In November 1989, two bands from Manchester appeared together on Top of the Pops and it changed indie music forever. The Madchester sound was the unity of jangly guitars and thumping dance music: big, psychedelic, even funky and a perfect companion to taking Ecstasy. Artists like The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets, A Guy Called Gerald, 808 State and The Charlatans would bridge this formerly insurmountable musical gap.

It is the story of punk and disco colliding, how Manchester became for a brief moment the centre of the musical universe, and why Bez is one of the most important figures in British music. This is Before 1989: How Manchester Became Madchester.

#madchester #indiemusic #musicdocumentary

Additional Writing & Fact-checking by Serenity Autumn.

00:00 Introduction
00:51 The Pre-History of Jangle & Funk
05:00 Punk's Influence on Manchester
10:17 When Punk Met Funk
13:02 Orange Juice & Postcard Records
15:44 New Order & The Haçienda
18:08 The Phenomenon of The Smiths
20:27 C86: The Cassette That Changed Indie
22:52 Chicago House & Acid House
29:44 Big Audio Dynamite & The Fall
31:54 Happy Mondays
35:29 Inspiral Carpets
37:20 The Stone Roses
40:14 808 State
41:48 Primal Scream & Andrew Weatherall
44:06 Happy Mondays & The Stone Roses on Top of the Pops

Bibliography
The Last Party: Britpop, Blair and the Demise of English Rock by John Harris, 2004, Harper Perennial
The Madchester Scene by Richard Luck, 2002, Pocket Essentials
The North Will Rise Again: Manchester Music City 1976-1996 by John Robb, 2010, Aurum Press Ltd
24 Hour Party People by Tony Wilson, 2002, Factory
Wrote for Luck: Selected Lyrics by Shaun Ryder, 2019 Faber & Faber
The Hacienda How to Not Run a Club by Peter Hook, 2010, Simon & Schuster
How Soon is Now?: The Madmen and Mavericks who made Independent Music 1975-2005 by Richard King, 2017, Faber & Faber
England's Dreaming by Jon Savage, 1991, Faber & Faber
Pump Up The Volume - A History of House Music (2001) dir. Carl Hindmarch (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRRg8M4fvUo)
"Rave On: A Madchester Retrospective" Ryan Davey, Ceremony Music Canada, date unknown
"Graham Massey Talks: 808 State, Pacific And Revisiting The Past" The Ransom Note, date unknown
"Inspiral Carpets: Surface Tensions" Bob Stanley, Melody Maker, May 1989
"Mancunian candidates" Nick Kent, The Face, Jan 1990
"The Fall Is Heading for a Rise, With a New Album" Alex Ross, The New York Times, Aug 1993
"A Guy Called Gerald: I Raved With a Zombie" Stuart Aitken, Mojo Magazine, May 2005
"Madchester remembered: 'There was amazing creative energy at the time'" Luke Bainbridge, The Observer, Apr 2012
"10 Things You Never Knew About… The Stone Roses" Clash Magazine, Feb 2012
"C86: The myths about the NME's indie cassette debunked" Michael Hann, The Guardian, Mar 2014
"Classic Tracks: 808 State 'Pacific State'" Richard Buskin, Apr 2014
"The Smiths’ 30 best songs" Various, Uncut Magazine, Feb 2015
"Inspiral Carpets: Life, the Expanded Edition." Gordon Moakes, Medium, Apr 2015
"From Voodoo Ray to Infinity and beyond – the story of the UK's biggest rave anthems" Sam Richards, The Guardian, Sep 2015
"Orange Juice and Edwyn Collins – 10 of the best" Malcolm Jack, The Guardian, Jul 2016
"How M/A/R/R/S’ ‘Pump Up the Volume’ Became Dance Music’s First Pop Hit" Michaelangelo Matos, Rolling Stone, Jul 2016
"Pills, thrill and maracas … Bez and the great dancing mascots of pop explain their craft" Chris Salmon, The Guardian, Jan 2017
"The Story of A Guy Called Gerald’s “Voodoo Ray”" Matt Anniss, Red Bull Music Academy, Feb 2017
"Northern soul – 10 of the best" Simon Price, The Guardian, Aug 2017
"THE INFLUENTIAL MUSICAL LEGACY OF MADCHESTER 30 YEARS ON" Terry Christian, I Love Manchester, 2019
"The Stone Roses are not merely a band, but a phenomenon that reshaped youth culture in its image" Ed Power, Independent, May 2019
"Bobby Gillespie remembers Andrew Weatherall: ‘He was a true bohemian’" Sean O'Hagan, The Observer, Feb 2020
"Happy Mondays interview" Steve Harnell, Classic Pop, Aug 2021
"“Inspiration was everywhere…” How 808 State created acid house symphony ‘Pacific State’" 909 Originals, Aug 2021
"Sex Pistols at Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall films sell for £15k" Paul Glynn, BBC, Sep 2021
"Making The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses" Classic Pop, Oct 2021
"The Stone Roses & The Birth Of The Madchester Scene" Surface Noise, VW Music Rocks, Dec 2021
"How NME magazine’s C86 cassette helped create the British indie music scene" Michael Hann, Financial Times, Aug 2022

Soundtrack
Luar - Citrine (https://soundcloud.com/luarbeats)
Jesse Gallagher - The Golden Present
Luar - Anchor (https://soundcloud.com/luarbeats)

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