“Loved Yargo. I remember a great gig one Christmas Eve(?) at International II where Basil finished the set, jumped off the stage and walked through the crowd before dissapearing through the front door of the venue.
How come none of their stuff seems to be available on cd?”
“Blueskies: Tommy Ducks was demolished illegally by Greenall Whitley - how is that a good example of the Council ignoring people and favouring developers?
I agree that there are some fantastic old buildings which are in a sorry state but there are also some great examples of old bulidings being given a new lease of life; NOHO in Stevenson Square for one.
SR is right - it's easy to blame the Council for everything. The reality is that much of the successful regeneration of Manchester over the past 15 - 20 years has been driven by the City Council.”
“dj "one day it was there and overnight they knocked it down. Funnily enough a bit like what they did to the Free Trade Hall!!" - The reality is that much of the structure of the building is still there and the hotel development on the site only went ahead after a public enquiry and with aproval from English Heritage.
Mat - your comment doesn't do you or the Archive any credit. We might argue about what constitutes a great building but where is the evidence that they are constantly being demolished let alone that that corrupt councils are complicit in this process?”
“dj, you should take a walk down Peter Street - the name may have changed but the Free Trade Hall is still very much standing & being put to good use.”
“Went to a couple of these gigs. I was particularly keen on the Higsons & would often tout them as the next big thing. Never happend - although Charlie (Switch) Higson seems to have done ok for himself.
Was this the Orange Juice gig that the band never showed up for? Felicity had hit the charts & they deciced to do Top of the Pops instead.”
“A horses leg! Did you keep it? - would have made a great artefact.
I'm pretty sure that during the 1970's The International was called Genevieve's. It was similar to somewhere like Fagin's on Oxford St. ie one of those 'nite-club' venues catering for an older crowd (young people went to 'discos' in the 70's!) -including my Dad.”
“They did indeed rock. So much so that I felt moved to post my first artefact (with mixed results).
Have to agree with Tony about not cursing the band by tipping them for big things. I'm the man who once proclaimed Kinickie as the future of 'Rock & Roll, - could still happen.”
“I spent the summer of 1985 working with Mark Swaby of the Jazz Defektors at the Wall's meat factory in Hyde, where we lovingly hand crafted pork pies for ten hours a day.
One day in the staff canteen Mark announced that the band were looking for a new drummer. Such was the lure of any future career that didn't involve dead animals, that an impromptu audition broke out amongst the student workforce with knives & forks doubling as drumsticks & some over enthusiastic 'jazz' dancing taking place on the canteen tables.
Unsurprisingly, nobody got the gig - although I did feel that my rendition of Sade's 'Diamond Life' was worth a second interview at least.”