‘Breaking America’, they say, is an indication that you’ve made it.
The Beatles famously did it on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964, propelling the loveable likely-lad Liverpudlians that had a UK-hit-making habit into global icons. But it was the turn of another man born in Merseyside to launch his ‘invasion’ this week.
That was, of course, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, who made an appearance on Morning Joe, the MSNBC breakfast programme watched by nearly a million Americans every day. And his five minute segment made me realise something about our city.
READ MORE: The man who had his life changed forever after taking 'wrong turn' in Manchester
“The Mayor of Greater Manchester is on a great American road trip,” said anchor Joe Scarborough, sitting beside his wife and co-host Mika Brzezinski. Then, we got five minutes of platitudes-and-pun ping pong.
“I was blown away by Manchester when I visited,” Scarborough served with. “I grew up listening to the sound of the city, and I expected post-industrial rot, but it’s extraordinarily vibrant.”
“The Manchester of old with grime is not today’s Manchester,” the Mayor hit back with. “Cities like Charlotte have a lot in common with us, as does Austin. We are the football and music capital of the UK.”
Then, we had some actual policy chat, before a pun or two about football. Scarborough — a Liverpool FC fan — ribbed Evertonian Burnham about the two teams’ contrasting fortunes.
And then, it came to an end. “The interest in our city-region over here is huge and I’ve been so proud to fly the flag for it,” Burnham told the MEN after the appearance, and after some reflection, it seems he’s right.
The evidence is there, at the top of the segment. Scarborough just said ‘Greater Manchester’. He didn’t have to say ‘a Mayor from England’, or ‘Manchester, UK’ — despite there being a city in New Hampshire which shares our name that is only 200 miles from the MSNBC studio.
That’s because we’re now the default Manchester, the original, and the best. It’s been helped by the international appeal of our two football teams, as was on show on Thursday.
There’s also the legions of music fans that — like Scarborough — grew up listening to New Order, Joy Division, and The Smiths in the 80s, or Oasis, Happy Mondays, and The Verve in 90s, or Blossoms, The Courteeners, or Elbow in the new millennium.
But there’s another element to it, now. People come here and are impressed.
Earlier this week, I spoke to an Australian hotelier who moved to the UK in 1997, but only came to Manchester in 2019. “It’s my favourite city I’ve worked in,” she beamed as she cast her eye over the cityscape, and then explained there are 6,000 hotel rooms coming to the region over the next few years to meet demand to visit the UK’s second city.
That’s not to say Manchester is perfect — health inequality is just one issue this newspaper has written about this week — but it is to say we’ve made it. We’re on the map. And we’re not going anywhere.
Welcome to the weekend, everyone.
“Some time around 2004 I started noticing lads in town wearing these really smart, very plain white canvas pumps”
Oi Polloi’s closure sparked a wave of dismay from the city’s trend-setters. Liam Gallagher was one, tweeting: “noooooooooooooooo... there is no GOD.”
Another, of course, was our own Damon Wilkinson. The brooding Barnsley beauty has written an insightful piece on how Oi Polloi shaped the city — and the North’s — fashion attitude from the height of indie sleaze to generation-z’s e-boys and e-girls.
And it all started with a pair of brandless pumps. “Some time around 2004 I started noticing lads in town wearing these really smart, very plain white canvas pumps,” Damo recalls. “I looked round all the usual shops, but couldn’t find a pair anywhere. Eventually I stopped a fella outside the Arndale and asked where he'd got them. "A shop on Tib Street," he said. "They're in a basket by the counter."
“I bought two pairs of the pumps I was after straight away – they were no label, military surplus things selling for about a tenner each. And later that month, when I'd been paid, I went back and bought a woven Anderson's belt and a YMC mac, which, it still pains me to write, I left in the pub a few years ago.
“Ever since then Oi Polloi, which long since moved to a bigger, better shop on Thomas Street, has been my starting point when it comes to clobber. My wife would probably say it's been a bit of an obsession.”
You can read Damon’s full take on his own Oi Polloi odyssey — and what it means for the Northern Quarter — here.
“A nail in the coffin for the town”
Away from the bright lights and parkas of Northern Quarter, there’s a row brewing about buses in Atherton. So far, so predictable — northern town is badly connected… routes at risk… you know the rest.
But this time it’s different. Atherton was really well served by the V2 guided busway, George Lythgoe writes, but then timetable changes left drivers with long periods of not moving.
That meant they had little to do, so they would park up on Market Street for hours on end, local businesses say. And that has led to a drop-off in trade, they add.
“They use the chippy I suppose which is good for that business,” Kevin Jones, owner of a fishing tackle shop, said. “Everyone is entitled to a meal but they need a place to go.
“I think cafes benefit more from the service than us. But they shouldn’t be parked here for three to four hours a day.”
“My business partner called me a loser, but it was the best decision I ever made”
Lee Chambers has lived a life, and he’s not even 40. Originally from Breightmet in Bolton, he took on a graduate job with Co-op Bank — and then the financial implosion of 2008 took that away from him.
Undeterred, he set up a hugely successful video game marketplace company from his parents’ box room. Everything was going smoothly.
Until it wasn’t. One day, just shy of his 29th birthday and birth of his second child, he had a swollen wrists.
“I felt like my insides were on fire,” Lee, who now lives in the Ribble Valley in Lancs, told the MEN’s Paige Oldfield. “The scariest thing was thinking I wouldn’t be able to run around with my children.”
Lee was diagnosed with autoimmune arthritis, causing his muscles to stiffen and his limbs to swell, so he decided it was time to change. Despite the seven-figure earnings, he packed the company in.
“A fellow founder called me a loser, but it was the best decision I ever made,” he said.
Thanks for reading this weekend’s Unwind. We hope you have a safe, restful, and enjoyable couple of days.
READ NEXT:
“We just want to get on with our lives": Night & Day music venue back in court over row about noise
Sir Jim Ratcliffe arrives at Old Trafford for Manchester United takeover talks
The groundbreaking deal that will change Greater Manchester forever
The man who had his life changed forever after taking 'wrong turn' in Manchester
