Manchester, the early years

I mentioned my university interview in Manchester in passing, well I did pass, they gave me a good offer and so I went. Why Manchester? I suppose I ought to say I was inspired by the course and the facilities and stuff like that but if the truth be told, it's in the north and so wasn't far for me to travel back home and being a big city was going to be a better source of good gigs than most other places I'd considered. (Actually to be fair, one of the maths professors had been to our 6th form and given a very interesting and entertaining talk on some of the quirkier bits of maths and that had a bearing on matters too)

My first gig was the Freshers' Ball. Whilst Manchester itself is known for being forward looking musically, unfortunately I'd chosen to go to UMIST which was overflowing with long haired engineers and hence the sort of bands booked by our Student Union weren't exactly my cup of tea. Lots of Dinosaur Rock, prog and folk. The highlight of the week for most UMIST students was the Heavy Metal disco on a Saturday, an event I never attended in all my 3 years at the place.

Consequently the Freshers' Ball on October 7th 1978 didn't exactly grab me when it turned out the band they'd booked was Fairport Convention but they’d also booked Brian James’ Brains as support. Having a bunch of folk rockers supported by the former Damned guitarist’s new band was a bit strange but I figured it was worth going to see the punks and then see how it went. Brian James went down like a lead balloon with most of the audience, though I rather enjoyed it of course, even if there was no real atmosphere in the place, except for the air of contempt and hatred emanating from the hairy folkies. As for Fairport Convention, I suppose it could have been worse. I liked at least one of their songs, "Cruel Felicity", but they did it as about their third number and the first couple hadn't inspired me, so after a couple more I left and went over to the Student's Union at Manchester University instead where I managed to get in to their Freshers’ Ball, though I have no idea who was playing.

My second Manchester gig was a bit more of a success. Having missed the first Stiff records tour to see The Stranglers instead, I was chuffed when another tour was announced. It didn’t have the same calibre of artists as the first one but it was worth seeing and it was playing at UMIST as well. So I traipsed all the way up to the top of the Students’ Union building again on October 16th to watch the shambles that was the Be Stiff tour. (Actually it might not have been a shambles at all but as it was Stiff records it probably was).

The line-up was Mickey Jupp, Lene Lovich, Wreckless Eric, Rachel Sweet & Jona Lewie. From what I remember, Rachel Sweet’s backing band, The Records, were set up permanently on stage and each of the performers came on and did their stuff. Plus The Records got to play a set of their own (unfortunately). I’m sure that the original Stiff Live Stiffs tour was far superior but this was decent too and I liked it enough to catch it all again at Salford University on November 6th, bumping into Wreckless Eric beforehand in the pub.