Andy Potts
Bio
Community focused sports fan from Northeast England. Tends to root for the little guy. Look out for Talking Northeast, my new project coming soon.
Stories (173)
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Boundaries Festival, Sunderland, 2024. Top Story - November 2024.
Sometimes, it’s the provincial towns where the fascinating stuff happens. Take Sunderland’s Boundaries Festival. In theory, assembling an international array of experimental music gurus in a northeastern city better known for footballing struggles and industrial heritage should be a non-starter. Easy to assume there’s no local audience, and nobody willing to travel to an unfashionable outpost regardless of who is on the bill.
By Andy Pottsabout a year ago in Beat
Playlist: Waves festival
Saturday is Waves Festival, a monster music day across eight venues in Sunderland. Tickets, a bargain at £35, are running low, but you can still grab the last few here. And here are three rising northeast bands that you should be sure to catch on a bill led by Red Rum Club, Miles Kane, Tom A. Smith and more.
By Andy Pottsabout a year ago in Beat
Fulwell Acoustic Mirror. Top Story - November 2024.
Remembrance Day feels like an appropriate time to look back at an unlikely piece of military history on Wearside. The Fulwell Acoustic Mirror might not look like much, but the stark concrete slab played a key role in air defence 15 years before Radar was implemented.
By Andy Pottsabout a year ago in History
Playlist: if the Pixies came from Peterlee
Marginal Gains – Now If the Pixies came from Peterlee, they might sound a bit like this. Part of the East Durham cultural revival (and yes, that really is a thing) Marginal Gains started life drinking cans of beer in a recording studio because it was cheaper than going to the pub. That musical atmosphere apparently rubbed off, persuading them to form a band. Fast forward a few years, and the bizarre juxtaposition between a poised rocking trio and a shirtless shouty frontman is grabbing attention across the northeast – and is surely destined to turn heads further afield.
By Andy Pottsabout a year ago in Beat
Getting Stoned in Grimsby
If you wanted an ideal setting for an old-fashioned cup upset, Blundell Park would always be a good choice. This is a traditional football ground. Surrounded by residential Cleethorpes streets, with four floodlight pylons serving as signposts for visiting fans, it has the kind of setting all too often abandoned for out-of-town convenience. It’s been home to Grimsby Town since 1899 – the irony, of course, is that it was built for out-of-town convenience in the seaside resort that sprang up downriver from Grimsby docks – and the main stand dates from 1901. That makes it the oldest in the Football League.
By Andy Pottsabout a year ago in Cleats
Every non-league dog has its day
It was a special occasion at Crook Town. The County Durham football team, once famed FA Amateur Cup warriors, was back on the road to Wembley in the FA Vase. But Saturday’s 5-2 win over Newcastle University was almost drowned out by the din of barking hounds in the ground.
By Andy Pottsabout a year ago in Cleats
Playlist: Ghosts, labyrinths and brutalism
Labyrinthine Oceans - Pinch The Oceans’ latest single came out last week and maintains the high standards we’ve come to expect from them. Woozy, hazy dream-rock, a firm grounding in shoegaze canon and enough originality to make these kind of labels their own.
By Andy Pottsabout a year ago in Beat
