The Stone Roses, Warrington Parr Hall 23 March 2012

It's taken me two days to get round to this post, mostly because I just don't know where to begin.

The whole thing is surreal from start to finish. For a kick off I think this is the first gig that I've been to that ended up as national TV news. An excited member of my extended family appeared on BBC Breakfast the next morning, explaining how she only popped out for a loaf of bread and ended up watching The Stone Roses. It was that kind of day.

I got a tip off a couple of hours before tickets were released and, when I got to Palmyra Square, it was just the weirdest atmosphere. Security was out in force, crush barriers were being set up and there were loads of lads, about my age, dressed kind of the same, drinking beer and hanging around looking shifty.

Everyone knew what everyone else was there for, but none of us were saying anything. I'm not sure if this was because we didn't want to be left without a ticket, or - and this was me - maybe it just wasn't true. Were The Stone Roses really going to play Warrington, tonight, for just 800 fans, for free?

It was hilarious when it became clear that you needed a piece of band merchandise to qualify for a wristband. HMV sold out of CDs within minutes and I saw panic-stricken men with beer bellies sprinting around town, looking for anything Stone Roses-related.

Some people in the queue weren't happy when they heard that posters didn't count as official merchandise. I had come prepared for all eventualities - CD, DVD, book. Just covering the angles, know what I mean?

One of the ticket office staff said to me that she had never in her life seen so many happy people. I understood what she meant. People were hugging when they got a wristband.

But that was nothing compared to the atmosphere inside the venue later. If you could bottle it, they would never have bothered inventing ecstasy. Honestly, I have never, ever witnessed excitement levels like that. Part hype, part genuine brilliance, I can't think of a single other band that I've known cause so much hysteria among grown men and women.

And so, were they any good?

Well, yes. they sounded great. Ian Brown is no Pavarotti but that didn't matter. Every single person in the crowd knew every single word of every song, so he didn't really need to sing anyway.

To me they just sounded like I imagine The Stone Roses are supposed to. Mostly first album stuff, which meant John Squire didn't go all Led Zep on us and the band sounded really tight and together. That's probably because they have such a wonderful drummer.

I think the fact that the show was on a small scale made it special too. I've no idea what the Heaton Park stage set will be like but this was just the four of them on stage with minimal lighting, knocking out some of their best songs for an audience of no more than 1,000 people.

But when She Bangs The Drums came on, that 1,000 sounded like 100,000. It's already one of the best pop songs ever produced, but with a crowd this euphoric it was genuinely emotional. Surely moments like that are why Ian Brown, John Squire, Mani and Reni set up a band in the first place. I've even got goosebumps while I'm writing about it.

If you search for Stone Roses Warrington on YouTube, various videos are already available, which people have shot on their mobile phones. They did well because the bouncers were hot on grabbing people who were trying to film.

The best of the lot is by Steve Rutter, a guy I used to work with. In fact, just in case the day needed to get any more bizarre, his film got picked up by Granada Reports yesterday and they used it in their report on the show. I challenge you to watch it and not let the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. Good work Steve.

Listen to this muppet....

I've been on an FA course for kids football coaches this week. No doubt I'll rabbit on about it more in a couple of weeks when it's finished, if I pass.

The programme doesn't just look at coaching techniques. There are also elements about first aid and safeguarding children and other stuff. In one of the sessions, we had to watch his film. What is actually great about it is that it's not even a caricature. I've seen loads of people behave like this on the sidelines. There are some crazy folk out there.

Roll up, roll up...

Tranmere Rovers - end of season report

I'm sure this time of year is horrible if you're a lower league footballer.

One year contracts are the norm now, with clubs reluctant to commit any further to a player who might get injured or who just might not be good enough after all. All the uncertainty must be worse than being a freelance PR kid.

Tranmere have announced their list of players who are getting the heave-ho. Like with virtually everything he's done since coming back to the club, it's hard to argue with Ronnie Moore. Given that he's only really had a few weeks to assess which players have something to offer, his list is about the same as the one I had in mind.

Enoch has had his chance, but he just doesn't score enough goals. Likewise Tiryaki, although I'll bet he's cursing the club for not letting the Trabzonspor move come off in January.

Ladabie hasn't been nearly the same player he was when he first arrived on loan from West Brom and he needs to move on. He's a decent midfielder but he will probably benefit from a change of scene that will get him going again.

Raven is another who has been in the background so can hardly be surprised to be on his way and Martin Devaney, injuries aside, just hasn't done enough. All those fancy tricks and that disco dancing around the ball haven't produced an end result often enough.

Maybe the only one that was a bit of a surprise was Robbie Weir. I thought he had done OK this year, but he's really unpopular with the fans. Obviously Ronnie doesn't fancy him either.

I do think McGurk and Akins should be grateful to have had their contracts extended. We've had enough strikers who don't score goals over the past two or three years and these two have been indulged a fair bit. I think McGurk has it in him but I just can't see Lucas Akins hitting double figures. I so hope he proves me wrong.

I hope the five players who have been offered new contracts all sign up again, but the one I'm most pleased about is Owain Fon Williams. It's great to hear that we have him on one of those rare things for us, a two year deal. I think he's been superb for us in nets and, if it wasn't for his broken hand, I'm pretty sure he would have been named our player of the year. What on earth were Rochdale doing, letting him go?

Anyway, plenty to be positive about if you're a Tranmere fan. We finished in the top half and Ronnie is promising that, next season, we'll have a striker who knows where the goal is. Anyone who watches us knows what a treat that would be.

Incidentally, me and Sam have renewed our season tickets but we're bringing one extra fan with us next year. Adam (a.k.a. kid 3) still insists on bringing Moshi Monsters and Ben 10 figures to the game with him when we drag him along but, when season tickets for under 7s are £25, it's got to be worth a gamble on trying to convert him into a Rovers fan. I'm counting down the days already.

The Talk of Manchester, Midland Hotel, 26th April 2012

There can't be a person who reads this blog or who follows me on twitter who doesn't know I've been involved in The Talk of Manchester. I've been harping on about it for months, but this week it finally took place.

The feedback has been 100 per cent positive. I'm biased of course and so I'm bound to think it was a brilliant event, which it was, but a better guide would be the views of the other people who were there. Everyone I met there spoke really highly of the way it was organised, how smoothly it ran and of the quality of the speakers.



Blog posts from Gary Chaplin and Phil Jones review the day in a more businesslike fashion than I could manage, so click on the links and take a look at their posts.

Michelle Mone was the headline act. She's clearly a brilliant PR person and she has done a fantastic job of generating stacks of publicity for Ultimo by thinking creatively rather than just splashing the cash.

But I was more interested in the human side of her speech. She is a very funny lady and she had the whole audience in stitches (and well and truly on her side) when she verbally ripped her husband to pieces for all that extra marital stuff that's been in the papers.

My own favourite anecdote was about when she met Bill Clinton. She told him she admired him so much, she wished she was Monica. She did of course mean Hilary but I would love to know what flashed through his mind at that point.

Interestingly, a member of the audience asked her what business book she found most motivating or inspiring. Her answer was that she has never read a book in her life.



Another one of the speakers I want to mention is a guy called Michael Finnigan. His job is all about maximising potential and so, while he works with businesses, a lot of sports stars have turned to him for help too - Sam Allardyce, Darren Clarke, David Moyes, Freddie Flintoff, plus a load of others.

He's full of anecdotes but my favourite was the tale about the Olympic champion Mary Peters. She and her training partners hammered a nail each into the wall of the changing rooms as motivation. The nail was to hang their gold medals from when they won them, which, as winners, they had absolutely no doubt was going to happen. His point is that everyone needs to hammer their own nail into a wall.

By the end of his hour on stage, I think everyone in the room was walking just a little taller. I'm thinking of getting  him in to the help Newton-le-Willows under 8s (b), although I suspect a fundraising bingo night and a couple of raffle tickets won't quite be enough to cover his costs.

Anyone But Chelsea

Just to be clear, I don't 'support' Liverpool. I support Tranmere Rovers and only Tranmere Rovers.

But I am going to to stick my oar in on this whole "greatest Champions League game ever" nonsense.

Some bloke in the Telegraph has tried to explain why Chelsea's ten man comeback was better than Liverpool's achievement in Istanbul. What? It wasn't even as good as the Man Yoo Sheringham/Solskjaer thing (if you don't know what I mean just Google "Clive Tyldesley's favourite game" and it'll pop up).

At least United won the cup with their comeback.

Just to be clear - Liverpool were THREE NIL down. They pulled all three goals back in a 15 MINUTE lung bursting period of EXHILARATING high intensity football, led by the best British midfielder of his generation, and they WON THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE as a result.

Compare to Chelsea, who were so s***scared of the opposition they PARKED THE BUS IN FRONT OF THE GOAL FOR 180 MINUTES of a two-legged semi-final. It's probably the most negative team performance I have ever seen.

At the time of writing, the other semi final hadn't been played but you've probably guessed that I'll be using the ABC rule when it comes to choosing which team to get behind in the final.

Anyone But Chelsea.

Sea Odyssey in Liverpool

I saw the Queen once. Actually I didn't see her, I saw her car, as it sped past the junction of Morland Avenue and Allport Lane in Bromborough on a flying visit to/through our town.

Me and my classmates had been wheeled out of Raeburn Primary School to scream at her and wave little plastic flags  like mini versions of The People who Grinned Themselves to Death. I think we were all a bit young for republicanism, so everyone just went along with it.

I remember her car being very, very shiny and I convinced myself and others that she had waved at me, but she hadn't. I wasn't even on the front row.

It was a life event for me though. Not through any love for the Royal Family, of course. More because, if there are spectacles, freak shows and happenings taking place on your doorstep, you owe it to yourself to take a look.

In that spirit, I went along to the Sea Odyssey yesterday. I was very cynical about the Giant Spider of 2008 but I'm a bit less spiky these days and I did think Kid 3 (aka Adam, aged 5) would like it anyway. Not for one minute though did I think I would enjoy it so much as I did.

The sheer numbers of people who turned out to watch was a spectacle in itself. There is something exciting about big crowds (yes, this from a Tranmere fan!) and the atmosphere created by the people who were there certainly played a part in how you felt.

Most people were in a happy mood. Considering how difficult it was to move or to get a decent spec, the people around me were very patient too - and when it was time to move on, everyone headed off without any fuss and without stampeding to find the next vantage point.

It was as if gargantuan crowds taking over the Dock Road and the Liverpool Waterfront was just an everyday occurrence.

Liverpool can clearly 'do' events like this and everyone involved in staging it and for making it happen in the first place deserves a thank you from the rest of us who just went along to watch.

What a sight it was. In truth, unless you were one of the privileged few (journos, council bosses etc) you will only have got a snapshot of the story being played out. I'm sure there was great drama when the Little Giant Girl found her Uncle etc, but most of us had to be content with just seeing the procession go past.

But that really was enough. Adam and I fell really lucky because we arrived at James Street just as the characters were completing a circuit of the Three Graces. To see them against the backdrop of the Liver Buildings seemed to be as perfect an illustration of the whole event as you could get and when the 50 foot diver appeared from around the side of the Liver Building, it was genuinely awe inspiring.

As with anything, pictures of the event are not the same as being there but, for what it's worth I've uploaded a handful onto Flickr. They're nothing special, mostly because I took then with an iphone while carrying Adam on my shoulders but click on the link and take a look at our view of the Sea Odyssey.