My name is Mike Cain, I’m 47 and I live in Bristol with my wife Claire and four kids.
It’s a far cry from life in Leigh back in 1979, as an intense teenager with a hunger for everything. Everything from street cred, attention, girls, but in particular music.
Music seemed to define us all back then, and if you were like me, ‘Post Punk’ independent label (ideally too obscure for your mates) music, defined you.
John Peel of course was our patriarch, and pretty much everything he brought to our attention in those incredibly exciting times was responsible for forming my musical sensibilities.
The other essential influence was of course City Fun. This unassuming 12 or 16 page, single colour, fortnightly publication was a force of nature.
It was acerbic, funny, all knowing and just incredibly cool in my eyes.
Whatever their intentions, City Fun had a powerful effect on me as a teenager looking for a bit of a steer.
By 1984 I left Manchester to go to Art college in Bristol (I know, it’s a bit cliched). Manchester changed, it changed a lot! At least as far as I could see from the distance of the M6.
Quite honestly a lot changed in me as well, but even so, Manchester kept impressing me from afar.
The second Summer of love, the Art and the Architecture, what wasn’t there to admire?
So when it came to making some sense of this new connected world in which we can all rummage in that (almost infinite) cyber attic and pull out lost treasures, I decided this would be my thing.
I can almost hear John Peel saying ‘don’t do it!’ Nostalgia is a dangerous thing, but that’s why I’ve also subtitled this blog ‘Teach me about Manchester Music’
I didn’t know as much as others then and I certainly don’t now; but if I can start by recapturing that ‘hunger for everything’ by going back first, who knows where it could lead to.
Mike Cain
