Another gorgeous Northern Quarter video

This time it's footage from the BANG street party on 24 August, filmed by Sarah Jenny Johnson. Beautiful.

BANG STREET PARTY from Sarah Jenny Johnson on Vimeo.

The Northern Quarter, Manchester is looking very slick in this video from Charlie Watts

The Quarter from charlie watts on Vimeo.

Nostalgia, bulldozers, and Humberto Velez’s ‘The Storming’

Early next year, Cornerhouse relocates and is reborn as HOME on First Street. As I sat down to continue my research for Humberto Velez’s project ‘The Storming’ – the immersive large-scale installation that will be the final staged event at Cornerhouse in April –­ I saw a story tweeted from the Manchester Evening News revealing that the two Cornerhouse buildings (the main building and Screen 1 over the road) are likely to be torn down by the Council at some point in the future when the site is ‘redeveloped’. I’d already heard a rumour two years ago that Oxford Road station would one day be expanded to encompass this entire site, but my hopes of a reprieve had been quietly raised by the lovely Scandinavian-style bike park that’s since been erected outside Java coffee shop. I don’t want to lose that lovely bike park. I don’t want to lose Java either, or the magnificently squalid ‘Exorcist’ steps that barrel down towards Caley Street. And while it would be impossible to justify the existence of a stand-alone cinema screen with no managing body, it will be sad to see Screen 1 vanish too (there’s been a cinema there in one form or another for 103 years), but why the ‘corner house’ building itself, the old Shaw’s furniture store which has become so iconic?

From my frustrated doldrums I tweeted this:

Gutted. 'Cornerhouse set for redevelopment as flats, offices, shops, leisure and a hotel.' YEAH MORE HOTELS PLEASE. http://t.co/0iZf8IrCuJ
— Greg Thorpe (@TheGregling) August 7, 2014

…and this:

I'm in a lot pain this morning so I am very opinionated and I love Manchester and I hate seeing it carved into ugly money-shaped pieces.
— Greg Thorpe (@TheGregling) August 7, 2014

The ‘pain’ in question actually referred to my clavicle surgery, but fellow tweeters seemed to sense something like the pain of alienation, and a hearty discussion ensued. Investigations were made into the mysteriously disappeared Grade II listed status of the two Cornerhouse buildings (I know I didn’t dream it, they were listed) and passionate back-and-forths were had about City Council building projects and neglected bits of Manchester architecture. A few hours later one of the tweeters started a petition which at the time of writing has 700 signatures.

Reading back over the original Evening News story it was the word ‘hotel’ that was my main trigger. It’s safe to say that word is my red rag. I lived on Whitworth Street for six years and every day I would pass the abandoned development at the corner of Whitworth and Princess Streets with its contrived yuppie imagery and condescending tone of entitlement and its empty useless scar across the only gay neighbourhood in the city. The hotel and apartments intended to go there have never materialised. Why not build something on it? Legends, the place I partied endlessly in my Whitworth Street years, was bulldozed with meagre resistance in order to build a hotel that has yet to appear (as if its presence could salve the wound anyway). Clubbing in the city hasn’t recovered. London Road Fire Station continues to frustrate and upset anyone who passes by and gives a damn about architecture. Why not do something with that? The old BBC site is a permanent open car park and an uglier space than even the reviled Piccadilly Gardens. Why not build your office/h*t*l complex there?

Let’s be clear. This is not about nostalgia for times past; it’s about demanding an interesting and beautiful future without the need for a scorched earth policy. Nostalgia is a pejorative if it consists only of the endless romanticisation of a thing. When Legends was set for demolition I published a zine named after my clubnight ‘Drunk At Vogue’, featuring articles and artwork protesting the closure. I took a classic Mancunian Situationist approach and wrote, somewhat hysterically:

‘LEGENDS is the mental labyrinth of your DESIRE….!

LEGENDS is one of the ONLY gay/queer spaces that survives outside the GATED COMMUNITY OF GAY PRIDE….!

Mainstream media vouch for the Twisted Wheel as A HISTORICAL MONUMENT and we DOFF OUR CAPS to the dance floor pioneers and the faithful who still believe… But what about ME AND YOU…!

WE ARE NOT ARCHIVES…! WE ARE NOT HISTORY…! WE ARE NOT CRUMBS…!

Every inch of queer Mancunian dance floor is a monument to NOW…!

WE WANT OUR HERITAGE TODAY…!

NOSTALGIA DID NOT SAVE THE HACIENDA…!

HOMOELECTRIC, NOT HOTELS…!

SAVE LEGENDS….!

This is what ‘nostalgia’ ought to be; a kind of anger, and an insistence in a future worth living in. Be ‘nostalgic’ for what you did yesterday, last week, this morning, so that you can keep on living and improving.

You may have heard about ‘The Storming’ already, again in the Manchester Evening News, where it was loosely conceived of as a ‘rave’ style event. This is only one part of the final picture. As we piece together the myriad components of ‘The Storming’, we actively draw on Manchester’s numerous identities, the complexity and diversity of its cultural past and present – clubs and music venues included – in order to celebrate, pay homage and energise the future; and yes, to party hard like Mancunians. As Sarah Perks from Cornerhouse says in the Evening News article:

‘Of course we all feel nostalgic about Cornerhouse closing its doors, but nostalgia only deals with the past and never with the future.’

‘The Storming’ will do things differently. The inspiration point for Humberto’s piece is ‘The Storming Of The Winter Palace’, a choreographed mass action that was staged in Petrograd in 1920 as a piece of ritual theatre which re-played the 1917 revolution in order to sanctify and celebrate its achievements. It wasn’t nostalgia, but a celebratory re-enactment of the recent victorious past that would invigorate a brilliant future for Russia; and the Council didn’t bulldoze the Winter Palace afterwards.

(Noise) Trouble at The Mill

After being lucky enough to be able to report nothing but good news so far, I didn't enjoy writing this statement for Islington MIll yesterday. Our cities are only going to get more developed and congested and loud. Art and music and innovation cannot be the fall guy in this situation. What is the solution?  

"Just as Islington Mill has taken a giant step forward with our successful Arts Council bid, we are simultaneously being restrained by a complaint about patron noise which has resulted in the Statutory Noise Nuisance notice under a 7 day deferral from Salford City Council. The suddenness of this development seems to negate the efforts we have previously made to work with the Council and residents at monitoring the impact of sound from our courtyard and main entrance. These efforts appear to have not made any tangible difference, hence our current urgent circumstances.

Our case is under review and any further complaints during the assessment period would seriously threaten our license, hence Dopplereffekt (Fri 8 August) will now take place at Antwerp Mansion and Cowbell presents Daniel Avery / A Love From Outer Space / Craig Bratley (Sat 9 August) will also be at Antwerp Mansion. Events like these feature the creators of some of our favourite music and we were proud to be able to host them in the City of Salford. However, the short term actions necessary to stage the events without jeopardising our license would mean we would not able to host them to the best of our ability. Artist and audience experience is something we value extremely highly and we don’t want to compromise it for any reason.

There is a high possibility that the outcome of our review will include some kind of revision to our 24-hour license. We are sensitive to the needs of our neighbours and keen to avoid animosity and upset, and to that end we have submitted an extensive proposal of short-term and longer-term methods to limit the impact of sound and outdoor activity on our neighbours. These include additional soundproof doors, on-site sound-monitoring engineers, exterior and interior structural alterations, new taxi arrangements, and many other suggestions. In short, in terms of what we are willing to do to keep our current license, we have shown ourselves willing to consider every possible avenue, and we hope the Council and residents will appreciate this.

However, with all of the discussions around regeneration and increased footfall to the Chapel Street area – which centres around the Mill and which underpinned our successful expansion bid – we are left in a state of some confusion as to how an independent arts venue with a 24-hour license is meant to operate under an ethos of experimentation and spontaneity with a series of caveats and compromises that effectively curtails our ability to operate the way that we do. Islington Mill is not just a bar or a club or a gig venue (but is a unique and dynamic mixed use space within which artists are encouraged to develop and expand their work and present new and stimulating and inspiring work to a wide public, demonstrating on a daily basis that people can do great things, that things are possible in Salford. The recognition from Arts Council England and Salford City Council, investment in our long-term future consistently acknowledges this.

We are working hard to find appropriate and workable solutions to these problems in the immediate as well as the long term and we will keep you all informed of developments. If any of our friends or followers have experience in this area or technical knowledge they would like to share with us, our doors are open, and our doors will remain open to all, so please continue to check out our programme of events that are still happening. Thank you."

Manchester Pride: Pick of the best from the Fringe and beyond the Village

That’s right, there’s enough good stuff going on over this year’s Pride that it warrants a guide to the ‘best of’, and here it is. Between Pride’s Official Fringe, the Queer Alt Manchester collective and the Queer We Are takeover of Bangkok on Princess Street, here's everything amazing you want from this year’s Pride happening outside the Village enclave. This is how Pride should always be, and here’s where you need to be…

Hercules and Geryon by Maurice Vellekoop.

14 August–13 September...

Cockadoodle: The Erogenous Art of Maurice Vellekoop … 2022NQ hosts a delightfully titled exhibition of this eclectic Canadian illustrator of fantasy, humour and (homo)eroticism.; a coup for Manchester; it’s his first solo European show …

15 August–22 August...

Love: Music Exhibition … Men capture men as four Manchester photographers display images of musicians and dancers …

15 August...

Naked Boys Reading: does what it says on the tin, an array of body-positive not-at-all-shy gentlemen read from selected texts before an assembled audience willing to have their self-consciousness challenged …

16 August...
Got Lead: Drawing Sex, Arousal and Desire with Maurice Vellekoop ... get up close with the visiting artist as he shares his tips, methods and inspirations ...

19 August...

Coming Out: From Script to Screen … Legendary Corrie creator Tony Warren is joined by Jonathan Harvey and writers and actors from the soap to discuss the portrayal of gay characters on primetime telly …

22 August...

LGBT History Tour … A queer perspective on the People’s History Museum …

Pride, the Film: Cast Q&A … Meet the cast of a new movie chronicling the relationship between gay activists and striking miners in Thatcher’s crumbling Britain …

Mother’s Ruin: Roadhouse Rehab … Mother never brings a less than stellar line-up, and this Roadhouse bonanza follows suit with David Hoyle, Grace ‘The Face’ Oni Smith, Sheela Blige, The Niallist and more, all under JonJo’s watchful eye …

Bollox Is The New Black: Just guess the theme of this years’ Bollox Pride party at the Star & Garter …?

Grace Oni Smith by Lee Baxter.

23 August … 

Drunk At Vogue: The Boat Party / The Love Party … Two parties, one love, as Drunk At Vogue sail the Princess Katherine boat in the afternoon and disco hard at Kraak in the evening …

Rapture vs Black Angel:  Manchester’s premier women’s clubnight meets the original gay girls RnB party at an epic session for Queer We Are …

24 August … 

BANG! Yard Party Social: All-day full-on backstreet Northern Quarter party with local DJs and party people, all for FREE, outside Kraak …

Madonna Aid: 1984 Loft Party … Wall-to-wall Queen of Pop on the speakers and in the dress up box, all night long at Kraak …

HomoElectric owns (Paradise) Factory once again for three floors of intense partying, with special guests Little Boots and the Crazy P Soundsystem …

25 August … 

Queerchester Film Screenings showcases a diverse selection of DIY films from Manchester’s alt queer scene plus a slection of queer shorts …

The Queer Forum: Like the TED talks but for LGBTQI people, seven fascinating talks from all walks of queer life, plus music, short films and a chance to mingle…

Candlelit Vigil … Sackville Park is the setting for candlelit reflection for those lost to HIV/AIDS and those living with the diseases worldwide …

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