But aside from Michael’s apparently fantastical erectile potency, and his belated apology over its effects, what I found most intriguing about the paper’s accompanying interview was the assertion, midway through the second paragraph, that Huckers was present at the Sex Pistols’ gig at Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall in June 1976. One must always take any printed reference to this semi-mythological incident with at least a quarter-ton of salt. Indeed, since Jean Baudrillard hypothesised that the Gulf War did not take place, I can’t personally see why we must accept the testimonies of the ageing punks and Madchester blabbergobs that the Sex Pistols’ gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in June 1976 happened at all.

But let’s, for the purposes of this blog post, assume it did happen. Journalist David Nolan, who has written a book about it, reckons there were “35-40″ attendees on the night but the only real suggestion that El Huckerino was one of them comes from this obviously satirical website, which claims he was accompanied by Bruno Brookes and Thora Hird, plus this Facebook page.

The evidence, then, is a little thin. And not being one of these people who believes the Wikipedia, or the newspapers, or, y’know, the books, I decided to settle the matter by tweeting Mick Hucknall thus:

Hey @mjhucknall Guardian says you were at the Sex Pistols’ Free Trade Hall gig in 76. Can you confirm if it’s true? Loving your work BTW

So what’s the truth? Was Hucko really a part of this mythical event? Did Johnny Rotten play some strange, indirect part in the creation of Simply Red’s 1980-something masterpiece Stars? Excitingly, Le Huck responded just a couple of hours later:

@davidquinn yes I can.

So there you have it. A sort of definitive yes, direct from the iPad of Sir Mick. Now, does anyone have Bruno Brookes’ mobile number? There’s something I need to ask him.

1. They didn’t sell enough adverts. Sounds fairly obvious but estimates suggest Crain’s would have had to have made up to £25,000 a week in advertising just to break even. Anyone who ever picked up a copy of Crain’s will have noticed that there weren’t very many adverts in it, and their “no discount” policy is well documented. However, assurances were made that the title would have five years to start making money. Perhaps the recession accelerated that process; after two-and-a-half years, the magazine has closed.

2. They were too fearless. Crain’s always seemed to me to have a sort of fearlessness about it, which was great. But it’s not difficult to imagine that its “no bullshit” approach did little to endear it to potential advertisers used to their cosy relationship with the MEN. I was told by contacts from time to time that they’d stopped talking to Crain’s, supposedly because the paper had messed up some story or other. But from what I could see Crain’s very rarely got things wrong, it just printed things that others either missed or ignored. This got up people’s noses.

3. There isn’t enough news (and a lot of it is boring). I think I might have said this before, but how many business magazines does a place need? As well as the MEN, which has had its own problems over the last two years, there’s also the long-established Insider, which rightly increased its news/online efforts immediately after Crain’s launched. (Disclaimer: I freelance for Insider.) The free-to-access Business Desk North West, which has done well under the editorship of former MEN Business Editor Chris Barry after launching less than a year after Crain’s, has further queered the pitch, while there are also various sector-specific business news websites like How-Do and Place North West. Crain’s should be commended for, in the main, having a proper news agenda that avoided recycling press releases. But there has to be a limit over the amount of business coverage people actually need.

4. It had no local roots. Manchester is the seat of the industrial revolution. Parachuting an American brand into a city as rich in business heritage as Manchester, albeit with a crowd of highly capable local journalists, was always going to be risky. And, when things don’t go to plan, a US owner isn’t going to weep over the closure of an outpost thousands of miles away. The writing was perhaps on the wall when Crain’s parted company with Manchester-based publisher Arthur Porter in January, in slightly mysterious circumstances.

5. The timing was wrong. Launching a business magazine in autumn 2007 was a terrible idea given the banking crisis, property crash, unemployment bubble and recession that followed. All this is easy to talk about in hindsight, perhaps, but the fact remains that Crain’s timing was absolutely bloody awful.

The journey starts at the City of Manchester Stadium in east Manchester and continues through Manchester city centre via Deansgate and St Peter’s Square to Old Trafford. Luckily I managed not to crash the thing. Although that probably would have been quite an exciting ending.

Jaguar Manchester from David Quinn on Vimeo.

Salford (the Eccles bit was recently bolted on to the constituency) is Labour through and through but during the time I’ve spent there during the last few weeks, it’s become obvious that there is little real backing for the party or its candidate. On polling day, I witnessed a Labour canvasser bawling in favour of the pint-sized MP through a megaphone and an old lady on the pavement mutter, quick as a flash, “I’d rather vote for Adolf ‘Itler”. Nonetheless, many people were happy to admit that they will vote for Blears anyway because they don’t want to open the door to anyone else.

On the night, Blears’ share of the vote fell by 15%, off a 55% turnout. Out of a constituency of around 75,000, just 16,655 people actually voted for the victorious MP, who singled out the Conservative candidate, Matthew Sephton, in her thank you speech.

Despite Blears’ declining share of the vote, the traditional left doesn’t seem to be winning the argument in Salford. David Henry, whose Hazel Must Go ticket was backed by the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition, did manage a respectable 730 votes. But that was less than a third of the total achieved by the BNP candidate, Nick Griffin’s PA Tina Wingfield, who racked up 2,632 votes. Blears has promised to listen to her constituents as never before and her most pressing task now is surely to win back support from those whose disillusionment with her brand of politics and house-flipping antics has resulted in a rise in support for the far right. Unless the issue of immigration is properly discussed and debated by the main parties, I really fear for places like Salford, where anti-immigrant sentiment on the doorstep is regularly fairly shocking.

As for what happens now, it would be nice to see some form of proportional representation come out of the situation. In Salford, the votes of 60% of those who voted counted for nothing, which simply can’t be right. I have a feeling, though, that despite honourable intentions, Nick Clegg and the massed ranks of the Liberal Democrats will be no match whatsoever for the entrenched political elites who want to preserve the power base afforded by first past the post.

I finally escaped Buile Hill Visual Arts College, where the count was held, at 5.43am. Towards the end, under the fluorescent lights, the atmosphere got very unusual indeed. Although the only chemical about the place was adrenaline, there was this really odd feeling of a bizarre all-nighter populated by wide-eyed, rosette-wearing geeks.

Commenting on a post on this blog in January, Garner said he wanted ManCon to “stick out like a sore thumb” – as though this is the key criteria for success in online publishing. He has since presumably realised that much, much more is needed to sustain a subscription-based model, and he has been unable to provide it. As another commenter wrote here back then, all ManCon managed to do was to cull its readership, thus alienating advertisers. Was this really so difficult to predict?

Over at How-Do, the sentiment seems to be that everyone should salute Garner for his boldness and for admitting it didn’t work. Fair enough. I’m just curious about those subscribers who signed up for ManCon for a year, paying up to £100 each. Will they be getting a refund?

Elsewhere in the world of Manchester-based online publishing, a new “hyperlocal” news site called Inside the M60 has launched. (Hyperlocal, in case you hadn’t realised, is the new word for “local”. Just as “binge drinking” is the new word for “drinking”, “hyperlocal” sounds zeitgeisty and now-ish and everyone is getting terribly excited about the concept.)

Inside the M60 was created by journalists Louise Bolotin and Nigel Barlow. According to its own “about” page:

As a result of cost-cutting measures, local papers have by nature become more insular, relying more and more on “churnalism” and breaking that crucial relationship with their readership and their customers, the advertisers. There are, therefore, opportunities for niche journalism projects with a small cost base that take advantage of the low cost of entry and can act as the voice for these communities.

The site has was only properly launched yesterday, so it will be interesting to see how it develops. It wants a range of contributors from different areas of the city to become “community reporters”. Once these slot in, the potential for genuine scoops seems realistic, particularly since the Manchester Evening News closed its local offices last year and now makes all its local reporters work out of central Manchester.

Presumably Inside the M60 is not expecting to recruit an army of NCTJ-trained hacks to man the bureaux in Crumpsall and Beswick and so the mysterious people who constitute “the general public” will be relied on to provide content. Michael Taylor has highlighted what he sees as the “chasm between the present reality of bloggers and the needs of a well-informed society”, using a crass question about Sir Richard Leese posed on Inside the M60′s Twitter stream as the basis for his argument.

I’m not so frosty towards the  idea of “amateur” news bloggers providing a useful service because I don’t believe that only journalists can do what journalists do. After all, some journalists aren’t very good at their jobs and there’s no reason why a moderately intelligent person with good contacts in a local community can’t break decent stories. But, on the other hand, some form of quality control will need to be put in place in order to retain accuracy and, ultimately, credibility. A dispassionate approach to an issue is often the best way to expose it. Nobody listens to a (hyper) local ranter with a chip on his shoulder, and that sort of approach is something that will need to be avoided.

I’m reluctant to be too critical of Inside the M60′s content given the site’s tender age but since its creators are ready to criticise what they see as the weaknesses of other local media, I reckon a little constructive criticism is justified. Firstly, I spotted a lot of typos on the site, including Harpurhey being misspelt, lots of mis-spaced, glitchy commas and the odd half-written paragraph. There also seems to be a bit of an over-reliance on press releases and surveys, which, of course, fall into the category of “churnalism” that the site is railing against. For example, of the ten stories on the front page, three start with a statement summarising some survey or official report, followed by a second paragraph starting with the words “That’s the conclusion of…”

Still, it’s all free to look at and, once the community reporters bed in, perhaps there will be a change of focus. As we have all learnt today, credit should be given for trying something new. So I wish Inside the M60 the best of luck.

According to the Ofcom ruling, former ITV prankster Penk said

Just get on with it!

before playing the track on his Alan Partridge-esque local radio breakfast show at 8.28am on 14 January. He’d also suggested someone could

Video it and send it to Harry Hill

and whinged on-air about how the woman was “inconsiderate”, since her actions had led to a motorway closure through the “peak rush hour”. (Incidentally, a transcript in the Ofcom report also mentions in passing someone called Tony texting in to complain that he is “fed up” with “health and safety jobsworths” and “do-gooders”, to which the DJ replies: “I’m with you there, Tony, 100%.” Quite right, Steve. These do-gooders eh? I don’t know. I’m so fed up with people, y’know, doing good.)

Couldn’t really be any more Partridge-like if he tried, really. The bewildering response of Revolution 96.2 to Ofcom, following complaints from 57 people, goes like this:

According to The Revolution, Steve Penk “thought very carefully about [these requests] and took the view that playing the track – and making a point of it – would have been insensitive, cheap and likely to cause offence”. However, the broadcaster continued “Steve’s intent was to ‘subliminally’ demonstrate to [the listeners] and [their] fellow sufferers that he had empathy with their predicament without causing widespread upset amongst the wider audience”. The presenter therefore played the track “Jump” at 08:28. However, The Revolution said “no obvious reference was made to its significance”.

Except for the phrase “just get on with it”, of course. Not very subliminal.

A-ha!

It’s not especially likely that David is going to win. Despite the problems Hazel Blears has faced, Salford is an extremely strong Labour heartland and the latest odds from Ladbrokes rate a Labour win in Salford at 1/12. Still, I’m hoping that there will still be some drama in this David versus Goliath battle. Either that or we will end up with quite a pessimistic film in which, despite the ingredients for change being very much present, everything eventually ends up being the same.

From what I’ve seen so far, apathy and disenfranchisement from the political process seem to be a major problem for all the candidates. Among the few issues voters really want to talk about is immigration. Where disillusionment with Labour is to be found on the doorstep, people admit that they are considering voting for the BNP, whose candidate, Tina Wingfield, is Nick Griffin’s PA.

We’re going to be filming for the whole of the campaign in an observational style. It should be an interesting process.

If any of these people come knocking at your door in the next few weeks, you might want to cut this out and wave it at them accusingly.

The information is taken from Hansard here.

Barburrito

This place opened a few years ago at the Piccadilly end of Piccadilly Gardens and is, to my view, a bit pricey for everyday fodder. Last week I went in there and had a chicken burrito and Diet Coke that cost £6.20. Your burritos in Barburrito are available with several extras, including guacamole at 50p, which I ordered but I can’t really say added much to the overall experience.

Although I’ve been in there several times, I always find the choice a bit intimidating and I have to clarify what’s included and what’s charged extra, which is a bit embarrassing. The salsa comes in four levels of hotness. I went for the hottest one, which has quite a daft Disneyland-ish name that I can’t remember.

Taste-wise, it was rich and delicious. Not mind-blowingly hot but certainly very tasty. I particularly enjoyed the beans and it was very thoroughly filled. The soft drink is £1.50 but for that you get unlimited free refills.

The ambience is quite pleasant, sort of like a posh KFC but with more tasteful fonts, some kind of wood and floortiles that nod towards the Mexican. Overall I would give it a rating of 7.5/10. The plasticky, chainstore-type ambience and excess of choice may annoy some but the burrito was delicious.

Pancho’s

Pancho’s is located in the unfashionable end of the Arndale Centre near where they sell crabs. What initially pleases about Pancho’s is that it is extremely unpretentious. In fact, it’s just a stall near a fishmonger on the Arndale Market. It’s run by what appears to be Mexican bloke and his girl assistant, who has an interesting hairstyle.

There’s not as much “confusion on entry” as at Barburrito. Various Mexican dishes are scrawled on a blackboard and priced at a reasonable £3.75 or less. They also stock a wide range of Mexican foodstuffs for home cooking purposes, which is a definite bonus if that’s your bag.

To keep things fair, I ordered exactly the same as at Barburrito – a chicken burrito in the hot style. Pancho’s only seems to offer “hot” or “mild” sauces and the hot one was a fair bit spicier than the Barburrito equivalent. Drinks are not bottomless. Instead I went for the closest equivalent, which was a single can of Diet Coke at 85p, taking the grand total to a wallet-friendly £4.60. I forgot to order guacamole but I checked and it would have been an extra 20p. So the total would have been £4.80, or £1.40 cheaper than Barburrito.

It tasted good. Slightly creamier than Barburrito, certainly spicier but not quite as rounded or rich tasting. The ambience, as I say, is a bit earthier than Barburrito but I found that quite charming. Overall I’d say 8/10, with bonus points for cheap price, simplicity and heat.

Verdict

There’s virtually nothing in it I’d say but Pancho’s nudges it on the basis of price and “realness”. At £6.20 Barburrito is overpriced compared with the same thing at Pancho’s for £4.80, although Barburrito has free refills. Taste-wise, there’s not much in it. I enjoyed the punch of the Pancho’s burrito but the Barburrito one had a more pleasing texture and was highly flavoursome.

If you disagree I don’t really care but feel free to add a comment.

It was my first time at a protest of this sort and it started quite amicably before getting a little bit unpredictable later on. There was some heavy-handedness on the police side. Its strategy of entering the square, arresting UAF leaders and moving a line of officers forward in an attempt to pen anti-fascist protesters into a small area seemed over the top. It struck me that the police were happy for the UAF to remain in Victoria Square but as soon as they started to march, they felt the need to crack down.

I also found it odd that the police had split the town centre into two, with a kind of Berlin Wall type arrangement running down across Victoria Square. Predictably, neither side was ever going to pay much attention to this and, at about 11am, the UAF lot marched off towards Knowsley Street, in the opposite direction from the blockade. I’m not entirely sure what happened after that but the police formed a line, there was a lot of pushing and shoving, and the UAF group got split in two, with a second group forming on Old Hall Street.

Around the same time, a number of coaches arrived and the group in the square swelled. The police moved officers into the square, which was seen by the UAF lot as an aggressive encroachment into an area of peaceful protest (I’m inclined to agree with them). The police then arrested a number of UAF leaders, which of course didn’t go down very well at all. The riot uniforms and dogs soon appeared.

I saw quite a lot of people getting dragged off by police, including a number of bespectacled women who, to be perfectly honest, didn’t look even slightly threatening. An old guy of about 80, clearly a pacifist who was holding a sign imploring British troops to leave Afghanistan, was bundled to the ground by an advancing plod (image, right).

We saw some smoke bombs and then, ludicrously, found ourselves on the other side of the police line at the northern side of the square, looking back at the anti-fascist protesters. It struck me at this point that there was a bit of pointless posturing going on. One minute I was on the protesters’ side of the line, the next minute I was on the other. I couldn’t work out the point of this police front line, which was made up of riot police and dogs, since there was nothing but other UAF and media people on the other side of it. Around this time I saw a young blonde police woman in full riot gear laughing her head off. Perhaps she found it strange, too.

After hanging around a bit longer we decided to leave. The subject of the film (I’d best not name him just now) had left after his mate got arrested and a couple of his friends sustained injuries. Police claim there were 2,000 EDL supporters and 1,500 anti-fascists in Bolton today. I would estimate that there were more anti-fascists (I’m not an expert on protests, as I say, but I’ve been to music festivals and football matches, and I know what a thousand people looks like). The only EDL group I saw numbered less than half a dozen numbskulls waving St George flags – although it could be that the bulk of the group had assembled elsewhere.

I’ve previously been a bit sceptical about UAF protests and it’s tempting to argue that if you just ignore the EDL they will eventually go away. On the other hand, why should racists be allowed to parade through the streets unchallenged? Either way, town centre businesses will have taken a big hit today. There isn’t a shop open and, away from the protest, it felt like a ghost town.