Manchester must dance
Product details
- ISBN 9781526190567
- Weight: 951g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 28 Apr 2026
- Publisher: Manchester University Press
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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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.
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.
