Welcome To Heaton Park

hi there

indeed there has not been many updates for the last few days, but Michele and i have been busy for the last few days. with what, you ask? do you really need to ask? if you do, we decided to go along to Heaton Park with two good, close friends and whilst there made some 75,000 new very good friends!

now i did say i was not going to go camera happy and i have more or less kept my word. i could not, however, not take any pictures, for what would i have to show for the day. here are a few of the pictures i took, then, and apologies if this sounds all disjointed!

here's John and i, in the correct uniform of Stone Roses fans, at the entrance to Heaton Park, proudly showing off our much coveted tickets!

after getting to the entrance, it turned out that it was a two or so mile walk in to Heaton Park to get to where the actual concert was. no problem, we stopped off and had some chips at one of the many vendors on the route.

when we got close to the entrance, and my apologies for no pictures of it, we were met by a group of lads with several crates of beer. they had optimistically brought them along in the hope of taking them inside, but in polite ways the security said "no chaps". they were then sat drinking them before going in, and indeed handing them out to everyone, which was generous and appreciated. they also had an ace game of rugby on the go, which was ace for everyone but the ducks and swans in the lake that got hit via a stray kicked ball!

once inside we took in the sights, the sounds and the smells of the place. it was breathtaking and indeed amazing. what was also breathtaking and amazing was John. we had seen pictures from the Saturday where a chap had been celebrated for dancing around with less clothes than usual (i.e. none) on, and John decided that he was going to have some of that and promptly disrobed more or less as soon as we were in!

not really, excited ladies and indeed certain members of the gentry. he was just getting his ace new tour t-shirt on. Michele opted against putting her one on; party due to having no wish to disrobe in a Manchester park but mostly because she did not want to get it dirty.

i managed to take a few shots of the bands playing, but as we had no desire to get crushed inside the designated pit for those that wanted to be up close they are from something of a distance, or at least my blueberry camera makes it seem that way! here, and you may have to just take my word for it, are the first act, the Dirty North.

the Dirty North appeared on the bill, it seems, purely because Reni really digs them. good enough for Reni, good enough for us, i say. and very good they were, too. "bang tidy" i believe is the expression that the kids use. i confess that i looked them up on that you tube thing before we went and didn't hear anything all that great, but somehow on the stage at Heaton Park they sounded quite different and much better.

i am led to believe that the Dirty North have had offers of record contracts but have turned them down, wishing to just do gigs and not make records. i would ask them to reconsider this - the world has a lack of decent rock bands and them laying down some vibes in a studio would be a very welcome thing.

at this point i need to keep the attention and interest of certain readers, so here you go Dad, a dream fulfilled for you - here is a box of love bead toothpaste being shown off at a Stone Roses gig!

the next band on was one that i consider an honour to have seen. it was the Justice Tonight band. if you do not know who they are, please do take the time to read up on them. in short, they raise awareness of the great miscarriage of justice suffered by the families of the victims of the Hillsborough disaster, and gig away to bring pressure on those in power to reveal the truth of what happened so that these families might try to be at peace with their lost loved ones.

great work by the legendary Pete Wylie, the even more legendary Mick Jones and all the guests who joined them, such as members of The Farm, The La's and indeed, in a move that would impress my mate Shaun, the singer from Reverend And The Makers!

my apologies to some friends at verk who may be reading this, for it seems i did not take any pictures of the legends that are The Wailers with my phone. that is the bad news - the good news is that i took some with one of them disposable cameras i took with me, so eventually i should have something to show of them. here, however, is a picture of one side of the stage!

the "main" support, as in the support prior to The Stone Roses coming on, was Plan B on the Sunday night. to say this was a controversial choice was something of an understatement. i, like a few others on the day right up to him performing, were wondering why exactly we had what my cousin Andrew informs me is called a "grime rapper" as a support act. a few songs in, mind, and more or less everyone clocked that we had him as the support because he is an exceptionally talented performer, and most were getting well on the way with the groove he laid down for us.

a couple of lads we met had come to Heaton Park from Scotland, no less, mainly just to see Plan B! i trust that they hung around anyway and saw the main act perform and indeed enjoyed it.

weather wise, we were the only day of the three to have no rain at all throughout the concert, with it only pouring down about an hour or so after the gig. the ground, however, was somewhat moist and muddy, as you can see from this picture Michele took!

believe me, that is quite a good looking pair of boots we have on there, there was even more mud all over them by the time of our last trip to the bar! well, i have boots on, Michele has excellent purple snakeskin design wellies on!

somehow, probably because we were not totally trashed and thus quite stable, we did not fall over in the mud. quite a few people did, though!

if you are interested, here is a picture of Michele and i. one of those self portrait things.

this was taken just minutes before The Stone Roses were due to appear on stage, at about 9pm. the band was quite close then. like this next picture.....

where are the pictures of The Stone Roses? to follow, dear reader, to follow. they warrant a post of their own, do they not? as indeed does someone else, who will be next.......

the day was pretty excellent, interesting and spectacular even before The Stone Roses performed. that should hopefully tell you what an amazing time we had!

more soon!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!