Those of you who read issue 8 of our magazine will have been impressed with what the lads at Heritage Research had to say for themselves, so to follow that up we thought we’d ask them for some pics of their upcoming Autumn/Winter collection.

We caught up with our generation’s foremost philosopher and talented author Alain De Botton, to see just why on earth he’s written a (fascinating) book studying people doing what they tend to do for the majority of their adult lives, working.

If you’re like me & you don’t just resemble Ollie Reed but you often find yourself feeling like him, then I’m sure you’d welcome all advice (however pathetic/dangerous/morally wrong it is) on how to get rid of them, so here’s my advice.

When our mate Lee posted a link to this video on our forum back in March the responses were emphatic. “The best thing I have ever seen” was one. “That is fucking ace” was another. Unfortunately we didn’t have a website to share it with you all at that point and since then the world and his wife has been trying to decipher the lyrics while trying not to tap their Clarks wearing feet to the tune.

I recently realised my photobucket account contained several hundred images, most of which were photos of clothes or shoes I’d sold. So, slightly inspired by the ace oneupmanship blog amongst others, I thought it’d be an interesting twist on the ‘recent pickups’ style posts but instead of things I’ve recently bought I’d post about things I’ve long since sold.

Who seriously drinks Carling these days? Why would you? It is to beer what Henley t-shirts are to fashion and James Corden is to comedy. Yes, that’s right we’re well snobbish. To try and get to the root of this we decided to see what the Campaign for Real Ale had to say about it.

Richard Gill is the foremost retailer of vintage clothing in Manchester. Having occupied various retail spaces around the Northern Quarter of the city over a ten year period, he has recently settled into a new shop on Tib Street. His shop is an Aladdin’s Cave of cool clothing from the last 30 years, all of which is hand picked and [...]

Who’d have thought it, eh? 21 years since the first summer of love gave us acid house and put rhythmic 4/4 music from Chicago onto the nation’s dancefloors (with a little bit of Ibizan europop chucked in for good measure).

As memories of the decade that spawned the the BMX bike and Betamax gradually fade there are a few things that are more vivid than others.

Everywhere and everything is beset by clichés. London? You think of red buses and Waterloo Sunset. Liverpool? The Beatles and shell suits.

For Manchester, the barrel-scraper’s choice is Factory Records and everything that fell from it.

Rarely would you find a shop inspired by a culture of shoplifting so it’s no surprise to see that the only example of such a place is in Liverpool. Tired and predictable stereotypes aside, Transalpino is a genuine source of impressive footwear for match going types countrywide despite only being a year old. The business itself was established just 14 months ago in September 2006, with the website following a few weeks later.

1. “He’s as cool as a prized marrow!” 2. “Darts players are probably a lot fitter than most footballers in overall body strength.” 3. “Keith Deller is like Long John Silver – he’s badly in need of another leg.” 4. “Cliff Lazarenko’s jumping up and down like a gorilla saying “give me back my banana!” 5. “He may practice 12 [...]

Jane Birkin – Je T’aime – Banned due to the obvious sexual nature and aroused rasping, it certainly wasn’t helped by Serge Gainsbourg singing about the joys of going “entre tes reins” – between your kidneys – i.e. up your bum – 1969 & 1974 Paul Simon – Me and Julio – Banned for referring to Newsweek magazine and therefore [...]

Old bastards like myself will remember the early incarnations of Clive Sinclair’s ludicrous Brit-computers like the ZX Spectrum and ZX81 being lampooned for the ‘hilarious’ rubber keys on their keyboards. I still take exception to this, and I still can’t really fathom out why such an innovation was unceremoniously dumped in history’s rubbish bin, reduced to being blathered about, along with white dog shit, spangles and Limahl, by the likes of Zoe Ball on some ‘I Love the 80′s’ documentary.

As a local lad made good we can’t believe it took us a couple of issues before we got in touch with Dominic Stansfield. It’s not just the local angle that appeals though. His clothes are and always have been blessed with bags of character and individual without getting anywhere near the realms of looking daft. Quite the opposite in fact. It’s all ace. So we had a chat.

It’s a Saturday morning, 11.13 am to be precise. The weather outside is clement. Mums go visiting family, people are going to Weddings, dads chat over the fence to neighbours about grass growing techniques (more fertilising than hydroponics), lads go to the football match, have a few scoops, discuss latest signings, maybe even get their hands dirty.