Rewind to a golden era for pop music
THE 1970s were vintage years for pop music in Manchester. Local bands like the Hollies and Herman’s Hermits were releasing hit after hit while all the big names took turns to play the city.
David Cassidy, Thin Lizzy, Slade and Rod Stewart brought the house down at Belle Vue while the Stranglers and the Sex Pistols lit up the Electric Circus and Lesser Free Trade Hall.
Manchester music fans were truly spoilt for choice.
Today Nostalgia takes a look back at the bands that created a decade of music memories in the city – from glam rock and Cassidy mania to the first raw notes of the punk explosion.
We start with The Bee Gees, from Chorlton via Australia, who made a pretty big impression on the pop world themselves.
In 1978, the band had no less than five songs either written or recorded by them in the US top ten.
But it wasn’t all plain sailing for the local brothers.
In March 1969 Robin Gibb left the band to go solo.
Then Barry and Maurice split up in May 1970, just after the release of their album Cucumber Castle.
Our picture, from September 1970, shows the boys back together in the recording studio.
Barry had married beauty queen Linda Gray just a few days earlier and had broken his honeymoon to help his brothers make the album Two Years On.
The turning point for the group came in 1974 when their producers Robert Stigwood and Arif Mardin told them to switch from ballads to dance/disco arrangements.
The Bee Gees relocated to Miami and recorded the album Main Course.
Two singles from the album changed the music scene forever.
They were Jive Talkin’ and Nights on Broadway.
Barry sang falsetto for the first time and never looked back.
More hits followed and in 1975 Stigwood persuaded the group to provide the soundtrack for the movie Saturday Night Fever.
Spin-off singles included the US number ones Stayin’ Alive, How Deep Is Your Love and Night Fever.
Saturday Night Fever became the world’s biggest-selling soundtrack and completely re-invigorated the disco scene.
Our next photo shows Broughtonborn Elkie Brooks performing with Vinegar Joe in 1972.
The band, centred around Elkie, husband Peter Gage and Robert Palmer, released three albums before disbanding in March 1973.
Elkie hit the heights with two solo albums.
The first was Two Days Away, released in 1977, from which came the singles Pearl’s A Singer and Sunshine After Rain.
The second, released a year later, was Live and Learn, from which came Lilac Wine and Don’t Cry Out Loud.
David Cassidy was a superstar by the time he played Belle Vue in March 1973 – as the photo of his adoring fans clearly proves.
In 1972 he had major UK hits with Could It Be Forever, How Can I Be Sure and Rock Me Baby.
Slade were at the height of their fame too when they came to Belle Vue in April 1974.
Our picture shows Jim Lea and Noddy Holder ripping up the stage in their trademark glam-rock gear.
Their two albums Slayed and Slayed Alive are considered by many to be the best of the glam-rock era.
Slade’s 1973 single Cum On Feel The Noize was the first to go straight to number one on release since the Beatles’ Get Back in 1969.
Rod Stewart was responsible for some of the biggest singles of the 1970s, either as a solo artist or with his band the Faces.
Maggie May, Reason to Believe, You Wear It Well and Stay With Me were four of the best.
He’s pictured at Belle Vue with Jim Cregan in November 1976. Stewart, an avid football fan and former player himself, was delighted when his idol and fellow Scot Denis Law presented him with a golden disc in December 1973.
It marked sales worth £150,000 for his album Sing It Again Rod.
Finally in our picture round-up, we feature Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy – an Irish band with a strong link to Manchester.
Their first album, released in 1970, features the track Clifton Grange Hotel written about the Manchester hotel owned by Lynott’s mother. And one of their most famous singles – The Boys Are Back In Town – was inspired by the group’s visits to Manchester. It reached number six in May 1976.
Memorable pictures like these – and many more like them from the M.E.N. archives – feature in Clive Hardy’s latest book, Around Manchester in the 1960s. The book is available at £19.99 with free postage for M.E.N. readers. Order your copy now by visiting the iNostalgia website, inostalgia.co.uk, or by filling in the coupon in this supplement. Alternatively, call 01928 503777 to place your order. Clive Hardy’s previous book, the muchacclaimed Around Manchester in the 1950s, is on sale now in most bookshops. The book covers every aspect of local life in more than 200 images from M.E.N. archives Keep a look-out for Around Manchester in the 1970s, which will be available to pre-order soon.