Manchester City Council denies knowing Pride would be unable to pay performers

Dear readers — we begin today’s newsletter with the question on everyone’s lips: should Pat Karney be slung into prison? After we spoke to Councillor Christmas (as he’s otherwise known) about the city’s ever-expanding festive markets – an interview during which he expressed his view that Christmas should actually begin in August – the people of Manchester recoiled in outrage. “Straight to jail for Pat Karney,” wrote one Blue-skyer. “For a long time inside,” read a reply. 

If we have any lawyers among our readership, do get in touch and let us know what the legality is surrounding chucking someone in jail and throwing away the key for wanting Christmas to begin during the summer. Or just let us know your opinions: should Karney be eating porridge at his majesty’s pleasure for the foreseeable? You can read the piece here – it's a cracker.

The Pride saga continues; Salford's bin war; Manchester's ultimate pint

🏳️‍🌈 Manchester City Council is being accused of knowing that Manchester Pride would be unable to pay performers for this year’s festival — a claim it strongly denies. Equity, the union representing 50 unpaid artists, have said they believe the council knew about Pride’s money issues before it took place this year, and should therefore make “good faith payments” to those left out of pocket. The Mill broke the news about Pride’s money troubles last month, including the fact the festival had been struggling for some time, but had banked on this year’s big Mardi Gras event at the Mayfield Depot and a bid to host EuroPride in 2028 to bail it out. In the end, the Mardi Gras event was a flop, making losses that cancelled out the profits made from the Gay Village events, and the EuroPride bid failed, with Limerick and Clare instead set to host. After Pride went into liquidation, the liquidator’s report revealed the extent of its debts: £1.3 million is owed to 182 companies and individuals, including big names like Nelly Furtado (who is owed £145,000). BBC Newsbeat broke that story last week. Equity has pointed out that the liquidator’s report also shows that conversations took place between the companies behind Pride and liquidators as far back as April, months before the event. The union has also claimed that "some performers were told as they finished their acts to get their invoices in quickly as it was already known that not everyone would be paid”. Equity’s Karen Lockney believes Manchester City Council must have been aware of the extent of Pride’s troubles, and has urged the council to “come clean”. The council has refuted these claims, saying they “100% reject any suggestion that we were aware that performers at this year's Pride might not be paid.”

🚮 A Salford councillor’s radical solution to waste management has led to death threats, backlash from rabbis, and rumours of “a Jewish council taking over”, according to an article published yesterday in the Guardian. Andrew Walters – an Orthodox Jewish councillor, and rapporteur for waste in Salford — proposed a breakaway town council for Broughton Park, as many residents are part of large Orthodox Jewish families who required their bins collecting more than your average family. Councillors in Salford are expected to vote on the proposal – nicknamed, confusingly, BrePxit (Broughton Park exit) – next Wednesday. But 47 British rabbis have urged the councillors to veto the proposal, fearing that the area would be seen as an “‘ethnic’ political enclave”, increasing community tensions and generating “strife, violence and hate crimes”. Walters claims he’s received personal death threats since the proposal, which are currently being investigated by the police.

🩺 You’ll all, we’re sure, be delighted to hear that Manchester has made it into the pages of Pop Bitch, the London-based gossip column. When comedian Frank Skinner performed at the Manchester Academy late last month, he apparently managed to alienate the crowd by cracking one of his classic Harold Shipman related gags. Having fallen out of the Top 10 list of most famous comedians, he allegedly asked the audience “Well, who's the most famous GP?” — a joke, we’re told, that was met with “gasps of horror”, and a member of the crowd claiming her parents were both killed by the notorious serial killer “before spending the rest of the gig sobbing in her seat”.

🍺 A few weeks back we put out a call to our members: we wanted your recommendations as we arduously put together our very official top 50 pubs in Manchester list. Thanks to everyone who emailed in, and fear not, behind the scenes we’ve been putting in one hell of a shift. We’ve almost finalised the list, and have moved on to the reporting tasks at hand. However, we do have a few spots left to fill. We’re looking for great pubs in areas we don’t usually do our drinking… our knowledge of boozers in Ardwick, Crumpsall, and Miles Platting in particular leaves something to be desired. To ensure no one feels left out when we hit publish, if you can help us out, email jack@millmediaco.uk. And please don’t worry about us either. The Mill team has already contacted union representatives to ensure we will be able to take time in lieu if any of this work falls on the weekend. 

🗞️ The Manchester Evening News will pay “substantial damages” to Bob Vylan frontman Pascal Robinson after they falsely reported he had performed “Nazi salutes on stage”. The paper was quoting the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester saying the band “mocked the murder of Charlie Kirk, performed Nazi salutes on stage and spoken about finding ‘Zionists in the streets'”. The band’s solicitors successfully argued this was untrue, saying the gesture referred to was actually “a guided light stretching and meditation routine”. 

Home of the week

Old on the outside, new on the inside, big cactus in the window, what more could you want? £225,000 (and in Castlefield).

Weather

Tuesday: 🌧️Windy with intermittent heavy rain. Max 14°c

Wednesday:🌧️ Cloudy & mild with patchy light rain. Max 15°c.

Thursday: 🌦️ Mild with bright spells & showers. Max 15°c

Friday: 🌧️ Colder & windy with heavy rain. Max 9°c

Weekend: 🌦️Cold with bright spells & showers. Risk of overnight frosts.

What we’re reading

‘Everybody comes from a place of mundanity’: northern gothic, the strange music scene rooted in small-town Yorkshire and Lancashire — The Guardian

Rainy Miller, Blackhaine, Christ the Poet — what do these people all have in common? Well, they can all be found having a drink at Impiety Hour (fka Annihilation Eve, fka Peste) in Ancoats semi-regularly, and they’re all featured in this Guardian longread on the new “northern gothic” scene — a group of musicians making northern satellite towns cool again, or something along those lines. “With London receiving more culture funding than the entire north of England… many young northern artists beyond the metropolis of Manchester find themselves isolated,” writes Alastair Shuttleworth. 

Why we’re naming a theatre after our funny friend, Victoria Wood — The Times

Prestwich’s Victoria Wood, who died in 2016, is getting a theatre named after her. The Old Laundry in Bowness-on-Windermere will become the Victoria Wood Theatre, and will host the premier of Fourteen Again, which includes many of her best-known songs. This piece in the Times pays tribute to her legacy. “How do you explain Victoria Wood to people who have no context for her?...She is probably one of the most beloved British comedians of them all, working at a time when there were very few female comedians and a consensus that women weren’t funny.”

What our writers are doing this week

🎭 Grayson Perry’s show Are you Good? is at the Bridgewater Hall on Wednesday, which promises to “pull back the curtain and see where your morals truly lie”. Tickets can be purchased here — and you might just bump into some Millers in the audience. 

🥒 Jack Dulhanty will be attending a Kimchi fermentation masterclass, hosted by the Plucky Pickle. He’s been saving up for a £70 ticket, which gets you a supper, drinks, and your very own award winning kimchi to take home with you.

🎤 And finally, Mill head honcho Joshi Herrmann is going to be talking about the fall and rise of local journalism at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation next Monday, an event hosted by the Lit & Phil. It would be a pleasure to have you come along! Tickets running low.

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