My 2009 Blog
Wednesday 30 December 2009. Manchester United 5 Wigan 0.
Monday 21 December 2009. The Albion Band, The Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield.
Tuesday 15 December 2009. Manchester United 3 Wolves 0.
Saturday 12 December 2009. Manchester United 0 Aston Villa 1.
Sunday 6 December 2009. Paul Weller, St George's Hall, Bradford.
Friday 4 December 2009. The Stand Comedy Club, York Place, Edinburgh.
Friday 4 December 2009. The Scotch Whisky Experience, Castlehill, Edinburgh.
Thursday 3 December 2009. Runrig, Usher Hall, Edinburgh.
Tuesday 1 December 2009. Manchester United 2 Spurs 0.
Saturday 28 November 2009. Classical Spectacular, MEN Arena, Manchester.
Wednesday 25 November 2009. Manchester United 0 Besiktas 1.
Monday 23 November 2009. Gong, The Leadmill, Sheffield. .
Sunday 22 November 2009. Yes, The Apollo, Manchester.
Saturday 21 November 2009. Manchester United 3 Everton 0.
Sunday 15 November 2009. Phil Bates & Mik Kaminski with Tina McBain, The Keys, Huddersfield.
Sunday 8 November 2009. Alistair McGowan, The Lowry, Salford Quays.
Tuesday 3 November 2009. Manchester United 3 CSKA Moscow 3.
Saturday 31 October 2009. Manchester United 2 Blackburn 0.
Monday 26 October 2009. Absurd Person Singular, Alhambra Theatre, Bradford.
Saturday 24 October 2009. Grumpy Old Women, St George's Hall, Bradford.
Saturday 17 October 2009. Manchester United 2 Bolton 1.
Sunday 4 October - Sunday 11 October 2009. Iberostar Papagayo Hotel, Playa Blanca, Lanzarote.
Saturday 3 October 2009. Manchester United 2 Sunderland 2.
Wednesday 30 September 2009. Manchester United 2 Wolfsburg 1.
Sunday 20 September 2009. Sean Hughes, The Lowry, Salford Quays.
Sunday 20 September 2009. Manchester United 4 Manchester City 3.
Sunday 6 September 2009. The St. Helens Girl Guiding Express, Brighouse.
Saturday 29 August 2009. Manchester United 2 Arsenal 1.
Saturday 22 August 2009. Wigan 0 Manchester United 5.
Sunday 16 August 2009. Manchester United 1 Birmingham City 0.
Tuesday 11 August 2009. The Scarborough Spa Express, Leeds.
Saturday 8 August 2009. Kirklees Light Railway, Clayton West, Near Huddersfield.
Saturday 25 July 2009. Bower Beer Festival, Hall Bower Athletics & WMC, Huddersfield.
Saturday 11 July 2009. The Eagles, MEN Arena, Manchester.
Thursday 2 July 2009. North Yorkshire Moors Railway, Grosmont to Whitby.
Wednesday 1 July 2009. Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Odeon Cinema, Huddersfield.
Tuesday 30 June 2009. James Taylor, MEN Arena, Manchester.
Saturday 27 June 2009. Jeff Beck, The Apollo, Manchester.
Wednesday 24 June 2009. BB King and John Mayall, MEN Arena, Manchester.
Wednesday 24 June 2009. Cabaret, The Lowry, Salford Quays.
Review coming soon.
Saturday 13 June 2009. Ken Dodd, Palace Theatre, Manchester.
Saturday 23 May 2009. Eric Clapton, Royal Albert Hall, London.
Review coming soon. In the meantime, check out this heartfelt tribute from Little Steven (warning, contains swearing!)
Saturday 23 May 2009. Carousel, Savoy Theatre, London.
An enjoyable revival of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic starring the Doncaster Diva herself, Lesley Garrett. For those that don't know, You'll Never Walk Alone - the so-called Kop anthem - is from Carousel (Gerry and the Pacemakers famously covered it but give me Aretha's version any time).
Friday 22 May 2009. Madame de Sade, Wyndhams Theatre, London.
A rather wordy but very enjoyable staging of Yukio Mishima's play about the wife of the Marquis de Sade starring the legendary Dame Judi Dench as De Sade's mother. Rosamund Pike stole the show with her tour de force performance in the title role.Saturday 16 May 2009. Manchester United 0 Arsenal 0. The five stars are not for the performance, which was pretty dull. With hindsight, given that United only needed a point to clinch the championship, you could have put your house on a nil nil. No, the five stars are for an astonishing eleven titles in the seventeen years of the Premiership's existence. Take a moment to reflect on the magnitude of this achievement: one Premiership title for Blackburn, three one-offs for the Hornbies, two on the spin for Chelsea and eleven for us. Even more gratifyingly, we've matched Liverpool's haul of eighteen titles; if anyone had said, back in April 1992 after Liverpool had beaten us at Anfield to give Leeds the title, that we'd be neck and neck with Liverpool come 2009 they'd have been laughed at! Wonder what odds you could have got?
Thursday 14 May 2009. Eric Clapton, MEN Arena, Manchester.
Astonishing, simply astonishing. It's a long time since I've seen Eric on such top form as this and playing with so much fire and passion. Truth to tell, I didn't have high hopes for this gig in light of some negative reviews on Where's Eric! of the previous night's show in Liverpool. Perhaps the Liverpool reviews reached Eric's ears for he certainly made it up for it tonight!
Sunday 10 May 2009. Lucy Porter, The Lowry, Salford Quays.
I didn't know much about Lucy Porter when I booked this. She was quite good without being 'pass me the suture' funny.
Sunday 10 May 2009. Manchester United 2 Manchester City 0.
A comfortable victory against a City side who were clearly not up for it, as they say.
Wednesday 29 March 2009. Manchester United 1 Arsenal 0.
A narrow Champions League semi-final first leg victory against the Hornbies which should have been at least 3-0 and would have been but for some sloppy finishing and an excellent performance by the oft-maligned Almunia in goal. Fingers crossed for the return next Tuesday!
Saturday 25 April 2009. Manchester United 5 Spurs 2.
This was a rollercoaster of a match that epitomised just what supporting United is all about. Two down at half-time then we stormed back to win 5-2, helped a little by a penalty that shouldn't have been (but we were denied a stonewall penalty by Riley in the Wembley semi the previous week so I guess that, as the cliche goes, these things tend to even themselves out). And it really pleased me to see Ronnie rip off his shirt on scoring the third goal, knowing that he would get booked; it proves that, in spite of all the (undeserved) flak he's taken of late from the media and so-called United fans who should know better, he still cares passionately and will do for as long as he continues to grace the red shirt.
Wednesday 22 April 2009. Manchester United 2 Portsmouth 0.
A comfortable victory against Pompey although it should have been at least 4-0, so many chances did we create and miss, especially in the first half.
Saturday 18 April 2009. Lucky Sods, The Lowry, Salford Quays.
Lucky Sods is John Godber's comedy about a married couple who are serial lottery winners. Whilst it's very funny at times, the play's message - basically, that money can't buy you happiness - is none too subtle.
Monday 13 April 2009. Huddersfield Town 1 Carlisle 0.
As Town's season is now effectively over - mathematically they can still reach the playoffs but it's unlikely - seats for this match were available for a mere ÂŁ2 including booking fees so I took Carol and Fozzy with me. The first half was pretty forgettable but the second half wasn't bad with Town scoring a deserved winner through the veteran sub Andy Booth. All in all, a pleasant way to spend a sunny Easter Monday afternoon. As a result of fixture clashes with United this was only my 7th Town match of the season; it will also be my last as there is only one more to play at home and it clashes with United v Spurs. Each match has therefore cost me ÂŁ15.07 but that's still less than if I'd paid for each one individually.
Friday 10 April 2009. Hawkwind, The Picturedrome, Holmfirth.
Just as Wishbone Ash is now Andy Powell plus others so Hawkwind is Dave Brock plus others. Not a bad gig but the only number I knew was Orgone Accumulator; I didn't expect them to play Silver Machine but was disappointed that they didn't play Master Of The Universe, the archetypal Hawkwind song. Also, shame they don't have a Noughties version of Stacia!
Tuesday 7 April 2009. Manchester United 2 Porto 2.
Yet another unconvincing performance in which the defence again played woefully. However, like Fergie I'm convinced that we'll win the return leg in Portugal.
Sunday 5 April 2009. Manchester United 3 Aston Villa 2.
A very entertaining match but another unconvincing performance. Federico Macheda, the 17-year old Italian whom no-one had ever heard of, came off the bench to win it for us in stoppage time with a wonder goal.
Saturday 4 April 2009. Barrow Hill LNER Event, Staveley, Near Chesterfield.
A splendid day out at Barrow Hill; the trains were all on time and not overcrowded, there was a free and well-organised shuttle bus from Chesterfield to Barrow Hill and back and we didn't have to queue to get in. We arrived at approximately 13:45 - apparently, early birds who hadn't pre-booked had to queue for up to three hours - and stayed for two hours; we would have stayed later but the wind was playing havoc with my contact lenses and Carol and Fozzy had seen enough.
Tornado, Blue Peter and Union of South Africa at Barrow Hill on 4 April 2009.
Friday 3 April 2009. The Damned United, Odeon Cinema, Huddersfield.
A very entertaining film based on Town fan David Peace's controversial 'novel' about Brian Clough's 44-day spell in charge of Leeds. Michael Sheen is brilliant as Old Big 'Ead.
Wednesday 1 April 2009. Look Back in Anger, The Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield.
A powerful if over-long - almost 3 hours excluding the two short breaks - revival of John Osborne's famous play starring Bill Ward - not the Black Sabbath drummer but Charlie Stubbs out of Corrie - and Laura Howard (Cully in Midsomer Murders).
Sunday 29 March 2009. Rob Brydon, Palace Theatre, Manchester.
A brilliant show by Rob Brydon. As with Al Murray there was much audience interaction, though in a gentler way than the more abrasive Mr Murray. Again, we had seats near the front but - happily for Carol - didn't get singled out even though I unthinkingly put on a rather loud shirt!
Sunday 29 March 2009. The Tin Bath, Stocksmoor, Near Huddersfield.
It's not often you get the chance to see a steam train on the Penistone line so we drove over to Upper Denby to watch it go by then hotfooted it to Stocksmoor for photo opportunities where it waited for 30 minutes to allow the service train to Sheffield to pass.
Standard Class 4 no. 76079 and Black Five no. 45407 at Stocksmoor on 29 March 2009.
Wednesday 25 March 2009. Brief Encounter, The Lowry, Salford Quays.
This musical version of Noel Coward's Brief Encounter was weird but weird in a very entertaining and innovative fashion. It began with the two protagonists supposedly in a cinema on the front row, right next to Mrs C and myself as it happened. Alec - the male lead - made small talk with Mrs C, apologising for being late and hoping that they hadn't missed anything. When Laura - the female lead - left her seat to get up on stage she stepped through the curtains right into the film where her character was in the sitting room of their home; the timing and execution of this stunt were breathtaking. Other innovations included children played by puppets and a toy train going round the stage. All in all, a very entertaining production although not what I was expecting and far removed from Noel Coward's original one-act stage play and the movie version thereof.
Wednesday 18 March 2009. Where There's a Will, The Lowry, Salford Quays.
Where There's a Will is a revival of the farce written by Georges Feydeau and directed by Sir Peter Hall. It was very funny if not particularly subtle with a good cast including Sara Stewart of Sugar Rush fame.
Saturday 14 March 2009. Manchester United 1 Liverpool 4.
Well, what can you say? It was a bad day at the office; it's happened before and it will happen again. But the facts - as the Fat Spanish Waiter is so fond of quoting - are these: We've got ten matches left and are four points ahead of Chelsea and the vermin, both of whom have nine left to play, so eight wins out of ten will see us champions and that's assuming that one or the other will win their remaining nine games. The only enjoyable part of the entire afternoon was the admirable Alan Keegan's introduction of the two teams: 'Blah blah Liverpool and the champions of England, the champions of Europe and the champions of the world .... MANCHESTER UNITED!!!'
Thursday 12 March 2009. The Tyne Tornado, York.
Tornado is a brand new steam locomotive, the first to be built in Britain since 1960, and as such has generated huge interest. Today it was hauling the Tyne Tornado, a special excursion form York to Newcastle and back, so I decided to take advantage of my 'between jobs' situation and catch it in action for myself. I've never seen so many gricers on a platform and this was a Thursday lunchtime, not the weekend.
Brand new class A1 pacific no. 60163 Tornado at York on 12 March 2009.
Wednesday 11 March 2009. Manchester United 2 Internazionale 0.
A fairly straightforward victory over Inter in the last 16 of the Champions League although, to be fair, they had one or two chances and - by all accounts - played much better than at the San Siro where United outplayed them without managing to score.
Sunday 8 March 2009. Gran Torino, Odeon Cinema, Huddersfield.
Gran Torino is the latest film by Clint Eastwood and a return to form, although - to be honest - I've not really kept up with his career since the 80s when he definitely served up a few turkeys.
Sunday 1 March 2009. Manchester United 0 Spurs 0, Wembley Stadium, London.
United won on penalties to give us our second major trophy of the season following the Club World Cup win in December and hopefully there will be more to come. I predicted at the start of the season that we'd win the Club World Cup and one other trophy; let's hope that my prediction doesn't come true! It wasn't a brilliant match but United deserved to win and could have won it right at the death when Ronnie hit the post. We were also denied a stonewall penalty but it didn't matter in the end.
United players celebrate lifting the Carling Cup at Wembley on 1 March 2009.
Saturday 28 February 2009. Entertaining Mr Sloane, Trafalgar Studios Theatre, London.
Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr Sloane premiered in 1964 and was quite controversial at the time. This revival stars Imelda Staunton and Mathew Horne, famous as Gavin from Gavin and Stacey, although he was 'indisposed' for the matinee performance that we saw. However, his stand-in was very personable and well up to the role. It's a black comedy and was very entertaining although some of the dialogue seemed rather stilted at times but the play is 45 years old, after all.
Tuesday 24 February 2009. Al Murray, St. Georges Hall, Bradford.
A hilarious - though very rude - show by Al Murray, the Pub Landlord. For much of the show he was interacting with members of the audience; I was very impressed with his ad libbing skills and quick wit. We were lucky to see him in such an intimate venue given that he's also playing and - no doubt - selling out the O2 on this tour. Carol was a bit nervous as we had seats in the fifth row - even more so when he picked out a teenager directly in front of us!
Saturday 21 February 2009. Manchester United 2 Blackburn 1.
Quite a controversial match during which referee Howard Webb hardly covered himself in glory. Among the noteworthy incidents: a United corner that shouldn't have been and which Jonny Evans headed in only for Webb to disallow it for a non-existent push by Ronaldo; a petulant flick at David Dunn by Ronnie that went unpunished; a good shout for a penalty by Blackburn that wasn't given. Oh, and we conceded our first goal in the Premier League since Arsenal away on 8 November.
Friday 20 February 2009. Fairport Convention, The Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield.
An excellent gig by Fairport Convention, my only slight criticism being that they played too few of their classic numbers although we were treated to Matty Groves, Meet on the Ledge and extracts from Babbacombe Lee. Support was by Ken Nicol and Phil Cool; it was great to see Phil again after all these years and he even treated us to a few of his spot-on impressions!
Wednesday 18 February 2009. Manchester United 3 Fulham 0.
A comfortable victory, so comfortable in fact that the appalling Alan Green on Five Live upset Fulham by saying that they shouldn't have bothered turning up, so inept was their performance. So upset were Fulham that their Director of Communications refused to let the BBC interview manager Roy Hodgson after the match.
Saturday 14 February 2009. Huddersfield Town 1 Leeds 0.
In 2001 Leeds were semi-finalists of the Champions League, now they're 51st in the English league with one point more than Town. It was an excellent win for Town although they were hanging on a bit in the second half. The bloke next to me went berserk when Town scored; you'd have thought it was the winner in the Champions League final! And I had to laugh when the cheeky Town scamps chanted '1-0 in your cup final' to the massed ranks of Leeds fans. Best gate of the season, just under 21,000.
Saturday 31 January 2009. Manchester United 1 Everton 0.
As expected, Everton proved difficult to break down and we had to rely on a Ronaldo penalty. In truth, we should have had another one in the second half.
Saturday 24 January 2009. Manchester United 2 Spurs 1.
This was an FA Cup 4th round tie. Coincidentally, we also played Spurs at home in the same round last year and, just like last year, Spurs took the lead. But once we'd gone in front Spurs didn't seem too bothered; as Harry Redknapp stated beforehand, this season Premiership survival is much more important for Spurs than a decent cup run.
Tuesday 20 January 2009. Manchester United 4 Derby 2.
This was a League Cup semi-final second leg and, although Derby won the first leg 1-0, the outcome was never in doubt once Nani scored to make it 1-1 on aggregate. Some of our most entertaining matches have come in the League Cup this season; let's hope the final is just as memorable.
Wednesday 14 January 2009. Manchester United 1 Wigan 0.
Rooney scored after about a minute and, although it would be wrong to claim that the match was over as a contest from that point on, it was still a fairly comfortable victory despite Wigan's late rally.
Sunday 11 January 2009. Manchester United 3 Chelsea 0.
A very comfortable victory against a Chelsea side who are somewhat in disarray. Poor John Terry took some stick from the fans; he got a huge cheer when his name was read out in the line-ups prior to kick-off and he was treated to more than one rendition of Viva John Terry. Fair play to him, though; he took it in good spirits and didn't react at all.
Saturday 3 January 2009. Huddersfield Town 1 Oldham 1.
Town and high-flying Oldham fought out a reasonably entertaining draw enlivened by two good goals. The Town fans barracked Oldham's Lee Hughes mercilessly throughout (five years ago he was involved in a fatal car accident for which he served time).