As part of our commitment to highlighting the best that Manchester has to offer, Umbro has regularly picked out our favourite bands from the area and given them a platform to show off their music and tell you a little about themselves. With that in mind, we’re pretty chuffed that two of the bands we’ve picked out have been up to some pretty cool stuff: first of all The Heartbreaks, a bunch of sharply-dressed mod-rock types who modelled our House Of Fraser range for us.

Having toured all over the UK over recent months, featured on Steve Lamacq’s 6Music show and been tipped for success from all quarters, The Heartbreaks have just released a single, ‘Liar, My Dear’. To celebrate, they recently played a gig here in Manchester at The Ruby Lounge, and up in Lancaster at Yorkshire House. Some of Umbro’s team headed up to watch them play at the weekend (capturing the photo at the top of the page) and were very impressed with what they heard.

The band have also made a great video for the new single, which you can check out here:

‘Liar, My Dear’ – The Heartbreaks from Tambourine Management on Vimeo.

Also getting in on the video act are another band that we’ve mentioned previously, Ten Bears. The Manchester indie five-piece were the first band to be picked out for our Tailored In Manchester feature last year, in which we invite the best local acts down to our studio to talk about what makes them tick. Since then, the band have been going from strength to strength, and are set to release their new single ‘Braces’ on April 19th. As you can see in the video below, the band have certainly pulled out all the stops for this single, they must enjoy getting covered in paint!

Here’s Ten Bears’ Tailored In Manchester video in case you haven’t seen it:

Be sure to check out the other Tailored In Manchester videos while you’re at it – Orphan Boy, Young British Artists and Run Toto Run have all got plenty planned for 2010, so it’s the ideal time to find out all about them.