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 | |  | | |  | |  | | | | Pride Of Manchester Award for Best Venue | | 2009 was a great year for Manchester's arenas, theatres, concert halls and comedy clubs, boosted by the 400,000 tickets sold by Pride Of Manchester, Manchester Theatres.com & Manchester Comedy Guide. Band On The Wall re-opened with a programme of jazz, folk and world music, the MEN Arena added the pre-show View lounge, the Velodrome played host to Kraftwerk and The Palace Theatre enjoyed their most successful production ever, with Brian May and Roger Taylor even making a performance in 'We Will Rock You', thrilling an audience that included Robbie Williams and Ant & Dec. The Lowry also enjoyed their most successful production since opening in 2000, with 'White Christmas' completely selling out The Lyric Theatre throughout the festive season. | | ~ CLICK HERE FOR WHAT'S ON IN MANCHESTER ~ | 2,598 members nominated 41 different venues with the final shortlist (in alphabetical order) being... |
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| | | | | | | | | | ~ Bridgewater Hall ~ | | Manchester's premier venue for classical music enjoyed a fantastic year, with the three resident orchestras (the Hallé, BBC Philharmonic and Manchester Camerata) all playing a packed out calendar. | | Highlight of the year though was the Manchester International Festival's presentation of Elbow with The Halle, which was also broadcast live to huge crowds via the big screens in the Castlefield canal basin. Rather aptly, the Bridgewater Hall is next door to Temple Bar, the subject of the band's 'Grounds for Divorce' hit. | | The 2,300 capacity venue also played host to the return of Manc rock legends Magazine, Talking Heads legend David Byrne, Country star Steve Earle, jazz troubadour Richard Hawley and Irish folk legend Christy Moore, returning to the city where he started his career. | | photograph © Kat Kynes |
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| | | | | | | | | | ~ Lowry Lyric Theatre ~ | | 2009 was an incredible year for the largest of the Lowry's theatres, the Pride Of Manchester Awards Best Venue 2008-09. With a calendar crammed full of top comedians, musicians, dance, opera and plays, the year ended with Aled Jones and Suzanne Shaw starring in 'White Christmas', which was to be The Lowry's most successful production ever, selling out the 1,700 capacity venue every night. | | Other highlights included Carlos Acosta's performance as part of the Manchester International Festival, an all-star cast in Calendar Girls, the award-winning production of West Side Story, Wayne Sleep in Cabaret, Penelope Keith in Entertaining Angels, Matthew Bourne's Dorian Gray, Matt Lucas in Prick Up Your Ears and comedian Dave Gorman cycling onto stage. | | In fact, over 30 shows at the Lowry Lyric Theatre have been nominated by members for the other Pride Of Manchester Awards this year, more than any other venue. | |
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| | | | | | | | | | ~ Manchester Apollo ~ | | The 3,500 capacity venue in Ardwick hosted a huge calendar of gigs and comedy performances including Morrissey's 50th Birthday celebrations, the return of the Pet Shop Boys and the Dave Matthews Band. JLS, Status Quo, David Gray, Kelly Clarkson, Spiritualized and Madness were amongst other big hitters to play the Apollo in 2009. | | Ricky Gervais, Jimmy Carr, Russell Howard and Al Murray all played sell-out runs and Michael McIntyre's Comedy Road Show was recorded at the venue, later broadcast on BBC1 with the headline act, Jason Manford, also returning to record his own show for DVD. | |
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| | | | | | | | | | ~ MEN Arena ~ | | Europe's largest indoor concert venue had another amazing year , smashing attendance figures by welcoming over 1.5 million people for the likes of Tina Turner, Pink, Girls Aloud, Madonna, Beyonce, Kings Of Leon, Green Day, The Eagles, Britney Spears, Metallica, AC/DC, Blur, Fleetwood Mac, Kaiser Chiefs, The Killers, Keane, Kasabian, Arctic Monkeys, Snow Patrol, Il Divo, Lionel Ritchie, Miley Cyrus, Cliff Richard with The Shadows, and Crosby, Stills & Nash. | | Hometown gigs from Elbow, Simply Red, Ian Brown and the Versus Cancer concert with James, Happy Mondays and Puressence were all amazing shows whilst the 20,400 capacity arena also played host to Walking With Dinosaurs, Cirque du Soleil's Quidam and top comedians Michael McIntyre, Eddie Izzard and Russell Howard. | | The venue also saw New Zealand win the World Netball Series and Amir Khan defeat both Marco Antonio Barrera and Andreas Kotelnik, amongst many other sports events. | |
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