I spent a few hours in Manchester, having another assisted stretch, passing time in the Central Library and wandering around until it was time for the first gig of the week.
Tom Robinson was playing at Hallé St Michaels, and having unreserved seating was great, I plonked myself down very near the front. Lee Forsyth Griffiths was the surprise guest, and he did a great job.
He commented on the paving stone outside the venue, laid by Prince Charles, saying he hoped it wasn’t too painful.
Tom Robinson was accompanied by Adam Phillips on guitar. He played many of our old favourites of course, including new up-to-date lyrics for Up Against the Wall.
After the show, I had a very quick chat with Tom, it was good to see him again.
I caught the tram back to Sale Water Park where I’d parked the car earlier. A nice, easy trip home.
Not enough time in Manchester, so the next day, after my massage, I returned and had a walk, venturing into sunny Salford.
<ph Cathedral Church of St John the Evangelist aka Salford Cathedral
I don’t know whether LS Lowry ever lived in this house, but according to the blue plaque, it was the subject of a charcoal drawing in 1926.
After wandering around in a big loop, I crossed back over the river Irwell
This 8-feet tall bronze horse sculpture sits in Bexley Square, opposite the Old Town Hall. It’s next to an 11-feet tall gas streetlamp that reads “Salford Firsts Inspiration”. It details various historical achievements associated with the city, now 100 years old, including references to the UK’s first horse-drawn trams, the first public library, and figures like Emmeline Pankhurst and James Prescott Joule.
For good reason, Salford beckoned the following day too. I’d booked to see a recording of the radio programme The Verb, now on Radio 4 but formerly on Radio 3. A great place to hear poets talking about poetry. Very entertaining but yes, often what they’re talking about flies way over my head. On this occasion, I drove into Sale Water Park and took two trams into Salford.
I was reminded, as I walked by, that we still haven’t visited the Imperial War Museum North, but it was not short of visitors today.
Don’t worry, this old Russian T-55 tank poses no real threat. It was designed and made by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, 1947-1989. It is the most widely used tank of all time and is still in use around the world today. This particular model was captured from Iraqi forces by the Royal Engineers during Operation Tefic, in lraq 2009.
I found the BBC Philharmonic Studio easily enough, and the many security staff were very friendly. Scores of people were in line waiting to be allowed into the auditorium. I was surprised to see Ian McMillan, the presenter of the show, in the queue too.
I sat in the second row from the front and enjoyed the audience participation as much as anyone. This including a new ode: Autumn is a-comin’ In.
They all spoke about John Keats’s poem Ode to Autumn, a very seasonal topic, as well as their own poems.
At home, time for a quick snack before setting off for Glossop. This small town in Derbyshire has never been high on my list of places to visit, but tonight, Tom Hingley was in concert at a pub, The Oakwood. I drove because if I’d come by bus and train, I would have had to leave halfway through the show to get home. I met Tom and helped him carry in some of his equipment. For the second time ever, I was a roadie.
Tom and I had a nice chat before he played. We watched the two support acts, Mitch Barnes from the band Selica and James Stuart.
I managed to make my one pint of lemonade and lime last all night. The venue was upstairs in the pub, a venue known as The Treehouse.
It’s a fairly small venue, intimate is the word, with between 30 and 40 people here tonight. Carrying pints up the stairs was a challenge for everyone, on of the door was on a very strong spring: this is just one of the reasons I stayed put.
Tom sang a nice mix of his own songs and the big hits from Inspiral Carpets when, while he was lead singer, they scored ten top 40 hits.
The drive home took a bit longer than anticipated, in the dark, and as is the custom these days, I had a moan to myself about the brightness of other people’s cars’ headlights.
Meanwhile, back in Alaska, Liesel and friends went on a bit of a road trip to visit a friend, Debbie, in Palmer. The views from the Old Glenn and Parks Highways were stunning.
Their original plan was to drive on to Talkeetna but in the end, Liesel, Una and Monica returned to Anchorage.
Liesel and I, in our own particular ways, are preparing for her return home to Northenden. But actually, our apartment wasn’t that untidy, and the cleaners, Alison and Kayleigh did a fantastic job as always, thank you very much. Liesel is packing for herself and her Mom but so far, I’ve been told there is no need to hire a bigger vehicle in which to transport all of their luggage back home from the airport.
And of course Keiran is taking on many challenges. This week, for the first time, he ate a whole tomato and was asking for more, more more!
Anyway, back to Northenden. Soon after the cleaners left, I too departed on a trip to Liverpool. Frankie Archer is on tour promoting her debut album The Dance of Death. Unfortunately, she wasn’t planning to play in Manchester, so Liverpool, being the nearest alternative, was the obvious place to see her perform.
There was no parking at the Premier Inn that I’d booked, so I parked up a whole 7-minute walk down the road! My room was far too hot and the small window couldn’t be opened. The AC was very half-hearted and even after turning it down to the lowest temperature possible, the room remained way too hot.
So I went for a walk, looking for something to eat and not expecting to see anything of particular interest. But seeing ‘Bombed out church’ on Google Maps, well, I couldn’t miss seeing that close up!
It wasn’t as bombed out as I’d expected, and I didn’t feel inclined to clambour over the locked gates to investigate more fully, even though it was beginning to get dark.
The venue for tonight’s show was the music room at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. The support band came on, both musicians wearing crow’s heads, and they played some jaunty electronic music for a while.
Only when I saw them sitting at the merch table during the interval did I recognise BBC radio broadcaster, writer and musician Mark Radcliffe and tech boffin, remixer and DJ Paul Langley. Together, they are Une. I heard it pronounced both ways, oon and una. One of their albums is called Dark Side of the Une, so that’s probably a clue.
Thanks to The Haunted Generation for this photo since, in the heat of the moment, I didn’t take a picture of them without their beaky heads. Mark was very gracious though, and after I bought a couple of CDs, he recorded a message for my radio show!
This was the first time I’d seen Frankie Archer playing with a bandmates, Amy Thatcher and Francesca Knowles, in other words, the genre-blasting duo known as ATFK. This meant that Frankie had more freedom to jump around the stage with her violin, while singing.
I had a chat with the couple sitting next to me, they live in Walton and listen to BBC 6 Music too. We all enjoyed the music tonight and it was nice to have a quick chat with Frankie afterwards.
It was still pleasantly warm as I walked back to my accommodation for a good night’s kip, despite the room’s heat.
Another Premier Inn breakfast set me up for the day and for the drive home. You know the song The Leaving of Liverpool? Well, I now know why leaving Liverpool is so hard. It’s not the leaving of Liverpool that grieves me but, my darling, when I think of thee. Oh yeah? Why I found it hard to leave Liverpool this morning was the large number of red traffic lights that I encountered, plus, misinformation from Google Maps which insisted I turn down roads that, when I got there, loudly and proudly proclaimed: Buses Only.
It was such a lovely afternoon at home, I went out to the small patch of lawn in the middle of our communal car park and bathed in the sun for a few minutes. Highly recommended!
The drive from home to Manchester Airport isn’t that long. The drive around the airport to find the car park at Terminal 2 is ridiculously long. Probably sponsored by the fossil fuel industry.
After waiting less than half an hour, it was wonderful to see Liesel coming through the door, with three huge cases and a mother in tow. After 24 hours travel including a 5-hour layover at Heathrow, they’ll be staying here in Northenden for the next six months.
I’d like to say we all had a good night’s sleep but none of us did, it’ll take a while for all of us to adapt to the new living arrangements.
In the morning, Liesel declined my invitation to join the group for a walk around Wythenshawe Park. It was one of the biggest groups this week too, ten on this occasion. A very pleasant walk, followed by a nice cup of coffee. Then at home, Liesel unpacked while I continued prepping another radio show
