Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
From Manchester’s backstreets to global dancefloors – the untold story of a musical pioneer.
Beginning on the night in November 1963 when his mum took him to see the Beatles live at Manchester’s ABC Cinema, Mike Pickering takes the reader through sixty years of clubs, clothes, gigs, record labels, football matches and politics.
Pickering has lived through decades of rapid change in popular music. As an influential DJ he introduced house music into the legendary Haçienda. He signed Happy Mondays and James to Factory Records before working with Kasabian, Gossip and Calvin Harris at Sony. His Mercury Prize-winning, multi-million-selling group M People transformed the music industry's attitude to dance music. As he tells his remarkable story he introduces an array of friends and collaborators, many of whom would become important – and sometimes notorious – figures in music history.
Manchester must dance is a revelatory insider’s account that moves from the cramped back streets of 1950s north Manchester on a journey deep into music, the city and the wider world. It features forewords from some of those Pickering inspired: Martin Fry, Johnny Marr, Noel Gallagher and Calvin Harris.
‘Already my essential music book of the year. Mike Pickering is an unassuming God of popular culture, and nobody is better placed to tell the story of Manchester's ascent from post-industrial dereliction to the artistic fulcrum of these islands.’
Irvine Welsh
‘Mike Pickering should be given a knighthood for services to clubbing.’
Noel Gallagher
‘Like a musical Zelig, Pickering was there for fucking everything.’
John Niven, author of Kill Your Friends
‘A playful, picaresque, impossible-to-put-down memoir that could only have come from one of Manchester's best-loved DJs.’
Audrey Golden, author of I Thought I Heard You Speak: Women at Factory Records
‘The other side of Manchester: its dance culture. Mike Pickering was there, and he tells a great story.’
Jon Savage, author of The Secret Public
‘Haçienda legend Mike Pickering sends postcards from his pioneering post-punk career. With highlights including Happy Mondays, James, the Mercury Prize and Brit Award-winning M People, Kasabian, Calvin Harris and Gossip (with a few spicy lowlights for contrast), shapeshifter Pickering reveals an extraordinary life making and playing music. If his mission was to change things and add to Manchester history, Anthony H. Wilson would have said Audaces fortuna juvat (fortune favours the bold). To that we can add “mission accomplished”. I was in awe before and am more so now.’
DJ Paulette, author of Welcome to the club
‘From the joyful mayhem of a Beatles show to youth culture’s death-by-big-tech, Mike Pickering’s life encompasses the era when pop music cracked open the sky to offer new horizons of mobility and meaning. He has spent it discovering, shaping and sharing the sounds that made the planet spin, and his tale is told with wit, honesty and revelation.’
Andy Spinoza, author of Manchester unspun
‘Not sure I could get close to achieving what Mike Pickering has if I lived ten lifetimes. The man is an icon. If you need convincing of it then read this extraordinary memoir!’
Nihal Arthanayake, author, broadcaster, podcaster
'A hugely important addition to our understanding of British club culture.'
DJ Greg Wilson
'One of THE music books of the last few years.'
Andy Thomas, Faith Fanzine
'There are DJ memoirs that chronicle careers, and there are DJ memoirs that chronicle cultures. Mike Pickering’s Manchester must dance sits firmly in the latter camp.'
Damion Pell, Decoded Magazine
Mike Pickering began his career at Factory Records in the early 1980s as an A&R man. He booked artists at the Haçienda from its opening, where he also DJed. He later co-founded Deconstruction Records, one of the UK’s first dance labels. In the 1990s he achieved a new level of success with his band M People, winning two Brits and the Mercury Prize. As A&R at Columbia Records Mike signed Calvin Harris, Kasabian, Gossip and The Ting Tings. Mike continues to DJ today.
Paul Morley is a writer, broadcaster and cultural critic who has written about music since the 1970s. A founder member of Art of Noise and Art of This, his books include From Manchester with Love: The Life and Opinions of Tony Wilson, The North and Joy Division: Piece by Piece. He also collaborated with Grace Jones and Island Records' Chris Blackwell on their memoirs.
Forewords by Martin Fry, Johnny Marr, Noel Gallagher and Calvin Harris
Part I: Learning
1 A different world
2 A northern soul
3 A new thing
4 A team for life
5 A close call
6 A blessed relief
7 A matter of life and death
8 A contribution from Martin Fry
9 A European
10 A change in the air
11 A record label
12 A girl with dyed red hair
13 A new order
Part II: Playing
14 A caper
15 A pale, elusive metallic blue colour
16 A sound effect
17 A love tempo
18 A New York anglophile
19 A loud guy in a loud world
20 A revelation
21 A tax bill
22 A right booker
23 A lost soul
24 A famous guitarist
25 A contribution from Johnny Marr
26 A culture clash
27 A challenge
28 A new generation
29 A house is built
30 A meeting of minds
31 A decoy or two
32 A scam and a racket
33 A rock group you can dance to
34 A rave
35 A contribution from Noel Gallagher
36 A ride on time
37 A fake me
38 Aglow
39 A spontaneous decision
40 A police raid
Part III: Working
41 A cliched crime drama
42 A temporary contemporary table
43 A super club
44 A song writing project
45 A son of god remix
46 A pair of Woolworths ears
47 A Rob by any other name
48 A loss and a victory
49 A fresh start
50 A contribution from Calvin Harris
51 A new city
Index