Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham has vowed to protect a “new era of Manchester music” as local artists and music institutions navigate threats from all sides.
The Mayor made the pledge whilst speaking at an event for Independent Venue Week, an annual recognition of the country’s independent music venues. The comments come as Manchester’s musical landscape continues to battle against threats from developers as well as the sky-high running costs caused by the current energy crisis.
Andy Burnham was speaking at an intimate launch event to celebrate the release of local band The Slow Readers Club’s forthcoming album. The event was held at the newly reopened Castlefield Viaduct Sky Park and was attended by a small, passionate group of fans.
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Members of the eager audience were invited to question the Mayor, with many focussing on how the council planned to preserve the city’s famed musical heritage, as well as how they can better encourage the emergence of the next wave of talent coming through. Mr Burnham spoke of the disregard previous councils showed towards the city’s cultural hubs, but how a “new generation” of leaders don’t intend on making the same mistakes.
Referencing the work of Manchester city council leader Bev Craig and Mayor of Salford Paul Dennett, Andy said: “We have a new generation of people now in leadership positions. I’m not knocking Richard (Leese) or Howard (Bernstein), but they took the city on where they had to get investment.
“Now we’re in a different position where we can be a bit more selective. We can do it in the right way and not just take anything. We’re in a new phase now.”
Terms such as ‘a new phase’ will likely intrigue music fans across Manchester - particularly while the struggles of music institutions across the city continues to hit the headlines. This list of Manchester musical institutions grappling with unprecedented adversity seems to only grow longer with each passing month.
Brunswick Mill, a popular and vibrant rehearsal space operating out of an old cotton mill in Ancoats — used by up-and-coming musicians to perfect their craft for over 15 years — recently closed to make way for developers to turn the space into flats.
Meanwhile, The Star and Garter pub and gig space on Fairfield Street is facing an unexpected £26,000 tax bill after accepting an Arts Council England grant during Covid-19, as well as mounting energy costs. Andy Martin, Landlord of the historic Grade II-listed venue recently told the Manchester Evening News that their monthly bills to run the venue “have increased by about 40 per cent”.
On the city’s changing cultural landscape, Andy Burnham added: “The place is going to change. It’s about the old and the new together. We have to get that balance right - we’re not in a rush of a development type of space. We don’t want to turn the right investors away, but we are conscious of it.”
This important conversation follows the recent divisive opening of Joy Division-themed bar Disorder in the Northern Quarter, which has reignited conversations around the city’s musical heritage, with many asking if Manchester is living too much off its musical past, rather than supporting the framework and institutions that allowed these bands to become so successful in the first place.
After the theme of the new bar was announced, hundreds of Mancunians took to Twitter to air their views.
One user said: “Why does culture only ever get utilised in pursuit of money making? It's so tragic” whilst another wrote: “Manchester has always innovated. These days it appears we just hang onto the coattails of previous triumphs simply to make coin off the back of them.”
The Mayor assured that he isn’t immune to these sentiments, saying: “I think we’ve been in a period of the city where it all happened by accident, but we can’t be like that anymore.
“We didn’t know the value of what we had in the past. We let it break up too easily. We have to come back from that in a new era, and really understand the value of what we have.”
This feeling is echoed throughout the Labour Mayor's efforts to boost Manchester’s music profile globally, by pioneering a number of schemes to put the city back on top, including the Greater Manchester Music Commission, Mayor’s Artist of the Month and Beyond The City.
Alongside these schemes, the Mayor is travelling to global music conference SXSW in Austin, Texas next month to shout about everything Manchester has to offer. Mr Burnham will take local bands including New Order, The Orielles, IST IST and Loose Articles over to the world-renowned music showcase.
“Our aim is to get the eyes of the music world back on this city. We’ve been trading a bit too much in the past, focusing on the old days, we have to focus on the now of Manchester music, and that’s what this is all about.”
The group will also be joined by Oli Wilson, son of Tony Wilson, who will speak about Beyond The Music - a new music conference to take place annually in Manchester.
Mr Burnham cited Tony Wilson as the inspiration for him to make the commitment - and how the work of the late Factory Records boss and ‘cultural catalyst’ encouraged him to use his platform for good.
“We look after them, we promote them, support them. As Tony Wilson once did to those bands. That’s what the city should be about going forward.”
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