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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Playlist: Remembrance of Times Past
Field Music – Six Weeks, Nine Wells During the summer I spent an afternoon with my daughter exploring the Sunderland streets where I grew at. By the end, having played in my old park, peered through the fence at my first school and noted the disappearance of my old nursery, we were ready for ice cream. So we popped to the corner shop, just like I did when I got my pocket money, bought some choc ices and sat on the bench outside to eat them. It felt like 40 years rolled away.
By Andy Pottsabout a year ago in Beat
Playlist: punk nostalgia, twisted psychedelia
Rubber Oh – The Well Rubber Oh, which has a new album out on Friday, is a side project from Pigsx7 guitarist and producer Sam Grant. But while the ‘day job’ involves some hard-hitting shredding, this is a different beast. The scope is cinematic at times; bits of The Well could soundtrack a twisted take on some kind of medieval epic, while another preview track, Bloodlust, uses strings and chorus to set up a post-psychedelic sound world that takes the Summer of Love and gives it a kick up the backside.
By Andy Pottsabout a year ago in Beat
Pints & Parkruns: Gateshead
Parkrun was pretty much designed for places like Saltwell Park. This popular green hub in Gateshead’s southern suburbs has a large population in its immediate catchment area – and the locals clearly value it. Visitor numbers in 2012 topped 2 million and it has won awards including Britain’s Best Park and the Civic Trust Park of the Year. Keeping in mind parkrun’s key aim to encourage as many people as possible to get out and active in their own communities, it’s hardly surprising that Saltwell was a fairly early adopter. The inaugural event was back in Feb. 2012 and it’s continued happily ever since.
By Andy Pottsabout a year ago in Longevity
Playlist: Winds of Change
There’s more to North Shields than Neil Tennant’s birthplace. Not that there’s anything wrong with the Pet Shop Boys frontman, but these days the antidote to Being Boring is better found at underground venues like Three Tanners Bank and The Engine Room. Small, but perfectly formed, they’re working together this weekend for a mini-festival that informs the latest, much-delayed playlist.
By Andy Pottsabout a year ago in Beat
Star still shining
It was another big day for Blue Star. Once a famous name in Newcastle football, Wembley winners in the FA Vase in 1978, the original club folded back in 2009. Almost a decade later the name was back. Steady progress since then, despite the pandemic, culminate in last season’s promotion to the First Division of the Northern League (the ninth tier of English football). That means entry into the prestigious FA Cup. Saturday marked the first FA Cup tie on the new club’s home ground, North Ferriby providing the opposition.
By Andy Pottsabout a year ago in Cleats
Pints & Parkruns: Town Moor
Newcastle’s Town Moor is as much a part of the city’s identity as the Tyne Bridge. Sure, being a fairly flat piece of grass, it doesn’t make for the same kind of spectacular photos. But as the starting point for the Great North Run, the home of the annual Hoppings fair and a former venue for various great exhibitions of the north, it’s indelibly tied into Tyneside history.
By Andy Pottsabout a year ago in Longevity
When Moldova came to Wales
It was going to be the day TNS made history. Perennial Welsh champions, the village team was potentially a win away from securing UEFA group stage action . True, the Saints had to recover a 0-1 first-leg deficit after losing to Petrocub in Moldova last week. But hopes were high that, at last, a Welsh team might break into the group stage of European competition for the first time ever.
By Andy Pottsabout a year ago in Cleats
The Record Shop ritual. Top Story - August 2024.
From The Smiths to WH Smiths, that was the ritual. Almost every Saturday, more often in the holidays. Shuffling from shop to shop, flicking through the racks. What’s new and exciting? What’s old but influential? What did I read about this one?
By Andy Pottsabout a year ago in Beat
Heaton Stan-tastic
There’s an air of anticipation among Newcastle’s football fans this season. It’s not just the hope of a Saudi-sponsored trophy to end the Magpies’ 69-year drought. Lower down the leagues, things are stirring. Heaton Stannington FC won promotion through last season’s playoffs and is preparing for life in the Northern Premier League. It’s a new high for the club, which spent much of its history in the Northern Alliance before stepping up to the Northern League in 2013.
By Andy Pottsabout a year ago in Cleats
Playlist: Peterlee psalms
Fawns – November The upcoming Life Just Bounces show in Peterlee is another great effort to show that this County Durham New Town, celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, has a future as well as a past. And the event brings together three great bands as well as exhibitions and spoken word performances.
By Andy Pottsabout a year ago in Beat
