Opening 6 - Rocked...

My friend Mia lives in Blackpool. Here she is by The North Pier:

Mier by the Pia and in the shadows, well not the band, just in a bit of shadow

She noticed I had a gig in Lancaster and suggested I went home via Blackpool so as to unofficially open its tower. Great idea! I thought but on arrival was stumped by it being covered in Scaffolding and various other building things which meant we couldn't get a good enough angle (or near enough to it) for a legitimate opening...

Curse you pesky renovators!

...The problem was that I had already got my ribbon ready and I wasn't going to waste it so I thought to myself  "What else is Blackpool famous for?". Rock of course! Right by the tower entrance there was a rock shop, called "Ginos" so I thought I'd open that instead. Cilla Black and Roy "Chubby" Brown and Al Green were nowhere to be seen (no real surprise about Al).

Here's the rock shop by the tower diner, with what appears to be a giant stick of rock in the way.

Unofficial openings are a four person operation and Mia and I were but two, so commandeered the shopkeeper Mervena, who looked very confused, was very Eastern European but had been sat there long enough to pick up a Lancashire twang. For my other unofficial opener I asked a girl at one of the tables (called Suzanne) outside the pub to the right of this photograph who had heard my explanation (and understood it far better than Mervena) and looked positively enthusiastic as she dived under the partition apron demarcating the pub's external borders and fair grabbed the ribbon off me for a cheeky little unofficial opening par excellence

You will notice Suzanne and Mervena  are holding sticks of rock for extra authenticity and that Mervena has remained seated (Which I actually found a little disrespectful of such an auspicious occasion)

In fact the only time Mervena got out of her chair was when she charged me for the rock

So there we have it - Gino's Rock shop by The Blackpool Tower unofficially OPEN! If you'd like me to come and unofficially open something near you then email me here

PS. This was the first time we got a spontaneous round of applause for an opening. The shadows give away the lateness of the day and there were half a dozen drinkers present throughout who I think it would be safe to say "Weren't on their first of the afternoon". It really completed the sense of occasion