The Manchester (UK) scene was a favorite of mine in the early 90's. For those who weren't completely cognizant of that drug addled period of time it was a quick hitter roughly spanning the years of 1989 to 1993 or so. Fueled by the drug ecstasy, it was all about danceable beats and the Hammond B3 organ. I just loved it. I soaked up every act that came out of that movement. Manchester had a ton of history prior to this small blip on the radar, but this particular slice of history seemed to spawn a lot of same sounding acts that I just couldn't get enough of at the time.Looking back a few decades Manchester was famous for bands such as The Hollies, The Bee Gees (the brothers were born on the Isle of Man and lived in Manchester during their youth before moving to Australia), Herman's Hermits, Barclay James Harvest, Wayne Fontana & The Mind Benders, 10cc and Freddie & The Dreamers. A pretty good resume for starters. I had made mention of the movie 24 Hour Party People (basically the story of Factory Records) in an earlier post, but it is integral to what became known as the Manchester scene (sometimes referred to as the Madchester scene...another reference to ecstasy). More familiar bands (to you folks I'm sure) began to surface; Joy Division and later New Order, The Smiths, The Buzzcocks, Simply Red and several others took the Manchester story to new heights. It's definitely on the rock & roll map.
As the 80's faded into the 90's, a host of bands started to make a name for themselves from Manchester. The Happy Mondays, The Charlatans UK, The Stone Roses, Inspiral Carpets, The Chameleons UK, 808 State, The Verve, A Certain Ratio, The Durutti Column, Badly Drawn Boy, Magazine, M People and Oasis all dominated Alternative Rock Radio airwaves. Oasis is probably the biggest name here, but I just loved The Happy Mondays, The Charlatans UK and The Stone Roses...still do. I would highly recommend watching 24 Hour Party People if these groups interest you. It's not Oscar winning theatre, but it's a great starter for understanding this time period.
Candy Flip was just one of several bands to dump a single onto the market and see what developed in 1990. I remember Soho's Hippy Chick, with it's classic sampling of The Smith's How Soon is Now? became a monster single at the very same time. I swear I needed an IV for all of this music. I was playing it night and day. I never even tried ecstasy either. Too chicken. I'm sure it was quite effective putting this music into some serious context, but I didn't need that stuff to feel the groove. Oh, and I forgot to mention that the phrase Candy Flip was allegedly slang for the taking of ecstasy & LSD together. Yet another drug I have yet to try. Don't hold your breath on that one. Heroin? Are you kidding me? I didn't need to see Trainspotting to know that is not the way to go. No wonder Candy Flip didn't make a ton of records huh? I only own this CD single by them for context.
When you mess with The Beatles you can get seriously burned, but that didn't stop hundreds of bands from trying. I remember thinking highly of The Breeders version of Happiness is a Warm Gun so I guess I shouldn't be surprised when I like a Beatles cover as long as it's not note for note. OK, Strawberry Fields was and is a brilliant track and I enjoyed this one off cover of that song by heretofore unknowns Candy Flip. I hope you do too. Man 1966 was a long time ago...
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