Girl band to star at

CONCERTS are coming back to the John Smith’s Stadium in Huddersfield.

Pop band Little Mix will stage the first big concert at the stadium in 11 years.

The world’s biggest girl band behind hits such as Black Magic will debut in Huddersfield on Sunday, July 15, as part of their ‘The Summer Hits Tour 2018.’

Tickets go on sale at 9.30am on Thursday morning.

Gareth Davies, managing director of Kirklees Stadium Development Ltd, which manages the stadium, said it was “an exciting time for us and the community” as he welcomed the announcement.

SJM Concerts have been in talks with the stadium and have already visited to see what it has to offer bands.

Mr Davies said: “It’s an exciting time, we’re pleased to be able to bring concerts back with this announcement.

“It’s great for the stadium and for Huddersfield for the stadium’s facilities to be used as widely as possible.”

Mr Davies explained what had been happening behind the scenes to get the gig confirmed.

The last rock concert at the stadium was Bryan Adams in 2006 and Mr Davies said: “The stadium never lost its desire to hold concerts, but we were waiting for the right act, the right time and the right commercial deal to come along.

“Football and rugby comes first, thereafter we can hold concerts, conferences and events as and when we can.

“One of the complexities is that while the football does not run during the summer, we have rugby matches and also carry out the pitch refurbishment during the summer.

“But we have a very experienced stadium operations team and they know when there are windows of opportunity and we’ve found a concert to fit in.”

He praised his colleagues Phil and Jayne Armitage, operations manager and HR and events manager respectively, who worked with Little Mix promoters SJM Concerts to secure the Huddersfield gig.

“We’ve been having conversations for quite a few months, we’ve only been able to confirm it now,” he added.

“Phil and Jayne Armitage are exceptionally experienced, they were involved in the first concerts held here so they bring a lot of experience and they’ve worked hard to make this happen.”

The stadium has hosted some of the biggest names in music, including REM, Bon Jovi, The Beautiful South, Elton John and Bryan Adams.

The REM gig in Huddersfield was believed to have boosted the town’s fortunes by £3m. Little Mix are performing 15 dates over the summer.

Tickets for the gig will go on sale this Thursday at 9.30am – full details via www.little-mix.com