…..What Became Of The People We Used To Be?

…..What Became Of what We Used To Be

Did anyone out there party in Manchester back in the day when it was Madchester? Did you “Sit Down” with James or “bang the drums” with the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays? (I know I did and I’m not even from there, but my spirit was!) If so you’ll be interested in a new exhibition running in Manchester this Saturday at Twenty Twenty-Two in the Northern Quarter.

The Lapsed Clubber Exhibition is a project that’s part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science and is the brainchild of Beate Peter, a former Manchester party goer herself and now an academic at Manchester Metropolitan University. She set up a Facebook group recently requesting photos and captions of former clubbers from the Madchester scene from 1989 – 1995. She asked people to send in their “Then and Now” photos to see what happened to former revellers on the rave scene. Beate wanted to see what became of the former 24-hour party people of the day when popping ecstasy pills was almost as common as combing your hair.

Approximately 50 people happily submitted their photos, an interesting mix: some they may not want their children to see! The photos are fun and amusing. It’s great to see so many fresh, youthful faces perfectly capturing the essence of the Madchester scene at the time and being young such as one guy, Garry Burns below.

Beate herself is a lapsed clubber and stated: “I wanted to find out if there was more to it than just growing old. The stories are to show how clubbing has never been just about going out to get wrecked, it is part of people’s history and their lives.”

The “now” photos of the more mature protagonists are fun too (often they now have kids or have become yoga teachers, rambling in places like Ingleborough (Kate as above). Some are still partying like it’s 1999, well 1989, keeping their youthful spirit by still going to festivals and loving music. Their passion has remained constant.

The exhibition will have “In Conversation with Herbal Tea’s Rob Fletcher”. (Herbal Tea was an extremely successful night in Manchester between 93 and 97) and a computer called Voicebox will give others a chance to document their memoirs anonymously.

If the photos and the spirit of the project is anything to go by the exhibition should prove a success. Now this lapsed clubber is off to dig out her James cassettes!