Will Manchester offer enough for the choosy Queen of Pop?
“Will Manchester offer enough for the choosy Queen of Pop?” asks Riazat Butt today on Manchester Online. Here it goes:
“With a £250m fortune, a 1,200-acre country pile and fashionable friends from Milan to Miami, Madonna is the ultimate material girl. She boasts a career spanning three decades and, while her ability to shock is waning, she is still one of the movers and shakers on the pop scene and the celebrity circuit.
So it’s with great excitement that Manchester opens its arms to welcome the 45-year-old mother of two from Michigan, although it won’t be the first time she’s visited our fair city, because back in 1984 the then relatively unknown singer did a turn at the Hacienda.
While it’s hard to imagine the singer being paid anything more than peanuts for her gig at the Hacienda, she now commands top whack for her concerts. The best seats for her gig at the M.E.N. Arena in August cost £150 and promoters are confident that her concert will be the biggest grossing box office event the venue has ever seen.”
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“Of course, Manchester is no stranger to rock and roll royalty – having housed, watered, fed and entertained the likes of Eric Clapton, Sir Paul McCartney and Justin Timberlake – but the Queen of Pop is in a league of her own.
Madonna – or Madge, as she’s become known since her move to Britain – follows a macrobiotic, oriental-style vegetarian diet consisting largely of whole grains, pulses and vegetables.
Meat, poultry, dairy products, sweets, sugar, coffee, tea and strong spices are all off the menu. If she’s feeling peckish and her personal chef has the night off, then all Madonna has to do is head to the Eighth Day shop and café, on Oxford Road, which serves vegetarian and vegan cuisine.
In spite of the strict diet, Madonna confessed to liking real ale when, during a television interview she gushed about the joys of supping pints of Timothy Taylor with her film director husband Guy Ritchie.
Naturally, Manchester is awash with real ales including Hydes, Holts, Robinsons and John Willie Lees, which are served in many pubs, so there are plenty of watering spots to quench her thirst.
Bernard Manning
During a visit to one of these establishments she might even bump into one of her biggest fans, the comic Bernard Manning. He is delighted that Madonna is coming to Manchester. “I’m a big fan of hers,” says the 73-year-old comic.
“She’s a lovely lady. We met at Marco Pierre White’s restaurant, Mirabelle, and she said she liked my jokes and enjoyed my show.
“She was fabulous. She dressed the part. She’s a real lady. I think she wanted me to do a turn at her husband’s birthday but it never happened.
“Her husband’s fantastic, a real man’s man. She’s very busy and so am I, but I might try and catch her show because it’s around the time of my birthday. She’ll love Manchester because it has the best hotels in the world and the nicest people, too. She should come to my Embassy club if she likes real ale because we serve it.”
So Madonna is obviously cut from a different cloth than other divas, whose backstage demands include kittens, lilies, room temperature mineral water and designer dresses.
This material girl likes nothing better than a pint and reading mystical Hebrew teachings, so perhaps there’ll be no time to nip into King Street boutiques or Harvey Nichols.
Madonna is becoming renowned for dressing down in tracksuits, although not the kind sported by members of the public.
One of her favourite brands is Juicy Couture, available in Selfridges, with tracksuits costing up to £180.
The chances are she’ll probably not slum it when it comes to booking into a local hotel, with the five-star Lowry being her likely stopover.
Madonna plays the M.E.N. Arena on August 15. Tickets go on sale on Friday, May 21 and are between £75 and £150, plus booking fee. Call 0870 060 1768.”
Article by Riazat Butt, Manchester Online