Cat Power plays The Greatest at Albert Hall in November

Cat Power is bringing her 2006 album The Greatest to Manchester, playing it in full at Albert Hall on Wednesday 4 November 2026. The date is part of a tour marking twenty years since the record came out, and it gives fans a chance to hear the whole album played live, from the opening title track to the closing Love & Communication.

The album was recorded in May 2005 at Ardent Studios in Memphis, with Stuart Sikes producing. Chan Marshall worked with Mabon "Teenie" Hodges and Leroy "Flick" Hodges of the Hi Records Rhythm Section, two Memphis R&B veterans whose guitar and bass give the record its warm, soulful feel. Marshall wrote all twelve songs herself, which made it the first of her albums without material from other writers. It was released on Matador and went on to get a lot of attention. It entered the Billboard 200 at number 34, and in 2006 it won the Shortlist Music Prize, making Marshall the first woman to take the award.

The album's reach has grown since then. According to Nielsen SoundScan, it had sold around 125,000 copies in the US by 2009, and it also earned a silver certification from the BPI in the UK for sales of 60,000 units. The anniversary tour follows a run of releases from Cat Power in recent years, including the Redux EP, which came out in January 2026 and features a new version of James Brown's "Try Me" alongside a reimagining of "Could We" from The Greatest.

Albert Hall is a good setting for a record like this. It is a Grade II listed former chapel in the middle of the city centre, which sat hidden for more than forty years before the Trof Group restored it in 2013 into a music and events space. The venue hosts live music, comedy and cinema nights, and its main room holds around 2,500 people standing. Tickets for the Manchester show start at £40.