We are all here to show we are not scared... Olivia is watching over us
EMOTIONS OVERFLOW AS NOEL LEADS BENEFIT GIG FOR TERROR VICTIMS
IT WAS the moment Manchester showed the world it would not be broken.
And they did it in a way that only Mancunians can – 14,000 of them, young and old, singing Don’t Look Back in Anger with the city’s own Noel Gallagher.
It was in this very arena where 22 lives were so cruelly cut short after Salman Abedi detonated a suicide bomb at the end of Ariana Grande’s concert just four months ago.
Families were torn apart in an instant, hundreds of young fans were left with devastating injuries, and thousands more are still struggling with the mental scars.
But as the Manchester Arena reopened for the first time since the terror attack on May 22, the city had a message for the terrorists: “We will not be scared.”
Charlotte Campbell, whose daughter Olivia, 15, was killed, was among those who made an emotional return for the star-studded We Are Manchester concert on Saturday.
She said: “We wanted SURVIVOR Tilly Thorton-Heywood to come to show we’re not scared, to show no one’s going to beat us. We are Manchester, we are strong and we’re not going to be beaten.
“Manchester has proved that as well – everyone has turned out tonight.”
The mum added: “Olivia is here with us, she’s watching over us, and she’d be here tonight if she could be.”
It was just after 10.30pm on May 22 when twisted Abedi, 23, set off his backpack bomb in the arena foyer, as parents were collecting their excited teens from the pop concert. On Saturday, security around the same foyer was tighter than ever with airport security scanners and armed police and sniffer dogs walking the nearby streets. Families who had never met before hugged each other for support, knowing they had experienced the worst terror attack on British soil since 7/7. Rosie Langbridge and husband Adrian, from Pontefract, Yorkshire, were waiting for their
daughters Georgina, 20, and Alex, 13, in the foyer when the bomb went off.
They escaped by pure luck and chance – and are still haunted by the people they saw killed around them.
Rosie, stroking the Manchester bee tribute tattoo on her wrist, said: “I can’t even begin to tell you what we saw. I knew it was a bomb and I was just screaming for my girls. Nothing can scare me ever again.
“I feel guilty that I survived, course I do. I have got my kids and I am very, very lucky. I live life now and I am nice to everybody. I give the time of day to every single person.”
Tilly Thornton-Heywood, from Leeds, was also at the Grande gig with her mum, Sally, 41, and has been struggling since.
Fighting back tears, Tilly, 13, said: “I had nightmares. But I needed to come back to the arena, I can’t be scared of this place.”
Mum Sally added: “When we got outside we could see people covered in blood and with silver blankets on. Tonight is about the 22 people who lost their lives and we wanted to pay our respects.”
All the proceeds from the gig are going towards creating a permanent memorial in the city to those who were killed. There was perfect silence as Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, gave a roll call of the people who lost their lives.
He read their first names only, making it more personal. They are part of the Mancunian family now.
But then came the noise as poet Tony Walsh performed his powerhouse poem This is the Place, words that captured the beating heart of the city the day after the bomb.
This gig couldn’t have been more Manc if you had covered the arena in cobbles. The stars let the music speak for itself, as 80s pop star Rick Astley, from down the road in Newton-le-Willows, got the crowd on their feet with his hits Together Forever and Never Gonna Give You Up.
And the audience went wild when local heroes The Courteeners appeared, with a full-on mosh pit rocking out in front of the stage.
Frontman Liam Fray declared Manchester “the centre of the universe”, saying the city is better at acceptance than anywhere else and asked the crowd to “love thy neighbour”.
Pixie Lott also featured, before comic legend Peter Kay, who introduced headline act Gallagher, took the stage.
Kay said: “The last four months have been incredibly painful. But this is why we are here, because we can’t let terrorists win.
“The victims will never be forgotten but we have got to move forward with love not hate and that is how we win.”
Some 22 funerals have taken place across the country of children and young people who had just gone to watch their idol, never to return.
The youngest victim, eight-year-old Saffie-Rose Roussos, was the last to be laid to rest just last month with a funeral service at Manchester Cathedral.
Her mum Lisa is still recovering from severe injuries sustained in the blast.
The city had first tried to heal when Grande’s One Love Manchester Concert – a show of defiance two weeks after the attack.
There was one song that perfectly captured the sentiment – Oasis’s Don’t Look Back in Anger.
It was sung at the vigil the day after the attack and it was sung at One Love Manchester. Fittingly, it was sung again on Saturday in the arena, as Noel told the crowd: “Every time
you sing, you win.”