When you think of Manchester music, you probably think Oasis, The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays and not quite the pop and Clubland-style bangers of the 90s and 00s. And really, we wouldn’t blame you.
But there are a ton or artists to come out of our great city, aside from the bucket hat wearing Madchester crowd, too with pop, dance, garage and house tracks from back in the day that are still played now.
So, here’s a selection of oldies, goldies and a couple of newbies to unlock the nostalgia of those forgotten nights and festival moments. Scroll to the playlist at the bottom to listen to them all.
LMC vs. U2 – Take Me to the Clouds Above
Forever a summer anthem in our eyes, the 2004 hit ‘Take Me to The Clouds Above’ by Manchester trio LMC was the most played track on UK radio at the time of its release. It peaked at number one in the UK charts for two consecutive weeks.
The song is actually a mash up of Whitney Houston’s 1986 hit ‘How Will I Know’ with a sample of U2’s ‘With or Without You’, which most people don’t know. Nor Whitney Houston or U2 were ever present when the song was recorded, but U2 are still listed as one of the song’s artists.
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it became LMC’s most popular track of their own. But they’ve since produced for the likes of Avicii, Jessie J, New Order, Craig David and Jackson 5 – a seriously diverse catalogue if you ask me.
Sweet Female Attitude – Flowers
Sweet Female Attitude.
When Manchester duo Sweet Female Attitude released this garage classic in 2000, it landed itself in the top 40 biggest selling songs of the year and was awarded platinum certification with more than 600,000 sales and streams.
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It’s experienced a resurgence in more recent years though, with multiple covers and samples bringing it back into our lives thanks to DJ Spoony, the Sugababes and by Nathan Dawe and Jaykae.
Unfortunately for them, it was dubbed a bit of a ‘one hit wonder’. But what a hit to bow out with.
JP Cooper & Jonus Blue – Perfect Strangers
Jonas Blue’s huge track ‘Perfect Strangers’ featuring vocals from JP Cooper went platinum in 2016 and Cooper’s solo single ‘September Song’ followed. You know them both too well, you couldn’t escape them on the radio – and you could probably instinctively still sing along to every word.
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But, did you know JP is Mancunian?
Born and raised in little old Middleton, now the soulful singer boasts a whopping 11.6 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Go on, lad, for representing the boroughs.
Dario G – Sunchyme
Okay, Dario G actually formed in Cheshire but we’ll let that slide because it’s a banger. This summery one, ‘Sunchyme’, was the debut single from electronic music trio, released in 1997.
Now just one of the original members remain, Paul Spencer. He’s recently made a comeback in the charts working with the likes of Clean Bandit and Jess Glynne on his 2020 album, ‘Hola’ which got to number 3 in the UK Dance Album chart.
A proper summer classic. If you don’t think about drinking cocktails on a European beach whilst listening to this, there’s something wrong with you.
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Chemical Brothers – Hey Boy Hey Girl
Forming whilst at Manchester Uni in the late 80s, the Chemical Brothers rose to fame in the 90s to become some of the ultimate pioneers of electronic music. The absolute belter that is ‘Hey Boy Hey Girl’ came in 1999, and remains (arguably) one of the most iconic dance tracks to grace the UK charts.
M People – Moving On Up
This one needs no introduction. The soulful sounds of M People have been around since 1990. You only need to hear the intro to ‘Moving On Up’ and it’ll be stuck in your head all day – oops, sorry.
But the name M People is taken from the first letter of the first name of band member Mike Pickering, who over the years has also become synonymous with the Haçienda years. Whilst in December 2016, Billboard ranked them as the 83rd most successful dance artist of all time with over 11 million records sold worldwide.
N-Trance – Set You Free
Dance group N-Trance.
Originating in Oldham, N-Trance were one of the biggest-selling UK dance artists of the 90s and the legendary song ‘Set You Free’ is a certified clubland banger.
N-Trance’s Kevin O’Toole has said the song was inspired by a night out at the Haçienda a couple of years prior to producing the song. The first release of it only made it to number 39 in the Top 40 UK Charts in 1994 though. But a re-release in 1995 gave it a bump all the way to number 2. And rightly so because this is iconic stuff.
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K-Klass – Rhythm Is A Mystery
K-Klass met in the 1980s at The Haçienda. They soon became known for their remixes of popular songs like . But the first hit of their own was ‘Rhythm Is A Mystery’ in 1991. It sort of flopped when it was first released, however upon a re-release later that year, it charted at number 3 un the UK singles chart.
Calvin Harris & Alesso – Under Control ft. Hurts
If this doesn’t bring back clubbing memories amongst the under 30s, then nothing will. Hurts provide the vocals on this monster dance track ‘Under Control’ produced by Calvin Harris and Alesso.
Made up of vocalist Theo Hutchcraft and instrumentalist Adam Anderson, Hurts formed in Manchester more than 10 years ago. And their debut album ‘Happiness’ in 2010 achieved platinum states thirteen times over across Europe.
Ben Pearce – What I Might Do
The debut single from Manchester producer Ben Pearce went straight to the top of Beatport’s Deep House chart. If you frequented the clubs on Deansgate Locks circa 2013, ‘What I Might Do’ one was played on repeat so this surely has to bring back some memories of £2 vodka and Red Bulls. This deep house track with bluesy vocals was – and still is – a personal fave.
Have a listen to them all below!
Featured image: Chemical Brothers/Getty Image Archive
Music
Review | Villanelle debut: Liam Gallagher’s son’s band release their first track – here’s our review
Danny Jones
Liam Gallagher’s son, Gene, and his band Villanelle, have officially released their debut single to the masses, and since we’re still very much immersing ourselves in everything even remotely to do with Oasis, we thought we’d give this first track a review.
Now, if you’re expecting a familiar Britpop vibe like his dad and uncle used to bash out back in the day, you’d be very wrong…
It’s one thing to settle into something similar to what you’ve grown up around and try to continue a lineage if you’re from a successful family – especially with a legacy as important and influential as the one left by Liam and Noel – but we’re glad to report they’ve done something pretty different.
24-year-old Gene Gallagher and his bandmates Ben Taylor (guitar), Jack Schiavo (bass), and Andrew Richmond (drums) haven’t just tried to do an impression of Oasis; instead, they’ve found their own sound, and while it does give somewhat of an old-school flavour, it’s not what we expected.
It takes literally milliseconds for you to click into realising the vibe they’re going for.
‘Hinge’ is a simplistic but hard-hitting, grungey and dark debut from Villanelle, who, despite having played a number of in-progress songs live over the last year or so, have only just dropped their first studio single.
In fact, they’ve actually taken the admittedly bizarre and unorthodox first steps of having already played live with Liam Gallagher on the Definitely Maybe 30th anniversary tour before they actually released anything people can easily listen to outside of their live performances.
Nevertheless, the young four-piece introduces Villanelle as the latest post-punk outfit amidst the ongoing revival of the classic rock genre.
That is to say that punk is a tried and true classic style of music, not that these lads are trying to sound like The Rolling Stones…
Anyway, we’re getting sidetracked: Villanelle draw plenty of influences from both original and contemporary examples of this sonic subculture, and while it isn’t explosive per se, ‘Hinge’ is short, direct and hits the same formulaic notes.
It’s also fair to say you can hear a bit of the recognisable LG whine in Gene’s vocals at times, too. Listen to it in full down below and see if you agree.
Even the basic found-footage style video fits into the same category.
To call it straightforward isn’t intended as any kind of a diss, by the way – some of our favourite tunes and best artists spearheading the renaissance of the punk scene write like this.
What we will say is that it looks like bloody good fun to both play and listen to in a small, sweaty room, with plenty of pits and people bouncing off the walls.
Gallagher Sr. might be surprised to see his son going for a slightly heavier, more hardcore route with his sound, but he can’t accuse him of forgetting his roots as the child of a ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Star.’
The boys are actually hitting the road this winter, including a date at The Castle Hotel in the Northern Quarter, if you fancy grabbing a ticket.
You can grab your tickets to see Villanelle on tour HERE, and in the meantime, let us know what you think of their debut track down in the comments.
Johnny Marr teases his work on upcoming Gorillaz album
Danny Jones
Legendary Manchester musician Johnny Marr has revealed he features on the new Gorillaz album, adding even more interest in the highly anticipated release.
The Mountain is the ninth studio LP from the musical collective led by Damon Albarn, which is set to drop in early 2026, more than three years on from their last album, Cracker Island.
Although the virtual band made up of several real-life creatives (though the ex-Blur frontman and artist, Jamie Hewlett, technically remain the only two consistent core members) hasn’t been away for too long, each new project brings a wave of excitement.
With that in mind, we have no shame in admitting we have even more interest in Gorillaz’s latest album now that we know Johnny Marr is attached to it.
I’m pleased to share that I appear on four tracks on the upcoming Gorillaz album The Mountain. It’s a privilege to be a part of this record along with so many great artists. #Gorillaz#JohnnyMarrpic.twitter.com/KXVZxgyGg9
In the new rundown of tunes already posted earlier this month, the former Smiths songwriter and lead guitarist features on four different songs on the new record. You can see it in full down below:
Gorrilaz – The Mountain tracklist
1. The Mountain (feat. Dennis Hopper, Ajay Prasanna, Anoushka Shankar, Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash) 2. The Moon Cave (feat. Asha Puthli, Bobby Womack, Dave Jolicoeur, Jalen Ngonda and Black Thought) 3. The Happy Dictator (feat. Sparks) 4. The Hardest Thing (feat. Tony Allen) 5. Orange County (feat. Bizarrap, Kara Jackson and Anoushka Shankar) 6. The God of Lying (feat. IDLES) 7. The Empty Dream Machine (feat. Black Thought, Johnny Marr and Anoushka Shankar) 8. The Manifesto (feat. Trueno and Proof) 9. The Plastic Guru (feat. Johnny Marr and Anoushka Shankar) 10. Delirium (feat. Mark E. Smith) 11. Damascus (feat. Omar Souleyman and Yasiin Bey) 12. The Shadowy Light (feat. Asha Bhosle, Gruff Rhys, Ajay Prasanna, Amaan Ali Bangash, and Ayaan Ali Bangash) 13. Casablanca (feat. Paul Simonon and Johnny Marr) 14. The Sweet Prince (feat. Ajay Prasanna, Johnny Marr and Anoushka Shankar) 15. The Sad God (feat. Black Thought, Ajay Prasanna and Anoushka Shankar)
As you can see, the 61-year-old appears for the first time on song seven, ‘The Empty Dream Machine’, as well as ‘The Plastic Guru’, ‘Casablanca’, and the penultimate track on the album, ‘The Sweet Prince’.
It’ll be interesting to see how he fits into the captivating soundscape already teased by the group, with Gorillaz having now shared ‘The Happy Dictator’ featuring art pop duo Sparks.
A strong and politically loaded start.
Marr – who only released his fourth batch of solo material, Fever Dream Pts 1-4, back in 2022 – has continued to craft and produce with countless other artists over the past few decades, sharing the studio with fellow icons such as Noel Gallagher, Billy Bragg, Talking Heads and many more.
He even helped create the score for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 soundtrack with legendary composer Hans Zimmer.
That being said, we can only hope to hear some of his famous guitar tones sprinkled throughout this album, though it’s still unclear as to exactly how much input he had on The Mountain overall.
What we do know about the album is that it’s the first to be released via Albarn’s new record label KONG; it’s 15 tracks, and was largely made following extended recording sessions across India, with the likes of Ajay Prasanna, Omar Souleyman and Anoushka Shankar, joining IDLES, Jalen Ngonda and other collabs.
Perhaps most excitingly, the announcement of ‘Gorillaz no.9’ came alongside a series of tour dates, including one right here in Manchester. We can’t wait to see 2D, Murdoc Niccals, Russel Hobbs and Noodle ‘live’ in 0161.
Hannah Starkie -
18th June 2021 
