New Order, Happy Mondays, Stone Roses… A new BBC series looks back at the groundbreaking ‘Madchester’ music scene that transformed the city in the 1980s and 1990s
It’s been 50 years since childhood pals Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook were so inspired by a Sex Pistols gig that they formed a band with mate Terry Mason, who had also seen the show. By early 1978 the band’s name had been changed from Warsaw to Joy Division, after the sexual slavery wing of a Nazi concentration camp, with a line-up now consisting of Ian Curtis, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris.
But it was in 1980, following their official split prompted by the death of lead singer Curtis, that their hit Love Will Tear Us Apart really put them on the map. It reached number 13 in the UK singles chart, topping the UK indie chart the following month, and remains an anthem for generations of fans to this day.
READ MORE: Harry Styles’ comeback show was electrifying – then he made heartbreaking confession
In the late 1970s, Joy Division became precursors to a music scene dubbed Madchester, a combination of indie rock, acid house, psychedelia and 1960s pop. Nestling between punk and Britpop, Madchester was driven by bands like The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and New Order, formed by Joy Division’s remaining members, together with Gillian Gilbert, later in 1980. Inspiral Carpets, another notable act, had a young Noel Gallagher as a roadie, before he formed Oasis.
Describing Madchester as “a story that rewired British youth culture”, DJ Steve Lamacq says: “In Manchester, as the 80s turned into the 90s, indie guitars collided with dance music. Rave culture flooded the city, and ecstasy reshaped the dance floor.” On BBC Radio Six Music series, The Rise and Fall of Madchester, which airs ahead of the 6 Music Festival in Greater Manchester (25th – 28th March), he says: “Madchester was an insane time. It was madness. It changed how a generation moved, dressed and sounded. But it was also the sound of a city worn down by years of social and economic decline, rising defiantly to reclaim its voice and leave a legacy impossible to ignore.”
An iconic 1989 broadcast of Top of the Pops on a Thursday night, featuring The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays, with special guest Kirsty MacColl, took Madchester into the mainstream. Lamacq’s co-host Alison Bell says of the TotP broadcast: “Shaun Ryder [Happy Mondays] is twisting and turning like a man who’s forgotten where he’s put his drink down, while singing along to a record on an old stereo. Next to him, Bez is dancing and grinning and shaking his maracas, and to the other side, there’s national treasure, Kirsty MacColl.”
Joy Division and Factory Records paved the way for the Manchester music explosion. Factory was an independent Manchester record label founded in 1978 by Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus that featured many of the city’s iconic bands. Journalist and local TV presenter Wilson, who died in 2007, initially turned a club in a rough part of the city into The Factory. Lamacq recalls: “The Russell Club was a West Indian night spot in the shadow of the notorious Hulme Crescent. Outside, burnt-out cars and abandoned mattresses littered the landscape. Inside, it smelled of marijuana and beer.”
After turning it into The Factory, Wilson recalled: “Suddenly we were running a club, sitting on the barrels at the end of the night counting money out.” Devoid of glamour, it was just a room, but it provided a space for trying out new ideas. And in June 1978, it was where Joy Division played their sixth gig.
Lamacq says: “Imagine the scene. On stage, Ian Curtis moves like someone who’s been forced to dance against his own will. His body jerks and stiffens. He’s angular and awkward and utterly compelling. And this is only Joy Division’s sixth gig. The band had formed two years earlier. Curtis, along with Stephen Morris on drums, Bernard Sumner on guitar, and Peter Hook on bass, had been shaken into action by the Sex Pistols’ notorious show at Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall. From this gig, bands soon started to do their own thing. And with a city full of abandoned buildings, there were plenty of places for young people with limited prospects to rehearse and play.”
Mike Pickering reviewed the gig for his fanzine Modern Drugs. He says: “I just thought they were amazing, and I think I wrote something that the stage was like a block of ice. And this kind of amazing frontman came out, and yeah, they were just brilliant. It blew me away.”
At the time, Manchester was grey and grim. Lamacq says of Joy Division’s music: “Tense and almost mechanical, it didn’t offer escape or hope. It summoned up the feeling of a city shaking off ghosts of the past.” Realising the band’s brilliance, Wilson and co-conspirator Erasmus turned The Factory from a club night into a record label.
They then began releasing records by acts that had played there including The Durutti Column and Cabaret Voltaire. As the label became established, the pair signed bands without any traditional contract. Wilson said: “We felt music was sacred and wonderful. It shouldn’t be owned by businessmen. Music wasn’t a product, it shouldn’t be promoted or marketed. We should just be a conduit for great art to get to the people.” To convince Joy Division of his dedication, Tony pricked his finger and dripped blood on a piece of paper to seal their deal. Their debut album, Unknown Pleasures, was subsequently released on June 15, 1979 to rave reviews. That year, the band played nearly 100 shows.
On May 18, 1980, two days before Joy Division’s first tour of America, singer Curtis was at home in Macclesfield. Exhausted, the stress of all that intense touring had taken its toll. Estranged from wife Deborah, he’d started drinking heavily before going on stage, and had been diagnosed with epilepsy a year earlier. That night, at home alone, he listened to Iggy Pop’s The Idiot while crafting a heartfelt letter to Deborah and, aged just 23, ended his own life. Lamacq says: “Curtis’ death only seemed to emphasise the bleakness of the time.
Joy Division’s final single, released a month after his passing, went on to become their best-known song. A poignant full stop to their career, Love Will Tear Us Apart went to No13 in the charts and remains one of Manchester’s most defining and moving musical milestones. “That might have been it, except Tony Wilson and the remaining members of the band refused to accept that this story, their story, a story of transition, would end there – resulting in the realisation of a new place where sounds, arts and movement could all exist under the same roof.”
So, in May 1982, Tony and New Order opened The Hacienda club together in a former yacht showroom on Whitworth Street, Manchester. The venue became a cornerstone of the city’s music scene until its closure in 1997. Tony stood on stage next to a white grand piano and welcomed the crowd, saying: “Hit the music, thank you, happy birthday, happy anniversary, thank you for coming.” The night made it possible for Madchester to be born.
*If you’re struggling and need to talk, the Samaritans operate a free helpline open 24/7 on 116 123 or you can email jo@samaritans.org
READ MORE: ‘I went to the Brit Awards – this is what really happens when the cameras aren’t rolling’
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: mirror.co.uk
