It was a music tour and a man in a cap and in his mid-forties was telling me in perfect English how he’s from Zurich and called Etienne.
He said: “I’m here for this tour and it’s my birthday so my partner has treated me. I love Manchester music. It’s always talked to me. She’s also got tickets for the Coronation Street tour tomorrow”.
I said: “You like Coronation Street? A bit of a contrast to Zurich I imagine.”
Etienne said: “I like how it depicts the life here, I mean in Manchester, or I suppose it does. I love the accents and how people say things. I like the humour. I also like how The Smiths had the Coronation Street sign over their heads with that famous picture of Salford Lads Club on The Queen is Dead album.”
He said: “I’m here for this tour and it’s my birthday so my partner has treated me. I love Manchester music. It’s always talked to me. She’s also got tickets for the Coronation Street tour tomorrow”.
I said: “You like Coronation Street? A bit of a contrast to Zurich I imagine.”
Etienne said: “I like how it depicts the life here, I mean in Manchester, or I suppose it does. I love the accents and how people say things. I like the humour. I also like how The Smiths had the Coronation Street sign over their heads with that famous picture of Salford Lads Club on The Queen is Dead album.”
One of these places is Zurich and one is Coronation Street
Before I could say anything, he smiled and held up a hand. “Oh I know it’s not the same Coronation Street as on the album.” Etienne was proud of his Manchester knowledge.
“It’s not far away from the original,” I said. “I interviewed the original script writer Tony Warren many years ago. He said he’d based his first scripts on Archie Street which is the same area of Salford, a place called Ordsall. But I don’t watch the soap. I watched it for a while ages ago in the eighties when it was more like a sitcom, it was very light-hearted. I’m pretty sure it didn’t accurately depict life here then nor does it do now probably. Anyway, isn’t it supposed to be all issues-based these days?”
Etienne laughed. He said: “There is a lot of that.” He put on a stern tone and in a very convincing generic North Western accent recited: “If you have been affected by any of the issues in this programme please call…” He laughed and said: “That happens after almost every programme.”
He paused: “I believe I am the only Corrie, as you say I think, fan in Switzerland.”
I said: “Etienne, that would be difficult to prove that but I’m very prepared to believe you.”
“You know,” he said, “this weekend break with first Manchester music and then a tour of Coronation Street will be one of finest times of my life.”
His partner overhearing this laughed and gave him a hug.
“It’s not far away from the original,” I said. “I interviewed the original script writer Tony Warren many years ago. He said he’d based his first scripts on Archie Street which is the same area of Salford, a place called Ordsall. But I don’t watch the soap. I watched it for a while ages ago in the eighties when it was more like a sitcom, it was very light-hearted. I’m pretty sure it didn’t accurately depict life here then nor does it do now probably. Anyway, isn’t it supposed to be all issues-based these days?”
Etienne laughed. He said: “There is a lot of that.” He put on a stern tone and in a very convincing generic North Western accent recited: “If you have been affected by any of the issues in this programme please call…” He laughed and said: “That happens after almost every programme.”
He paused: “I believe I am the only Corrie, as you say I think, fan in Switzerland.”
I said: “Etienne, that would be difficult to prove that but I’m very prepared to believe you.”
“You know,” he said, “this weekend break with first Manchester music and then a tour of Coronation Street will be one of finest times of my life.”
His partner overhearing this laughed and gave him a hug.
Etienne is in the cap to the right of the man with the sunglasses and a cap
Music tours are very joyous things. All ages and all nationalities come along. Mostly they come for the famous eighties and nineties bands but get dragged in by other music too.
On a recent tour there was a Columbian and a Brazilian women, both previously unknown to each other along for the ride. They were both mid-twenties and both loved the eighties and nineties bands. But then they loved all the music.
The Columbian danced to every intro I played and clapped her hands in delight to a complete range of wildly disparate tunes and bands from Love Will Tear Us Apart through Relight My Fire, Supersonic, I Am The Resurrection, There Is A Light and Never Gonna Give You Up. Others started involuntarily joining in.
The two Latina women were friends by the end of the tour and went off to lunch together.
When I started the Manchester music tours I’d expected lots of people my age to respond, or even those a generation younger, but when twenty-something Americans, as happened this month, start singing along to the Buzzcocks this is clearly not the case.
As stated above the tours have pan-generational appeal.
On a recent tour there was a Columbian and a Brazilian women, both previously unknown to each other along for the ride. They were both mid-twenties and both loved the eighties and nineties bands. But then they loved all the music.
The Columbian danced to every intro I played and clapped her hands in delight to a complete range of wildly disparate tunes and bands from Love Will Tear Us Apart through Relight My Fire, Supersonic, I Am The Resurrection, There Is A Light and Never Gonna Give You Up. Others started involuntarily joining in.
The two Latina women were friends by the end of the tour and went off to lunch together.
When I started the Manchester music tours I’d expected lots of people my age to respond, or even those a generation younger, but when twenty-something Americans, as happened this month, start singing along to the Buzzcocks this is clearly not the case.
As stated above the tours have pan-generational appeal.
The Smiths drag more music fans to Manchester than any other band
There can be dark shades to the tours. When I mentioned to a mid-fifties German couple who’d paid for a private tour how people can get married in The Smiths’ room in Salford Lads Club, they got excited and simultaneously exclaimed: “Let’s do that!”
I deadpanned that I might have to get to know them better first.
They explained their reaction in an unexpected way.
Or rather the woman did, saying: “We love our kids but we both hate our ex-spouses.”
“They are not ex yet,” said the man, “we are waiting for our divorces, then we can get married.”
“But when that happens we’ll come back and get married in The Smiths’ room,” said the woman ecstatically.
“Oh yes,” he boomed just as passionately and high-fived her saying: “And that will be us free at last.”
These were clearly a wealthy couple. They travelled ten times a year to watch gigs all across Europe and the globe. Apparently their exes had hated gigging which to quote Guy Garvey of Elbow had clearly become Grounds For Divorce.
I deadpanned that I might have to get to know them better first.
They explained their reaction in an unexpected way.
Or rather the woman did, saying: “We love our kids but we both hate our ex-spouses.”
“They are not ex yet,” said the man, “we are waiting for our divorces, then we can get married.”
“But when that happens we’ll come back and get married in The Smiths’ room,” said the woman ecstatically.
“Oh yes,” he boomed just as passionately and high-fived her saying: “And that will be us free at last.”
These were clearly a wealthy couple. They travelled ten times a year to watch gigs all across Europe and the globe. Apparently their exes had hated gigging which to quote Guy Garvey of Elbow had clearly become Grounds For Divorce.
The Smiths' room at Salford Lads Club
Earlier the tours that weekend had delivered a sweeter story while taking people around the mighty Kimpton Clock Tower Hotel, formerly the Refuge Assurance Building from the late 1890s and extended in the early twentieth century.
I always ask if anybody in the group had worked in the building before the founding company left in 1987.
David and Pat had.
They’d met at the Refuge in 1961 when she was 15 and he was 16. They’d starting flirting with each other as soon as they’d met and before they were twenty they’d married. They had now amassed upwards of 54 years of companionship and brought up children along the way. They appeared almost extravagantly in love as though the years hadn’t touched their affections.
Conditions were different back when they’d started. They both talked about how women were paid much lower wages (not exactly an extinct practice) than men even though as David said: “She was much cleverer than me.” And of course married women had to leave work if they got pregnant. The state believed that motherhood had become their job whether they wanted to give up work or not.
With a grin David said: “It was great at the Refuge, there was a 10 to one ratio of females to males. Great odds that.”
And then he added: “Why would anybody want to work from home? Especially if you’re young. How do you meet people?”
“Online,” said a member of the group in a tone dryer than the Atacama.
Next time: Steak, Spanish lads & Norwegian chocolate
I always ask if anybody in the group had worked in the building before the founding company left in 1987.
David and Pat had.
They’d met at the Refuge in 1961 when she was 15 and he was 16. They’d starting flirting with each other as soon as they’d met and before they were twenty they’d married. They had now amassed upwards of 54 years of companionship and brought up children along the way. They appeared almost extravagantly in love as though the years hadn’t touched their affections.
Conditions were different back when they’d started. They both talked about how women were paid much lower wages (not exactly an extinct practice) than men even though as David said: “She was much cleverer than me.” And of course married women had to leave work if they got pregnant. The state believed that motherhood had become their job whether they wanted to give up work or not.
With a grin David said: “It was great at the Refuge, there was a 10 to one ratio of females to males. Great odds that.”
And then he added: “Why would anybody want to work from home? Especially if you’re young. How do you meet people?”
“Online,” said a member of the group in a tone dryer than the Atacama.
Next time: Steak, Spanish lads & Norwegian chocolate
David and Pat and the group in the Kimpton Clock Tower Hotel
There's sixteen pages of music tour in the new edition of my guidebook. You can buy it here. There's a picture of a happy customer from Switzerland below.
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