I talked about how the idea came about, how I took the photos from the top of the Beetham Hilton Tower, how the Manchester cityscape has changed, and about my plans for the future. They also showed a selection of photos from my archive.

It was great fun and an excellent opportunity to spread the word about my photography.

Just before the interview, I met and briefly spoke to New York-based singer Rachael Sage, who was performing in Manchester that evening. She appeared on the show just after me.www.rachaelsage.com, www.myspace.com/rachaelsage.

Channel m is the dedicated television station for the Greater Manchester area, and is based at the Urbis museum in the city centre. They produce a range of programmes including news, sport, entertainment, lifestyle and music, all with a strong Manchester focus. Channel m is a subsidiary of the Guardian Media Group, owners of the Manchester Evening News, Smooth Radio and other media channels. Go to www.channelm.co.uk or select Sky Channel 203, Virgin Media 878 or via a tv aerial (reception may vary).

Many thanks to Channel M for interviewing me and for permission to display the video of the interview online.

I hope to be appearing on the Channel M Breakfast Show again very soon.

The original Twisted Wheel was located on Brazennose Street. Later in the 1960s it moved to Whitworth Street, next to Piccadilly Station, where it continued until 1971. In 2002 it reopened as a club night, held on the last Friday of every month. The main club is Legends, though the Twisted Wheel name can be seen outside.

On the evening of Friday 25 July I made my way there and descended the stairs into the cavernous interior.

At first striking, perhaps even shocking, was the fact that most people here were over the age of 50. Like me they must have grown up with this music, in the 60s, and still get off on it today.

But while clubs and musical genres come and go, sixties soul is still the same today, and virtually everything about today’s Twisted Wheel looks to be as it was four decades ago: The playlist, vinyl records on turntables, the lack of flashing lights - All disco lights were turned off, the only light source being the fluorescent ceiling lights.

As compared with the past, only the clouds of tobacco smoke were missing, though this fact only crossed my mind later in the evening.

The records are all sixties soul, some familiar to me, many others I don’t recall ever hearing before. But that’s the way with Northern Soul. The music is over 40 years old, and yet you constantly hear great new records and artists you’ve never heard of before.

Guest DJ this evening was Richard Searling, veteran of northern soul clubs, including the Wigan Casino. I have listened to his show Soul Sauce on Smooth Radio for the past few years. I briefly chatted to him at the DJ console.

The club is like a time capsule - and though many of the club-goers are not exactly preserved in aspic, there were a few younger ones there too - a guy in a tank top and trousers dancing in an authentic looking style - young, but obviously into the music, and the era. Another guy, also around half the age of most of us, looked like Simon Dee or a clothes model from a 1968 knitting catalogue.

A very striking Barbara Streisand lookalike - maybe with a touch of Amy Winehouse - looked on with interest, accompanied by her more contemporary looking boyfriend.

For me, sixties soul is a key element of the atmosphere of Manchester in the sixties and seventies. The interesting thing is that while musical genres - like building styles - come and go, the Twisted Wheel with its strict playlist of imported black American music continues unchanged.

It’s a relic from the sixties still going strong today. I suppose you could say that’s true of most of the people there, including myself.

The Twisted Wheel website can be found at www.twistedwheel.net

More info on Wikipedia.

The guest speaker was Peter Saville, who talked about his career and experiences.

The new Creative Times site was promoted. People working within the cultural industries in Manchester are encouraged to contribute to the site.

It was a very enjoyable event and good networking opportunity.

www.creativetimes.co.uk

The plaque reads: The restoration of the stained glass windows in this room was funded by the public, in particular the Friends of Victoria Baths, visitors to the building and our Restoration supporters.

Not all lf the building has been renovated! Only the front block. And not everything in it has been renovated! The work has focused on key elements, including the leaded and stained glass windows, the mosaic floors, the casement windows, the basement toilet, hidden structural elements, dry rot repairs, and, my personal favourite, the glazed walkway.

The work is impressive but there is still some way to go before this remarkable building is fully back in use.

A great deal has been achieved but there is still much more to do.

Many thanks to Gill Wright and all others involved in the restoration of the Victoria Baths for inviting me this afternoon.

For more info visit www.victoriabaths.org.uk.

Earlier editions carried a smaller reproduction of the Mega-Photo. I was flabbergasted to open a later edition with the photo displayed across two pages.

I wasn’t expecting a photograph of myself either.

It’s great that the Manchester Evening News are featuring my work and decided to cover it in such a visually stunning fashion. The Manchester Evening News - both free and paid-for editions - has a daily circulation of around 180,000.

The piece was written by MEN journalist Vicki Holman. She interviewed me over the phone the previous day.

Read the online version on the Manchester Evening News website, and on the MEN Arts and Minds blog.

The first visitors saw it when the museum opened at 10am. I arrived around 11.30 to see the completed photo-collage for the first time, and I am very pleased with it.

I have been sitting in the red sofa to the side of the mega-photo watching people as they walk up to it, point and talk about it.

I also met two visitors from Somerset who were very impressed with the work and congratulated me on it.

The Mega-Photo will be on display in the foyer for six months, hopefully longer.

Read this description by Katrina Gallagher of Push On

The signature image of the exhibition is a striking portrait of a West Midlands biker by Andrew Tift. It looks like a photograph, but on closer inspection, it’s an intricately executed painting.

There are works by Liam Spencer, Manchester’s leading contemporary artist. His paintings depict familiar Manchester scenes using remarkable effects of light and brushwork.

Liam Spencer’s paintings are highly regarded and sought after. You can own one for the price of a car - a good one.

Philips Art Gallery is run by David and Diane Powell and was first set up in 1996, also the year I started to take photos and write about Manchester.

They choose the art to display strictly on the basis of their own enthusiasm and passion for the work.

Find out more at www.philipsartgallery.com or better still, go along to the gallery and see the pictures they have on display.

The three hundred poster prints are being put up by hand by Urbis technicians. Initially under my supervision, they have taken the task to heart and are making an excellent job of putting up the prints.

It’s slow work and the job will end up taking probably four full days, Monday to Thursday.

The three hundred prints are being attached to the 8.5 x 4 metre display surface using double sided tape.

This is my biggest and most exciting photo project ever and I am hoping for a good response.

Many thanks to Urbis for the possibility of exhibiting this photo, which was a bit of a leap of faith.

Comment by Aidan O’Rourke

For months now I have been hearing about a slump in the Manchester property market: Rents and sale prices down, repossessions up and incredibly, apartments in the Beetham Hilton Tower going for knock-down prices.

All this was confirmed in an article in the Manchester Evening News of Tuesday 29 April 2008 entitled ‘City property bubble bursts‘ (written by Yakub Qureishi, Deborah Linton and Ian Wylie).

It states that following an investigation by the Manchester Evening News, apartments in Manchester have been overvalued by an estimated total of 450m pounds.

For years I have been wondering where the property boom in Manchester was taking us. Are there really enough people to live in all those new apartments? What about the lack of facilities for families? Is it a good proposition to buy an apartment in Manchester city centre.

Last year I looked at the possibility of moving into the city centre. It was a definite no for a number of reasons not least: No (free) parking, no schools, no play areas. It was as simple as that. So we stayed in the suburbs.

Though many apartment developments are still under construction - the Green Quarter by Cheetham Hill Road, others that have been completed are a long way from being fully sold.

By the Mancunian Way, there is an abandoned construction site. The partly completed structure with its bare concrete floors and pillars has an eerie and maybe symbolic quality.

In the Hilton (or Beetham) Tower, which I called ’symbol of the new Manchester’, apartment prices are down - on the grapevine I’ve heard that many just aren’t big and plush enough for the target clientele.

Is the tower going to be a ’symbol of the new Manchester’ for all the wrong reasons?

But I don’t accept it’s all doom and gloom as the media portrays. If prices were overvalued, then they had to come down sooner or later. And it now means that lots of people who previously couldn’t afford certain types of property may now be able to.

The economy, like waves on the sea, goes up and down, and I’m sure the property market in Manchester will pick up again.

But Eye On Manchester would like to see more cautious development, less of a ‘jump on the bandwagon’ approach, with fewer and better designed buildings and please, oh please, facilities for children in the city centre, where there is still not one public play area.

Maybe ‘the patter of little feet’ might bring some life back into the city centre property market.

Any thoughts? Discuss this topic on the Manchester Forum

I’ve been contacted by Euan Kellie, who tells me that his site Rebuilding Manchester is back online again.

The site documents the rebuilding of Manchester in the aftermath of the 1996 bomb, and contains many fascinating photographs and documents.

Go to www.rebuildingmanchester.co.uk.