Music of Manchester

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Music of the United Kingdom
History	Nationalities
Early popular music	England
1950s and 60s	Scotland
1970s	Wales
1980s	Ireland
1990s to present	Caribbean and Indian
Genres: (Samples) Classical - Folk - Hip hop - Opera - Popular - Rock - Jazz
Timeline: 1999 - 2000 - 2001 - 2002 - 2003 2004 - 2005 - 2006 - 2007
Awards	Mercury, BRIT Awards
Charts	UK Singles Chart, UK classical chart, UK Albums Chart
Festivals	Glastonbury Festival, The Proms, Homelands, Creamfields, Cambridge Folk Festival, Eisteddfodd, Download Festival, Reading and Leeds Festivals , V Festival, T in the Park, Isle of Wight Festival
Media	NME - Melody Maker
National anthem	"God Save the Queen"
Regions and territories
Birmingham - Cornwall - Man - Manchester - Northumbria - Somerset Anguilla - Bermuda - Cayman Islands - Gibraltar - Montserrat - Turks and Caicos - Virgin Islands

For Mancunians, the popular musical heritage of the city has always been a source of great pride. The city's eclectic mix of music has created the sense among its inhabitants that Manchester is the most important city in world music.

Although Manchester had an impressive music scene before 1976 (with groups like The Hollies, The Bee Gees, Barclay James Harvest and 10cc, and with Top of the Pops being recorded by the BBC in the city), undoubtedly the key moment in Manchester's musical history occurred on 4 June 1976, when the Sex Pistols, at the invitation of Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley of Buzzcocks, arrived at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Castlefield to play a legendary gig - legendary, because in spite of an audience of less than 42 people, several key members of Manchester's future music scene were present: Tony Wilson Granada TV presenter and creator of Factory Records, Ian Curtis, Peter Hook, Bernard Sumner (of Joy Division & New Order), Morrissey - later to form The Smiths with Johnny Marr - producer Martin Hannett, and Mick Hucknall of Simply Red. Soon after this gig, Wilson created Factory Records and signed Joy Division.

With the industrial revolution as its model, Factory Records played upon Manchester's traditions, invoking at once apparently incongruous images of the industrial north and the glamorous pop art world of Andy Warhol. While labelmates A Certain Ratio and The Durutti Column each forged their own sound, it was Factory's Joy Division who somehow managed to grimly define what exactly it was to be a Mancunian as the '70s drew to an end. At the same time, and out of the same post punk energy, emerged Mark E. Smith's groundbreaking group The Fall, who would become one of the most inventive, original and prolific groups of the next three decades. New Order rose from the ashes of Joy Division combining rock, pop, and dance music to earn much critical acclaim while selling millions of records. The group that would ultimately become the definitive Manchester group of the '80s was The Smiths, lead by Morrissey and Marr. With songs like 'Rusholme Ruffians' and 'Suffer Little Children', Morrissey sang explicitly about Manchester, creating songs that are as iconic of Manchester as the paintings of L.S.Lowry.

As the 80s drew to a close, a new energy arrived in Manchester, fuelled by the drug ecstasy. A new scene developed around The Haçienda night club (again part of the Factory Records ‘empire’), creating what would become known as the Madchester scene, – the main proponents being the Happy Mondays, The Inspiral Carpets, and The Stone Roses. The history of the Manchester music scene over this period was dramatised in Michael Winterbottom's 2002 film 24 Hour Party People.

After the "Madchester" period, Manchester music lost much of its provincial energy, though many successful and interesting acts were still to emerge. Other notable musical acts in Manchester have been Take That, 808 State, M People, Oasis, James, Badly Drawn Boy, Michael McGoldrick, Elbow, Mr Scruff, and Doves. Morrissey and The Fall still continue to garner critical acclaim while Oasis remain the most popular, having played to more than 1.7 million people worldwide during their Don't Believe The Truth tour of 2005/early 2006.

Manchester's main popular music venue is the Manchester Evening News Arena, which seats over twenty thousand, and is the largest arena of its type in Europe. Other major venues include the Manchester Apollo and the Manchester Academy. There are over 30 smaller venues for signed and unsigned artists of all genres to perform in, ensuring that the music scene in Manchester constantly remains vibrant and interesting. An area known as the Northern Quarter, considered the cultural and musical heart of the city, houses some of the more famous of these venues such as the Band on the Wall, Roadhouse, Night and Day Cafe, The Bierkeller and Dry Bar.

Many Manchester bands, and those influenced by the city's musical heritage and unique atmosphere have immortalised it in song - see List of songs about Manchester

Manchester music is currently immortalised by many new bands past and present, the definitive northern resource is available at : www.manchestermusic.co.uk

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