You’re my WONDERWALL
UNITED FAN PAINTS CITY MURAL CELEBRATING ALL MANCUNIANS
AN AMAZING mural paying homage to all things Manchester City - but remarkably painted by a United fan - has been unveiled.
Lee Rigby, and wife Joanne, both 43 and who live in Heywood, wanted something special to adorn the walls of a summer house they built in their garden for watching sport and relaxing.
Joanne put an appeal out on Facebook and was put in touch with local amateur artist Karl Fox. After working on ideas, he began on the wall tribute to all things Mancunian.
Now, just over a year later, he has unveiled the finish piece.
Lee and his family are City season ticket holders and wanted the mural to have a sky blue theme running through it.
Players past and present, from sixties hero Colin Bell, to modern day great David Silva, and some of the club’s iconic moments are all featured
However, it is not exclusively about football. Some of the city’s best bands, from Oasis to the Stone Roses, The Smiths, Elbow, Joy Division and the Happy Mondays are referenced.
Iconic buildings such as the town hall, Manc exports such as Boddingtons and Vimto, other noteable figures from the city such as John Cooper Clarke and Alan Turning also make an appearance, and there are 22 Manchester bees included as a tribute to those killed in the atrocity at the Manchester Arena last year.
Karl, 47, has been an art enthusiast all his life. However, he is a primary school caretaker by day and worked on the mural at evenings and weekends and estimates it took around 600 hours.
United fan Karl said he had to grit his teeth while he was working his magic.
“Being big blues they wanted it to have a strong City theme,” he said.
“And me being a Red, that was a bit of a challenge at times. Despite that, it definitely became a labour of love.”
Lee said: “It was my wife’s idea for us to have a mural. And there was no question it had to have a city theme.
“When we discussed what we wanted there were bits where Karl said ‘oh really?’ I bet he loved painting Aguero after scoring that goal that won us the league in 2012,” said Lee.