With video

Hazel Must Go: exclusive Martin Bell interview and full speech (video)

Veteran BBC war reporter Martin Bell was the guest speaker at a ‘Hazel Must Go‘ meeting held in Eccles last night. Watch my exclusive interview in which Martin Bell reveals whether he will stand against local Member of Parliament Hazel Blears at the coming General Election.

The future of Ancoats (video)

Updated: 24 October 2009 (video added) I see this old building has disappeared from Tariff Street (the photos are from 2004).

Funny cuckoo clock

A neighbour bought this silly cuckoo clock. Decorated with badly-carved animals, it chimes at five to and twenty-five past the hour, loses seven minutes a day and finishes its routine with a comic rasping sound. I think she paid £70 for it. But you can’t put a value on this kind of comedy.

Pride security try to prevent filming in a public place / Candlelit Vigil (video)

For the last three years we have filmed at the gates on the night of the Manchester Pride HIV/AIDS Candlelit Vigil. Entry to the Vigil is supposed to be free and the community was promised it would always remain so when tickets and fences were introduced (first for for Mardi Gras 1999 and then again Pride security try to prevent filming in a public place / Candlelit Vigil (video)

Feast! Picnic by the lake – clips from 2008 (video)

Feast! is one of the best summer events in Manchester. It happens over three days around the lake in Platt Fields Park in Rusholme. You can take along a picnic and enjoy a wide range of performances and other fun. Best of all it’s completely free. Here’s a clip from last year.

How a fake descendent of the Russian Tsar fooled gay Manchester in 1991 (video)

It’s the evening of Monday 26th August 1991 and Manchester’s second ‘Carnival of Fun’ weekend is coming to a close. Of course, this is the forerunner of the current Manchester Pride.

In those days before the ‘no-money-left-for-charity’ scandal of 1999, the event attracted the support of some big names. Princess Diana sent a telegram wishing every success in 1991 and there was a buzz that someone important might make a surprise appearance on the final night.