Cool Manchester

Back in the heady days of 1977, punk rock ruled the airwaves, and brothers Larry and Vincent Cassidy formed Section 25.
Initially only a duo, then bringing in Paul Wiggin on guitar, the band developed a sound quite unlike anything else around at that time.
In 1980, Section 25 released their first single on Tony Wilson’s Factory Records label, and the band continued to shine throughout the 1980s with one stellar release after another until in 1988, the band fell silent, and seemingly left the arena of the music world behind.
Although LTM records reissued the bands 80s albums in the proceeding decade, there was nothing heard from Section 25 apart from a batch of live shows, until 2006, when they regrouped in the studio and recorded ‘Pre-Primitive’.
Interest in the band grew, and for the bands next release, again on LTM records, and this time with Larry’s daughter Bethany Cassidy also featuring on vocals, came the album ‘Nature + Degree’.

With the band seemingly on a roll, plans for a new album and more touring were underway when the tragic news was announced that Larry Cassidy had passed away on February 27th 2010. 
Just before this sad turn of events, the band had recorded ‘Retrofit’, an album of older material re-worked into a new, dare i say more commercial sound, featuring Bethany’s angelic like voice more so than the bands previous album.
It must have been a tough call, but the band bravely decided to carry on, and the album Bethany had recorded with her father, ‘Retro-Fit’ was released, to quite frankly, ecstatic reviews.
Now, you might be thinking that a successful reworking of the bands classic material would be hard to top, well you don’t know Section 25 very well then.

The new ‘Invicta’ EP, out on Hacienda Records on the 3rd of October, is quite simply, a masterpiece in modern electro guitar pop.
The EP has two song’s, and two remixes of those songs.
‘Colour Movement, Sex and Violence’ is the stand out track by far.
Bethany’s vocals are simply breathtaking, and the whole song invokes a feeling of optimism that lifts the heart and soul.
The next brand new offering is ‘Inner Drive’, it pushes harder than the previous song, and confirms that the band have lost non of their electro edge.
One imagines this will soon become a crowd favourite.

... a certain song hit number one and stayed there for a few weeks!

Pop was making a pretty big comeback in 2001 and "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" was easily the best example of this happening.  Looking at the Top 40 as a whole, there were quite a few great pop song about [and a couple of absolute stinkers!]

1 Kylie Minogue Can't Get You Out Of My Head
2 DJ Otzi Hey Baby
3 Steps Chain Reaction / One For Sorrow
4 City High What Would You Do
5 Alien Ant Farm Smooth Criminal
6 Liberty Thinking It Over
7 Bob The Builder Mambo No 5
8 Mary J Blige Family Affair
9 Uncle Kracker Follow Me
10 Elton John I Want Love
11 Shaggy Luv Me Luv Me
12 Supermen Lovers / Mani Hoffman Starlight
13 N-Trance Set You Free
14 P Diddy / Black Rob / Mark Curry Bad Boy For Life
15 Silicone Soul Right On
16 Bell & Spurling Sven Sven Sven
17 Blue Too Close
18 Samantha Mumba Baby Come On Over
19 Sum 41 Fat Lip
20 Eve featuring Gwen Stefani Let Me Blow Ya Mind
21 Stereophonics Step On My Old Size Nines
22 Five Let's Dance
23 Victoria Beckham Not Such An Innocent Girl
24 Louise Stuck In The Middle
25 Jean Jacques Smoothie 2 People
26 Nelly Furtado Turn Off The Light
27 Nicole Kidman & Ewan McGregor Come What May
28 Starsailor Alcoholic
29 Basement Jaxx Jus 1 Kiss
30 So Solid Crew 21 Seconds
31 Sarah Connor featuring Tq Let's Get Back To Bed Boy
32 Ian Brown F.E.A.R.
33 Sophie Ellis Bextor Take Me Home - Mutiny / Graeme Park And Paul Birchall Mixes
34 Artful Dodger featuring Melanie Blatt Twenty Four Seven
35 Garbage Androgyny
36 Blink-182 First Date
37 Travis Side
38 Ian Van Dahl Castles In The Sky
39 Right Said Fred You're My Mate
40 Staind It's Been Awhile

So what were your memories of this time? Obviously one event ten years ago overshadowed all others but what else do you remember happening?

So tonight sees the end of what seems like a very long stretch of Torchwood.

At the beginning I haven't been impressed at all but as the series has gone on it has gradually improved.

I have seen the finale over the weekend however and tonight and I am envisaging a strong reaction from viewers on BBC One.

What have other people thought about the series? The ratings have started well and gradually dropped as the series has gone on. A lot of people have turned away from the show complaining about it becoming too American. I personally don't have a problem with this, in fact the only major issue I have had with the series has been some very dodgy writing from the one person I thought would have kept the show more like the original BBC version...

I'll be keeping an eye on Twitter tonight to see the reaction to tonight's episode, but feel free to let me know what you think in the meantime.

Just popping in to have a quick rant....

I was in a shop before and happened to look at the cover of "OK" magazine. Apparently Kerry and Lucient are "in love"

I'm not an ignorant person so I do know who both these people are, but I wonder why this sort of gossip would be front page news.

Neither of these people are what I would call "celebrity". Yes they are both famous but to me when I think of a celebrity I used think of Hollywood Stars or Top Ten singers

Nowadays anyone can turn up on the many many channels on TV for five minutes and call themselves a celebrity. Its all very sad...

So last night Joe and I went to the Gay Village in Manchester, we had a nice meal at Villagio's and enjoyed a couple of quiet drinks at the Molly House. When we got onto Canal Street after that it honestly didn't feel like a "gay" village anymore.

The street was packed with hen parties full of women dressed in a way that made Christina Aguilera's "Dirrty" video look like Downton Abbey. I don't mean to sound judgmental but it looked like a convention for cheap prostitutes and it was obvious that their behaviour made the people at the bars feel very uncomfortable. There were so many hen parties out on the street at least one bar was charging at the door for people to come in, probably to detrcct all the "hens"

The reason places like the gay village are there is so that gay men and women can feel comfortable and not feel intimidated by anybody. The place is about acceptance and tolerance and should be treated that way.

I'm not in anyway suggesting that "straight" people should stay away from the village - the opposite in fact. I just strongly think that when people are heading to such a place they should have respect for the people around them and remember the reason why the village was created in the first place.