Tees artist

We all have a favourite bridge. What's yours? I've actually got two; I know, that's just greedy. Number One has to be this beauty from my hometown. (Though it wasn't actually built at the time I emerged kicking and screaming into the Hull of the 1960s.) However, the Tees Transporter Bridge, just an hour or so up the coast from the River Humber and opened in 1911, most certainly was. And unlike the Humber Bridge, I've actually painted the Tees Transporter more times than I've photographed it. So, coming back from a weekend in Newcastle I couldn't resist calling into Ironopolis* and shooting it again - the first time in nearly 20 years. It probably won't surprise you that sometimes I get quite emotional when photographing iconic buildings and structures. I can't help it.  Anyway, I was OK; thank you Middlesboro' - I won't leave it so long next time.

* By the end of the 19th century Middlesborough was producing a third of the UK's Pig Iron output. It was during this time it earned the 'Ironopolis' moniker.

On the Beach

Chris Rea is, I read today, on the mend. He collapsed in Oxford at the weekend halfway through his set.

It's not the first time Rea has had to ring 999. He's not enjoyed the best of health for some time and very nearly checked out on a couple of occasions in the early noughties.

Since reinventing himself as a serious blues musician, the Middlesbrough born guitarist has found a new audience while still retaining his faithful following. It's been a while since Rea troubled the charts with infectious hits like Road to Hell, Fool if You Think it's Over and, of course, Driving Home for Christmas*, but the quality of his new material has never dipped.

*Of course I haven't chosen his Yuletide smash from 1988. No, today I'm going with On the Beach. I love what Rea did when he turned it from a diamond in the rough album track to a Top Twenty single. And the thing he did? Listen to the electric piano motif (3:37) - it only appears once, and lasts for just four seconds! When he re-recorded the song he replicated the same lick on the guitar - where it became the hook that runs through the whole record from start to finish. Genius.

For what it's worth I think I prefer the album version, but if I was listening to this on a beach I'm sure I wouldn't give a monkey's chuff. Anyway, sit back in your deckchair and enjoy them both.

Chris Rea - On the Beach (album version)

Chris Rea - On the Beach (single version)

A Spot of Bother

A Spot of Bother © Robin Dale

This week marks the twentieth anniversary of the death of James Moffat who, under the pseudonym Richard Allen, wrote several infamous youth culture novels - published by New English Library (which became a Hodder & Stoughton imprint in 1981). Always gritty, often right wing and loaded with sex and violence they served as a bluffers guide to early 1970s counter culture. With titles like Boot Boys, Skinhead and Suedehead they were devoured by males of a certain age. His style has been borrowed by many subsequent writers, not least John King; his Headhunters, England Away and Football Factory trilogy explores similar themes.