Richard Douglas

My childhood was one long string of parties. Trouble is they were my mother's parties and as she was a 1980s housewife living in suburban Oldham they weren't the kind of social events you or I would think of now.

Chris and I spent Saturday afternoon painting the walls at the back of our house. The old red brick now brightened up with the Alpine Blue masonry paint which took five weeks to travel from Darwen to Altrincham and finally to us. We're getting lots of jobs done during the lockdown, jobs which might have still been ideas if we weren't restricted to internet shopping and staying at home. I've never seen the cutlery drawers so neat before.

Let me suggest something to you. I'm not saying this is right or wrong or that I agree or disagree with what I'm about to suggest but lets do it anyway.

A friend pointed out to me this weekend that I love lists. And I do. I love a good list. So I'm going to start with one now and ask you a question at the same time ~ What does everything on this list have in common?

PRINCE ALERT! PRINCE ALERT! INCOMING SECRET PRINCE NEWS!

Manchester Arena opened its doors in 1995. It's been through a number of incarnations and to my knowledge had four different names as sponsors have come and gone. In the twenty plus years since its launch, the arena has been host to thousands of the superstar names in the entertainment industry.