OUR MUSICAL HEROINES
MANCHESTER’S biggest music legends have a well deserved spot in the history books, but a new exhibition in Manchester will promote another side of the city’s musical heritage.
Featuring portraits solely of women, Suffragette City will celebrate the often unsung heroines of Manchester’s music scene.
“Female influence on Manchester’s music has been impossible to ignore,” says Alison Surtees, co-founder of Manchester Digital Music Archive (MDMArchive) and curator of Suffragette City.
“It’s the female promoters, label owners, DJs, tour managers, photographers and venue managers that have shown, through their successes, that women can forge remarkable careers in and around the music business off-stage too.
“MDMArchive celebrates their respective successes at the heart of an often uncompromising, maledominated industry and look for more women to share their musical histories with us.”
The exhibition will showcase evocative portraits and the stories of women who have stood both forefront and backstage of the musical revolutions that have pulsed through the city’s streets.
We’ve picked out just five fantastic names which will feature in the event. To see all the icons in their full glory, visit The Refuge at the Principal Hotel to see the full exhibition.
Suffragette City: Women in music in Manchester / Friday 23 February to Saturday 10 March 2018 / The Refuge, Principal Hotel, Manchester / www. mdmarchive.co.uk. Closing/Music Event: Saturday 10 March 2018, 3pm – 4am at The Refuge Lesley Gilbert, Factory Records “Although I stepped in to manage Factory Records, I still felt that my role wasn’t an important one until I got this Anvil to mark 500,000 sales of Blue Monday. The penny finally dropped that I was actually a vital part of something really exciting, together with an overwhelming feeling of making history.” The widow of New Order manager Rob Gretton, Lesley Gilbert played a huge role in the music scene with her work at Factory Records. Rob was also a dedicated hoarder with notebooks and doodles which all would have stayed locked up were it not for Lesley unearthing them for the diary-meets-memoir 1 Top Class Manager, published in 2007.
Photographer: Alison Surtees Paulette Constable, DJ “I’m committed to this vinyl to USB love affair and all its boogie blessings. I play home and away, straight and gay, back room / Bastille / Stade Olympique, disco, dark tech, soulful, rave, and love my radio too. I’ve still ‘Got the Love’ because music has my proper ‘Respect’.”
From her monthly slot at the Hacienda to world tours with the Ministry of Sound, Paulette Constable aka DJ Paulette has been at the forefront of house music across the globe, and continues her musical legacy with regular slots at venues around Manchester today.
Photographer: Elspeth Mary Moore Rowetta Satchell, Singer-Songwriter “This picture represents me being me, not following fashion. With Happy Mondays I always wore outfits that could be classed as tacky, but I love wearing them. They suit the character that I become when I’m on stage with the boys. I also love the humour. Wearing tutus and ridiculous costumes can bring a smile in a world that can be too serious at times.”
Best known for her work with the Happy Mondays, Rowetta Satchell toured with the band from 1991–2000 and played herself in the 2002 Michael Winterbottom film 24 Hour Party People.
Photographer: Angie Wynne Julia Adamson, music publisher and indie record label owner “In 1981 the Manchester music scene was vibrant with the advent of the indie record labels. With new genres, alternative, indie, and punk, it was an art movement for my generation. Returning to Manchester after working a summer season in Cornwall, aged 20, I decided to work in music.”
Formerly of Stockport’s Strawberry Studios and a bona fide musician in her own right, Julia Adamson now champions and promotes other Manchester musicians with her label Invisiblegirl Records.
Photographer: Melanie Smith Claud Cunningham, Co-Founder, Promoter and DJ at Black Angel “Growing up in a sea full of unrepresentative faces, out stood Grace Jones. Nothing more needs to be said.” DJ and promoter Claud Cunningham started at Vanilla in 2000, introducing soul R&B and even bhangra to The Village. Curated Place and Spectra Creative Director, Andy Brydon wrote of Claud: “While the relationship with Vanilla was short-lived, the night went from strength to strength gaining a reputation for being friendly, safe and truly diverse, eventually gathering up a string of imitators along the way.”
Photographer: Melanie Smith