Heather Small fans were left bitterly disappointed at Manchester Cathedral
07:50, 01 Dec 2025Updated 08:25, 01 Dec 2025
Fans were left disappointed after waiting for hours to see Heather perform for around 25 minutes(Image: Gilles Hubbard)
Music fans have been left bitterly disappointed after purchasing tickets to a concert in Greater Manchester on Saturday night that they believe had been “mis-sold”.
R&B singer Heather Small – known for hits Proud, Moving On Up and Don’t Look Any Further – performed at Manchester Cathedral on Saturday night (November 29) as part of the Echoes live music series, which has already seen the likes of Peter Andre and the Vengaboys perform at the city centre venue.
But after paying upwards of £40 per ticket, fans were left disappointed when Heather didn’t arrive on stage until after 10pm and sung for a total of 25 minutes alongside a backing track.
Glenn Cosgrove-Zdunczyk, 43, travelled into Manchester from Cumbria on Saturday with his partner Pawel to see the R&B singer perform at the cathedral.
“Firstly one thing I do want to say is none of this is down to Heather,” Glenn explained. “It’s the organiser. When you see ‘Heather Small concert’ that’s what you expect. But I wasn’t expecting what happened.”
Heather Small came on stage at around 10:15pm on Saturday night(Image: Gilles Hubbard)
Organised by JBM Music, the doors opened for gig-goers at 6pm, with the last entry being at 8pm. Glenn, originally from Rochdale, told the Manchester Evening News fans also weren’t allowed to leave and come back in.
He explained: “We went in at about 7pm, the DJ music, everything was absolutely fantastic, but with Heather Small, the demographic is usually people in their 60s and 70s, so it didn’t quite work. The gig was all standing but there were some roped off areas where elderly people could sit or those with limited mobility.
“We actually saw Heather arrive at about 9.50pm, we saw her car pull up. And then finally at 10.20pm Heather came on the stage and at that point the security actually barged past me and my partner and took the people who were in the roped off area and pushed in front.
“So we couldn’t see and she sung for 25 minutes to a backing track and off she went. We couldn’t believe it. It took us five hours to get there because of the Manchester traffic. And then we had to wait for hours to see her.”
Glenn, who said he felt refunds should be offered, emphasised that he does not blame Heather. He said: “This is not on Heather – they push the narrative that it is Heather Small in concert when that’s not what it is.”
Gilles Hubbard, from Manchester, also attended the gig with his partner, Lukas, and his friend who had travelled from Birmingham.
Gilles, 30, told the M.E.N.: “We arrived at 6.30pm, we asked security for set times but they had no idea, so we just decided to hang around for a while. They had an in-house DJ from 8pm until 9pm but the music was not the target audience for Heather Small.
Fans were left disappointed after waiting for hours to see Heather perform for around 25 minutes(Image: Gilles Hubbard)
“All of a sudden at around 10.15pm with no introduction, she comes on, just says ‘hello’ and starts the first song. Her second song was one of the big hits, and we thought it was strange that she did it at the start. We thought ‘surely she would save that till the end’. But then after the third song she said this will be the final song. We thought she was having a laugh.”
Gilles said that the lights stayed off for a few minutes so they assumed that she was coming back on stage. But then the lights came on so they wanted to go and find someone to make a complaint.
He explained: “We wanted to lodge a complaint with security, but, they told us there had been four casualties they were attending to but that someone would be with us. Nobody came so we went to another desk to find someone to help but they told us to email and we were ushered out.”
On his way out, Gilles said there were lots of other people complaining about having to stand up for so long for such a short performance.
A number of fans posted complaints online about the gig. On ticket-buying platform Skiddle, Paul Turner wrote: “Doors open 6pm . Last entry 8pm . Heather small came on stage at 10.15pm and sang 5 songs and finished 10.35pm . Felt totally ripped off and wasted an evening out with friends. All left very disappointed.”
Paul Lewis commented: “Absolutely brilliant night but heather small on for 30 minutes waste of time wrong advertising”, and Caroline Young said: “The venue was great but we went in at 7.30pm thinking she would be on around 8/8.30pm unfortunately she wasn’t coming on till 10pm and the DJ was playing techno music, so we decided to go get something to eat and was then told we wouldn’t be allowed back in.”
Caroline Sheret penned: “Appalling. Totally miss sold an evening with Heather Small at Manchester Cathedral. She was on for 21 minutes. The sound system was very poor. We couldn’t hear what anyone said when speaking despite being central to the stage. The rest of the evening was a dj singalong with random 90’s tunes, some which were repeated. Then an hour of a screeching woman who wasn’t even in tune! Most of the audience around us were disappointed. I personally feel a full refund would be acceptable.”
On the organiser’s Facebook page, Helen Claire Lyon wrote: “Live in concert with “Heather Small” 20 min cameo! Absolutely diabolical. #Refund”
The Manchester Evening News has approached JBM Music for comment.