VIC BARLOW TAKES AN ALTERNATIVE LOOK AT LIFE IN MACCLESFIELD Remember playing out until you had to be dragged in?

HAVE you ever wondered what the faces behind the voices you hear on 102.8 fm look like?

Not only can you look on our website to see the profiles and photos of our presenters, you can actually see them out and about in the community supporting local business and not-for-profit organisations that support your local radio station for Macclesfield and the surrounding areas.

Denis Slattery’s 80’s charity road-show has helped local charities raise thousands of pounds and returns to The Spinners Arms in Bollington on Saturday, October 25 supporting Cancer Research UK.

You can pop in to The White Lion on Mill Street in Macclesfield every Friday, Saturday, or Sunday evening to see Nick Wright or Rob Bashforth entertaining you with a disco or karaoke session.

Mr Entertainment himself, Andy Hofton, can also be seen at the Fox and Grapes on Pitt Street in Macclesfield every Sunday afternoon with his karaoke session.

Andy is also busy at many other local venues and is currently preparing his Christmas specials.

Take a look at our website to find out where Andy will be over the festive period.

The website also gives details of various events that are taking place in Macclesfield and the surrounding areas.

If you want your event promoting on the website and on air let us know the details by clicking the submit an event tab and we will do the rest. I WAS driving around a large estate looking for a specific address the other day.

It was one of those wonderful warm autumn afternoons when shorts and T-shirts suddenly reappear.

Starlings swirled in formation high above the church spire. It reminded me of those evenings I spent with my granddad gazing up at the sky from his garden gate watching the gathering migration.

The only thing missing was…children. What happened to the kids? Where have they gone?

On a day such as this I expected to see kids playing cricket or rounders but I saw nothing. It was like 1940 when all the children had been evacuated.

Remember playing out until you had to be dragged in by your dad and pleading for ‘just another five minutes’?

Football matches went on forever stopping only for the occasional argument about whether a shot was inside or outside the post (usually a jumper).

Motor racing was a great pavement sport played with Dinky racing cars shoved along at record speed by snottynosed kids intent on being crowned ‘world champion.’ A feat neither Stirling Moss nor I ever achieved.

Girls played some weird games. Hopscotch-what was all that about?

If I hadn’t fancied Linda Sewell wild horses would not have induced me to play such a soppy game. (Linda married a good-looking guy with a huge quiff and a real car so my sacrifice was in vain.)

Hide and seek was a very dubious ‘game’ in my estimation.

Being the youngest in our street I was considered a pain, so the older boys would order me to close my eyes and count to 100 while they shot off on their bikes leaving me searching empty streets.

Remember when you played cricket and had to rely on some lucky kid who owned a decent bat?

Once he was batting you daren’t bowl him out in case he took his bat home.

If he owned the wickets as well his innings could last all day. (Maybe England should adopt that approach?)

Cycle speedway was hilarious.

Once a dirt track was prepared bikes of all shapes, sizes and varieties appeared.

Roy Cooper got leathered for ‘borrowing’ his dad’s bike and sawing off the mudguards.

I stuck a stick in my back wheel to simulate the sound of an engine but half my spokes fell out.

Mud…we always seemed to be covered in the stuff.

It was baked on in summer and splattered all over us in winter.

How good was a rope swing over a stream?

You could play all day on a good rope swing with a dozen mates.

I recall losing a shoe mid-swing and watching in horror as it drifted off towards the River Tame.

I told my dad it was stolen by a kid with one leg from another gang but he wasn’t having any of it.

I’m not saying our games were better but they educated us in ways kids will never experience sitting in their bedrooms. ●● SO David Cameron is in trouble for revealing the Queen ‘purred with happiness’ when he told her the result of the Scottish referendum.

What did people expect?

She wasn’t likely to yell: “Whoopee, the Scots have capitulated.”

Is Her Maj not allowed an opinion? Given some of the idiotic statements coming out of Westminster I’d be delighted to hear what she has to say.

To be honest I’d rather hear what the corgis have to say than Cameron, Miliband and Co. God knows how Prince Philip reacted on hearing the news. I’d pay to see that video.

Prince Philip may be eccentric but he talks more sense than our so-called leaders.

It looks like we are now committed to air strikes on an ideology. Good luck with that. You don’t suppose all those TV images of bombedout civilians will turn into another massive recruitment drive for Islamic terrorists do you?

Remember how we bombed Iraq to eliminate non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction?

How well did that work out? I’m not a big Royalist but given the current crop of politicians I’d trust the Queen before I’d believe a single word from any of them.