From Popbitch:
S Club start their already-fated tour at the Manchester AO Arena tonight, but opening night came within a hair of getting cancelled this morning. Not through any fault of theirs – but because of Madonna.
Madonna's been rehearsing in the AO Arena for the last week, ahead of her London O2 dates kicking off on Saturday – and things have not been going smoothly. Not only did she have to extend rehearsals in Manchester because everything had fallen so far behind schedule, they've been going on each night until 2am to get everything finished.
It takes about nine hours to load her show out (she has 48 trucks of gear) so there was a fair amount of panic that she'd over-run again last night and not be clear of the venue in time for S Club's load-in this morning.
S Club's crew were due to start at 7am. She got the last door of her trucks shut at 6:30.