Category: events

Off to Manchester again, for the Pet Shop Boys at the new mishap-prone Co-Op Live arena, which was clearly designed in Minecraft. We travelled by coach this time, after worries about Sunday railway timetabling, and arrived about midday.

After paying our respects to Alan Turing — holding an apple, perhaps a bit tasteless (Here are A1 giving Alan a respectful pat on the shoulder and A2 giving him a friendly cuddle)

— we visited the very Manchester-centric Science and Industry Museum. Much of this was closed for refurbishment, but enough remained to be of interest — including a BBC Micro, A1’s old 1980s machine, prominently displayed.

Much wandering (and aching legs) followed, both on foot and on Manchester’s free buses. It was rainy, cold and windy, more like March or April than June, which didn’t make that part of the day very enjoyable. We did find the old Roman ruins by the canal though, which made an interesting contrast with Manchester’s splendid crop of new skyscrapers.

Eventually we started to make our way to the venue, some way out of town next to a football stadium. This proved to be very difficult, due to A1’s lousy mapreading and the complete lack of signage. After a lot of faffing about we were directed to a tram station underneath the railway station, where it appeared that a van had blocked the tram system and there weren’t any running in our direction. So the station gradually filled up with PSB fans, complete with silly hats, while the display’s “next tram” time stayed still.

And then … the trams finally came. One after the other, all packed to the rafters. We managed to squeeze on one eventually, and it seemed we could have walked there and back a few times in the same time — it was only a couple of stops. We were a bit worried about paying, but it seemed it was all free courtesy of the Co-Op. No-one was checking tickets anyway.

And it was still raining. Of course it was. Bizarrely, they’ve built a new arena in Manchester, and among the weird list of banned items is … umbrellas. Fortunately everyone completely ignored this, including the security people. Also banned are plastic bottle tops for some reason. And nobody was allowed a bag bigger than A4 so there was no chance to go S.H.O.P.P.I.N.G.

A2’s stick proved very useful again, as we got to queue-jump a bit thanks to the  generally very helpful (actually almost excessively helpful) and pleasant venue staff. The venue’s capacity is about 23,000, and we estimate it was about 90% full — which makes about 20,000 people in the queue.
Having had the experience of vertiginous seats at the top of the arena last time around, we had booked the more expensive seats much lower down, which involved a walk of shame for A2, holding onto A1 as we staggered down numerous steps. As soon as the show started the people in front of us stood up and could not be persuaded to sit down. So we ended up in the cheaper seats higher up, where we were much more comfortable, and once we were settled we thoroughly enjoyed the show. Two things we were promised which didn’t materialise: step-free access and freely available drinking water. Oh well. Never mind.

Finally, here’s It’s a Sin, one of the band’s signature tunes.

Happy Vaisakhi everybody, and happy birthday Garth!
Here is the birthday party at Viva Cuba with tapas and rum punches and comrades from decades of political history, including the inestimable Liz Davies. Thank you.
And here’s a gratuitous smiling bloke at bus stop with a graffiti halo:

Midnight fireworks viewed from the traffic island.
2023 was our wettest year ever but also featured our longest dry spell from May 20 to June 17. Full info here.
We tried the GSQ on our own and scored a miserable 6. It was from last year so it doesn’t count.

Our Christmas gifts:
and our Christmas dinner:
It was a lovely day, achieved without hassle. We are watching Vigil (thx A1).