by Gareth

Tony Butler

Really sad to hear earlier today of the death of Midlands broadcasting legend (and that title’s not an exaggeration!) Tony Butler. Growing up in the region, he was a TV and radio presenter who was known by everyone, and I got to work with him for probably about 18 months back in the late 90s. It was right at the start of my career, in my first job working at local cable TV station Birmingham Live.

Tony Butler at Birmingham Live TV in 1999.

He certainly was a larger-than-life character, and very much had his own way of doing things, but I really enjoyed getting to work with him making low budget TV! I did quite a lot of shoots with him at various sports venues, and so many random people would come up and talk to him, and he just seemed to know everyone!

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by Gareth

Sounds of the City

This week, I went to ‘Sounds In The City’ to see the Inspiral Carpets and Blossoms play at the Castlefield Bowl. I saw Snow Patrol play there last year, so was hoping for an equally decent gig this time!

Inspiral Carpets.

There was an extra support act before the Inspiral Carpets, but I didn’t make it there in time to see them! Anyway, I got myself a decent position, and when the Inspirals canme on, I hadn’t realised how many of their songs I actually knew! I haven’t listened to them loads in recent years – obviously I heard them quite a bit on TV and radio during the late 80s and early 90s, just as I was finishing school and starting uni – but the memory was still there!

Inspiral Carpets setlist:

Joe
She Comes in the Fall
This Is How It Feels
Two Worlds Collide
Find Out Why
Move
I Want You
Dragging Me Down
Saturn 5

Before Blossoms came on, there was an idiot not too far away from me that though it’d be fun to throw pints over the crowd, which he found hilarious, but others less so! At one point, someone who’d got hit by one pushed his way through the crowd and tried to deck him! Even after this, he was very arrogant about it, and carried on with it… but there was a real sense of justice when security eventually came over and took him away!

Blossoms.

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by Gareth

Penn & Teller

Last night I got to see two of the world’s most famous magicians live in Manchester! Back in 2021, I spotted that they had planned to do a UK tour then but it’d been pushed back to 2023 because of Covid, so I checked to see if there were any tickets available and there still were a very limited amount on sale for the new date.

Penn & Teller.

I think I first saw them doing stuff back in the 90s when they had a TV show on Channel 4, where they’d do tricks with chainsaws and the like, often including a lot of fake blood! And obviously they’re massive in America, with a Vegas residency and appearing on TV quite a bit over there. They opened with a gag about them now performing age-appropriate magic, since they’ve been working together for 50 years, so started off with an escapology routine with them in rocking chairs with on oxygen cylinder on hand to help with their breathing!

Penn & Teller.

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by Gareth

Music Of The Spheres

I saw Coldplay live this week and they were awesome!

I bought tickets when they went on sale last year, and it was really difficult getting any! The last 3 times I’ve seen them, I’ve been able to get a spot down on the main floor, but by the time I did manage to get through to buy some, there were only a few seats left up in the highest tiers, so I ended up buying 3 seated tickets pretty close to the stage, but way high up in the top section.

So about five or six weeks ago, I mentioned on Facebook that I had a couple of spare tickets for Thursday’s gig, and the first to respond was Ali, closely followed by Jon (who actually came with me to see them back in 2012!)

Me, Ali and Jon waiting for Coldplay!

Both Ali and Jon arrived in Stockport in the afternoon – Ali drove up from Bristol, and Jon came from Bedford via a combination of buses and trains after his National Express bus left without him (just to add some jeopardy into the day!)

We then took the tram to the Etihad Stadium, and got there just before seven o’clock, so decided to buy some food before going in, so we bought pie and chips for tea! We made it to our seats just in time for a support set from the band Chvrches. I don’t know loads of their stuff, but what I have heard I do like, so had been keen to see them play before Coldplay.


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by Gareth

A week away in Spain

Me in Suances.

Just been on a really great holiday in northern Spain during the Easter break. I’d mentioned to Ali after after Scotland that if she ever needed a hand with the kids on a trip in the future (and also to cut costs!) to give me a shout… well a few weeks ago, she called me to say she’d been offered the use of a holiday apartment by a Spanish friend of hers, in the small coastal town of Suances, just over half an hour west of the city of Santander, and wondered if I wanted to tag along with them.

We flew out from Birmingham airport on the Bank Holiday Monday, so I went to stay at my mum’s over the weekend, and then took the train to the airport from there. I’d not flown by Ryan Air before, so was expecting the worst, but to be honest it was fine! Whilst on the plane, Ali realised that she’d left her money and cards at home – they were in her coat that she decided not to bring at the last minute! She had Apple Pay on her phone, so she was able to pay for some things, but our first issue was that the car had been hired in her name, and was booked using her credit card, and the car hire company couldn’t give us a car without having the physical card! We were able to add me onto the hire (which we’d avoided beforehand to save money) and then make me the main driver so I could use my card instead.

Anyway, we eventually left Santander airport and got to Suances late afternoon, and after meeting a lady in a car park to collect some keys(!) arrived at the apartment. It was really nice, and a decent size – and since the weather was pretty sunny, we walked down to the beach early evening. Ali and the kids  went in the sea for a bit, whilst I decided to stay dry and enjoy the sunny evening sitting on the sand!

Ali and the kids in Suances.

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by Gareth

Half term adventures

I had some fun adventures last month, coinciding with February’s half term holidays, in Scotland, Bristol and at home!

It started on the 9th February when I took a train up to Glasgow… well, as usual, that didn’t go entirely to plan! As I was on the train to get my connection from Manchester to Glasgow, I discovered that the Glasgow train had been kind of cancelled, in that all the stops prior to Lancaster had been scrapped because of a lack of drivers. I managed to get on another train that was heading north, and by some miracle got myself to Lancaster ahead of the time that my original train was leaving there, so I did eventually get on my actual train!

So I checked into my hotel in Glasgow city centre late afternoon, and then met up with Steve to grab some food ahead of our trip to the Highlands the next day!

Steve & Tanya picked me up on the Friday morning and we made the long trek up to Inverness where we were meeting up with Ali and her kids who were flying up from Bristol. We’d arranged it so me and Ali would hire a car between us, and split the cost of that and accommodation/trips so that it wouldn’t be too expensive! We’d booked a family room in a Travelodge in Inverness, so I had a camp-bed set up in the corner, whilst the others had use of a double and single bed. It wasn’t the biggest room, so was a bit ‘cosy’, and it was a bit of a new experience for me to be holidaying with kids and all the extra clutter they bring! Also we discovered that the bathroom door didn’t close properly, so I had to wedge it shut with my trainers when using it!

Tea in Inverness with Ali, Tanya, Steve, me, and the kids.

To take a break from the room, we nipped down to the marina to take a look around before returning for an early tea at the pub across from our hotel. That’s another thing when holidaying with kids – meal times are different!

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by Gareth

The Lion King and Arcade Club

Last night I was in Manchester to see The Lion King at the Palace Theatre – it’s in the middle of a run that finishes at the start of March, and I’ve got stuff coming up next month so thought it’d be good to get a ticket to see it now. I’m a big fan of the soundtrack to original film – I’ve listened to it many, many times, so it’s definitely a musical I’ve always wanted see.

The Lion King at the Palace Theatre.

Anyway, I only bought the ticket last week – there were hardly any seats still available apart from a few really expensive ones, but there was a single seat available on the second row of the circle for a pretty decent price. It had a note on the booking site saying it had limited legroom, but the difference in price meant I thought I’d go for cost over comfort! And they really weren’t lying about the legroom – there wasn’t much room at all between the rows!

The show itself is absolutely amazing! I actually felt emotional at the start as it opened with Circle of Life, from the iconic music to all the performers swarming onto the stage from the sides and the stalls.

The Lion King cast.

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by Gareth

Films 2022

Here’s my round-up of everything I’ve seen at the cinema this year. Generally a good mix of films – a few really excellent ones, but also a few stinkers (I’m particularly looking at you Morbius, although Uncharted and Black Adam weren’t great either!)

I went to see a few of them more than once… Top Gun Maverick, for example, I saw in regular, 270° ScreenX and IMAX – and it looked great on all of them!

January

The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain (7/10)
Licorice Pizza (8/10)
Belfast (8/10)
Jockey (7/10)

February

Nightmare Alley (8/10)
The Eyes Of Tammy Faye (7/10)
Death On The Nile (7/10)
Cyrano (7/10)
The Godfather (8/10)
The Duke (7/10)

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by Gareth

Christmassy stuff

It’s that weird time between Christmas and New Year, so an ideal time for an update!

Mum came up to stay for a few days a couple of weeks ago. She arrived by train on the Monday, and we then spent a chunk of the afternoon traipsing around looking to buy an artificial Christmas tree. Ever since I’ve been in this house, it’s never really been in a state to have Christmas decorations, so this year I thought it was finally time. I hadn’t realised how expensive artificial trees are though – most I was seeing were well over £100, and some quite a lot over that! I’d kind of resigned myself to having to spend a lot more than I wanted, but then saw some in ASDA that were much cheaper, but still looked decent, so that’s what I bought! I got all the tree decorations from IKEA (we went the next day), and also managed to get the glass sliding doors for my new wardrobe. Took a while to construct them, but now they’re on, it really looks great!

On the Thursday, we went into Manchester on the tram to check out the Christmas Markets. It was definitely a lot smaller this year (mainly due to Albert Square being out of us due to the town hall renovations), but also there wasn’t really much that stood out. Also, it was absolutely freezing – the weather had gone really cold (especially at night), so we probably ended up spending more time indoors in the Arndale!

That evening I cooked an early Christmas dinner for us both which turned out really great – to be fair, roast dinner is my favourite so I’ve had practice making it over the years!

Early Christmas dinner with mum.

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by Gareth

3rd Blossoms gig of the year!

Last night I was at my 3rd Blossoms gig of the year – which is probably a big excessive! I saw them at the Plaza back in May, and then in June they were supporting the Killers in – 3rd time… plus there was the film screening at the Savoy Cinema!

I arrived quite early, because it turned out that England’s World Cup quarter final game against France was also taking place last night and they’d decided to show it on a big screen, meaning the support act, Brooke Combe, had her set-time moved to just after 6pm! I do generally like to check out support acts at gigs, and I thought I could then also watch my first match of the World Cup with a crowd.

The screen came down at 7pm to show the match, with the plan that the band would then start their set at 9pm, but of course the game ended a draw which meant that it went into extra time! It was a pretty tense half hour, but the game eventually ended with a score of England 1-2 France, and I reckon I was probably the only person not hoping for it to go to penalties, because I wanted the gig to not be delayed anymore, knowing that there’d be a cut-off time later they’d have to stop at!

Blossoms gig at the Stockport Plaza.

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by Gareth

Weekend away, and more live music

At the start of the month, it was time for what has become our annual UCECU reunion, coinciding with Bonfire night. I got a lift down with Steve and Tanya – they drove down from Glasgow, stopping in Manchester on Friday night when I went out for food with them – and we arrived down at Phil & Mary’s in Worcestershire early afternoon. There weren’t as many of us this year because Helen and her two kids had car issues, so had to bail at the last minute, but it was still nice to get a few of us together.

In the evening we went to see a fireworks display at the Astwood Bank Cricket Club, which as usual had a really good turnout. It was pretty cold – it caused me to get get quite breathless on the walk there, but I pretty much recovered once we were just standing around in the field.

Fireworks at the Astwood Bank Cricket Club.

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by Gareth

My garden has some plants!

I finally have some a bit of colour in my back garden! Mum’s been back this week to arrange all my new plants, and I think it looks really great! And I mentioned last time I needed to get more soil – well, I’ve spent an absolute fortune on dirt this week! I needed so much of it to bring it up to the level of the surrounding walls! I just hope all the new plants make it through the winter!

by Gareth

Unwanted birthday

So it was my birthday last week, and I hit a milestone which wasn’t particularly wanted! For my 40th, I travelled to America and spent my actual birthday in New York which was pretty cool, but for my 50th I didn’t really want to do anything to celebrate! Anyway, back to that in a minute!

Mum came up to stay for a few days on Tuesday, with the main idea to clear out the planter in my back garden and put some new plants in there. We hit a slight issue quite early on due to the fact that the plant that was already in there didn’t want to come out! I was given a couple of pot plants as a birthday present about 9 or 10 years ago, and I stuck them outside in the planter because I didn’t have anywhere in the house to put them at the time, but since then, they’d exploded from their pots and grown to a ridiculous size!

So it actually took quite a few days to hack away at it, and once we’d removed most of the leaves, found that it had become a massive stump that had roots that had spread throughout all of the soil! It was really difficult to get out because it was so big and heavy, and also because of the space it was in made it really difficult to manoeuvre.

Mum tackling the overgrown plant!

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by Gareth

Nights out and a weekend in Wales

Bit of an update of things I’ve been up to recently… last month I got to see Martin Smith perform at Night & Day in Manchester which was really cool. I’ve seen him play there a few times now, and it’s a really intimate venue, and I was pretty much at the front for the whole show, so had a great view!

Martin Smith at Night and Day.

I was wondering if I might bump into people I know, and I managed to go the whole gig without spotting anyone, but at the end of the night I saw Craig (who I used to work with back at MUTV) and his wife Ima. I’m not sure when I last saw them – it’s been quite a while, but it was really nice to catch up with what they’ve been up to.

Martin Smith at Night and Day.

Then, the weekend after that gig, I went to see a heat of the West Didsbury Comedy Festival, because Edi Johnston had travelled from Nottingham to take part in one of the heats of the ‘New Comedian of the Year’ competition.

Edi Johnston.

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by Gareth

Cairngorms without snow!

To wrap up a very busy August, I spent the bank holiday weekend up in the Cairngorms, taking in the annual ‘Thunder in The Glens’ event. It was being held near to where I stayed with Steve, Tanya and Alison back in February, and this time we all stayed just north of Aviemore at the Macdonald Lochanhully Resort in Carrbridge.

I took the train up to Glasgow on the Thursday afternoon, and of course that wasn’t a smooth journey. As I was on the the train from Stockport to Manchester, I discovered that my next train – the one to Glasgow –  had been cancelled, so I had to get on a train to Preston where I could then get the next one to Glasgow, arriving in just after 8pm – only two and a half hours later than planned!

First thing Friday morning, me and Steve set off ahead of the others (who had to work), taking a scenic route past Loch Lomond and up to Fort William where we planned to grab a quick lunch, but both ended up having a roast dinner in hotel restaurant!

Neptune’s Staircase in Fort William.

After lunch we visited Neptune’s Staircase, which is a staircase lock made up of 8 locks on the Caledonian Canal, and looks pretty impressive. You can also see Ben Nevis from here, but I could only see half of it as the top was covered in clouds!

We got to our lodge at about six o’clock, and waited for Tanya and Alison to arrive, and then just chilled out for the rest of the evening.

The next morning, we went for a walk in Speybridge, near to where all those taking part in Thunder In The Glens would be arriving later. We went down to the River Spey where Liza did a bit of paddling whilst retrieving tennis balls Steve was throwing for her, and then we took a stroll through the Anagach Woods. It was a really sunny day, and the woodland looked beautiful, and I even got to see a red deer, although a blurry photo of it was my only proof to the others!

Tanya, Steve and Alison.

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