East of the M60 is doing a blog about it
OK, only kidding about the subtitle. After a number of more serious bus based articles I thought it would be a good idea to lighten the mood a little.
These findings and observations have come about from my personal experience as a bus user able to remember the dying days of Greater Manchester Transport and thereafter. I may throw the odd dafter one in for good measure. Read the rest of this entry »
With 13,000 plus friends on Facebook favouring its retention, support from beyond the Tameside boundaries and celebrities, Tameside Hippodrome must have had a fighting chance of being saved. Read the rest of this entry »
For the purpose of this Not So Perfect Ten, I have decided to focus on the best ten pieces of music featuring buses. This may include direct or indirect reference to buses in its lyrics, song title, or instrumental pieces.
First and foremost is a more obvious entry; The Who’s Magic Bus. There is no reference to defective services nor high bus fares, just a straightforward plea to board their Magic Bus. Both The Who’s tune and Magic Bus played a part in the early years of bus deregulation. The first Magic Bus service began on the 26 October 1986 in Glasgow. Using an AEC Routemaster in an early version of the Stagecoach livery, Brian Souter launched Magic Bus’ cheap and cheerful service taking fares whilst dressed in a rabbit suit!
The Who tune was adapted for a GM Buses advert. Shown in the run-up to deregulation in the Granada region, it cheerfully announced the dawn of GM Buses, ‘picking you up tomorrow as usual’. What happened on deregulation day and the day after seemed to be opposite. On the same day was the first televised Manchester Derby game, resulting in a sub-40,000 attendance (at the time, the lowest ever at Maine Road). The lure of Brian Moore/Martin Tyler or the fear of bus deregulation chaos? You decide.
The second is a surreal piece from Half Man Half Biscuit. On their most recent album CSI:Ambleside, Little in the Way of Sunshine is peppered with references to bus routes around Shropshire. Parts of the lyrics include advisory signs seen on buses.
From Shropshire to Salford, we see a different side to bus travel immortalised in Last Bus. Written by The Salford Jets in 1979, it is a wry observation and warning on boarding night buses in Greater Manchester. Recently, this track has been reissued as part of their ‘Greatest Hits’ album ‘Manchester Boys’. Headed by Rock Radio DJ Mike Sweeney, they are well worth seeing live. I saw them perform an acoustic set at The Railway in Greenfield recently and they were great.
On the B Side of The Human League’s comeback single Tell Me When is The Bus to Crookes. This is a track about the 51 service to that part of Sheffield which begins at Gleadless Town End. At present, First South Yorkshire operates this service (please tell me if anyone knows different).
Another good bus related song also released in 1995 was Tour Jacket with Detachable Sleeves. As part of the Half Man Half Biscuit album Some Call It Godcore, the song starts well with a few friends going to a gig at the local polytechnic. That is until they find it was full of tribute acts, finishing with a bus journey from Hell, ending in an accident. There is reference to the 71 and 72 bus routes from Liverpool to Heswall via Birkenhead, operated by First Crosville.
Madness’ Cardiac Arrest is more to do with a hellish commute to work. In the narrative of this song, a time pressed commuter feels frustrated by the slowness of his bus. Fearing a late arrival, he gets wound up, hence the “I wish this bus would get a move on; driver’s taking his time”. It almost reminds of some of my bus based commutes from Hell in Greater Manchester. At least he had a conductor (as seen in the video) aboard his AEC Routemaster rather than a flustered driver trying to balance promptness with encapsulating weekly or monthly bus tickets.
The ninth one has nothing to do with buses whatsoever. Lucky Stars by Dean Friedman was his biggest and best known UK chart hit. The conversation with uncredited vocalist Denise Marca could have been anywhere other than aboard the Hale Barns Express. Its link with buses was Greater Manchester Transport’s ‘Sounds in Motion’ experiment, as (according to anecdotal evidence; my parents) it seemed to have been the only tune played!
The purpose of GMT’s ‘Sounds in Motion’ was to generate extra advertising revenue whilst keeping its passengers aboard the top deck entertained. 8 minutes per hour was allocated to advertising, with 52 minutes for music. If anybody else could remember ‘Sound in Motion’ (and as to whether they played anything by Supertramp or any other artiste(s) besides Dean Friedman), feel free to comment.
My final one is Bus Stop by the Hollies which is a gentle observational piece of waiting for a bus by the great Graham Gouldman of 10cc fame. It paints a picture of the boredom endured by passengers at Ashton bus station whose 346 is forever delayed by the schools traffic.
Any further suggestions are welcome. Cushty!
S.V., 17 July 2009
New from East of the M60 – Food Reviews
I was in search of something suitable to me on till teatime at around 1650 hours. We thought that a carton of chips or a chip butty would have been too much between our last meal at 1050 hours and our Sunday dinner.
Along with my old man I was watching the 10th Brighouse Brass Band Contest and having a most enjoyable time. We chose to go to the chippy whilst there was a 4th section band on as we most wanted to see Marsden Silver who were on afterwards.
At Blakeway’s Chippy I stumbled upon the ultimate compromise between chips with curry or a chip muffin. A Chicken Curry pie.
I have experienced the delights of the Balti Pie from my local Morrisons store and the pie hut at Redditch United’s ground. Those two specimens were gorgeous so I expected the same high standards of this one.
It didn’t disappoint! The pastry, though flaky wasn’t the sort of flaky pastry seen in a Greggs sausage roll or some frozen pies. Whereas my previous two pies had Indian style curry, Peters went for the Chinese style chip shop curry. It worked like a dream!
The pie had generous chunks of chicken and good pieces at that. It was well worth the £1.50 price tag and a very moreish pie to boot. For the health police, there is no MSG, artificial colours, flavours, preservatives and hydrogenated fat. According to Peters’ website, you can also buy these at Tesco and Sainsburys stores.
FotM60 Rating: 8.5/10
S.V., 07 July 2009.
Pastimes for the inner dag
For this incarnation of the Not So Perfect 10, I am focusing on what I would consider are the most daggiest pastimes. Most of these have been inspired by my personal experience: Read the rest of this entry »
Live from Harrop Edge; 75% music, 25% chat, 100% Tameside, and now 367 days old*
Some time between the 30th September 2007 and the delocalisation of the Piccadilly Radio stations, the radio landscape in Tameside was a most barren place. Aside from the formation of Revolution 96.2 (the FM station serving Rochdale, Oldham and Tameside), the CD player or MP3 file were the only sanctuaries from mechanical playlists and reduced local coverage.
Quietly happening between test transmissions and within the walls of Tameside Hospital were the pioneers of who were about to become Tameside Radio. Most of which cut their teeth on Eight Towns Radio, a hospital radio station founded on Sunday 22 October 1983 as ‘Heartbeat Radio’.
Just under 24 years after and numerous limited service licences later came our station. Not for two weeks, not for a month, not only for Tameside Hospital, but the whole area.
At Chez Vallantine, Tameside Radio has now taken over from all other stations for radio needs (except for one, Oldham Community Radio, which has a good brass band programme). For me, its main factors include: a less rigid playlist, the excellent ‘The Show That Time Forgot’ (hosted by Mike Wallbank) and (most importantly) its local bias. I would be interested to know what effect Tameside Radio has had on other popular stations in the borough, such as Key 103.
For a community station, it is hard to tell whether they are a commercial one or one ran by volunteers. This is down to its professionalism and experience with Eight Towns Radio and Tameside’s other local station Revolution 96.2 – with production values that can hold their own against other commercial stations. Unlike the other local stations, Tameside’s non league clubs are covered, giving much needed coverage to my beloved Stalybridge Celtic.
Since ‘Beautiful Day’ by U2 marked Tameside Radio’s first song, we have been hooked ever since. Though I could listen to the other stations, overseas SW stations and the national radio stations on my portable radio, it is firmly stuck to Tameside Radio 103.6FM.
Long may they continue.
S.V, 02 October 2008
Links:
Eight Towns Radio history: http://tamesideradio.moonfruit.com
Tameside Radio 103.6FM: http://www.tamesideradio.com
* At the time of writing this entry.
On ITV2
Several years back, we used to have a jolly old pop at what daft stuff our neighbours across the English Channel were producing. We laughed at daft brand names on ‘That’s Life’, Read the rest of this entry »
A exciting new socially aware band about to hit the street
First came Kraut Rock, then Alt Rock. Now we have Aut Rock. Read the rest of this entry »
Part 2: The Whit Friday Brass Band Contest
2008 sees the 125th year of this great institution, the Whit Friday Brass Band Contest. The first Whit Friday contest began in Stalybridge a good 125 years ago. This came about after bands who led the churches decided to host a contest in the Cheshire town.
125 years on, Stalybridge remains an important venue for the Whit Friday contest. This year saw two contests, with one at Bower Fold (home of Stalybridge Celtic), and the town centre one at the Labour Club near Cheetham’s Park. Whereas Mossley and the Saddleworth villages are the best places to watch the Yorkshire bands, Stalybridge’s contest is probably the best one for bands from Cheshire, Lancashire, and the Midlands.
This year’s contest at the Stalybridge Labour Club had a venue record of 53 bands, some 3 short of the town’s record of 56 bands (achieved at the now demolished SIDS arena). Represented at the 2008 contest was a band from Switzerland, bands from East London, Oxfordshire and the Midlands, as well as Lancashire and Cheshire (which make the bulk of the contest’s entrants).
A Whit Friday band contest includes prizes for the best bands within a local area (usually a radius of 10 miles), a ‘Best Open’ prize (any entrant) and prizes for ‘Best Deportment’, youth bands and instrument based prizes (i.e best solo cornet, euphonium). Some contests award sectional prizes, according to which section the band is in. Points are allocated on how well each band plays the piece by an adjudicator.
Like the Football League and the FA Premier League, brass bands are divided into sections. The Championship section is the highest one, with world famous bands such as Black Dyke, Brighouse and Rastrick, and Foden’s Richardson among its members. There is also a further four sections and a youth section.
On arrival, the band ’s runner registers the band’s details (i.e. band [Black Dyke] then march piece [Knight Templar]) and pays its entry fee. The adjudicator checks note for note each piece, awarding marks on how well it is played. He or she is unaware of the band, as each band is referred to by number till the results are announced. Once finished, the band moves onto their next contest.
Since 1989, Tameside MBC has also added a competition for the best band in the borough. These are comprised of the results from each contest. The first winners of this was Black Dyke Mills band.
For anyone wishing to delve further into the history of the Whit Friday Brass Band contest, I fully recommend Alec Greenhalgh’s excellent book ‘Hail Smiling Morn’. Though published and (to the best of my knowledge) not updated since 1991, this is the definitive reference of the competition.
In chronological order, all contest venues past and present have been stated, with details of the winners in the Best Local and Best Open sections. For each year, there is also details of the weather conditions.
The book is available for sale at Oldham Tourist Information Centre (inside Gallery Oldham, Union Street) and in Uppermill Tourist Information Centre at Saddleworth Museum.
S.V., 17 May 2008.
Tags: music, entertainment, brass bands, Whit Friday, Tameside, Oldham, Saddleworth
Part 1: The Absolute Beginners’ Guide to Whit Friday
East of the M60 has been around in cyberspace for nearly two years, yet in this period it has still to cover Whit Friday.
Until now.
For those of you unsure about Whit Friday, Whit Friday falls after Whit Sunday and is two days before Pentecost. There is no fixed date, with the date determined by the month when Easter falls on.
A traditional Whit Friday involves the Procession of Witness in the morning. Churches from, for example Uppermill meet at a central point in the village or town centre and assemble for a short service. Before and after the service, each church leads with the church’s banner at the front (carried by two strong persons, augmented by a small number of children holding onto its ribbons).
As well as adult members of the congregation, each church is represented by members of its school, Cub/Beaver/Scout/Rainbow/Brownie/Guide groups or other bodies such as mother and toddlers or the local Mothers’ Union.
Behind the banner is a local brass band which leads out fellow walkers. Some of which carry smaller banners, or other religious artifacts such as a cuddly lamb (symbolising the ‘Lamb of God’). After the service, each church returns ‘home’ with the full congregation for raspberry buns and a brew.
After the parade (as if the younger members did enough walking), the afternoon’s proceedings would include a sports day, with traditional activities like ‘The Egg and Spoon race’, ‘Three Legged Race’ and an obstacle race featuring.
By night came the centrepiece of Whit Friday, a tradition upheld by villages within the Saddleworth area and the Tameside area – the Whit Friday brass band contests. From 1883, the first recorded contests took place in Stalybridge, Uppermill and Mossley. Bands travelled far and wide (within 20 miles from the venue).
Stalybridge, as well as being home to the world’s oldest brass band is also home to the first Whit Friday contest. Its roots stem from the bands trying to prove which church had the best band. 125 years on, it is now possible to see bands from Switzerland as well as Friezland competing – thanks to motorways and the Channel Tunnel.
Whit Friday is the traditional day for this procession, though the late 1980s saw, mainly in the Tameside area the walks switching to Sunday before Whit Friday. Since 1883, the number of Whit Friday contests had increased to 23 at any one time. The late 1980s also saw great expansion of the Whit Friday contest, with Denton, Ashton-under-Lyne and Droylsden alongside the traditional three (Stalybridge, Uppermill and Mossley).
As well as an increase in the number of contests, the modern day epidemic of congestion has made it impossible for any band to do all the contests, a far cry from 1884 when Stalybridge Borough won the first Stalybridge contest.
S.V., 17 May 2008
Tags: music, entertainment, brass bands, religion, Whit Friday, Tameside, Oldham, Saddleworth, local history
In praise of the falsetto vocalist
Greetings Pop Pickers, I have chosen a most unusual subject for this installment of ‘The Not So Perfect 10.
Everybody of a musical persuasion or intense knowledge of popular culture may list the 10 Best Beatles songs or Read the rest of this entry »
Recently, I have purchased a book entitled ‘The Encyclopaedia of Classic Saturday Night Television’. As well as mentioning the usual suspects (The Generation Game, Gladiators and Game For A Laugh) it also states (almost) every programme Bobby Davro appeared in and flops like Ice Warriors. Read the rest of this entry »
“If you’re looking for trouble… you’ve found the right place…” – Elvis Presley
Hello again, I’m back with some more fluff. As well as being an unrivalled source on the state of Dukinfield’s bus services, Read the rest of this entry »
East of the M60 Exclusive Review:
Countdown 2007 Grand Final, Friday 21 December 2007
Never mind special Christmas soap opera story lines, never mind all these ‘lets talk about how good the telly was in 1980′ type programmes, this Christmas period’s televisual treat started at 3.25pm on Channel 4. Read the rest of this entry »
The Not So Perfect Ten: 10 Lost Chocolate Bars and Toffees
To commemorate 2007’s National Chocolate Week, this post is dedicated to Read the rest of this entry »
RH@M/CR: Roger Hodgson, Palace Theatre, Manchester, 03 October 2007
One of the geniuses behind Supertramp Roger Hodgson delivered a virtuoso performance at the Palace Theatre in Manchester.
Most of the audience Read the rest of this entry »
Regular readers of my blog will already know about my liking for the greatest band to have hailed from the Wirral since Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.
Back with a vengeance, this month’s ‘Not So Perfect Ten’ Read the rest of this entry »
Satellite views of the area ‘East of the M60′ motorway
First the good news: Google Maps has been updated.
The bad news: it is not that up to date. Read the rest of this entry »
Following ITV’s recent decision to bring back ‘Family Fortunes’ (with Vernon Kay as presenter), this has inspired me to construct a list of shows which I think should be brought back on UK television screens. Read the rest of this entry »
Yesterday, ASDA announced its decision to drop CD singles from the store chain. This has been brought about increased popularity of downloads and 7″ vinyl. The American owned store chain has dropped the CD single format in the UK due to its falling popularity. This follows a similar move made by Tesco two months ago. Read the rest of this entry »
Radio by the people for the people
If you are lucky enough to live in the Oldham or Tameside areas, you may find a new station on 99.7MHz on the VHF/FM band. Under the name of ‘Oldham Community Radio’, the station was awarded a five year licence to broadcast community orientated radio programming. The station will be launched properly by the summer. Read the rest of this entry »
The joys of composing a mixtape
It is hard to believe that the compact cassette format is over 40 years old. Invented by Philips in 1963, it was, in conjunction with the Sony Walkman, the iPod of its day by the late ’70s and early ’80s. Read the rest of this entry »
The start of a new feature from East of the M60
After complaints about this blog turning into a copy of The Guardian (yeah, right), East of the M60 is proud to announce a new monthly feature, ‘The Not So Perfect 10′. In the tradition of E4 and Channel 4’s repetition of ‘The Top 100…’ and ‘Top Ten…’ type shows, this regular feature will detail any ten randomly thought of topic by this blog. Read the rest of this entry »
Robin Askwith Vs Tracey Temple
‘Confessions of a Diary Secretary’: ITV 1, TX 2100 hours
Last night I decided to watch the aforementioned programme on the 28th February 2007, based on the affair of Tracey Temple and John Prescott.
If broadcasters were looking for a way of doing a diary based programme (one-off drama or series), this was one example of how not to do one.
From the opening titles and captions, I thought ‘WTF’, this doesn’t look serious or refined enough. Wasting 90 precious minutes of this, the script was poorly written, lacking in real substance, and the programme had the cheek of classing itself as a comedy on the ‘End of Part One/Two/Three’ titles. Laughed? Only once! Before then, I was watching my ‘Only Fools and Horses’ DVD (‘Danger UXD’ episode) which had infinitely more laughs per minute. A shorter running time would have probably helped.
I was disappointed to find it either lacked the dry humour of ‘The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole 13 3/4′ or the bawdy humour of ‘Confessions of a Driving Instructor’ (featuring Robin Askwith and Cherie Blair’s dad, Tony Booth) . I watched expecting a ‘Carry On’ style ‘nudge nudge, wink wink’ style comedy. Instead I got the filler bits between the Confessions of a Driving Instructor scenes at the golf course and the rugby match.
The result was a tawdry production lacking in humour and real substance. Hasn’t the Right Honorable member for Hull East been shamed enough without this? It tried to be Bridget Jones’ Diary and turned out to be Mr Bean’s on a bad day. Oh, and they also had the cheek to put a ‘behind the scenes’ type programme on on ITV3 – as well as advertising to similar proportions as the Jamster Crazy Frog adverts did.
If I want to see bawdy/non PC comedy done properly, I would make a trip to my local DVD purveyor for a Carry On film or On The Buses.
Verdict: 25% (‘Confessions of a Driving Instructor’ featuring Robin Askwith was much better, as was the Bridget Jones’ Diary film).
‘Disappearing Britain’, 20/11/2006, 2100 hours, C5
For the purpose of this post, the title has nothing to do with a lost version of Sky One/LWT’s Ibiza Uncovered type programmes.
For the first time on a national television station, the joys of the Oldham Wakes were revealed on Channel Five’s ‘Disappearing Britain’.
The programme, a three part series, explores parts of Britain that have gone the way of the dinosaurs and Quatro, such as Oldham being a cotton town and the mining industry. In the first programme, shown yesterday, Sarah Lancashire rekindled her memories of Oldham, with some background on her family and vox pop interviews with fellow Oldhamers. The actress (late of ‘Coronation Street’ as Raquel Wolstenhulme, and ‘Where the Heart Is’) also visited Blackpool, the seaside resort favoured by Lancastrian mill workers – which no doubt led to the Fylde Coast town becoming the UK’s favourite seaside resort. Sarah saw Blackpool in her August 2006 visit as a shadow of its former self, with the beaches devoid of deckchairs and holidaymakers.
Using archive footage and vox pop interviews to back her story up, the programme explored the history of the Wakes Week in a concise way, plus the mills and changes in holiday habits. She was also augmented by Stalybridge’s very own town crier Barry McQueen.
For anyone unfamiliar with the concept of the Wakes Weeks, this was a good programme and a good introduction. Being a resident north of Birmingham, I found most of this as familiar ground. Apart from that, it was good to see the North West of England given fair representation on national television. It was good seeing Heron and Durban mills, and the sadly derelict Hartford mill on the telly. It was also good to see our sub standard Pacer units departing from Oldham Mumps – a world away from Waterloo’s 8 car units.
Next week’s programme will feature Ricky Tomlinson, with his film on the mining industry. This will be shown at the same time next Monday.
I’ll know when we’ve arrived, if we see televised coverage of the Whit Friday band contests. 
Stuart.
A nice fun topic on how to manage a successful game of Hangman.
Hangman is best played in large groups, with a team of four or more players. Consider playing Hangman in the traditional way, or a more competitive way. For the purpose of this posting, the traditional way is ‘collaborative Hangman’, where the person who solves the puzzle suggests the next phrase.
Competitive Hangman should be played in a way similar to ‘Family Fortunes’, with a presenter and two teams with four players each. A topic is selected at random by the MC’s computer/brain cells.
If desired, the drawn noose and gibbet could be replaced by an electric chair.
If anybody wishes to comment on these ideas, please do.
Stuart.
