Юморист Рэйчел Фэрбёрн вспоминает легендарный концерт Oasis в Кнеборне и шокирующий псевдодокументал Ghostwatch

The Mancunian Way: “Pals? Pals?!” “There's a real dryness to Mancunian humour” PLUS Knebworth, 30 years on Hello, When I meet Rachel Fairburn at the Frog and Bucket in town she is wearing a very cool leopard print Adidas jacket. I take a punt and, early on in our interview, try and steer the conversation around to Coronation Street. “You know what makes me laugh loads now? Classic Coronation Street,” says the comedian. “Some of the lines in that, it's so well written.” I mention that I almost wore my Bet Lynch badge to our interview but thought it made me look unprofessional. “You should have worn it!” she says. “That's my hero!” Get MEN Premium now for just £1 HERE – or get involved in our WhatsApp group by clicking HERE. And don't miss out on our brilliant selection of newsletters HERE. We quickly agree that Corrie creator Tony Warren was a genius and feminist. Only he could have written the infamous showdown in The Kabin between Bet and Rita, in which the formidable barmaid screams: “Pals? Pals?! You don’t know the meaning of the word.” IYNYK. “I've got a t-shirt with that on,” says Rachel. “In fact, I've tried to put a bit of that vibe into my new show.” The character-based show, Vexy Beasts, is set in a hair salon in an imaginary suburb of Manchester called Harpervale. “There's a bit of a rivalry between two women in it, and I love that,” she says. "I love two women who are fundamentally the same person hating each other. It's so funny.” The poster advertising the show is partly inspired by the 1994 documentary Three Salons at the Seaside, which follows the staff and customers at three hair salons in Blackpool. It’s a cult classic and was a favourite of the comedy duo Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash. “This is what I love - people I've worked with in jobs that I've had that are just funny,” says Rachel. “I love stand-up, but there is nothing funnier sometimes than people you work with. “I remember at work once my friend Karen was stood there with a cup of tea going: ‘I mean, now, mid 50s, what have I got to look forward to, Rachel? A mammogram on a car park?’ “She wasn't being funny. She was just being real. “Northerners, I think, are the funniest people. There are no two ways about it. And I think Mancunians have a very specific sense of humour, and I think a lot of that is based on taking the mick out of ourselves, and others. There's a real dryness to Mancunian humour.” During our chat, Rachel tells me about growing up in Harpurhey, why comedy has become 'gentrified' and her obsession with serial killers that led to her podcast All Killa No Filla - which she hosts with fellow comedian Kiri Pritchard-McLean. Far from a salacious grimfest, the acclaimed show allows the two women to talk about the victims, their own experiences and the culture surrounding the cases. Rachel admits that her lifelong fascination with the macabre was most likely spawned by the 1990s television that left an indelible mark. Shows like Ghostwatch and Michael Buerk’s 999 were part of an era of television that focussed on the grim. Earlier this year, Rachel took part in a documentary about the notorious pseudo-documentary Ghostwatch. “Best day of my life,” she says with absolute certainty. The one-off Halloween special - described as ‘the most frightening television programme ever broadcast’ - jammed the BBC’s phone lines with complaints and caused a hysteria that harked back to Orson Welles’ broadcast of The War of the Worlds. As one of many Millennials traumatised by the show, Rachel says filming the documentary was a career highlight. “They had one of the original Radio Times with Michael Parkinson on the front and it said: ‘Do you believe in ghosts?’. “I was picking it up as if it was like an ancient artifact. I was like: ‘Oh my God, where did you get this?’. The woman was like: ‘Oh, just off eBay. Err, you can have it if you want?’.” You can read my full interview with Rachel here. Turn around, bright eyes I peered into a colander, but I’m afraid to report I didn’t see anything. But millions of others DID manage to see the awe-inspiring partial solar eclipse last night. As the UK plunged into near darkness, people gathered across Greater Manchester with their safety glasses on to witness the historic occasion. Adam Maidment has compiled a gallery of some of our best pictures from the moment, which you can see here. Jammed The beautiful scenery of Mottram can easily be admired by drivers passing by - because they’re usually stuck in queues in their cars. The notorious A57 between Manchester and Sheffield has long had a huge traffic problem. And it’s currently being worsened by the solution, the Mottram bypass. The A57 Link Roads scheme has been designed to reduce congestion and improve journey times and reliability across the Pennines. Local democracy reporter George Lythgoe has been speaking to the man tasked with leading the work on a plan locals have campaigned for for decades. And after all… It’s been 30 years since Oasis played one of the most legendary gigs in the history of British music. Oasis were riding high on the release of their second album, (What's The Story) Morning Glory? with hits from that record filling the airwaves when they played to a quarter of a million people at Knebworth in the summer of 1996. Lee Grimsditch has trawled the photo archives to find images of the original shows from August 1996. You can see if you can spot yourself here.