News

‘Unsettled week’ of wind, rain, and snow could greet Mancs into the new year

New year, same dodgy weather.

Thomas Melia Thomas Melia - 30th December 2024

A mix of weather conditions could be expected to hit the north across the new year weekend – including wind, rain, and snow.

As Greater Manchester prepares to enter 2025, it looks like we’ll be bringing our usual moody weather along with us too, as starting today and running right through until the end of this week, Mancs can expect some not-so-pleasant conditions to accompany this party season.

The Met Office has described this period as ‘an unsettled week’.

While forecasters are encouraging people to keep checking for further weather updates where possible, thankfully, this turbulent spell of weather is only predicted to stick around until Thursday (2 January) – with no warnings issued for this Friday (3 January) or the weekend so far.

In a video shared to the Met Office’s X account, the visual shows that the most severe cases of wet and windy conditions look like on New Year’s Day itself (Wednesday 1 January), where there is even some snow forecasted for certain areas.

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“Almost the entire UK is covered by at least one weather warning during the coming week,” warned Andy Page, who is the Chief Forecaster at the Met Office.

He continued: “With lots of celebrations and people on the move over the coming days, we are urging everyone to keep checking the forecast so they can update their plans.”

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How ever you plan to celebrate the New Year season, make sure you double check weather reports and updates on the Met Office’s official site first.

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Image – Wikimedia Commons

News

Neil Young pulls out of ‘corporate controlled’ Glastonbury Festival

Danny Jones Danny Jones Neil Young drops out of Glastonbury Festival 2025 legend slot

Music icon Neil Young has pulled out of Glastonbury Festival 2025 after claiming it has lost its identity and is now under “corporate” control.

The 79-year-old singer-songwriter, widely considered one of the greatest and most influential to have ever lived, was due to play the festival as one of the legends named on this year’s lineup.

However, despite lots of excitement around the veteran being given the nod over others from what has largely been seen as a pop-leaning pool (at least according to the detractors) in recent years, Young has now decided to drop out of the festival.

Sharing a short but open letter on his personal website, the highly-revered lyricist, vocalist and guitar player explained his reasoning for he and his band U-turning on the gig, claiming it is now a “turn-off”.

Neil Young’s latest ‘NYA Times Contrarian’ post explains the decision to drop out of Glastonbury.
Neil Young in 2023
Credit: Screenshot (via Neil Young website)/Per Ole Hagen (via Flickr)

“The Chrome Hearts and I were looking forward to playing Glastonbury, one of my all-time favourite outdoor gigs”, it reads. “We were told that BBC was now a partner in Glastonbury and wanted us to do a lot of things in a way we were not interested in.”

For context, the BBC has been partnered with Glasto since way back in 1997 and Neil Young has already headlined the festival back in 2009, so this shouldn’t exactly come as a surprise.

“It seems Glastonbury is now under corporate control and is not the way I remember it being. Thanks for coming to us the last time!”, he continues. “We will not be playing Glastonbury on this tour because it is a corporate turn-off, and not for me like it used to be.”

The message concludes with him hoping to catch fans at other venues and a simple “LOVE Neil – Be well”, but the tenor of the somewhat abrupt update is that the ever-opinionated and long-celebrated protest song-writer clearly believes the BBC‘s influence over the festival has now grown too strong.

Known not only as ‘Shakey’ and the ‘Godfather of Grunge’ but as one of the pioneering anti-establishment figures of a generation, the Canadian was previously in the headlines for demanding Spotify remove his music after taking issue with Joe Rogan’s anti-vax messaging on his show.

Young’s music ultimately returned to Spotify in March 2024 after the two-year boycott but Rogan’s podcast has remained on there throughout, though some episodes were ultimately edited and/or removed entirely.

All that to say, the solo artist co-founding member of supergroup, Buffalo Springfield, is no stranger to taking on big business and companies if he feels he has good reason. Meanwhile, Rod Stewart will be performing in the coveted ‘Legends’ headliner slot at teatime on Sunday, 29 June.

Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts are looking set for a European tour this summer but if he’s taking on corporations and concerts under umbrella control, it seems unlikely we’ll see him at too many festivals or the likes of Co-op Live.

The better question is: do you agree – has Glastonbury Festival become too corporate and sanitised, or do you think it still upholds the same core values it had when it first popped up on Worthy Farm in 1970?

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Featured Images — Ross Belot (via Flickr)/The Manc Group

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Andy Burnham urges Greater Manchester residents to ‘switch to the Bee Network’ in 2025

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant

Andy Burnham is urging Greater Manchester residents to ‘switch to the Bee Network’ in 2025.

With the new year now here, the Greater Manchester Mayor has reflected back on the past 12 months, and has set some goals and intentions for 2025 – which he expects to be a “busy” year full of change and historic milestones for the region.

2025 is, of course, set to start off strong, beginning with the introduction of Bee Network buses to the southern part of Greater Manchester from 5 January.

“Four decades of deregulation will be over,” Mr Burnham declared. “We will finally be back in charge of our entire bus network.”

The Mayor says that completing this first phase “on time and on budget” is a “huge achievement” for the region, and he hopes this means that 2025 can “begin on a much-needed optimistic note” – adding that in an era where it has felt like “most things are broken or going backwards”, Greater Manchester transport has “bucked the trend”.

He called the Bee Network “the most visible piece of successful public service delivery in recent times”, and said its popularity “proves things can indeed be fixed, moved forward, and made to work better.”

While he conceded that there is likely to be “a bumpy few days” next week until things settle down, Mr Burnham insists he is “confident” that passengers using Bee Network services in the southern half of the region “will soon see a difference”.

This is why he is urging everyone to make full use of it and “leave the car at home”.

Bee Network launches in Oldham and Rochdale
Andy Burnham urges Greater Manchester residents to ‘switch to the Bee Network’ in 2025 / Credit: TfGM

Addressing Greater Manchester residents directly as the new year begins, Andy Burnham said: “I hope to ask you to make a New Year’s resolution – switch to the Bee Network in 2025 and to leave the car at home.

“The more that people do this, the longer we will be able to keep our £2 cap in place, hold fares as low as possible, and make the whole transport system flow better for everyone.

“For many years now, Greater Manchester has been growing faster than the UK economy, and our skyline tells the story of that change. But, as with any global city of our stature, congestion is a constant challenge and public transport has to become the priority way of getting around.”

Andy Burnham declares 2025 as Manchester’s year for ‘restoring local control’

Looking ahead to the highly-anticipated introduction of the London-style transport system in March, Mr Burnham continued: “If people are to buy into [using the Bee Network over a car], I know we have to work even harder to make it feel safer, more reliable and convenient to use. So, on 23 March, Greater Manchester will bring in a London-style tap-in, tap-out payment system, across trams and buses, with a daily cap on what people can spend.

“I hope this flurry of delivery sets a good tone for the rest of 2025.”

Mr Burnham says Greater Manchester is going into the new year “with a spring in our step and a can-do spirit” that he hopes becomes “infectious” to the rest of the UK.

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“If the local control achieved with our buses starts to bring similar benefits to housing and skills, then perhaps the country can draw a line under these dysfunctional recent times and start to look to the future with more confidence and optimism,” he concluded.

Featured Image – TfGM

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