A review of Kevin Cummins’ book…
As the Forever Manchester blogger, I felt it was my duty to let you all know about the most prolific book on Manchester I have read in recent months. I received legendary Mancunian, Kevin Cummins’ book ‘Manchester: Looking for the Light through the Pouring Rain’ as a Christmas present and ‘oh my’, what an unexpected treat! The book displays an exceptionally beautiful selection of photographs documenting the gritty beauty of Post-Industrial urban space in Northern working class towns, showing how twenty years of regeneration has changed the face of modern Manchester. Cummins’ work managed to present a nuanced engagement of a city “trapped between wrecked grandeur and abortive modernisation”. Through the use of both image and prose, Cummins’ illustrates that Manchester as a Post-Industrial space was essentially a paradox; it was an “almost collapsed space littered with sly corners and abrupt cul-de-sacs, disturbing bricked-up doorways and truncated secret alleyways decorated with rust and decay” yet a “postmodern Cavern” which ultimately led to the almost gentrified urban landscape of Manchester today; to “Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and boutique hotels, to canalside apartments and a miraculous kind of soot-free illuminated self-confidence.” The photographs of bands such as Joy Division, The Buzzcocks and The Smiths who all aided the reinvention of Manchester as both a cultural and musical capital effectively illustrate that it was in fact the apparent “grimy, dank [and] dreamless” urban space of the city which forced people to move away from “the mighty industrial past…the statuesque warehouses and factories” and the subsequent “uncanny ache that cries out from they silence of [these] solid things” by transforming “the stubborn, miserable, crumbling brick walls and the bleak city pavements into sound, the derelict old buildings would mutate into rhythm, as if the soot and ash and dust could be cleared away by dreams.” This very ‘dream’ is a dream which can be seen in modern culture and society; a dream to move away from the stigmatised, disillusioned working class values seen in films such as This is England, the articulation of this disenchantment in Control by Anton Corbijin and the expression of working class angst and creativity in Twenty Four Hour Party People. This ‘dream’ is visually presented many times throughout Cummins’ work. For example, it is a ‘dream’ to move away from the images of the dilapidated and bleak post-industrial emptiness illustrated in the photograph of Shudehill in 1979 or the vast areas of wasteland captured in Hulme to the Manchester we see today; a “glittering [example] of modernist chic”. Essentially, the book focuses of the urban, cultural and musical landscape of Manchester and traces the journey from a “swampy emblem of a great, brutal Victorian city” populated by the “unemployed, the desperate…laid-off car-workers, single mums [and] scallies” to a regenerated and cosmopolitan metropolis.
The way in which Cummins’ illustrates the narrow confines of an industrial city so poignantly and yet, beautifully is quite simply remarkable. A five star piece of work in my opinion and a book I will treasure for years to come. All you Mancunians get down to your nearest bookstore…I can assure you, it’s money well spent!
February 25, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Great review, Hannah. It’s nice to be reminded of the artistic and cultural growth of our wonderfully stylish city which I sometimes take for granted. Looking forward to your next blog.
February 25, 2010 at 1:08 pm
I emailed into the Forever Manchester radio Show wondering where your next blog was?
And here it is.
As usual- quite brilliant and continuing to emphasise the magnificence and growth of our City.
Keep on taking pride and wonder in the legacy and beauty of Manchester Hannah.
Thank you for being a premier blogger for all us Mancunions.
February 25, 2010 at 1:13 pm
I am off to buy this book now – Manchester Rules OK !
February 25, 2010 at 7:12 pm
What a woderful blog, i keep reading it over an over again. I must get the book at weekend. I have notified my friends to read the blog. It is brilliant. Keep up the good work. Also enjoying your shows with Terry on a Wednesday evening
February 25, 2010 at 8:01 pm
The Photos on this blog were an incredible trip down memory lane. I remember going through Hulme and Moss Side, past the grey Bullring and feeling the bleakness of Manchester swallowing us all up – now we can breathe,admire and celebrate that area !
The Blogger via Cummins, reminds us that we need to acknowledge and understand the past to appreciate the future. Well Done.
February 25, 2010 at 8:19 pm
I really look forward to these blogs on the forever Manchester website- they are varied and thorough in the research.
Nothing worse than a bad blogger !
But you Hannah are a good one !
Regards,
Angel
x
March 3, 2010 at 8:53 pm
This is the Stuff that makes our City the best in the world.
Its strength came from its bleakness.
Its glamour came from its greyness.
Manchester Forever.
Forever Manchester Forever !!
March 4, 2010 at 9:36 am
Sigh…these blogs always make me feel homesick. I am going to have to buy the book! x
March 5, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Amazing review Hannah! It reminds our generation of how much history there is right on our doorstep. We’re lucky to live in such a wonderful city!
March 8, 2010 at 8:31 pm
just to make the point a little clearer – the greyness and bleakness of Manchester was of course, nothing to be glamourised – it was however a huge part of our History and our Past and our legacy- and to then create the beauty and glamour from it has become a uniquely Mancunion tour de force.
Viva Le Manc!
March 8, 2010 at 8:46 pm
Thanks for your comments and interest in my blog.
I completely understand what you’re saying here; and the transformation from the bleakness of Manchester’s architecture to the beauty of our fantastic city today is captured perfectly in this book….A must read if you appreciate what Manchester was and has become Mr. Manchester!
May 26, 2010 at 11:15 am
ucvhost
September 24, 2010 at 12:22 pm
A nice book from the boy Cummins. I read it whilst making use of the faicilites at my mate’s house.
Manchester grey and bleak? Oh yeah, still is. There is nothing bleaker than an empty shop unit, an unsold apartment block, an abandoned car showroom, crumbling old buildings that nobody wants to develop now. Miserable then, miserable now. That’s Manchester and I love it.
June 3, 2011 at 5:47 am
Ernest Hemingway~ Theres nothing noble in being superior for your fellow males. True the aristocracy is becoming superior for your former self.
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