Manchester The Music

From RedCafe.net

Manchester, so much to answer for. A quick whirl through the Manchester music scene from its industrial roots through to Madchester and beyond.

[edit] The History of Manchester Music

The industrial roots of Manchester and its surrounding towns meant that much of its early music was confined to either the traditional brass bands or northern folk music often tinged by the Irish influence of the many Irish who arrived in Manchester seeking work and made it their home. The music can still be heard today from the likes of the Houghton Weavers, Oldham Tinkers, Mike Harding and Hanky Park who’s name will be most familiar to United fans for their poignant rendition of Eric Winter’s “Flowers of Manchester” about the terrible loss United suffered on February the 6th 1958 on an icy Munich runway.

The music of the original Dirty Old Town reflected the work hard play hard ethos of the people and the place and contrasted sharply with Music Hall’s slapstick and bawdy humour in London. That’s not to say that Manchester was not without its share of Music Hall performers though as Wigan’s George Formby certainly beat Brighton’s Max Miller over the course of his 40 year career, 230 records and 21 films while "Our Gracie" (Rochdale born Gracie Fields) certainly rivaled Vera Lynn as the queen of music hall and the forces sweetheart with her 73 year stage, screen and music career spanning both world wars.

[edit] The Swinging Sixties Wasn't All Merseybeat

With the lifting of the post war depression and the advent of the swinging sixties rock and roll became the music of choice and whilst the Liverpudlians “stole” an early lead through the likes of The Beatles and Gerry & The Pacemakers Manchester also had it’s fair share of hit singles from the likes of The Hollies, Herman's Hermits, Georgie Fame, Bee Gees, Freddy & The Dreamers and The Mind Benders.

In Manchester born Davy Jones the city was also represented as one quarter of the first ever manufactured pop band, The Monkees, as the diminutive graduate of Coronation Street and the stage show of Oliver crossed the pond to front the fictional pop group in their own TV show between 1965 and 1970.

Mention boy bands or manufactured pop groups and Manchester and most would think of Take That but we’d been there and done that before Robbie and his pals were a twinkle in their father's eyes.

[edit] Foreign Influences On A Northern Soul

Rock and Roll wasn’t the only influence on Manchester in the 60’s and 70’s though. From 1963 onwards a small unlicensed coffee house/bar in Brazennose Street, Manchester had been playing Rhythm and Blues music to a new audience featuring new British acts like The Spencer Davis Group and Long John Baldry alongside US acts touring the UK. The Twisted Wheel’s policy of playing new and obscure soul and R&B tracks made it the place for Mods and gave the music it’s name “Northern Soul”

Unfortunately as with Manchester’s other pioneering club, The Haçienda, The Twisted Wheel suffered an early demise in 1971. The music it gave birth to refused to die though and in 1973 the whole Northern Soul movement gained a new spiritual home in a disused warehouse at Wigan Pier, Wigan Casino. Similarly The Mecca in Blackpool played host to many of the Soul and R&B greats such as Edwin Starr, Isaac Hayes etc ensuring that Northern Soul kept the dancefloors filled and that the likes of Junior Walker were more likely to be mobbed walking the streets Bolton or Blackpool than he was in his home in Blytheville, Arkansas.

[edit] The '70s MOR or less

The '70s may still be the decade that style forgot but if the disco soundtrack to the era claimed its roots in New York, the music that accompanied John Travolta on the dancefloor could claim at least some Mancunian influence in the Bee Gees.

Closer to home the likes of 10CC and Barclay James Harvest kept Manchester represented in the charts with well crafted commercial rock music. 10CC had number ones with “Rubber Bullets”, “Dreadlock Holiday” and their eternally repeated ballad “I’m Not In Love” all crafted at the bands own Strawberry Studios in Stockport. More orchestral prog rock stalwarts Barclay James Harvest hailed from Oldham but also recorded much of their best remembered work at Strawberry Studios.

Broughton born Elkie Brooks was similarly a chart stalwart throughout the 1970s, having started out on the jazz scene in the ‘60s Elkie went on to form the bands Dada and Vinegar Joe with Yorkshire born Robert Palmer before going solo in the early 70s. Her solo work is best remembered for hits like “Pearl’s a Singer” and “Lilac Wine” but 15 hit albums stand testimony to her enduring appeal.

The Manchester Irish connection also brought up one of the legends of '70s rock music in Phil Lynott, who's mother faced with the task of raising an illegitimate black child in Catholic Ireland chose instead to leave him with his grandmother Sarah in Whalley Range Manchester. Phil returned to Dublin and with friends formed Thin Lizzy who provided two of the more enduring rock classics of the 70s in "Whiskey In The Jar" and "The Boys Are Back In Town".

[edit] Another music from the different kids then

The prog rock, MOR and formulaic pop which characterised much of the 70's music scene may not be remembered as the most inspiring musics but the first rumblings of change in the late 70s came from London with the formation of The Sex Pistols in 1976. Brash, uncouth and unable to play their instruments but with the sort of riotous energy that was needed to shake up a lethargic music industry.

Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley, friends from Bolton Institute, saw the Pistols in London and helped arrange their first gig in Manchester at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in June of ’76. The gig may have drawn only 42 people and Devoto and Shelley’s dream of opening for the pistols with their newly formed group Buzzcocks may have floundered on the fact that they lacked a drummer and a bassist, but the gig is now seen in retrospect as the spark that ignited the Manchester music scene. Along with Devoto and Shelley the remaining crowd of 40 people that night included Ian Curtis, Peter Hook, Bernard Sumner, Tony Wilson, Steven Patrick Morrissey, Johnny Marr, Martin Hannett and Mick Hucknall.

Devoto and Shelley did find a drummer and bassist in John Maher and Steve Diggle and their debut gig on the 20th of July 1976 supporting the Pistols. Devoto only remained with the band for their debut Spiral Scratch EP before deciding that punk was becoming over commercialized and splitting off to form influential art band Magazine.

Tony Wilson who cites the first Pistol’s concert as an epiphany was an up and coming reporter working for Granada television on their flagship news programme Granada Reports where he regularly covered local concerts. He had just been given his own show “So It Goes” on a Friday evening straight after the news where he had 15 minutes to air new bands and in September of 1976 he aired The Sex Pistols’ first TV performance. Behind the scenes Wilson was also becoming more involved in the nitty gritty of the music industry setting up his own record label Factory Records with Alan Erasmus and later Rob Gretton and Martin Hannett.

Factory would become the home of many of the local bands that sprung from the initial punk explosion in Manchester including Durutti Column, A Certain Ratio and most notably Ian Curtis, Peter Hook and Bernard Sumners band Joy Division. The Factory name was apt in capturing the industrial nature of both the city and the music as well as paying homage to Andy Warhol’s studio and arts scene in New York of the same name.

At the same time the wilfully obtuse Mark E Smith formed his own genre defying group The Fall who became perennial favourites of John Peel and undoubtedly the most prolific of all Manchester bands with over 36 albums released to date and almost as many line up changes. Of a similar ilk ,albeit less well known, no record of the nascent punk and post punk scene in Manchester would be complete without reference to John Cooper Clarke the original punk poet who despite his prolific output including classic “The Day My Pad Went Mad” and none stop touring is still most recognised as a one time sidekick of the Honey Monster in an ‘80s breakfast cereal advert.

Clarke wasn’t alone in finding his punk ethics somewhat diminished by a publicity stunt that somehow became more succesful than his serious endeavours. Chris Sievey from Timperley in South Manchester had gone through numerous lineups (including members of The Cult, The Smiths and Magazine) and enough rejection letters to fill two self published books before his band The Freshies finally achieved a modicum of fame with 1981’s pop punk single “I’m In Love With The Girl on The Manchester Virgin Megastore Checkout Desk”. The Freshies released two more singles but found little success, but to increase their exposure Chris donned a ridiculous papier-mache head and begun promoting himself as the Freshies’ number one fan. Unfortunately The Freshies still failed to catch on, but Chris can still be found touring, recording and becoming ever more bizarre in his alter ego as Frank Sidebottom.

[edit] Joy Division, Smiths, New Order, Simply Red etc

[edit] Madchester

[edit] Beyond The Madness

[edit] List of Manchester Bands