Welcome to Unmissable our weekly digest of stories we think you might have missed.
(Image: Manchester Family / MEN)
Emma Gill, our parents editor, is Salford born and bred, and proud of where she’s from. She remembers visits to Salford Precinct in the early 80s as a staple of the Saturday morning shop.
With grandparents living across the road from it, she writes, a trip would coincide with a visit to the Pendleton shopping centre, which, back then, was a bustling place housing big name stores and popular indoor and outdoor markets.
“We’d browse the stalls – handbags, shoes, those super long school socks we all used to roll down into a million perfectly positioned bumps – there wasn’t anything you couldn’t buy here,” she writes.
But on a visit a couple of weekends ago – things couldn’t be more different.
Welcome to Unmissable, our weekly digest of stories that we think you might have missed.
One of the strengths of the Manchester Evening News is that we have writers who have a detailed and deep understanding of the areas they serve.
Often they have lived in those areas for a very long time and have seen huge changes – for good and for bad.
This is the ‘secret sauce’ that makes stories like Emma’s work – the comments in response to the article show she’s noticed something lots of locals have and brought it to wider attention.
It’s an excellent piece and I’ll leave her with the last word on it:
“As a Salfordian born and bred, I’m Salford and proud. But I’m sorry, at Salford Shopping City, or centre, or whatever you want to call it, there really is very little to be proud of right now.”
Another very good first-person comment piece this weekend came from Caitlin Griffin who wrote a wonderful article about what the Oasis homecoming means for those from an Irish background living in Greater Manchester.
It’s such a good piece of writing it’s hard not to quote at length, so I will regardless.
She writes: “There’s a special relationship those who aren’t fully Irish, but not quite English, have with Oasis.
“Those who exist in that in-between space, where their name may have been mispronounced at school, but at home it’s said with pride.
“People who have been shaped by their immigrant parents’ generational hardship and quiet resilience.
“Those who have developed the notorious Irish Mancunian humour and welcoming attitude of warmth layered with toughness.
“There’s something in the bones of Oasis that hits differently when you’re Irish in Manchester.”
Elsewhere Beth Abbit wrote about the extraordinary wonderful weirdness of a trip to Manchester Museum and Dianne Bourne interviewed John Robb about the importance of the Oasis reunion and what comes next.
Also this weekend we ran a moving and sensitive interview by Greta Simpson with sexual abuse survivor Simon Byrne, and Charlotte Hall wrote a fascinating story about the contrasting fates of Oldham and Saddleworth. All well worth a look.
We used to go every weekend, there’s nothing worth going for now
Salford Shopping City looking over towards Tesco Express(Image: Manchester Family / MEN)
Far too many places have followed the same path. Read it HERE.
‘There’s something in the bones of Oasis that hits differently when you’re Irish in Manchester’
Oasis show at Heaton Park
Oasis have never shied away from their Irish heritage – something thousands of Mancunians can relate to. Read it HERE.
‘A glorious concoction of whimsy and nightmare fuel – I’d go every day if I could’
On show at the museum(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
It’s been a while since Beth Abbit visited Manchester Museum, but she was impressed by a revamped space filled with dinosaurs, thought-provoking art and a cracking flat white. Read it HERE.
‘I watched Oasis from the start in Manchester – there’s only one problem for them now’
Noel Gallagher with John Robb at Mr Sifter’s in 2024. John has written a new book about Oasis, called Live Forever, the Rise, Fall and Resurrection of Oasis(Image: John Robb)
He knew Noel Gallagher before Oasis had even formed, and his book on the band is now a number one best-seller. This is John Robb’s verdict on the spectacular comeback of the band. Read it HERE.
‘Are they hoping he pops his clogs and it’s buried and gone? It isn’t gone for me’
Simon Byrne(Image: Manchester Evening News)
Simon Byrne wants to see stricter processes in place for elderly sex offenders. Read it HERE.
‘It’s like two worlds, everyone notices it’
(Image: Manchester Evening News)
In statistics, Saddleworth and Oldham are worlds apart. But are they really so very different? Read it HERE.