Why Manchester Matters.

To me Manchester is the most wonderful place, with the most wonderful people in the world...

I just don't want to live there anymore.

That might sound strange but for all of its magnificent history, its welcoming, warm and open people and its vibrant culture it is a city, and all large industrial cities have a dark side. Some more than others.

Certainly in the years before I moved to Australia the dark side of Manchester was threatening to squash the very life out of me... That of course is another story.

But what a place, what a city, what a bloody beautiful place to grow up in the Nineties.

Lets start with the people, of course I class myself as a Manc, always will and am fiercely proud of my birthplace.

Mancs are humble, decent people, working class stock at its very best. Even the disgusting values of Thatchers Britain couldn't break the spirit of the close knit Manc communities in the Eighties. While other Northern communities were destroyed and divided beyond repair the socialist values that made Manchester the cultural powerhouse it is today stood tall and were counted.

The people of Manchester have an attitude to life and a way of doing things all of their own. We’re an easy, self-deprecating lot with a wicked sense of humour and an appetite for adventure (and a party). But don’t be fooled: behind that engaging, easy-going exterior there lies ambition and desire for change.

You’ll find Mancunians go out of their way to talk to you, to help you, and to give you a friendly welcome to their city. Id like to think that I have now translated those Manc character traits to my life in Perth. We are rightly proud of what our city has to offer and happy to share what we know. Mancunians have edge and attitude, industry and innovation.

We’re bold, progressive, ambitious and entrepreneurial. We like to get things done: the first working canal, the first public library, the first computer with a stored memory, the first split atom, the first test tube baby…

Manchester in the late 80's and early 90's was quite simply a magnificent hedonistic place to be. The whole city was alive with a cultural buzz. Music, art, fashion, at times it seemed as if the whole world wanted a part of us/to be us.

And why not, we had the clubs, the bands, the DJs, the drugs and above all the attitude. And what an attitude, the brash swagger, the edgy walk, all essential parts of survival growing up in a grey, cold, damp, Northern town.

And look all this and I havent mentioned even one band.... That of course will come another day.

"What Manchester does today, the rest of the world does tomorrow."