CityLife

Music's over as City halts gigs

CRICKET DATE: Take That

LIVE music events may never take place at Manchester City’s Eastlands stadium again – after the city’s two biggest bands were turned away.

Both Oasis and Take That wanted to play triumphant homecoming gigs at The City Of Manchester Stadium next summer – but both claim they were given the red card by the football club because the new billionaire owners “don’t need the money”.

Oasis’s Gallagher brothers are both huge Blues fans, and had been eager to play their summer gigs there.

But Noel Gallagher said last month that the band had been told the new Abu Dhabi-based owners “were not having any more concerts because they don’t need the money.”

Meanwhile Take That’s Mark Owen and Gary Barlow told The Diary that they had looked at playing their 2009 summer stadium tour, The Circus, at Eastlands because they’d enjoyed playing there so much back in June 2006.

Mark said: “We looked at playing the City of Manchester Stadium, we’ve played there before and we had a fantastic time but I don’t think they’re doing concerts there, the new owners are a bit loaded.”

Gary added: “They don’t need the money.”

Heaton Park

Instead both bands transferred their June gigs elsewhere in the city – Oasis to Heaton Park and Take That to Lancashire County Cricket ground.

Manchester City’s official line is that no decision has been taken on future events, but that the club is “unlikely” to hold any more concerts at the stadium until the latter half of next year – at the earliest.

But, unofficially, I hear the club is now looking to steer away from music events completely and focus on sports-related events only at the ground in future.

A club spokeswoman dismissed the claims that the bands were turned down because the owners don’t need the money, and insisted the real reason gigs wouldn’t happen in the summer was due to renovation work at the ground.

Summer

She said: “Over the coming summer, once the season is finished, we are going to be working on renovating certain parts of the stadium, including the pitch. Events have taken their toll on the pitch itself, and we feel this is the ideal opportunity to do something.”

The spokeswoman said it was too early to say what the “long-term considerations” would be about future concerts.

The club’s pitch has been a major cause of concern this season, with City having to play the home leg of their first UEFA Cup clash of the season at Barnsley’s Oakwell ground because the surface needed time to recover from non-football events staged there.

Massive summer gigs by the Foo Fighters and Bon Jovi, plus boxer Ricky Hatton’s homecoming fight with Juan Lazcano, are all said to have taken their toll.

And Take That did have some sypmathy for the club, as Gary told me: “I do wonder how much grief it is for a football club to have a gig go on. I think there’s too much grief for ‘em.”

Are you happy with LCCC and Heaton Park? Have your say.

*YOU can win tickets to see Take That to the right.