Manchester is inextricably linked to its musical heritage. A city whose music is so deeply rooted in its fabric that you can't imagine rock music, or the city itself, being the same without it.
Manchester was key to the rise of punk, with the Sex Pistols playing a legendary gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in 1976, before Buzzcocks independently released 'Spiral Scratch' in 1977. The band’s decision to start its own record label is often credited with inspiring the ‘DIY’ ethos of indie music, which came to prominence in the following years. Then followed the birth of Factory Records which platformed acts like Joy Division, A Certain Ratio, New Order & James and the opening of the Hacienda Club in May 1982. The Madchester movement of the late 1980s had a huge influence on music of that period with the advent of bands like The Stone Roses & Happy Mondays. This helped foster the explosion of Oasis in the mid-1990s
