Category: Entertainment
Game Show Consolation Prizes: The Not So Perfect Ten
This month’s starter for ten
With the possible exception of Eggheads, Pointless, and The Chase, there are few quiz shows originating from the 21st century which offer contestants any of the following:
- A solid intellectual challenge in their given subject area or wide ranging subject areas;
- Gloriously crap consolation prizes;
- Questions where multiple choice is the exception rather than the rule.
For the purpose of this month’s Not So Perfect Ten, I shall be focusing on the second point: Continue reading
Forgotten ITV Comedies #1: End of Part One
East of the M60 recalls a television comedy long forgotten by most viewers
In the eyes of some critics, ‘ITV’ and ‘comedy’ seldom appear in the same sentence. For every The New Statesman and Man About the House, we also have The Brighton Belles and Fresh Fields. For many a critic, the phrase ITV Sitcom is often met with disdain. Amid this background, there are a few long forgotten gems. One of which parodied the programmes and advertisements of the day. Continue reading
Cheesy Tunes Bites Back: The Not So Perfect Ten
Another ten cheesy tunes in East of the M60′s Homage to Fromage
It is hard to believe that The Not So Perfect Ten series of posts began almost five years ago. The first one of many was ‘Cheesy Tunes’, where yours truly selected the choicest chunks of Cheshire ever to grace our turntable or digital music player. Continue reading
Lost Roller Coasters of the North West: The Not So Perfect Ten
A toast to absent gravity rides hitherto based in North West England
If you have children, no term time holiday is complete without the odd trip to a theme park or fairground. Sometimes we are likely to drive to Alton Towers or board a coach trip to Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Sometimes, a travelling fairground may be erected closer to home for a week, with one example over the Easter Holidays being the Good Friday fair at Daisy Nook, between Ashton and Failsworth (buses: 168, 169 and 231 from Ashton-under-Lyne to Newmarket Road then a short walk down Stannybrook Road). Continue reading
A Cheesy Tunes Case Closed: Whatever Happened to The Scoop
Long time mystery solved as to the whereabouts of an obscure group
Namechecked on this blog and the creator’s other social networking accounts more often than is necessarily healthy is a certain new wave band from Chippenham, Wiltshire.
Another pet subject of his involves the whereabouts of an obscure band which featured on his cherished copy of Chart Hits ’81. A fellow commuting friend introduced him to the band by means of a lovingly constructed mixtape, handed over to him one morning at Stalybridge railway station. Continue reading
Forgotten Great Songs of the 1970s: The Not So Perfect Ten
Back to the days when buses, electrical appliances and living rooms were orange and white.
I was born in 1979, so can legally claim to be a Child of the 1970s (only just). Musically, it was a decade of seismic shifts in musical fads from folk to new wave, via prog rock, punk and disco. Whilst the Osmonds, the Bay City Rollers or the Sex Pistols graced many a 1970s record collection, groups like Voyager and Mr Big are forgotten in the mists of time.
Saddleworth Beer Walk Scrapped
Act now to save the Saddleworth Beer Walk for 2012
Scenes like this could be a thing of the past if 2012 sees no Saddleworth Beer Walk. The amount of money made in Saddleworth over the Whitsun Weekend far outweighs the figures quoted for the clean-up and marshalling bills. Loadings on Northern Rail's Manchester Victoria to Huddersfield service would also be hit with lower receipts at Greenfield station, along with neighbouring shops and cafes. Photo by Andrew Nugent (Creative Commons Attribution License)
It has survived Thatcherism, the first year of the smoking ban, and Oldham Athletic’s rise and fall from the F.A Premier League. It has raised thousands of pounds for local charities and livened the villages up, with the Whitsun weekend making Saddleworth the place to visit. As well as the Whit Walks and brass band contests, Saturday sees the post-Whit Friday brass band concert at the Uppermill Civic Hall. Continue reading
Rebellious Mixtape #4: The Unofficial Adam Curtis Soundtrack Album
Brought to you by the fictitious Stuco Records label
NOT AVAILABLE for a fiver from your nearest Woolworth's store. Edited from the original image by Chris Angle.
Adam Curtis is a great investigative journalist known for the documentaries All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace, The Trap, and The Power of Nightmares. As well as his insightful and accessible prose, the special sauce of his works lie in his use of archive film and music. It is the latter part which inspires our first Rebellious Mixtape for many a while. Continue reading
Stalybridge Splash 2011
Even more so in the literal sense!
Dangerous Dave and Herbert: one of the street theatre acts at this year's Stalybridge Splash.
Some of us must have been gluttons for punishment. There may have been the counter-attractions of a new series of Come Dine With Me, the Whit Walks and Manchester United’s Premier League winning side parading the streets of Manchester. Or BBC One’s showing of Wall-E. Some 5,000 to 10,000 hardy souls braved a rain sodden Stalybridge for the tenth Stalybridge Splash festival. Continue reading
Streets Full of People, All Alone…
Remembering the Moon Disco, Oxford Street, Dukinfield
Following the closure of the Oxford cinema in 1968, the one time picture house was transformed into a lunar themed night club. Given the then recent Moon landings in July 1969, it was appropriate that Dukinfield’s Superclub (before Superclubs ever existed in the provinces) would be called ‘The Moon’. Continue reading
