How Ellie Harrison’s show brought us fifty years of Greater Manchester transport history on wheels Bus Regulation The Musical. Manchester Art Gallery, 28 September 2019 (2pm and 3pm). Produced by Ellie Harrison. I could think of several ways of spending half an hour of my leisure time. One is listening to the entire ‘B’ side…
Category: 2000s
TfGM’s Prospectus For Rail: A Bold Vision to Boost GM Rail Journeys
How would Our Prospectus For Rail boost heavy rail and light rail journeys in Tameside? Make no bones about it: Manchester is a UEFA Champions League city with EFL Division 2 rail services. In spite of Northern’s introduction of new trains on the Manchester Airport to Barrow-in-Furness route, it can do a lot better.
A Brief History of Teen Travel in Greater Manchester
Who remembers Greater Manchester’s previous attempts at wooing teenagers onto the bus? Over the last week, details of Andy Burnham’s Opportunity Pass have been revealed in the Manchester Evening News and on the GetMeThere website. From the 01 September, young people aged 16 to 18 years old – so long as they produce a smart…
Irritating Radio Adverts of Times Past: The Not So Perfect Ten
Ten earworm-tastic radio adverts from the last 40 years of Independent Local Radio Four sources of inspiration are behind our latest Not So Perfect Ten. One is my memories of 1980s Independent Local Radio – Piccadilly Radio in particular. The second source is an episode of Pablo [CBeebies’/RTEJr’s exciting children’s television series] where Pablo is…
Train Seats in All Parts: The Not So Perfect Ten
A selection of the best train seating positions on Network Rail metals and preserved lines If you travel by train in the peak hours, there are two inevitabilities. One is the fact you’ll need a mortgage for the rail fare or the season ticket. The other, are the chances of getting a seat. Which is…
The Three Ages of Greater Manchester’s Bus Stations
A look at the evolution of Greater Manchester’s bus stations from 1969 onwards In the last fifty years, Greater Manchester’s bus stations have changed dramatically. More recent trends favour single terminals and improved connections with other modes of transport. In smaller towns, they form part of a focal piazza, as seen at Radcliffe’s bus station.
Britain’s Greatest Television News Themes: The Not So Perfect Ten
East of the M60’s latest Not So Perfect Ten looks at Britain’s greatest television news signature tunes …And now, the headlines from the East of the M60 newsdesk: Leading blog’s countdown of the ten best news themes; Countdown includes nostalgic look at best news tunes from the 1950s onwards; Most of which are from BBC and ITN news programmes. In…
Now We Are Ten: Our Not So Perfect Ten
A special edition of The Not So Perfect Ten celebrating ten years of East of the M60 Was it really ten years when East of the M60 began to trouble the deepest recesses of cyberspace? Indeed it was. East of the M60 started life as a secondary blog to The Stuart Vallantine Web Experience. Its…
Defining Features of Northern Rail’s Franchise: The Not So Perfect Ten
Ten key characteristics of Serco/Abellio’s 12-year franchise term By the start of next month, the Northern franchise will be taken over by Arriva/Deutsche Bahn Rail. This will be Arriva’s second stint with a Northern English heavy rail franchise (the previous being Arriva Trains Northern) and, most notably, it entails the withdrawal of Class 142 and Class 144 railbuses.
Obscure Games Consoles: The Not So Perfect Ten
Forgotten handhelds and overlooked games machines Over the last 40 years, we have seen video games evolve from blocky tennis games to that of a multi-billion pound industry. In the late 1970s, Atari ruled the roost with its colour graphics offering a real advance on the Pong clones. After the great video game crash, Nintendo and Sega emerged…
Television Puppet Stars Through the Ages: The Not So Perfect Ten
From Sooty to Hacker John Logie Baird demonstrated his early televisual experiments with a ventriloquist dummy’s head. On the 02 October 1925, his dummy’s head known as Stookie Bill, was used to demonstrate early television pictures. 90 years on, we still use puppetry to entertain viewers young and old. Whether it’s a mule and Annette Mills or the…
Some Kind of Wonderfuel: Publicly Owned Gas and Electricity in Tameside
When NORWEB and North West Gas was king If you were born some time before 1985, a common feature of our High Streets was the gas and electric showrooms. They were the public face of our gas and electricity boards, nationalised and consolidated upon in 1948 and 1949. At one time they belonged to us,…
