Here's what Nottingham's most opinionated grocers had to say about this month's topics in LeftLion...
Splendour
We went to the very first one when it was the Heineken Tent and Kirsty MacColl was top of the bill. Everyone sat on the slope and the lake was at the bottom. It was marvellous. And it was free in those days. But it's on a Saturday you see so we’re in the shop. We got some VIP tickets once, but we couldn’t go so we gave them to a lad who worked here. He thoroughly enjoyed it. We went to see Public Service Broadcasting at Rock City and we were standing for two hours. It nearly killed us. When you’ve been standing for two hours and you’ve got to move, you can’t because your legs don’t work.
Street names
They are fascinating. If you go up to Mapperley Park or Basford, you've got Cairo Street and Lucknow - they’re all named after the Empire. And in Bulwell, you've got Apollo and they're all named after astronauts. In 1968 it was built. In Arnold you've got Ramsey Drive - that's after the football squad, and you've got Gordon Banks, Charlton. In town in the square looking up from Chapel Bar, on the left is Long Row and on the right is Angel Row, but only for a small section. Round the corner from there you've got Beastmarket Hill. We got a traffic ticket there and it's only ten yards flaming long.
Major Oak
It’s alright. It’s being propped up by steel now isn’t it? When we were children it wasn’t. You could just play around it. You could get inside it. It looks like it wants to die now but they won't let it. Someone came into the shop and said there is an even older tree in the Park Estate somewhere, but it’s not listed or named or it would be vandalised.
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