How Manchester is giving UK music 'a new lease of life' again

In the late 1980s and early 90s, Manchester was a city transformed by music.

For a brief but powerful period, music, drugs and fashion all intertwined to make the city - dubbed Madchester - the place to be.

"There came a point where about a third of the office would go to Manchester every Friday night," said former NME journalist and BBC Radio 6 Music DJ Steve Lamacq - while promoting his new podcast on the subject.

"They'd just decamp to Manchester and you wouldn't see them again until Tuesday or Wednesday the next week, looking like they'd had quite a good time."

The second summer of love - as it became known - shone brightly for several years, from the Hacienda to Spike Island, before burning out... blazing a trail for Britpop.

Now, 35 years on, Manchester appears to be having another moment, musically- speaking, as many artists, fans and industry executives once again hit the north.

Last month, the city played host to the Brit Awards - where the newly nicknamed Olivia Deansgate swept the board - taking the event out of London for the first time in its near 50-year history.

On Thursday, the new Co-op Live arena - which has already been booked for the Brits again for next year - will also stage the Mobo Awards for the first time.

And from Wednesday until Saturday, the 6 Music Festival returns to its now permanent 0161 residence.

Are we seeing Manchester reclaim its prominence as the UK's musical hotspot?

Mayor of Greater Manchester - and occasional DJ - Andy Burnham thinks so.

He tells BBC News that "finally, we're seeing a shift of power, energy flowing into Manchester".

He says: "It's not just those big events coming, more and more young talent is choosing to make Greater Manchester their home."

He adds: "I just feel the moment is with us right now. The Brits, in some way, symbolised that. But with the Mobos... there's just so much more to come."

Burnham credits the BPI (British Phonographic Industry), the UK's recorded music trade association which runs the Brits, for having put on a string of grassroots fringe events in the city.

"The Brits did more than just come and put on a show," he says. "They put ladders down into our communities."

The UK's "big three" record labels - Universal, Sony and Warner - are all still London-based. And the mayor says he would "love a big label to have a big presence here in the city".

His announcement last week of the introduction of night buses from the city centre to all ten boroughs is, according to Jay Taylor of the Music Venue Trust, "the best thing" for music fans and venues alike.

In his role as the MVT's England coordinator, he's noticed how other places around the country now look at Manchester's music ecosystem as an example.

While some parts of Manchester and the North West are still among the most deprived areas in the UK, it is recognised as having one of the fastest-growing city-region economies in the country.

Becci Thomson, CCO of Co-op Live moved up from London five years go, having previously worked for the O2 Arena.

Bringing the Brits to Manchester, she said at a recent GM Good Growth event, was "the number one thing that we talked about" when launching the biggest new indoor arena in Europe.

"It's given it, definitely, a new lease of life, being up here," she said of the event, which drew a record global audience according to BPI figures.

Whereas big events can be "hidden" in a huge city like London, she says, the "fun secret sauce" that Manchester brings - including art trails and pop star tram announcements - "really came out".

BPI boss Jo Twist highlighted the "off-the-scale impact" of having the Brits "embraced by Manchester".

The "world class facilities", she said, added to its "legendary creative energy and musical heritage" made the move north feel like "a natural next step".

Like during Brits week, a series of Mobos fringe events have been taking place around the city, mixing music with the arts, fashion and sport.

Mobo Fringe Coordinator and former GRM Daily editor Elle Simionescu-Marin tells us that creatively, Manchester right now "feels like London 10 years ago on steroids".

"There is so much happening," she adds. "I think you've seen a lot of big brands have moved their HQs up to Manchester."

Events like the Black Sound Gala at the Whitworth Art Gallery, she says, have helped with "amplifying and highlighting the fantastic black creatives in the city".

This isn't the Mobos' first rodeo outside of London, however. Over the past decade, it has made its way up north to the likes of Leeds, Liverpool and Newcastle - where this year's Mercury Prize will also return - and across the border to Glasgow.

Aitch was discovered as a youngster by local entrepreneur Michael Adex, founder of the talent management company NQ, while spitting bars at a local open mic night.

Adex, who moved to Manchester from Germany as a child, recently said hosting both the Brits and Mobos in the same year is "a monumental mark for the city".

He decided early on in his career to ignore the temptations of London and to run his music business from Manchester, a place which he said "has something special" that "no other city can replicate".

"The most important thing is that sustainable growth," he said.

He believes the recent buzz around the city has been "testament" to the decision he made to stay, 10 years ago.

But there is still a steep hill to climb for the city, as Mancunian singer and musician Ellen Beth Abdi points out.

The 6 Music Festival performer thinks it's great that Manchester is "getting a light shone on it". But, she asks: "How many northerners are actually getting nominated?"

Only one of this year's in-competition Brit Award nominees, Farnworth singer-songwriter Chrystal, actually came from Greater Manchester.

And beyond Aitch, there are only a handful of northerners nominated for a Mobo this year too, including his fellow Mancunian Nemzzz, Liverpool viral sensation EsDeeKid and Huddersfield drill star Booter Bee.

Abdi thinks there is still a "discrepancy" between the investment in grassroots music infrastructure and people in the north and south.

And, she warns, there is "a danger" of "simply lifting something out of London and just dropping it into Manchester and assuming it's going to work" when "the culture is completely different".

If the music world is decamping from London again this week, then it needs to "give back to the community", she adds, and not just pay it "lip service".

The singer will perform at Band on the Wall on Wednesday for the event's BBC Music Introducing night, alongside two other hotly-tipped local acts TTSSFU and Pyncher.

She has recently performed with local icons 808 State and A Certain Radio and underlines the "really intergenerational" and "collaborative" make-up of the city.

"I definitely feel part of new wave of Manchester, but that's been taken under the wing of the old guard, for sure."

Events like last month's Brits Fringe Lab at New Century Hall were "amazing", she adds, at "trying to integrate into the grassroots culture of the city".

The venue hosts gigs but also runs music education programmes, training people for careers in jobs like sound engineering.

Founding director Adrian Armstrong agrees it's great for Manchester to be getting these major international events, but at the same time he says: "I'm not sure that that so-called resurgence ever went away from Manchester".

He adds: "There's been a continuous development of entrepreneurial behavior in this city for 50 years."

Nick Grimshaw, who was born in Moss Side and grew up in nearby Oldham, will return home to broadcast from the festival and later DJ at Yes.

On Sunday, he says, he plans to take his fellow DJ, singer Beth Ditto of US band Gossip back to his mum's house for a roast.

He cites superstar Harry Styles staging his recent Netflix-filmed concert in the city as further evidence of exciting things happening up north.

And while Manchester's skyline and music venues are constantly changing, making Grimshaw feel "like a grandma" whenever he returns, the "northern hospitality", as he puts it, remains the same.

"I think that's quite an exciting thing, that there's always a new spot or a new thing happening, and it still retains its own personality."

The festival will take over smaller independent venues around Manchester and Salford, which Grimshaw believes is "key" to "making sure that a music scene exists".

The DJ moved to London in his 20s to pursue his radio career, but remembers as a kid finding it inspiring to hear northern voices like Mark and Lard and Sarah Cox on Radio 1.

"Why should you have to move to London?" he asks.

Compared to the capital, Manchester has roughly a quarter of the population and only one international airport to Greater London's six.

This makes it easier for artists and fans alike to attend one of London's 6,000 gigs this year, which, according to Songkick, is more than three times as many as in Manchester.

But, as Factory Records boss Tony Wilson once commented: "What Manchester does today, London does tomorrow".

And in the Aviva Studios, home of Factory International - a nod to the city's musical history - it has another new state-of-the-art space.

One of Wilson's most integral bands, The Happy Mondays, were on had to give out an award at the Brits.

Beforehand, Salfordian frontman Shaun Ryder told BBC News it was "brilliant that those lazy bastards from London have decided to get off their bums and come up north for an hour or two".

He recalled how back in the early-mid 80s, his relaxed-looking band had been told by talent scouts who had come up to take a look at them that they "didn't have an image".

"Then a few years later you wouldn't get signed if you didn't have a pair of trainers, and a hoodie on or whatever," he smiled.

"And a pair of flared jeans," added bandmate Mark "Bez" Berry, crucially.

It has to be a loose fit.

The Mobo Awards take place on Thursday, with highlights shown on BBC One on Friday at 23.35 GMT.

The BBC Radio 6 Music Festival runs from Wednesday until Saturday, broadcast on BBC Sounds, iPlayer and BBC Music's YouTube channel.