SALFORD MUSIC CO-OP PLAYS SOUNDS FROM THE OTHER CITY
Sunday May 2nd
Rovers Return
89-91 Chapel Street
4:30pm-midnight Free

This weekend, amongst all the Sounds From The Other City gigs in pubs, clubs and churches along Chapel St, the Salford Music Cooperative hosts its first event.

The free gig, at the Rovers Return near Blackfriars Bridge, features John Herring, Death To The Strange, Sandbox, The Black Knights and Kingfishers Catch Fire…

KERSAL MOOR PLAQUE FOR CHARTISTS

Today the commemorative plaque to the Chartists' brave fight for the vote was put in place on Kersal Moor, ready for its official opening by the Mayor of Salford on Monday at a special Celebration event.

"WAR ZONES" – REGENERATION SPENDS MORE ON DEMOLITIONS THAN RE-BUILDING SALFORD  

Liverpool Council Leader Admits Pathfinder Mistake – So How About Salford?

In an incredible admission, Liverpool Council Leader Warren Bradley has admitted that the demolition derby, also known as the Housing Market Renewal project, or Pathfinder, has "ripped the heart" out of communities and left whole areas looking like "war zones".

Since day one of the Salford Star, residents here have been telling us the same story over and over again… "They're ripping the heart out of Salford". For a council leader to admit this is unheard of – now will Salford's political leaders own up to the mistakes?

`Leaders Debate’ On Salford City Radio 94.4fm
Thursday 29th April 11am – 1pm

HOOKY – THE TRACKS, THE GIGS, THE TOUR….

Peter Hook's probably busier now than when Madchester was kicking off…

First up: The talking tour and exhibition - An Evening of Unknown Pleasures - hits The Lowry on May 1st

May 18th at The Factory: Peter Hook's The Light perform Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures to commemorate the life of Ian Curtis (charity benefit for MIND and Keith Bennett Appeal)

June 2nd at The Factory: Hooky's `supergroup' Freebass play their debut local gig. The first Two Worlds Collide EP is already out with guest vocalists Pete Wiley, Howard Marks and Tim Burgess

A Celebration of Kersal Moor
Monday 3rd May 2010 1-4pm Free
Moor Lane, Salford 7

AT LAST A PLAQUE TO THE CHARTISTS!

172 years after the great Chartist rally on Kersal Moor, and finally Salford has a commemorative plaque which will be unveiled as part of a big celebration of Kersal Moor this Bank Holiday Monday.

In 1838 a quarter of a million Chartists marched from all over the north west, meeting at the old racecourse to demand the vote. Now the Moor will come alive again with stalls, fancy dress and what is believed to be the first performance of a special song from the `Great Demonstration' since the day itself…

Frow Memorial Lecture
Saturday 1st May 2010
2pm Free
Old Fire Station, The Crescent, Salford

MAXINE PEAKE GOES CHARTIST FOR MAY DAY

For the first lecture in memory of the brilliant couple Ruth and Eddie Frow, who founded Salford's Working Class Movement Library, Maxine Peake is to read Chartist poems published in the Northern Star newspaper over 160 years ago.

The readings form part of an event that will also include a discussion of the most well read poetry of the Victorian era by Dr Michael Sanders from the University of Manchester and a selection of songs from Chartist choir, Corista.

ELECTION CANDIDATES SLATE HOSPITAL BOSSES AND HAZEL BLEARS…

At a protest against cuts in the NHS yesterday, two candidates for Hazel Blears' Salford seat in the General Election slated both health bosses and Hazel Blears herself.

After talking with nurses from the Salford Royal (formerly Hope) Hospital, Lib Dem candidate, Councillor Norman Owen, said that the way staff had been treated over the closure of the Eric Rawlings Ward was "disgraceful", and that Hazel Blears "should hang her head in shame".

David Henry, the Hazel Must Go candidate, said that sacrificing the women only ward was "beyond belief" and Hazel's no show at the protest was "disappointing", adding "She only lives across the road from the hospital but she's probably out canvassing - winning the election is obviously more important than saving the hospital".

THE BENCH
By Joe O'Byrne
Salford Arts Theatre
***This run has been postponed until 9th-12th June ***

THE BENCH COMES TO SALFORD ARTS THEATRE

After successful runs at The Lowry, the Library Theatre and Studio Salford, Joe O'Byrne's play The Bench comes to Salford Arts Theatre.

Set around a bench in a local park, residents of the fictional Paradise Heights estate meet their failings, future and fate. The Bench cast includes Stella Grundy, Clyve Bonnelle and Ste Myott.

FUTURE OF THE MEDIA PUBLIC MEETING
Tuesday 27th April 2010
Main Hall, Friends Meeting House 
6 Mount Street Manchester 7pm Free

This Tuesday the Manchester Branch of the National Union of Journalists are holding a public meeting to discuss the Future of the Media, with a parliamentary candidates Question Time, debate and top performance from Banner Theatre Company.

Salford City 3 Woodley Sports 1

SUPER SUPER SUPER SALFORD CITY SIGN OFF WITH WIN…

Salford City secured a highest ever, history making 11th spot in the Unibond North First Division with a 3-1 win over Woodley. But that's only half the story of a fantastic season that has seen storming cup runs, eight victories out of the last nine games, and a climb up the league that would have Sherpa Tenzing gasping for breath.

For the final match of the season, the Ammies threw the gates open with free admission, and after the game players put money behind the bar to buy supporters drinks. A top gesture from a top club. Roll on next season!

FREE ADMISSION AT SALFORD CITY THIS SATURDAY!!!

To celebrate Salford City's fantastic season - with top cup runs and the end of season surge that saw the team win seven straight matches - the Ammies are throwing open the gates for the last home game of the season with free admission for all...

Come and see real football as it should be played this Saturday, as Salford City take on Woodley Sports in the Unibond First Division North. Sample the atmosphere, sample the pints and sample the pies - a tangerine experience not to be missed.

Kick Off 3pm. Moor Lane, Kersal - admission free!!!

A Salford Star Exclusive

NO HOPE FOR WOMEN'S WARD

"This is a kick in the teeth for Salford women"

A vital women's gynaecology, early pregnancy and breast cancer ward at the Royal Salford Hospital (formerly Hope) is to be shut. A hospital insider told the Salford Star that staff were informed yesterday that the women only Eric Rawlings Ward would close in July, with the specialist team of nurses disbanded and services spread around other wards in the hospital.

The move comes as part of plans for £16million cuts to the hospital's budget and staff losses of 250 a year until 2013. A `Keep Our NHS Public' demonstration is to be held this Saturday outside Salford Royal Hospital

SALFORD CANDIDATES CONFIRMED FOR GENERAL ELECTION

Yesterday the official candidates for this year's General Election were finally confirmed for the three constituencies covering Salford…

Salford and Eccles
Worsley and Eccles South
Blackley and Broughton

Over the next week the Salford Star will be reporting on everything you need to know about the sitting MPs – Hazel Blears, Barbara Keeley and Graham Stringer.

Leigh Genesis 2 Salford City 1

ROBBED BY CLOWN IN REFEREE OUTFIT

At the end of this game Salford City managers, Darren Quick and Mark Molyneux were on the pitch slagging the `referee', Rhodri Giggs was there too and waiting by the players tunnel were the Salford City fans giving proper abuse where it was due.

This was a clown who had somehow sneaked into the dressing room and donned a referee's outfit. The real ref was probably gagged and locked in a cupboard somewhere under the stand. Thanks to Coco, Salford City's fantastic run of seven victories in a row was ended in the most horrible way possible.

REG AND HIS BATTLE BUGGY

While other candidates tour Salford's roads in poster covered buses, trucks, vans and cars, Reg Howard is hitting the streets in his mobility scooter to canvass votes.

Reg, who's standing as an Independent candidate for Pendlebury in the local election, is disabled and took to his buggy after watching other candidates sweep by in their grand political battle buses.

"I thought `I've got a battle bus, my mobility scooter'" he laughs "I've got a little basket on the front with my poster on it and I go out in it canvassing. Unfortunately I've got the biggest ward in Salford to cover, with over 11,000 people!"

AS AXE FALLS ON NHS JOBS, SALFORD HEALTH DIRECTORS GET ALMOST £1000 PER MEETING!

Following our story last week about Hazel Blears' husband picking up almost £80,000 for attending meetings at Salford Royal Hospital, today we reveal that Salford NHS Trust non executive directors – including Peel Holdings' Paul Newman, Salford councillor Joe Murphy and Brian Wroe ex Salford Council Assistant Director of Community Services – have been picking up almost £1000 each per board meeting.

We also reveal the true horrendous costs of the PFI redevelopment of Salford Royal (formerly Hope) Hospital, and how a new doctors' surgery in Blackfriars is costing four times more than existing practices.

Meanwhile, cost cutting in the NHS is leading to hundreds of jobs being axed.

AFC Fylde 0 Salford City 1

SUPER SUPER SUPER SUPER SUPER SALFORD CITY!!!!

Salford City 3 Chorley 0

SUPER SUPER SUPER SUPER SALFORD'S ICING ON THE CHORLEY CAKE

Sherpa Tenzing…Sir Edmund Hilary…Richard Branson's balloon… You boys are taking a terrible battering as Salford City scale even greater heights than you could ever have imagined…

With this stunning result the Ammies have now leapfrogged Prescot Cables and Chorley to hit 14th in the Unibond First Division North – equal on points to teams the next two places above us, and we've got a game in hand…

Salford City are comin' on strong as we stuffed Chorley right in their cakeholes.

EARTH FIRST! HAND ACCOUNT OF THE PEEL HOLDINGS PROTEST...

Yesterday, campaigners against the destruction of Salford's rare peat bogs on land owned by Peel Holdings took over the site by chaining themselves to diggers and lorries.

`HEY YOU! LEAVE OUR BOG ALONE!!!'

Campaigners from Earth First! have stopped peat extraction work at Peel Holdings site on Chat Moss by chaining themselves to machinery.

We've just spoken live by phone to Justin Hocks who ten minutes ago chained himself to a digger at the site…

"We've been here about ten minutes and right now one of the workers has got into the digger and is trying to move it which is putting my safety in jeopardy" he said "They have been quite threatening and I understand that the police are on their way but we'll stay here as long as we can to stop the destruction of the peat bog…"

Another colleague has chained himself to a lorry on the site, while other protestors are also trying to stop peat removal. The direct action by Earth First comes as a direct response to the lack of environmental guts by Salford City Council which has stood by and allowed the destruction of one of the top rated sites of biodiversity in the North West….

Radcliffe Borough 1 Salford City 3

SUPER SUPER SUPER SALFORD CITY!!!

Oh yes!!! Get yer oxygen masks on… Get the suckers on the hooves of mountain goats… Salford City are scaling heights unknown in the club's whole history. Yep, we're looking down on six teams below us in the Unibond First Division North – a full 20 points in front of the relegation spots.

Salford are zooming up the league after another top performance to stuff Radcliffe on their own ground. Does life get any better than this? No chance!

A Salford Star Exclusive

AS SALFORD ROYAL HOSPITAL PREPARES TO AXE 750 JOBS, HAZEL'S HUSBAND GETS ALMOST £80,000 IN FEES

While Salford Royal (formerly Hope) Hospital aims to slash 750 jobs over the next three years as part of vicious government cuts, we can reveal that by 2013 Hazel Blears' husband, Michael Halsall, will have been paid nearly £80,000 for attending meetings at the hospital.

TELL YOUR STORY BY FRIDAY AND WIN A LAPTOP!

An Apple Mac laptop, pocket camcorders and digital recorders are up for grabs in a competition that closes this Friday.

All you have to do is tell your story of how life has changed in Salford or Greater Manchester over the last 50 years – and you can do this via mobile phone video, a tape recording, photos, poetry, song or art.

Just get it in by Friday 16th April.

Salford City 2 Trafford 1

SALFORD REVENGE!!!

After five and six goal stuffings by Trafford over the last few seasons Salford  City finally got revenge with a comfortable victory at Moor Lane this afternoon.

Two superb goals were enough to see off Trafford to make it four straight victories in April, as Salford begin to climb up the league.

Hazel Blears Accuses Newspapers of Lying…

At a stormy public Question Time at Salford Arts Theatre last night, Hazel Blears accused the media of lying about her during the expenses scandal. The Salford MP said "There's an awful lot that's been reported in the papers that is simply not true."

Unfortunately Hazel didn't mention all the stuff that was true… over £8000 on furniture, over £50,000 on mortgage payments, over £1000 on fees for personal tax returns, over £200 on bath towels and over £1000 on food when Parliament wasn't even sitting.

Panel member Alex Halligan, representing the TUC, said "MPs, paid for by us, were basically taking the piss out of the ordinary people who voted for them…I didn't mandate my MP to rob the taxpayer blind"…

COUNCIL MAGS SLAMMED BY HOUSE OF COMMONS COMMITTEE

"Problems in the local media industry are leading to a scrutiny gap…"

An 85 page Select Committee Report issued today states council magazines are "a real problem" that "needs to be addressed" as it calls for an investigation by the Office of Fair Trading. It adds that council publications are "completely unregulated" and should not be "a vehicle for political propaganda".

The Report concludes: "The importance of reporting on local institutions and local democracy cannot be overstated; without it there is little democratic accountability"…

But does it offer any answers for the likes of the Salford Star?

GORDON BROWN CALLS GENERAL ELECTION

At last the General Election has been called for May 6th. During the next four weeks the Salford Star will be providing coverage of both the General Election and the Local Council Election.

We won't be printing propaganda for the candidates or political parties.
We will be looking at the state of Salford and telling you `everything you need to know about our current MPs'.

Warrington Town 1 Salford City 3

EASTER FUN IN WARRINGTON

Salford City continue an impressive run after this comfortable victory over Warrington Town which wafts us up to 18th place in the Unibond Division One North.

With games in hand over the teams above us, Salford City fans are now dreaming of a dramatic mid-table end of season position. Which might not sound dramatic to Man City and United fans, but would be the highest league placing in the Ammies' entire history!

Salford Star T-Shirts In Stock

We have a number of top £6 Salford Star t-shirts in stock and ready to dispatch, with free delivery anywhere in Central Salford.

Real Salford Men…

Salford's men are more proud of their sperm count than driving a mint car or owning a posh house, according to a new survey.

The NGTD study delved into men's psyches and revealed that `Settling down with a partner' was top in importance, followed by `My appearance'. Third in the list was `Good sperm quality/sperm count' beating `Success at work', `Popularity with women' and `Having a healthy bank balance'. Bottom of the list was `Driving a nice car' and `Owning a property'…

Salford City 2 Skelmersdale United 0

SKEM CRUCIFIED!

It might be Good Friday but there was nothing good about Skelmersdale as they were murdered by Salford City in a match dominated almost from beginning to end by the Ammies, as 4th from bottom met 4th from top. It was no contest…

SALFORD ARTS THEATRE presents:
JUDGEMENT DAY (GODS ON TRIAL) and A.N.D.
Friday 2nd April 2010 6pm

Three strands of DNA in a test tube, and Jesus, Allah, Gaia and the Devil all appear on stage at the Salford Arts Theatre tomorrow in what should be a Good, Bad and the Ugly Friday in Salford.

Both plays are stage writing debuts for local creator Mike Skeffington, who has also published poems and magazine articles, and scripted short films…

A Salford Star Exclusive

SALFORDIANS TO RIDE RICKSHAWS TO MEDIACITYUK

While a swanky new £382,076 bus service was announced this week to link Salford Crescent station and MediaCityUK, the communities of Broughton and Kersal will be encouraged to ride rickshaws to the high tech home of the BBC at Salford Quays.

The traditional form of peasant transport, found in India and Thailand, was encouraged at a high level Salford City Council meeting on `sustainable regeneration on March 1st, attended by Salford Council Leader John Merry.