Showing posts with label Manchester. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Manchester. Show all posts

Sunday 7 July 2019

Before Bed


This is post 1977. There can only be one song, can't there. Is this going to be the shortest post I've ever done?

Well not quite because this was my first ever blog post, and it was fairly short maybe about fifty words (I can't be bothered to count but you can do it yourself.

1977 was the year that punk really got underway. but it started way before that. The Bok sent demos to John Peel , Stiff Records and Rabid Records in Manchester. John Peel said we were primitive , Stiff sent a rejection letter , but Rabid wanted us. It was only when Rabid asked which studio we had recorded it that it dawned on us the reason for Peel's reaction. We'd never seen a studio and recorded direct to 2 track cassette. The single was decided, people stopped talking to be because the bassist said we were going to be on Top of The Pops , then Rabid went bust and the band split.

We formed on a Tuesday and played our first gig on the following Saturday, and it that time we managed to write and learn songs for something like a one hour set, including "Waiting For The Man" , "Gloria", "The Passenger" , "Egyptian Reggae" , "Shot By Both Sides" and the demos on the link above.

One of my favourite guitarists was Ollie Halsall who recommended learning with heavy gauge strings and playing with light gauge strings. What this didn't take into account was the fact that in the heat of the gig they went out of tune almost immediately. After a gig one guy said he was impressed with my in song tuning.

Anyway 1977 was the year of The Roxy , any number of punk bands , many still around now, and off course "1977" by The Clash , the "B" side of "White Riot".

"No Elvis, Beatles or Rolling Stones
 In 1977"

Absolutely brilliant and The rolling Stones are still going but The Clash aren't , two trully great bands

Sunday 19 May 2019

Apathy In The Uk


Apathy From The Uk
This is nothing major. Although I am English and live in the UK, I would expect my UK visits to be top 3 normally but they are not.

UK Visits are less than half the USA and Germany and only 20% of the French visits. As I have said before the Unknown region has me flummoxed, maybe some rogue robots.

I'm not complaining, this is just an observation, and lets face it the uSA is far more populous than the UK though I don't think France is (though it is much bigger. Germany is slightly bigger (though that may be completely wrong as I am too lazy to check it out at this moment, but I am glad for the visits)

The recent visit explosion (for me) has boosted the site income from about 10p per week to £10 per week which is a significant increase which I wasn't expecting.

The blog is not about making money but acting as a diary and sharing interesting stuff with people.

I wasn't intending to do this post until tonight, and the title came to me and I thought I'll make a start on it. Although it's about people visiting this blog the title could also apply to political engagement and taking an interest in things that actually affect your life, but most people would rather watch a soap and make a cup of tea.

So maybe I should take the song that I stole the title from and Share a little Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias (a typical Manchester name) with you. I bet you thought I would go with The Sex Pistols didn't you?

FactoryZoo


Just shoved together two of my most liked record labels Factory from Manchester and Zoo from Liverpool because I do  have a book called "Factory".

Factory was the imprint of Tony / Anthony Wilson and brought us among others Joy Division , Happy Mondays , New Order and lots more as well as lots of iconic design ideas. The Hacienda Club used the black and yellow warning stripes , now every time I see it I don't think WARNING I thing HACIENDA or FACTORY . A brilliant idea. The film "24 Hour Party People" is about Tony Wilson and the lasting enigma of Factory Records. It was also responsible for releasing "Reach For Love" by Marcel King, one of my favourite records ever. It's also Shaun Ryder's favourite Factory single.

Everything on Factory had a catalogue number (The Hacienda was FAC51)

Zoo Records from Liverpool was nowhere near as influential as Factory but I remember getting a compilation (Street To Street: A Liverpool Album - 1978) and loving "Match of The Day" by Big In Japan, who featured Holly Johnson, Ian Broudie , Bill Drummond and Budgie. The label also featured Echo and The Bunnymen , Teardrop Explodes and lots more so still very important.

It is quite surprising that Zoo Records are almost impossible to track down these days and a lot of the Factory compilations are similar. Discogs seems to be the best way of sourcing them.

So it's Sunday , the weather is gorgeous , so I may relax and enjoy it or possibly nip out for a walk, but either way I am going to have a relaxing day. Hope you do too.


Friday 12 January 2018

A Little Blue Sky


Today has been grey and overcast with a foggy and misty start. This afternoon though there was a short period when blue sky came through and even a little sun. That soon went though and we were back to the grey cloud cover. The good thing though is that it is Friday and for many of us that means we have the weekend to relax and enjoy although I have to be up early tomorrow morning to pick up and undelivered item from the Post Office. It always amazes me that deliveries of larger than letterbox items are tried aroung lunchtime rather than early or late when there might me somebody in.

This in turn reminded me of that album "Goodbye Blue Sky" by Godley and Creme two very talented Mancunians who made up half of 10CC and from that I've chosen "A Little Piece Of Heaven" for you to enjoy. Enjoy your Friday evening, I may treat myself to a curry from Rajnagar after lunching on a Sweet Potato and Chickpea curry at Aurora Kitchen.

Tuesday 23 May 2017

On The Move


I'm Top 10
Rightly or wrongly, these days I probably listen to most of my music on the move. The is wholly due to my decision to walk 10K steps a day after Fiona had asked if I wanted to take part id a 15K step challenge. Then she told me about Diabetes.org One Million Step Challenge to raise money for Diabetes research. Amazingly when I searched on Google two of my posts in the top ten, how long they'll be there I don't know.

Anyway, as usual I digress, but when I say wrongly  it' because I love listening to music either on my player in a room at home, preferably loud. I remember the first time I played "Court of The Crimson King"  by King Crimson on my home cinema system on the remastered DVD audio, I was stunned, the sound and detail was amazing (it still is), this was a late sixties album (admittedly by some top notch musicians) but this was a revelation to me.

When I was a teenager one Christmas I got Blue Oyster Cult's "On Your Feet or On Your Knees" and put it on my record player. I was so disappointed. This was one of the top heavy metal bands and it sounded , well weak. Then I thought,  TURN IT UP. I did , and I was blown away. My parents weren't too happy, so loud stuff like this had to be heard on headphones, or just when I had the house to myself.

I also love hearing music live as well and have recently seen The Coyotemen, Simon Wood, Staggerin' Jon Lee, Go Go Midgets, Brent and The Brads and next Sunday I am going to see my friends Sophia and Sophie debut with their band The Citrines here.

Anyway I've not really kept up the #ATuneaDayinMay , but given what happened last night, I'm going to put in New Order's  "Blue Monday", Manchester will bounce back. Just feel for the families devastated by the cowardly bullying attack.

Keep positive... don't let the bullies win.

Wednesday 30 November 2016

The Last Day



The last day of November 2016 that is. I haven't written anything this week. I've probably been doing what I should be doing, that is nothing apart from relaxing on holiday.

Today I went to Manchester and was getting very depressed at the industrial levels of Christmas products for sale , the proliferation of chains, especially in the Arndale Centre until I came across a bunch of apparently non indigenous guys (though they were probably third generation Crumpsall residents) giving a spirited rendition of Silent Night (see here) which cheered me up no end.

There were also lots of beggars and people sleeping rough and religious people handing out pamphlets but no practical  help. To quote Half Man Half Biscuit:

"If Jesus came to Earth Today
 They'd crucify him straight away
 Upon a Cross of MDF
 And use No-Need-For-Nails"

There seems to be little charity in the religious presences.

Anyway if you avoid the chain dominated areas there are some lovely places to go and eat and visit, and this is after driving to Chatsworth, Bakewell, Monsal Head and enjoying the scenery and indulging in food and music.

So the song has to be "Upon Westminster Bridge" by Half Man Half Biscuit that I lifted the quote from.

Have a lovely night my friends, I am going to catch up on Westworld.

Sunday 18 May 2014

Sun Daze, Madchester and The Heed

A Corner Of The Garden
Well it's Sunday, eight ante meridian or thereabouts and its another gorgeous day. The garden has been done so today can be fairly relaxed , just to enjoy the weather. It's May and it looks like summer is here. Who knows it may even be party time.

Madchester
I always find that sunny weather does uplift you , although if it was like that all the time would I really appreciate it? May thats why my friends in New Zealand and Australia are always so upbeat generally, while people form Manchester (where always rains) tend to be miserable (only joking , though Oasis, Happy Mondays and Joy Division while producing some great music are not the sort of people you would want to spend any time with, although John Cooper Clarke is great fun but he's from Salford). Though it's funny how a simple thought on what a nice day it is can digress into thoughts on the Madchester phenomenon.

Oh the other good news is that Gateshead are in the Conference Play Off Final against Cambridge, so that's one team that the whole of the North East will be behind today, hopefully they will be back in the league after an absence of 50 years. Theres a big do on at The Black Bull and the scenes will be incredible when Gateshead do the business. OK so I now got sidetracked into football, as you may realise I can get easily led astray! But here's a song for The Heed from the magnificent Rezillos.



 
 
Anyway I hope everyone is having a great weekend and taking advantage of this lovely weather. Enjoy the rest of your weekend

Thursday 26 September 2013

I Can Resist Anything But Temptation




Nothing much to speak of today. I'm just wondering how short a post I could get away with writing. I think possibly my first "Hello" post was the shortest one. Today has been one of those days planning stuff for next week , remembering things I need to put in my book and wrestling with various Microsoft products to try and get them to behave reasonably.

Eventually I always succeed , it's just that sometimes you need a different take on things, there are always positives and good things if you look in the right places. It's very easy to find fault , Ibut I find it just as easy to find the good in things. I don't do negatives, leave that to others.

I remember I worked for a while in Manchester and found that there were a lot of people who were only happy when they were miserable! There were still a lot of good people there but the weather wasn't too good but they never had to worry about a hosepipe ban. Anyway this post has now outstripped my first post so is a more that reasonable stopgap on this blog. I need to post a pictures and some music and maybe talking of Manchester it should be a band from there . We recently had John Cooper Clarke, so I think I'll go with my favourite New Order Song "Temptation".

"I can resist anything but Temptation"

Books Are Good
Oscar Wilde

Saturday 18 August 2012

The New Football Season Starts Here .... Well



..actually it started last night with Cardiff City easing past Huddersfield. Most of the media have focussed their attention on the Premier League despite this only being 20 clubs , and Sky especially doing their usually fawning brown nosing over whoever they think has money , so this season it's Manchester City , with Arsenal , Liverpool , Manchester United and the rest rest are therir to make up the numbers.

Last season they were soooo disappointed that Newcastle United did not implode as they had continued to do under Freddie Shepherd , Mike Ashley despite his continual publicity gaffs managing to get it right where it matters earning the grudging respect of most of the Newcastle fans.

After the plummetting fortunes of Preston , for the first time on Monday night Graham Westley got a standing ovation as his totally rebuilt team beat Huddersfield in the Captal One Cup.

So looking forward to another roller coaster season and who knows what may happen. Theres bound to be the odd controversy so we have to have a Half Man Half Biscuit Song to finish. Full lyrics here:

Sunday 13 May 2012

Premier In?

Last day of the Premiership today and Roberto Mancini thinks it'll be good for another team to win the Premiership (ie Manchester City) It's just a pity that the team that breaks the stranglehold will only do so because they had the biggest sugar daddy.

If you look at the top teams (position wise) in the Premiership the only teams being run on a sound financial basis are Newcastle and Arsenal. New Euro Fair Financial Play rules could see the likes of Manchester City , Manchester United , Chelsea , Tottenham and Liverpool excluded from Europe i the near future.

It's amazing that Swansea (Swanselona as they are known in some circles) and Norwich have fearlessly bedded into the Premiership and that has got to be due to Ian Holloway's attacking Blackpool last season . Yes they were relegated , but were a huge breath of fresh air to the Premiership.

Anyway , I'm sure theres going to be lots of twists and turns , controversy , cat fighting and fun. We still dont know who will win , who will be in The Champions League , who will be the last team relegated. We know the probabilities but favourites can always fall.

It's not long since Wigan were dead and buried , yet Dave Whelan and Roberto Martinez didnt panic , and they are still the only Premiership club who have never been relegated from the top flight.

Anyway here's my favourite football song, enjoy this afternoon:




Oh I'd forgotten about this for all the Man City fans!!

Oh and finally a playlist of my favourite football related songs

Good Football Related Songs #1 by Mike Singleton on Grooveshark

Sunday 8 January 2012

And The Dust Has Settled

A week into the New Year , and finally had a good night's sleep . I've visited the Valley Junction in Corbridge for the first , time an absolutely stunning restaurant with food to match and it's own curry train that runs for Newcastle or Carlisle!!

The Christmas decorations are packed away , and work has restarted , looking forward to lots of events and festivals this year , hopin Evolution get their act together , and glad for dicovering the wonderful Lord Rochester over the Christmas break. at The wonderful Central Bar in Gateshead  , and having the good fortune to watch Newcastle beat Manchester United starting with Demba Ba's wonder goal.

Am planning my first ever visit to the Star and Shadow Cinema , oh and Sherlock series 2 started on BBC after Benedict Cumberbatch , Martin Freeman were given time off from the Hobbit by Peter Jackson!

One thing that 2012 promises not to be and that's boring

Sunday 22 May 2011

Survival Sunday - Quite Incredible



An amazing last day in the Premiership, West Ham were deservedly relegated , nothing that Trevor Brooking could do this season , also Birmingham have gone down another club with dodgy overseas owner though I feel for Alex McLeish. Blackpool went as well , they've been a breath of fresh air but the Premiership doesnt deserve such an entertaining side.

Manchester City got third place after Arsenal self destructed.

Manchester United took their 19th Title as a precursor to next Saturday's Champions League final at Wembley against Barcelona. Roll on next season.....

Sunday 8 May 2011

The Football Season Draws To A Close

Yesterday The Championship , Leagues One and Two and the rest completed their programmes. Preston were reelgated two weeks ago by a combination of bad luck , bad refereeing  in their last games on Phil Brown and bad management under Darren Ferguson . To be fair Darren cleared out the dross , gave youth a chance , brought in some good players and presided over one of the greatest nights in North End's history in the magnificent 6-4 defeat of Leeds . Would I give away that to stay up? My answer is no because that night will be etched in every North End fan's memory forever.

The other thing is , given who is coming down from the Premiership , West Ham and possibly Wolves , Wigan , Birmingham or Blackburn , the Championship will be even more difficult next season , so League One football give's Preston a chance to regroup , get back to winning ways and maybe even win League One.

The Premiership kicks off with Wolves against Adrian Chiles' beloved West Brom who are effectively though not mathematically safe from relegaton . That should be a hell of a black country derby!!  Arsenal then visit Stoke , with Aaron Ramsey set to play on the ground where his leg was broken. Arsenal could mathematically still be champions if Manchester United and Chelsea manage to screw up their run ins , and they meet  in the final match of the day , awin for United all but sealing their hold on the title , while a win for the Chelsea blows it wide open and will put them top. Arsene Wenger would probably prefer a draw , but he still has the menace of the visit to the britannia Stadium to contend with.....

Monday 28 March 2011

More Kindling


Having just rekindled my love of fiction reading Philip Pulman's "Northern Lights", I found I'd mislaid the second volume "The Subtle Knife" so have ordered it online. If I had a Kindle I could have had it NOW!! One plus for e Book readers. Anyway I didn't I picked up "You're Entitled To An Opinion" by David Nolan - the biography of Anthony H Wilson - Factory Supremo, and it's got me hooked , loads of interstesting , funny and entertaining insights into that amazing man including the definite distinction between Salford and Manchester!! Until I picked up the book I never knew Salford was a city.

Anyway the e Book Reader , I think they are amazing pieces of kit but still feel they are a stepping stone to something else , I don't know what , but it means I won't be buying one in the near future , I stick with paper!!

Sunday 11 May 2008

Can Manchester Really Be That Bad Part 1?

On the Wednesday we were off to see
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
at the Manchester Apollo. In these modern times , and being used to the civilised venues in Newcastle such as The Sage , City Hall , Tyne Theatre and even The Metro Arena we expected a pleasant area with onsite or nearby parking.

Wrong!!!

The Apollo is a great old Auditorium that has definitely seen better days , and is in an inner city wasteland, with no car parks obvious . Luckily the local chemist directed us to Grafton Street NHS car park , which is multi story , manned 24 hours and 15 minutes walk from the Apollo, and at the time of writing not marked on multimap.

There's a few pubs on Grafton street , the Bowling Green was most pleasant and served some of the most exotic burgers I've seen on sale anywhere including Reindeer!!!