Oh Manchester So Much to Answer for!
Manchester, the birthplace to the railways the computer and the bouncing bomb.
A city that’s always been at the cutting edge of everything. Especially in music!
Manchester has given us Morrissey & Marr, the brothers Gallagher, Brown, Squire, Mani & Reni along with countless others. Over the past couple of days. I’ve been exploring this great city, visiting some of the most important musical landmarks. Landmarks that tell an important story, in both the city and the countries great musical heritage.
Where it All Began!
This building might not look like much, but almost all of Manchesters music can be traced back to here. To one gig in 1976. Manchester had given us great bands before, The Hollies and the Bee Gees. However what would happen here on the 4th June 1976 would be the catalyst for all that followed.
The Sex Pistols would play there first Manchester gig on June 4th 1976, they’re were 42 people in the audience that night. However the impact of the gig is undeniable .
Attending the gig that night were members of what would become Joy Division, The Fall and The Smiths. As well as Tony Wilson, who would take the Sex Pistols Punk ethos and form a record label, Factory Records.
The Hacienda Must be a Built
What was once one of the most important nightclubs in the world, now houses the people of Manchester.
The club was the brainchild of Factory Records Boss Tony Wilson and was financed by New Order, one of his most prominent bands.
The club would play host to countless gigs, Madonna, The Smiths, James, New Order, Happy Mondays, Oasis would all play at the legendary nightclub. It also helped usher in a new dance culture.
In 1987 the Hacienda was one of the first clubs to start playing Acid House music. Bringing over new songs and sounds from America, alongside a new drug in ecstasy, the Hacienda is arguably one of the key catalysts in the birth of rave culture in England. They were the first to do it. Giving legendary DJ’s like Mike Pickering and Graeme Park a platform to play this new music.
Due to financial troubles, and the increased violence and crime in the club. The Hacienda closed its doors in 1997 however, its impact cannot possibly be underestimated, its impact in Manchester is still felt today, for what the club did for counter culture. What it did for the LGBTQ+ community, it gave young people a place to go, a place to express themselves. It’s one of the most important buildings in Britain.
Use Hearing Protection
Just a stones throw from the Hacienda is FAC 251. Now a nightclub but formerly the offices of Factory Records.
A record label unlike no other, a label that did things differently.
Factory Records ripped the rule book, the artists didn’t have a contract. They had freedom and almost total control of what they did. It’s probably why they gave us some of the most important pieces of British music ever from ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ to ‘Blue Monday’ and ‘Kinky Afro’
It became arguably one of the first indie record labels, and opened the door for others like Creation Records and Food Records in the 1990s and more recently Domino Records.
Factory helped bank roll the Hacienda, and helped usher rave and dance culture into Manchester and the U.K. Upon signing the Happy Mondays, in the late 1980s along with other Manchester bands The Stone Roses and James, for a brief period in time. Manchester became Manchester.
Away from music, they gave outsiders a chance. Peter Saville was given a job creating artwork, from gig posters to album covers, and in turn created pieces of modern art. Ben Kelly a relatively unknown architect was given the job of designing the Hacienda, and created Wilson’s vision in the form of Britain’s first super club.
Factory Records is one of the most pivotal pieces of the Manchester music story, and it’s amazing to see that the former offices of the label is still being used to entertain the people of Manchester.
Theirs is a Light That Never Goes Out
Across the border in Salford, music fans will find Salford Lads Club, a rather unconvincing brick building in a housing estate, but Smiths fans will instantly recognise these green doors.
This now legendary photo of the band was shot outside the club in 1986. Being a huge fan of The Smiths, this was the first landmark on my list to visit.
The Smiths, are a huge part in the Manchester story, and in my opinion the most important British band ever.
https://www.beyond-the-grooves.co.uk/blog/theirs-is-a-light-that-will-never-go-out
A band that had it all. A frontman whose a literary genius, a guitarist whose a wizard with six strings. A rhythm section that propelled everything forward. Four albums that rival any other band ever, and bucket loads of great singles.
If Joy Divisions music sounds like Manchester then The Smiths lyrics sum up the people and the place perfectly, they could only be from Manchester! With Salford Lads Club they’ll always be ingrained in Salford too. There light will never go out.
Don’t Walk Away in Silence
This next landmark was a different one, its footbridge across one of the busiest roads in Manchester.
Now what’s so special about this bridge? This bridge was where Peter Cummins shot an album cover. Joy Divisions ‘Best Of’ cover was taken on this bridge.
Of course it has changed since Ian Curtis, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris all took their positions for that now legendary photo. But it’s one of the most significant landmarks in the whole story. It’s where one of the most iconic photos of one of Manchesters most iconic bands was taken.
Joy Division were the band that helped start it all, them and Buzzcocks were the first two bands that put Manchester on the map musically, Joy Division especially. They still continue to influence, musicians today with the distinct sound. A sound that is instantly recognisable, a sound that echoes around Manchester even today.
Your Music’s Shite
A few hundred yards up the road from the Hacienda, you’ll find India House, a residential apartment building.
This building is a very significant landmark for Oasis fans, Noel Gallagher lived in this building in the early 90s and wrote the majority of Oasis’s first album in his flat in India House. Flat 47 is where Noel would pen some of Oasis’s most well loved songs including ‘Live Forever.’
Noel was writing about his circumstances and about the city he loved to hate, with not much more than a guitar and amplifier. The songs on that record are Noel’s tales of living in the city of Manchester and India House is where he was living when he wrote it.
India House is a few hundred yards away from the Hacienda and what was Oasis’s rehearsal rooms, the Boardwalk.
You & I Are Gonna Live Forever. The Boardwalk, Gone But Not Forgotten
Just past the Hacienda on Little Peter Street is the Boardwalk, or what was the Boardwalk. It’s now an office building, complete with Blue Plaque.
A former nightclub and rehearsal space that hosted both bands and DJ’s. The basement saw nearly all of the great Manchester bands rehearse in there from Happy Mondays and James through to Oasis and The Charlatans.
The Boardwalk would also be the first venue that gave Oasis a gig, in the early 1990s. The club closed in 1999 and along with the Hacienda, is used for other purposes now. However its impact cannot be denied, some of this countries best bands used that space to perform or rehearse from its opening in 1984 through to its close 15 years later.
A Round Up…
I had an amazing couple of days exploring Manchester, and visiting these musical landmarks. The first thing that hits you when walking around, is just how close these landmarks are from each other. Away from Salford Lads Club and Joy Division Bridge, the rest of these sites are a stones throw from each other.
Noel Gallagher lived, partied and rehearsed virtually all on the same road! The Lesser Free Trade Hall is about 5 minutes from the Hacienda and in between fans will find what was the G-Mex which played host to huge concerts from The Smiths to U2, New Order to Oasis.
Manchesters musical heritage is rich and it’s amazing that most of it is still there to see. It’s still a forward thinking and extremely musical city. Those greats of the past are still proudly mentioned, and referenced. From Ian Curtis to Tony Wilson, Manchester doesn’t forget its greats.
I can safely say after spending the past couple of days up there. Mr Wilson was right.
‘This is Manchester we do things differently here.’
The adventure in Manchester was soundtracked by this playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0IJ5PXjDwZLqC384NIAIoB?si=ugN6F7AVQGaAYrke38MA6Q
Thank you for reading x