Publisher's Synopsis
At the end of the 1970s, Manchester seemed to be sliding into the dustbin of history. Today the city is an international destination for culture and sport, and one of the fastest-growing urban regions in Europe.
This book offers a first-hand account of what happened in between.
Arriving in Manchester as a wide-eyed student in 1979, Andy Spinoza went on to establish the arts magazine City Life before working for the Manchester Evening News and creating his own PR firm. In a forty-year career he has encountered a who’s who of Manchester personalities, from cultural icons such as Tony Wilson to Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and influential council leaders Sir Richard Leese and Sir Howard Bernstein.
His remarkable account traces Manchester’s gradual emergence from its post-industrial malaise, centring on the legendary nightclub the Haçienda and the cultural renaissance it inspired. Manchester Unspun begins in the gloom of a city still bearing the scars of the Second World War and ends among the shiny towers of an aspiring twenty-first-century metropolis.
It is an insider’s tale of deals done, government and corporate decision-making, nightclubs, music and entrepreneurs.
There is a line from the song "Natty Dread" by Bob Marley that goes "If a egg Natty inna de red". Marley is saying "if there is life, then I will be at the centre of it". The same can be said of Andy Spinoza in Manchester. Over the past forty years, the most culturally significant period in Manchester's history, Spinoza has been witness to and chronicler of the rise and rise of this city. He always looked the part. He is a writer and journalist, and I am pretty sure that in his City Life column he had a trilby with a pencil tucked behind his ear and a notepad in his pocket. Every great city needs a great chronicler. We are lucky to have Andy. Read on.' - Lemn Sissay
