City Life (Magazine)

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City Life was a Manchester-based listings magazine that was published between December 1983 and December 2005. It was a distinctive blend of radical politics and coverage of the increasingly exciting Manchester youth culture scene of the early 1980s, coinciding with the rise of Factory records and the Hacienda.

The magazine was started by a small group of Manchester University former and current students on a shoestring budget in rented offices in a run-down building South of the city centre. However, it developed rapidly in professionalism and grew in prominence and influence in Manchester and beyond.

In 1989, it was bought by the Guardian Media Group (GMG), publishers of The Guardian and The Manchester Evening News. GMG changed the style of the magazine, focusing more on listings and interviews, and branching out into publishing guide books and sponsoring events such as the City Life Food and Drink Festival and the City Life Comedian of the Year competition.

In November 2005 it was announced that City Life was to close, with the edition published on 7 December being the final one.

City Life formed a loose association in 1984/5 with some other regional listings magazines including among others Due South Magazine (Southampton), Venue (Bristol), Coaster (Bournemouth), and The List (Glasgow and Edinburgh). Of these only Venue and The List survive, having been continually published since 1982 and 1985 respectively.