Posts Tagged ‘Soho Dukes’

Salford City v Port Vale, Saturday 5th September 2026, 12.30pm

September 6, 2026

After our stay in Ravenglass for Krankenhaus, Jen and I moved on to Barnoldswick for some more music. This time it was Soho Dukes at the Barnoldswick Music and Arts Centre. It’s a great little venue, with just sixty seats, most of them having been reclaimed from an old cinema.

We’ve been a few times and on one of those occasions we saw a couple of the Soho Dukes moonlighting in a Mott the Hoople tribute band with Zak Starkey. It was enough to encourage me to look up their original material, and I liked what I heard enough to return for a rare headline show.

They were very good and it was easy to see the Hunter/Mott influence on the band. They were joined for one song by Spike and Harry of the Quireboys which went down well.

I was hoping that the gig would coincide with a Barnoldswick Town fixture, but they were away. From the options available I picked a Salford City game due to a combination of it being just a forty-five minute drive and a lunchtime kick-off. Just as importantly, they are a League Two club and I really need to put some effort into ticking off the ninety-two. It’s a little embarrassing that with getting on for seven hundred grounds under my belt, I’ve still twenty-nine of the ninety-two to visit.

I bought a ticket online for twenty-three quid and set off early enough to bag some on-street parking just a few minutes’ walk from the AIG Stadium.

I tried two entrances that weren’t mine, before eventually finding the correct turnstile. I’d chosen a seat at the back of the six rows in the stand that ran the length of the dugout side of the pitch. I could have sat opposite, or behind the goal to my left. The visiting Port Vale fans filled the terrace behind the goal to my right.

I was given a team sheet as I came in and noticed two players with Boro connections. Macauley Langstaff was starting up front for Salford. He’s a bit of a late developer who was released as a kid from the Boro Academy but made his way into the EFL via stints at the likes of Boro Rangers and Stockton Town. He was busy but didn’t really shine.

Port Vale had Onel Hernandez on the bench for them. He had played the first half of the season for us in 2021, the time when Warnock started the campaign but was replaced by Wilder. He came on in the second half but did nothing of note that I can recall.

Port Vale had been relegated last year and were not finding the fourth tier any easier than the third. They began the game at the bottom of the table with Salford just above the relegation spots. Despite their team’s lack of form, the away fans really got behind their team. They were scathing towards the home fans and gave Salford part-owner Gary Neville some stick.

At half-time I got a steak pie and chips, which were ok. I’d earlier watched a fella a few rows in front of me avoid the queues by producing a packet of ham from his coat pocket and snacking on that.

I watched the second half from the standing area at the other end. An old bloke nearby moved next to me and talked my ears off. Sometimes I’m just too polite for my own good.

Neither side had looked capable of scoring until the Port Vale keeper let a daisy cutter free kick slip through his hands and into the net for the only goal of the game. I expect both teams to struggle this season on today’s showing.

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Colne FC v MSB Woolton FC, Saturday 7th February 2026, 3pm

March 9, 2026

Jen and I had spent the week in Barnoldswick, primarily so that we could see a couple of shows from a Mott the Hoople tribute band. I know. I rarely bother with tribute acts other than when Sea Power do their Modern Ovens homage to Jonathan Richman, but I’m coming to terms with the fact that if I want to see certain songs played live, then it isn’t going to be by the original artists anymore. Nobody complains that Bach isn’t present in person at Last Night of the Proms, so maybe I’ve been unfairly maligning tribute bands over the years.

This band had Zak Starkey on drums and a guitarist called Bucket who has stood in for and played with Mick Ralphs at Bad Company. Tributes tend to stand or fall on the quality of the frontman though and Johnny Barracuda of the Soho Dukes captured the essence and voice of Ian Hunter well enough for it to work out ok.

The venue only holds sixty, so it’s unlikely that anyone was making much money from the shows, but they looked as if they were enjoying it. Perhaps they will try and tour it in bigger venues.

On a different evening we went back to the same venue to see a couple of folk singers. I’m ok with folk if it’s the kind of folk that Withered Hand or Boo Hewerdine does. This was more traditional with most of the non-original songs being about yonder maidens in the morn and such like. The two singers were undoubtedly talented, but I found it all a bit ‘hey nonny nonny’.

I’d planned to take in a game on the Wednesday night but it was just too cold for me to be outside. That meant Saturday provided my first option with a tenth tier North West Counties League Division One North fixture at nearby Colne.

It was seven quid in at the Holt House Ground. There was covered seating down one side and covered standing behind the goal at the top of the sloped hill. A few picnic tables provided options for days when the weather was nicer. A cabin was selling Haffner’s Pies, which are presumably well-known in these parts. I tried one, but it wasn’t as good as the ones I’d been getting from a shop in Barnoldswick that sells out its entire stock by around midday.

Woolton had the advantage of kicking down the slope in the first half and made the most of it, going in three up at the break. It reminded me of playing for Freddy Natt juniors and our belief that if we were kicking uphill in the first half and could keep the deficit to two goals at half-time, then we were likely to come out on top by the end. I’ve no idea how often those circumstances ever occurred, but it’s the sort of nonsense that ten-year-olds trotted out as gospel in those days.

Maybe the Colne players had a similar belief as they came out fully fired up. They scored twice in the first three minutes and had another effort disallowed soon after. The momentum was certainly with them in a game that Woolton probably thought had been already won.

Colne had to wait until the eighty-seventh minute for the elusive third goal. It came after a visiting player was dismissed for a second yellow. The miscreant had barely reached the dressing room before the resulting free kick was floated into the box and scrambled home.

The hosts pressed for a winner, but the ten men held on for a point that seemed fair to me.

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