Manchester
Musicians & Popular Music

About
Manchester Music: “Madchester”

Manchester
and the surrounding districts and townships have produced many
popular and world famous bands, musicians and singers of popular
music throughout the 20th and well into the 21st Century.
Since the earliest days of music recording, such celebrities
as George Formby and Gracie Fields entertained radio and cinema
audiences with their songs which were designed specifically
for light entertainment audiences. Though their music was somewhat
naive by contemporary standards, their comedic musical talents
and catchy lyrics inspired a whole generation. In the post-war
era, and with the importation of Rock & Roll music from America,
Manchester has produced its fair share of rock music groups
– amongst them Barclay James Harvest, 10CC, Herman’s Hermits,
The Hollies, and Freddie & The Dreamers.
By the mid-1970s, at the height of the Punk Revolution, and
later in the post-Punk era of the 1980s, much of popular youth
music culture was inspired by the young bands and groups which
came from Manchester. This so-called “Madchester”
music was different from what had gone before. It was direct,
raw, and streetwise. It spoke of familiar, everyday, and often
banal themes, which reflected the modes of ordinary urban existence.
Most
of this “post-punk” music was considered subversive and brutal,
and (initially at least) tended to be rejected by the major
recording companies and broadcasting authorities. This
music thrived in the alternative clubland (Boardwalk, Ha�ienda,
etc) of Manchester, could only get published by smaller independent
record labels, and was therefore more in the hands of its creators
than its marketers.

The List
below represents the major music to come out of Manchester and
its surrounding boroughs.

Alphabetical
Listing:

• Adamson,
  Stuart (Big Country)
  
• Allcock,
  Martin ( or Maartin)
• Annie
  Haslam
• Badly
  Drawn Boy (Damon Gough)
• Barlow,
  Gary (Take That)
• Barclay
  James Harvest
• Big
  Country >Big Flame
• Blue
  Orchids
• Buzzcocks
  
• Chairmen
  of the Bored
• Chameleons
  
• Charlatans,
  The
• Coleman,
  Mick
• Cooper
  Clarke, John
• Crispy
  Ambulance
• Dakotas,
  The
• Damon
  Gough (Badly Drawn Boy)
• Davy
  Jones (The Monkees)
• Delmonte,
  The Man From
• Denver,
  Karl
• Devlin,
  Wayne
• Distractions
  
• Don
  Estelle
• Drones
  
• Dub
  Sex
• Durutti
  Column
• Easterhouse
  
• 808
  State
• 
  Elbow
• Electronic
  
• Elkie
  Brooks
• Ewan
  MacColl
• Factory
  Records
• Fall,
  The
• Fame,
  Georgie
• Fields,
  Gracie
• Formby,
  George
• Foxx,
  John (Ultravox)
• Freddie
  & the Dreamers
• Gerrard,
  Ben
• Graham
  Nash
• Gray,
  David
• Gretton,
  Rob
• Guy
  Garvey (Elbow)
• Haçienda
  Club, The
• Happy
  Mondays, The
• Harper,
  Roy
• Hermans
  Hermits
• High
  
• Hollies,
  The
• Inspiral
  Carpets
• James
  
• John
  Peel
• Josef
  Locke
• Joy
  Division
• Kym
  Marsh
• Lynott,
  Phil (Thin Lizzy)
• Ludus
  
• Magazine
  
• Magic
  Lanterns, The
• Matchstalk
  Men, The
• Mayall,
  John
• Mike
  & the Mechanics
• Mindbenders,
  The
• Morrissey
  
• New
  Order
• Northside
  
• Oasis
  
• Parrott,
  Kevin
• Peter
  Noone
• Purple
  Gang, The
• Renaissance
  
• Rick
  Astley
• Sad
  Café
• Shayne
  Ward
• Silent
  Partners
• Simon
  Webbe
• Simply
  Red
• Smiths,
  The
• Stansfield,
  Lisa
• St
  Louis Union
• Stone
  Roses
• Suzanne
  Shaw
• Take
  That / Robbie Williams
• Thin
  Lizzie ( Phil Lynott)
• Tractor
  
• 10cc
  
• Ultravox
  
• Wayne
  Fontana & the Mindbenders
• Wilson,
  Anthony
• Young,
  Paul