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Manchester Polytechnic Cavendish House
1984

From City Life Sept. ’84. Student special.
Just a cheeky wee bit of nostalgy ‘afore I go. How it used to be and how we used to do back in the day before cheap air travel; Ryan Air and the like. Greece by coach 59 squid. Wow! You would probably spend another 50 sovs along the way over the three or so days it took. It’s probably cheaper now than that by air! Used to do a fair bit of hitching “on the continent” back then and of course that was cheaper again ,although you were always susceptible to the odd wack job who was prone to pick up hitch hikers. Glad I lived to tell the tale....
Other stuff in this bumper issue of City Life gives a goodly impression and a condensed amount of information about the Rainy City for the newly initiated, from politics to pappadums, theatre to pubs. The Red Admiral in Hulme (later The Arch?) Jeez it had the worst pool tables in the whole of Christendom. You’d hit the ball in one direction and it would swerve away to the other (not just ‘cos of the beer!); must have been on a lay line or sumthin’...The Farmer’s Arms in Levenshulme, summed up as “...plastic plants and glasses, and a preponderance of young marrieds...”. The Briton’s Protection, which, if memory serves used to have swing doors to the gents a la old western saloons and you pissed against the wall; should have been heritage listed. An add for the only McDonalds in Manchester, on Market St, before the rush and a push and the land was theirs..And so on....
Just wanted to give a big up to the memory and legacy of Bob Marley who’s 30th anniversary of his passing was the other day; a huge and lasting influence on music and inspiration up to the time. He was/ is a rare case of an artist who outside his own chosen field of music was as important and possibly more so, as a human being. Even through the latter days of his famedom, although his music may have mellowed, you never got the feeling that he “sold out” or became a pastiche of himself, and his positive vibration and righteous anger burns on. He may well have been a flawed individual, well who isn't...?, but wherever I’ve traveled people always love Bob. I’m sure if you ever head up to the source of the Nile, the depths of the Amazon or the remotest corner of Sarawak there’s almost bound to be someone wearing a Bob T-shirt and very little else. Failing that it may be a Guns and Roses T –shirt, but in that instance it’s probably just ‘cos their “good” Bob one’s in the wash... I don’t listen to him greatly these days but still have a particular penchant for his early stuff, from rocksteady and The Wailing Wailers and Lee Perry but it’s definitely deeply entrenched in the sound track of my life and a bench mark of how good music of any genre can effect and educate you when it’s true in it’s core. "Simmer down...", “...see the hypocrites them a ga’long deh....”; pure music....
The week he died a quickly cobbled together night was put on at The Cavendish as a tribute, with footage, videos (almost brand new at the time) and music playing, with a sense of some disbelief and loss in the air. He never got to be old and much of his music hasn’t too as it is constantly being rediscovered, re-invented and re-sampled anew, particularly in the dancehall riddim-driven scene. I had an imaginary Irish reggae tribute band in my head many moons ago along the lines of Bob Molloy and The Wheelers, (an Irish showband name if ever there was one). I’m sure they would have gone down great guns doing the Friday Sesh at Clynes’s Wine Bar, in the early 80’s....
As Harlem Spirit once lamented “I never got to see Bob Marley...”.As i mentioned somewhere before my eldest sister was buying the rest of my sisters and me a ticket to go and see him at Bellevue. She’d seen him , in Germany and/ or DenmarkI think, in the early 70’s and so wanted us to go along. Well I declined, not being au fait with his work and all, and prob being far too busy doing nowt else; but when they got home they were raving how good it was etc. and I was just a tad jealous and peeved I didn’t go. Well that would have been ’75 I think, during the “Live at The Lyceum” tour, from which “No Woman No Cry” became the smash hit and although I had several opportunities to see him over the years after that, I’ve never regretted not seeing him as a dot at the likes of Deeside Leisure Centre. The King's Hall, Belleview one would have been the cream.....
I’m still trying to get through these City Life’s and there’s still a few left; bit daunting really. Hope it’s not too boring. I just don’t want to miss anything that may turn out to be important or worthy of John the Revelator....I’ve still got flyers, tickets and vinyl stuff to upload so I’ll be back on terra firma when I get to that.
Aaaaanyway, forget Paul the Octopus and his successor, a little dickie bird tells me (Shiney the goldfish),3-1 to City and about bloody time too!

Just seen a little white rabbit disappear down a hole; might follow him down and see what mercurial characters I may meet..... laters ; )