The Mancunian Way: Throw those curtains wide

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.”

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.