Middleton Tower Pontins

A photo of me and my Grandad at Middleton Tower Pontins. My grandparents went here for their holidays nearly every year (maybe even more than once a year) at least until I was 18. The site still exists, I think, although it's now derelict and heavily vandalised.

Things I remember from those Hi-Di-Halcyon days; the "Noddy" train (I wonder if they paid the Blyton estate residuals on that), trampolines, a very shallow boating lake, and indoor pool in a building that looked like an ocean liner. Strange days.

Tracey and me

As promised, a photo of bride-to-be Tracey. This is me and her in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, when I went out to visit in February 1993.

Ad was still at university at the time but I was working, having been chucked out for a year or two, so took Tracey up on an invite to go out there (which I don't think she expected me to!). She was on a placement as part of her degree. Being blonde and blue-eyed on a Spanish island makes a girl very popular. (Not that she isn't popular back in Blighty!)

We had a good week - it was the festival season, so every night meant going out boozing and dancing along the sea front. I seem to recall a fair ground at one end that neither of us thought looked safe. I have a feeling this photo was taken on one of my last days there.

Ad was slightly worried that I spent a week on holiday with his girlfriend, so I wrote him a blank cheque to keep while I was away. It was more of a gesture than anything. There was only a couple of hundred quid in my account at the time and Tracey's worth at least a grand.

Straight TV Chrimbo card

Just before I moved up to Manchester (in 2000), I was sent this Christmas card from Barry (front, behind the banana card thing, wearing sunglasses), who was co-exec producer at Straight TV, the indie production company I worked for up there.

Strangely it was addressed to "Helen". Odd, but there you go - these creative types are unpredictable. I wonder if Helen got a card addressed to "Steve"?

I've added some notes to this photo on Flickr (which you can see if you click on the photo above), mostly naming people that I can remember (quite a few of these people weren't there by the time I arrived).

Alice Cooper...

And Sarah again. This photo was taken by my mate (and former Rhythm Method drummer) Ad Yates (backstage at V Graham Norton - we did the web site for the show).

Ad's getting married on Saturday to Tracey (I'll see what I've got in the box about her), so he won't be able to hang out with rock gods any more.

Slightlydelic

Ha! Foolish Innocent Piglet band member Paula got in touch via this blog, reminding me that I had this photo in the box.

Behold Slightlydelic, favourite '90s band of the North West and Aberystwyth. They were great, if a touch Wonderstuff-like in sound. Two or three (or four) of their songs could've been massive hits if they'd ever found a decent manager or label.

This photo was taken in Preston, by the Corn Exchange (once a corn exchange, then a pub called The Corn Exchange - there was a much better pub in Preston called The Exchange where The Innocent Piglets would sometimes go to have a drink. It got very confusing).

Paula is second from the left. Ha ha! Couldn't you tell!?

I ran The Slightlys' (as they were called) fan club for a while, during the year when I'd been chucked out of uni. This was also the year I took to wearing Morrissey-esque glam shirts and being called a poof. This was, by a strange coincidence, around about the same time everyone else was getting into '60s retro fashions and, well, dance music. I was, as I remain, totally rubbish when it comes to that sort of thing.

Paula, it has to be said, was one of the most beautiful people I ever met in real life. Even with the scar on her chin (which I only remembered whilst typing this). Additionally, and rather cleverly, she lived in Manchester a good few years before I did.

Me and Paula have so much history it would be boring to go into here but suffice to say we spent a lot of time together in my formative pre-university days (and quite a bit afterwards, too), but lost touch. I think everyone assumed we were (or had been at one point) a couple. But we hadn't.

The lead singer of The Slightlys, Jon (on the left of the photo), and I went on to share a girlfriend. Of which more later... well, maybe not.

Everton scarf in cafe

I've bought a new camera, a Fuji FinePix S7000. I took it to the local cafe after buzzing around the local village taking photos. This is a snap taken with manual focus but everything else on automatic. It's much, much better than the Fuji I've been using for the last five years or so (but that one was free and this one wasn't, so...).

I may be using this new one (a hybrid camera, since you ask - adopting the convenience of a digital all-in-one and the adaptability of an SLR-style lens) to take photos of toys for the book project.