A new book coming out in April will tell untold story of a musical pioneer, Mike Pickering.
It features forewords from just some of those who Pickering has inspired: Martin Fry, Johnny Marr, Noel Gallagher and Calvin Harris.
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.
