It’s been a difficult year for the General Stores brand, with half of its estate forced to close – but there is light on the horizon, in the form of a new shop at Kampus.
The Manchester-born business has built a reputation for building the city’s coolest corner shops, where your usual essentials rub shoulders with local suppliers.
Along the way, that’s included Ancoats General Store, Stretford Food Hall, and the now-closed Sale Food Hall.
Its newest site has been five long years in the making, and is finally now open in the garden neighbourhood of Kampus.
With black and stainless steel fixtures, concrete floors, and bright strips of lighting, it’s way more futuristic than your average corner shop.
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Inside, you’ll find a Green and Grounded plant shop selling lush houseplants, and Bohee Cafe, with cakes, bakes, and coffees.
There are freshly-made sandwiches to go from Sndwch, and beers from local breweries like Shindigger and Cloudwater in the fridges.
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Upstairs is an enormous mezzanine level that will be used for events, from yoga to wine tastings.
Speaking of the opening on their social media channels, General Stores said: “Kampus General Store has been 5 years in the making. We are so grateful for the opportunity and patience by all involved to bring this project to fruition…a warm Thank You to them.
“Our business has been through a tough time recently resulting in the closure of half of our estate.
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“Making tough decisions and facing into pressure points hasn’t been easy and the daily focus continues to be around staying positive and moving forward.
“With that being said, it is exciting to be delivering another store with new twists and more opportunity for collaborations than ever before!”
General Stores joins other local food and drink businesses at Kampus including Nell’s, Great North Pie Co, and Beeswing.
This week, the area also welcomed the festive pop-up Bar Hutte for the first time, with karaoke cabins, winter drinks and live music.
Chatting with DJ Fabio ahead of ‘A History of Jungle, Drum and Bass’ with Grooverider and The Outlook Orchestra
Danny Jones
Ahead of their upcoming tour next year, we got the chance to one-half of legendary DJing duo, Fabio and Grooverider, who’ll be coming to Manchester early next year.
‘The Godfathers of Drum and Bass’ were there at the very start of it all and have been able to see how the genre, along with offshoots like jungle, has evolved over the years — so it’s only right that they be the ones to deliver a real education to ravers and newcomers this January.
Bringing their ‘History of Jungle and Drum & Bass’ to the Manchester Academy on Saturday, 13 January, 0161 is just one of three places that have been chosen for the limited run of shows and, as Fabio told us on the call, it because this city has a rich relationship with the genre and pioneering underground music in general.
So you’ve got the tour starting in the New Year and it’s a very limited run of shows — what can you tell us about what you’ve got in store?
What we’ve got in store is the best of live drum and bass and something very unique thing. It’s a great show and honestly, even if I wasn’t involved in this I’d go along and definitely enjoy it.
It’s everything that we expected and with a project like this, it’s not something that’s not really been done before, especially not with an orchestra of this size, anyway.
We want it to sound authentic and that’s what’s happened with the band; The [Outlook] Orchestra’s amazing, the musicians are great and it’s a very entertaining two hours.
How have you found building this as a full production with the Orchestra and fine-tuning everyone’s performances on stage?
Well, over the course of our careers in general, it’s just got a lot tighter and we’ve all got a lot more confident. You’ve got to remember when this all started we’d never done anything like it before, you know — we’re DJs and we were on BBC Radio 1 for 14 years and then Kiss for seven.
Public speaking is a completely different thing than speaking in front of a mic, so that was really daunting at first, I’ve got to say; the first one we did I was really nervous and we still get that sense of anticipation, but where it was a bit around the edge at the start, the audience didn’t know that and now I’d say it’s almost 100% the way we want it.
We’ve been doing it two years now and, yeah, it’s just a process of tweaking those fine margins and getting your timings right — when you’ve got 40 musicians, even if you’re a millisecond off it can kind of throw everything.
Sounds like you’ve really nailed it. The idea of a ‘History of Jungle and Drum & Bass’ — how far back are you going into the genre and how do you think it’s changed over the years?
So we go back to 1992. It’s crazy for us to think that was 31 years ago, but yeah, we’re going right back to the beginning and we literally break up the set into years: ’92-93, 94-96 and so on into the 2000s.
I think it has changed over time and you can certainly hear it when you compare the likes of the first track we do, Johnny L’s ‘Hurt You So’, which is kind of like jungle techno, to the modern-day stuff which gets on the radio now, it’s different. But that’s the great thing about both genres, they move on real quick.
Say if you’re a drum and bass head now and took a year off and then came back, you’d be like, ‘What is this?’ but drum and bass is always like that, every single year.
It’s going through a great time at the moment, probably the best in three decades. It’s bigger now than I think that it’s ever been and I think it’s because it’s been accepted by the public get it; they understand it more and it’s less of a niche.
People have always known about house music but now people actually recognise the big names like Chase and Status, Pendulum and so on. It’s in a very healthy place and I know some of the real purists are a little bit p*ssed and feel it’s gone a bit commercial but the underground scene is still there and I don’t think that will ever die.
DJ Fabio, Grooverider and The Outlook Orchestra are set to school Manchester on jungle and all things drum and bass.
Yeah, and I suppose that’s what the beauty of events like these is you can play to both of those crowds. Do you find the audience has that mix?
Well, that’s why we’ve tried to get that fine balance between big tunes that your everyday, casual listener will recognise as well as keep some underground stuff in so the real ‘heads’ can come and dive into it.
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It’s been very deliberate and we’ve sat down to really think about how to strike that combination and it’s another thing that’s been done really well.
And, obviously, you guys are London kings but how big a role do you think Manchester has played in the scene and how it’s progressed?
Oh man, it’s always been really important. Going back to A Guy Called Gerald who was one of the first truly big English producers, when people listened to ‘Voodoo Ray’, even the Americans thought was a guy from New York and he’s a bit of an unsung hero really.
He made some of the first jungle tunes as well, so we’ve always felt the influence and link with Manchester, especially over the last 10 to 15 years when it’s been really, really strong here.
You know, you’ve got DRS and, of course, had Marcus Intellect, God bless his soul, who always flew the flag for Manchester, you know what I’m saying? And, um, you know, there’s a really healthy, uh, seed in Manchester.
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Strategy, Dogger, Mindstate: a lot of those guys are very important to drum and Bass and a lot of them grew up knowing each other as well, which is cool. We’ve also got Jenna G in the show and not only is she from Manchester but she’s one of the real highlights of the show, she’s absolutely amazing.
Also, it’s really important that we put on a good show because the Manchester crowd know their sh*t as well — you can’t really con them.
Absolutely, and in terms of artists right now, whether they’re from Manchester or elsewhere, who’s really exciting you at the minute?
I mean, the staple is obviously Chase and Status who have helped get [the genre] some radio play to the point where there were four drum and bass tracks in the top 40 just last year. Absolutely insane.
Hedex and all those guys are also helping grow the underground scene but, honestly, there’s too many names to mention that lifting up others so we’re in a real good spot at the minute.
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Are there any favourite Manchester venues that come to mind?
Band on the Wall — I LOVE it in there and, of course, Warehouse Project which is basically flying the flag for drum and bass across Britain right now. It’s possibly the hottest venue in the UK so, yeah, Manchester was always a no-brainer and we’re really looking forward to coming there.
Nice, and lastly, if you could describe the upcoming shows in three words what would they be?
It was a pleasure chatting with Fabio; both he and Grooverider are not just radio veterans but drum and bass royalty.
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From the glimpses we’ve caught of what the set looks and sounds like with the full might of The Outlook Orchestra behind them, this thing is going to be blockbuster.
There are still tickets left to see all three live at Manchester Academy on Saturday, 13 January HERE.
Featured Images — Supplied/@matthiggs (via Instagram)
Manchester
Watch – Chanel shares incredible video of Manchester’s Northern Quarter transformed into catwalk
Daisy Jackson
Last night was monumental for Manchester, with the world’s most famous fashion house, Chanel, bringing its prestigious Metiers D’art fashion show to the city.
Only a few hundred guests got to see the invite-only spectacle with their own eyes, though it’s been hard to miss the massive behind-the-scenes work that’s gone into the show in the Northern Quarter.
Now, Chanel has released a video of the Manchester show in full, as well as footage of the pre-fashion show dinner at Salford Lad’s Club, with a performance from local legend John Cooper Clarke.
It means that those of us who missed out on an invite to the real thing can watch the beautiful show back at home.
The video, streamed live this morning, shows dozens of models strutting down Thomas Street, showcasing the incredible craftsmanship behind Chanel’s dresses, jackets, bags and more.
The models walked beneath a purpose-built canopy (which we all think should stay forever) past local boozers like the Bay Horse Tavern, Smithfield Social, and Cane & Grain.
There was a star-studded front row, as you’d expect, too.
Kristen Stewart, a Chanel ambassador, and Hugh Grant were two of the big names spotted in and around Manchester over the last two days.
Local famous faces were out in force too, with rappers Aitch and Bugzy Malone both in attendance.
Sofia Coppola, Tilda Swinton and Jenna Coleman were all sitting front row for the beautiful Chanel Metiers d’art show in Manchester.
Fashion royalty Alexa Chung posed in a Chanel outfit, while Oldham-born supermodel Karen Elson walked in the show.
And Liam Gallagher’s sons Gene and Lennon – who are the absolute spit of their dad, eyebrows and all – were also there representing Manchester.
Guests were then whisked away to Victoria Baths for an almighty afterparty.
Chanel said: “The finale – the CHANEL 2023/24 Métiers d’art show took place on an emblematic street in Manchester, one of the most effervescent cities of pop culture and an avant-garde one, whose bands, spanning all genres, have changed the history of music.
“In a shimmering pop palette, with a dash of the sixties, the collection imagined by Virginie Viard celebrates the CHANEL art of tailoring and tweed, while wraparound skirts, miniskirts with godets and Bermuda shorts highlight the British accents of the silhouettes.”
You can watch the full video of the Chanel catwalk through the Northern Quarter in Manchester below.
Daisy Jackson -
9th November 2023 
