Books (Englisch)
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24.49 €
Were You There? : Popular Music at Manchester's Free Trade Hall - 1951 to 1996
Manchester's Free Trade Hall - Book - by Richard Lysons
(2020)
Manchester's Free Trade Hall was the most important popular music venue
in Great Britain. After several incarnations, the current building was
constructed in the wake of the Manchester Blitz and opened in 1951 as
the new home of the city's esteemed Halle Orchestra. Yet it was popular
music which would secure the venue its fame as it responded to each wave
of popular music from trad jazz and skiffle, through rock 'n' roll and
folk to prog, punk and heavy metal. From Billie Holiday to Blondie, Duke
Ellington to Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd to Happy Mondays, Rolling Stones
to The Beach Boys, David Bowie to The Smiths and Suede, just about
everyone who mattered played there. The Free Trade Hall was also the
venue for incendiary gigs by Bob Dylan and the Sex Pistols which changed
the course of music history.
Richard Lysons’ ‘meticulously
researched tome’ will be of interest of anyone who ever attended a
concert at the venue or has an interest in the history of popular music
in Britain’s most musically important city. Alongside his own expert
commentary on every headline act he gives the reader a sense of what was
going on at other venues in Manchester. There are photographs of
several seminal blues gigs by Brian Smith who attended concerts at the
Free Trade Hall throughout the 1960’s.
RICHARD LYSONS attended
his first Free Trade Hall concert in 1972.. After a career teaching
English, he is now a music researcher and writer. He was chief
researcher for the highly acclaimed Discover Amazing Women by Rail
project. ‘Were You There?’ is his first book.