Introducing Brass Banding Goes Pop: EM60’s 2020 Advent Calendar

East of the M60’s 2020 Advent Calendar explores the poppier side of brass band music

One of the greatest things about brass band music is its ability to inspire audiences of any age and taste. Whether classical works or popular music, a great brass band arrangement can equal or surpass the original work. That’s in addition to the wealth of original test pieces and concert marches.

Tameside and Glossop Bus Service Changes Extra (29 November 2020)

Significant changes to two key routes and early introduction of School Holiday Timetable

On Sunday, Stagecoach Greater Manchester’s latest timetable updates will see the retiming of many of its trunk routes to School Holiday schedules, and changes to two trunk routes in the Tameside and Glossop area. To a point, these routes will see their daytime frequencies reverting to pre-bus deregulation levels.

A Mission to Entertain: Future Directions’ Fun Time Friday

What do you get if you cross an extremely talented musician with a pretty good blogger and dancer (!) on a Friday afternoon?

Make no mistake: this sub-headline isn’t a dad joke, though a fast-paced mixture of dad jokes, dad dancing and mad music is behind one of Future Directions CIC’s most notable projects. Known as Fun Time Friday, it is a 45-minute programme of music, dad dancing and jokes which goes out on Friday afternoons.

Revolution 96.2 to Become Greatest Hits Radio

Bauer purchase sees loss of Rochdale, Oldham and Tameside local station

If you like listening to local radio stations on a bog-standard analogue radio receiver, Bauer’s latest acquisition should fill you with dread. After 21 years of serving Oldham, Rochdale and Tameside, Revolution 96.2 will be consigned to radio heaven. Alongside Piccadilly Radio’s immediate successors, and ultra local radio stations like Yorkshire Coast Radio and Wish FM, it will be one of many local stations snapped up by Bauer.

Bus Boarding Beats: A Brief Look at Sounds In Motion

Do you remember when background music on buses was a thing?

In the last 40 years, bus operators across the UK have tried to find creative ways of making local bus routes pay. Route branding with dedicated liveries is one answer, positioning everyday bus routes as product lines in their own right. Another answer is advertising. Initially done by local contractors, most of today’s on-bus advertising space is managed by Global. Yes, the owners of countless commercial radio stations like LBC, as well as outdoor poster sites.

Escape To The Pantry: Word Search Puzzles for Greater Manchester Bus Geeks

More lockdown fun for all the family – especially bus enthusiasts

At this very moment, England is in its second lockdown. Non-essential retail premises have closed, which has meant only chemists, supermarkets and variety stores can continue trading. Whereas supermarkets are able to sell ‘non-essential’ merchandise, managers have reserved the right to cordon off non-essential items. Like books (no good if you have mock exams), clothing (no good if you have a Traditional Non-Zoom Job Interview) and toys (no good if you want to get your Christmas shopping out of the way).

Retail Comings and Goings in Tameside, November 2020: The Ashton Review of Shops

This month’s bare essentials only window on the shop windows

A lot has happened in the last month to our bars and retail premises. Thanks to the second wave of COVID-19 cases, we are now in the midst of a second lockdown. It is anticipated that England’s circuit-breaking lockdown would last until the 02 December.

In Tameside, along with the other nine boroughs that make up Greater Manchester, we had been in Tier 3 which has meant the closure of wet-led pubs. Since Thursday, Lockdown 2.0 (as it has been dubbed in some sources) would see the closure of non-essential shops.