Manchester Unspun: Pop, Property and Power in the Original Modern City: How a City Got High on Music

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Andy will be in conversation with Stuart Maconie at Waterstone’s Deansgate on November 10, tickets available here. He was launching his book the Reluctant Engineer and other Manchester Stories but talked slightly too freely, managing to upset the city’s leadership. Manchester unspun sorts the truth from the spin of the city’s stories to reveal a remarkable journey, describing the hubris,scandal, money and politics which played out during its remarkable reinvention. A personal and sociological look at how its fortunes changed, featuring encounters with all the expected characters like Tony Wilson and even Alex Ferguson. The Haçienda in 1989: ‘Gave the kiss of life to a dying city and sparked a chain reaction of hubris, scandal, money and power politics still playing out today.

Read more about the condition New: A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages.Over the past forty years, the most culturally significant period in Manchester's history, Spinoza has been witness to and chronicler of the rise and rise of this city. After establishing his own PR firm, he became involved in some of the city’s major building projects, and witnessed overblown design disasters such as the ill-conceived Urbis building play out at first-hand. As someone who grew up in Manchester, and being about the same age as Andy, this book really resonates with me. He has had a front row seat for over forty years on how pop culture, property development and politics converge in the UK's fastest-growing urban centre.

Andy Spinoza has lived in Manchester since 1979, as a student, entrepreneur, publisher, journalist, gossip columnist and PR supremo. Facebook sets this cookie to show relevant advertisements to users by tracking user behaviour across the web, on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin. His instinct was right; not only were the Ducie House offices in demand from tenants like the experimental dance group 808 State but the party-loving property prince so enjoyed being the host that he opened his own nightclub in the basement. Hélène (now my wife) and I were mortified, the coop was furious, and it took weeks to undo the damage to our reputation with the city council.After university, he founded the arts and listings magazine City Life, before becoming a hyperactively connected diary editor for the Manchester Evening News. Given the people he’s rubbed shoulders with along the way there’s a surprising lack of ego as Spinoza recounts a string of personal encounters and anecdotes over five decades. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Whichever format you pick, the sample is from Kindle, where the print is larger and the photos clearer, which makes it hard to judge.

Manchester unspun begins in the gloom of a city still bearing the scars of the Second World War and ends among the shiny towers of an aspiring twenty-first-century metropolis.Manchester Unspun is a remarkable record of the city’s emergence from industrial decline over the past fifty years. The Muslim-Christian divide in the Mediterranean produced an unusual kind of slavery, fostered a surge in conversion to Islam, offered an ideal setting for Catholic martyrdom in its rivalry with Protestantism, and provided a haven of sorts for Spanish Muslims (Moriscos) as well as Jews. Unspun is an important slice of Manchester (make that Greater Manchester) history and will provide the quickest route into the city for years to come. His remarkable account traces Manchester's gradual emergence from its post-industrial malaise, centring on the legendary nightclub the Hacienda and the cultural renaissance it inspired.

That journey of evolution is enmeshed with tales of the movers and shakers, who all helped shape this wonderful city. Realising that most of the available posters were old hippy images, he started selling Manchester music album covers. Today the city is an international destination for culture and sport, and one of the fastest-growing urban regions in Europe. He came to study at Manchester University in 1983 and was soon selling posters in the student union’s markets. All blokes, and all part of a tight knit group that didn’t lack in confidence or brook dissent, but who changed the city forever.

One night on the town he stumbled across one of his earliest developments, a former paper factory tucked into a side street near Oxford Road, which he turned into open-plan apartments in 1994. Manchester unspun sorts the truth from the spin of the city’s stories to reveal a remarkable journey, describing the hubris, scandal, money and politics which played out during its remarkable reinvention.