Life on Mars?

Dear members: Manchester! A city that cares about music the exact right amount (a lot) — but sometimes in the wrong way. Because is a seemingly endless amount of nostalgia for the 80s and 90s a good and healthy thing for a local music scene? Perhaps not.

But what if it was nostalgia for the medium itself, rather than the message? Tapes, vinyls, that sort of thing — OK, we’re listening. We sent music journalist Alistair Shuttleworth to dig into why young people in this city care about cassettes now, how a person might set up a new vinyl shop in 2026 and how you might keep such a shop going over the decades. 

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Your Mill Briefing 

🔒 It appears all but certain – according to sources and the general police presence outside — that Heron House on Albert Square will be the preliminary home of No. 10 North while its permanent home, in Ancoats, is completed. We hear the office building, currently home to the government spy agency GCHQ, is the only one in the city that currently meets the security clearance requirements to house a prime minister. It won’t surprise Mill readers, seeing it was at the top of our list of potential addresses for No. 10 North a few weeks back (it scored 9/10 on security, though only 5/10 on nearby pub options). 

It was reported last month that Caroline Simpson — currently CEO of the GMCA — will run No 10. North as Burnham’s deputy chief of staff. But who else will be knocking around Heron House? Speculation continues to cling to Sacha Lord, Burnham’s former night time economy advisor (who resigned following a Mill investigation), after he appeared at No.10 to applaud his friend on Monday. Lord was also spotted dressing slightly smarter than usual at Wilmslow train station this morning on his way to London. So take from that what you will.

Meanwhile, Burnham is announcing new “Manchesterist” policies beyond his hallmark promise to end rough sleeping in the UK (more on how that has been going in Greater Manchester here). This morning Burnham announced that bus fares would be capped at £2 from the start of next year, as he did under the Bee Network in GM. Applying these fares across the country is expected to cost over £500m, with Burnham saying it will be achieved by “re-prioritising” funding from elsewhere, namely the department for energy and net zero, from which £454m will be reallocated. 

🏥 Restore Britain’s mayoral candidate, Marlon West, has been suspended from his NHS role following “offensive” comments made on social media. Last Friday, the Nursing and Midwifery Council handed West an 18-month suspension from his role as a community mental health nurse while it investigates. The MEN reported that the investigation relates to social media posts in 2025 about his daughter’s sexual exploitation by grooming gangs, who was 14 at the time of her abuse. One of the posts is said to read: "This is what Pakistanis do! After being raped and tortured! My daughter you sicko." Another refers to banning “Afghans” from coming to the UK. Rupert Lowe, Restore Britain’s leader, has backed West’s post saying they are “Restore Britain policy”, while West himself says he “will not be apologising” and stands “by everything [he] said.” 

🎵 Adam Szabo, director of the BBC Philharmonic – who formerly made his name locally as one of the co-founders and Artistic Director of Manchester Collective – has announced he will leave the orchestra at the end of 2026. He and his family plan to return to Australia after 15 years in the UK. From January 2027, MediaCity will be losing him to Melbourne, where he’s set to become managing director of the Australian National Academy of Music. In a social media post, Szabo described his time at the BBC Philharmonic as "a huge privilege" and said “it took about three minutes for the mission of this place to get totally under [his] skin.” Interested in reading more about the Salford orchestra playing a crucial role in the BBC’s operations? Read our piece from 2023 here. 

Life on Mars?

Housed in a large, sunny space on Afflecks’ first floor, Mars Tapes punches well above its weight: it’s widely considered the UK’s last dedicated cassette shop. Still, the fact he’s flogging a near-extinct species doesn’t seem to get co-owner Giorgio Carbone down. “I always thought this unit was the best in Afflecks,” he beams across the counter. Run by Carbone alongside Alex Tadros and Borja Regueira – three shaggy-haired, early-thirties music lovers drawn to Manchester’s scene from overseas – the shop sells hundreds of new and second-hand tapes. It’s also complete with a coffee bar and vintage tape machines customers can try out the merch on. This new corner unit, which opened in March, marks their third expansion within the indie emporium — where they’ve been based since 2019. But how have they pulled it off?