Fame and misfortune

So, the local newspaper (Carlisle's Evening News and Star) have written a piece about Ladgeful Potter Crack.  It's fairly cushty, like! Ya can deek it here or read below, eh.

HAVE YOU DEEKED THE POTTER PAGE YET?
Published at 11:31, Wednesday, 05 September 2012

Pure ladgeful eh. A couple of chores have got this web cowie and they’re tekkin’ a lend o’ Carlisle crack and that like eh.


If you understand that sentence – ‘How embarrassing. Two young men are using the internet to make fun of Carlisle dialect’ – then you may be a potter.

Don’t be offended, even though the potter lifestyle can include drinking heavily, watching hours of daytime TV, browsing in pound shops and eating pasties.

In the past few weeks a Facebook page called “Carlisle and Region Ladgeful Potter Crack” has gained hundreds of fans.

The page, which has more than 2,500 “likes”, is the work of two 30-something Carlisle men.

Their intention is to celebrate this aspect of Cumbrian culture, not to mock it.

Well, maybe they’re mocking it just a bit...

They have asked to use their Facebook names for this interview. “Johnno” still lives in Carlisle while “Smiddy” has emigrated to London.

They launched the page last year, as a dictionary of Cumbrian slang called “Potter Word of the Day”, but its popularity has exploded since they changed the name and included photos, video and audio clips, and even a range of T-shirts.

So... what exactly is a potter?

“I’m not really sure how to define it,” says Johnno. “It certainly isn’t as simple as saying it’s somebody who doesn’t have much money, or a chav.

“I could name prominent businessmen who, despite being millionaires, are still total potters. I know some highly intelligent and wonderful people who might be called potters, so it’s not, from our point of view, a pejorative term.”

The page – which uses what might be described as adult humour – references such fondly remembered Carlisle institutions as Danny’s Discount Store and Cat’s Whiskers nightclub.

Johnno and Smiddy also create alternative worlds with a potterish twist.

They have superimposed a photo of a victorious Mo Farah onto a background of Botchergate, with the caption “Nash, Mo, Nash!” (“Run, Mo, Run!”).

They have spoofed those internet pages which ask you to click on a link or be cursed with bad luck:

“Click like if you are a pure potter. If you don’t click like then you’ll have ladgeful luck for ten days. And get kicked in on Botch.”

They have created a film poster for a Cumbrian version of Harry Potter: “Total Potter and the Pagger on Botchergate. Available to rent on VHS and Betamax from Azad Video, Botchergate.”

Carlisle and Region Ladgeful Potter Crack is like a deranged uncle of Old Carlisle, the Facebook page which delves into the city’s history in a more conventional way.

Johnno is pleasantly surprised by his page’s sudden surge in popularity.

“It went mad after the name change. Perhaps it’s the addition of the name Carlisle. When it hit a thousand followers, I was staggered.”

He and Smiddy now know that their enthusiasm is widely shared with other Cumbrians.

“I’ve always had a bit of an obsession with colloquialisms and slang, mostly coming from my dad, who is clearly a potter. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank him for the education.

“I’m fascinated by words and I love the English language. It’s a natural extension of that. Other than Jacob Polley’s book Talk of the Town, I’ve not seen anything that documents our dialect.

“Many of the words are of Romany origin, like gadgey [man]. I also recently discovered words such as jewkle [dog] are used in Newark-on-Trent, so I think they’re not all strictly Carlisle words.”

Smiddy says: “It’s mainly Carlisle words with a few Cumbrianisms put in. We didn’t want to leave out our western cousins.

“When we worked together we always ended up using ‘potter’ words and it just became part of everyday conversation, reminiscing when the words were the norm at school and how we grew out of it, yet it’s funny a lot of people didn’t.

“The Facebook page felt like a natural progression. It’s just another part of the fun and people seem to like it.

“It jogs people’s memories and brings up words and phrases they’ve not heard in years. There have been a few I had totally forgotten about.”

As Smiddy suggests, many people grow up using “potter” words but then stop, perhaps to blend in at college or work.

“I don’t get to use these words very often with my present social circles. But I have found I’ve been inadvertently saying these words more now, so potterism could possibly be going global, which can only be a good thing.”

Johnno says he has never stopped using this dialect.

“I was brought up a potter so I’ve always embraced my inner potter – probably to the point it’s more of an outer potter.”

But is this really an affectionate look at an aspect of working-class culture, or is it mockery?

“The page is meant to be inclusive, fun and, in many ways, celebratory of Carlisle’s unique cultural identity,” insists Johnno.

“We have strict rules, regarding naming individuals and strictly no racism or homophobia.

“We’ve covered Botchergate and night life, old stores such as Danny’s Discount Store, but only in a tongue-in-cheek manner. It’s truly not meant to be offensive.”

They claim to have received only one complaint from someone offended at seeing Carlisle’s name linked to such silliness. The complainant wrote on Facebook: “I was posting to the great border city page that for some reason has links to this rubbish... What I would like you to do is remove the word Carlisle from this page. [If] You want to peddle this as humour put your own name on the page and not my home town.”

One fan of the page replied: “Wots yon gadge on aboot like, eh.”

Johnno and Smiddy don’t think Carlisle has more potters than anywhere else – just its own breed. They feel the vast majority are not a blight on the city.

Indeed, potterism could turn out to be a nice little earner for the pair. They have just launched a range of T-shirts and mugs with potteresque slogans such as “Are you deeken my bewer?” and “Pure shan”.

“Many are phrases we’ve used for years,” says Johnno. “I just thought it would be funny to see people in the streets wearing them.”

There’s also a Twitter account in which The Ladgeful Potter offers (frequently rude) thoughts such as: “A want a Natalie Sawyer calenda. shes my new Roxanne Pallett.”

The account is illustrated by a photo of a young man in a Burberry cap with a can of lager.

“I think it’s good to have a ‘character’ as the face of the page,” says Johnno. “Admittedly, said character is undoubtedly a chav of the worst kind, which I should point out definitely does not define what a potter is.”

SOME of Carlisle and Region Ladgeful Potter Crack’s T-shirt and mug slogans with translations

Are you deeken my bewer?

Are you looking at my girlfriend?

I chored this T-shut

I stole this T-shirt

Can’t stop, gotta nash

Can’t stop, must dash

Pure shan

How embarrassing

Radge as owt

Most peculiar

Border crack ‘n’ deek aboot

Border News and Lookaround

n To order T-shirts and mugs visit http://ladgefulpottercrack. spreadshirt.co.uk

The Ladgeful Potter Crack anatomy

There are loads of words used to describe parts of the body or, indeed, glasses, hat or hair.  Coming soon, also, the Ladgeful Potter Crack dictionary.  Unladge.

Honest, you really can buy TEE-SHUTS!

Well, that's another email received asking about whether you can really buy t-shirts.

GO TO: http://ladgefulpottercrack.spreadshirt.co.uk/ and you can buy 'em!

The Potter Shop Hall of Fame

Here are my my favourite Carlisle potter shops.  Some long-since closed, some still going strong:

• Danny's Discount Store - legendary shop, famous for its Pepe jeans with snazzy keyrings;
  
• Music Box - still going strong and, actually, a bloody good shop if you're after games and music. But there's no doubting its appearance qualifies it for a place in the potter shop Hall of Fame;
  
• Famous Army Stores (FAS) - potterish, simply because of the handful of items that made their way into school uniforms, immediately branding the unfortunate wearer as a potter. I got a pair of British Knights basketball boots from there, in a delightful white, turquoise and black. I loved them and embraced my consolidation in the world of potters;
  
• Beavan's Bargain Store - I can't remember where in Carlisle this was but do recall it being a true potter shop. It saddens me that such shops have dwindled with the rise of faceless potter shops, such as Poundland and Poundstretcher. Ladgeful.
  

Any suggestions for more?

Deek me new t-shuts 'n' tha'!

Deek me new shop for sellin' t-shuts 'n' other tat that nobody wants but everybody needs!  Git yersel' on and buy summat!

http://ladgefulpottercrack.spreadshirt.co.uk/

Saturday Night, am gan down Botchy for a fight...

Ah was just deeken around on the old interwebble and fun a gadge called Dizzy Radge Carl. He's proper sound, eh. Sez his big boyo is the Grun, that gadge from Botch who did Carlisle's Gannen Up. Talented family, like.  Bit like the Gallagher boyos. He's got some purely mint choons gan on. Dunno how he meks them up, like, it's dead clever.

Have a listen here. It's unladge.

ME LADGEFUL NEW BLOG, LIKE, EH.

Alright, potter fans?  Deek me new Blog - it's UNLADGE! I might mek me own name for it, like them video bloggers have VLOGS, this is a PLOG.