Hubble bubble

Entertainment news: Dr Seuss is to write the biography of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. 'Cocks in Socks' will be out next summer.

(ok so Dr Seuss is probably dead but I never let accuracy get in the way of a good joke)

And so to the spooky season. Last night I went for a meal and a classical 'pops' concert at the Bridgewater Hall with my mother. The reason? It was a concert of Sci-Fi themes. Also Sprach Zarathrusa (pardon any dodgy spelling), Things to Come, the obligatory Star Wars bit, the premiere of the Red Dwarf concert version theme, Ghostbusters, Superman, and even an orchestral version of the Dr Who theme. All were fab. Some of the stuff you wouldn't think would translate well into an orchestral rendering, particularly Dr Who, but somehow it worked. In fact they should use this version for the new series theme. What was most fun was to see some of the geekier orchestra members really getting into it. Most of them were a bit po-faced but two cellists and the two double-bassists at the back kept grinning at each other and were obviously really enjoying it. Good for them.

Just got home in time to watch Most Haunted Live which comes from one of my fave haunts (tee hee) - Clitheroe and Pendle Hill. Derek sensed an alien in one house. Has he been watching too many episodes of The X Files I wonder? Even Countryfile this morning was from Pendle Hill. Popular place this time of year.

To enter into the spirit (ha ha) of Halloween I'll relate a couple of my own spooky experiences.

The theatre I'm a member of has its own resident ghost apparently. I've been going there for the last 5 years or so and had never previously sensed anything despite occasionally still being in there at 6am at an after show party (a group of us young 'uns would get the beers in and play hide and seek in the pitch black til the early hours). One evening - it must have been 12 o clock or thereabouts - at an after-show drinkie about a year ago, a small group of us were gathered at the main entrance waiting for a chap to check everything was locked/lights out etc so we could leave. The staircase to the balcony and props room was facing me and just for a second I thought I saw, out of the corner of my eye, the back of someone walking up them. I quickly looked up to where this person should have been but there was no-one there. There was no way he (I got the impression it was a man) could have disappeared round a corner as there wasn't time. I didn't say anything to anybody as I just thought I was hallucinating. Maybe I was? Or did I see our ghost?

More convincingly, earlier this year I visited an old hall North of Bolton called Turton Tower - a lovely old half-timbered building with a 13th century pele tower in one corner. The tourist season had only just started so the hall wasn't particularly crowded and I entered one of the upstairs rooms alone. It was the dining room I think and situated in one corner of the pele tower which is the oldest part of the house. I could hear a knocking noise coming from the furthest corner so I went over to investigate. I didn't think anything of it. It could have been caused by anything - creaking floorboards, pipes etc - so I wandered back to the other end of the room where there was a garde-robe (medieval toilet). Just as I got there and stood at the door, poking my nose in, I got a tingly feeling down the back of my neck as though I'd sensed someone behind me. I suppose it must be the feeling people get when they say their hairs are standing up. Anyway, I knew no-one had entered the room and that I was still alone. Slightly spooked I moved to leave the room but on reaching the entrance I decided to go back and see if the same thing happened. It didn't.

When I got home I trawled my numerous ghost books looking for the story of Turton Tower. Before I went I'd assumed the ghost was of a man, probably a soldier or something, as I couldn't remember the story properly. Well, the ghost was actually of a woman who reportedly walks into one of the upstairs rooms and disappears.....

..... into a garde-robe in the corner.

Waaaaaahghhh!