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Post by petrolino on Jun 23, 2023 23:46:55 GMT
MANCHESTER : 'CITY OF INDUSTRY'
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1207 - Liverpool and its market is chartered by King John.
Graham Nash : 'Wild Tales : A Rock & Roll Life' [The Library Of Congress : Music Division - September 16, 2013]
1301 - Manchester is granted a charter making it a baronial borough, governed by a reeve.
"At the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, a village called Mamecester existed. In time the name changed to Manchester. There is a story that Reddish is called that because there was once a battle there and the blood left ‘reddish’ stains. It is far more likely that Reddish is a corruption of Reed Ditch.
At the time of the Normans in the 11th century, Manchester was a small village but things changed in the 12th century. The population of England grew and trade and commerce grew rapidly. Many new towns were founded. The village of Manchester was made into a town in the early 13th century. The Lord of the Manor, a man named Robert De Grelly built a manor house nearby. He also built the church of St Mary. He divided up some of his lands into plots for building and rented them to craftsmen. He may also have started a weekly market. Soon Manchester grew into a town.
In the year 1222 Manchester was granted the right to hold an annual fair. In the Middle Ages, a fair was like a market but was held only once a year. It would attract buyers and sellers from all over Lancashire. In the Middle Ages Manchester was, at best, a medium-sized town. It was not nationally important. It is not known what its population was. An educated guess is 2,500. It would seem very small to us but settlements were tiny in those days.
In Medieval Manchester, there was a wool industry. After the wool was woven it was fulled. That means it was beaten in a mixture of water and clay to clean and thicken it. Wooden hammers powered by a watermill beat the wool. When it dried the wool was dyed. There was also a leather tanning industry in the town.
In 1301 Manchester was given a charter (a document granting the townspeople certain rights). Before that date, the Lord of the Manor appointed a bailiff who ran the town day to day. Afterward, the merchants of Manchester were allowed to elect an official called a Reeve who did the job.
In the late Middle Ages water from a spring was brought along elm pipes to a conduit in Manchester where the townspeople could fetch water. The spring gave its name to Spring Gardens and Fountain Street."
- Tim Lambert, Local Histories
'Prison Song' [3:10] (1974) - Graham Nash
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"The name Manchester originates from the Latin name Mamucium or its variant Mancunio. These names are generally thought to represent a Latinisation of an original Brittonic name. The generally accepted etymology of this name is that it comes from Brittonic *mamm- ("breast", in reference to a "breast-like hill")."
- Google Alert
'Motorcade' [5:41] (1978) - Magazine
'Manchester was the world's first industrial city. From its towering mills, bustling warehouses and crowded streets came new ways to live, work and think, which transformed lives in Manchester and across the world.
In the early 19th century, the rapid growth of Manchester's cotton industry drove the town's expansion, putting it at the heart of new, global networks of manufacturing and trade. Makers and profit-seekers developed powered machines and multistorey mills to produce fashionable, valuable cotton cloth to sell across the globe. Science and industry interacted and overlapped to create an inventive, experimental town.
But innovation and profits went hand in hand with inequality and exploitation, in Manchester's mills, where thousands of workers toiled in time with machines, and on plantations in the Caribbean, South America and the United States, where millions of enslaved people were forced to grow the cotton that supplied them.
Overcrowded and polluted, industrial Manchester was like nothing ever seen before. The consequences of Manchester's growth were dramatic and sometimes dreadful, prompting people in Manchester to innovate and campaign for solutions to the challenges facing the first industrial city.
Today we still feel the impact of Manchester's revolutionary transformation, in the ways we live and work and in the global challenges we face.'
- Science + Industry Museum
'Confessions Of A Mind' [5:37] (1970) - The Hollies
'I Hate The White Man' [8:03] (1970) - Roy Harper
'Killer' [8:24] (1970) - Van Der Graaf Generator
'Art For Art's Sake' [5:59] (1976) - 10CC
"The development of steam power heralded the age of the cotton mill. Manchester’s first was established at Shudehill in 1782, followed by the Salvin’s and Piccadilly mills in the late 1780s. The construction of the Bridgewater canal provided regular, cheaper coal supplies to power the new machinery and improved transport links to Liverpool.
The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 proved crucial in shaping Manchester’s future. From that moment, the spread of the plantation slavery complex across North America and the booming Lancashire textile industry became symbiotically linked.
The annual US cotton crop grew from 9,000 bales to 210,000 between 1790 and 1800. During the same period, the number of cotton mills in Manchester had grown from three to 19 and the population had increased to more than 70,000. Even though Britain ended involvement in the slave trade in 1807, the reliance of the town’s development and prosperity on enslavement actually deepened year-by-year. From virtually zero in 1790, raw cotton from the US made up 40% of British imports in the 1800s, 50% during the 1810s, and 71% in the 1820s.
McConnel & Kennedy’s and Murray’s mills on the banks of the newly built Rochdale canal were some of the first in Ancoats, the world’s first industrial suburb, which emerged in the early 19th century. Child and adult workers moved between deafening, dangerous factories and cramped slums with poor sanitation and little open space. In 1819, 41% of children born to men working at McConnel & Kennedy had not survived to adulthood. From 1832, regular deadly cholera outbreaks hit Manchester’s working-class communities.
Irish migrants, often pushed into the lowest-paid, most insecure work, had a major impact on the town’s growth and culture. Important centres of Irish residence included Angel Meadow and Little Ireland, near the Chorlton Mills complex.
The Peterloo massacre of 1819 sent shockwaves through Britain, as peaceful working-class protesters demanding universal manhood suffrage were attacked by the authorities. The Manchester Guardian was founded by a group of cotton merchants and manufacturers in reaction to the massacre."
- Matthew Stallard, The Guardian
'Moving Away From The Pulsebeat' [7:06] (1978) - Buzzcocks
'Tragedy' [5:03] (1979) - The Bee Gees
'Atrocity Exhibition' [6:06] (1980) - Joy Division
'The N.W.R.A.' [9:08] (1980) - The Fall
"Cotton became king in the decades after the world’s first steam-driven mill was built in the city in the late eighteenth century by industrialist Richard Arkwright. Manchester and the surrounding towns proved to be ideal locations for production because there was a constant power supply in the fast-flowing rivers that tumbled from the Pennines. The damp air also meant that the threads of cotton were less likely to snap. Thousands of men, women and children with their caps, clogs and shawls, were soon employed in the ‘dark satanic mills’ that sprung up across the region – their tall chimneys visible for many miles. Workers faced many hazards including the loss of fingers and complications from breathing in cotton dust. Children faced a dangerous job of crawling under machines to pick up loose bits of thread.
The number of mills in Manchester peaked at 108 in 1853 and, as numbers began to decline, other towns in the region saw a boost in trade. Bury, Rochdale and Bolton were famed for their mills, as was Oldham, which at its peak was the largest cotton-spinning town in the world. Britain’s cotton industry reached its peak in 1912 when eight billion yards of cloth were being produced. But the outbreak of the First World War spelled disaster for the industry in Manchester and the surrounding towns. Demand for British cottons slumped and mill owners put their workers on short time or shut down their mills.
In the 1932, more than 200,000 spinners stopped work in Lancashire and defied bosses to accept a new wages agreement. The region also saw a visit from the Indian nationalist Mahatma Gandhi, who travelled to Lancashire to see what conditions were like in the mills.
The cotton industry saw another boom in the 1950s and workers from the Indian sub-continent began arriving to seek work in the region’s mills. But the boom was short lived and by 1958, the country that had given birth to the textile industry had become a net importer of cotton cloth.
By the 1980s, the industry had all but vanished in and around Manchester, where empty mills and silent chimneys were the industry’s only legacy ...."
- Lee Swettenham, Manchester Evening News
'Knife Slits Water' [7:34] (1982) - A Certain Ratio
'Rusholme Ruffians' [4:05] (1985) - The Smiths
'Breaking In To Heaven' [11:21] (1994) - The Stone Roses
'Forever' [7:25] (1999) - The Charlatans
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“It is only when you meet someone of a different culture from yourself that you begin to realise what your own beliefs really are.”
- George Orwell
Salford, 1936
'I Am The Resurrection' [8:12] (1989) - The Stone Roses (... hold on to your hats ...)
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Post by petrolino on Jun 24, 2023 2:03:20 GMT
The Sun Always Shines On Manchester ...
'Sunshine Girl' [2:36] (1968) - Herman's Hermits
'Oh Manchester England England,
Across the Atlantic Sea,
And I'm a genius genius ...
I believe in God ...
And I believe that God ...'
'Let The Sunshine In' [6:05] {'HAIR'}
'Catch The Sun' [4:49] (2000) - Doves
Dedicated to Treat Williams ~ Friend of Manchester (in Loving Memory) R.I.P. |
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Post by petrolino on Jun 24, 2023 23:42:18 GMT
LIVERPOOL & MANCHESTER : 'TWIN ENGINES'
'The Old Dock was the world's first enclosed commercial wet dock. Before it opened there were only limited times when it was safe to load or unload ships in Liverpool, due to the huge tidal range of the river Mersey. It made a massive difference to the city when the dock opened in 1715.'
- Google Alert
Graham Nash on the Beatles
'A Day In The Life' [5:13] (1978 / original song released by the Beatles in 1967) - The Bee Gees
'The journalist, author and founder of Mojo magazine Paul Du Noyer credits the Real Thing alongside Deaf School with restoring "Liverpool's musical reputation in the 1970s" with their success.'
- Wikipedia
'Refugee' [2:52] (1978) - Deaf School
'She's A Groovy Freak' [5:22] (1980) - The Real Thing
"Every day people walk through Liverpool city centre - and unbeknown to them, beneath their feet is an amazing old dock and the creek from which the city's name derives. The Old Dock was the world's first commercial wet dock and the creek which the dock was built on is a rare natural inlet coming in from the River Mersey. These hidden gems have been preserved underneath Liverpool ONE, and Merseyside Maritime Museum showcases them on FREE tours. The revolutionary Old Dock was discovered during excavations in 2001, after being buried since 1826.
Developers Grosvenor safeguarded the dock and made a portion of it publicly accessible as an important reminder of Liverpool's historic status. The Old Dock was 95 yards across, 220 yards long and could hold 100 ships."
- Mark Johnson, The Liverpool Echo
'Degenerated Man' [4:25] (1980) - Pink Military
'Stanlow' [6:36] (1980) - Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
'Over The Wall' [5:59] (1981) - Echo And The Bunnymen
"The Manchester Docks, which spanned Salford, Stretford and Manchester formed one of the busiest ports in Britain and helped the region become an industrial powerhouse. They began life in 1894 following the completion of the 35-mile Manchester Ship Canal, an engineering feat that connected the city to the sea.
Ocean-bound vessels soon began bypassing the port of Liverpool and heading inland to Manchester bringing all kinds of commodities and exotic goods. Ships weighing up to 12,500 tonnes brought raw cotton, grain and timber, but also supplied Manchester and Salford with tea, fruit, lard, oil, petroleum… and frozen cattle.
Exports included textiles, machinery, cars and locomotives built at nearby Trafford Park. Up to 5,000 people worked at the docks in their heyday. Competition for jobs was fierce and the stevedores who unloaded the ships had to work in freezing conditions as they kept the city supplied with goods in mid-winter."
- Dean Kirby, Manchester Evening News
'Jackpot Jack' [7:23] (1984) - The Room
'Sit On It' [3:07] (1984) - Dead Or Alive
'Welcome To The Pleasuredome' [13:38] (1984) - Frankie Goes To Hollywood
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Post by petrolino on Jul 8, 2023 22:16:48 GMT
MANCHESTER : 'DANCING TILLER GIRLS'
'Despite its location amidst a bustling parade of shops close to the Manchester Metropolitan University campus on Oxford Road, The Dancehouse – the building now home to the Northern Ballet School – could be considered somewhat of a hidden gem, with an intriguing history. It was planned as two public halls, built in 1929-30 and has since held the Regal Twin Cinemas, expanded to include even more screens – before transforming into a theatre and dance destination! So how did it all begin? The building itself was conceptualised in the 1920s by Emmanuel Nove, a Ukrainian constructor who himself holds a significant part in the making of Manchester’s cityscape. Born in the Pottava province of Ukraine in 1871, Emmanuel Nove’s actual last name was ‘Novakovsky’ – meaning ‘the new man in the city’ – so it seemed quite fitting that he came to Manchester in the 1890s. This was following a time of turbulence in which he has been forcibly conscripted to the Russian army and reacted against this – eloping to Britain with his young bride Betsy, first moving to Wrexham and working as house-painter before coming to Manchester.
It was on coming to the city, now under the surname ‘Nove’, that Emmanuel started to construct houses – setting up a small building firm in order to do so. Living on Wilmslow Road in Fallowfield at the time, his first construction effort was Grove Terrace on Burton Road in Withington (1910). He then moved into one of these houses himself! He also built Old Broadway in the area, and it is worth remembering that at this time Withington was not so significantly urbanised, in fact there were still a number of farmsteads close by.
As Nove’s career progressed, he went onto work on larger public structures- overseeing the development of what is now The Dancehouse. At the time he envisaged the construction of the building – on Oxford Road between Chester Street and Hulme Street – as capable of holding two large meeting halls. It was then designed by the architects Pendleton and Dickinson, and built between 1929-1930.
The Art Deco design features of the building are perhaps an allusion to the grand hopes and aspirations of the nation, following the First World War coming to an end. However, this also was a time of economic uncertainty and recession; with the construction effort facing some difficulty along the way. Although the building firm of Emmanuel Nove initially oversaw the structure of the building going up – principally a large steel frame – Nove then went bust. In turn, the unfinished structure faced being abandoned… though luckily the steelwork company who were already involved in it, decided to take over the project themselves.
Although the building was first planned as two large meeting halls, as it was being constructed, other ideas emerged. By the 1930s, it has been reconceptualised: as an impressive space featuring two back-to-back cinemas. On the 20 September 1930, it opened as a huge twin cinema, one of the first of its kind in Europe! What was meant by a twin cinema? It meant that there were two screens running within the same building – and often the same movie would be shown in both, one perhaps half an hour or so later than the other. Titled the Regal Twin Cinemas, each had its own name – ‘Romulus’ and ‘Remus’ respectively – referencing the twins who went onto found the city of Rome. This was perhaps also a reference to the grand and ambitious outlook for the building, as cinemas were particularly popular go-to destinations in the 1930s. Oxford Road was after all bustling with multiple venues, people piling off buses and into the screens to see the likes of the monumental All Quiet On The Western Front and the Marx Brothers’ Animal Crackers, to name just a couple.
The appearance of the building would have also made an impression at the time, designed in the aforementioned Art Deco style, with a parade of shops at the front facing the road. Inside, the place boasted beautiful plasterwork, tall ceilings and a significant attention to detail, right down to the impressive light fittings. Little wonder then that it became an iconic entertainment location, continuing to be a communal place even during the Second World War and on into the 1950s, before the mainstream accessibility of television.'
- Visit Manchester
Rival London dance troupe the Sherman Fisher Girls
Graham Nash visits Whispering Bob Harris
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Historic Music Venues That Shaped The City In The Rock 'N' Roll Era
The Free Trade Hall, Peter Street, Manchester
The Apollo, Stockport Road, Manchester
The Twisted Wheel, Whitworth Street, Manchester New Continental Club, Harter Street, Manchester
The Hollies : Stage 1 ['I Can't Let Go' down on the docks]
The Hollies : Stage 2 ['On A Carousel' inside Abbey Road Studios]
The Hollies : Stage 3 ['Carrie Anne', 'Stop Stop Stop' & 'He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother' on stage]
Discotheque Royale, Peter Street, Manchester The Swinging Sporran, Sackville Street, Manchester Rafters, Oxford Street, Manchester The Electric Circus, Collyhurst Street, Manchester
'You Should Be Dancing' [10:05] (1976) - The Bee Gees
'Babylon' [3:41] (1977) - Sad Café
'Ain't Bin To No Music School' [2:54] (1977) - The Nosebleeds
Rotters, Oxford Street, Manchester
The Haçienda, Whitworth Street West, Manchester The Thunderdome, Miles Platting, Manchester The Boardwalk, Little Peter Street, Manchester
'Everything's Gone Green' [5:33] (1981) - New Order
'Breakout' [7:56] (1986) - Swing Out Sister
'Wrote For Luck' [6:14] (1988) - Happy Mondays
Idol's / The Lazy Pig, Oldham Street, Manchester
Paradise Factory, Princess Street, Manchester The Roundhouse, Newton Street, Manchester Tiger Lounge, Cooper Street, Manchester
'Fools Gold' [9:51] (1989) - The Stone Roses
'The Line' [4:26] (1997) - Lisa Stansfield
snatalrahC ehT _ (7991) [63:3] '15 aerA' | 'Judas' [4:04] (2001) _ The Charlatans
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"The ideal reader of my novels is a lapsed Catholic and failed musician, short-sighted, color-blind, auditorily biased, who has read the books that I have read. He should also be about my age."
- Anthony Burgess, The Paris Review
Mary Quant & the Ginger Group visit Manchester in 1966
Off-duty nurses from Park Hospital (regarded as the first National Health Service hospital) attend a party in Urmston in 1967
Polonez Manchester Dance Troupe (founded in 1949) looking to recruit in 2022
'The Blonde Waltz' [4:31] (1999) - The Charlatans
' Peace ~ Not War '
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Post by petrolino on Jul 8, 2023 23:58:18 GMT
... The Sun Always Shines On Manchester ...
"Genesis P-Orridge has a surprisingly learned musical background for someone known primarily as a creator of noisy experimental music. He grew up in Manchester under the sway of his father’s American jazz records, played drums at 3, piano at 7, and sang in the school choir as well as at the local cathedral, where he learned to sing in Latin and sight-read music. “I think there’s a misconception about the music I’ve made, and Throbbing Gristle in particular,” P-Orridge says. “That it’s all just screaming, mass murderers, noise and cynicism. But that was always in the context of all these other symphonic structures, textures and dynamics. A large percent is very rooted in melodics and more jazzlike.”
As a teenager, P-Orridge immersed himself in the thriving ’60s counterculture, living in a London art commune called Exploding Galaxy before forming the performance-art group COUM Transmissions with future Throbbing Gristle bandmates Cosey Fanni Tutti, Chris Carter and Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson. It was during this time that he also began a friendship and correspondence with Beat writer William Burroughs that would last until the author’s death in 1997. From Burroughs and his friend Brion Gyson, a fellow writer, P-Orridge would learn of the “cut-up technique,” a literary device whereby existing text is cut up and rearranged to create an entirely new narrative. It was a concept that would influence P-Orridge’s work from that point on, and a method he would eventually transpose from literature to music with Throbbing Gristle, editing found sounds into existing musical compositions. The technique would eventually emerge into the mainstream as “sampling.” Throbbing Gristle made its formal debut in 1977 at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London. The band served beer and decorated the gallery with naked pictures of female member Fanni Tutti, who also worked as a porn model, and invited strippers and prostitutes to mingle with the crowd. The opening act was a teen punk band called LSD that would later rename itself Generation X, its singer adopting the moniker Billy Idol."
- John Albert, Medium
'That's Not My Name' - The Ting Tings
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"In the spring of 1928, Charlie Harrison became our lodger. Charlie was a waterproof-worker by trade and a member of the Communist Party. Indeed, he had recently been appointed the branch organiser. The fact that the entire membership of the branch didn't exceed a dozen people didn't prevent him from regarding his new role as an important one and one to be worn with dignity. It was, of course, unpaid. His regimen was strict, based (I suspect) on the one adopted by Lenin during his period of Siberian exile. Every morning come rain, hail or shine, he was up by 7.30 a.m. Standing naked in the back yard he would hose himself down with cold water. This would be followed by a session of Swedish drill and deep-breathing exercises after which he would sit down to his breakfast of brown bread and marmalade. Most mornings he would read for half an hour or so, alternating Lenin's State and Revolution and Marx's Paris Commune. I was greatly impressed with this systematic approach to reading and for a time I considered adopting it.
On Sunday mornings, he broke with routine and spent the morning playing gramophone records on his portable machine. The discs were 78s and overplaying had thinned the walls of the grooves. Some of them were so worn that their shiny black surface had acquired the greyness of unkempt old age. Die Walküre, in particular, was in an advanced state of decrepitude and both Sieglinde and Siegmund sounded as if they were suffering from violent hiccups. I imitated them for my cousin John and was overheard by Charlie.
A few days later he suggested that I make use of my talents by joining a theatre group which some of his friends had organised for the purpose of staging working-class plays and sketches. The group was the Clarion Players and joining it was my first individual political act."
- Ewan MacColl, Working Class Movement Library
'Shine On' - Simply Red
'Peter Skellern became disinterested with the recording industry for a long time, and after eight years out of the business he released his 1995 album, a tribute to an American vocals group, The Ink Spots.
Skellern performed at the BBC Live event in Manchester with musicians from Radio Lancashire. You also may have spotted him playing on ‘Songs of Praise’! He then began to make broadcasts on BBC Radio.
In 1997, Skellern criticised the now new Oasis - the Gallagher brothers - as 'louts' saying : "While it's obvious that they revere the Beatles, the Beatles were bright people and never rude. You didn't see photographs of John Lennon sticking two fingers up at everyone." He went on to say, "My Oasis never had the same press coverage when I was lead singer - but then again, I'm not Liam Gallagher."
Skellern went on a 60-date tour in 1997, performing with Richard Stilgoe. The tour included the Manchester venues the G-Mex and the Bridgwater Hall.'
- Pride Of Manchester
Take That (authors of city anthem 'Shine') - 'Never Forget' \/ 'Windows'
^
"It’s a long way from Prestwich, Manchester where she grew up as Elaine Bookbinder, the daughter of baker Charlie and housewife Violet. There, she relished her Hebrew classes more than she did regular school. She fondly recalls her singing teacher, Rabbi Berkowitz, and her grandmother’s Jewish cooking. But she wasn’t bat mitzvah’d — “No,” she says, swearing like your naughty aunty. “I was quite pissed off because I really wanted a party”— and describes her upbringing as “quite secular”. She didn’t find out till after she died that her mother had been born a Catholic and converted to Judaism.
“I often wondered why she couldn’t speak Hebrew and all the other women could,” she says. It was from her mother’s side of the family that she got her musical genes, specifically her grandmother Maud Newton, a singer, pianist and violinist who studied in Vienna and performed in concert halls in Salford.
As young as 11, Bookbinder was performing at weddings and bar mitzvahs, including her brother Tony’s (later, as Tony Mansfield, he would pursue a music career himself, as drummer for ‘60s hitmakers Billy J Kramer & The Dakotas). By the time she was 15, she had moved on her own to London, where she responded to an advert in the Jewish Telegraph: Don Arden, father of reality TV star Sharon Osbourne and manager of The Small Faces and Black Sabbath, was holding auditions. Arden, she says, “thought I was wonderful”, although he hated her name. And so she became Elkie (Yiddish for Elaine) and Bookbinder got shortened to Brooks. “And it’s been very successful for me ever since,” she says.
Despite stints supporting The Beatles and touring with The Animals, Brooks didn’t feel comfortable in the 60s, probably because she was pigeonholed as a cabaret act with a neatly-coiffed bun when really she wanted to let her hair down.
That she managed to do in 1969 with the rock band Dada, and again at the dawn of the new decade with Vinegar Joe, the heavy R&B outfit she formed with the late Robert Palmer. Soon, she gained a reputation as a hair-flailing wild woman, appearing on the front cover of music weekly Melody Maker as the “Face of ’73”.
Would current fans be shocked at her prehistory as a sort of homegrown Janis Joplin?
“I’m still a rocker these days!” she almost explodes, insisting that the second half of her current live show comprises raunchy material. “You can take the girl out of rock’n’roll but you can’t take the rock’n’roll out of the girl.”
- Paul Lester, The Jewish Chronicle
Chicken Shop Date : Amelia Dimoldenberg dines out with Matt Healy
'Happiness' - The 1975
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'I’ve fallen in love with my wife, she populates my days,
With marital breakdowns running rife, I have to keep her under my gaze,
If you love somebody - set them free, that don’t make no sense to me,
I’m keeping her under lock and key - I’ve fallen in love with my wife ...'
- John Cooper Clarke ('I've Fallen In Love With My Wife')
'Shut Up And Let Me Go' - The Ting Tings
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Post by Xeliou66 on Jul 10, 2023 20:55:28 GMT
petrolinoSome of the greatest bands of all time have certainly come out of the Manchester area - The Smiths and Joy Division are 2 of my very favorite bands ever and they both came from that area. It’s interesting how so many great ones have emerged from there.
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Post by petrolino on Jul 14, 2023 23:12:24 GMT
petrolino Some of the greatest bands of all time have certainly come out of the Manchester area - The Smiths and Joy Division are 2 of my very favorite bands ever and they both came from that area. It’s interesting how so many great ones have emerged from there.
One of the things I think has made Manchester a solid source for music during the rock 'n' roll era is that the city (and wider area) has consistently produced artists who've found their own way of doing things. There's a swagger to the city that comes through in the performance.
Heading to Manchester with student Solo Ann ...
Joy Division's artistic timeline is inextricably linked to that of the Smiths, as the recent passing of Smiths bassist Andy Rourke reminded us, Rourke having also played in bass supergroup Freebass alongside Joy Division / New Order's Peter Hook and Stone Roses / Primal Scream's Gary Mounfield. If London is England's 1st city of punk, I think you can make a strong case for Manchester being England's 2nd city. Joy Division, Buzzcocks, Magazine, the Fall, the Drones, the Smirks, the Nosebleeds, Slaughter And The Dogs, the Freshies, the Frantic Elevators, the Invisible Girls and the Mothmen are some key bands that anchored the Manchester punk scene through the mid-to-late 1970s, while fanzine writer Morrissey tried desperately to muscle his way in to a handful of units. During the punk era, Manchester was to London what Ohio was to New York.
"When about 40 people saw the Sex Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester on 4 June 1976, they came away inspired. But they were inspired in a very Mancunian kind of way. Many people in the audience that night didn’t look at the Pistols and so much think: "I want to do that..." but instead, they looked at the young Londoners and thought "Come on, I could do way better than that!" It’s thanks to that very Mancunian approach that we have some of the most thrilling music of the last 40 years. The creativity that sprang from the Lesser Free Trade Hall would loom large over the Manchester scene for decades. Without that 4 June gig – and the Pistols return visit six weeks later - there would be no Buzzcocks, Magazine, Joy Division, New Order, Factory Records, no ‘indie’ scene, no The Fall, The Smiths, Hacienda, Madchester, Happy Mondays or Oasis."
- David Nolan (author of 'I Swear I Was There : Sex Pistols, Manchester And The Gig That Changed The World'), Radio 6
"If we were going to play outside London, Manchester had to be the place."
- John Lydon on the Sex Pistols' live performances, Manchester Evening News
'What's In My Bag?' with Stephen Morris & Gillian Gilbert
'What's In My Bag?' with Johnny Marr
'What's In My Bag?' with Tim Burgess
Speaking of Ohio, this seems to return me to the initial premise of this topic, which is how the spirit, the work ethic, the living conditions and general history of industrial areas will often inform the music that's created. I think this is true of some of the more interesting music to have come out of Manchester, just as strongly as I do of music that's emerged from Cleveland, Minneapolis or Detroit. If you look at an active band like the Charlatans, whose last album was arguably among their best, you can clearly see a sense of community that binds the music scene in Manchester. Joy Division drummer Stephen Morris had filled the drum stool for the Charlatans' song 'Emilie' which was on their previous album 'Mother Nature' (2015). Morris returned to the studio with the Charlatans to play on their most recent album 'Different Days' (2017) which also featured contributions from members of local bands New Order, the Smiths, A Certain Ratio and the Verve, as well as multi-instrumentalist Paul Weller of the Jam and Style Council.
"He drove The Charlatans from his drumstool and you could hear his love for soul, heavy rock and dance music in what he played. The Chemical Brothers went to Jon to record beats for their tracks while the rest of the dance world was sampling James Brown and John Bonham or sticking with a drum machine. He never stopped learning – he was having drumming lessons while we were recording Wonderland in 2000 – but he was good enough to impress Jim Keltner, who was first choice for Bob Dylan and John Lennon. He got to play for musicians he was a huge fan of : Johnny Marr, Paul Weller and Ronnie Wood, who all joined our band at gigs, and all became fans of Jon’s drumming.
Jon ran his own label, managed bands and played gigs drumming for harmonica legend Lew Lewis. He was a music fan above everything else and loved nothing more than talking with fans and other musicians about records and gigs."
- Tim Burgess on Jon Brookes, New Musical Express
Jon Brookes attending a Planet Drum Masterclass session in London
In my mind, I connect Magazine's 1978 song 'The Light Pours Out Of Me' with Stone Roses' epic 'I Am The Resurrection', for the two song's similar drum openings, their persistent rhythm work and biblical references. I recently read online that Stone Roses drummer Alan Wren said Gary Mounfield's bass part grew out of him jamming to Paul McCartney's bassline on the Beatles' song 'Taxman', incidentally a bassline the Jam had once modified for their 1980 "stop-start" single 'Start' (which was later covered by the Beastie Boys). These sorts of musical connections interest me greatly as it's like joining up the dots when tracing influence, and I enjoy learning about the ways in which musicians gravitate towards each other. But I digress ...
"He never pounded the drums, he used to caress them and get them to sing, he was that kind of drummer. It was great to just watch him, very poetic, beautiful motion, very light touch, at the same time very musical. And he was singing as well, these beautiful melodies, it was unbelievable."
- Jon Brookes on Alan 'Reni' Wren (recalling the Charlatans supporting the Stone Roses in concert in the late 1980s)
'Love Spreads' [5:46] (1994) - The Stone Roses
I think it's great you like Joy Division and the Smiths. Not only two of the finest bands to emerge from Manchester, but arguably two of the great rock 'n' roll bands period. |
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Post by Xeliou66 on Jul 14, 2023 23:34:49 GMT
petrolino, Yes Joy Division and The Smiths are 2 of my all time favorite bands. Morrissey and Ian Curtis might be my 2 favorite lyricists in all of rock - Morrissey’s lyrics perfectly capture the feeling of loneliness and being a nonconformist outside, and Curtis’ lyrics perfectly capture a society and person in turmoil and pain. As someone with depression and anxiety who’s usually an outsider/loner, I can really relate to both bands’ lyrics. The music is awesome as well and fits perfectly with the lyrics - Joy Division’s music is intense and dark and a perfect match for the lyrics, whereas the music of The Smiths is sometimes upbeat in contrast to their depressing lyrics, but it goes perfectly together. They are both awesome bands, 2 of the very best in all of music IMO.
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Post by petrolino on Jul 14, 2023 23:56:49 GMT
petrolino , Yes Joy Division and The Smiths are 2 of my all time favorite bands. Morrissey and Ian Curtis might be my 2 favorite lyricists in all of rock - Morrissey’s lyrics perfectly capture the feeling of loneliness and being a nonconformist outside, and Curtis’ lyrics perfectly capture a society and person in turmoil and pain. As someone with depression and anxiety who’s usually an outsider/loner, I can really relate to both bands’ lyrics. The music is awesome as well and fits perfectly with the lyrics - Joy Division’s music is intense and dark and a perfect match for the lyrics, whereas the music of The Smiths is sometimes upbeat in contrast to their depressing lyrics, but it goes perfectly together. They are both awesome bands, 2 of the very best in all of music IMO.
Do you like New Order, Xeliou66? I do though I strongly prefer their early work and am more a Joy Division fan. I have some issues with Morrissey but I love the music created by the Smiths and I think Morrissey's an interesting lyricist.
"Warsaw (later renamed Joy Division) debut at the Electric Circus, 29 May 77, supporting Buzzcocks & Penetration. The flyer and adverts mistakenly called the band Stiff Kittens. They never used this name"
- Kevin Cummins, Punk Rock History on Twitter
May I recommend sister bands Buzzcocks and Magazine if you've not already heard them ...
"I believe I was the first person ever to write about them. I saw their first ever gig and the next day I was at the post office with a 3p stamp."
- Morrissey on becoming a Buzzcocks fan
'Why Can't I Touch It?' [6:35] (1979) - Buzzcocks
Smiths drummer Mike Joyce played a stint in Buzzcocks, I think around the early 1990s. Buzzcocks shared bills in the 1970s with Joy Division when they were still known as Warsaw. I'm a big fan of Buzzcocks and Magazine. |
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Post by Xeliou66 on Jul 15, 2023 0:12:42 GMT
petrolino - Yes I do like New Order, great band as well with a lot of good songs, it makes sense since the 3 remaining members of Joy Division formed it after Curtis’ suicide, their sound is different than Joy Division and none of them could write lyrics as good as Curtis could, but New Order was a very good band as well. Joy Division is better but New Order is great as well. As for Morrissey, I know he’s caused controversy in recent years by endorsing certain political figures in the UK and being rather militant with his animal rights/veganism stuff, I don’t agree with everything he says but I also don’t know a whole lot about UK politics, but I think some people get too bent out of shape over artists views, I can enjoy an artist even if I vehemently disagree with their politics. I like some of Morrissey’s solo work, but he’s definitely best with The Smiths. His lyrics with The Smiths perfectly capture the feeling of an outsider who is alone and misunderstood, and I’ve always identified with that, it’s one reason why The Smiths might be my favorite band of all time.
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Post by petrolino on Jul 15, 2023 0:22:24 GMT
petrolino - Yes I do like New Order, great band as well with a lot of good songs, it makes sense since the 3 remaining members of Joy Division formed it after Curtis’ suicide, their sound is different than Joy Division and none of them could write lyrics as good as Curtis could, but New Order was a very good band as well. Joy Division is better but New Order is great as well. As for Morrissey, I know he’s caused controversy in recent years by endorsing certain political figures in the UK and being rather militant with his animal rights/veganism stuff, I don’t agree with everything he says but I also don’t know a whole lot about UK politics, but I think some people get too bent out of shape over artists views, I can enjoy an artist even if I vehemently disagree with their politics. I like some of Morrissey’s solo work, but he’s definitely best with The Smiths. His lyrics with The Smiths perfectly capture the feeling of an outsider who is alone and misunderstood, and I’ve always identified with that, it’s one reason why The Smiths might be my favorite band of all time.
I'm happy for Morrissey to voice his views and concerns. In all honesty, the first problem I had with him as a teenager was his voice and the second was his daffodil dancing. Ian Curtis ranks for me as one of the greatest frontmen in history. While I acknowledge Morrissey is too, his vocal twitches, elaborate sighs and put-upon intonations can drive me up the wall at times. For me, his most focused vocal work is across 'The Queen Is Dead' (1986) which is my favourite Smiths album. He's a great lyricist though and I can appreciate his humour, though he's a far bigger Oscar Wilde fan than I.
Great to see you, man! We usually cross paths more during the NFL season so nice to hear your thoughts on a couple of bands you enjoy.
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Post by Xeliou66 on Jul 15, 2023 0:33:27 GMT
petrolino - Morrissey is definitely a unique vocalist and I can see how he isn’t for everyone, but I’ve always personally loved his voice. Ian Curtis is a great vocalist as well, at least in the fact that his voice is authentic and passionate and perfect for the sound of Joy Division, even if he wasn’t a great “technical” singer. The Queen Is Dead is my favorite Smiths album as well - awesome stuff, There Is A Light That Never Goes Out and I Know It’s Over are 2 of my favorite Smiths songs, perfectly written, brilliant songs. The Smiths never really wrote a bad song IMO, hell neither did Joy Division, maybe that’s because neither band was a long lasting band, they probably would’ve put out a few duds if they had been together longer. It’s nice to see you as well, my friend. I can’t wait for NFL season and I hope the sports board here picks up steam around then, right now it’s mainly about international sports.
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Post by petrolino on Jul 15, 2023 0:48:20 GMT
petrolino - Morrissey is definitely a unique vocalist and I can see how he isn’t for everyone, but I’ve always personally loved his voice. Ian Curtis is a great vocalist as well, at least in the fact that his voice is authentic and passionate and perfect for the sound of Joy Division, even if he wasn’t a great “technical” singer. The Queen Is Dead is my favorite Smiths album as well - awesome stuff, There Is A Light That Never Goes Out and I Know It’s Over are 2 of my favorite Smiths songs, perfectly written, brilliant songs. The Smiths never really wrote a bad song IMO, hell neither did Joy Division, maybe that’s because neither band was a long lasting band, they probably would’ve put out a few duds if they had been together longer. It’s nice to see you as well, my friend. I can’t wait for NFL season and I hope the sports board here picks up steam around then, right now it’s mainly about international sports.
I do like one Morrissey solo song, 'Every Day Is Like Sunday'. I first heard it through a cover version by Natalie Merchant of 10,000 Maniacs.
Thanks, nice to see you too! Hopefully the NFL pre-season will start to generate some heat soon (and the Cleveland Guardians will outpace the Minnesota Twins) ...
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Post by petrolino on Jul 16, 2023 0:51:13 GMT
GREATER MANCHESTER { : Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Manchester, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford & Wigan : }
Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. It is governed by ten metropolitan boroughs : Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan.
“I was always on the lookout for new songs. [In 1971], when I was over in New York, I discovered one which I thought would be perfect for Tony [Christie]. It came about while I was with Don Kirshner, one of the giants of contemporary music in America. I had first met Donny, as I knew him, in 1966, when he was hired to provide songs for a new TV show called The Monkees. We had gotten to know each other through Screen Gems, which had bought his publishing company and had published Herman’s Hermits’ first two hits. You couldn’t not like Donny, he was a sweet man, and we became friends. While he was preparing for the launch of The Monkees he invited me up to his house in the Hollywood Hills. He wanted to talk about Davy Jones, a teenager from Manchester who was being lined up as one of the singers in this new group. Davy’s early career had been similar to Peter Noone’s; he had appeared in Coronation Street (as Ena Sharples’ grandson) and went on to star in the West End and on Broadway as the Artful Dodger in Oliver! I thought Davy was just another Peter so I wasn’t that enthusiastic. In America once something is successful they want to find another one, and then another one. It’s the Big Mac principle: give people what they want, over and over. So Donny said, ‘OK, Harvey, you know your music. I’ve got some songs for this show and I want your opinion of them.’ He went upstairs and came back down with this young guy who was carrying a guitar. He started playing and singing. It didn’t take me long to tell Donny I thought it was a hit. The song was ‘I’m a Believer’ and the guy singing it was Neil Diamond. Within a year ‘I’m a Believer’ had become a worldwide number one and Neil was one of the hottest songwriters in the U.S. Then Donny said, ‘OK, well, I’ve got somebody else here. Take a listen to this one.’ And he brought in a young girl, who played something she’d written. It turned out to be Carole Bayer (later to become Bayer-Sager), who had written ‘A Groovy Kind of Love’ as a teenager and which Eric [Stewart] had sung with the Mindbenders. It must have been extraordinary being Donny in those days, hearing these newly-minted gems before anyone else. I got a glimpse of it that day and it was a privilege. Anyway, fast forward to the summer of 1971 and I’m with Donny and my wife Carole at the Brill Building in New York, looking for songs for Tony Christie. The Brill Building had some of the finest songwriters in the world. Goffin and King, Mann and Weil, Bacharach and David; they’d all been through there. I asked Donny how it worked. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘they all have a little office and they’ve all got a piano and they work on their songs, nine to five.’ For some reason I said, ‘Whatever happened to Neil Sedaka?’ I had been a massive fan of his, but he hadn’t had a hit for years and had disappeared. ‘Neil?’ said Donny. ‘He’s upstairs. He’s one of our writers.’ I couldn’t believe it. ‘You’re joking!’ I said. It was too much of a coincidence to be true. ‘I’m serious,’ said Donny. ‘Do you want to hear what he’s doing?’ He led me and Carole up some stairs, through a door and into a little room, which was about 10 feet by six. There was just about enough space for an upright piano. Sitting in front of it, large as life, was Neil Sedaka. After we’d all said hello and I’d gotten over the shock, Donny asked him to play what he’d been working on. He played five songs, four of which were so-so — basically ‘Breaking Up Is Hard to Do’ backwards. But then he started singing something called ‘Is This the Way to Amarillo’ and immediately the hair stood up on the back of my neck. By the time he got to the chorus I was hooked. Carole and I looked at each other. ‘You’ve got to get that song,’ she said. I already knew it. It was exactly what I had been looking for. I said to Donny, ‘I want that one.’ He and Neil looked at me as if I was mad. ‘Are you sure?’ said Neil. ‘It’s not even finished. We can’t think what lyrics to put in the Sha-La-La section.’ ‘That’s the best bit,’ I told him. ‘It doesn’t need anything else.’ They still weren’t convinced – they just didn’t see it as a hit – but I insisted, so Donny promised to send it to me as soon as we got home."
- Harvey Lisberg, 'I’m Into Something Good : My Life Managing 10cc, Herman’s Hermits & Many More!' (excerpt published at Best Classic Bands)
Joanne Whalley (born in Salford on 25 August 1961)
'Rainy Jane' [2:42] (1971) - Davy Jones {Manchester} ; this song was composed by Neil Sedaka with lyrics by Howard Greenfield ...
"I think everything you do seeps into everything else you do. For example, we were lucky enough to do two albums with Neil Sedaka. We did one prior to forming the band and one just after. And there's no doubt about it, that was a good example of learning from one of the masters. Just about general musicianship, the way he played and sang ... it was inspirational to be with him, as well as to work with him. I think we learned a bit about songwriting craft as well. But then you learn from everyone you work with."
- Graham Gouldman, The Quietus
Anna Friel (born in Rochdale on 12 July 1976)
'Express Yourself' [3:21] (1972) - Neil Sedaka & 10CC ; this song was recorded at Strawberry Studios in Stockport ...
Next year, the region of Greater Manchester will celebrate its 50th birthday ...
"Greater Manchester is the most complex “polycentric functional urban region” in the UK outside of London."
- Emma Flanagan, Manchester Evening News
Olivia Cooke (born in Oldham on 27 December 1993)
'Great DJ' - The Ting Tings
- - - - - - - - - -
10 Facts About Greater Manchester (~ all facts courtesy of Emma Flanagan, 'Greater Manchester At 40 : 40 Facts About The Region', published at Manchester Evening News on April 5, 2014)
01. Manchester is the largest of the ten Greater Manchester Authorities with a population of almost 500,000 people.
'She Said' [8:21] (1971) - Barclay James Harvest {Oldham}
02 Greater Manchester has a population of around 2.5 million people.
'Hard Times' [3:48] (1975) - Peter Skellern {Bury}
03. Greater Manchester is a landlocked metropolitan county.
'Feel The Benefit' [11:32] (1977) - 10CC {Stockport}
04. Greater Manchester borders Cheshire (to the south-west and south), Derbyshire (to the south-east), West Yorkshire (to the north-east), Lancashire (to the north) and Merseyside (to the west).
'I Don't Want To Be Nice' [3:50] (1978) - John Cooper Clarke & The Invisible Girls {Salford}
05. Greater Manchester is one of six metropolitan counties including Merseyside, South Yorkshire and Tyne and Wear.
'Teenage Vice' [2:22] (1978) - The Teardrops {Manchester}
06. Greater Manchester has the highest number of theatre seats per head of population outside London.
'Washed Up' [3:08] (1978) - The Freshies {Trafford}
07. Greater Manchester has six universities: the University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of Salford, the University of Bolton, The University of Law and The University of Huddersfield Oldham Campus.
'Production Prevention' [3:20] (1980) - Frantic Elevators {Tameside}
08. Greater Manchester is the second largest built up area in Britain. Greater London is first and exceeds Gtr Manchester’s population by more than seven million.
'Gravity Grave' [8:21] (1992) - The Verve {Wigan}
09. Black Chew Head is the highest point in Greater Manchester.
'Eggshells' [9:21] (1993) - Autechre
10. More than twenty Nobel prize winners have come from Greater Manchester.
'The Night They Buried Sadie Clay' [5:28] (2010) - Cherry Ghost {Bolton}
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"Wigan is home to the annual World Pie Eating Championship."
- Emma Flanagan, Manchester Evening News
The Lathums of Wigan unleash a British rock anthem for the 2020s at the Glastonbury Festival ...
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Post by petrolino on Oct 14, 2023 0:21:49 GMT
JOY DIVISION REVISITED
Multi-instrumentalist Stephen Morris (Joy Division, New Order, The Other Two & Bad Lieutenant) is collaborating with artist Peter Saville on a new creative project inspired by the work of Joy Division. Described as a "digital audiovisual project", 'CP1919 : Sweeping Sun' takes its cue from the cover of the band's debut album which was designed by Saville. The soundscapes they've created for this project include previously unheard recordings of Ian Curtis (some of the proceeds will be donated to the suicide prevention charity Calm).
"The cover of Joy Division's 1979 album, Unknown Pleasures, is one of the most recognisable images in music. It's also eerie and mysterious: white wavy lines crossing a black background; it could be a map of an alien landscape or notation for a strange kind of music. In a way it's both. The image is a representation of radio waves from the first discovered pulsar, which was called CP1919 - a collapsed star 1,000 light years away."
- Sarah Ditum, The Times
'Made Of Stone' [4:10] (1989) - The Stone Roses (... sometimes I ... fantasise ...)
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Matt Healy : A Short Trip Through Manchester
"Beatles erotica really draws the eye. “There’s someone else eating her out,” Matty Healy observes, quietly agape. He’s peeking at a surreal threesome sketched out by John Lennon in 1969, following his marriage to Yoko Ono, that depicts two distinct John Lennons pleasuring their new wife—one above her waist, the other down below. “That’s raunchy, that’s great,” Healy adds, nodding in approval. “It’s always the fucking crazy shit in here, man. I love this place.”
The 1975 frontman is standing inside Peter Harrington, a small, pristine bookstore in central London that caters to obsessives seeking rare editions and artifacts, Shakespeare folios from the 17th century and slightly stained dinner invitations handwritten by Oscar Wilde. Healy is a regular. He started coming here around eight years ago, after the 1975’s debut album kickstarted the quartet’s ascent from scrappy emo-pop boy band to one of the most daring acts of the last decade, leapfrogging genres at broadband speed, with Healy as their polarizing millennial mouthpiece. He has since befriended staffer Ben Houston, who guides us through a private showcase of precious wares in the shop’s fortified inner sanctum. The cool professor to Healy’s overeager student, Houston recalls the first time he saw the singer in the shop and thought, Who the fuck is wearing snakeskin boots?"
- Ryan Dombal, Pitchfork
Matty Healy takes Zane Lowe on a tour of Manchester [Apple Music]
'"Give Yourself a Try" is a song by English band the 1975 from their third studio album, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships (2018). The song was written by band members Matty Healy, George Daniel, Adam Hann and Ross MacDonald, while Daniel and Healy handled the production. It was released on 31 May 2018 by Dirty Hit and Polydor Records as the lead single from the album. The band was inspired by the works of Joy Division, specifically their track "Disorder", which Healy said stemmed from both acts originating from Macclesfield. He wrote the song using a mix of autobiographical and fictional elements, wanting to capture the health and social anxiety experienced by millennials.
A lo-fi indie rock and post-punk song, "Give Yourself a Try" revolves around an aggressive pop-punk guitar riff reminiscent of "Disorder". The former's production consists of post-punk guitars, a robotic synth hook, a motorik-leaning beat and influences of Britpop, synth-pop, pop, pop-punk and garage punk. Thematically, it deals with maturing and escaping the trappings of fame, with Healy calling for people to recognize their self-worth and become a part of the world. Lyrically, the song covers ageing, identity and introspection, among others.
Upon release, "Give Yourself a Try" received positive reviews from contemporary music critics, who compared it to the Strokes and praised the lyrics and production, noting the song expands the 1975's sound while retaining their signature style. The song later appeared on several year-end lists and earned a nomination for Best Rock Song at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards in 2020. Commercially, it reached number 22 on the UK Singles Chart, number 27 in Scotland, number 51 in Ireland and number 12 on the US Billboard Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. The song was later certified silver in the United Kingdom by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). An accompanying music video, directed by Diane Martel, was released on 31 May 2018. The visual–which Healy said was inspired by Lady Gaga and self-reflection–features the band performing the song in a mirrored room.'
- Wikipedia
'Girls' - The 1975
"Manchester and Sheffield… those areas inspire a lot of music though don’t they? Because it’s just brutalist architecture and the subsidisation of industry that’s just everywhere. Well Joy Division are from up the road from us, but we kind of went the other way, we created more sunshine music. And that’s what Manchester’s about, that tribalist attitude that exists in Manchester is funny because it’s inherently ironic, the way that all the bands that are famously from Manchester – they rose to fame because of how different they were. And then what was expected was this kind of repetition, so everyone was expecting this band like Joy Division to come out and why would you want that? Surely the next Manchester band has to stand up and be its own thing."
- Matt Healy, Rolling Stone
The 1975 - 'Roadkill' {Visualiser Project by Mia Kerin}
“I'm looking forward to seeing what the 1975 do next. I’ve known Matt Healy since he was 12, because he’s from near me. I know his mother, Denise Welch, and the 1975 won the Wilmslow High School talent competition the year before I judged it.
"It was interesting watching him grow up because every time I was at a do where his mum was he’d be there and come over to talk. He’s a massive Joy Division fan. My daughter put the first 1975 album on my iPod without telling me who it was, and I got quite into it. Then I saw them recently at the Manchester arena, in front of 20,000 people, and they’ve improved so much.
"Their songs are quite radical because they don’t have breaks or changes, just grooves. At the arena, I was struck by how much their music reminded me of Brian Eno’s soundscapes – he’s made some of my favourite records – but with guitar and vocals. Afterwards I asked Matt: 'Have you been listening to Eno, by any chance?' He said: 'All the f*ckin’ time, Hooky'."
- Peter Hook, The Guardian
The 1975 - 'Somebody Else'
"I love the 1975, I must admit they are fantastic. I’ve known Matt [Healy] ever since he was a kid. I went to see them at the arena and it was great. He’s a fantastic singer. I said to him ‘have you been listening to a lot of Brian Eno LPs?’ and he said ‘fucking hell, you’ve caught me’.
I do like Eno, and what I think Matt’s done is put that spirit of Eno in a group. I think it’s quite uncompromising which is what we need -a spark of awkwardness and not doing what your told. I love him for that.”
- Peter Hook, New Musical Express
'I'm In Love With You' - The 1975
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