The title still impresses me. I must have read Alan Garner’s first novel (published 1960) in the late seventies, by which time I was already a Tolkien/C.S.Lewis veteran….
I couldn’t afford or justify a £70+ ticket to see Prince last week but I didn’t want to ignore his visitation either… so here’s my friend’s account of…
Ex-Manchester journalist Jon Ronson wrote The Men Who Stare At Goats… That should ring a bell, because the film of the book stars George Clooney, and even if…
In January 1984, the second issue of City Life proclaimed the four great hopes of the Manchester music scene to be Carmel, The Smiths, The Fall and New…
This month Word Of Warning flags up a series of small-scale performances called Domestic staged in an obscure local arts venue, Cooper House. “Sounds familiar” I thought when…
Barry Gibb visited my kids’ primary school yesterday… Oswald Road in Chorlton. He’s an ex-pupil. I’ve got 3 kids at the school but I only heard about the…
Manchester International Festival (MIF) is like a bluebottle which lands on a cow’s head and poos before buzzing off across the field. The cow (the city) may have…
The Tamworth Estate tower blocks lie within the borough of Trafford, even though they share the east side of Chorlton Road (B5218) with Manchester’s Hulme, M15. Their ‘brutalist’…
I bought this ticket on a friend’s recommendation in 2012, but have since realised that I don’t like Alt-J. Not only is their sound very contrived, but their…
When Sankey Soap opened in the mid-90s there was general excitement about this brave new venue popping up in Ancoats’ industrial hinterland. I was really impressed with the…