SF0214 Manchester Part 2 1984 – 2026

SF0214 Manchester Part 2 1984 – 2026

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The “post-post punk era” of Manchester is a diffuse affair.

First, we have The Smiths. I’ve been thinking about Morrissey recently and the reactions he provokes. Which I get. But I was also thinking about other artists. Michael Jackson – pretty much a paedophile I think most people agree, and yet was on the soundtrack last time I went to the supermarket. People still listen to The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin in spite of Bill Wyman and Jimmy Page’s predilections.

How about this quote:

“I believe very strongly in fascism. The only way we can speed up the sort of liberalism that’s hanging foul in the air at the moment is to speed up the progress of a right-wing, totally dictatorial tyranny and get it over as fast as possible”.

No, not Morrissey, but the sainted Bowie. He later blamed it on drug-induced psychosis. Hmm.

Now, I appreciate two wrongs don’t make a right. And the problem is Morrissey has travelled in the wrong direction and doesn’t look like he’s coming back. But, still.

Anyway, next up, one of the most influential songs ever recorded – ‘Pacfic – b’ by 808 State. Then the two big Madchester bands Stone Roses and Happy Mondays, sandwiching the third Mancunian wheel of this period, the more conventional indie band The Inspiral Carpets. Marcus Lepidus to Augustus and Mark Antony, if you like.

After that, there’s a bit of this and a bit of that. Punch-and crunch electro, techno, house, some shoegaze punctuated by our pursuit of the original members of The Fall, culminating in an excellent new song from two of them, namely Martin Bramah and Karl Burns.

As David Hughes has just commented on our Facebook forum, Friends of Sombrero Fallout, it could easily have been a trilogy. Maybe one day it will.