Monthly archives: July 2007

Heywood Gardens low energy homes

This entry was posted in eco-building Energy Saving Manchester on by

Seddon Homes have put some serious thought into this new development, turning cookie cutter looking homes into energy efficient buildings. The designs have been thought through from first principles, with well planned insulation and energy saving measures so that the houses require less (solar and wind) power in the first place. I’m not in the market, so I don’t know if the £245,000 asking price is comparable to similar mundane homes, but Manchester Confidential seem convinced.

Most of us are still ignorant to the fact that energy efficiency doesn’t mean compromising standard of living. Yes you can give up your car and wash the dishes as oppose to using a dishwasher, but where eco-homes are concerned there really aren’t any sacrifices because the changes are already in place and finely tuned to provide maximum comfort.

Seddon Group’s case study on Heywood Gardens

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Bill Bailey for Eurovision?

This entry was posted in Bill Bailey Eurovision on by

After a number of petitions, Bill Bailey is going to put himself forward as a possible British entrant in Eurovision 2008. He’s even going to let fans pick the song.

The rest of the continent probably won’t get it, risking nul points yet again, but it will be far better than any of the crap that’s been produced for the competition in recent years.

via Robert Hampton

Vintage Roads

This entry was posted in France holiday Nostalgia Traction Avant on by

LA FRANCE EN TRACTION AVANT AVEC VINTAGE ROADS

Vintage Roads vous offre l’unique chance découvrir la France sous nouvel angle à bord de nos mythiques

TRACTIONS AVANT CITROEN.

Une escapade à bord d’une de cette voiture, c’est vous garantir de vivre une expérience inoubliable et de bénéficier d’une aura incroyablement positive auprès de toutes les populations rencontrées. Ces contacts spontanés vous permettront d’apprécier une formule de voyage unique.

Spinneyworld RIP

This entry was posted in Spinneyhead Spinneyworld on by

You may have guessed by all the preceding republished posts that something is going on. It hasn’t been taken down yet, but the old Spinneyworld blog is about to die. The domain will, hopefully, become the Spinneyhead store.

The international blogging thing is fun, I just want to bring it into Spinneyhead itself. I shall be inviting all the former members of Spinneyworld to become Spinneyhead bloggers as soon as I can. The terms will be the same, post about what you like, as often as you like, but a bias towards what’s going on in your area would be most appreciated. The invitation goes out to others as well. If you’d be interested in taking part in an international blog please drop me a line and I’ll add you to the Spinneyhead roster.

Stick 'em up punks, it's the Oldham Festival

This entry was posted in Festival gig music Oldham Spinneyworld on by

Oldham Festival
Oldham Festival,
originally uploaded by spinneyhead.

It’s not every Sunday you can go to an old mill town and watch one of the coolest bands in the world do a live set outside Woolworths.

I’ve lived in Manchester for a long time but this was the first time I’d been out to Oldham. Various of the landmarks (well, businesses who advertise, anyway) were familiar from Revolution 96.2. We arrived a few hours before the gig, to check out the events of the Festival. The (nearly) naked Australian chef was amusing, briefly, and the Village Disco a bit worrying, but I got the sense everything was winding down before the show.

Huey claimed to have been at his sister’s wedding on Saturday, hence the slightly late start, and paused two thirds of the way through the set to say his hangover had finally gone. Despite self censoring at the end of the first song he didn’t hold back as they worked through the Criminals’ expletive filled back catalogue. An excellent show, made a little weird by ending at half past six. I got some shots on the SLR during “Scooby Snacks” which will look good if they come out. I need to finish the roll of film ASAP to find out.

After some great luck just catching the train back to Manchester we headed to the Eurocultured Festival off Oxford Road. Here we listened to a bit of Czech hip-hop and watched graffiti artists at work.

You learn something new every day. Yesterday I discovered that the chip was invented in Oldham. There’s a local pie called a Rag pudding, which consists of suet wrapped around mince, a bit stodgy and definitely in need of gravy to moisten it. Winston Churchill was MP for Oldham from 1900 to 1904.

I’d like to quickly mention Jazz Jamaica, who played a supporting set of Junior Walker covers and had people dancing in the square.

All Flickr photos tagged Oldham Festival

All Flickr photos tagged Eurocultured

Jazz Jamaica’s latest album- Motor City Roots

Music by the Fun Lovin’ Criminals.

Oldham in Wikipedia.

Originally posted to Spinneyworld 29/05/06 by Ian

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Manchester Passion

This entry was posted in Manchester Passion Spinneyworld on by

manchester passion
manchester passion,
originally uploaded by spinneyhead.

More pictures to follow.

Update Ickle has some pictures. He was standing a few feet away from me and some of the shots have got my video camera in them. I’ll try to edit together something tomorrow.

Originally posted to Spinneyworld 14/04/06 by Ian

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I didn't know Steph could play bass!

This entry was posted in Cambridge gig music sex Spinneyworld on by
Steph aka Matt Tones, m(atw) bassist

I’ve been wanting to go and see a gig for months now and, after weeks of checking ticketmaster for bands coming to Cambridge with no joy, I decided to be original and go check out a local band last night at the Portland Arms. The crowd were small but the venue was smaller- possibly a double garage sized room- so the atmosphere was friendly and relaxed.

First up was The Hope– a fast, slick and entertaining punk band straight from the Green Day/Sex Pistols mould. The lead singer has a voice that works well with the material and an accent when announcing songs that can only be described as classic punk. While I would go and see this band again if they were performing nearby, I’m not sure if I’ll buy the album as they have a style that needs to be played live and it’s hard to capture this in the studio.

Next came Papa Shango and their dancing gorilla. The band started well and put on a good stage show, but a lack of variety in the music (sex, sex, sex) left me wondering what time it was and they didn’t have the slick performance of The Hope. The highlight of the band was the young guitarist who pulled of some great riffs and gave the music a bit more depth. It might be good to see them again sometime as their stage show would probably do better with a bigger crowd- worth a listen if you see them performing nearby.

The headline act was Me Against The World and the reason for coming along following downloads from their website. The band are influenced by a wide range of great performers (The Wildhearts, Nirvana, Billy Bragg, Pearl Jam & The Police) and the result is a style of their own that I really enjoyed. The performance was slick with all of the members fully involved and even the Muesli joke during a tuning break got a good reception. I’m going to be buying this CD as soon as it comes out- all good music shops from April(ish)- and may try and see them again before they make it into the mainstream as £4 was a bargain.

Originally posted to Spinneyworld 16/02/06 by Duncan