I don't think there's anything wrong with Manchester celebrating the stellar musical heritage it's built up over the last half a century and it's certainly smart as a tourism strategy - you don't see people complaining about Liverpool trading off the Beatles presumably at least partly because it's obviously common sense to do so.
What the city needs to do more of is celebrating the amount of talent we still produce through the rich indie and underground scenes here. From the Manchester Collective to OneDa to Mandy, Indiana our music scene is incredibly exciting and varied - I've got no real reason to think I'm missing out living here in the 21st century, but I don't think we do as good a job of selling that to people who aren't living here and involved in the scene. I don't think the Warehouse Project having an annual Hacienda throwback night is as much of a problem as the rest of the lineups being dominated by the same names as when I first came to uni here over a decade ago (lured in by the music scene!) - the headlines are still Andy C, Bicep and Skream while homegrown talent is reserved for the 9pm warmups sets.
Going for UNESCO City of Music status would be a smart move for Manchester with the guaranteed forward investment in the music scene it requires. Maybe the fact that Liverpool is currently England's only City of Music makes that a bit harder since we're such close neighbours but it's not the Northwest's fault its musical heritage punches above its weight!
Andy Burnham is absolutely right about Avanti. I’ve travelled to London frequently over the past 10 years. Virgin had an excellent service. Most journeys now leave/ arrive late. The last one I took arrived on time at Stockport - I was so surprised I took a photo of the platform notice board showing “ on time”! How the Government could give Avanti another 9 year contract is beyond understanding.
I think Manchester's musical heritage from the 70s/80s/90s should be actively promoted and celebrated, they were clearly halcyon days - but that funds from this should be actively put into developing musical talent for the future - heavily subsided recording / rehearsal space, fully funded private music tuition for primary schools, money for local brass bands, choirs, orchestras, subsidised tickets to schools to music events, etc.
It can't have the feel of 'the best is behind us' which is what I think most people fear when the ethereal spirit of the hacienda gets rolled out time and again.
Factory Records/The Haçienda are as much a part of Manchester's heritage as Peterloo, the Liverpool Manchester Railway, Cottonopolis and the discovery of graphene. The label and its founders contributed to a change in Manchester as important as any of those other events.
There's an interest in Factory that crosses generations. When I worked at the Science and Industry Museum and looked after the collections that are now part of the British Pop Archive, they were a significant draw for undergraduate research and general interest visitors to the museum, from school age to retirement. The Use Hearing Protection exhibition that I curated at the museum, in partnership with Jon Savage and Mat Bancroft, was a significant success for the museum coming out of the pandemic because people wanted to know more about it as well as indulge in personal nostalgia for their youth. The presence of the collections at the John Rylands Research Institute will be a boon for that organisation, too.
Just because some people find it boring or tedious or whatever it is they feel about Factory doesn't mean celebrating its part in Manchester's past should stop. Personally, I don't like football. The way I deal with that is by being interested in other things and ignoring football. I'm also bored by the people who are bored by the celebration of Factory. Perhaps we should move all of them to Leeds. Although, Leeds is a lovely place and I'd feel bad for saddling it with a bunch of curmudgeons.
I don’t think that listening to ‘our’ music can be easily written off at nostalgia. The idea that you have move on suggests that culture is temporary, but we recognise the ‘canon’ in literature, so why not music? New Order (in some form) are still going, so it seems strange to say that their most famous track should be dropped from our play lists.
I listen to 6 Music a lot and there seems to be a lot of Manchester bands and artists played. Here’s hoping that one of them is writing the next Manchester banger right now.
The centre has rebranded as esea contemporary to include artists who are of East and Southeast Asian heritage or draw inspiration from those cultures, not just those of Chinese heritage.
I don't think there's anything wrong with Manchester celebrating the stellar musical heritage it's built up over the last half a century and it's certainly smart as a tourism strategy - you don't see people complaining about Liverpool trading off the Beatles presumably at least partly because it's obviously common sense to do so.
What the city needs to do more of is celebrating the amount of talent we still produce through the rich indie and underground scenes here. From the Manchester Collective to OneDa to Mandy, Indiana our music scene is incredibly exciting and varied - I've got no real reason to think I'm missing out living here in the 21st century, but I don't think we do as good a job of selling that to people who aren't living here and involved in the scene. I don't think the Warehouse Project having an annual Hacienda throwback night is as much of a problem as the rest of the lineups being dominated by the same names as when I first came to uni here over a decade ago (lured in by the music scene!) - the headlines are still Andy C, Bicep and Skream while homegrown talent is reserved for the 9pm warmups sets.
Going for UNESCO City of Music status would be a smart move for Manchester with the guaranteed forward investment in the music scene it requires. Maybe the fact that Liverpool is currently England's only City of Music makes that a bit harder since we're such close neighbours but it's not the Northwest's fault its musical heritage punches above its weight!
Andy Burnham is absolutely right about Avanti. I’ve travelled to London frequently over the past 10 years. Virgin had an excellent service. Most journeys now leave/ arrive late. The last one I took arrived on time at Stockport - I was so surprised I took a photo of the platform notice board showing “ on time”! How the Government could give Avanti another 9 year contract is beyond understanding.
I think Manchester's musical heritage from the 70s/80s/90s should be actively promoted and celebrated, they were clearly halcyon days - but that funds from this should be actively put into developing musical talent for the future - heavily subsided recording / rehearsal space, fully funded private music tuition for primary schools, money for local brass bands, choirs, orchestras, subsidised tickets to schools to music events, etc.
It can't have the feel of 'the best is behind us' which is what I think most people fear when the ethereal spirit of the hacienda gets rolled out time and again.
Factory Records/The Haçienda are as much a part of Manchester's heritage as Peterloo, the Liverpool Manchester Railway, Cottonopolis and the discovery of graphene. The label and its founders contributed to a change in Manchester as important as any of those other events.
There's an interest in Factory that crosses generations. When I worked at the Science and Industry Museum and looked after the collections that are now part of the British Pop Archive, they were a significant draw for undergraduate research and general interest visitors to the museum, from school age to retirement. The Use Hearing Protection exhibition that I curated at the museum, in partnership with Jon Savage and Mat Bancroft, was a significant success for the museum coming out of the pandemic because people wanted to know more about it as well as indulge in personal nostalgia for their youth. The presence of the collections at the John Rylands Research Institute will be a boon for that organisation, too.
Just because some people find it boring or tedious or whatever it is they feel about Factory doesn't mean celebrating its part in Manchester's past should stop. Personally, I don't like football. The way I deal with that is by being interested in other things and ignoring football. I'm also bored by the people who are bored by the celebration of Factory. Perhaps we should move all of them to Leeds. Although, Leeds is a lovely place and I'd feel bad for saddling it with a bunch of curmudgeons.
I don’t think that listening to ‘our’ music can be easily written off at nostalgia. The idea that you have move on suggests that culture is temporary, but we recognise the ‘canon’ in literature, so why not music? New Order (in some form) are still going, so it seems strange to say that their most famous track should be dropped from our play lists.
I listen to 6 Music a lot and there seems to be a lot of Manchester bands and artists played. Here’s hoping that one of them is writing the next Manchester banger right now.
I didn't know the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art was no more. What's the backstory for this?
The centre has rebranded as esea contemporary to include artists who are of East and Southeast Asian heritage or draw inspiration from those cultures, not just those of Chinese heritage.