Moving to Manchester

i'd go for house sharing to be honest. i think manchester is big enough that there will be some decent houseshares. its difficult to know (ive never lived there but know a lot of people there - actually man, i'll put out the feelers for you, see whats about), because its not london where its houseshare driven

first port of call is always going to be chorlton i guess, that seems to be where people choose first. but as a secondary perhaps cheaper option what about urmston? i know its a bit further out but it seems pretty nice if yu wanted somewhere that might be a bit cheaper, im not sure.

hey man, look ill get back to you on this, i might be able to help a bit more specifically

I suppose housesharing might be the best option though I fear ending up with a bunch of neurotic teabag counters/bawdy bodybuilding FHM readers.

Let me know if you find out anything of interest. I should say that I'm only going to move out around summertime (prob July) so there's no real rush, I'm just into seeing what options there are.

Hated Fallowfield because I got robbed and spat at and glared at. Not beaten though, so I shouldn't really complain.

Withington's probably cheaper than Chorlton and definitely cheaper than Didsbury and is OK. Whalley Range isn't perfect (burglaries of occasional muggings) but bits of it are OK and flats are probably cheap. Hulme's still a bit dodgy, same with Rusholme. Gorton, Ardwick and Longsight are a no-no, Levenshulme is borderline.

Gareth might well be right about Urmston, although it strikes me as a bit suburban. Bits of Salford are OK, but you need to explore a bit to find which ones - avoid Lower (and upper) Broughton and most of Cheetham Hill and do not even *think* about Ordsall. Prestwich has its moments, as does Monton.

Best bet is scouring the Evening News. Some agencies are OK but some are pure fuckers.

I lived in Manchester for four years and never got robbed or spat at, even in Rusholme shock horror. Maybe people were glaring but I didn't notice.

Unfortunately I got spat at and glared at by the same person in Fallowfield. Some snotty little scally who lived round the corner from me and decided I was a student wanker. I was neither.

To be honest, you could spend your whole time in most places and never get any grief. On the other hand, you could be mugged in Didsbury.

Ian, can you drive? Presumably, Ashton-in-Makerfield would be a bugger to get to if you can't.

Are there night buses from these places into Manchester? In my dreams I'd like to just stroll out of my flat and be on Oxford rd in seconds but that ain't gonna happen so I'd like to be able to get into town with the minimum of fuss.

and on a different note, Tag, have you got any plans for another Girl Group night or anything similar? I remember you saying you were gonna sort it out for February, is this going to plan?
I've been enjoying the Star & Garter the past few Saturdays. The venue still stinks and the music could be better but the people there are generally quite likeable. It's nice to be around people in sharp suits too.
There's an electro night called Wrong which sounds fab, I'll be heading down to the next one. They've got Tigerbeat6 acts on and had Cartel Communique djing last time which is no bad thing (ignoring their involvement with the deplorable Born Sloppy).
I'm still waiting for a night where I can dance to Walter Steding/Orange Juice/Flipper/Robert Palmer/Sparks/Grace Jones/Cristina though.

Girl group night, lord only knows. We're both really skint. Sorry.

Enjoying the Star and Garter? Lordy. Maybe it's a rennaissance. But the people were always quite likable, for the most part.

"Wrong" is a good name for a club. Where's that then? Look up "wrong" and "club" on Manchester online and it throws up loads of Man United links. Funny that.

Well I don't think that's so hard. Minutes, maybe. Though I am probably thinking of the Oxford Rd as one long thing that goes all the way through to Didsbury and beyond whereas I know it actually changes name. Withington has a train station that goes to Oxford Rd station. Or was that called Burnage? Oh, it's all so hazy now.

Wrong is at The Tube on Harter St. The flyer gives www.zerolabel.net as the link. The next one is on Valentines night and has Atomizer, Johnny Slut, Fil Ok and other names that also mean nothing to me. But The Numbers are playing the one in March and Knifehandchop in April which should be decent.

Looked at that link, Ian. Call me old-fashioned but I like playlists. Otherwise it's "who the fuck are these people?"

Yes, poverty has prevented me from sorting out another gg night yet. I did a post new-years party as well as some recording - but all in London.

There *will* be another one, it's just sorting it all out. I keep meaning to go check out that new venue which used to be the Ginnels antique gallery - I've been told it's rather lovely and not too tricky to book. And seeing as it's tucked away on a side street off Albert Square, I think it's promising as a location.

Urmston is a bit dull, but nice enough. I think you might get bored being there. There's just not a lot happening and it's verging on Sale which is the burbs.

You can definitely get a houseshare for less than £300 a month in West Didsbury etc.

have heard it said that
withington is a new 'up n coming' area
but they said that about whalley range/chorlton 5 yrs ago
and somebody somewhere seems to have left us
(the whalley bit) out of that reckoning at the last minute.

withington is a good bet :
ace breakfasts at solomon g's
ace (so i'm told, haven't been) new bar
opposite the old kinema,
big sainsbury's down the road,
buses practically every 30 *seconds* to town,
easy access late night buses home from town,
(the oxf. road night bus goes right thru central wthngtn)
and cheap flats etc.

withington must have loads of
decent places you could pay a fortune for elsewhere.

question u really have to ask yourself is -
how far away will you be from the nearest Abdul's ?

Is Abdul's still persevering with the McDonaldsisation of their outlets?

Sadly a McDonalds has opened on Oxford Road, practically right across from Abdul's (the one near Big Hands/Contact theatre) - snaring a lot of the daytime lunch students. I actually saw a queue out the door there the other day.

Oh and Mauldeth Road rang a bell cause that was the road my sister's student hovel was on. You confused me. That was definitely not the name of the train station. I think it was Burnage. It was certainly on the way to Burnage anyway. I lived on that side of Withington. Oh my, I can't remember the name of the street I lived on at this makes me sad.

I hung out in Dutch bars, mainly.

As for the move to Manc, does anyone know what the absolute minimum is that I'd have to pay for a flat real near the centre of town?

Pisces, have you checked out that Wrong night? It seems like something you'd know about, how is it? Also, could I be an annoying tit and ask you to scan me that pic of Madonna dancing at the Hacienda that you mentioned? Or if you've not got it do you know where I can find it? (it ain't anywhere online as far as I can tell)

Gareth, thanks for the help, bud. I owe you one.

And I've not got a clue what an Abduls is.

that 'wrong' night rings a bell. not been.

My recordings were done as a 6-song souvenir/promo item for the Spectropop party in January, and I'm happy to get them out there. I don't have enough space on my web account to have all the mp3s for downloading, but if you drop me an email we can sort out a cdr.

A flat on your own in the city centre? Ouch. Probably £600 - £800 easy, but I suppose there are studio bargains to be had. Up My Street will probably give you some good leads. One idea is to get somewhere that is sort of Northern Quarter/Ancoats as there are plenty of redevelopments and tucked away buildings etc. Cosmetically, not the greatest but really handy and you will be near the best coffee in town, Love Saves the Day.

Julie Twist is one of the main rental agencies for the centre. Remember that your council tax by living in the centre will also be sky-high, although I think you can get a 25% single person discount...

I don't know the Gramby, but I'll check it out next time I'm in the area. I'll probably try and sort something out for spring. The main hassle for me is running the door. This time, maybe I can find someone to run it for me. (a girl can dream!)

Tag - I doubt we crossed paths. I had a bit of a crappy time in Manchester (not the city's intrinsic fault - just not right for me at the time) and can't really think of places we might have both been at except obvious places occasionally. There was a Dutch bar. I can't remember where it was. I think we walked West down Whitworth St to get to it.

Thinking about it now, I'm not sure if it was actually Dutch. I think my lovely, hilarious and sadly lost touch with workmate David just used to call it the Dutch Bar cause they served Oranjeboom or something and it was a bit poncey for his tastes. So he'd put up a fuss and say "What, we're going to the Dutch Bar?" and look frightened. It was funny the way he stressed 'Dutch' in his Stoke accent so we all called it the Dutch Bar.

felix da housecat . le tigre. human league. lcd soundsystem. b-52s.
chicks on speed. cabaret voltaire. playgroup. miss kittin. the slits.
peaches. throbbing gristle can. stereolab...

... now you can see the kind of vibe they're after here,
so hats very much off to them for that.

rockinghams, harter st (off princess st.) 10-2
friday 21st february free entry before 11.

does look ok though!

this is what i'm after in London - Nag Nag Nag i presume? but i'm not gonna queue 2 hours for it for fecks sake...

anyway, it's the combo of records/bands i thought looked
interesting. context an that.

course the thought occurs that maybe
no-one will go/does go to these nights anyway,
thus making it about as popular as romo was.

ye get me ?

As it's free before 11 pm and a Friday night (*and* very near a relatively painless bus route, should we decided to pleb it home), I think this might be something to at least check out.

Where's Ian gone? I don't know if he wants to move to Manchester - the skies here have just gone pitch black and it's hailing ferociously. Ugh.

TVOD sounds decent, I'll do my best to go down to that. Bit piqued as the playlist looks a bit similar to what I was planning for my future North-conquering clubnight but fair play to em (I'd play Cristina instead of Peaches, Machine instead of Le Tigre, Flipper instead of Cabaret Voltaire and I'd not even consider the B-fucking-52s). I'm gonna check out that WRONG night this w/e too. If you see a long-haired excitable guy outside WRONG throwing flyers for NOTMUSIC and persuading you to the Gramby instead then that's my mate Gaz and while he's ace, the NOTMUSIC night isn't so don't go.

What's the night called on fridays once a month at the Star and Garter? That's got a similar playlist to that TVOD but I heard that no one goes down to it so maybe Manc just ain't ready to shake off its floppy mullets and guitars just yet.

Elisabeth, my mates at the Gramby get to use the venue for free providing they bring a fair few people down (which they rarely do) so it could prove a cheapy option for yer night.

I think I'm gonna give up on the idea of living in the Northern Quarter, even though it'd be fucking ace, because the council tax would slay me. But if anyone hears of a stinky rundown flat down some seedy alley around there that's going for £300 a month do let me know. I'm reckoning on Withington or Urmston, whichever is best for me getting to work/town.

And what's Minipop too?

Has anyone checked out Chips With Everything yet? A few mates went down at the weekend and said it's full of Hoxton fishfin pointy haircuts and swathes of irony and nu-denim. Sounds fucking shite.

Any news on the future of the Dancehouse soul nights? I hardly went to any of them but I'd like to have. And the Northern soul Mod night at Sofa is meant to be moving somewhere soon, not sure yet but it's worth checking out - much better than the authentic original we-did-it-first-and-better rrrrreal N.Soul nights in shitty labour clubs in dirty little towns like Lowton.

I'm loving the Star and Garter more and more. But only when the little bald Penfold DJ is on - he played 'you dont own me' by Lesley Gore at the end of the night on Saturdayso he's won me over forever - the Billy Idol DJ needs shooting, I mean Smashing Pumpkins, come on.

So yeah lets have a 'FAP' at TVOD and sit around quaffing wine and making glib comments about George Bush, rah rah. Or we could just go down and get pissed up an have a laff

I can do one a day maybe, like a sort of 60s girlgroup advent calendar...

Yeah, FAP at TVOD sounds really good actually - we've been a bit hermit-esque! It's in the diary.

Minipop was amazing. I guess it stopped about two years ago - for a while, it was the only thing I loved to go out to in Manchester. They'd play tasteful selections of chart pop mixed with up and coming dance records both chart-y and underground (it was the first place I heard Black Legend), older Human League, Hall & Oates, early Madonna... and of course, it's my claim to fame as I appeared in City Life with a nice photo but rather daft quote when they did a mini feature on it.

http://www.btinternet.com/~edsyder/chips/frameset.html

Tag, you missed Hiem at Club Suicide on Friday - they were fantastic. Up for Club Suicide this Saturday? You gonna be there Piscesboy? It's Pink Grease who stink a bit to me but last month was great so I'm definitely going.

Mary, this is just my personal opionion, but I recommend you avoid any night which continues to make reference to "Madchester" in the year 2003. There's also something faintly tragic about Andy Rourke going to a Smiths night. Particularly one at the Star and Garter.

Ned, what dark recess of your soul did the memory of Molly Halfhead come from??

dave haslam's tale of the 'star + garter'
smiths nights (as documented in '...wheels of steel')
is fantastic

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4261005,00.html

if only for the semi-legendary passage where he
compares himself to the smiths-playing moz-dj
at 'star...' that runs :

"if i were behind the decks, i'd be looking to build the atmosphere,
peak it, hold it there, take it down again, bring it up,
climax, encore. but dave's set isn't like that at all, it seems he's
just throwing records on one after another."

Some atavistic reptilian reaction.

Pisc, you don't like Club Suicide? But it's grrreat, and I can't stop loving how ace Hiem were, and Patrick Wolf the month before. Affect is dead and SPACK is pissing on the ashes.

I seem to recall they were big fans of Drive.

And is anyone going to Cabaret ESP tonight / Chips tmrw?

Not going to Chips, I have to avoid the Northern Quarter in the evenings for certain reasons. But Mary and Gareth are around this weekend and are getting the Tag guided tour, if you fancy meeting up for a drink at some point. They want to go to South tomorrow night, I may or may not join them.

Scally outside cubicle: Why are you taking so long? Have you got a fucking bird in there?
Scally inside cubicle: I tell you what mate, I've got a fucking shit in here.

For some reason, this only made me love Manchester more.

Ian, South nearly did end in tears. Never again. But the company was a pleasure.

Whalley Range is full of my mate Adam, so yeah.

I'm moving to Manchester next month - things might've changed since people answered this thread as it's a bit old - so where area should I live in? I'm studying for my masters so I'll need to get into the city easily, probably by bike and I don't know I can probably stretch to about £400 a month on rent but would fancy a bit less if possible - any ideas? I really don't know anything about Manchester, totally new to me, help.

i like whalley range a lot. sort of like chorlton but without the baggage of living in chorlton.

Whalley range is like chorlton without to culture or fun.

ha i am okay with calling that baggage?, i guess that says something about what i am looking for in a neighbourhood. idk, i just mean b/c it is like a nice place to live & that you can stroll over to chorlton if you want to go for the simultaneously fun + cultural experience of going to morrison's. or w/e, i know there are things to do there. i guess by 'baggage' i just mean that it feels like such a place & you see the same people every day & there's a lot of stuff going on that's going to impinge upon your consciousness somehow rather than just be around the corner where you're unaffected by it. i don't know what i'm talking about really, it is some years since i lived there.

If yr at uni then I would say yr options are:

-anywhere w/in short distance of oxford/wilmslow road, i.e. rusholme (cheap, great food shopping, shisha bars), victoria park (leafy, big victorian houses, venus foods), fallowfield (student ground zero, but convenient and alright really), withington (somewhat more bohemian than fallowfield, anyway), and possibly didsbury (pricier, cheese shops, occasional whiff of alderley edge). from any of these you'd have easy access to the other places, numerous big parks &c.

-chorlton: a self-sufficient bubble & enough of a thing to attract hate/"baggage", but prob yr best bet.

~leftfield options~ longsight (markets, crime), hulme (never sure about hulme, seems like a rough area that's rapidly gentrifying), centre/ancoats/northern quarter (pricey, somewhat swish)

most other places are prob too inconvenient. if you're going for a flatshare you should be able to get one for less than £400 w/out too much difficulty.

to backtrack on my slandering above & just jump in on the above, all this is v good advice i think. i think i'm more enthusiastic than ogmor about hulme - just because it's an interesting area historically & currently, as well as being well located &c - and would bring my 'baggage' claim back with a vengeance at didsbury, just b/c i think you'll be too out, living in didsbury rather than in manchester, which you might as well be particularly if you're getting to know the place. withington > fallowfield, also.

yeah hulme is definitely ok. west didsbury is pleasant; decent pubs, crazy wendy's & the great kathmandu (which is not that secretly the best curry house in mcr I think), close to chorlton in both senses. whoever described levenshulme as "borderline" upthread is very otm, it can be depressing, but had a v decent little house gig scene a while back (but i think this has migrated now?).

i'd advise looking at at least one or two places somewhere near the wilmslow road vicinity (which has good 24 hr buses & is fine for cycling) and in chorlton and wherever else sounds/looks appealing.

you'll p much be fine anyway, alain delon, just live somewhere without like ten other people & you'll be out investigating the city a bunch anyway. there's lots to do i think.

thank you ogmor and schlump for your help - I got a place in the centre :) :) :)

aww good going. let us know how you're getting on there; i was just there & felt v fondly towards the place. have you ventured out much?, found anywhere interesting?

My number one recommendation in the city centre is Habesha Ethiopian restaurant - upstairs from a kebab shop on Sackville Street.

It's very nice and remarkably cheap.

glad yr newly installed, hopefully there'll be less riots this month

of course i meant fewer........

my favourite place so far is the canal that runs through the centre, acts as a strange counterpoint to the street level. haven't been out to many night spots, walked into Kraak and then walked out again (but it did seem ok) and then went to see what Common was like - nice place i guess, but how are you going to play disco/boogie stuff and then no one is dancing to it / have no dance area...A sad state of affairs...WTF why are all these people sitting in chairs and not dancing when they're playing Kashif and D Train?

People dance there sometimes, but it's always pretty cramped

i keep thinking about moving to manchester but i don't know if i'll ever do it.

That is the general problem with a lot of Manchester's Vibrant And Bohemian Northern Quarter venues ime. I've never found common to be a likeable place for evenings.

Canal luv is otm. Proper atmospheric down there.

what would be a good neighborhood if you had kids?

Chorlton/ Didsbury is the go-to place for young families, I think.

from this thread chorlton sounds a bit pricey

Well Chorlton and Didsbury are the traditional 'nice' parts of town. Chorlton is especially family friendly by reputation, but yeah it's pricey cmopared to surrounding areas. I will rep for Levenshulme all day, despite a continuing dodgy reputation and the fact it has been 'up and coming' without actually improving much for the 8 years I've lived in the city. But until recently I lived in a v nice corner of Levenshulme with lots of v nice families around. There are lots of nice victorian/edwardian houses, just not much in the way of cafes, shops etc.

I like lots of Salford but can't ever identify what are the good and bad neighbourhoods.

salford appears to have been bamboozling mancunians for 9 years on this thread!

It's the tower blocks, Northern terraces, crap regeneration, uni scene, good and shit pubs, all piled on top of each other. Completely bewildering. It doesn't seem to have 'areas'. It's just chaos.

Feel like I should put in an honourable mention for north Manchester too. I was raised in sth m/cr and lived in Levenshulme for a couple of years and Chorlton for more than five, but when my wife and I wanted to buy somewhere Chorlton was just too expensive. We cast the net a bit wider, with a particular eye on Prestwich and Whitefield. Bought our first place in Prestwich in 2004 and moved last year to a bigger gaff in the same area. Both these houses cost approx 1/2 what their Chorlton/Didsbury equivalent would be, and I've never regretted the move once.

Prestwich can't lay claim to an equivalent bar/restaurant scene to sth m/cr, but there's plenty of good pubs, some excellent places to eat, decent amenities and a nice enough "village" feel in parts. The other big plus is that the enormous Heaton Park (with playgrounds, walking, animal centre, golf etc) is a stone's throw away and transport links (tram, motorway, buses) are excellent in all directions. We don't have children, but there's loads of young families in the area and plenty of other playgrounds, open spaces etc.

So yeah, have a mooch around this side of town too, you might be pleasantly surprised.

Friends with kids seem to like Bolton.

And there's always Altrincham, if schools are an issue.

common is not optimal dancing turf. i've only ever had a mediocre time at kraak but I don't think it's the fault of the venue as such. more likely to have a good time, on the right evening, at islington mill, mint lounge, homo electric @ legends, deaf institute mb.

the concept of buying a house is so alien to me I can't even begin to get my neurons in gear, but plenty of cheap rents in chorlton, less in didsbury. speaking in my new capacity as a chorltonite, I have to admit it's actually really good. we even had an intense midnight 60mph+ car chase through wilbraham road last week w/ police and burst tires and sparks and helicopters, what more could you ask for in a bohemian urban village environment?

i live in an ex-lingerie factory in the NQ. best place i've ever lived (done chorlton, didsbury, whalley range, the hacienda). common is great at the right time/event. you should avoid black dog like the plague on fridays/saturdays but all other nights you get local bar workers and other non-9-5ers and it's much less alpha/prowly. it all depends on your age/family situation but i don't see the point in living anywhere except as close to the centre as possible. the star & garter deserves a mention on this thread too.