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.
Commonwealth Games are in full swing. We get to see parts on Channel 5, and a little more on BBC Alba. England are in 2nd place on the medals table behind Australia. I’m working through this Commonwealth Games Fit project I set for myself.
Manchester Day Parade took place yesterday, a celebration of the city by a consortium of different local social groups. More on each of these soon.
Greater Manchester elects a new mayor on Thursday. Looks like I’ll be going for Greens, with Geraldine Goggins on the ballot. I’m disgusted in Labour’s Zionism, their refusal to accept the ICC’s ruling that Israel is conducting a genocide in Gaza, and their apparent lack of understanding of their own rules on Personal Independence Payment. It’s not an out-of-work benefit. Labour seem unaware of this.
Greens, on the other hand, want to properly tax the billionaires, fund the NHS and social care system, build more affordable homes, fund proper mental health support, increase the minimum wage, stop the gig economy and stop corporations from dumping literal shit in our rivers, to name a few reforms. So they’ve got my vote.
Friday night: Manchester club Joshua Brooks welcomes house music producer Miguel Campbell for Full Circle, a night of deep house. His 2011 hit Something Special is still a banger.
Manchester Nightlife are headed there. 3 of us have signed up so far. Be 4th!
New Batman spinoff Clayface has finally released their trailer.
Clayface was partly filmed in Castlefield Manchester, and also Stockport Centre. Look carefully and you’ll notice Stockport Plaza.
Back in September last year, the production of the movie used Castlefield Manchester as a filming location. I took a look.
Sunday night: The Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony takes place, around 6pm (the exact details aren’t readily available). I’m working through this absurd Commonwealth Games Fit project, with an unrealistic goal of losing nearly 13 kilos. I wouldn’t count on it happening at present.
Well. That IDRA meetup didn’t take off, for whatever reason. Too niche, perhaps. Anyway, I ended up staying in last night. Hence, I accidentally woke up at 5am, when I’d like to have been coming home.
I’m off work until Friday. I have a ton to do.
Saturday night: Join Manchester Nightlife Meetup as we head to hidden bar Kodo Their location requires a bit of legwork to find, but I’ve figured it out. There’s a door. There’s a code to get in. (I’ve found all of this for you.) Think moody red lights, Japanese décor… and that’s all that’s available online. All you have to do is meet me and the group in Roxy Ballroom, Withy Grove, first. 9pm, Saturday.
It’s May today, hence this absurd Excess project comes to a close. What have I done since Sunday night?
A while back, I got a couple of Chivas Regal blending kits as presents, containing 5 single malt blends in each: Smoky, Citrus, Creamy, Fruity and Floral, plus a bottle of standard Chivas Regal blend. These are made for blending, but I sipped through them individually to try each. They also came with a beaker, stirrer and an empty bottle for the blend. With the next kit I might try blending to experiment.
I also polished off the last third of a bottle of Jura Journey, a great single malt. Not in one night, I might add.
Rewatched Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, about a journalist reporting on a motorbike race while slamming a suitcase full of drugs into his body. Rewatched The Crow, seeing as I met David Patrick Kelly the other day. Rewatched 8 Mile for a similar reason, although substitute the actor for Mekhi Phifer. Rewatched David Cronenberg’s Videodrome, about a TV executive becoming obsessed with a Malaysian snuff TV broadcast that eventually gives him insane hallucinations. It was a DVD transfer from a recording I made off the BBC probably just before the turn of the century, when Mark Cousins was presenting Moviedrome, a series of cult films. Brilliantly weird film, great lead actor in James Woods, shame he’s turned into a MAGA nutter in recent years. Rewatched Terminator 2: Judgement Day, this time with the Blu-Ray commentary and in-screen accompanying storyboard. Fascinating. Not seen it in years, certainly not since meeting the cast in July ‘24. Rewatched Scanners, about an underground society of mind readers whose telekinetic abilities cause their victims’ heads to explode. Crazy shit again from David Cronenberg. I recently watched his early works which feature similar mind reading themes, in particular Stereo.
There’s more to be uploaded, including a small psychopharmacological experiment. I read one of the books I pulled out, review to be uploaded soon.
But how was this month’s actual excess experiment? How did it go?
Honestly, the steady flow of alcohol didn’t do my mental health any good. Shock. It was difficult to get out and see the city and do things out there, as gathering people together is insanely hard unless it’s a Saturday night. Even then, with conventions and televised boxing matches, it can be hard to find the time myself. But generally, nobody has money, people’s interests are different, people travel, so a lot of what I did was to stay home, hammer through that alcohol and watch those films.
Looking back at the original plans, I’m not sure I’ve seen many opportunities to do things other than the horror convention. There are 4 blog posts on that in the last month. Everything else has been hand weights, movies, the odd night out and hard spirits. I enjoyed most of it. 3 more months to achieve the rest.
Made some space in the alcohol cupboard this month.
It’s only now that I realise, after doing this for a month, that this Excess project wasn’t even part of the plans I had for this year. Wow. I’d just assumed it was because I had no room in my drinks cupboard.
Once again, For the Love of Horror was an astounding local movie event with some superb guests offering photo ops, autographs, stage discussions and there was even a Blade-style blood rave (that I missed). Find part 1 and part 2 of my writeups.
I got a follow back on Instagram from Finn Carter, Rhonda off Tremors.
Jeff Daniel Phillips, Herman Munster in the Munsters remake, liked my picture of him.
Unfortunately, after paying for a picture with Mekhi Pfifer, he then turned out to be Zionist. Well. Terrifier’s Jenna Kanell liked my pic of her.
Rewatched City of God, the Brazilian gangster movie. Excellent crime drama set in the Rio favelas, taking inspiration from real life, Goodfellas and I expect Lock Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels.
Rewatched Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, an outrageous drug-fuelled trip through a police convention, a motorbike race and a desert. So many cameos that I didn’t recognise until this week.
Rewatched Lost Highway, David Lynch’s weird tale of a sax player sentenced over the murder of his wife (an act of which he has no recollection) only for him to disappear in jail and be replaced by another guy who has no recollection of how he got there. So good, but such a headfuck. Not seen it in maybe 20 years. Patricia Arquette, man. Good lord.
Polished off a citrus single malt 5cl bottle from the Chivas Regal blending kit I got Christmas before last. I’ve actually got 2 kits and am tapping through the content. I should try making a blend for the hip flask.
Excess Month ends on Thursday. I’ve read one of the books that I’d pulled out that fit this theme; review to be uploaded at some point.
Lastly, today is Alien Day: 26th April. 4/26. As in LV-426, the planet they land on in Alien.
FC: Tremors bombed on release, then 35 years later it’s remembered. Michael carried the mantel for 6 more movies.
MG: (Lead actor Val) Kevin Bacon felt he was a failure. He walked away.
FC: He said he’d come back now if there’s another.
MG: There’s a script for ‘Tremors 8’ but it’s in legal limbo. I said to a producer, ‘we’d better do it quick, because we’re getting old.’ I didn’t intend for Burt to be a main character. But the writers fell in love with the character, and when that happens it’s great.
MG: Quite heavy! It was a terrifying scene for me because I knew if I got it wrong, they’d have to take an entire day to reset the wall.
AQ: What was it like seeing the creature for the first time?
FC: I was in a few scenes. It was massive. I got dragged. The director (Ron Underwood) was 5’ (1.5m) tall, and the sweetest man, saying, “it’s getting closer! It’s getting closer! IT’S REALLY SCARY NOW!”
AQ: Did you speak to seizmologists to prepare for the role?
MG: Americans are crazy as you know. We have a president to prove it. We had a survivalist store, and they gave us the basics on booby traps, making a retreat, which I’m a little paranoid about. I took a lot of firearms training. You have to convince the audience that I was an expert. I worked quite a long time with firearms instructors, loading, unloading, to make it look like expertise.
COMPARE: What was your journey into that character, from the audition?
FC: I was doing a play in LA, and my classmates were laughing at this potential movie. Then I got it. But I got time, got just proficient enough (in seismology) to fool you. If experts come in, they’d disagree.
MG: I never wanted anyone down the barrel of my gun. If I put it down, I had to assume someone had touched it. I’d check it. If I hear about mistakes with guns on set, I say, ‘someone screwed up.’ I’m not a gun fan. I love model trains. Burt never points his gun at other people: only the monsters. We don’t fight each other; we come together as a team to fight a common enemy.
FC: When I was running away from the monster in my underwear, there were men under the set moving the ground. Everything you see is being moved by a huge team. On set there were no egos, or conflict. It was the perfect storm. I don’t remember there being any problems.
MG: There were no bad apples on set. No A-holes. Everyone was nice. It was, ‘Let’s try this.’
FC: The only time was when the Director of Photography said, ‘you cannot make that shot! There is no sun!’ In the evenings we partied in the hot tub. When they’re blowing away, that was a great scene. You think, oh my god, these people are prepared. They have a chance. My favourite scene, though, was Kevin Bacon saying ‘let her have blonde hair, big green eyes,’ then I turn around. All my insecurities and lack of confidence gave me the power to carry through Tremors. I’d think, ‘another day of work.’
Horror movie convention For the Love of Horror has landed back in Manchester. It’s Saturday 18th April and I’m looking forward to meeting a Commando actor (someone from the movie, not someone who left their underwear at the hotel). I’m going to try and get a few more photos, and hear what people have to say about their film careers. But first… let’s take a look around Bowlers Exhibition Centre.
The first Q+A Panel: 78-year-old Ken Foree, Peter from Dawn of the Dead (1978), who tells us he has “talents like Ernest Hemingway.” He tells us of his days of acting and writing.
“Have you ever tried to get something published? If you haven’t, I’ll tell you: I was between acting jobs, coaching basketball, little kids. I like to see the lightbulb come on. One of the kids’ dads said ‘let’s write a low budget action film.’ He’s in New Jersey, I’m in California. I had execs come by, they saw it on a coffee table. They said, who wrote this? I said, I’m not the writer. They said, you’re the writer. They pestered me for a call for months. I said okay. What about my family? A month later, the response has been tremendous at this late time in my life. This was about 10 years ago. You know Taxi? There was a series I wrote, ‘Limo 8.’ It was mine, but the same story. I wrote a horror story, called ‘Shadows.’ That got the same response. My 2 leads were in World War II. They were sending the letters. I wanted you to feel sorry for a serial killer character. But, as you know, everyone has challenges in life. I had things going on with family members. I said to my agent, ‘I’ll call you when I’m ready. Don’t call me.’ After turning down 15-20 projects in 20 years, now I’m overwhelmed. I’ve got loads. I’m ‘back.’”
COMPARE: There’s a lot of diversity in your career. Drama, horror, comedy. In Rob Zombie’s Halloween, do you bring fun?
KF: Not always. Joe Grizzly (Foree’s character in Halloween) was the most fun. There were 2 young lads in here today who said, ‘That’s Kenan and Kel’s Mr Rothmore!’
The mic is handed out to the audience queue.
AUDIENCE QUESTION: In Dawn of the Dead, the zombies are slow. These days in films, they’re fast. What do you prefer?
KF: The one where I’m paid! Rob Zombie has great way with words. I don’t have a favourite character or speed. I like a piece of this, a style of directing there.
AQ: What was it like filming the fight scene with Tyler Mane? (In the ‘07 Halloween remake.)
KF: I met Rob Zombie, I said Yeah, I’ll do Devil’s Rejects. I had food with Tyler Mane. Everything was real. We tore up the wall, rebuilt the wall, beat the shit out of that too. Tyler is a very nice gent.
AQ: What was the most memorable moment on Dawn of the Dead?
KF: It was an adventure every time we put on the costumes. The entire film. There was something every night.
To round off, Foree gives us some insight into what to expect next.
KF: Max Brooks is Mel Brooks’ son. We were having lunch in the US with a music artist. We had lunch every couple of months. We’d have a great time talking. Max did World War Z. He asked, ‘did you write anything on zombies?’ I said, ‘yes, but it was too expensive.’ I sat there, I said, ‘pass me the paper.’ He said, ‘you have to have the zombie thing as a comic book.’ Max thanked me through that. You’ll know more as soon as we have a distributor.
Next to stage: Mekhi Pfifer, Future in Eminem vehicle 8 Mile, and Tyrell Martin in 90s horror I know What you Did Last Summer. He was also Dr Gregory Pratt in medical drama ER.
MP: ER was fast-paced, dealing with other doctors and patients. I try and stay as fit as possible so I can enjoy doing these projects. ER was first for me in TV. We really forged a family atmosphere. We had each other’s backs and had vacations together. We’d spend 14 hrs a day, then go to Lake Tahoe to get food. Everyone was wonderful.
MP: Filming in 90s, I was doing soundtracks when I got the offer to do the music with Brandy and Monica (The titular ‘boy’ in The Boy is Mine.) 30 years later it’s still embedded in people’s memory.
AQ: What was it like filming (Dr Who spin-off) Torchwood in Wales?
MP: It was cold as hell on the beach. It was supposed to be summer, so we had no coats on. It was the coldest I’d ever been. I had no idea John Barrowman was as talented as he is.
AQ: in 8 Mile, who was the biggest joker?
MP: We were all in our 20s. Most people it was our first big movie. Eminem was the biggest joker. He was shy when you first met him.
AQ: Who would you most want to fight on film?
MP: I always wanted to fight Freddy or Jason.
CMPR: Who would you avoid?
MP: Hellraiser’s Pinhead. How’s he walking around with pins in his head?!
AQ: How would you survive the zombie apocalypse?
MP: I’d need a stocked freezer, dried food, weapons, and it takes a little community with doctors and engineers.
MP: Eminem had 3 trailers: a movie trailer, a gym trailer for working out, and a music trailer. He said, ‘I want you to listen to this track.’ Nobody knew Lose Yourself was going to be as big as it was, but it shows we bonded. When it came to the rap battle, director Curtis Hanson, RIP, he was not of the hip hop scene at all; he was a beach bum. He rolled around in a jeep with the top down. He let us have carte blanche. We had a great time.
Mekhi Phifer
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Next to the stage: David Patrick Kelly, Sully the henchman in Commando representing the mercenaries who have taken Arnold Schwarzenegger’s daughter. He also played Luther in The Warriors, T-Bird in The Crow, Howie in K-Pax, Jerry in Twin Peaks and Charlie in John Wick.
COMPARE: Every good guy needs a villain. How did you bring intensity to bad guys?
DPK: There were a group of guys working for Nixon. They ended up on the run, but they were mercenaries. What drove them was money.
COMPARE: What was your journey into performance?
DPK: I was a busker, playing songs. The Beatles came, and played in my hometown (Detroit Michigan). They came after the Kennedy assassination, and they were so joyful, a good break.
COMPARE: What was your first break?
DPK: I was in the musical Hair, on Broadway. I played guitar because of The Beatles. I like to say I’m a precursor to psychedelic music.
COMPARE: Let’s talk The Warriors. These days it’s still such a cultural phenomenon. Were you aware when filming?
DPK: No. Do you have drive in movies?
COMPARE: No. It rains too much.
DPK: It became this cultural phenomenon to see people on screen. The issues were really important in The Warriors, which was my first film. (Director) Walter Hill calls everything ‘a western.’
A queue forms for the audience questions. I’m second in line.
AQ: What was David Lynch like to work with?
(Kelly worked with Lynch on Twin Peaks.)
DPK: David was magical; so revolutionary. The script was like a song. I got a feeling; I knew at the time. I was filming Wild at Heart. He gave me the script. It was something special. You don’t normally see a director leave the camera on a drawing. But you’ve got to remember, Lynch was a painter before he switched to film.
COMPARE: This guy’s come prepared. He’s got a notebook!
DPK: I was attached to a crane by my ankle, like in the cowboys and Indians movies. I was up there for 5 hours! It’s a real rush of blood to the head.
COMPARE: Let’s talk The Crow. My dad showed me movies. When you came on, he’d go, ‘bad guy.’
(Starring lead Brandon Lee was shot when a live was accidentally entered into a chamber of a gun on the set of The Crow in 1993.)
DPK: Brandon’s passing was a huge tragedy. He had a stunt double. We didn’t know if the film would finish. My brother was in London. I went to Stratford and found this copy of Paradise Lost in a bookstore. I managed to get it into the film. I also managed to get It Can’t Rain All the Time into the soundtrack.
AQ: What’s the key to longevity in Hollywood?
DPK: Just stay healthy. So many people are gone because of drugs. I’m not preaching, but you’ve got to stay fit. I love being here, but my passion is Broadway. You gotta keep breathing.
The last question comes from a guy celebrating his birthday, so Kelly encourages all to join in singing Happy Birthday to You. Then he gives us a performance of his own.
Manchester’s bi-annual horror convention For the Love of Horror takes over Bowlers Exhibition Centre this weekend for 2 days of horror movie stars, panels, photo ops, stalls and sets. I’ve got a ticket to meet T-Bird himself, The Crow’s David Patrick Kelly. FIRE IT UP! FIRE IT UP! Tickets for each day are still available. I’m there Saturday. There’s a meetup with Manc Mates if you fancy joining us and chatting movies.
Look at this for a panel lineup!
Later that afternoon there’s the Daytime Disco event featuring Michael Gray, of 2004 hit The Weekend. Joshua Brooks always puts on good house music events with some impressive DJs from yesteryear. I’ve just got my ticket. 3 of us so far.
Watched the Fury v Makhmudov fight on Netflix. More on that later too.
Expect posts every Psychology Saturday for the foreseeable.
I have eaten a lot of rubbish which isn’t ideal. Alcohol has that effect on most people including myself. I’m trying instead to combat hangovers with fruit, particularly watermelon, which is know to be effective. So let’s say I cut out takeaways and chocolate from this point forward. Weight creeping up to 83.5kg. Oh dear. Not getting takeaways also means I don’t bump into local cranks and liabilities like PK who I hadn’t seen for over a decade, but unfortunately struck up a convo on Friday. Kept that short.
Still can’t log into Facebook as their confirmation codes just result in a circle image going round and nothing happening. Infuriating.
“My agent rang,” Michael Carter tells us. “He said, you’ve got an interview for Blue Harvest, a sci fi film. I wasn’t keen, but went anyway. They offered me the job on the spot. I said no. I didn’t want to do it. Then I said okay. Then they said it was the third Star Wars film. I didn’t know anything about it. I was working in theatre, and wasn’t supposed to tell anyone. I went home and immediately told the kids. It was a 21 week shoot; I was there every day for the first 5 weeks. I thought, this is a bit weird. We spent time in preproduction, getting the outfit on; I felt like a big kid.”
Carter, who played Bib Fortuna in 1983’s Return of the Jedi, is the star guest at Leeds Comic Con in the Royal Armouries Museum. It’s Saturday 14th March, and it’s my second Creed Conventions event.
COMPARE: Did you know it would have the legacy it did?
MC: We knew it was Star Wars, but we didn’t think it was as big as it is. I don’t know why it has the effect on the imagination.
COMPARE: What’s the standalone moment for you?
MC: When people come up to you and say they remember you from when they were a kid. My son was terrified when I came on screen. He didn’t see me on film for 20 years.
MC: That was the first film I ever did. There was a flu pandemic at the time, and I got it 10 days before filming. The doctor told me ‘you cannot work.’ I lost 2+1/2 stone. I was very thin. I was young and fit, but ill. The special effects were amazing! It was great giving employment to animatronics and working with (director) John Landis. We did the cinema scene next.
COMPARE: Did it open doors for you?
MC: There wasn’t much of a cinema scene in the UK. I did a film called The Keep, a Michael Mann film. They knew I could do prosthetics. In Jedi, we managed to get makeup down to 59 minutes.
COMPARE: Who was the friendliest actor and who was the most cantankerous?
MC: Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett) and Anthony Daniels (C3PO) were both very friendly. I had coffee with them. Nobody was cantankerous. A lot of people fainted in the costumes. I’d be saying, ‘Jabba Kabadda,’ and there’d be a terrible thump. Someone else had fallen. I got to the dressing room and got stuck in the outfit, and had to take the head off with a meat cleaver.
COMPARE: Who do you miss the most?
MC: Jeremy (Bulloch, Empire Strikes Back’s Boba Fett, died in 2020). He was one of the last J Arthur Rank contract actors.
COMPARE: He was in Carry on Talking. Tell me about getting into acting.
MC: I was the first person in The Crucible at my local theatre. You pick up stuff, scratching for the good work.
COMPARE: Any alumni from RADA? (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art)
MC: Michael Kitchen (DC Chris Foyle in Foyle’s War, Bill Tanner in Goldeneye / The World is Not Enough, narrator on TV show Faking It) and David Bradley (Billy in Kes, the dad in After Life).
MC: Some things you don’t want to say, ‘cause you’ll get sued.
The mic goes out to the audience. The first question: what was it like being turned into an action figure?
MC: One actor was going to sue Lucasfilm. He did, and got a payout; I didn’t dare. It’s kinda weird. One time a little old lady met me and said, ‘someone told me you were in Return of the Jedi. Can you sign this?’ It was me in a red cloak. I said, ‘don’t take this out of the package. It’s really rare.’ She had paid £5.
At this point, I managed to ask about Harrison Ford. Between the Star Wars films, he’d had a cameo in Apocalypse Now in ’79 as Cl. Lucas. Did he mention filming this during the Jedi shoot?
MC: Harrison was filming something else at the time. I was in 1 scene with him, but we didn’t talk.
Well then.
The last audience question goes to American Werewolf in London, in which Carter plays the first victim on the underground. He tells us that the scene was shot at 6am in a secret station that exists way below ground, underneath the actual station.
Michael Carter was the main draw for this convention, the other actors being people I wasn’t familiar with. Small venue, only stayed there 3 or so hours. Enjoyed it.
