Manchester will have you believe it is a forward thinking city. A Northern Republic standing up against the tide of Londoncentric nonsense. However, what Manchester fails to realise that it cannot ever move forward because it is so determined to rest on recent history.
While slating Liverpool for being a Beatle-museum, Mancs are still pretending it's 1988. Look around the city and you're given constant reminders of Factory Records, The Hacienda, The Stone Roses, The Smiths, Acid House, NewOrderJoyDivision and... you get the idea.
Our aim is to act as snipers to this relentless wave of borrowed nostalgia that continues to make stars of Madchester hangers-on and people steeped in yesteryear. We'll tear the memory to pieces, we'll show you where Manchester is getting it right, we'll harangue all that wallow in yellow and black hatchings and those that rifle the pockets of Wilson's corpse.
Manchester is a joke and has been irrelevant for too long. The rot stops now.
Where do we sign up?
ReplyDeleteThis tripe is obviously written by southerners who are very bitter about Manchester taking all their thunder!
ReplyDeleteNostalgia gets the tourists in spending money in the city. It isn't the be all and end all, its just there.
ReplyDeleteStop moaning about it and form a band or start a club night of your own then. Nobody is forcing you to go to the FAC club or a Hac revival night. You can sit in countless bars, clubs and venues and hear no Madnchester music all night. Nobody gives a toss where bands come from these days anyway, since everyone can listen to any music they like from any city they please on the net.
If your from Manchester im with you.. If your not im against. x
ReplyDeleteNot that it should matter, but we're in the 'from' category.
ReplyDeleteI like your spirit, but... well there's a Fidget night at The Factory, it's not all about the past.
ReplyDeleteI think the glorious past can be useful to propel new stuff.
Oasis had fook all to do with the Factory heritage but were too heavy on the Beatles nostalgia, and they weren't even fookin Scousers.
So the problem is not Factory, but revivalism, not looking forward.
In this spirit I'm a Joy Division fan but I hate bands pretending to sound like Joy Division today and know what you mean, but this doesn't mean I'm bored with Joy Division, now you know what I mean...
Just a note to say this is a fantastic blog. Keep it going.
ReplyDeleteSurely by focusing, albeit negatively, on what is only a fraction of Manchester's true musical heritage, you are actually propagating the myth that you wish to dispel.
ReplyDeleteThere are many people across the world, and many more than you'd realise, who see Manchester's true legacy as a city that nurtures musical talent, whatever form it takes.
'ave it
ReplyDeleteThis city is full of walking, talking anachronisms. For the love of God let it go.
ReplyDeleteThe apologists for Madchester that have messaged here and are shocked by the hate are clearly blind to the overwhelming frustration anyone with a passing interest in music who lives in Manchester feels when we're forcefed this regurgitated crap over and over.
Fac51 is clearly these bloggers' tipping point, and why the hell not? Their message is long overdue.
Keep it up.
Me tinks that you will be stuck in the past a long time, the whole industry has changed and nothing is moving forward sept Xfactor and the like, why is der no mention of Ryder, I think he is the one man that has done most for the memory of manc music. As for Fac etc, why not, after all it played a major part in the scene, but if it is motivated for cash, then fuckin why not, if somebody or a band etc is part of musical history they deseve wotever, btw I have met many manc begrudgers...yu shud be proud of little hooky and his JOY DIV/NEW ORDER, Ryder and his genious , Brown for coming thru against all odds, Burgess for being a Charlatan, saw them twice recently STILL DOING THE STUFF PROPER GOOD, the Fall for not falling too far, Bez for his rattle and dance, Wags for Paris Angels, Dermo who rarely gets a mention, Clint BOOM, come on back in the 80's Clint and the gang wus fukin brill....and gave that tosser from Oasis a job when he had fuck all...808 fucking state man....memo fukin rees are made of this, belting up the motorway with the 808's on the rad...AWEsome back then..BUZZCOCKS, GUY CALLED GERALD, SMIFFS, MIK PIK & MPEEPS, Slaughter and the Dogs, can't put in the wigan cunts The Verve, although manc steals them as in GREATER CUNTIN' MANC, I used to piss my sides, still do at Mr Sidebottom....come on, he is fukin cool as fuk, there are loads more, even TAKE THAT....but for me the legacy belongs to S.W.Ryder,Paul Ryder, Gaz Whelan, Bez, Rowetta..the one and only Mr T. Wilson, Black Grape, SWR's Amatuer Night at the Big Top, 24 hour party people, Stone Roses...thank fuk 31 for that...
ReplyDeleteI agree with the ideas of this blog. Manchester needs to get out of its own arse and embrace passion.
ReplyDeleteWhilst The Beatles overtones in Liverpool are true to an extent, surely arguably the biggest and best band of all time deserve such recognition?
You are indeed bloggers after my own heart, I can tell immediately that you are Mancs (unlike the various sceptics above) and indeed, proud Mancs who believe that a worthy heritage should not be a cultural railing to be handcuffed to by the media and the likes of Hook, Mounfield, Rourke (hmm bit of a connection here), Burgess, Robb etc. Manchester does indeed have an inspirational 'history' but alas, the irritatingly continuous idea that we have to walk slowly into the future backwards with our eyes fixed firmly on the past is dangerous and tiresome. Keep up the great work and hopefully a wave of healthy nihilism will eventually decimate the scene!
ReplyDeleteAnd, I thought it was just me that loved Manchesters past, but at the same time wanted to see it buried, so we can embrace the new and move on.
ReplyDeleteIts great to see others share the same sentiment.
you don't want or need approval from the likes of me, but as an old git from back in the day i love the sentiment here and agree. embarrassing after-dinner speech circuit of blubbering irrelevances stinking up the clubs, interweb and airwaves with their heritage tosh.
ReplyDeleteAs yet, in your view, you haven't shown where you feel Manchester is getting it right in terms of new music and art. It seems that while the lazy journos out there, both the southerns and northerners, insist on trotting out the same cliches, there's really no hope for anyone to come through. And even for those who are trying to break through, aren't actually getting the support on here.
ReplyDeleteI laughed at how many Facebookers 'like' Fuc51 while simultaneously 'liking' virtually band you rail against. Talk about covering their arses...
ReplyDelete