The musical heritage of Manchester spans a wide range of genres, showing the rich tapestry of the north-west sound, from classical works to TV theme tunes and diverse post-punk styles
Myth often distorts the musical history of cities, and in Manchester, these myths are as prominent as the new Co-op Live, a £365 million, 23,500-capacity mega-venue opening today, soon to host major acts like Take That. When music fans mention popular bands like Take That, 10cc, or the Hollies, many more quickly counter with names like Joy Division, the Fall, and Happy Mondays. While 10cc wasn’t a small band from Manchester, their peak came before punk, and a figurative wall went up in the late 1970s, relegating everything before June 4, 1976—the night the Sex Pistols performed at the Lesser Free Trade Hall—to prehistory, akin to dinosaurs, fossils, and folk musicians. Undoubtedly, new hagiographies about music impresario Tony Wilson (1950-2007) are in production. However, why don’t we spend some time exploring the Rainy City on the free buses and trams, seeking out the overlooked, surprising, and tangential, with a few Gen X/6 Music standards for when we’re paused at traffic lights?
Even though it might not seem like a good place to start, Bowton’s Yard is wonderfully brought to life in Coronation Street. This simple-sounding song is reminiscent of the BBC TV series Sit Thi Deawn, but it’s more than just a catchy melody—rather, it’s a musical portrayal of Victorian life, akin to a reality show. Written by Samuel Laycock, a Stalybridge native and native of Marsden, Tony Warren took inspiration for his Weatherfield/Salford soap opera characters from it. Granada Studios on Quay Street was not only the home of well-known theme songs and regional accents; in October 1962, the Beatles made their debut on television, a move that greatly aided in the spread of the northwest sound.
Dialect ballads became a means of speaking truth to power following the Peterloo Massacre; in 2019, Jeremy Deller’s stone tump, like a grave mound, immortalised this sentiment. Throughout the cotton famine, these ballads kept their popularity. Broadsides were printed at several printers near the intersection of Oldham Street and Swan Street in order to spread these messages. A major contribution to the folk revival of the 1960s was made by Lancashire songs. Harry Boardman, a singer-collector from Failsworth, found a lot of old albums and anonymous protest songs. In a reggae rendition of the Great Flood, Edward II is credited as narrating how the Medlock broke its banks in 1872. Middleton native Jennifer Reid sings a moving a cappella version of The New Poor Law Bill from her album Gradely Manchester.
The legacy of Ewan MacColl’s life and work is conserved by the Working Class Movement Library
Depending on the rendition, one of the most well-known folk tunes, “Dirty Old Town” by Ewan MacColl, mentions a “gasworks wall” or “gasworks croft.” West Egerton Street, Liverpool Street, and Regent Road all around the location of these gasworks, which were on Ordsall. On the West Egerton Street wall, there was a straightforward infographic—not exactly a “mural”—installed before to its demolition in 2019. A sizable collection of MacColl’s song lyrics and sheet music is kept at the Working Class Movement Library, which acts as a repository for his life and work.
Sir Charles Hallé founded the Hallé Orchestra, which held its first performance on January 30, 1858, in the Free Trade Hall. The orchestra performed the premieres of Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 8 and Elgar’s Symphony No. 1. The latter was played on May 2, 1956, at the Kings Hall, a tea restaurant at Belle Vue that had been transformed and eventually destroyed to make room for a car auction centre. It was dedicated to the orchestra’s renowned conductor, John Barbirolli. A few days later, the performance was recorded by the BBC. The whirling melody in the cavatina, the third movement, is evocative of lark-like ascents and descents.
The orchestra has called the purpose-built, vibration-proof Bridgewater Hall home since 1996. Smaller performances, recordings, and rehearsals are held in the spacious red-brick Romanesque structure that was once St. Peter’s church in Ancoats. The opera house in Manchester, formerly known as the New Theatre, has recently played host to performances such as Peppa Pig’s Fun Day Out and The Full Monty. However, as the ENO moves to Manchester over the next five years, it might stage more sombre shows. Leigh was home to the most famous opera singer in the area, Tom Burke, dubbed the “Lancashire Caruso,” demonstrating Manchester’s history of fostering talent from a distance. The former Hippodrome in the city is now a Wetherspoons pub bearing his name.
The Manchester School is made up of Salford-born Peter Maxwell Davies, German immigrant Alexander Goehr, and Accrington native Harrison Birtwistle. They formed the New Music Manchester ensemble with trumpeter Elgar Howarth and pianist John Ogdon, who had attended Manchester Grammar School, after meeting at the Royal Manchester College of Music in the 1950s. Well-known for their avant-garde style, they shunned traditional concertos with cotton-themed themes and shied away from provincialism of any kind.
If UNESCO awarded accolades for demolition, Manchester would certainly have a collection. Many of the old taverns that once hosted performances, popular dance halls, and music venues have been demolished, along with mills, warehouses, and factories. Concert halls and entertainment venues were replaced with multistory car parks and office buildings. The Free Trade Hall, where local legends like Gracie Fields, Van der Graaf Generator, and James performed, along with Bob Dylan (infamously labeled “Judas” during a 1966 gig), the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, and Genesis, has now been transformed into a hotel. Despite these changes, does a lively, irreverent spirit from Manchester’s industrial heyday still endure? Certainly, the recently reopened Band on the Wall, situated on the former sites of the George & Dragon and the nearby Rising Sun pubs, suggests that this spirited legacy lives on.
The Electric Circus was a venue that witnessed numerous groundbreaking punk shows, including the debut performance of Warsaw, which was Joy Division’s initial name
Northern soul, introduced through Liverpool docks and Burtonwood airbase, garnered significant followings in Stoke, Wigan, Blackpool, and, initially, Manchester. The Twisted Wheel, located on Brazennose Street and later on Whitworth Street, hosted performances by well-known bands like the Hollies and Freddie and the Dreamers, as well as lesser-known acts like Powerhouse 6. However, it is most renowned for its iconic northern soul nights. While the original building no longer stands, a members-only Facebook page claims that the spirit of the Twisted Wheel lives on at Area, 50 Sackville Street. The Ritz, situated on Whitworth Street, continues to operate as an O2 franchise. Originally established in 1927 as a dance hall with a sprung floor, it hosted the popular Dancing in the Dark evenings in the 1950s and 1960s, led by Phil “King of the Ritz” Moss and his band from Crumpsall (later known for their appearances on TV’s Come Dancing). Over the years, the Ritz has adapted to various music scenes, from beat and northern soul to disco and mainstream rock. The building is also home to the famous art deco-style Apollo, a longstanding venue for touring bands. Stockport’s MoR hitmakers, 10cc, initially an art school band eager to move to London, also performed at the Ritz upon returning home, as did Sad Café.
The Pistols’ 1976 concert at the Lesser Free Trade Hall elevated it to a revered status among Manchester’s music enthusiasts. However, the Electric Circus in Collyhurst, also known as the birthplace of pianist and crooner Les Dawson, established its own reputation through numerous seminal punk performances. These included the debut of Warsaw (later known as Joy Division), as well as shows by Buzzcocks, John Cooper Clarke, the Fall, the Nosebleeds, and Slaughter and the Dogs, among others. Its diverse history as a cinema, Bernard Manning’s Top Hat club, and a bingo hall surely warrants its inclusion on any list of heritage sites.
Before gaining popularity in Stoke, Wigan, and Blackpool, northern soul had already amassed a sizable following in Manchester
The final Factory catalogue number, FAC 501, was assigned to the plaque on Wilson’s coffin. Designer Peter Saville’s headstone in Southern Cemetery, where his business partner is buried, does not bear a catalogue number. Famed producer Martin Hannett is also laid to rest in the cemetery, which is rumored to be accessed through the Smiths’ Cemetery Gates.
A musical graveyard serves as a poignant endpoint. Naturally, many music sites in Manchester are absent from this brief overview, such as Rochdale’s recording studios, venues from the Festival of the Tenth Summer, and numerous bedrooms, garages, and rave spots. Yet, most of these locations share variations of the same narrative, much like songs that resemble Venn diagrams of influence. For instance, Oasis, when compared to Happy Mondays, can sound like New Order with lyrics reminiscent of Morrissey or Ian Curtis on a challenging day (“You went too far, and it’s gone all the wrong way”).
For a comprehensive auditory experience encompassing all Manchester motifs in a single song, delve into Mike Garry and Joe Duddell’s “St Anthony: An Ode to Anthony H Wilson” (Andrew Weatherall Remix; lyrics here). You might consider listening while strolling from the impressive Aviva Studios/Factory International complex to the Epping Walk Bridge, perhaps nostalgically searching, 80s-style, for Hulme Crescents and the bygone spirits of yesteryear.
