Yahoo News The Mancunian Way: Throw those curtains wide
Hello
For the bosses of Co-op Live it must have been music to their ears… before a note had even been played. As local heroes Elbow took the stage last night a huge cheer rang out.
After weeks of chaos and delays Britain’s biggest indoor arena was finally open. Ahead of the show a defiant Tim Leiweke, chief exec of American operators Oak View Group, told the M.E.N. it was time to ‘stop the kicking and start appreciating’ what the huge new venue will bring to the city.
And as Guy Garvey and co kicked off their 19-song set, the thousands of fans packed inside roared their approval.
“It's been a tumultuous start in this venue's history,” writes Chris Slater in his review of the concert. “But in the end, could there be a more fitting opening act than Garvey and his merry band of men on a drizzly Manchester day?
“They finish their rip-roaring 19-song-set with the anthem of all anthems, One Day Like This. The soundtrack of countless wedding first dances, it has truly cemented itself as one of the stone-cold classics of recent decades, becoming akin to a modern-day English folk song.
“Phone torches are held aloft and arms sway. It is the perfect finale. Tonight, the curtain came up, and Elbow threw it wide.”
The true cost of Co-op Live
Before last night’s opening it was also revealed the delays have meant the cost of building Co-op Live has soared to £450m, an increase of £85m. Tim Leiweke said the extra expenditure has been ‘painful’ but ‘they've taken it on the chin’.
"Are we spending more than anyone anticipated originally? Yes, but it will be worth it,” he said. "OVG and City Football Group, including our contractor and what they’ve had to put in in losses, we will spend close to £450m privately.
“The contractor [BAM] lost a lot of money on this job. This job cost them more than anyone ever expected. We’ve been building this arena for five years, this is the longest construction I’ve ever seen on any arena ever built, it’s a complicated beast."
‘They just posted it to him… nobody had any idea’
Harry Durose was found dead at his supported accommodation in Hyde, Tameside, on March 3. Drugs containing nitazenes - a synthetic opioid that has been linked to dozens of deaths across the UK in recent months - were discovered inside the 21-year-old’s address.
It’s understood police are investigating whether Harry's death was linked to the drug, which can be hundreds of times more potent than heroin. Officers are currently awaiting the results of a post-mortem that will determine whether he had taken drugs containing nitazenes, and if it was responsible for his death.
If confirmed, it would make Harry the first person in Greater Manchester whose death has been linked to nitazenes. Harry's mother, Amy Durose, said she believed her son had unknowingly taken the drug after buying black market diazepam, which he used to treat a chronic condition called hypermobility.
"They just posted it to him and nobody had any idea," said Ms Durose. "I just wish he had told me. He was very clued up on prescription drugs. If he had known these nitazenes existed, he would not have risked it.
"Harry was not a drug addict, he was not going buying drugs on the streets. All he was trying to do was replace his prescription.”
On your bike
Cycle lanes have been in the M.E.N. headlines a lot recently… and for all the wrong reasons. Shopkeepers in Castleton in Rochdale and Chorlton in south Manchester say major cycle lane schemes have killed trade, while there’s also been concerns they cause problems for visually impaired people.
But campaigners in Salford say plans for a new £5m bike route and improvements to footpaths on Oldfield Road will transform a growing part of the city. Harry Gray, from campaign group Walk Ride Salford, said Oldfield Road was once a ‘very hostile environment’ for cyclists and pedestrians, but it has been improving in recent years since pop up cycle lanes were introduced around the area during the pandemic.
He added: "It's a really useful scheme, it connects the city centre of Salford to places such as Media City and Trafford. It's a busy road so anything there for cyclists is useful.
"It's at the heart of a new community. That area has seen more people move there recently, so the street really needs upgrading with things like more crossings.
"But it's more than just a cycle lane, it's transforming the neighbourhood. There's not much road space for walking and cycling at the moment, so this will change the way people behave."
Sawdust, mullets and £60K on kebabs
Thousands of mullets, nightclub floors covered in sawdust and £60,000 spent on kebabs. They were just some of the sights and sounds when 6,000 'maniac' Young Farmers sporting mullets descended on Blackpool for their annual conference.
The DIY Young Farmers AGM took over the resort for a three-day spree. And it looks like they made the most of their trip to the seaside.
"Put it this way, if you're Blackpool you would have known they were there,"said Sam Hargreaves, one of the organisers. "They're lunatics, they're off their head.
“They're covered in sawdust. There's a video currently going viral of the floor in the nightclub and everyone is thinking it's mud on the floor. But, it's not. All of our venues out of their choice put sawdust down on the floor, which I know sounds barbaric."
Weather etc
Thursday: Cloudy changing to light rain by lunchtime, 18C.
Trains: Buses run instead of trains on Transpennine Express and Northern services between Huddersfield and Manchester Airport until May 17 due to engineering works.
Manchester headlines
Terror suspects: Police patrols have been stepped up in Greater Manchester after two terror suspects appeared in court accused of plotting an Islamic State-inspired gun attack against members of the Jewish community in the North West. Walid Saadaoui, 36, of Crankwood Road, Abram, Wigan, and Amar Hussein, 50, of no fixed abode, are accused of plotting to carry out an Islamic State-inspired gun attack. The two men are alleged to have plotted a terror attack designed to cause 'multiple fatalities using automatic weapons' in the North West of England, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard yesterday.
Tax probe: Coronation Street star Beverley Callard is currently under investigation after her acting firm failed to settle a £100,000 tax bill. Her acting company, of which she is a director, went into voluntary liquidation last year owing HMRC £101,554 in outstanding tax and VAT. Beverley and husband Jon McEwan have also failed to repay £114,000 in director's loans they took out from the company, called JMBJ Limited. Read more
High speed chase: A reckless driver reached speeds of 150mph while a three-year-old child was sat on a passenger's knee before ploughing into a lamppost. Police chased the Audi A3 through Heywood, Rochdale and Whitworth on Tuesday night before it smashed into a lamppost on Bentley Street. More here
Worth a read
A Manchester Arena attack survivor is hoping to be crowned Miss England – saying she feels honoured to be able to compete for the accolade. Modelle Hughes-Gervis, from Salford, was just 14 when she was caught up in the May 2017 tragedy which left 22 dead.
Modelle was still in the arena when the bomb detonated but managed to escape without injury – however the tragedy has had a lasting impact on her mental health. “Being 14 and having to deal with the trauma of knowing and seeing people had lost their lives at a concert I was also at was a lot to process,” she told Paige Oldfield.
“It did ruin my confidence as a young teen. I was scared to go into big crowds, I was scared whenever I heard a loud bang and I still do get triggered when I hear them.”
