SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW

STOKE CREATES BOARD MEMBER PAUL WILLIAMS CAME TO THE CITY AS A STUDENT... BUT NOW CALLS IT HOME. HE SAYS STOKE-ON-TRENT'S PAST IS KEY TO ITS FUTURE...

- by Paul Williams

SIX months ago Claybody Theatre’s Hootenanna party rang in Stoke-on-Trent's centenary year of civic, cultural and community celebrations by asking is there a better place to be now?

As the 100th birthday celebrations continue to build on the city's cultural renaissance over the past decade which has seen a growth in confidence, ambition, creativity and cultural engagement, this extraordinary year of opportunity must look beyond 2025 and to the legacy that follows.

It's almost 40 years since I first arrived as a student in the city that owed its globally renowned success to a mixture of geographical good fortune and home grown entrepreneurial nous.

At that time my own knowledge of this ‘rugged, pott-making spot of earth’, as Josiah Wedgwood called it, was formed through football, music and beer experiences.

Cold Saturday visits to the old Victoria Ground to watch my beloved hometown team Everton in December 1980 and October 1981 weren't exactly joyous occasions, with a draw and a defeat respectively not the results I was hoping for. That said, I did get the chance to see the immensely talented Paul Bracewell play on both occasions for Stoke City before making the switch to Goodison Park where he was instrumental in Everton's trophy-winning team of the later 1980s.

More enjoyable were subsequent visits to the Victoria Hall to watch U2's Bono wave an emblematic white flag on their War Tour and The Smiths during the week their debut album was released. And I can still hear the now sadly departed Mike Peters from The Alarm belt out Sixty Eight Guns in the iconic King's Hall in May 1985.