It's History

Last week, while slobbing out at the abode of a good friend, she played me the EP/Album or whatever it was by Freebass, the band put together by Peter Hook, Mani and Andy Rourke, with some guy who used to be in Haven doing the vocals.

It was harmless enough stuff, but I got bored enough by the end to press the "stop" button and put on some Echo and the Bunnymen while my friend was outside having a tab. The reason I bring this up now is that the whole project, having been years in planning, apparently, has all come crashing down in somewhat messy fashion.

Firstly, Rourke elected to up camp to New York. Now, Mani and Hooky have had something of a tiff, with Failsworth's favourite son accusing Salford's own of profiting from his dead mates (Tony Wilson and Ian Curtis, I assume). Ouch.

My own personal stance is that Hook is obviously free to do what he likes. As a man whose life was changed by listening to Joy Division some 13 years ago, it does make me a little sad to see him doing shows where he performs Unknown Pleasures with some mates and his son but, hey, I didn't pay to watch it and it's his legacy anyways.

(Incidentally, it's funny to me to note that when I first put down Closer on my parents' turntable that sunny August afternoon in 1997, they were barely known to those without a keen interest in music. They certainly didn't get much ink in the press except maybe the odd mention of Ian Curtis' suicide. Their rise to being firmly established in the rock canon alongside the Beatles, Stones, Sex Pistols etc etc has probably made some people very rich.)

Through the Mani/Hook spat, my attention was brought to this blog - http://fuc51.blogspot.com/ - and I've spent the evening reading through. The writer(s) make some very good points about the suffocating effect the past is having on the Manchester music scene. References to Joy Division, Smiths, Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and so on pepper the city in the same way, as many have noted, the Beatles do Liverpool.

No doubt there are a glut of great new bands around Manchester. In fact, I'd be willing to bet a few are at this very moment (10pm) playing to about 10 people in a city venue, ready to be told by a promoter he won't be booking them again. The question is whether the media (by stopping the lazy references to the past on any band from the Greater Manchester area) and the general public of Manchester are willing to get behind some positive change.

I'm not sure if there's any solution to the problem, if it even is such. Nightclubs such as South do a brisk business, it would seem, and anytime I've been past the FAC251, there seems to be plenty of student punters willing to pay up to dance away to the sounds of 1990. Perhaps, like with football, the people running things are happy to let things continue as they are as long as the cash flows in - that it's not healthy for the long-term future is an issue that needs quickly brushed under the carpet and held down with a pile of Special Edition Reissue CDs.

I could rant on, and I'm sure if a stranger reads this, they might think "DC, you're nowt but a whining get. Get up off your skinny arse and do something", to which I'd respond "piss off, you uncivil bastard" and hit them round the chops with a frozen loaf of bread. Then, when their nose had stopped bleeding, I'd tell them "see, I've done stuff before, and it came to zilch. But I'm trying again, I really am."