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.
“They
said, 'just do one song,' and I was like, 'uh-uh. I ain't just doing
one song.'” Ashanti oozes sass and
showmanship in a black dress, Aviators and a white pilot cap, chewing
gum as she talks to us.
It's
past 2am in The Milton Club on
Manchester's Deansgate and we've been waiting for the R'n'B singer to
come out for over 2 hours, not that we mind as the music and
atmosphere are great anyway, and the club's heaving with people. DJ
Vinnie B has kept with the retro theme spinning old-school garage
tracks during the build-up. But Ashanti- whose self-titled
triple-platinum album came out 15 years ago, she reminds us- tops the
night off singing her hits Foolish, Happy and What's Love.
Ashanti
is a genuine entertainer, not to mention stunning and a great live
singer. Her performance was short, but dynamic. I'm glad I caught it.
I
went with Manchester Cool Bars,
and it was another great meetup with this gang. There's another big
name singer coming to the club in April- we might be going, so keep
your eye on the site.
Two
staples of British culture- pugilism and getting hammered- occur this
weekend.
New
Meetup group Frustrated Creatives Drinking Circle
meets on Friday in a yet-to-be-confirmed location. There's a limit of
20 attendees and there's currently a 19-strong wait list, so the
organiser has clearly hit the nail on the head in terms designing a
group for the people of Manchester. It's probably worth keeping your
eye on the page as the group meets on the first Friday of every
month. You could book your space for next month now if you wanted.
I'll let you know how this one goes.
Saturday
night: David Haye takes on fellow Brit
Tony Bellew, who has jumped up from
cruiserweight (where he holds the WBC belt) to heavyweight. Sky Sports claims Haye's power hasn't diminished after years of being a pro. It
should be an explosive night. My money's on Haye. Seventh Round.
I
have further ideas and more blog posts (including a famous singer) in
the pipeline. This month I'm doing a spot of citizen journalism.
The first week of this was slow but I'm now lagging behind with the
stories to upload. I'm likely to be in town sticking my nose around
in the rain later today.
The
woman dressed as a human-sized glow-in-the-dark vagina walks
backwards, yelling into the megaphone.
“What
do we want?”
“Safe
Streets!” the crowd shouts back.
“When
do we want it?”
“Now!”
The
crowd is around a thousand-strong, and consists mostly of students
with signs reading VALUE MY VAGINA, QUEEF ON THE PATRIACHY and,
debatably off-topic, DONALD TRUMP IS A PIECE OF SHIT.
It's
a dismal Thursday evening in Fallowfield on the outskirts of
Manchester- the student area. Storm Doris
is battering the city, but there's a minor lull in the gale and it's
only spitting, thankfully. The crowd, which is growing all the time,
is here for Reclaim the Night 2017, a march
highlighting- and campaigning against- sexual violence. We're walking
out of the accommodation area and onto the street towards the city centre.
One
of the girls holds a sign saying DON'T HONK YOUR HORN AT ME. The then
proceeds to cheer when drivers defy her.
The
Vagina is chanting again, and the crowd that are close enough to hear
her amplified voice join in.
“Said
hey!”
“Hey!”
“Ho!”
“Ho!”
And
together, “Sexual Violence has got to go!”
I'm
scuttling ahead of people trying to get their signs in my camera's
frame. The pavement's pretty empty, but the road is stuffed with
people, causing no end of disruption to traffic- which is the point.
The
crowd chants on- people covered in glitter, girls in fishnets, but
mostly people wearing warm coats. “Blame the system, not the
victim!” The call is echoed by those who can hear the megaphone.
“Show
me what a feminist looks like!”
“This
is what a feminist looks like!”
The
march treks north from Fallowfield, through the Curry Mile and into
the Contact Theatre on Oxford Road where another woman gets onto the
speakerphone, but there are that many people in the crowd that most
of us can't hear her. The location is stuffed with the people on the
march. The people they want to convince, though- the general public-
aren't in great numbers there. They're all further down the road and
into the city centre. It would have been interesting to see how the
early-doors drinkers would have reacted to hundreds of student
feminists telling them that “This pussy grabs back.”
It's
been eventful, and I want to say 'fun.' But it's worth remembering
that the USA has a president who brags about sexual assault, and here
in the UK two women a week die due to domestic violence.
That's what Reclaim the Night is hoping you'll stand against whether
you're a man or a woman, and I don't think that's an unreasonable
ask.
It does make you a woman with terrible taste in music, but that's okay.
