Madchester Part Three

The Smiths

In the autumn of 1988, a series of record releases came together as the first rumblings of a serious new music scene in Manchester.

In October, the Stone Roses released "Elephant Stone" (produced by Peter Hook of New Order) as a single. Also in October, Happy Mondays released the single "Wrote for Luck" (followed by the Bummed album, produced by Martin Hannett, in November). In November, A Guy Called Gerald released his first solo single, "Voodoo Ray".

Although none of these singles achieved mainstream success, all three got attention in Manchester, and "Wrote for Luck" and "Voodoo Ray" were recognised as significant records nationally within the indie and dance communities respectively.

The growth of the local scene had been boosted by the success of the Haçienda's pioneering Ibiza nights in the summer of 1988 and the launch of the Hot acid house night (hosted by Mike Pickering and John Da Silva) in November.

By December, some sense had started to develop in the British music press that there was something going on in the city. According to Sean O'Hagan, writing in the NME (17/12/88): "There is a particularly credible music biz rumour-come theory that certain Northern towns– Manchester being the prime example– have had their water supply treated with small doses of mind-expanding chemicals ... Everyone from Happy Mondays to the severely disorientated Morrissey conform to the theory in some way. Enter A Guy Called Gerald, out of his box on the limitless possibilities of a bank of keyboards"

However, the enthusiasm of the media at this stage shouldn't be overstated. The idea that the whole country should be focussing on Manchester developed slowly.

Interest in the Stone Roses increased as they gigged around the country and released the "Made of Stone" single in February 1989. This didn't chart, but was well received and the band were looking like they were on the brink of being the biggest thing in the country by the time they release their eponymous debut album (produced by John Leckie) in March.

Bob Stanley (later of Saint Etienne), reviewing the album in Melody Maker (29/4/89) wrote: "this is simply the best debut LP I've heard in my record buying lifetime. Forget everybody else. Forget work tomorrow"
The NME didn't put it quite so strongly, but reported nonetheless that it was being talked of as "the greatest album ever made".