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Home , 24 Hour Party People, Alan Erasmus, Rob Gretton

A STUDY TO UNDERSTAND ’S EMERGENCE AS A CREATIVE CITY.

Jordan Strong

History BA Honours dissertation

Aberystwyth University

9th May 2014

1 Acknowledgements

Throughout this piece of work I have tic had some fantas support, critiques and feedback, never more so then from Barbara Jones of student support at the university. Her support, motivation and editing of this piece of work has been second to none. The process of writing a dissertation is a hard task as it is without the persistence of dyslexia, but with Barbara’s help, the process has been as smooth as one could hope. It has been a long, hard process with some laughs along the way, I am truly grateful for her help. I would also like to thank Dr. Richard rvision Coopey, his supe has been excellent, his guidance with source material n has bee extremely beneficial to this study. Furthermore I would like to thank Suzannah Reeves of Oldham sixth form college for helping me contact Dave Haslem, Also Dave himself for taking time out to email me. Finally those who helped me at the Museum of Science and Industry during in the couple of days I spent at the Archive.

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Table of content

1. Introduction p.3 2. Chapter One – ‘The scene is very humdrum’ p.7 3. Chapter Two – ‘Evidently Chickentown’ p.14 4. Chapter Three – ‘The Hacienda must be built’ p.25 5. Chapter Four – ‘I don’t have to see my soul he is already in me’ p.39 6. Conclusion p.44

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Introduction

On the 16th of August, 1819, eighteen people were ng massacred duri a peaceful protest in Manchester’s St. Peter’s Square. The protest, led by Henry Hunt, was in aid of political reform, universal suffrage and sentation. equal repre Some seven hundred infantrymen on horseback, armed with batons, set about the crowd to supress them and arrested the protesters. As well as the eighteen dead, hundreds were injured. The event would later become known as the Peterloo Massacre1 . Although at the time the massacre seemed a dead end, the fallout artist led to the Ch Movement saw beginning of the slow march to reform British society, Manchester led this revolution. Manchester was a city ‘not shy of wearing its politics on sleeve’ whether it be with the formation of Manchester capitalism under the guidance of Cobden and Bright , Marx and Engels’ development of the Communist Manifesto in hetham’s the city’s C Library or the establishment of the -­‐ Co op by Robert Owen 2 in 1844. Manchester was at the heart of political development. wever, Ho this study is not going to focus on the vast array of Mancunian politics; it is purely cultural as, along with the politics, Manchester has never been shy at coming forward culturally whether it be with the writings of Thomas De Quincy or Anthony Burgess, the of art L.S Lowry or the sporting prowess of Manchester United and City. Manchester is rich in cultural as well as political heritage yet it is not the art, politics or the sport where this study finds its home. It is in music; if the politics of Owen is the heart of the city then music is its brain. A seemingly ever progressing entity that is not afraid of failure as long it can be said ‘At least 3 we tried’ . Manchester has a lot to be proud of and efront its music is at the for of this. However, this study is not a polemic on the beauty of Mancunian music, it is a study to address thematic

1 ‘To 1945’ The People's History Museum, Left Bank Spinningfields Manchester M3 3ER 19th April 2014 2 ‘To 1945’ The People's History Museum 3 Factory: Manchester from to BBC4, Mon 17 Aug 2009 00:15

4 developments of music in the city. It will do so by firstly addressing the event that is alluded to as the starting point of ical Manchester’s mus history; The ’ gig on June the th 4 1976, held at the Lesser , a short distance from St Peter’s Square.4

Historiographically, The Sex Pistols’ gig is widely accepted as the starting point for Manchester music and it is hard to find a piece of literature that does not allude to it as such. There is a host of secondary James sources including: Nice, Shadowplayers: The Rise and Fall of Factory . Records , Mick Middles, From Joy Division to New Order, David Nolan I Swear I Was There: The Gig That Changed the World, Simon Reynolds Rip it Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1984 1978-­‐ and Paul Morley The North: (And Almost Everything In It) and all indicate that Manchester’s music d scene stemme from The Sex Pistols’ gig on June 4th. However this study, although it does not necessarily it disagree, states that this belief undercuts Manchester and its predisposition as post industrial, that shuns authority for . a more DIY This study draws similarities between North American cities such as Detroit cago and Chi to draw resonance with the curious case of Manchester. 5

Fundamental to the study are two works by Richard Florida and ticle ar by Nick Crossley. Florida argues that a creative class is fundamental to the regeneration of a city and these creative classes are drawn to creative centres, these centres do not follow conventional politics, have an abundance of artisans and what he calls ‘Super creative class’.6 This study started by alluding to Manchester’s unconventional politics and s it cultural prowess and through the use of Florida’s ‘The Rise of the Creative Class’ and ‘Cities and the Creative Class’ the study will link how it is the music that regenerated the city, but it also was a combination of sting pre exi entities as well istols’ the Sex P gig. This will be furthered by the use of Professor Nick Crossley’s The man whose web expanded: Network dynamics in Manchester's post/punk music scene 1976–1980 article n i which he explains the complexities behind king the networ in Manchester that was built

4 Nice,J. Shadowplayers: The Rise and Fall of Aurum Press London, Ltd ( 2011) p.10 5 Connell,J. Sound Tracks: Popular Music Identity Routledge and Place. (New York, 2002) p.106 6 Florida,R. The Rise of the Creative Class: And How it's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Basic Life Books; New edition edition (New York 2003) p.68

5 after the Sex Pistol’s gig. Although this can be aligned with the gig itself, the study argues that the ‘actors’ in the network Crossley alludes to were pre-­‐existing. here T was the D.I.Y attitude and that the gig ignited this network further7. It is through he t use of primary evidence such as the b Ro Gretton Archive at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, Defining the Me exhibition at the Lowry in Salford and contact with David Haslem, the author of Manchester a Pop Cult City have formed a or basis f the primary sources used and have given vidence the background e to formulate such arguments. Furthermore several documentaries have been used as primary sources, however trepidation have been taken when using these sources due to the subjectivity that omes c with interviews. Using both primary evidence and secondary source, this study aims too highlight Manchester emergence reative as a ‘c city’.

The first chapter study of the uses the arguments of Crossley to shed light on The Sex Pistols’ gig and por its im tance to the scene whilst also questioning the importance of the time between the first gig in June and the second a month later in July which saw the crowd increase from 42 to near 10008. It is here where the Crossley article points to a network of actors in the city as opposed to the idea that The Sex Pistols’ gig was just an almost class conscious uprising against the music of the time.

Chapter two develops further the argument Manchester became a creative ng city, showi that Manchester was not the only place to take the punk mentality evolution and start a r but it was the only city dedicated to progression, never more evident than in the fact that the man who brought The Sex Pistols to Manchester would go on to be the frontman of the . Howard Dovoto would leave the band shortly after their self-­‐realised Spinal Scratch Records claim that punk was over. Manchester progressed on to post punk and formed its own identity and the chapter argues this is embedded in the DIY attitude of the city that stems back to Peterloo.

Chapter Three shows the progression of rom Manchester f punk to world renowned city with particular emphasis on the model rds of Factory Reco which took the ideas of

7 N. Crossley, ‘The man whose web expanded: amics Network dyn in Manchester's post/punk music scene – 1976 1980’ Volume 37, Issue 1, February – 2009, Pages 24 49 8 Morley,P The North: (And Almost Everything In It) Bloomsbury Publishing (London,2013) P.507

6 Situationist International and an ethos t based in ar to become at wh Florida calls a ‘creative city’. It is in this chapter that the transition from post punk to happens all with the philosophy of 9 ‘creating anew’ .

Chapter Four steps out of the Factory’s shadows and shows that it is something from within the city that creates this creativity; the idea that creative people flock to creative places10. The two bands highlighted are the Smiths and , two bands that did not fit the Factory mode but on followed the reacti to Thatcherism in the same way Factory did.

The study concludes, with the idea that although tols’ The Sex Pis gig may have sparked something in Manchester, the revolution in. came from with Manchester had the tools to become a creative city and it had the right actors, as Crossley s, state to create the networks and find itself as Britain’s only city that has a creative super class because of its lack of professional creativity. 11

9 Florida, Cities and the Creative Class Routledge; 1 edition (London, 2005) P.82 10 Florida,R. The Rise of the Creative Class p.17 11 Florida,R. The Rise of the Creative Class p. 68

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Chapter one: ‘The scene is very humdrum’

On the 4th of June,1976, a band from London would shake ty up the humdrum of ci life and change a Britain’s fortunes for many a year July to come. In that same year, The Sex Pistols would play the same venue again, th this time wi vastly more support. 12 These gigs were organised y b a Bolton Tech student by the name , of Howard Dovoto (Buzzcocks). After seeing The Sex Pistols in London with his friend, Richard Boon, Dovoto decided The Pistols were exactly what Manchester needed. He spent £32 on renting the Lesser Free Trade Hall;13 once the centre of Manchester’s , capitalism as a music venue it housed the likes of Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones. However, on June the th, 4 something entirely different came to town.

We were perhaps frustrated by our stranded nonentity status and seeking a new purpose, but not really expecting blatant clues about how to break out of the post-­‐war, post sixties, post-­‐industrial breakdown limbo. The sex pistols’ deviant pop-­‐art rage and indignation was immediate clue14

Historiographically, The Sex Pistols’ gig on the night th of June the 4 was the fulcrum to several studies: James Nice’s Shadowplayers: The Rise and Fall of Factory Records; Mick Middles’ Factory: The Story of the ; Dave Haslem’s Manchester, England: The Story of the Pop . Cult City All indicate th that the 4 June was the birth 15 of the city

12 Nolan,D. I Swear I Was There: The Gig That Changed the World Independent Music Press; New edition (London2006)p13 13 Savage,J. The England's Dreaming Tapes Faber & Faber (London, 2009) p.511 14 Morley,P The North p.516 15 Information obtained via an email exchange with Dave Haslem, author Manchester, of A pop cult city. Dave Haslem. [email protected]. Manchester pop cult city. 17th april 2014.

8 however this chapter argues it was e more a renaissanc than spawning of the new; The Sex Pistols’ gig th on the 4 of June, 1976. This was a gig which only around 42 people attended16 yet when ked as some 1000 patrons would profess to have been in attendance. David Nolan’s ‘The gig that changed the world’ is the one of the more poignant books on the matter, as he dedicates 179 pages to quotes of recollections by people who were supposedly ncert. at the co Here, an extracts from Nolan’s book, by the late typifies and the importance of the gig to those around the Manchester scene. Although there is something important r to be taken fo the Lesser Free Trade Hall this dissertation disagrees as to its full impact and it is with this Wilson quote where the first problem is found.

‘The success of Manchester is in not being a typical city like Bristol, which had a good three years, or Seattle, which had a good three years, or Liverpool, which had a good three years. Manchester having a good twenty years begins on the night of June 4th and it’s as if you can use the phrase set in motion. The spin that was created that night lasted probably until Oasis.17’

The Factory Records impresario, and aptly named Mr Manchester, was a man with little restrain and, though his words have a lot of resonance, his brazen dismissal of the aforementioned cities is not just limited s to him, it i very much the view across the literature. However, what is most esting inter is Paul Morley believes that Wilson is one of many to have embellished his attendance 18 at the gig . It is widely known that the Granada T.V presenter was more a fan c of Country Musi than he was 19 the MC5 . Wilson is among several important people id who d not attend the gig despite the way it is portrayed in the film . Martin Hannet, (both Factory Records) and Mick Hucknel () ly were definite not in attendance and as for

16 Nice,J. Shadowplayers p.10 17 Nolan,D. I Swear I Was There p.143 18 Morley,P The North p.514 19 Middles, M Factory: The Story of the Record Label Ebury Press (London 2009) p.24

9 Mark E Smith (The Fall) no one is re quite su whether he was there in June or July maybe even both.20 The inaccuracy to the attendance cause problems for historians, as so much is of what has been written e gears toward, th June th 4 gig, when infact the attendees is one of Manchester great myths. It is near certain that Tony Wilson was not at the gig as both (joy Division) and Howard Dovoto did not see him there. That prompts the argument that a Tony Wilson, local celebrity, know for his news anchorage on Granada reports, a man who had a resentment for never being able to make in as national tv , presenter 21could have fabricated the importance of the gig for his own benefit. After all he arguably st had the bigge output of everybody at the gig, with his influence at Granada, and never more so is this evident than in his music show So It . Goes Although 24 hour party people may have inaccurately got the attendance at the Pistols’ gig wrong, one thing they did not get wrong was ’s portrayal of Wilson.22 A sublimely educated middle class man from Marple, whilst at Cambridge university he was heavily olved inv in Situationist International, an idea that would be at the source of Factory Records that will be addressed later in the study. Wilson, a promising young reporter, had planned to learn his trade in Manchester and eventually move to a nationwide new channel. However that dream was ultimately never realised as James Nice puts it ‘Wilson remained in Manchester, a large fish in 23 a small pool’ . Then the idea must be introduced that it played into Wilson’s hands to say he was at the gig as he always wanted to be at the forefront of everything ‘Manchester’.24 There is no way that he would not have been involved in the aftermath of the gig even if he did not attend. Wilson brilliantly saw the opportunity reate to c something; something that he could be in orefront the f of, something he could run and further his status as a ‘large fish in a small pool’. This idea is not saying that what Wilson would go on to was anything but brilliant; it is more a thought d that it benefite Wilson as a person to say he was in attendance and also to say that it int was the starting po for the Manchester music scene. He could thus be the face of the ene Manchester music sc and give himself the national notoriety he so heavily craved.

20 24 hour party people. Dir. . Perf. Steve Coogan . Twentieth Century Fox , 2002. DVD. 21 Nice,J. Shadowplayers p.8 22 24 hour party people. 23 Nice,J. Shadowplayers p.8 24 Newsnight BBC2 10th, August, 2007

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