The Streets of Your Town II.

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I originally thought this idea, to walk along streets in town that I’d never walked along before, would be pretty straightforward, but in reality it’s been difficult to find appropriate thoroughfares. This morning, however, I was off pounding the streets, looking into something else, when I saw Oswald Street across Miller Street from me, running between The Ducie Bridge Pub and The United Yeast Company Limited building. I dodged between the cars across Miller Street and set off down it. Somebody else was coming the other way and looked surprised to see me. We avoided one another’s gaze. It seemed to be the right thing to do.

On the right there were the backs of the offices of the Community Foundation for Greater Manchester. On the left a low wall, covered in crap graffiti art (I suppose everybody needs somewhere to practice), bordering a car park. On the floor, the usual random bunch of shite. Nothing interesting. Not like the time I stumbled upon a bunch of kids and a bloke burning the plastic off bundles of wire in the middle of a street in Liverpool.

At the end was Munster Street. Hooray, another street I’d never previously walked down. In front, further up Corporation Street away from town was The Crown and Cushion, a hidden gem (albeit a refurbished one). Left onto Munster Street was Corporation Street with Parkers’ Hotel opposite, which I noticed for the first time, had been built by the Co-Operative Society. At one point it seems the whole area was populated by the Co-Op; a more benign, aspirational, nineteenth century predecessor of Media City.

Castles Made of Sand.

'Liverpool Castle' Rivington, originally uploaded by mithering.

Is there a more pointless, smellier, more disgusting 'castle' than the turd known as 'Liverpool Castle'? Squatting on the banks of Rivington Reservoir near Horwich, near Bolton, and miles from Liverpool itself. This reduced scale replica of the original Liverpool Castle which was demolished in 1725, was either built as ruins, never completed, or both. Either way, work ceased when the money dried up with the death of money man, Lord Lever, in 1925.

A visit on Sunday revealed a shabby wreck with the smell of piss permeating the ante-chambers, and broken glass providing a constant hazard. "Do not climb the walls," declared the signs on the wall, warning against the decay. "Do not breathe in" would have been more appropriate.

Combat 18 are welcome to it.

Pictures of Match Stick Men III

Grafitti Guy, originally uploaded by mithering.

I'd passed this fella a few times as I headed down Back King Street in town, on my way to work, and finally decided to get a picture of him. He's not a blatant rip-off in the way the previous posts of comic art have been, but I like him on a Roy 'Trailer Trash' Tompkins or Kaz level, particularly the attention to detail on his shirt.

Closer scrutiny of the text below reveals a quote from Jubilee by Derek Jarman which, once placed into the giant cardfile known as Google, takes you to Kingdom of Muin . Which appears to be the site of a particularly active set of Glasgow-focussed artschool wackoes.

If The Kids Are United.

Youth United day at FCUM on Saturday, United Youth day for MUFC on Sunday. What a weekend!

Careful With That Axe Eugene.

The Arndale Axeman Cometh., originally uploaded by mithering.

Not The Brightest Idea In The World #10983 - Selling axes in The Arndale. For less than a tenner.

Where Have All The Boot Boys Gone?

It's like you wake up one morning and you say to your wife, "I had a dream last night that there was a film about Eric Cantona. And it was directed by Ken Loach. And Eric was in it, and so were loads of familiar-looking faces." And she looks at you with a pack it in face. A pack it in right now face.

The Go-Betweens - Head Full of Steam.

I’m not one for ‘favourite’ things to the point where I chose to have designated ‘favourites’. Designated favourite film – ‘Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory’, designated favourite book ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Love’ by Raymond Carver, designated favourite band, The Go Nuts (it used to be Buzzcocks, but The Go Nuts got the nod due to the sentiment expressed in their magnificent Go Nuts Theme) . This clip, however, of The Go-Betweens performing Spring Rain on Whistle Test (nee The Old Grey Whistle Test) in 1986, is my nailed-on 100% favourite ever live music clip. A perfect document of a great band at the very top of their form.

(I was going to write about Manchester magazine Belle Vue, but I realised that that would be three ‘fanzine’ raves in a row, so I’ll post about them later).

The Only Fun In Town

Cover of City Fun issue 20, originally uploaded by mithering.

City Fun was a fanzine published in Manchester in the late 70s and early 80s. At its height it was being published fortnightly. Having had to move from Salford to Grantham just as punk broke, and on the eve of Thatcher's rise to power, it was my talisman, my touchstone, my connection with the opportunities I'd left behind. Possibly. Stuck on a council estate on the edge of town in a family of non-drivers, in a place where the buses didn't run at night, and where there was literally zero entertainment for your archetypal bored teenagers, I had plenty of time to read. Initially the NME, from cover to cover, sometimes Sounds, and very occasionally The Melody Maker or Record Mirror.

It on one of my school holiday visits to my Gran's in Kipling Street that I happened upon City Fun, the magazine that opened my eyes fully to the possibility that you could, actually, Do It Yourself. I bought my first copy from England's Glory on Peter Street when I was in there to buy comics from their ever-bountiful, ripe with stale, damp, promise basement.

The earliest issue I now own is number five, but I may have bought that at a later date. The important thing is that they had an editorial policy to print all submissions. (I'm not convinced they printed 'everything', to be honest, as the content is, at worst, always readable, if sometimes dull). I longed for the day that I could contribute something meaningful and my chance came when I bought tickets for A Certain Ratio at The Derby Hall in Bury. I'd calculated that I'd be allowed to go on my own because it was in Bury not Manchester (therefore no chance that I would end up smoking the 'reefer' dreaded by my Gran) and that it was at the end of the 95 bus route, which ran late and along Great Clowes Street. And so it happened.

I took a pencil and made notes on the back of my ticket, planning to write the review I knew I had in me. Best of all, there were tickets on sale that night for the following Tuesday's appearance by hyped-to-the-Gods-by-the-music press Joy Division. It was a huge piece of luck as I was due to return to rural drudgery the day after the gig. Little did I know that the first piece of writing I had published anywhere (City Fun issue 21) chronicled a piece of bizarre rock and roll history that I would later see (badly) dramatised in 24 Hour Party People, and that would lead me into publishing and writing my own fanzines (over fifty at the last count), and to working as a music journalist for some years.

So, City Fun, thank you!

I've uploaded a complete scan of this issue in CBR format, which is a full-screen image reader usually used for reading comics and magazines on computer screens. CDisplay Comic Reader can be downloaded, for free, here: http://www.geocities.com/davidayton/CDisplay . This issue can be directly accessed at http://www.savefile.com/files/2054195