Photo: American band Blondie with Nigel Harrison from Stockport, second left (00206650) © Mirrorpix
Did you know that the bass player for the American rock band Blondie was born in Stockport?
Or that Neil Sedaka recorded his 1972 album Solitaire there with the help of future 10cc members Eric Stewart, Graham Gouldman, Kevin Godley and Lol Crème?
10cc – the force behind Stockport’s Strawberry Studios, July 1975 (00170453) © Mirrorpix
Stockport was truly the epicenter of Manchester music in the 1970s and 80s thanks to Strawberry Studios on Waterloo Road.
Aside from 10cc, the Smiths, Joy Division, Buzzcocks, Barclay James Harvest, Simply Red, Durutti Column, Happy Mondays, Crispy Ambulance and James all recorded there.
Mick Hucknall – Manchester group Simply Red lead singer, May 1986 (01387479) © Mirrorpix
Blondie never did, although Stockport’s Nigel Harrison played bass for the high-profile band from 1977 to 1982.
He joined them from the group Nite City, founded by Doors’ keyboardist Ray Manzarek.
Harrison was born in April 1951 and was part of the Blondie line-up that produced the successful third album Parallel Lines in September 1978.
American band Blondie with Nigel Harrison of Stockport, second from left, April 1977 (00206650) © Mirrorpix
It went to number one in the UK and sold 20 million copies worldwide.
The album contained the UK chart top single Heart of Glass as well as the top 20 songs Picture This and Hanging on the Telephone.
Harrison wrote Blondie album tracks as well as a number of hit singles with lead singer Debbie Harry.
These included One Way or Another in 1978, Union City Blue in 1979, and War Child in 1982.
Nigel Harrison, right, in a Blondie mural behind Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, May 1982 (00206842) © Mirrorpix
War Child turned out to be the last single from the band’s most successful line-up with Harrison, Harry, guitarist Chris Stein, drummer Clem Burke and Jimmy Destri on keyboards.
While Blondie was storming the charts with Parallel Lines, another Stockport musician – Martin Fry – was playing additional keyboards for a band called Vice Versa.
Stockport born Martin Fry of ABC, May 2016 (00949917) © Mirrorpix
When he switched to lead vocals in 1980, the band changed their name to ABC – and never looked back!
Fry was born in Stretford and raised in Bramhall, Stockport, along with his younger brother Jamie, who was a founding member of the 1990s indie rock band Earl Brutus.
The Sex Pistols that played at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall, December 1976 (01270006) © Mirrorpix
The Sex Pistols’ groundbreaking performance at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in June 1976 inspired a variety of musicians, including Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner, who were recording at Stockport.
Salford school friends formed the band Warsaw, inspired by David Bowie’s song Warszawa, but found success with their much more famous name – Joy Division.
Sumner and Hook weren’t the only artists who got hooked on the Sex Pistols.
Also at the concert were Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks, Simply Red frontman Mick Hucknall and Mark E. Smith, who later founded The Fall.
Presenter and impresario Tony Wilson, who created Factory Records and founded the Hacienda nightclub, was also there along with producer Martin Hannett and an aspiring young singer named Steven Morrissey.
Joy Division founder Peter Hook, October 2016 (01009347) © Mirrorpix
Hook was so inspired by the raw power and energy of the Sex Pistols that he immediately borrowed £ 35 from his mother to buy a guitar.
Terry Mason, also at the gig, bought a drum kit and joined the band. Now all they needed was a singer.
An advertisement in the window of the Manchester Virgin Records store produced an answer.
It was by Stretford-born musician Ian Curtis who was working as a civil servant at the time.
Warsaw played her first appearance in the Electric Circus on May 29, 1977. They supported the Buzzcocks and the Manchester performance poet John Cooper Clarke.
In August 1977, the new drummer Stephen Morris from Macclesfield joined the band.
The name Joy Division was chosen in 1978. It comes from the wings of sexual slavery of the Nazi concentration camps depicted in the novel House of Dolls.
The band then signed up for Factory Records – but singer Curtis’ health deteriorated over the course of their musical career. In December 1978 he suffered his first epileptic seizure.
Joy Division played a live session for DJ John Peel’s Radio 1 show in January 1979 and recorded their debut album Unknown Pleasures at Strawberry Studios in April.
Curtis had more seizures, sometimes while performing, resulting in several concerts being canceled in April 1980. The band’s last appearance was on May 2nd at Birmingham University.
Curtis committed suicide on May 18, the day before Joy Division was due to go on an American tour. He was 23 years old.
The iconic and haunting melody Love Will Tear Us Apart was released in June and peaked at number 13 on the UK charts.
His lyrics were inspired by Curtis’ marital problems and mental illness.
Since then it has been named the best single of all time by the music magazine NME.
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