Festival of the 10th Summer - 35 years ago today!

[City Hobgoblin]

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

Ha ha Bill Grundy!

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

The inside cover of The Smiths live album 'Rank'.
The album was recorded at Kilburn Ballroom, London, but the inside cover was taken at GMEX - anyone recognize folk in the crowd?
The day time gig makes for a good picture of inside the venue

 

[Midlands Blue]

Got my ticket from Piccadilly Records and was asked if I wanted one for Smiths at Salford Uni. which was shortly after but turned it down :( Key 103 (or whatever it was called then) broadcast the Smiths and New Order sets the week after. Got the tapes somewhere, with short breaks in songs where I had to turn them over after 45 mins...

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

35 years ago today!!!!!!
Merged these two threads from years ago to make one!
What a day it was

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

The festival wasn't just the big gig at GMEX but other events held throughout the city over the previous week

 

[Didsbury Dave]

I was there too. A seminal gig and one of only two where Smiths and New Order shared a bill. I was 16, started drinking cans on the bus at 9am that morning and was asleep under a GMEX table by lunchtime.

Derek Hatton came on stage to thank Manchester for the earlier "From Manchester With Love" gig, where Smiths, New Order and The Fall played a benefit for the Miner's Strike. As stated, he was bottled off stage. To add to the anti-scouse sentiment, the lead singer of OMD was also hit on the head with a beer tray by a stage invader.

It remains the only time I saw the Smiths live. They came on stage about 6pm whereas New Order closed the gig. I loved both bands but gave the result to New Order on points. The Smiths had felt very "crowd-pleasing", playing their hits with Morrissey waving a plackard. New Order opened with a ten minute version of the instrumental "Eligia", and to me it conformed their status as the coolest band on the planet. There was a real rivalry between Smiths and New Order back then, which is why The Smiths played early: they refused to go on right before New Order.

I was at Spike island, I saw The Mondays at the Free Trade Hall and Oasis at Knebworth, along with hundreds of other gigs, but to me this is the gig I am most pleased to have attended. In some ways it was the start of the "Manchester Scene", because it highlighted how much talent and attitude the city was breeding through this era.

Still feels like yesterday. So many teenage memories.