As Tony Wilson once told Newsweek Magazine in 1990 - "If there is any idea at all, it is about community and collective strength. There is power in people being lovely to each other."

It might be more than 30 years ago but today, Madchester both made its mark and left its mark. Madchester did more than just transform the music of its own city – it rewrote the rule book on how a movement could emerge, free of music industry controls, and produce the sort of bands, DJs and records that labels could never create. It brought dance culture to the masses and laid the foundation for Britpop.

In this final episode of the The Rise and Fall of Madchester, presenters Steve Lamacq and Alison Bell share their take on what it stood for, who it influenced, the changes it brought about and the legacy that still lives on, featuring archive interviews with Tony Wilson, Mani, Shaun Ryder and Noel Gallagher.

“The Rise & Fall of Madchester’ is a BBC Audio Production for BBC Sounds. It was presented by Steve Lamacq and Alison Bell. It was produced in Salford by Catherine Earlam. The Editor for BBC Audio was Helen Hobday. It written by Philip Smith, Catherine Earlam and Steve Lamacq. Technical Production by Philip Smith. The Commissioner was Will Wilkin, and the Commissioning Producer was Hannah Clapham.

The producers wish to thank all the contributors and archive interviewers and interviewees.

In 1995, after five years of court cases, silence and mounting expectation, The Stone Roses are finally back. The Second Coming has been released, and a Glastonbury headline slot awaits. Then on a rare day off in America, guitarist John Squire falls from his bike and breaks his collarbone. The momentum snaps.

Meanwhile, Britpop storms the charts. Blur and Suede set the tone and Oasis inherit Manchester’s swagger and carry it into a different decade. Then, on 15 June 1996, a bomb detonates in Manchester city centre. The physical damage is vast. The city rebuilds quickly, shinier and safer, the rough edges that once nurtured experimentation begin to disappear.

By the time The Stone Roses limp onto the stage at Reading Festival in August 1996, expectation outweighs belief and the performance falters. Within months, the band are finished. The Happy Mondays have already collapsed under the weight of addiction and excess. Factory Records is gone. The Hacienda is fading. The party is over.

Episode 7 of The Rise and Fall of Madchester charts the slow unravelling of a movement that once felt unstoppable. This is the story of how Madchester dissolved and how the city it transformed, moved on without it.

A BBC Audio Production.

Barbados was supposed to save them. In early 1992, The Happy Mondays are flown to the Caribbean to record their next album. Fresh from the success of Pills ’n’ Thrills and Bellyaches, this should be consolidation. Instead, Shaun Ryder drops his methadone at Manchester airport, the studio fills with smoke rather than songs and the budget disappears pound by pound. A sun lounger is sold for drugs. Back home, the gold rush continues. James score a number two single with Sit Down and a wave of new bands flood the charts. A&Rs circle the city nightly, desperate for the next Madchester success.

But at The Hacienda, the mood has changed. Security tightens as gangs move in. Tony Wilson announces the club’s temporary closure. When it reopens, it does so under suspicion and noise complaints from new city centre flats rising around it. Meanwhile, the Stone Roses vanish into courtrooms and contracts. By 1992, Factory Records is running on fumes. The Hacienda is bleeding money. And in a final, almost absurd twist, Shaun Ryder sells the master tapes of Yes Please! for £50, a moment that tips the label into bankruptcy.

Episode 6 of The Rise and Fall of Madchester is the story of the comedown and how the movement that once felt unstoppable begins to fracture under its own weight.

A BBC Audio Production.