This year Kate and I have decided to make an electronic card.

The money we would have spent on cards and postage has been donated to the BBC Radio 4 Christmas appeal.

Wherever you are in the world, have a restful and enjoyable few days.

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In The Bag was a specialist club night at the Norwich Waterfront, and from the outset was, for many, a return to the halcyon days of the Madchester scene of the late Eighties and early Nineties, with hit tunes from the Stone Roses, Inspiral Carpets, Happy Mondays, Charlatans, Flowered Up and many more. I have been meaning for a while to write a brief history about the club and that is exactly what follows.

History

In the autumn of 1996 during a Wilde Club event at Norwich Arts Centre, friends James Wright, Fraser McKay and Vince Yallop developed the idea of having a Madchester revival club in Norwich.

This came on the heals of the Britpop phenomenon that had engulfed the country for the previous couple of years and the time felt right to remind people where it all started.

The first club night was on January 11th 1997 and the estimated turnout was in excess of 200. Building on the initial success, further dates were booked to occur approximately every 6 weeks with the club eventually filling the bi-monthly first Saturday of the month slot. 

Logo

The initial flyer had no logo, but by the second event in March 1997 the club had gained a logo based on the Madchester Rave On EP from the Happy Mondays. Friend of the DJs Matthew Willis was responsible for making an electronic version that later went on to be used on the club’s original website.

Set list

With a fairly short lived genre to work with the set list for In The Bag was always going to be fairly specific. Nevertheless by reaching out from Manchester into Bolton, Burnley, London, Liverpool, Glasgow and beyond the featured artists ended up including 808 State, Blur, Candy Flipp, Charlatans, Farm, Flowered Up, Happy Mondays, High, Inspiral Carpets, James, LA's, MC Tunes, Milltown Brothers, Mock Turtles, Neds Atomic Dustbin, Northside, Paris Angels, Primal Scream, PWEI, Ride, Stone Roses and World of Twist

The end

At 17.32 on 24th May 2007 came the news from Paul Ingleby that the club night had been axed. “We are having a bit of a jiggle with studio clubs and Meltdown. Given the numbers have been monitored for the last year or so we have come to the conclusion that In The Bag just isn’t working well enough any more and its impetus has gone. Therefore I’m sorry to say we are dropping the night. The next date on June 2nd will therefore be the last one.”

This news was a disappointment to us and the information about the numbers didn’t seem to fit in with what we had seen ourselves, and we therefore presumed it to be down to bar sales.

With that in mind James and Fraser vowed that June 2nd would be a night to remember and gathered together as many regulars as possible. At 1.52am on June 3rd, I am the Resurrection began playing for the final time and at 2am the 10 year unbroken run came to an end.

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Kate and I are currently at the Pukkelpop festival in Hasselt, Belgium. The organisers seem to have hit upon an ingenious way of dealing with the perennial festival litter problem.

They have an 'ecozone' and people are encouraged to collect plastic cups and bottles in exchange for points. What do points make? Yes, prizes. Well, to be more precise brand name marketing flip-flops and bags etc but the teenagers seem to love it with litter picking happening en masse.

Now all we need is for the organisers to extend it to chip cartons and pizza plates and the site would be almost clean.

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Where has all the time gone? Last time I looked it was May, but now it is mid June and my diary is looking pretty full! The problem with this is that I have no opportunities to redeem some Microsoft exam vouchers that I have. They are to be used at any Prometric test centre and cover 100% of the exam cost - the catch is that the exams must be taken by June 30th.

So if you have been putting off taking an exam and fancy a free shot at it, then send me a direct message via Twitter (jameswwright) and I will distribute them on a first come, first served basis.

Updated 21st June

Despite having had a good number of hits for this post, I didn’t get one bite for the free exams. In the end that turned out well for me as I thought “what the hell” and went to London yesterday to sit, and pass, exams 70-351 and 70-631.

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I have been taking delivery of weekly Graze boxes since before Easter. Lots of tasty and healthy items – fresh fruit, dried fruit, nuts and seeds. Oh, and occasional chocolate. Some of the mixes have interesting names such as ay caramba, strawberries & cream and apple strudel – to name but a few.

You can either go with a set box from a range of options or have a custom design – all of this can be changed up to the day before delivery. Box is normally £2.99 including delivery, but with a code the first box is free and the second is half price. Nice.

Visit www.graze.com, and use the code 4YFJ63R for your discount.

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