Peter Kay's Co-op Live gigs cancelled AGAIN with The Black Keys concert also postponed

Co-op Live bosses have confirmed that the venue will not open this weekend - with The Black Keys and next week's Peter Kay's gigs rescheduled. The £365m venue was due to open on Saturday evening with The Black Keys performing, however the gig has now been moved to Wednesday, May 15.

The venue was originally slated to open on Tuesday evening (April 23) with Bolton comedian Peter Kay officially opening the landmark entertainment venue, but on Monday both gigs were rescheduled to next week. Now, the two Peter Kay gigs will take place on Thursday, 23 May and Friday, 24 May, while the first gig at the 23,500 venue will be A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie on Wednesday, May 1.

Last night, Co-op Live's general manager, Gary Roden, spectacularly quit after 12 months in the job. The original delay to opening was due to work not yet being complete on the Eastlands venue, which sits opposite the Manchester City Football ground. On Monday morning, the council's building control was yet to sign off on the building - an issue that persisted throughout the week.

READ MORE: What Co-op Live's ex-boss told the M.E.N. two weeks before he quit

Confirming the rescheduling to Manchester Evening News, Tim Leiweke, CEO of Oak View Group, who own the venue, said: "We continue to work with the city, police, fire, council, life safety [the American term for health and safety] and there are still systems that we either are working on or had to test in particular. So in an abundance of extra caution, we're making sure that we can reschedule again."

It comes after a turbulent week for the venue, which has seen tickets cancelled at the last minute, gigs rescheduled and an ongoing issue with power at the £365m entertainment complex. Late Saturday afternoon (April 20), thousands saw their invitations to Saturday's test show featuring a performance from Rick Astley, revoked less than two hours before the event - cutting capacity from around 11,000 to 4,000.

At the time, the M.E.N. revealed that police and fire officers had concerns prior to the decision being taken. Two days later, the venue confirmed that Peter Kay's two back-to-back shows had been postponed by a week, with the venue still not ready to open.

Problems with power at the site are believed to have affected fire safety and emergency services communication systems. Insiders have claimed that 'everything was run down to the wire' ahead of the test show.

Following the test event and rescheduling of Peter Kay's gigs, Co-op Live bosses had said the venue would host The Black Keys on April 27 in the lower bowl - with 10,000 fans - as planned, and that they would 'continue to test the resilience of the venue and its operations'. However, that has also been pushed back.

On the rescheduling, Mr Leiweke added: "Peter Kay has been fantastic. I can vouch, he has a very good sense of humour. God bless him. He's agreed to push back to May 23 and 24. And that gives us a few extra days next week as well.

"I never thought A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie is going to open the building, but A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie is going to open the building. God bless him. They will be the first.

"Olivia's [Rodrigo] people are here as we speak so you'll see them walking through here doing set ups and a check. She'll move in Thursday and then she's Friday, Saturday next week.

"Black Keys have moved to May 15. So we didn't lose anybody, we didn't cancel anything. We just bought ourselves another week. Could we do an event in the building tomorrow? Probably, but we haven't tested everything."

Last night, Co-op Live's general manager, Gary Roden, dramatically quit following the week's events. It follows comments Mr Roden made to the BBC about grassroots music venues sparked fury among fans in Manchester and beyond.

A Co-op Live spokesman told the Manchester Evening News: "Gary Roden has decided to resign. We'd like to thank Gary for his help bringing the UK's newest arena to live entertainment fans and wish him the best for the future.

"Rebecca Kane Burton has been named interim general manager, effective today. Rebecca is a seasoned veteran of venue management and live entertainment in the UK having served as vice president and general manager of The O2 from 2012-2016 and CEO of LW Theatres from 2016-2021. We are focused on opening Co-op Live.”

Mr Roden was appointed as general manager for the 23,500-capacity arena last April. He previously spent eight years at Ticketmaster UK.