The island’s top entertainment venue is preparing to open its doors a lot earlier than expected, and has announced a concert by a US pop icon to celebrate.

Following the lifting of social restrictions, both the Villa Marina and the Gaiety Theatre have announced plans to re-open some of their facilities to the public from next week, many months earlier than was initially thought.

The Villa Marina has also announced that American pop singer Belinda Carlisle is heading back to the island for a concert next summer.

The singer - who hit the charts in the late 80s and early 90s with a string of hits including ’Heaven is a Place on Earth’, ’Circles in the Sand’, ’Leave a Light on for Me’ and ’We Dream the Same Dream’ - will visit on Tuesday, July 27, 2021.

After a career which has sen her sell in excess of 12 million albums, recorded both as a solo artist and as a member of the US pop-pink group the Go-Gos, Belinda released her eighth and latest album, ’Wilder Shores, in 2017.

She last appeared on the Isle of Man in 2010 with a concert at the Isle of Man Bay festival, held at Noble’s Park.

Tickets are on sale now, priced £28.50, available on 600555 or online from www.villagaiety.com

The box office, situated in the foyer of the Villa Marina, will open on Monday, June 29 which will pave the way for the opening of the Dragon’s Castle play for private bookings from Wednesday, July 1.

The Broadway Cinema is set to open mid-way through July, with evening and matinee screenings of popular, sing-a-long films between Friday, July 10 and Sunday, July 12.

The cinema will resume its full schedule of nightly screenings and weekend matinees from Friday, July 17, with more details about the programme being released towards the date.

All major concerts and events set to be held at the Gaiety Theatre after the start of October are still set to take place as scheduled and many show which were to have taken place during the summer, including the Halle Orchestra, the Bay City Rollers, the cult group Two Door Cinema Club and top TV comedian Jimmy Carr, have been rescheduled.

Head of VillaGaiety Emma Callin said that the decisions being made have been helped by the results of a customer survey which helped then to address people’s concerns about pubic events.

’We are delighted to be able to open our venues sooner than we thought would be possible,’ said Emma.

’The results of the survey we are running are important to us so that we can ensure we meet the expectations of our customers in terms of health and safety, hygiene and cleanliness and provide the new normal that audiences are looking for.

’We look forward to welcoming our customers back to VillaGaiety and providing them with important and memorable social occasions once more.’