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

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Andy is a journalist and PR guru who has written a warts-and-all exposé of the city’s recent renaissance. There's so much in this book to savour, that I can honestly see scholars of history and architecture studying it in decades to come. Another notable clash of sensibilities occurs when the Haçienda hosts a 1996 seminar on situationism – the philosophical touchstone for the Factory way of doing things. Andy Spinoza's participation in Manchester's story from the punk era to the pandemic is set out brilliantly in this masterpiece. 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.

Last week I attended a 10th anniversary reception for Civic Engineers, a national engineering consultancy that started out in Manchester. Nor does he take sides (although there will probably be some names in there smarting) and mercifully avoids the nostalgia and over-sentimentality associated with certain bandwagoning ‘I was there’ accounts of the city (thankfully for the reader, the author hadn’t yet arrived in Manchester when the Sex Pistols played the Lesser Free Trade Hall). 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. The “24-hour party people” celebrated in Michael Winterbottom’s film homage to Wilson, says Spinoza, created the aura and cachet that helped them sell Manchester around the world and earn the right to host events such as the Commonwealth Games.In a forty-year career he has encountered a who's who of Manchester personalities, from cultural icons such as Tony Wilson to Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and influential council leaders Sir Richard Leese and Sir Howard Bernstein. Its centre was depopulated, decaying, and in violent pockets of its former industrial core, dangerous to visit. A personal and sociological look at how its fortunes changed, featuring encounters with all the expected characters like Tony Wilson and even Alex Ferguson. Andy promoted the new, dynamic post-industrial Manchester after setting up as a publicist in 1998, working with Factory Records legends Tony Wilson, Peter Hook and Peter Saville and public figures including Sir Alex Ferguson and Pep Guardiola.

News from Nowhere will not obtain personal information from other organisations, and will not share, pass on or sell personal information that we hold about individuals to anyone else. He became entranced by the possibilities of Smithfield Buildings, an entire city block further up Oldham Street, and its potential for characterful apartments. Back at Civic Engineers’ reception last week it was appropriate that we should be talking about the book because it includes the origin story of the practice. Andy ended up writing for its diary page, detailing the goings on of the city’s nightlife, including a heady mix of footballers, council officials, musicians, Coronation Street actors, property developers and politicians.A sympathetic property consultant tells him: “Gary very much values the views of his consultants – as long as they agree with his own.