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5 days ago | 
northernsoul.me.uk | Chris Wallis
It’s 1997 and two men meet on a train. A white man and a black man. They drink some beer. Six hours later, towards the end of the journey, the white man tells the black man a story which makes the black man very angry. The black man writes a story about the encounter which is published in The Guardian, and sets him on the road to fame and fortune as a journalist and writer. Some 20 years later the white man turns up unannounced at the black man’s Hampstead house.
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Dec 17, 2024 | 
northernsoul.me.uk | Chris Wallis
Since publication in 1952, when it won the Carnegie Medal for outstanding children’s book by a British author, Mary Norton’s The Borrowers has been constantly in print.
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Dec 11, 2024 | 
northernsoul.me.uk | Helen Nugent |Chris Wallis
Helen Nugent is the Founder and Editor of Northern Soul. A Northern lass, born and bred in Manchester, Helen has been back in her home town for 13 years after working in London for The Times and a number of other national newspapers. You can find articles by Helen in, among others, The Guardian, The Mail on Sunday, The Times, the i newspaper, The Observer, Big Issue North, The Yorkshire Post, and The Spectator.
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Dec 11, 2024 | 
northernsoul.me.uk | Helen Nugent |Chris Wallis
Back in 1970, some comic-book dealers in southern California got together to hold a three-day convention in the basement of a hotel in San Diego. Three hundred people came. Like Topsy, it grew. The figures for this year aren’t out yet, but in 2019, 135,000 people came to the four day Comic-Con in San Diego’s huge convention centre. This year, I was one of them. The first thing that hits you, apart from the heat, is the queue.
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Dec 9, 2024 | 
northernsoul.me.uk | Helen Nugent |Chris Wallis |Desmond Bullen
During the many years that I lived in a first-floor flat, houseplants were my only source of greenery. As a nascent gardener, I bought impervious species, playing it safe with ivy, cacti and mint. I killed them all. I look back on those days with a sense of shame. I mean, these are plants that many gardeners regard as indestructible. Sir Monty of Don, please don’t judge me. Today, my houseplants benefit from oodles of TLC, and I’ve learned how to keep them alive. Dare I say that they thrive?
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Dec 7, 2024 | 
northernsoul.me.uk | Chris Wallis |Andy Murray |Desmond Bullen
Until the day I die, I’ll remember the moment when Farhaan Shah finds himself locked in a walk-in safe. Likewise the delegation to the Gome Elders. The what? You’ll have to see Tales of the Toymender at Oldham Library to find out. Once again, the professional company from Oldham Theatre Workshop (OTW), many of them actors who came through the youth theatre, present a family Christmas show at Oldham Library, written by Sarah Nelson, with music composed and the whole thing directed by James Atherton.
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Dec 5, 2024 | 
northernsoul.me.uk | Desmond Bullen |Chris Wallis |Fran Yeoman |Robert Hamilton
There was genuine excitement in the OperaWatch office at Northern Soul Towers when a missive arrived from English National Opera. ENO was announcing its big move to Greater Manchester at MMU’s Holden Gallery and we were invited. There was a lot of discussion about the implications of such a huge move. Where would ENO be based? Would it build a new opera house? Will we need a bigger office and more staff? We even held a sweepstake as to who would go. Of course, it was rigged and I won.
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Dec 5, 2024 | 
thereviewshub.com | Chris Wallis
Writer: Mary NortonAdapter:Charles WayDirector:Mark BabychFor those unfamiliar with this wide-eyed classic fantasy, The Borrowers is a lovely little children’s novel by Mary Norton. The story surrounds a family of small people who live in the floorboards and walls of a quintessentially suburban British house. They literally beg, steal and borrow anything and everything from the big people who live there in order to survive.
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Dec 4, 2024 | 
northernsoul.me.uk | Desmond Bullen |Chris Wallis |Fran Yeoman
As a material, clay is so closely bound to the act of creation that it and the process are practically inextricable, the one shaping metaphors for the other, all the way back to the myths that tell the stories of humanity’s conception. Prometheus, so the tale has it, moulded the goddess Athena from clay, animating her with a stolen sunbeam. The three artists in The Lowry’s current group show, Local/National/International, all work with the material, shaping it to their own ends.
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Dec 2, 2024 | 
northernsoul.me.uk | Chris Wallis |Desmond Bullen |Fran Yeoman |Megan E. Bond
Step out of the chaos of Manchester city centre life and into a cosy retro three-in-one day to night venue. This is Side Street. With its 70s-style interior, low lighting and homely furniture, Side Street meets multiple demands, whether that’s a quiet glass of wine by the bar, a sophisticated bite to eat by the Side Store or live music in the Side Space. Located in St John’s, a new menu, created by self-styled sexy chicken specialist Tartuffe, has a lot to offer.
