I spent a lot of my teenage years in Manchester City Centre on a regular Saturday morning pilgrimage to scour all the record shops we knew of looking for bargains. It was usually the number 253 bus which at the time went into Manchester Piccadilly via Hulme, past it's infamous Crescent Flats and it's one time Russell Club later to become known as The PSV Club and famous for putting on afternoon gigs for those punks not old enough to con their way past the bouncers with a bum fluff moustache, and then past the pub next door that always had dogs on the roof, but that was always as close as we got...the fewer stops the bus made after Stretford, the more relaxed the journey felt. If you're interested in what Hulme use to be like then there's a wonderful website with some lovely video links over at www.exhulme.co.uk . We never really felt we were in Manchester until we'd turned left at The Royal Northern College of Music, starred out of the window at Johnny Roadhouse on the right and finally passed under the bridge at Oxford Road railway station before disembarking outside Rotters for our first port of call, and mecca for all things ridiculously cheap, albeit with a either a hole or a snip in the cover...Yanks. Now Yanks took the majority of our money but it didn't stop us doing a regular tour of all the others because we knew we'd be back in before jumping on the bus home, it just saved us having to lug our records around Manchester as we could pick them up last thing. So, Piccadilly Records, which was on the Plaza then, as was Marshalls at the back, would both get a visit plus the original Virgin Record Shop on Market Street, Robinsons Records (which I always considered crap but had a copy of Je T'aime in the window and I think it had a nipple on it) and then Bostocks in the Arndale Centre. There were loads of others that often got a look in but I wont name them all now but you can have a look here if you're interested.
So now I'm back in Manchester again and Piccadilly Records has long since relocated to Oldham Street , but with my trusty side kick and queen of the bohemian, festival fashion scene Miss Holly Bailz by my side for company, it's time to get some pictures taken.
Now the thing is, I know the brief was to look for things such as the finer details that were hidden away around the Northern Quarter , which I did, but then so did Holly, so I thought I'd try and present my findings in a different way so what I've done is used the day to present a series of images that brought back memories of times and places for me, even if the songs or bands in question haven't really got anything to do with Manchester, the connection is via the memory.
Manchester's Vinyl Exchange was my last hope in the days when everyone began to feel that vinyl would one day become extinct and yet there were so many albums out there that hadn't yet been released on cd over here quite simply because there wasn't enough demand unless you were into Dire Straits-Brothers In Arms, Erasure (I can't even be bothered to look up there album title) or something else that Jeremy Clarkson was likely to listen to on his way to the office . I'd had Tom Petty's American Girl on 45 for yonks but I'd never owned the album as it had been pretty hard to come by until I yielded from my ways of buying all things new and decided to chance my arm second hand market of The Vinyl Exchange, and there it was, I left elated.
They say the Lord works in mysterious ways and as luck would have it, so does my mind and so every time I hear the word Piccadilly the first thing that comes into my head is Southport's finest, Gomez, and their apparent ode to a trip into Manchester from Sheffield on a visit to see Beck in concert during their student days so with that in mind I give you the rather delightful Whippin Piccadilly although more to do with the station than the record store.
Now I couldn't talk about the Manchester music scene without including a fond memory of Madchester, the time of baggy clothes, Mad As F*** t-shirts, various pharmaceuticals, smiley faces and of course,The Happy Mondays. Now The Mondays weren't top of my list in the musical department but they were good at banging out some catchy singles, but my girlfriend at the time, Joanne, was friends with a couple of them and had watched them rise from tea-leaves to chart stars so in a way I felt like I too had met them even though I hadn't. Jo was also the first and last person to ever give me a Dead Dead Good t-shirt which to this day I still treasure even if I don't know where it is or what happened to it, thanks Jo :)
As we bimbled around Tib Street, I noticed the Twisted Wheel nightclub and immediately thought of Dave Howells and his crew who, when they weren't battling away on behalf of Manchester United, would be slipping on their bags and scattering the talcum powder before indulging in everything that an all-nighter had to offer courtesy of the Northern Soul scene. I'd never been to an Northern Soul night as these guys were a bit older than me but my brother knew them and had been to one or two so it was via him that I was introduced to the likes of Out On The Floor and Long After Tonight Is All Over but it was down to me and my quest for knowledge that I came across Junior Walker & The All Stars and the short paradiddle that brings you Roadrunner
I spoke earlier of the Russell Club and the afternoon shows where the punks who didn't look old enough to get into the evening shows were often treated to afternoon shows, these 'baby' punks were my mates from from early days at Urmston Grammar School around 1977 when punk and new wave was spreading like a disease across the UK. At the time, and I guess I've always have been, I was listening to absolutely anything I could music wise so I had a mixture of mates from all different groups but the daftest ones were those that went to the Russell Club. I've always liked my music but their stories of getting a beating, gobbed on or chased for a bus somehow never really appealed to me so I just soaked up the music and left my gig going days until a later date when something more civilised appealed to me, such as The Joe Jackson Band at the Free Trade Hall in I think '79 to promote his most excellent lesson in perfect power pop, Look Sharp and just for the record no one I knew wanted to go, so there was some friends of my mum and dad's who's dog I used to walk across the road and he used to play bass in a band called the El Tone Duo who famously turned down a spot on ITV's New Faces because Dave's mate Tony had something better to do and that's why you've probably never heard of them. Anyway, back to the Russell Club and in memory of my mates at the time who went to see The Damned there, I give you New Rose.
There's a golden rule I try and stick to when on a photo walk and that's always remember to look up, so I did. and there it was. I could have been in New York or New Orleans but having never been to either I'm lying through my teeth but fortunately for me, in all their neon glory, were the words Jazz Club. Now the first theory I heard on jazz was that it was simply a group of accomplished musicians all playing a wonderful tune at the same time....unfortunately it was never the same one, but it wasn't all like that. My dad's record collection consisted of the likes of Stan Getz, Dizzie Gillespie, Count Basie and numerous crooners that you don't need to know about, so I was always open to listening to stuff when he wasn't around just in case there was something in there that I was missing. Now bits of it I liked, but too much of it drove me mental as I've always been big on my lyrics and " Salt Peanuts ! Salt Peanuts !" didn't quite cut the mustard, but it must have planted a seed because in later years when I heard the music of Tom Waits I realised I'd found what I was looking for and in my dad's collection and began to trace back Tom's influences, but for me, it'll always be Tom and such lyrical masterpieces as $29 Dollars & An Alligator Purse or this little beauty The One That Got Away.
Affleck's Palace has always been considered Manchester's Mecca for most of its musical fashion statements and contains within it's walls a multitude of independent retailers be it clothing, music or just general retro memorabilia including wall to wall concert and album posters in a psychedelic onslaught of colours and fonts. So what's my memory of Afflecks ? Well, I haven't got one, at least I hadn't until I walked in there for the first time in years. Don't get me wrong I love the feel of the place and the general ambiance and the way the posters and artifacts trigger off all sorts of memories of my youth, but I never used to go in there quite simply because it wasn't on my musical route and I couldn't give a monkey's what I was wearing just so long as it was jeans and a t-shirt and not just my birthday suit. So what happened today, I hear you ask. Well as we wandered up the stairs taking pictures of this and that there was suddenly a voice I recognised coming from the sound system in the poster shop. "Holly, I know this guys voice but I can't think of the bands name but they do an ace track called Chill Out Tent " "Ooooh" said Holly " I've never heard of it " before carrying on her merry way completely unfazed by my ancient enthusiasm. And that's it., my memory of Afflecks will now always just be my camera, Holly, college and The Hold Steady rattling out their Chill Out Tent.
I have a whole host of images from this day out but as I said earlier I've tried to base it around a theme but if anybody would like to check out my hardrive then just let me know but for now I'm going to leave you with Manchesters Night & Day because from a musical point of view, and excluded that of Afflexs, it's probably my most up to date memory. I bought my first dslr a few years back after being encouraged to do so by my present girlfrend, Jenny, to move on from my little Sony point and shoot and so armed with my new Canon 400D, kit lens and Sigma 70-300 we set off for a day in town and what a day it was. I'm not going to go on about it because I've already mentioned the day in question in my external location but it did end up with us calling in the Night & Day for something to eat around tea time and then staggering out of there in the early hours after becoming unofficial photographers for a number of bands who's soundcheck we had sat through as part of some Jack Daniels promotion gig. Now I may have the beverage of choice mixed up there but I was kind of made up when the singer from a band called Malachai approached me, gave me a demo cd and asked if I had any decent images of him could I email him a couple just for use on his website as footage. I know everyone goes on about money and copyright and stuff but at the time it was my first trip out, I was nine sheets to the wind and just buzzing in general, so I said I'd see what I could do. And that's your lot.,apart from me to leave you with Malachai and Snowflake .
Oh, and just so you don't think I was telling porkies about the night in question here's one of the images from that evening which just so happens to be my first and last go at band photography.....until the next time.
All in all a successful day out where I had the opportunity to have a proper look around the Northern Quarter which I'd nevre really done before as I'd always been going somewhere . Really enjoyed the Kevin Cummings exhibition and the way they were presented and maybe somewhere down the line I'll either revisit for a different shoot or just go through the multitude of shots I already have from this day and just add to this feature, but not just now as time is of the essence.
Oh, and one final link that you may find interesting as it full of things Mancunian and musical over at the Manchester District Music Archive .
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