manchester – FOOD, FILMS 'N' TINGS

Manchester, Hong Kong and Jamaica

The soundtrack of this seminal Jamaican film was produced by Leslie Kong

ESEA Contemporary is an art gallery in Manchester in the North of England that specializes in presenting and platforming artists and art practices that are informed by East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) cultural backgrounds. It is located in an award-winning building in the Northern Quarter part of the city and it is home to a diverse range of exhibitions, events, and educational programs that explore the unique perspectives and experiences of ESEA artists. ESEA Contemporary was previously known as the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, but it underwent a major rebranding in 2022 to better reflect the diverse range of cultures and identities represented by the artists it works with.

Manchester has a significant Chinese community, and it has been a hub for Chinese immigration to the UK for many years. The city’s Chinatown is one of the largest in Europe, and is home to many restaurants, shops, and cultural institutions. The Chinese community in Manchester is very diverse, with people from different regions of China and different generations, and they have made a significant contribution to the city’s culture and economy. There are also several Chinese community organizations and cultural events, such as the annual Chinese New Year celebrations, which help to promote Chinese culture and traditions in the city.

Chinatown in Manchester under the grey skies

In addition, there has been significant Chinese investment in Manchester in recent years. China has been looking to expand its investment in the UK, and Manchester has been one of the key targets for investment. One of the largest investments has been in real estate development, with Chinese firms investing in luxury apartments, office buildings, and mixed-use developments in the city. Chinese companies have also invested in infrastructure projects, such as transportation and renewable energy, in the Manchester area. There has also been investment in the education sector, with Chinese companies supporting local universities and colleges.

There had also been a significant influx of people from Hong Kong settling in Manchester in recent years. In fact, Manchester is now considered one of the top destinations for Hong Kong migrants in the UK. The UK government has also created a new visa scheme specifically for Hong Kong residents which has made it easier for them to move to the UK, including Manchester and other parts of the North West such as Liverpool, bringing their culture and art with them and enriching their adopted homeland accordingly.

Dinu Li is an artist who was born in Hong Kong and who currently lives and works in Cornwall, UK. He graduated with a degree in photography from Liverpool John Moores University in 2001. Li’s work often explores the intersection of personal and cultural histories, and he works across a range of media, including moving image, photography, installation, and performance. He is particularly interested in how history and memory are constructed and how they can be reinterpreted through art. His work has been exhibited internationally, and he has had significant artistic recognition for his work.

Li is currently exhibiting at ESEA (‘A Phantom’s Vibe’).

The exhibition’s guide pamphlet provides the following background information:-

Li’s work in the exhibition, combines autobiographical allegories with a tapestry of cultural influences. Visitors are taken from the night markets of Hong Kong to the blues parties of Hulme* and Moss Side* via Jamaican recording studios, owned by the descendants of Chinese indentured labourers**. The reggae classic ‘Always Together’ *** runs through the heart of the exhibition, where music becomes a medium for cultures to meet, mix, and become hybrid.

As a child wandering through the working – class districts of Hong Kong, Li overheard ‘ Always Together’*** by Stephen Cheng mistaking it for a Chinese folk classic. Years later, this song, unexpectedly, repaired, like a phantom at one of the inner–city blues parties**** Li frequented during his 1980s, Manchester youth, and decades after that, the song once again re-emerged on YouTube. The song soundtracks Dinu Li’s exhibition.

It wasn’t until much later that Li learned that the song was actually recorded in Jamaica in 1967, in one of the small number of Chinese recording studios*****, some of which helped shape the sounds of key artists such as Dennis Brown and Augustus Pablo. Through his work tracing the history of early reggae, Li’s exhibition,’ A Phantom’s Vibe’, serves as a means of unearthing, the underrepresented history of the Chinese in Jamaica, subverting mainstream cultural hegemony.

*Hulme and Moss Side are districts of Manchester where many members of the city‘s Afro-Caribbean community live.

** Chinese people first started coming to Jamaica around 1850 when they arrived on the island mostly as indentured labourers, brought by the British from China to work on the sugar plantations to replace the unpaid labour of the island’s black population following the end of slavery. Indentured labour is a form of debt bondage whereby the labourer ‘agrees’ to work for no pay for a number of years to pay off the cost incurred in their migration to the Caribbean.

*** ‘Always Together’ is a reggae record recorded in 1967 in Jamaica, by the Chinese singer Stephen Cheng (misspelled as ‘Chang’ when the record was released). The song is unusual because although the title is in English, the song itself is sung in Chinese with the lyrics originating from “Alishan Girl,” a Taiwanese folk song, which dates back to the 1940s. The track was put together by Stephen Cheng and the Jamaican musician and producer Byron Lee (himself of a Jamaican Chinese background) when Cheng visited the island from his home in New York.

**** after hours parties often playing reggae in peoples homes or basements etc.

***** several Jamaicans with Chinese roots played a key part in the development of the island’s beloved popular music, reggae and it’s older sister, rock steady. They established some of the first record shops and studios on the island, providing a platform for emerging reggae artists to record and distribute their music. Jamaicans of Chinese origin in the music industry included Vincent and Patricia Chin who created the influential VP Records, Leslie Kong of Beverley’s Records (the producer of the legendary soundtrack to ‘The Harder They Come’), Herman Chin-Loy of Aquarius records (who produced what was arguably the first dub album, ‘Aquarius Dub’ in 1974) and the Hookim brothers who owned Channel One studios where they created the radical ‘rockers’ sound which dominated the Jamaican music scene in the late 1970’s.

The Hookim brothers at Channel One produced this rockers classic in 1976

Herman Chin-Loy created arguably the first ever Dub album in 1974

The installation highlights how the music and culture of reggae have been adapted and reinterpreted in Hong Kong, and how they have provided a means for people to express their identity and resistance in the face of colonialism.

The Harcourt bar in southern Manchester is named after Harcourt Road in Hong Kong. This road is in turn named after Sir Cecil Harcourt, who was a British colonial administrator in Hong Kong in the early 20th century. The bar is inspired by Hong Kong culture and cuisine, and the menu features authentic Hong Kong street food. It has picked up justifiably rave reviews.

The bar was created and opened by a married couple from Hong Kong, Priscilla So and Brian Hung. They were inspired by their experience working in the craft beer industry, as well as their love of Hong Kong culture. The bar is designed to be a modern take on a traditional Hong Kong-style pub, with a focus on craft beer and Hong Kong-inspired food. The bar offers a variety of Hong Kong-style dishes, including bars snacks prawn toast and smashed cucumber as well as a wide selection of craft beers.

Before opening the bar, Brian took up a position as a barrel ageing manager for the independent Manchester based Cloudwater brewery. The bar wisely stocks, a range of award winning Cloudwater beers (see https://cloudwaterbrew.co).

The influence of emigres from Hong Kong on Manchester’s food scene continues apace with the likes of Popchop Curry House in the east of the city. Popchop serves up Hong Kong style curried meats and rice to a fanatical clientele. The owner came to Manchester from Hong Kong a couple of years ago, His recipes are based on his father’s renowned restaurant Sun King Yuen in the Wan Chai district of Hong Kong which is which is famous for its curry dishes.

And turning to the Caribbean influence on food culture in the city we must mention Miss Jackson’s Drinks Company, a relatively new venture based in Manchester which was set up by two sisters.

Their website at https://www.missjacksonsdrinks.com comments:

‘The story starts with us, two Jackson sisters from South Manchester. Inspired by our Caribbean heritage, we sustainably source the bright flavours of Jamaica and shake them down with premium spirits’

The sisters have created and marketed two liqueurs to date, Duppy Gyal Zombie and our favourite, Blouse and Skirt Sorrel.

Duppy Gyal Zombie is a combination of different rums with limes, pomegranate juice, pineapple and bitters.

Blouse and Skirt Sorrel is a combination of different rums, ginger, lime juice, cane sugar and of course, Sorrel. In Jamaica, ‘Sorrel’ are the dried flowers used to make a type of sweet hibiscus tea commonly made from the Roselle flower which is popular throughout the Caribbean and West Africa where the ‘red tea’ made from the flowers originates.

‘Take her to Jamaica where the rum come from

The rum come from, the rum come from

Take her to Jamaica where the rum come from

And you can have some fun’

Althea McNish, Dim Sum and Phở

The Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester in the north of England is currently showing an exhibition of the work of textile designer Althea McNish. Her designs were not only highly innovative, they were highly influential in helping to shape the look of Britain in the 1960’s and 70’s. If you grew up in that era, McNish’s work you will be readily familiar with the style of her work, especially in the numerous watered down copies found in the design of textiles for summer blouses and dresses, wallpapers and other household items in high street stores up and down the country. She even designed the fabrics for the late Queen Elizabeth II’s dresses for her tour of the Caribbean in 1966.

As Britain had once designed and created textiles for the clothing of women in its colonies in West Africa in the form of wax prints (and Manchester was central to this textile trade), so McNish (of the former colony of Trinidad) created designs for the textiles of Britain.

As an introduction to the life and work of Althea McNish, the Whitworth Art Gallery provides the following excellent summary in its exhibition notes:

Althea McNish (1924-2020) was one of the first designers of Caribbean
heritage to gain international recognition in the field of textile design andwould go on to become one of Britain’s most influential and innovativedesigners. Her painterly designs took natural botanical forms to the edgeof abstraction, using a riotous colour palette that overturned the staid rules of British post-war design.

Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, McNish showed artistic promise from a
young age and became active in the Trinidadian art scene. Age 26, she
emigrated with her family to the UK, arriving in London on 9 November 1950.

McNish studied commercial graphics at The London School of Printing
and Graphic Arts and in 1954 won a scholarship to the Royal College of
Art where she studied textiles. Within days of graduating her career as a professional designer was launched when her designs were commissioned by Liberty and Zika Ascher. McNish would go on to develop a hugely successful design career spanning more than forty years in textile design, as well as commissions for commercial interiors. Teaching in higher education followed and she was an active member of professional design bodies. In 1976 she was awarded the Chaconia Gold medal of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago for ‘meritorious service to art and design’.

McNish established her career at a time when many people in the UK
would have been familiar with the racist taunt to “go back home”. McNish subverted this prejudice, inserting her Caribbean identity directly into the British home through her popular wallpaper and fabric designs.

A few minutes walk from the Whitworth Art Gallery is the multi- million pound Circle Square development. A mixed use neighbourhood of accommodation, retail and leisure properties, the area is especially popular with Chinese students not least because of the presence of Hello Oriental, a three story market hall of Asian food. It’s ground floor houses a Chinese bakery, below that a Vietnamese restaurant and on the lowest floor a Chinese and Korean restaurant and mini mart. Hello Oriental is rightly popular especially with students and it is a welcome addition to the city’s excellent Asian food scene.

Manchester, Refuge and Nico

The Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group is a San Francisco based chain specialising in unique boutique accommodation. Their ‘Clocktower’ hotel in Manchester in the North West of England is no exception. Housed in the Victorian era gothic architecture of the offices of the former Refuge Assurance Company, the distinctive terracotta facade of this imposing building together with the clocktower which gives the hotel its name, dominates this corner of the city.

The hotel lobby is especially impressive with its elegant glass dome and marbled walls and floors.

The Kimpton Clocktower often puts on small photographic exhibitions. As a part of the celebration of International Women’s Day on the 8th March, the hotel is currently hosting an exhibition of the works of photographers Anne Worthington (locally born) and the late Tish Murta who was from South Shields in the blighted North East of England. Both photographers captured the lives of ordinary people in poor communities. Worthington and Murta between them produced some of the best photographs nationally, photographs that are a long way from the society portraits of Cecil Beaton and Earl Snowdon and better for it in our opinion.

The hotel houses one of the most amenable spaces in the city, ‘The Refuge’ with its restaurant specialising in an ever changing small plate menu, games room (the ‘Den’ with its football machines), an indoor Winter Garden (under glass – this is Manchester after all!), and a beautiful Public Bar.

The Refuge was created when local DJ’s Justin Crawford and Luke Cowdrey, aka ‘The Unabombers’, joined forces with a business group and brought their own personality and expertise into the design and overall ‘feel of the recreational area of the hotel. They are also the force behind the popular Elektrik bar and Volta eatery, both situated in the south of the city

However, it was as ‘The Unabombers’ DJ duo that Luke and Justin made a name for themselves internationally. Their influential nights named ‘The Electric Chair’ were based just a few minutes walk away from where The Refuge is now situated, at a small below stairs venue known as the ‘Music Box’. The Electric Chair cemented the duo’s reputation for hosting a truly underground night which attracted with only the very best national and international DJ’s. We are not talking about any of the many dreadful ‘hands in the air, piano breakdown’ type DJ’s who were legion at the time but innovators such as François K, Danny Krivit and of course Joe Claussel. Claussel from New York’s legendary Body & Soul was asked about The Electric Chair and commented: ‘I rarely play in the UK, but I can’t explain in words how great that party was. To me it’s all about energy and that place had one of the greatest energies I’ve experienced as a DJ anywhere.’

A short walk from the former Music Box venue will find you in the centrepiece of St Peter’s Square with its statue of suffragette and political activist Emmeline Pankhurst, named by TIME magazine in 1999 as one of the top 100 most important persons of the 20th Century. She was born in the nearby district of Moss Side and she is best remembered for organising the UK suffragette movement and helping women win the right to vote for parliamentary representation.

Across from Pankhurst’s statue is the city’s refurbished central library and theatre where another unique woman, Christa Päffgen aka Nico recorded her live album ‘Heroine’ in 1980 when she was living in the city. The album was released some 15 years after the concert was held to great acclaim.

Nico had been, of course, the muse of the film director Fellini, a model for Vogue and Chanel, an associate of Andy Warhol and a former girlfriend of French actor Alain Delon and singer Bob Dylan. Although an early member of the Velvet Underground in New York, in our opinion it is her remarkable (some would say ‘difficult’) solo work that is her greatest legacy with two albums in particular, The Marble Index in 1968 and Desertshore in 1970 being exemplary works, quite unlike anything heard before or since. Strange and disquieting.

Frozen Warnings

At the time Nico lived in Manchester the city was not in good state. It was grubby with high unemployment and pretty dilapidated. It was not an attractive place at the time.

Hulme district of Manchester – early 80’s

Local guitarist Martin Bramah who played with Nico commented however that “she didn’t see the grubby, industrial city I grew up in. She’d gaze at the Victorian architecture and say this is so romantic.” Her pianist at the time, James Young echoed her apparent affection for the city noting ‘Nico liked Manchester. It was a dark gothic city and was in a state of semi-dereliction at the time; empty Victorian warehouses, factories closing down. She said it reminded her of Berlin, the ruined city of her youth.”

Nico enjoyed a beer and a game of pool with the locals pubs in Hulme and The Foresters in Salford being some of her haunts.

Across from the Central Library is a monument to the Peterloo massacre of 1819 when 15 protesters were murdered by cavalry as they charged into a crowd of around 60,000 people in St Peter’s Square who had gathered there to demand votes for all and the reform of parliamentary representation.

A few doors down is the site of the old Free Trade Hall now a Radisson hotel with its highly rated contemporary Japanese restaurant. The old Free Trade Hall is best remembered locally as a concert venue for everything from classical to popular music. The Hall was famously the venue for the cry of ‘Judas’ which greeted the formerly strictly acoustic Bob Dylan when he introduced his new electric band to the audience in 1966. The concert and the taunt of ‘Judas’ are immortalised on the bootleg recording The Bootleg Series, Vol. 4 released some 32 years after the event.

The ‘Judas’ heckle at the Free Trade Hall:-

Judas!

We’ll leave the last word to Nico. Apparently when asked how she would like to be remembered, she remarked: “By a tombstone.”

Manchester, icons and thali

Chorlton is a suburb of the Northern English city of Manchester. The district has become increasingly identified with left leaning young professional couples and their families. It is also home to one of Manchester’s biggest gay communities.

Rightly or wrongly, Chorlton is regarded as a bohemian enclave with its independent bars and restaurants, vegan supermarket (the workers co-operative ‘Unicorn’) and unusual boutiques.

The suburb is a great place to eat and drink and whilst we could fill several columns on the local culinary scene, we will be more specific by concentrating solely on some of the Indian food (especially vegetarian) to be found in the locale.

Lily’s deli on Manchester Road in Chorlton is an outlet of the award winning Lily’s Vegetarian Indian restaurant in Ashton-under-Lyne, a town which is just to the east of Manchester. The Chorlton deli is the first of two outlets in the city, the other being in the very trendy inner area of Ancoats.

Lily’s stocks an impressive range of Indian groceries and spices as well and spicy snacks such as dal vada, chakli, bonda, battered chillis and their famous ‘atomic bombs’, potato’s coated in batter injected with a fiery masala. Not for the faint hearted!

They also make and sell Indian cakes and their barfi flavoured with figs or dates is our favourite.

A short walk from Lily’s deli is the Chappati Café which serves great value thalis on Indian trays with the menu changing daily. Recommended.

A further short walk from the Chappati Café is the small but beautifully decorated restaurant called Roti. The restaurant has the only Indo/Scots menu in Manchester. As well as Indian street food favourites, Roti also serves its own version of the Scottish staple ‘mince and tatties’ (spiced meat in chole potatoes), haggis pakora and even scotch egg (boiled egg wrapped in pork seasoned with chaat masala). Although the restaurant serves a full selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, we were surprised to see that Irn Bru, Scotland’s best loved soda, was missing from the list!

Further away from Roti and opposite the vast Southern Cemetery (of which, more below) is Amma’s Canteen. The restaurant serves fresh, home cooked style Southern Indian dishes including their much loved Dosa, a thin ‘pancake’ made from a batter of fermented rice and lentils stuffed with spicy goodness.

As noted above, the vast Southern Cemetery lies across the way from Amma’s Canteen. It is the second largest cemetery in Europe and the final resting place of important local figures such as the legendary Manchester United manager, Sir Matt Busby and the iconic Tony Wilson, the co-creator of the influential music label Factory Records. Wilson did more than almost anyone in putting the city’s popular culture on the map. Even a decade and a half after his death in 2007, he is still having a positive effect on the city in our opinion.

Wilson (centre) in a suitably grim Manchester backdrop in the 1970’s

Anyone who is familiar with the recent history of Manchester, the city’s rise from the grim post industrial decay of the 1970s into the modern, vibrant environment it is today, will be aware of the part Wilson played in invigorating the popular culture of the world’s first modern city.

Designer Peter Saville who worked closely with Wilson commented ‘Tony created a new understanding of Manchester; the resonance of Factory goes way beyond the music. Young people often dream of going to another place to achieve their goals. Tony provided the catalyst and context for Mancunians to do that without having to go anywhere’.

In a small nation, too often in thrall to its capital, Wilson more than anyone else in his generation, emphasised the fact that great art and culture was not the sole preserve of London but was very much alive elsewhere in the country and in the North in particular.

Writer Paul Morley, himself born in the city, analysed Wilson’s life and legacy in incredible detail in his book ‘From Manchester with love’.

Saville designed Wilson’s black granite headstone with architect Ben Kelly . The headstone sits in repose amongst the crosses and columns of its neighbours in the Southern Cemetery.

Several examples of graffiti art featuring Tony Wilson have cropped up in the city including the following in Chorlton with its quote from the man himself (although sadly, ‘Wilson’ was incorrectly spelt in this instance).

Across the road from the Wilson mural is a stencil of the iconic Quentin Crisp by celebrated artist Stewy (www.stewy.uk).

The openly gay Quentin Crisp was a writer, humorist and actor who was famously played by the late actor John Hurt in the 1975 autobiography which was broadcast on national TV in the UK to great acclaim under the title ‘The Naked Civil Servant’.

Crisp has only a somewhat tenuous link with Chorlton, the suburb being the place where he died in 1999 after staying with a friend there. He was cremated at the Southern Cemetery.

Stewy’s stencil of Quentin Crisp is on the corner of Keppel Road in Chorlton. Keppel Road was where the Gibb brothers (better known as the Bee Gees) once lived and where they first practiced their harmonies together.

The brothers would, of course, go on to immense success globally. They were especially popular in the US and their mainstream take on disco music sold by the millions.

Crisp was also a success in the US and in New York in particular. The city was where his Broadway show ‘An evening with Quentin Crisp’ was staged to great acclaim.

Stewy also created a stencil artwork of Tony Wilson in the city as well as one of the ‘Bard of Salford’ (Salford being the city across the river from Manchester) John Copper Clarke, to whom Wilson gave his first break on TV.

We’ll leave John Cooper Clarke with the last word.

Kung Fu International

Treacle and Joy Division

Macclesfield is a market town in East Cheshire in the North West of England. It is not too far away from Manchester. The town has a real character to it and it is surrounded by gorgeous countryside with the Peak District National Park nearby. The town is also a key film location for the popular Peaky Blinders television series.

The North West has undergone something of a culinary renascence in the past few years. There is an increased emphasis on quality local produce with a talented group of local chefs creating great food from across the world.

Macclesfield is a part of this change and we especially like the bread and pastries at Flour Water Salt and the iconic Lord of the Pies.

A particular local favourite of ours is the monthly Treacle Market which is held in the centre of town. It is a lively mix of food stalls, crafts and antiques.

Nearby is the food hall at the Picturedrome, a beautifully restored former cinema dating back to 1911 which is now an atmospheric food hall

The Picturedrome is a sister to two Manchester food halls, Altrincham Market House in the south of the city and the more central Mackie Mayor.

Altrincham Market House

The Mackie Mayor

The Mackie Mayor is a few doors down from the the iconic music venue, the Band on the Wall. Anyone who is anyone will have played at the Band on the Wall at some time or other including of course, local legends Joy Division, one of the most influential groups to have ever come from England.

(This video has over 23 million views on You Tube)

We never saw the group play as Joy Division but we did see them perform under their old name ‘Warsaw’ which they changed shortly thereafter so as to avoid confusion with a similarly named band.

Joy Division have a particular link with Macclesfield, the town where their singer, Ian Curtis grew up in (he was born in nearby Manchester). The town is also sadly the place where he passed away. The house where he lived until he died in 1980 is still there. It is a short walk from the town centre.

Joy Division drummer Drummer Steven Morris was born in the town and lives nearby.

After his death, Curtis’ band mates and keyboardist Gillian Gilbert formed New Order and the rest, as they say, is history.

Like ourselves, Curtis was a fan of reggae.

In her memoir ‘Touching from a distance’ Curtis’ widow Deborah notes:-

“Ian always had an interest in reggae music; Bob Marley and Toots and the Maytals already figured in his diverse record collection. Moving into that area of Manchester (i.e. south) gave Ian the opportunity to throw himself into the local culture. He began to spend much of his time in a record shop in Moss Side shopping centre, listening to different reggae bands”.

Curtis was a big fan of recordings by the Jamaican producer Keith Hudson (whose 1974 album ‘Pick a Dub’ is much loved by us) with his favourite being the latter’s 1975 number ‘Turn the heater on’ (England was much colder than Jamaica. Hudson was resident in London at the time after all!).

‘Turn the heater on’ was later recorded by New Order as a tribute to Ian Curtis. It was broadcast on DJ John Peel’s show in 1982. At the time, Peel was one of the very few national DJ’s to play reggae on the airwaves.

The first artist to be recorded by Keith Hudson was the veteran Dennis Alcapone back in 1969. Alcapone recorded a football tribute ‘World Cup Football’ in 1981 to exalt the Brazilian national squad and to call for more black players in the England football side to make a better team as a result. (The rhythm Alcapone toasts over on this track is the classic ‘Rope in’ by Cornell Campbell. See also ‘Fattie Boom Boom’ by the late Ranking Dread).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5vBsjAN3RQ

New Order also recorded their own officially sanctioned football song for the 1990 World Cup, ‘World In Motion’

As well as undoubtably being the best official football song from England, ‘World In Motion’ is notable for the rap by the beloved Liverpool/England player John Barnes.

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