Ghost Assembly, Colin Curtis, Transmission Towers

Promoting acts, staging events, curating shows.

July 5th I’m DJing at a free event with the likes of Ghost Assembly, Colin Curtis, and Transmission Towers. I’d like to explain why and how this came about, with some remarks about how things begin…

The Manchester International Festival happens every two years. There used to be a Festival Square in front of the Town Hall with lots of free events - all that now happens at MIF’s permanent home at Aviva Studios.

For a number of MIFs, they’ve given me carte blanche to put on a free event or two. And back in 2017 they opened the door even wider and I co-curated the New Order synthesizer show at the old Granada Studios. What an amazing thing that was.

I’m grateful to MIF giving me these opportunities. For twenty-five years I’d been putting on live gigs, and club nights in an undercapitalised labour-of-love way. Going back to organising the first Manchester shows for the likes of Primal Scream, Spaceman 3, and the Shamen in the 1980s, spoken word events featuring the likes of Kathy Acker, and, in the 1990s DJ line-ups.

It took twenty-five years to get a sniff of a grant or anything. Then - this is fifteen or sixteen years ago - both Maria Balshaw (who was head honcho at Manchester Art Gallery) and Christine Cort (at Manchester International Festival) reached out and gave me a budget to work alongside them on some events at their respective organisations.

Previously I’d found cultural institutions were very reticent to work with freelancers, or anyone outside their approved circle. They still are, in some cases. If you’re an artist, or a promoter, and in any way this is still your experience then all I can say is crack on and do your stuff; the established cultural institutions are scared of you.

But now I have a few allies, including the relatively new Artistic Director & Chief Executive at Factory International / Manchester International Festival - John McGrath. John - more than anyone I know in a top spot at a cultural institution - likes to involve and encourage idea-crazy young folk to be part of the creative process at his organisation. A great attitude. There was no-one and nowhere like that in the Manchester of the 1980s.

I feel as if I’ve rewarded MIF’s faith in me. Two years ago, one of my free events was an evening featuring the band Heartworms. Since then there’s been a critically-acclaimed Heartworms album, and a recent appearance on Later... with Jools Holland. Keep an eye on Heartworms. I have even higher hopes.

The only comparable coup for my curated nights was way back in 2009 when Everything Everything played, fresh-faced and newly emerging. Seven albums later, they’ve sold out venues including the Manchester Apollo, and their next lot of shows includes venues like Glasgow Barrowland, Nottingham Rock City, and the All Points East Festival in London. And, in an example of the lovely convolutions of life, in one of the big warehouse spaces at Aviva Studios, in front of four and a half thousand people, on November 29th.

The same year (2009), LoneLady played at one of the shows I curated. She had already released an album on Warp and worked with the likes of Jah Wobble; she was doing great work but remained perhaps unrecognised in her home city of Manchester. She was absolutely deserving of a platform at the Festival.

This year, I’ve invited some acts to join me on two stages - one outside Aviva Studios (covered in case of rain), and one inside the building. Transmission Towers are playing live. And the DJs? Well, it just struck me that they range in age from 18 years old to 73. So that’s a lovely thing, for starters.

Colin Curtis is 73 and has had a DJ career that’s simply unmatched. His taste is unerringly good. Back in the first years of the 1970s, he was a resident at the Golden Torch in Tunstall. That was more than fifty years ago; it turned-out he was only just starting a career that’s showed his deep appreciation and championing of black music as its gone through its various restless creative evolutions - whether at Blackpool Mecca with Ian Levine or Rafters with John Grant and Mike Shaft.

Colin Curtis

In the first half of the 1980s I used to frequent Colin’s midweek sessions at Berlin - a basement club on the site of where Dooley & Rostron is now, at the bottom of King Street. At that time, he was at the forefront of the jazz-funk scene in the North and Midlands; I recall great tunes and intimidatingly wonderful dancers.

Around the same time Colin was a big name at the Ritz funk and soul all-dayers alongside the likes of Mike Shaft, Greg Wilson, and Richard Searling. He was soon embracing early house in sets all over the North and Midlands particularly Nottingham and Birmingham, and the Playpen in Manchester (later renamed 42nd Street).

More recently, at the last MIF I booked him to play on a Sunday afternoon. We weren’t blessed with great weather in 2023 but that afternoon it felt like the sun had come out.

Ghost Assembly is the brainchild of Abigail Ward. Abigail is an inspirational figure in Manchester music for several reasons. She’s known for working in Piccadilly Records and Vinyl Exchange - both help define the very best features of a record shops; a purveyor of great music, a centre of musical knowledge, a shelter from the storm. She’s also played a key role in Manchester Digital Music Archive. Abigail’s DJing includes a regular gig at Yes. All this activity is testament to her love for music and desire to share her favourites with us all.

For the MIF night on 5th July, Abigail is majoring in her Ghost Assembly project, showcasing some different mixes. In her recent single ‘De Laatste Rit (The Last Ride)’ (link here) a harmonica makes a stunning appearance in a hypnotic slice of sultry electro.

I first saw Transmission Towers at a night in Liverpool put together by PJ Smith (aka the writer Bad Wool). They release music for Luke Una’s label E Soul Cultura - and Luke knows his onions - so that was a good sign. I loved their performance. I was also featured that evening, talking about my book about Grace Jones, which turned out to be very appropriate - as I think it’s fair to say Transmission Towers have a touch of Grace Jones about what they do. They also have onboard a live bongo player who comes across as the happiest man in the universe; he’s infectious, and it’s worth the trip to Aviva just to be in his orbit. This is a taste of their album…

Also on the bill on July 5th, is an eighteen year-old DJ called Adam Statham, who I heard when he warmed-up for me at a recent gig at the Golden Lion in Todmorden. He’s a talent with a good ear and a great attitude.

The event also features two Manchester-based DJs with a great pedigree … Dom from Blood & Fire, a real reggae-meister, and Andrea Trout who invariably delights audiences with her sets of full of soul, funk, and all things groovy.

Did I mention this event on July 5th is free entry?

If you don’t think you will find anything of interest in this event I’ve been describing, that’s not a problem. But if that is the case, then please hunt around for stuff in other venues as soon as you can; as I think we have all learned, watching something creative unfold in real time and in the presence of fellow humans is so often a life-affirming experience.

Making or taking an opportunity to bring people together to enjoy an event is so rewarding; I am sure dozens of the great promoters working to make things happen in our city right now agree with me. I mean, it’s tough if you’re not Live Nation, or lucky, after twenty-five years, finally, to have access to a budget - but your contribution matters. Even, or especially, if it’s attended by just handful of people in a hard-to-find venue. Support the new, the out of the ordinary, the under-acknowledged, wherever and whenever you can. Culture at the edge.

More on the 5th July event here.

Full MIF programme here.

Further reading here.