When Michael Kay arrived in Manchester, he found himself in a whole new world.
He’d accepted an offer from the new Polytechnic to study photography – swapping his humble, isolated cottage surroundings of Snowdonia for the bright lights of Mancunia.
It was a change of pace – not least due to the fact he had access to mains water and electricity for the first time.
Intoxicated by the foreign sights and sounds of the city landscape, Michael eagerly grabbed his camera and bounded into the streets – snapping everything he could along the way.
It might have been bigger and faster way of living than the young man was used to, but during his shoots, he saw that Manchester was troubled.
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The city was poor, poverty was rife, and gloom hung heavy in the air.
Council leaders, recognising the necessity for change, had just launched a programme of local urban regeneration in an attempt to spruce things up – leaving inner-city slums piled high with rubble as work commenced on clearing the path for a seemingly brighter future.
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With Manchester on the cusp of a new chapter, Michael caught it all on camera, sharing a dozen of his favourite photos from the 1970s with The Manc.
Down comes Moss Side
Fifty years ago, Moss Side was one part of Manchester undergoing significant transformation – as city leaders decided to tear down the old Victorian properties and replace them with council houses and flats.
“Most of this Moss Side street had been demolished,” Michael explains in reference to the image above.
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“But one or two properties were still occupied and these two friends still lived there.”
Also shown is a young boy – standing against the backdrop of another street scheduled to be mowed down by construction vehicles.
In the distance, Hulme’s controversial Crescents were being assembled; making the area home to the largest public housing development in Europe (with space for over 13,000 people).
The infamous project proved to be an enormous failure, turning Hulme into one of the most deprived places in Greater Manchester.
Within months, the block was overrun with infestations of mice, cockroaches and feral dogs prowling through the derelict complex, with hundreds of residents seeking new accommodation.
Much of the north was living hand to mouth during this decade, and although Michael describes the scenes of poverty as “heartbreaking”, he often used to see children scampering amongst the ruins of old houses without a care in the world
“The children played amongst the rubble and seemed happy,” the photographer tells us.
“I’d love to know what became of this young lad.”
This carefree spirit of youth is embodied in the image above – with five young boys beaming for the camera with unkempt bundles of wood at their backs.
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They’re accompanied by similarly-satisfied-looking pooch.
According to Michael, the dog used to follow this group of friends around wherever they went.
Pints and pennies
Michael took his camera indoors from time to time – seizing the opportunity to grab some pictures inside the local pubs.
These photos were shot at Birch Villa on Wilmslow Road in Rusholme – which eventually became known as Hardy’s Well (a famous old building with a Lemn Sissay poem written on the side wall).
“I spent a couple of hours taking photos in this pub,” Michael tells us.
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“I liked the way that this lady had dressed up in her finery. The man to her left was playing the mouth organ for most of the evening.”
Despite the boozer being a little rough around the edges, Michael said he felt completely comfortable snapping away within its confines.
“Although there were some tough characters in there I didn’t feel at all unsafe and everyone seemed to be having a good time.”
A little further afield from the drinking den was a sweet shop – which found itself trapped between two separate sets of currency around the time Britain changed the makeup of its legal tender; evolving from pounds, shillings, and pence.
“This shop was on Wilmslow Road near the junction with Platt Lane,” explains Michael.
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“[It was] just post decimalisation – with some of the sweets marked up in old and new currency.”
In amongst the crowd
Margaret Thatcher was an unpopular figure in Manchester long before she moved to Number 10.
The Iron Lady also managed to ruffled feathers in her preceding role as Education Secretary – a position she held between 1970 and 1974.
The photo above shows “one of many student protests from the early ‘70s,” says Michael.
“[Thatcher] was Secretary of State for Education and students generally disagreed with many of the changes she brought in.”
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Michael also managed to capture a superb shot of seventies crowds coming together for an “Armed Forces Fete” during his trek around the city.
“I think [this] was in Platt Fields but it could have been Wythenshawe,” Michael muses.
“There’s an armoured car somewhere under those kids.”
The city in the seventies
Manchester’s nucleus has changed beyond recognition in the half-century that has passed since these photos were taken.
And so has the typical way of life.
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Take this shot for example – with a baby left outside a shop in the middle of the busy city centre streets.
“No one thought anything of it in those days,” Michael says.
Still, despite the city remaining in a permanent state of flux, the presence of local cult characters has never wavered.
Before Frank Sidebottom and The Piccadilly Rats, there was the Piccadilly Gardens Man – who used to spend most of his days sat on a bench feeding the birds.
“I thought some people may remember him,” Michael says.
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“Apparently he used to regularly visit the Dance dept. of the Polytechnic which was nearby and give red roses to the girls!”
The final image in the collection is particularly striking – a snapshot of a space that has undergone so much renovation it looks like its from another city.
Look closely, and you’ll be able to see that beyond the heaps is actually the neighbourhood of Castlefield.
“[This was] the huge Castlefield fuel depot,” Michael tells us
“The buildings in the background and the bridge still remain.
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“But so much has changed in this area.”
One look at the cranes populating the city skyline reveals that plenty more change is yet to come.
After graduating, Michael moved away from Manchester and had a successful career as an advertising and food photographer with a studio in Wimbledon.
He is now semi retired and works from home in Surrey. Because of the lockdown he’s been digitising his old negatives. Most of the images shown here have never been seen before and none have ever been published.
View some of Michael Kay’s wonderful work online on the photographer’s official website.
Feature
Review | The Lion, The Witch and The Beaver* – sorry, Wardrobe
The Manc
What an enchanting evening at The Lowry as we were transported to Narnia to review the live stage adaptation of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe in Media City as the production began its festive run in Greater Manchester.
As we entered the playing space, the atmosphere was set with a pianist on stage, slowly drowning out the noise of the outside world and settling the audience in for a night of magic.
Launching ‘Act One’ with a touching rendition of the British wartime classic, ‘We’ll Meet Again’ by Vera Lynne, we meet the large ensemble, multi-instrumentalist cast.
This talented ensemble pivots around multiple roles throughout the performance, creating a shape-shifting atmosphere with some impressive seamless transitions, allowing us to “open our minds” and be absorbed into the mythical world of Narnia alongside The Pevensies.
Sweetly played by Joanna Adaran, Jesse Dunbar, Kudzai Mangombe and Bunmi Osadolor, they excel in exploring sibling dynamics such as rivalry, trust, but most of all, loyalty and love.
The most mind-blowing element of this performance, however, was the production; it truly is the unsung hero of the entire show, so we’ll so the singing on their behalf.
Set and costume (designed by Tom Paris), lighting (done by Jack Knowles), puppetry design and direction (by Max Humphries and Toby Olie), sound design (credit to Tom Marshall) and hair, make-up and wig designer (Susanna Perez).
All this carefully curated talent helped create a world where we had no choice but to believe in magic.
For us as an audience, it made things so much easier to immerse and delight in the world of C.S. Lewis’ imagination, as it is so wonderfully presented in front of us.
This was elevated once again by levitation and disappearing acts – the scene was set on the boards and in the air.
Huge credit goes to Gwen Hales (aerial director) and Chris Fisher (magic and illusions); it felt as if anything was possible, and we needed no convincing that we were in the presence of pure enchantment.
However, arguably the most magnificent moment of the show was the reveal of Aslan himself. As this grand puppet prowled onto the stage, you could hear gasps echo throughout the theatre.
Manoeuvred by three puppeteers, this skilful spectacle was a credit to bringing the story to life in live theatre. The seamless, lifelike movements of breath and king-like presence were both majestic and a credit to the production.
Accompanied by Stanton Wright, we had no doubt that this was the true hero of Narnia.
If you want us to sum up our review of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe at The Lowry, quite simply, this show is nothing short of a marvel.
Make sure to take home a cuddly lion toy, of course. (Credit: The Manc)
With constant playfulness and wit throughout – mainly brought to you from the broad Northern and oh-so lovable Mr Beaver (Ed Thorpe), and fellow believer in magic, ‘The Professor’ (Kraig Thornber).
It’s the lattermost that left us with a lasting thought, as he warmly reminds the audience that even when times feel dark, “the sun is always up there, we just have to look.”
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is running from The Lowry in Salford Quays all the way up until Sunday, 11 January 2026. Don’t miss the magic and grab your tickets HERE.
If you’re interested in finding out what else we’ve enjoyed at the theatre in Manchester recently, then look no further…
Featured Images — The Manc Group/Press shots (Brinkhoff/Moegenburg supplied via The Lowry)
Feature
Hazlett at Manchester Academy 3 – some of the best ‘sad and depressing songs’ you could ever ask for
Danny Jones
On Thursday evening, we finally got to see Hazlett in a small, tightly-packed room here in Manchester and have maybe never heard so many people sing so expertly quietly so as not to even remotely dullen the stunning voice of this rising solo artist.
For anyone who isn’t aware of Hazlett, he’s an Australian singer-songwriter who has been gradually growing in popularity over the last couple of years, but his journey to where he is dates back much further than that.
Noticing a few familiar faces in the crowd from his last visit to the city for a performance at The Deaf Institute just over a year ago – one we sadly missed and have been kicking ourselves ever since – he acknowledged that many may already know his story, but it’s nevertheless worth sharing with the class.
After self-deprecating (how oh-so British) about gigging in pubs when he was younger, and being told to stick to covers rather than try any of his own material, he moved to Sweden in 2019 and fell in love with not only a much more seasonal European but winter, specifically. No wonder he looked at home here.
Here’s our review of Hazlett at Manchester Academy 3, 4/12/2025. (Credit: Audio North)
Kicking off with one of his best-known tracks, ‘Please Don’t Be’, it immediately struck us how full and mournful it all felt in the flesh – arguably even more so than the studio version we’ve been playing in our headphones since 2023.
The atmospheric but not over-produced engineering is an aspect we’ve always admired about Hazlett‘s discography, and we were so relieved it came across on the night, with the Brisbane-born ex-pat crediting his talented live band with helping bring that same sound to life on stage.
It’s a regular trapping, we’ve found, when it comes to acoustic-led music; that instinct, perhaps, for an artist and/or a producer to use seemingly as many of the tools at their disposal as possible just because they’re available to them.
Sadly, this easy pitfall often ends up taking away from what makes those tunes so beautiful to begin with – but not in this case.
The rising solo star seemed to have an expert command not only of his vocals, but the second mic that added those subtle and yet stirring layers, and built those moving, almost ethereal effects on top of the words themselves.
Honestly, we were literally in awe of him just whistling…
Admittedly, it’s hard to put a finger on what exactly made this such a special show, but we think it is THAT same appreciation and embrace of colder months and how it’s inspired his music.
Just bear with us for a minute, it’ll make sense soon.
He actually said it was one of the things he loves the most about people in this country, and this specific part of the world, as well as other parts of Europe, such as his now beloved Sweden, where he says he found his creative spark.
It’s that feeling of the weather and the mood it brings so intensely that he says it helped him write ‘Bones Shake’, which was fittingly chilling as he played it to the spellbound, would-be choir, and could hear the soft sibilance of people gently repeating those S-sounds back to him.
There’s a genuine sense of being able to chart the slight sorrow in the passing of time through the seasons, and while some may not be afforded that same feeling from the sun-soaked shores of his homeland, it’s a concept he’s really run with – especially on his most recent LP.
Simply titled, last night you said you missed me, it’s almost something he kind of tried to resist, confessing that he wrote and finished the album in the space of about a month, fearing that it couldn’t be good enough/ready purely because it came together so quickly.
Given that two specific tracks from this record made a lady standing with us well up and eventually shed several tears (you know who you are), we’d say he absolutely nailed it.
Our only minor gripe was not getting to hear ‘Tell Me What You Dream About’. (Credit: The Manc)
He did joke that his set is filled with nothing but “a bunch of sad and depressing songs” and had a laugh at the idea of people being “dragged along” without any real idea of who he is or the kind of stuff he makes, but having now witnessed him play live, we can assure you it’s much more than that.
Bloom Mountain was an emotional, magical debut that found us in a particular place and time in our lives that we’ll always appreciate, but hearing him knit it together with his newest material confirmed to us that his music has to be more than listened to – it has to be felt.
Like the changing of the seasons. Like the winter. Like the cold.
We unfortunately didn’t manage to make it in time to watch the support act, Hans Williams, but judging by the reaction from the audience who did get in there early enough, the authentic but inventive stylings of the Americana, folk and soul-infused indie-pop artist, he definitely won over plenty of new fans.
As Mitchell Hazlett Lewis, to use his full name, he’s had our hearts since the very start and will continue to do so for however long he keeps bringing his relatable lyricism, delicate but impressive guitar-picking and gentle charm to Manchester.
Please check out his tour dates and see him the next time he’s in town. You can guarantee you’ll find
Please enjoy the song from his latest album that he says his mum likes best.
The Manc -
8th April 2022 
