"To really get the context of the image you have to really feel where those artists came from" Mark Ashmore, Future Artists
That Salford's newest gallery space should open with an interactive music exhibition called Manchester So Much To Answer For seems fitting, as Salford looms large with photos of The Smiths outside Salford Lads Club and Albert Finney's shop, Happy Mondays music fraying the background and portraits of New Order smacked on the wall.
The great Madchester moment, and its post-all-that culture sprawl, always seems to miss Salford which actually fired the whole thing, with the Mondays, New Order, Tony Wilson, Central Station and loads, loads more. That Mancs now have to come into Salford to get a flavour of what went off seems like some kind of karma.
While the exhibition is billed as the photos of Lawrence Watson it's way more than that. The first room on the ground floor of the space is slackered up like an 80s bedsit, complete with crap fiftieth hand, flea-bitten bed, a black and white telly, faded inky NME front covers on the wall, fag ends on the floor and piles of vinyl on the table, including Barry Adamson's Moss Side Story with the album cover done by one Lawrence Watson.
In stark print on the wall is what was going off at the time, putting it all in it social, political and economic context... `Margaret Thatcher's victory in the 1979 general election...the industrial north was sharply brought to its knees....violent cuts to public spending...etc'...
...Why, it could even be today, except that, while those daze brought a `cultural renaissance within the city', now, most of Manchester's overpriced apartment dwelling hipster pseuds aren't even aware of what's going on, even as they trip over homeless people on every corner.
With the region culturally bankrupt, give or take a Bugsy Malone or two, it's no wonder people are looking back to a time when the lights were switched on in the bullet grey-washed city. The spotlight began with the poking flowers of The Smiths, through the day glo Hacienda high, to the lad laden cigarettes and alcohol of Oasis. And this superbly set out exhibition whiffs of it all.
After the 80s bedsit installation, you walk through to a more stark room, where Watson's exclusive photos of the bands are bathed in Manc/Salford music. There's Ian Brown monkeying around, The Smiths in Salford, portraits of New Order and others who flitted around the scene, with some old school benches to sit on and peruse.
Downstairs, there's huge contact sheets of Morrissey, Oasis and more, blown up, bulldog clipped on the walls and lit in porno red, resembling a working darkroom; while in a quiet off-room, videos play featuring band interviews and Lawrence Watson talks, complete with an old couch to sit on and Hac-style industrial tape on the floor decorating the wiring.
All in all it's an immersive exhibition, well worth a visit to get a sniff of what Manc-land and Salford once was. What also screams out is the amount of city backdrops in the photos that have since been bulldozed, like the spirit they founded.
It was the late, great Alan Wise who said of Manchester and Salford "these places created people not vice versa" and "We must know the past is alive in us to know our future...". It's a point echoed by Mark Ashmore, of Future Artists, who has willed this gallery into reality and well recognises where it's coming from...
"The social context is dead important" he says of the exhibition "You can look at pictures and think `That's the band that I like from the 1980s', but to really get the context of the image you have to feel where those artists came from and why the photographer was in Manchester at the time. So we built a 1980s bedsit, and the video and the interviews, and the downstairs basement all gives the context.
"We live in IKEA-land now and everyone thinks that everything's white, distressed, book-purchased from IKEA at £100, when really a council bedsit was a damp, dark place like in Hulme and Salford, and that's where all these artists came from" he adds "We tried to capture that in this V&A type exhibition, only on a Salford budget."
Unlike other galleries and art spaces around Manchester and Salford, there's no public subsidies for the Future Artists Studios, which is why there is a £6 charge for entry. It's the first of a stream of events that Mark is determined will be `artist driven'.
"This space will keep changing, and the next one later in the summer is called Ready Player One, which is a pop-up arcade, the history of video games through arcades, but hands on, so you pay £10 or £12 and can play video games all day in here" he explains "For me the space is as intriguing as the exhibitions..."
It's a kind of grass roots, attitude-led project that compliments Future Artists' The Home of Honest Coffee shop next door and plans for affordable creative living/work space across the road on Chapel Street.
It's a space that's open to all ideas, as part of Future Artists' Frank Zappa mantra that "without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible". Every band, singer and artist that's featured in this exhibition will drink, smoke a spliff or drop an E to that one...
Manchester So Much To Answer For
until 24th July £6
Future Artists Studios
81-83 Chapel Street
M3 5DF
For opening times and tickets – click here
Prints by Lawrence Watson are on sale at the gallery, from £1 postcards to signed exclusive huge prints costing up to £1,300
For further details email info@futureartists.com or see www.thefutureartists.com
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