{"id":478802,"date":"2025-10-06T19:52:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T19:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/478802\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T19:52:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T19:52:18","slug":"that-time-i-met-lady-gaga-in-whalley-range-with-a-flying-saucer-on-her-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/478802\/","title":{"rendered":"‘That time I met Lady Gaga in Whalley Range with a flying saucer on her head’"},"content":{"rendered":"

“They didn’t know I was coming. They looked up and were saying ‘that chick looks like Lady Gaga’.”Lady Gaga in Whalley Range in 2009. Yes, this did happen.(Image: Press Association)<\/p>\n

You know how sometimes you think, did I dream that or did it actually happen?<\/p>\n

That’s how I feel when I think back to first meeting Lady Gaga in Manchester. In Whalley Range<\/a> to be precise in 2009.<\/p>\n

Wearing a giant flying saucer style hat on her head fashioned from what looked like her own hair.<\/p>\n

Now Lady Gaga is one of the most famous women on the planet heading back to Manchester this week for a sold out duo of gigs<\/a>. But back in 2009 she had just begun to make waves, hotly-tipped as the next big thing in music.<\/p>\n

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She was in the UK, not headlining her own stadium show, but here to support Take That – on their Circus Live tour <\/a>would you believe.<\/p>\n

Lady GaGa in Whalley Range in 2009<\/p>\n

However, she’d pulled out of two of the Old Trafford shows that weekend in June due to illness, so I was half expecting the event planned for Whalley Range that I was invited along to would also be scrapped.<\/p>\n

But go ahead it did, and my goodness, did Lady Gaga turn some heads that day.<\/p>\n

Walking along the sunny, tree-lined Russell Road with large black-rimmed glasses, her long blonde hair poker straight and a giant saucer hat on her head, she looked every inch the megastar.<\/p>\n

It was hot that day, really hot, but Gaga decided to stay cool in a full black trouser suit and that hairy bonnet.<\/p>\n

Lady Gaga does a spot of painting(Image: Press Association)<\/p>\n

She was there to support the Body Positive North West team, and volunteers there, who were creating a new garden for people living with HIV.<\/p>\n

She had handpicked the project, saying: “I have lots of people in my life who have been affected by the virus. I just wanted to spend some time with them and do a bit of painting.”<\/p>\n

As she arrived, volunteers were open-mouthed in shock. She was led to a mural that was being created in her image, and I watched as she took a pot of pink paint and daubed a message to her fans.<\/p>\n

The message was “Love + Art + Kindness”.<\/p>\n

Lady Gaga’s message in Whalley Range in 2009(Image: Press Association)<\/p>\n

Then it was inside for us all, to a makeshift press room where myself and a dozen other journos were told we’d be allowed to have a chat with La Gaga.<\/p>\n

I remember her responding quite strangely to the questions of one journo colleague drawling “Thank you” as her two word answer to every question, whether that answer made sense or not.<\/p>\n

I asked her how she liked Whalley Range and she said: “It’s been so amazing coming here today, the volunteers were so cute because they didn’t know I was coming.<\/p>\n

“They looked up and were saying ‘that chick looks like Lady Gaga’.”<\/p>\n

Volunteers can’t believe Lady Gaga is there<\/p>\n

I spoke to some of the volunteers that day – including two who were over the moon after Gaga autographed their arms.<\/p>\n

One fan, Kayleigh Spruce, added: “I didn’t know if she was real or not. We were all totally star struck and didn’t know what to say.”<\/p>\n

I put my Lady Gaga experience alongside similarly bizarre showbiz memories as a correspondent for this paper – including, but not limited to, Snoop Dogg playing football (badly) with Rio Ferdinand<\/a> in Ordsall, and chatting to a young Rihanna at the Trafford<\/a> Centre in a ladies changing room in Selfridges.<\/p>\n

Of course, after that Gaga moment, I would watch as her star continued to rise and rise. But I always feel like Manchester has a special place in Gaga’s heart, and musical journey.<\/p>\n

Indeed, I remember her on stage in 2012 at the Manchester Arena<\/a> confessing that Born This Way was written after her previous visit to the city.<\/p>\n

She said during that gig: “It was written because of you, your freedom, your passion, it meant so much to me.<\/p>\n

“The foetus of this very moment began in Manchester so please enjoy the beautiful colourings of my afterbirth now.”<\/p>\n

Lady Gaga leaving the Lowry Hotel in Salford 19th November 2014<\/p>\n

And walking around Whalley Range was not the only memorable moment for the star in the city.<\/p>\n

For who can forget the jester ensemble she wore to walk her dog outside The Lowry Hotel.<\/p>\n

Or her full on gothic glamour to head out for a shopping trip to Manchester’s ultimate indie emporium Afflecks?<\/p>\n

Lady Gaga at Afflecks Palace after spending more than 3 hours shopping there on October 20, 2014 in Manchester<\/p>\n

As the superstar singer, activist and artist returns to Manchester for two huge Co-op Live gigs this week, we can but hope we get to see her out and about again.<\/p>\n

And relish in whatever mayhem (as much as her Mayhem Ball) she might decide to bring with her.<\/p>\n

Join the Manchester Evening News <\/strong>WhatsApp<\/strong> group <\/strong>HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“They didn’t know I was coming. They looked up and were saying ‘that chick looks like Lady Gaga’.”Lady…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,1936,393,4884,4423,2465,696,16,15,42704],"class_list":{"0":"post-478802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-co-op-live","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-lady-gaga","13":"tag-manchester","14":"tag-manchester-music","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-whalley-range"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115328971888025240","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}