Mancunians

Where Do We Start, Where Do I Begin?

In the late 1990s, Manchester was a city in upheaval. The devastation of the IRA bomb and the closure of the infamous Haçienda nightclub were seismic events that rocked the city’s confidence at a time when identikit bands were flooding its clubs and bars, fuelled on anthemic guitar rock and swagger. Stereotypes were everywhere, while the spirit of Manchester was silently suffocating. Mancunians: Where do we start, where do I begin? is the story of those who didn’t fit the typecast: the musicians of colour, the football fans alienated by rampant commercialism, frustrated public figures, optimistic developers, and ambitious artists. Through a mixture of memoir and interviews with well-known Mancunians such as Guy Garvey, Tunde Babalola, Sylvia Tella, Badly Drawn Boy, and Stan Chow, David Scott portrays the city at the turn of the century in a way never seen before.

©2023 David Scott (P)2023 Manchester University Press