Been a while. Dropped my camera and broke a lens. Fixed it. Used it lots more. Since last time, I've done a few interesting things, including:

• Slayer at the MEN Arena
• Christina Aguilera at the MEN Arena
• Shayne Ward signing his book at Waterstone's in the Arndale
• Ricky Hatton training and messing about with the new Nintendo Wii console
• The Game at Manchester Apollo
• XFM Winter Wonderland at the Apollo - the Manic Street Preachers' first gig in two years
• Kasabian in Leeds
• Manchester United players attending a fundraiser for UNICEF at Old Trafford

I had to turn down an exclusive with Noel Gallagher a few weeks back due to other commitments - it would have been just me, Noel, Joe Whiley and a few fans sat in a lucky competition winner's lounge - sweet. I can't show you any of the Aguilera or Kasabian pics for copyright reasons, but I can show you the other stuff.

Slayer ground axe and banged head at the MEN. Pretty disappointing though, that a venue as good as the MEN had trouble finding a bright enough light bulb to illuminate the band (saying that though, Tool played their set on a virtually pitch black stage, so it could have been worse!). Here are Kerry King and Tom Araya:





Shayne Ward signed his new book, 'My Story' at the new Waterstone's in the Arndale Centre. It's amazing how someone who has achieved so little can attract so much attention.



I spent a day with Ricky Hatton and his team while he demonstrated the new Nintendo Wii console. The console was launched later that week, with some people having camped outside stores for two days prior to the release. This is Ricky training at his gym in Denton, after he had demonstrated the console:



I got a punch in the kidneys for my troubles from a winking Mr Hatton. When I say 'punch', by his standards it was probably no more than a slight tickle, but it hurt the next day!

The Game came to the Apollo - he eventually found his way to the stage a full 25 minutes after he was due to start, during which time the audience had to suffer the second DJ of the evening which, when you're shelling out your hard earned to see some one with as big a profile as The Game, is fairly bloody insulting.*



XFM held their 'Winter Wonderland' event at the Apollo and this was headlined by the Manic Street Preachers, who were playing their first show in two years. Needless to say, they shone during their brief set, which covered the early material as well as their more recent. Spirits were high, both during the set and afterwards.





Finally, I covered the 'United for UNICEF' charity gala dinner at Old Trafford, which was attended by most of the United players - some of whom were much more receptive to us photographer types than others!

Wayne Rooney signed a couple of autographs and Nemanja Vidic seems to have mastered the basics of communicating with us English...





*This was well and truly beaten by Pharrell Williams' visit last week, that lasted about 1 hour and 5 minutes. For £33 per ticket, plus fees and postage, that's an absolute pi$$ take. At least he did most of the N.E.R.D. stuff.

...and that's that! Wishing everyone all the best for the rest of 2006 and of course, 2007. 

See you down the front!

Andy