Manchester: the birthplace of despondency, postpunk and two famous football clubs

Not a technical post. We decided to tell you about the great city of Manchester. We are trying to understand how from the industrial capital it has turned into the capital of alternative music and why nobody remembers this anymore. This is in many ways a personal sensation and a subjective picture: I was in this city during my vacation and I write about what I saw.

Appearance

Manchester is a red city. Almost all of its center is built of red brick - the usual material for industrial buildings. At the beginning of the 19th century, Manchester was one of the largest industrial centers of the world and literally the supporting edge of the state. The English textile industry was concentrated here: in the center of the city were huge cotton factories and warehouses for cotton. Now many of these buildings have been converted into apartment buildings and offices. This rough color of burnt dark red stone is the main symbol of the city. It is also familiar to Russia, where for industrial facilities in the 19th century a similar brick was chosen (recall, for example, Danilov's manufactories).



Another symbol of the city: the Manchester Canal, which runs through the center and eventually connects Manchester with the Irish Sea. The canal was also built for industrial needs, it provided for the handling of factories. Now on it ducks and geese float more often.

Life

Manchester is the third most visited city in the United Kingdom after London and Edinburgh, but there are no comparable attractions here. Visited him, rather, to look at the "real life" of England. And, of course, fans of football (on games) and music (just like that) come here.

To rent accommodation in a hotel here is cheaper than in the capitals by 50%, food costs about the same. Book a hotel on the booking in the summer near the center for 60-80 pounds. Eat in a cafe - for 15-20 pounds. Traditional fish and chips take away 7 pounds, the fish that comes with this set is huge - it's almost impossible to eat.

About 500 thousand people live in the city, it is small, I read in reviews that it is “one in one Bishkek” in size. For half an hour you can get from the center to the outskirts of the city by public transport. There is no metro, but there are light rail trams and famous British double-decker buses. A day bus fare is 4.5 pounds. In the center free buses go to the main attractions, which, however, are few.

If you drive a few kilometers away from the center, you can see the usual provincial Britain, well, or Britain sleeping areas: nearby shops with wedding dresses, sales of washing and sewing machines, kebabs, utensils for the home and sunglasses.



There are a lot of strayers and homeless people in the city, they feel more secure there than in Russia, so they freely sleep on the main streets and highways. I met wanderers in Chinatown, who drank vodka on a bench, exactly in Kuzminki, it turned out that they were Russians. The city is not as well maintained as London and much dirtier, which in principle is explicable.

The architecture feels a certain anxiety and darkness, but their nature is not stylistic: there are no temples of bones, frightening monuments, majestic tombs - almost no European Gothic. For this mood here is responsible, almost alone, red brick.

Crisis and music

Industry defined in Manchester appearance, logistics, leisure, and indeed everything in the world. In the 20th century, the city experienced a deep urban crisis due to the decline of the British textile industry. The number of people employed in this sector in the middle of the century has more than doubled. Factories began to become empty, from a developed and progressive industrial center Manchester began to turn into a depressive territory. Nobody wanted to stay here, unemployment spawned migration. For 60 years, since 1931, the city’s population has almost halved - from 766 thousand to 405 thousand people.



By the seventies of the 20th century, Britain experienced a serious economic decline, which was burdened by the structure of the regional economy in Manchester. Inflation reached double digits (24% in 1975), life became worse right before our eyes. Trade unions went on strike in the city and country: workers demanded higher wages and social guarantees. Economic depression affected all spheres of public life: in general, everyone was not happy. The despondency in the title is not a great exaggeration. It was not the only city where poverty was felt, but few of those where it seemed hopeless. This can be understood from the photographs of the time of the British photographer Nick Hedges.

The strikes of many sectors turned into the so-called “winter of discontent” of 1978-1979. - the largest strike of workers of the time. In May 1979, in the parliamentary elections Laborites who could not cope with the situation, lose to conservatives. The country's prime minister is becoming an uneasy woman named Thatcher (no one even realizes how much she will stay there). After a month in Manchester, Joy Division releases their first album, Unknown Pleasures, which will actually become a post-punk symbol.


Manchester, early 70s, photo from www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

By that time, The Fall was playing dark and slow guitar music in Manchester, but it was Curtis with the Joy Division that became the flagship group of the Manchester wave and the first residents of the independent Factory Records label, around which the post-punk industry grew.

Musical culture, like the context, is irreversibly changing. The time of hippies, flowers, universal love, serenity and idiotic bell bottoms has finally passed. It is heavy hangover and sobering. In order to play music, it was still necessary to work in the factory. How much do not eat acid - inflation will not fall. There is no love, of course, and if there is, then, as you know, will tear us apart.


Labor does not work. Poster of the Conservative Party in 1979

Industrial and dysfunctional Manchester gave the world almost more rock bands than London. There was hardly any other place in the country where the so-called spirit of the times was felt so strongly. And this spirit was not very funny. There is a great temptation to draw parallels with the late Soviet Union, where interesting and fashionable, but depressive music was made not in Petersburg and Moscow, but in industrial Yekaterinburg.


Even the monument to Archimedes in the courtyard of the University in Manchester looks a bit creepy

Of course, partly on the popularity of the Manchester post-punk, Curtis and Joy Division’s mythologization played. In 1980, Ian Curtis, tired of the frequent attacks of epilepsy and difficulties in his personal life, hanged himself on a clothesline in the kitchen of his house in Macxfield (a suburb of Manchester). The remaining members of the group decided to take another name (New Order) and not to play the last repertoire. Post-punk unexpectedly got a second life in his zero years, when thousands of bands around the world began to copy not only the sound of the Joy Division, but also Curtis' voice and even his stage choreography.


The former home of Curtis, in which he lived and died. There is neither a museum, nor even a sign mentioning a musician.

The Renaissance of Manchester

The music industry flourishes in the 80s and brings many people to the city who have nothing to do with factories. In the devastated factories began to open rehearsal bases, recording studios, bars and clubs. The number of sound engineers per square meter rolls over. This new creative class fills the entire center: abandoned factories and cotton warehouses. The most fashionable place in Europe is becoming affiliated with Factory Records Hacienda Club (Hacienda). In 1984, the artist Madonna gives her first concert here, and in the late 80s she plays a British house. Madchester's scene (from English “mad”, the title of the album Happy Mondays) arises around the residents of the club. The city is filled with young people of creative professions. New jobs appear: sound recording, design, fashion, trade. Investors come. The population of Manchester is beginning to grow for the first time in several decades.


Photo live Hacienda from NME

Infinite raves and a new culture give rise to attendant problems. Clubs are filled with drugs, and with them - drag dealer and power fights. The city administration, which did not interfere in the development of musical culture, begins to press Asiendu, and finally, closes the club for the illegal circulation of drugs and weapons. This happened in 1997, by which time Bristol (also a city with a difficult fate) became the musical capital of Britain. In 2002, the building where Hacienda was, was demolished for residential development.

Musical culture existed in Manchester almost always contrary to the official one. Now the administration seems to continue to adhere to established rules. The city does not monetize the musical heritage. Almost everything reminds of industry in the city, nothing about the great musical past. There are tours of significant places, but literally two a month, and in order to learn about them, you need to specifically set yourself such a goal. What is more here - respect for personal space (everyday life continues in many “cult” places) or economic short-sightedness is hard to say. But there are not so many bright sights in the city to miss such opportunities. On the mere love of The Smiths and Morrissey, if desired, you can probably build a whole industry.
In Manchester, more than a hundred groups have appeared, including Joy Division, New Order, Buzzcocks, Oasis, The Fall, The Smiths, The Stone Roses, 10cc, Godley & Creme, The Verve, Elbow, Doves, Take That, Lamb, etc.

Football

Manchester is a red city. This is how football fans call it because of the color of the form of the Manchester United home club (and the team itself is “red”). It will be strange in the story about Manchester not to mention football. I suspect that most know this city precisely as the birthplace of Manchester United. Slightly fewer people probably associate it with the Manchester City club.

Manchester United Home Stadium - a huge and beautiful Old Trafford is located 15 minutes from the city center by bus. I was not at the games, but I went to a fan shop.


Old trafford

Prices in the fan shop are quite reasonable, a cap can be bought for 17 pounds, a t-shirt - for 25-30, a sweatshirt - for 40-50 pounds. Things are of high quality, on the street near the stadium, visitors sell scarves and other paraphernalia at comparable prices, but worse in performance.

The famous Manchester Canal passes near the train station. When I was already leaving the city, two geese with a brood of chicks accidentally wandered at him and confidently went in the direction of the cass. Someone from the local joked: "Well, that's it, even the geese are moving to live in Liverpool."


Geese go to the station

Manchester got rid of the image of an industrial, depressed territory, but does not give the impression of a rich and prosperous city. There are a lot of young people here, but also a lot of vagrants and homeless people. There are interesting clubs, but musicians who would be commensurate with the heroes of the 80s and 90s have not appeared for a long time. From the legendary, he has become average, ordinary, and this, of course, reflects the spirit of the times.