Ta ra, chuck ..

I met Jean Alexander once - at a Kevin Cummins' exhibition at Salford's Viewpoint photography gallery - and I wore this actual t-shirt for the occasion. Eeeeh, our Stan .. she gave me such a dirty look when she saw it, and wouldn't pose with me for a photograph. Perhaps she wasn't happy about her image being used like that - who knows? Anyway, like my meeting with Victoria Wood, it's a slightly unpleasant memory that sticks with me as another of our 'heroes' bites the dust. By sheer coincidence, I'm booked for a PR shoot at the 'new' Coronation Street next week and, although she was never based there, I'm going to use the visit to say a formal 'Ta ra' to 'our Hilda' ...

50 T-shirts...

Now, I'd be the first to admit that I'm a bit of a hoarder - I can't seem to throw anything away - but even I was surprised when I came across a 'collection' of 50 of my old T-shirts, unworn for years and taking up an entire shelf in my designer walk-in wardrobe! Their discovery gave me an idea for a project, and I finally got round to shooting them as a Flickr set yesterday afternoon. Well, what fun! What larks! What a trip down memory lane! I found a B-52's t-shirt from the early 80's (I actually have a photograph of the 21-year-old-ish me wearing it) I have a t-shirt from the Asda Festival of Food and Farming (Trendy!) in Hyde Park in 1989 (I covered this for Asda, meaning I was the only person allowed to photograph the Queen when she opened the event!) I have a Tubes t-shirt from a gig at the Free Trade Hall in 1981 when I got the entire band's autographs afterwards, and I have a British Airways 'Jet Club 16-24' shirt from when I went to America for the first time in '82! (I'm going to get in a State, it says! Ho ho!) I actually remember wearing this 'Hilda Ogden' t-shirt to an event attended by the actress Jean Alexander, and she refused to be photographed with me wearing it! Bloody temperamental artistes! Anyway, that's that! They're all photographed for posterity, and up online for everyone to view. Thing is, now I've found 'em, I can't bear to throw 'em away!