Matt Tuckey is a writer from Oldham, England. He covers celebrities, night life, Manchester, fitness, creative writing, social media, psychology and events. Some of this may, in some way, help others. Or maybe it'll just entertain you for a while.
Wednesday: Journal Club returns to Hinterland in the Northern Quarter for a night of writing. There’s usually prompts, with 10 minute writing bursts and the opportunity to share your writing with the group. Meetup group Manc Mates are attending – there’s 2 of us at the time of writing.
Hinterland is a great, cosy restaurant serving vegan food, no alcohol and a quiet atmosphere. The antidote to today’s hectic Manchester environment.
I’ll be starting a new month-long project on Saturday that should keep me very busy. And drunk.
But before the alcohol consumption begins… a trip up north to Newcastle for a Monopoly Events convention. Comic Con North East sees a range of TV and movie stars fly in, including Alan Ford, or Brick Top from Snatch. That’s who I’ll be meeting.
I’ll probably have a wander around the city too afterwards. Amazing place.
Todmorden Book Festival starts Friday with Jack Reacher creator Lee Child opening the proceedings at the town’s Hippodrome. Intriguing.
It all seems to go downhill from there with a roster of obscurities, the only other anomaly being former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, which has raised a few eyebrows over socials. I work in healthcare AND I have a disability. I don’t remember his policies helping me or my clients. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Last week Shadow from 90s TV show Gladiators liked my science joke.
I met Bib Fortuna off Return of the Jedi, so you can expect a whole blog post about that.
Also expect an update on disability travel passes.
Saturday night: come with Manchester Nightlife Meetup group to Hideout, the new house music bar and club off Deansgate. It’s small and plays house, tech, RnB and garage. That’s all I know. Looks cool though.
"I spent my whole life trying not to be careless. Women and children can be careless. But not men."
- Vito Corleone, The Godfather.
January, like December, is a predictably expensive month. Most of the year I try to be as efficient as possible with money, but December, well, we know how expensive that is, and January I allow myself to spend a bit in the sales. Hence, I bought a new PC and a new Blu-Ray player. A friend of mine from college days donated these:
I’d forgotten it was that long ago when he’d got in touch. What a gesture. The other day I watched the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy back to back and worked out the whole time. Exhausting, but fun. Great picture quality. Still a fat bastard despite Veganuary. I’d been holding off buying this David Cronenberg box set too:
Manchester is still battling the economic blues: not only had we lost Raft bar in Spinningfields a while back, but Banyan have also upped and left that area of Manchester. There’s still a branch in The Corn Exchange. Meetup groups like WeRoad and GetSocial used Banyan a lot over the years.
Jack Reacher creator Lee Child is signing at a sold-out event via Waterstones Deansgate on Tuesday. His brother Andrew is also in attendance. I was too late to get a ticket.
I’ve received my tickets for Comic Con Liverpool, where on Saturday I’ll be meeting Doc from Back to the Future, Christopher Lloyd. It’s going to be great, Scott. It looks like there’s still some Sunday 11am tickets till available. Jump on this fast! Also in attendance: wrestler John Cena, Captain Marvel Brie Larson, Luis Guzman off Addams Family and Carlito’s Way, Boogie Nights / Austin Powers star Heather Graham and the female voices of South Park. Many more fill the stacked Roster.
New men’s mental health group The Gathered Men has launched in Oldham, ‘for honest connection, grounded energy, and real conversation.’ Sadly, they last met in zionist Costa Coffee, so I’ll pass, thanks. Friday’s upcoming meeting is in the more palatable Black Sheep Coffee on Market St.
Watched Saw III. It was drivel, but I tagged Dina Meyer - Dt. Allison Kerry - in a couple of Insta stories and she liked them.
Saw X, another in the series that surfaced on Netflix, was equally forgettable.
House of Guinness has landed on Netflix last week currently sitting at no.1 in the series chart. Back in October the filming took place in Manchester. I got these shots.
This coming week:
Tuesday night chicken anyone? Bird of Prey, a new fried chicken joint out at Circle Square, hosts Tender Tuesdays, offering 50% off chicken tenders. Fancy taking a look with some other people? Manchester Nightlife has you.
I’m off work Friday so thought it would be good to do something on Thursday night, but I haven’t actually found anything happening. Club LIV used to have a Thursday night thing, but the club is now Runway and is closed Thursdays. I uploaded this meetup but I still have no idea what to do on a Thursday. Nothing seems to be open.
Saturday night, however, should be much more successful with a bar crawl around Stevenson Square. Loads of good quirky bars, a range of music including some house, cocktails aplenty and rarely any entry fees. If the weather’s shit, all the bars are right next to each other. Meet me in Flok, 9pm.
Manchester’s Castlefield was transformed into Gotham this week for Clayface, a Batman / DC movie. The titular Clayface is an enemy of Batman whose face can transform. Further details on the M.E.N. The area in Castlefield was itself transformed into a homeless encampment.
I got down there yesterday at the end of the last day of filming as the set was being disassembled.
Filming of Clayface, new DC Batman film, in Castlefield Manchester yesterday. Just got there around wrap-up time.
This week:
Backpacking brand WeRoad returns to Box bar on Deansgate. I won’t be there as I’m laying low from the meetup scene for the moment. I’ll blog on this later. Too busy for one thing.
The first of 2 Liverpool conventions this year, the May run of Comic Con Liverpool was loaded with Hollywood stars of today and yesterday. I got tickets for the Sunday, just before the 40,000-strong venue of Exhibition Centre Liverpool sold out, along with a few photo ops.
One arena inside ECL, presumably a sports hall, featured a stage with a Blues Brothers tribute band and some of the guests.
Ricco Ross, Frost in Aliens. One of the first casualties in the hive. He liked my t shirt.
Exhibition Centre Liverpool is a vast, multi-room, sprawling venue, so there’s no way you could fit everyone into the main hall for the panels. I gather these are ticketed like the photos. These Q+A sessions are broadcast around the building on the TVs. I found a spot near the photo areas to watch the Starship Troopers panel on the screens, and plonked myself down surrounded by the cosplayers and people queueing for photos.
DM: We thought it would do better sooner. It didn’t have the reputation we’d like, but over time…
CVD: in The States, they’d watch Mr Bean, then sneak in to see Starship Troopers. It made $23 million. People bought tickets to see The Little Mermaid.
MI: It bombed in The States because people didn’t get the story. Europe got it. Like, what the fuck? What movie did you see?
DM: Children, Michael! Mind your language! I stole the gun I was using on set, and the director’s chair with my name on it. My advice is always take something, because you never know if it’s going to be big.
CVD: Blink 182 sent me a piece of a spaceship from a music video.
The roaming mic goes out into the audience.
AUDIENCE QUESTION: When Dizzy and Xander land in the bug nest, why did you have 2 guns and only one knife?
CVD: The Fleet didn’t need a knife. They’re fleet. They’re in space.
MI: You’re asking questions to a guy with a massive bug on his shoulder.
(None of the cast have actual bugs on their shoulders, so I’m not sure what he meant.)
AQ: In the punishment scene, were you actually whipped?
CVD: Some people would like to! It was the longest whip they had. The guy was freaking out. He was, ‘I’m so sorry!’ It didn’t hit me, but I felt the wind on my back. That marine married the girl (in real life) who had shot him in the head (in the film). She really blew his mind!
Another question relates to how the cast gelled together on set.
DM: It was my 3rd film. Everyone except Michael (Ironside) was new to movies. It was awesome.
CVD: Michael was like a mentor to me. I still hear his voice. Even now!
MI: A good director knows exactly what he wants all the time.
I ducked out here to get to my last photo op of the day: Richard Chaves, Poncho from Predator. He liked my t-shirt from Last Exit to Nowhere!
On the day, I was weighing up spending even more than I already had by shelling out for some phone pictures with a few celebs. Paul Reiser, Burke in Aliens and Jim the dad from Whiplash, he was £60. Denise Richards, £50. Casper Van Dien, £40. There was also Daniel Kash, Spunkmeyer from Aliens, although I didn’t even get a photo *of* him.
Bryce Dallas Howard, director Ron Howard's daughter. Claire Dearing in Jurassic World, Kate in Terminator Salvation, Lacie in Black Mirror Nosedive
Gaming area
Return of the Jedi set
Aliens cosplay
Rainn Wilson, Dwight Schrute in The Office (US), Gallaxhar in Monsters vs Aliens, smaller roles in House of 1000 Corpses, Galaxy Quest, Almost Famous, Juno, CSI, Star Trek.
Denise Richards. Cindy in Loaded Weapon 1, Carmen in Starship Troopers, Kelly in Wild Things, Dr Christmas Jones in The World is Not Enough
Fiery salt & pepper chips
Jake Busey, Gary Busey's Son, Ace Levy in Starship Troopers
Jenette Goldstein, Vasquez in Aliens, Janelle in Terminator 2, Irish mum in Titanic
Michael Winslow, voice actor. Larvell Jones in Police Academy, voice of Mogwai and other Gremlins, small roles in Spaceballs, Robot Chicken, Cadbury ads.
Michael Ironside
Cameron Monaghan. Ian Gallagher in Shameless, Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska in Gotham
Dirk Bededict, Face in The A-Team, Lt Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica
