VARIOUS ARTISTS: Keeping Control – Independent Music From Manchester 1977-1981 (Cherry Red Records)
When Cherry Red released its huge 7CD boxset Manchester North of England in 2017, most people would agree it comprehensively covered the city’s music scene from punk to Britpop.
What most probably hadn’t reckoned on was there being a second collection of sounds from England’s self-acclaimed second city, but covering a much narrower time period.
But that’s exactly what the label have done with Keeping Control, a 76-track celebration of all things indie from Manchester, covering 1977 to 1981. It shows just what a fertile place for talent the city was in that most creative of eras.
The 3CD set is bookended by two bona fide classics in Buzzcocks’ Orgasm Addict and New Order’s Everything Gone Green, and most of the familiar names you’d expect lurk in-between: Slaughter & The Dogs, The Fall, Magazine, John Cooper Clarke, Joy Division, The Durutti Column and A Certain Ratio to name but a few.
But the real story of this set lies with the Manchester Musicians Collective, which organised gigs and encouraged the many and varied talents who emerged in the wake of punk, while allowing them to run the show themselves – hence the slogan Keeping Control, and the name for this set.
It also released a couple of well-received compilations, A Manchester Collection and Unzipping The Abstract, and many of the bands featured on those are here: Grow-Up, I.Q. Zero, Manchester Mekon, Property Of…, and Vibrant Thigh, among others.
Musically, there’s punk, new wave, power-pop, post-punk, a touch of ska and soul and some early electronica. There’s a handful of previously unreleased demos, and some rarities too: an original copy of Joy Division’s Digital (on the ultra rare and much-bootlegged A Factory Sample 2x7in) will cost you northwards of £200!
We get tracks by the infectious Buzzcocks-influenced Fast Cars (You’re So Funny), mod revivalists Direct Hits (Back To The Sixties), and John Shuttleworth actor Graham Fellows, aka Jilted John, whose novelty hit of the same name reached No 4 in the UK charts proper in 1978!
The latter was an early example of the production talents of Martin Zero (aka Martin Hannett), who worked with many of the bands here. He also made music himself occasionally, and a sparse electronic track called The Music Room is featured.
Before they were famous
It’s fun spotting tunes by bands whose members went on to greater things: The Frantic Elevators featuring a pre-Simply Red Mick Hucknall, The Hoax, whose Mike Joyce later found fame in The Smiths, and The Freshies, whose Chris Sievey would go on to enjoy cult status as papier-mache-headed Frank Sidebottom.
Highlights? Everyone will have their own, but some of mine include The Cheaters’ (I Wanna Be A) Policeman, Hamsters’ Animal, complete with some very strange noises, The Smirks’ excellent power-pop single American Patriots, and Section 25’s PiL-like Knew Noise. All new to me, and every one a cracker.
Unless you were immersed in the Manchester scene at the time (and perhaps even if you were) there’ll be loads of new-to-you stuff here, alongside the more familiar names. Well worth the 25 quid or so. 7/10.
- Keeping Control is available at most good indie shops or you can order direct from Cherry Red Records HERE.
