Wednesday 10 February 2010

And on the 8th Day...

The other day there was a big Manchester flareup on the popular gossip site Popbitch, some of it not far off what’s been said on FUC51. Amongst the usual maelstrom of expletives, poster ‘billy_squier’ made a few good points, which we reproduce below. Fuc51 for the most part agrees.

Here's a funny thing about Mancs, and this is completely without malice, believe it or not. For most of the 70s and 80s, Mancs used to enjoy sneering at Liverpudlians because of our supposed unwillingness to crawl out from under the shadow of the Beatles (well, they couldn't sneer about the football in those days, could they?) or our eagerness to turn Liverpool into a Beatles theme park. We'd never sell our city out like that, they'd say, conveniently overlooking the fact that, in order to "sell out", you need to have something people want to buy into. Which Manchester never really did. At least, not until it became ‘Madchester’. They'll never admit this, but it's true. That much-vaunted Mancunian civic pride manifested itself in all those ridiculously self-regarding "...And God Created Manchester" t-shirts, and for a short while the whole world seemed to revolve around the place in the way plenty of Mancs believe it still does.

Now, just because a few new bands are pissed off that they keep being asked questions about Joy Division (who were, relatively speaking, all but forgotten ten years ago), this supposedly represents a cushion held over the face of Manchester's cultural well-being? Congratulations, Mancs - you've finally caught up with Liverpool in 1981. The trick now is how to come to terms with the fact that, no matter how wonderful you think your city is, the only thing most outsiders will ever be interested in - apart from the football - is Madchester and its attendant peripherals. As is so often the case, Liverpool has already been there and done that. Plenty of Liverpudlians realised years ago that it may as well be them making money off the Beatles, just as Hooky is now grabbing the opportunity to finally make a few quid off the Hacienda. Anything good that emerges apart and away from all that in the meantime will surely rise - that's if it is any good. Personally, I'm just wondering if this perpetual 80s revival will ever fucking end.

The good usually DOES rise – in fact, one of Manchester’s last high hopes we remember were for Nine Black Alps, The Longcut and Polytechnic. They even shared a stage one giddy sell-out night at The Academy a few or more years ago. 3 Manchester guitar bands who didn’t sound like Oasis, who were at times genuinely exciting. We remember one hack trying to unsuccessfully shoehorn a New Order reference into a Longcut live review, but for the most part they were safe . Could this be it? (OK, NBA were grunge for those who were too young to remember, but bear with us here) – alas, no. A combination of terrible A+R decisions, amateur management ('go for the biggest advance you can, lads - I'm pretty sure you don't have to pay it back’) and just rotten bad luck mean that all three bands are presently a bit off-radar in the eyes of the outside world.

Where we’re at now – well, time to retreat back into the comfort zone. Joy Division ARE a cushion over the face, insomuch as The Whip and Delphic are comparatively easy to write about, if you chuck their name in the mix. Both bands filled the ‘can we get something New Ordery on here?’ slot on Kitsune comps and both will obligingly churn out something vaguely dancefloor-friendly whilst not presenting too much of a challenge to the ear. It’s almost impossible not to mention the 'J-word'. The PRs representing any band lucky enough to get to that stage of a career where they can afford a PR in a first place – well, PRs are not known for being great thinkers anyway - but if there’s a path of least resistance when they’re pitching a band, they’ll find it. ‘A bit Joy Division’ down the phone is always going to win over anything too polysyllabic. Thank fuck this crop of bands don’t need much explaining.

New bands? 'Well, with all this FAC251 stuff and 'Doubt' kicking around, our music pages are a bit full mate. I'm not going out on a fucking Tuesday either. Thanks for asking though'.

We disagree on ‘finally making a few quid off the Hacienda’ though. 20 years and counting.

28 comments:

  1. Fans of Polytechnic (agreed, by the way - a patchy but occasionally exhilarating album) might want to check out Driver Drive Faster, who are quite different but basically Polytechnic Mk II. It's all the same members; the songs are slower and less poppy, not as immediate. I liked em anyway!

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  2. Excellent post

    Poor Polytechnic. They had great tunes esp Pep and Man Overboard

    And then they toured with Keane

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  3. I love the FACt it winds you up enough to waste your own personal time writing all this.
    None of which I can be bothered reading properly.

    ASS-EE-ENDOHHHH!!!!

    xxx

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  4. Hi Elliot, glad you took the time to visit the blog. Your comments mean a lot to us. Nice to hear from you. Again.
    See you next time.

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  5. :)

    Love you, you despicable sour scouse whopper.
    Some great stuff coming out of Liverpool at the moment eh?

    In a way.

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  6. I love it that im so desperate for publicity and artificial credibility that I waste my own time blabbing off to papers about doing drugs with Kate Moss and touching her bum.
    None of which achieved either.

    ME-N-KATE MAD-FERRIT!!!!!

    xxx

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  7. Hahahahahahaha

    Oh dear.

    Isn't Elliot DJing on hospital radio now or summat?

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  8. just stumbled across this blog and had a look through a number of posts which mostly slag off Peter Hook, Manchester's Heritage and remains firmly on the fence when often mentioning DELPHIC, oh and there were several posts to mention Manchester selling it's city (and how we sneered at the scousers for doing it first.)
    What i don't see is this blog offering ANYTHING positive. It's fine to say that Manchester should look forward instead of banging on and on about the past but you at least need to mention what is going on NOW.
    It's easy to target Hook for what he's doing now but he gave us far more than The Courteeners or The Ting Tings have delivered. Easy to slag off Elliott Eastwick for what he's doing now but he did his bit promoting NEW music of the time on his TV show at least giving a stage to Nine Black Alps, Nylon Pylon, Misty Dixon and various other bands that bear no relation to anything 'Madchester'. I know it must be heartbreaking to hear for some promoters of twee indie club nights where people dress in thrift-store clothing, but people still enjoy listening to all that MAdchester stuff.
    Many Mancunians enjoy what they call the cities musical heritage. This spans a number of years and eras but you lump it all together. The Smiths were not a part of Madchester, neither were Buzzcocks, neither were Oasis, but according to you lot, this should all be ignored in favour of looking forward. But tell me this, what is it that we should be looking at? The city if FULL of exciting new artists gigging right now but 99% are not getting signed right now are they?

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  9. What a load of shit, I won’t be going to the club. Manchester is a progressive city, to compare it to Liverpool is just lazy (Liverpool FC were bobbins after the back pass rule came in). We have a fine tradition of recycling and redeveloping, one thing that our city has taught the rest of the country. Rip it up and start again. From what I understand, the club was full of really young people on Friday, enjoying them selves and buying into something that I never thought possible. Its all well and good to be super snide, but if young people want to check music that they heard whilst in the womb that’s fine by me. Its like saying don’t listen to MOTOWN, it’s old. Hope you get some revenue from the adverts on here, otherwise you are just bringing on early RSI for nothing. Played.

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  10. I always find that the snidest comments are from people who are in their late twenties to very early thirties, who never quite made it to the Hacienda. How old are you lot?

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  11. What's 'artificial credibility'? hahahahha.
    What does that even MEAN?

    Kate sends her regards by the way.
    I can tell you're a Sun reader by the standard of writing on your blog.


    I know people shouldn't be 'stuck in the past' according to you. and I know you're very pro moving things forward,



    so let's hear about some of the new bands from the city you think are good?



    come on...

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  12. yes, fac251 is a bit of a cop out, but i think you stuck up indie types are so caught up in what you think is important music history that you don't realise that no one really cares as much as you do.
    its a night club. they are, were and always will, highly regarded bands full made up of relatively unskilled musicians.

    whats the point on dwelling in the past?
    guitar music is dead and has been for 20 years. you should know that.

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  13. I think the apparently 'electronic' music coming out of Manchester right now is fairly 'dead' / derivative / lazy. Who said anything about 'indie' anyway?

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  14. why the bitterness?
    Fac251 is a great club- got lots of new up and coming bands on mixed with some old faves. It's a great night out.
    Manchester, like most UK cities, is full of great new bands- we are all out there checking them out unlike Fuc51 who spends his life moaning anonymously on the internet.

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  15. Why are scousers so frustrated? We had the Hac. You had Cream... You had Barton, while we had Wilson... oh yeah... I suppose I'd be too if I was you.

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  16. I know people shouldn't be 'stuck in the past' according to you. and I know you're very pro moving things forward,



    so let's hear about some of the new bands from the city you think are good?



    come on...

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  17. Doctor Koldato and His Merrie Men, Pacextrix, Haff Genome, M1 Retards, Jack and the Plantation and Team Pob to name but a few.

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  18. Thanks for the mention up fellas!

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  19. Eureka Clash, Machine A Lavay, The Sungsams, and Gridiron Con. Gridiron are great, one special needs guy playing nursery rhymes on a casio.

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  20. In the City 88-9912 February 2010 at 19:15

    In order to build a future, you need to respect the past & your heritage.

    I don't really understand your point and what you are trying to prove. Talk about the new bands and the new scene. Don't just mock the past.

    I would have thought that moving on from the heady days of the 80's & 90's would be easy for one half of Mancunia as history only started in 1993.

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  21. why are all these precious old twats saying people on this blog are knocking the past? no one is saying the happy mondays never made good songs, no one is saying new order were shit, no one is saying john robb is an oxygen thief - oh hang on, scrap that last one. but you get the point, this isn't an ANTI-MANCHESTER MUSIC blog it's an anti-rehashing the past to make a quick buck, anti-pissing all the good feeling about 80s/90s manchester up the wall. can't spell it out any further, you morons just seem to read whatever you want into things just because it doesn't fit with your neat tidy worldview that when you were a teenager it was the best. it wasn't, you're wrong, fuck off.

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  22. In the City 88-9913 February 2010 at 08:54

    If its not an Anti-Manchester Music blog it needs a new title FUC51 is an obvious swipe, or is it again someone piggy backing the past to get some exposure ?

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  23. yeah but fuctheendlessrevivaloffac51.blogspot.com doesn't have quite the same ring to it y'know?

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  24. Hi Elliot, this is funny eh? Fancy meeting you here!

    Hope your well.

    Pwoper norty sorts here eh?

    Peas.

    Matt.

    xx

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  25. excuse my ignorance kids, but i can't find anything at all on those upcoming new bands you mentioned, any pointers? I'd be pleasantly surprised if a 'special needs guy playing nursery rhymes on a casio' kick starts some kind of revolution, i'm sure the novelty is amusing enough but not sure the future bodes well if this is what Manchester's current cream of the crop has to offer...the idea smells a bit too Nathan Barley if you ask me

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  26. who said anything about 'revolution'? I think the commenter just mentioned some bands they liked.

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