West Park Update!

Well would you believe it! There I was minding my own business the other day when I got an email from a friend who's a bit of an insider if you know what I mean. It turns out that that the powers that be have been listening and reading to the comments about those rusty cheese graters and have agreed to have them cleaned up and they are going to be painted. No idea about the colour or anything yet, so watch this space.

Two Tone SPECTREcle

So why should you read what I've got to say rather then anyone else? I'll tell you.

If you want to find out who's on where then you can look in the HDM or the Spotlight. If you want to read self promoting press releases then you can look in Ten Foot City or again in the HDM. But me, I actually like to go to the gigs and listen to what the bands are actually like. But why should you listen to me? Either listen or don't listen, it's up to you. My aim is to tell it like it is then you can go and make your own minds up. At the end of the day it's my views and you can take it or leave it. But if you chose to read on then what you will get is an accurate first hand account by some one who has spent over 20 years in the entertainment business as both a promoter and a performer so I'm not as green as I'm cabbage looking.

Well the Honour of my first band review falls to local outfit THE SEPCTRE.

If you're of a certain age (like me) then you will have lived through some strange times, The Winter of Discontent, The Thatcher Years, The Miner's Strike, and The Falkland's War. But the main thing about all of these events was the brilliant sound track that accompanied it. I remember growing up with 3 older brothers, so I had spent the previous 10 years of my life listening to Rock, Glam, and then Disco. Punk really wasn't my thing, but I remember the first time I heard Madness I was hooked. 

That is what THE SPECTRE does to you . It's like taking a trip back in time to the heady days of the early 1980's.  I've seen this band 3 times now, and every time they just seem to get better. They're a 6 piece outfit. consisting of drums, bass, guitar, keys, sax, and trumpet, and I'll tell you what, they can play as well.

The interesting thing about the line up is that the vocals are shared by 3 of the band:-  Rachel Brown, (trumpet), Paul Scrivener (guitar) and Dave Hardcore (bass). What this means is that the band has a brilliant, repertoire not only covering the usual two tone classics by Madness, The Specials, and Bad Manners. But because of the unusual addition of female vocals, they also do a superb job of covering the brilliant songs of Selecter as well as good backing vocals.





What also comes across from the band is the pure energy of their performance, jumping and bouncing around the stage like utter lunatics. (you can't really help it with this music though can you..lol..) This added to the on stage personality of the spiky haired Dave Hardcore winding up the crowd into a frenzy makes for one of the best live cover band shows in the area.

They've got a good well balanced sound that is controlled from on stage, clear vocals and play as tight as the proverbial duck's rear end.  There isn't much I can pick fault with really. I found the balance between the brass and singing a bit out the second time I saw them, but there were no such problems the last time I caught them, so they've obviously been working on their sound.

All together a brilliant band and a superb night out, Watch out for them appearing soon.

http://www.reverbnation.com/thespectreuk

Pictures via Facebook

Burnsy Overthrows King

I will freely admit that I am a complete and utter TV addict. There is a relatively short list of things that I won't watch.... Soaps, This Morning, Lorraine Kelly, Songs of Praise, and especially Jeremy Kyle...(I would rather have my eyes sucked out by an upright vacuum cleaner then watch JK)...

Anyway, back to the point... I don't listen to much radio, so I would have to say that I am no expert in the field of local audio broadcasting, but last week I was quite taken aback when I found out that the lovely Lara King morning show on Radio Humberside was being axed.

Lara King

I usually listen to RH when I'm in the car...(I like the traffic reports)... and I cannot stand commercial radio so over the last few years I've become accustomed to my morning dose of Lara.

So there I was, listening the other morning, when Lara made her

little announcement... it was her last week on the show.. She was really professional, quoting from the official BBC press release that her move was part of a larger reorganisation and that she would still be working for Radio Humberside..(as part of the news team or something)

So how do you think I felt when they said it was David Burns taking over on the weekday morning slot? well after picking my chin up from off the floor I began trying to find out why they were moving the presenters around, and what was going to happen to Lara, but to no avail.

The HDM web site reported the move saying that Simon Pattern, managing editor of BBC Radio Humberside, said: "Lara King has done an excellent job for us for the past few years and will continue to play an important role across the station's output."

OK, so the Lara King show wasn't unmissable. She's had some criticism in the past about some South Bank bias in her views, but that is just because she's Lincolnshire and Proud... Nothing wrong with that I say... I always though her show was lively, entertaining, and good fun. The only thing I found wrong was that she lacked a bit of edge sometimes, but it's just a matter of opinion.

So what about Burnsy? He's definitely had his moments as the RH Head of Sport... so called exclusives that have turned out to be wrong, and even managed to get Radio Humberside banned from Hull FC press conferences after comments made on air, but this is who he is. I've had many a happy journey between 6-7.30pm listening to Sports-Talk's mix of news, anecdotes, views and the groans and moans of the numerous sports fans calling, texting and emailing the show. This was a great show, so why break up the very successful sports team?

David Burns

It doesn't matter what anyone may say about the sudden move of Lara King out of the morning slot, but I will say that Burnsy is a brilliant sports reporter, and should be kept on the 6pm sports programme.. The BBC has said that David Burns will remain the official RH Hull City reporter, so will still be part of the sports team.

Anyway, how is the new boy doing now that he has to get up in the morning? Well to be honest I'm not a fan. His show sounds awkward, and laboured, you can tell he'd be more comfortable arguing with Gwillam Lloyd then interviewing the grandma with bowel cancer that has just done a 24hour splash boat marathon for charity.

So what on earth were the powers that be thinking of when they made this decision? Because let me tell you, this is a bad move... They do say, you don't fix it if it aint broken. Ok, Lara's show was maybe in need of a bit more oomph, but all that Burnsy is doing is making a bad job even worse.

In the end this leads me to believe there is more to this move then the BBC are letting on, and there may be some internal politics at work, but this is of course only conjecture.

Anyway good luck Lara with what ever you end up doing, and Good luck Burnsy with the task at hand, I'm still waiting to be won over.

Images courtesy of BBC and Wikipedia

West Park Wonderland

If you live on or around Anlably Road, you may have heard a few grumblings from the folks of HU3 about the 'load of rusty scrap' which has appeared at the south side of West Park.

If you've not seen it yet then you won't know that what everyone is talking about is the new grand entrance to West Park consisting of lights and gates that are made out of rusty boxes.

The main gates have been replaces by four pre-rusted iron monoliths that have been drilled with holes of various sizes so that lights from the insides of the boxes shines through in the shape of the old Victorian gate pillars. These I can only describe as a row of giant scrap iron cheese graters.

The main lighting of the entrance is provided by four lights that look like different sized bent pieces of rusty steel that have been sharpened at the end. I actually think these light do have some aesthetic qualities, and one good design feature is that they have cctv cameras incorporated in them. Unfortunately the cameras will need to be infra-red because the amount of light put out by them was disappointing.

But the one thing that has made my blood boil is that the main green area of the park has had two dirty great big foot paths slapped straight through the middle of it. Obviously a decision taken for no other reason then to get the sports fans from the stadium to the Parker's Arms 30 seconds quicker then before. Who ever came up with this idea had no thought to the history of the park or the look of the place.

When I decided to write this piece, I t

hought I'd look up what the original plans were for the gate improvements, what I found on the council web site made me laugh... here are a few quotes from the council planning application...

"The history of the park has been taken into consideration in the design"

"Planting chosen to harmonise with built elements"

"The sculptured lighting would be of a correct proportion to populate the entrance without filling or over-dominating it"

"Comprehensive community consultation and engagement programme carried out to inform the design process"

Sorry guys I cant see it myself.. If these conditions were a part of the original planning decision then shame on you for letting this scheme go ahead.

So what do other people think?... There has been widespread criticism about the scheme, mainly due to it's failure to empathise with the existing park features, and its complete lack of aesthetic qualities. Most controversial is the 'rusty' finish which is what seems to confound most of the public.

According to 'This is Hull and East Riding' Jacqui Gay, spokeswoman for Gateway, defended the project.

She said: “It was designed to restore the original Victorian splendour.

“We felt the stadium and park were two separate entities and this project was designed to integrate the two and aid connectivity to the stadium.”

But many locals have condemned it, one person calling it 'a pile of old trawler parts'.

Personally I'd have to say this scheme is wrong. I know that Hull is moving with the times, and nothing lasts forever but this has ruined the splendour of one of Hull's iconic Victorian landmarks. This is step backwards to the modernist splurge of the 50's and 60's, something from which Hull has only just began to recover from. Thanks to the Luftwaffe, Hull lost a lot of it's pre 1900's heritage, so why are we now defacing it ourselves?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against modern architecture or public realm modern art, but it has to be within context and sympathetic to it's surroundings. I'm afraid that this scheme by only catering to one group of park users falls short of its expectations. Maybe I might get used to it in the future, but at £1.4 million pounds I do hope the new council looks at the remaining West park development before any more money is spent.

links:- http://www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/Victorian-splendour-163-7m-abomination/story-11976628-detail/story.html

First Editorial

Hello everyone...

Good Start...

Why oh why am I doing this... Taking on something else that will take up so much of my valuable time that I get even less to spend with my friends and family.

Well I am proud to tell you all that at the age of 44, I have just become the possessor of a foundation degree in Photographic Art and Lens based Photo Media. (Basically a degree in Photography fil

m and video) and I have taken the plunge to carry on studying for another year to get my Bachelor of Arts, and not only that, but seein

g as I was only 4 points off a first having cruised and blagged through the last 2 years I think that with a little effort I ca

n hopefully gain a First.

This idea is basically to start my own magazine... I want to do a monthly rag that sits somewhere between TenFoot City and the Spotlight, and also instead of just doing listings or printing pretentious press release blah, I'm actually going to go and see these gigs and exhibitions and right real reviews...

I do have a few goals.. Make a profit (or at least not make a loss), have a reasonable ratio of content compared to advertising, to get a readership of 5000, to give a balanced opinion of the people and happenings in the area.

Ok where to start? The old rules are usually the best ones!.. What's my Budget? The answer to that one is easy... A BIG FAT ZERO. This is the reason why I am starting my magazine as a BLOG.

So I'm off now to start taking pictures and start writing...Wish me Luck