A love affair with Northampton is a journey into space? Really?

Back in the dark ages, Luton Borough Council and/or another well-meaning civic body (or bodies) ran something called Luton’s Looking Up. Lurid yellow t-shirts with a vaguely Breakfast TV, vaguely Acid
House logo were run off and worn by a few local lunatics and well-meaning friends of the town. That's what passed as social media in the late 1980s. As I recall - possibly incorrectly - no one knew what was going on and the campaign didn’t amount to much.

I’ve written before about Luton’s image problems, although it appears that at long last, there’s a real and serious set of exciting initiatives which will transform our loveable old environs into something which hopefully will still be loveable, but new and shiny too.

On our doorstep - proposed new ground for Luton Town FC

While work is nearing completion on our very own eight-storey ‘state of the art’ library, even more exciting, for many townsfolk, are the plans for Power Court, within a stone’s throw of our main town centre campus. Readers of this blog may recall my fondness for the mighty Luton Town, so it’s hard to put in words how exciting the prospect of the proposed stadium is. We will rise again - by beating Arsenal in the 1988 League Cup, we gave Gooners like Nick Hornby plenty to moan about long before their perennial navel gazing and dreary irritation about always finishing fourth set in under current manager Arnold Fenders.

Last known happy Arsenal fan

Enough about football. Again. The Power Court development also includes restaurants and commercial enterprises, but most significantly, an 1,800 capacity music venue. This, again, is ludicrously good news for a town which, in addition to our very own Student Union, has always been well served by small venues like The Edge, The Four Horseshoes, The George, The Castle, the Hat Factory or the jewel in crown on the town’s live music scene, The Bear Club. When it comes to national acts, Luton has, up until now, had to rely on nearby venues like the St Albans Arena or the Bedford Corn Exchange – a venue of the size proposed will hopefully attract some pretty significant touring acts. Not that either St Albans or Bedford are easily reached on Thameslink.

And that’s not all Luton town watchers – light rail to the airport, the busway, bridge installations, a new shop called Smiggle and new doughnut shops in The Mall….. there’s so much going on, it’s hard to keep up. Luckily, the excellent Luton Developments on both Facebook and Twitter deliver regular updates on what’s going on in the town, building-wise.

Looking back, the Luton’s Looking Up campaign didn’t do any harm. This may have been because it didn’t leave a legacy. Unlike Northampton, whose musical invocations of a new Eden in middle England only 60 miles by road or rail from London is not only huge fun, but also ridiculous; anyone who knows their local history knows that the Garden of Eden was in Bedford.

Enjoy the Northampton song? The A-side is even more bonkers…….