Manchester Unspun: Pop, Property and Power in the Original Modern City: How a City Got High on Music

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All blokes, and all part of a tight knit group that didn’t lack in confidence or brook dissent, but who changed the city forever. His remarkable account traces Manchester’s gradual emergence from its post-industrial malaise, centring on the legendary nightclub the Ha�ienda and the cultural renaissance it inspired. Andy Spinoza arrived in Manchester, England, as an 18-year-old student in 1979 with a head full of music and politics, and never went back to London.

Finance is provided by PayPal Credit (a trading name of PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH). A sympathetic property consultant tells him: “Gary very much values the views of his consultants – as long as they agree with his own.The “24-hour party people” celebrated in Michael Winterbottom’s film homage to Wilson, says Spinoza, created the aura and cachet that helped them sell Manchester around the world and earn the right to host events such as the Commonwealth Games. Shaun Ryder and Liam Gallagher respectively stand up for more traditional Mancunian values by throwing a bottle at the mirror behind the bar and smashing an upmarket vase.

Coolly analytical, exceptionally well-informed and hugely entertaining, Manchester Unspun does justice to it. It starts in a monochrome world of bomb sites and derelict warehouses and gradually turns from sepia into the full technicolour wonderland it presents today. Andy Spinoza came to Manchester as a student in the late 1970s and has lived in the city ever since.He would leave the practice not long after, and his fellow directors, Stephen O’Malley, Julian Broster and Paul Morris rebranded as Civic Engineers. There are stories about Spinoza's time as Gossip Columnist for the Manchester Evening News, his own publishing career as founding member of the City Life magazine, the Hacienda and various brushes with the good, the bad and the downright ugly of the Manchester cognoscenti, who have made Manchester the city it is today.

It’s a good angle, but the true thrust of the book is provided by the title: Pop, Property and Power in the Original Modern City. His remarkable account traces Manchester’s gradual emergence from its post-industrial malaise, centring on the legendary nightclub the Haçienda and the cultural renaissance it inspired.manchesterhive requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books or journals - to see content that you/your institution should have access to, please log in through your library system or with your personal username and password.