FAC251, a night club located in Factory Records’ former offices is creating quite a storm for all the wrong reasons. It appears that many citizens have had enough of ‘Madchester’. This is nothing new but with the Red half of the city trying to go militant against the Glazier family, there must be something in the air. So what’s the problem, why has a city turned on its beloved sons?
‘Fear of resembling Liverpool’ if Dave Haslam is to be believed? The criticism is that if we continue to revere work from the past, to frequently revisit it, we will stifle progression. It claims that Manchester could/does resemble Liverpool in the fallout of the Beatles. Presumably, the arguments’ reach is to those who deem Liverpool a rival. It merely assumes that revisiting culture is counter-progressive. Amazingly Dave Haslam, the former Hacienda and XFM DJ, is a lecturer at a local university. It is questionable whether he is qualified for such a position seeming that here he openly cashes-in on prejudice towards Liverpudlians. This argument fails to highlight the real problems and should be dismissed as being xenophobic amongst other things.
The tenet of this argument is in its assumption that revisiting culture is damaging towards progression. However, it could, and should be argued that people keep returning to Factory Records because it was a purple patch for the city’s culture and our understanding of this era is crucial to our advancement. Put simply, if we do not learn from the mistakes of the past how are we going to avoid committing them in the future?
Secondly, how is the fallout of Factory Records and progressive pop culture linked? Surely those who wish to make progressive music will do so, whilst those who want to make nostalgic music will do so. The bottom line is that those who wish to pursue the arts may do so in anyway they so feel. If you don’t like their choice then deal with it. Protest. Boycott. Critique. Argue. Rant. Whatever. Just don’t make arguments so loaded with erroneous assumption, xenophobia and self-contradiction that you resemble Dave Haslam.
It seems the core of the anti-FAC revolt surrounds that many residents are baffled or finding it hard to accept that the Factory Records and subsequent ‘Madchester’ era continues to influence and inspire. That it continues to attract large crowds and the attention of many pop fans, young and old. The blog FUC51 (NB: FAC51 was the Hacienda) expressly argues for an end to revisiting the past. However, with so many people investing in nostalgia, we must let democracy and the free market reign and allow these people to carry on as they wish. They are not deluded, they know the value of their product, they know they are digging up the past.
That’s enough sitting on the fence for one day me thinks, after all it’s going to rain sometime, it’s Manchester. Where’s the problem? Highlighted a few years ago by local cultural journalist Gary Ryan in The Big Issue, “you don’t need to be Madchester to work here – but it helps.” This is why our town is fucked. Plain simple. From a journalistic perspective, you can’t get anything done without some ‘Madchester’ prick lurking in the corner. The local radio, the press, they’re all riddled with these nostalgic tossers who on one hand LOVE MANCHESTER for what it has produced and on the other are the voices for new music. The issue is that people who still listen to Joy Division (for example) for reasons other than nostalgia are stupid. As I understand it, these bands were so popular because they captured the post-industrial disillusionment of their era. Today, Manchester is not that city. It is big, and shiny, it has new financial quarters, concrete and glass buildings, upmarket shopping centers, posh eateries and coffee shops, fancy bars and 3-D cinemas. Levenshume Baths are out, the Aquatics Center is in. Plus, all the estate agents are pretentious. The Northern Quarter is so big now it practically consumes Ancoats (wherever that was). The fact is, that we want new, not old. We don’t want Manchester to be dying and shit to then have music as its saving beacon. It has moved on. Joy Division is no longer the sound of Manchester because the city they sing about no longer exists. That and the Cold War is over. So it begs the question, why do these people continue to listen to these bands? It is my mind that they do so because they adhere to all stereotypes. They are the marginalised schoolkids. Too bookish to formulate their own opinion. They adhere to the waves of received opinion. They listen to canonised bands because they need to be told when music is good. They lack any intuitive prowess. They use these big names to hide behind rather than to convey new ideas. So when they come to talking about new bands they stammer and stifle. They wait for major labels to back local bands then they jump on them like idiots. They herald bands that sound like other bands that are big, rather than talking up bands that sound like nothing you’ve heard before. One local band rising through the ranks at the moment are Spokes. In essence they are atrocious. They fail to develop ideas, their motifs are void of feeling or character, they convey no greater ideas other than, “this is pleasant”. Fortunately for them, they sound like Arcade Fire so people will champion them.
Either way, if these people are not intuitive enough to realise that Factory Records and ‘Madchester’ are no longer culturally relevant, that playing their records and slapping their faces on magazine covers isn’t engaging with nostalgia then how can we trust them when they champion new bands. How can we trust them when they try to engage with a progressive city. The reality is that we can’t trust them and they’re fucking it up for the rest of us.
The reason why Manchester is in trouble is because the main houses of industry employ those who champion Manchester’s past. The city is struggling to move on because many in a position of power, from Clint Boon and Haslam to City Life to BBC Manchester are all stuck in the past but instead of acknowledging this they all think they’re the voice of modernity. When in essence they are over the hill, coffin dodgers who are, as Haslam so observantly put, “old men telling young people what to do is the complete opposite of what pop music should be about.” That’s right Dave…now fuck off you old git. If Manchester is going to move forward, we shouldn’t forget the past but we should at least get rid of its ghosts and these impotent losers.
To sound out, seeming that there are growing numbers against the nostalgia brigade I’d hope a clear message can be achieved in order represent these concerns. However, at the moment it’s the anti-FAC lot who lack a clear direction.
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