I've never understood the Manchester patriotism thing, the jousting with London.... Look, the city's metropolitan population is a fifth of Greater London's. It can't compete - you have this great mass of people clustered down South, a teeming multicultural and multiracial mix that makes for pure ferment, plus it's the political, financial, media, and cultural capital of the nation.... it's a place where nearly everyone from elsewhere in the country with talent or ideas heads as soon as they can... along with people from all over Europe and the world, attracted by its reputation, resources, history, image... it's an international hub, a world city... No, you can't compete with that, stands to reason - it's just the way things are.
Which is why Manchester has come up with an intermittent string of great bands (been a while, though, hasn't it?) whereas London spawns outright genres... and a steady stream of great bands.
My favorite of many clunkers in this clip comes when they are all asked about future musical greatness from the city and which Manc groops will be listened to for years to come. Anthony H. Wilson names New Order (already successful for nigh-on a decade... destined, going forward, to be less successful... less anything in fact), Happy Mondays (already successful for a year or two... destined, going forward, to be less successful.... less anything in fact), Northside, and Kalima (unsuccessful for several years already).
Mind you, there's also the lady who predicts great things - lasting things - for Ashley & Jackson.
How much do I love these Top of the Pops opening sequences from the late Sixties and early Seventies? Quite often they are the high point ...
