Listen to Noel Gallagher’s curated ‘Made in Manchester’ playlist
Unlike the cast of Towie’s hairdos, Noel Gallagher is a star who seems physically incapable of forgetting his roots. Oasis are a band dripping in the northern soul of Manchester and he has always been a proud supporter of the art of the region.
On June 4th, 1976, the Sex Pistols took to the stage at Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall and changed the world forever. In attendance that evening were Buzzcocks, Joy Division, Morrissey, Mark E. Smith, Factory Records founders Martin Hannett and Tony Wilson, and about a thousand other liars apparently crammed into the 150-capacity venue (that reportedly wasn’t even sold out).
The show cost £32 to book and tickets were flogged for 50p—its joyous abandon illuminated the future of carefree art for many of those present. As Peter Hook told the Manchester Evening News: “It’s my 40th anniversary, too, because I walked out of that gig as a musician. I came home with a guitar and told my dad, ‘I’m a punk musician now’, and my father said, ‘You won’t last a week’. Here I am 40 years later.”
Gallagher might have hailed from a subsequent revelation, but Manchester was still positively reeling from the show and rock ‘n’ roll seemed like a genuine avenue of income for the art-inclined youth of the day.
At the time, the city was primed for this revolution. The reason it seeded and blossomed into new flowers in the city is deep-rooted in cultural history. At that point, labour strikes besieged the city, slum clearances made it look dystopian, factories closed their doors, and even the football teams were shit at this stage.
The place was positively Victorian, which would’ve been a befitting period for the clocks to stop considering that it was during that era when it boomed, but the reality was far too dower to ponder quirky kismet.
However, despite the degradation at the time, Manchester has always been a city with an eye for style. After all, the Victorian boom of the town was grounded in the textiles trade which influenced the fashion of the streets. And art travelling over from America often docked in the region. Thus, when punk came aground, there were enough misguided young fools looking for answers in art to propagate it to the next level.
These youngsters make up Noel Gallagher’s new curated playlist of the region’s finest music for Spotify. From Joy Division and New Order to Inspiral Carpets and The Smiths, Gallagher has crammed them all into this fresh soundtrack of the city.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Music Newsletter
All the latest music news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.