved farewell to venues this size, and the biggest challenge for this born performer will be how she translates her clear connection with her devoted audience into bigger halls.

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Words by Paul Clarke – more of his reviews here:

All photos by Melanie Smith – Louder Than War | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Portfolio