Come on, don’t tell me you’re not familiar with this? Well if not, and you like bands such as Oasis, Milburn, Blur and the Arctic Monkeys, then you need to read on. Josh Bainbridge looks at a defining era on the Northern music scene and its legacy today…

So what’s all this about twisting melons? Well these are the most well known lyrics from a track called ‘Step on’, by 90s band The Happy Mondays and effectively defined an era of Northern music, known as Madchester. Chester as in Manchester our Northern neighbours and mad because, as The Mondays lyrics illustrate, everything seemed to go a bit, well, mad, during that time. Madchester was a phrase coined to define that madness through the attitudes, fashions, music venues, city vibes and most of all music, which came out of Manchester in the mid 80s to the early 90s.

Choons…
In the run up to the Madchester scene taking off, local indie bands such as The Smiths, New Order and The Fall dominated the music scene. Although people were looking for something new, these bands did play their part in influencing the beginning of what was to define the Madchester sound – new bands mixing the already popular indie with dance and funk to create fresh, infectious ‘choons’ the whole of the UK couldn’t get enough of. The music scene was suddenly saturated with new indie and bands such as the Stone Roses, James, The Charlatans and ‘The Mondays’ dominating the popular and underground music scene, making it cool to be Mancunian. Hits such as ‘I Wanna Be Adored’ by the Stone Roses, ‘Sit Down’ by James and ‘Kinky Afro’ by The Mondays were the anthems of the early 90s.

The places to go…
Gigs were a major part of the Madchester vibe and of course Manchester was the place to be, making Manchester uny a popular choice. Venues such as The Boardwalk, Konspriacy, Soundgardens and Man Alive all had popular nights in the city centre.

Undoubtedly the top place to be seen for all things mad was the cool warehouse style Hacienda nightclub, opened by New Order’s Factory Records. The Hacienda, which sadly closed in ’97, has gone down in history as a pioneering venue being the first club outside of the US to play house music and to gave bands somewhere to play their new style of ‘rave’. So loved and respected was the Hacienda that people compared it’s atmosphere to Ibiza’s illustrious Acid House parties and followers travelled from all over the UK just to experience its legendary nights.

Mad for it…
As with all strong music scenes, new fashion styles followed. The youths of Madchester sported the ‘baggy’ look, made famous by many of the Madchester bands who helped popularise the trend throughout the UK. Typical attire included flared jeans and brightly coloured casual tops and long ‘curtain’ style hair. With the style came an attitude. I-don’t-care-coolest was perfected by the likes of Ian Brown and Shaun Ryder and would later become the trademark of Liam Gallagher. Mancunian slang also began to seep into all areas of British culture. Sentiments such as ‘safe’, ‘sorted’, ‘mad for it’ and ‘buzzing’ cropped up in the language of the nation’s youth. It had become cool to act Mancunian.

The end of an era…
Like all good things Madchester came to an end. Mancunian bands started to lose popularity and struggled to maintain a wide interest amongst the public. Young people were looking for new sounds and styles and US grunge was replacing Madchester sound in popularity. The Hacienda struggled to keep an exclusive interest with the brand new influx of music and eventually its notorious reputation backfired when its entertainment license was revoked due to drug investigations and gun use on the premises.

The Madchester Legacy…
Central Manchester itself has experienced a significant cultural and economic boom over the last 10 years and has capitalised and built on the popularity, creativity and cool of the Madchester image. Bands such as The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and James have even been commemorated on a ‘Walk of fame’ in the trendy Northern Quarter. Manchester remains one of the most exciting cities in the UK. Films such as 24 hour party people, following the story of Factory Records and the Hacienda, and most recently Control, detailing the life of Ian Curtis of pre-Madchester band, Joy Division, have helped to highlight the history of Manchester’s music scene to a new generation.

Today, unbeknown to many of my generation, the Madchester legacy stretches far and wide. Musically Madchester is still indirectly influencing the sounds of today. It was a stepping stone for music types such as Big Beat (Prodigy, Fatboy Slim) and Britpop (Blur, Oasis) which followed the scene and 100s of bands, singers and musicians across the UK ever since have drawn influence from it. Many of which have made it big. It was no surprise that Oasis’s blend of beatnik Beatles meets Madchester cool quickly secured them a nationwide following. Madchester bands who made it big were made up of average working class lads and have no doubt helped to encourage the increase in home grown indie bands we see today.

Madchester and Northen sounds...
The Madchester scene inspires me today not only for its timeless music, but because it reflects what’s now happening in my home town of Sheffield - the potential for a city to be shaped by its sound and vice versa.

Manchester showed what is possible when the character of a city is celebrated through music and Sheffield talents such as the Arctic Monkeys, Pulp, Richard Hawley and Reverend and the Makers are putting Sheffield on the map. These artists are giving Sheffield a distinctive and unique style which makes us Sheffielders feel proud and gives more people a sense of the city we represent. Many local youths have been inspired to start bands following the success of the Arctic Monkeys who are well respected across the UK and beyond. Who knows, in a few years there might be a film made about Sheffield music.

Now that would be reet good.

Joshua Bainbridge