Press
The Smiths
Manhattan Sound (Manhattan's)
1983

“It was their second ever gig, the first with the classic line-up (now including Andy Rourke), and the last with James Maker dancing about!”

“This was a great little club! I played drums for The Brigade, who headlined there a couple of times. On one occasion, a certain Mick Hucknall, came to watch. The club was eventually turned into a 9 space car park.”

“I was at this gig with a group of girls from work. It was a cold January night, early in the week if my memory serves me well. Not many in (maybe 30/40 at most). Remember the dancer and the singer flailing his arms around. Not much room on stage(?) for anyone else. As Tony Wilson made a grand entrance one of the girls remarked that he was "that guy off the telly". When the Smiths appeared on TOTP a few weeks later we were thrilled that we had already seen them.”

“I went to this club when it first opened , It was run by some Gay lads from Salford then. A top club even though I am straight. Great gay lads and I was always made welcome. I really missed it when it shut down or whatever happened. I seem to remember it being quite small and in a basement?”

“The Smiths supported Foreign Press on this gig after Morrissey had asked if they could, nice lad, he even wrote.”

“I was at this show, terrible sound I seem to remember; can't recall Wilson showing-up though. The manager here was a lad called Dennis who was a friend of my then girlfriend. We also saw Sade play here around the same time. If I'm not mistaken, the Sade gig was promoted by Nathan McGough who went on to manage Happy Mondays and Mick Patterson who became ACR's manager.”