While this is currently just an idea/draft, it’s most likely gonna end up being the first post for my latest pursuit
– trying to find a way to make a living doing something I actually give a shit about. Not another job that makes me want to walk into the sea with a belt of rocks, or just bash my head in repeatedly on the keyboard.
"From Day Jobs to Vinyl Dreams"
I’ve tried my hand at plenty of things in life. Retail (boring as hell, and depending on the store, life-endangering – yes regular death threats, I worked for Sports Direct).
Service industry? Yep, been there. Bars (pretending to live like a pint pouring rock star with a side of snow, constant new faces, and a regular dopamine crashes). Restaurants (same thing, just more grease & angry chefs). Cafés? Nah, I’m not built for the constant flow of moronic tourists asking which way to the red light district (remember to always send them the wrong direction).
Labouring and crew work? Brutal on your body – one wrong move, and you’re out of commission for weeks.
Then I gave the ‘professional’ world a go. White-collar nonsense like labs (basically factory work with people who function like robots) and office jobs in sales and marketing (dealing with wanker CEOs, and the admin alone is enough to make you lose your mind).
But the one thing that keeps pulling me back? Music. Something about it keeps whispering in my ear – start something around what you actually like. Build something around the thing that makes life slightly more tolerable.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. At least you’ve got some tunes to get you through. A melody that drags your soul into some subconscious mix of melancholy or euphoria, or a beat that gets you through the most boring day of chores.
Will this idea of mine actually keep me drinking, eating, and sleeping without the kind of stress that puts you into early retirement? Honestly, who knows? But I’m jumping in anyway.
"The Pull of the Dance Floor"
So here I am, starting Rare Cut Gems. A place to talk music, share old records, and find something new – not just chucking together a 10-second preview on a reel or a half-hearted playlist that you’ll forget about in a day. Nah, this is the s l o w lane – intentional, a bit analog, and way more satisfying. Which leads me to this, my first random blog on random things I’ll loosely tie to music.
And I’m going into this whole thing a bit like Peter Hook when he started The Haçienda. Hooky – Joy Division, New Order, Factory Records – (you know the fella). His book The Haçienda - How Not to Run a Club dropped in 2009. Got it as a gift from a girl I was with back in 2012. At the time, underground music was in a weird place. Dubstep was starting to fade from its gritty Croydon, weed-smoke days, and turning into arena-filling ‘brostep’. Skrillex anyone? Then fading away. (Weirdly enough, he’s back now with Fred Again and Flowdan).
House music, was back in vogue – a small renaissance in style and sound. I’d just come back from the summer festival pilgrimage, where electronic music suddenly made perfect sense to me. There I was, vintage Adidas waterproof on, 5-panel cap, standing in a muddy field in the North of England at 1 AM, eyes dilating, and my body running on pure energy. My jaw’s doing its own thing, but my feet and hips? They’re in full control. The music… damn. It was the summer of Julio Bashmore’s Au Seve & Battle for Middle You, Mosca’s Bax, and Dusky’s Flow Jam. It felt like a movement, something that had been simmering before I even knew what was happening, and now I was finally part of it.
"Music at Home"
But dance music wasn’t something I picked up at home. I grew up in a practicing Muslim household, but it wasn’t overly strict. My dad? A semi-failed actor turned council worker and part-time radio DJ (Traditional Bangla music for BBC Radio Lancashire, oioi get to know ye). My mum? A lifelong language teacher but with the heart of a punk. She introduced me to The Clash, Joy Division, The Stranglers – you get the picture. Dance music, though? That came from somewhere else.
What I do know is that Manchester had a lot to do with it. It’s in the soil, in the air. There’s something about this place that gets under your skin. We’ve got a saying up north – if you don’t laugh, you cry. The dark satanic mills and the smoggy industrial history didn’t just pump out the world’s first factories; they churned out something bigger. Manchester’s always been about struggle, about pushing back. Karl Marx got his inspiration here for The Communist Manifesto, seeing the lives of the working class firsthand.
"Manchester: It's Got Everything But a Beach!"
But we didn’t just sit around and suffer. We fought back. Emmeline Pankhurst and the Suffragettes started their movement right here. We split the atom, built the first computer, discovered graphene. And maybe the most important thing of all – we fought for the weekend. Work hard, play harder. (Just not too hard, eh?)
And if you don’t have something to do indoors? You’re done. Because the rain doesn’t stop. It’s grey, it’s relentless, and the constant pitter patter of leopard spots turns this city into a bubbling pot of creativity. It’s no wonder Manchester’s the way it is. You’ve gotta find something to brighten the black & white life of red bricks.
What Hooky’s book taught me is that Manchester isn’t just a city. It’s an evolving beast. Built on the backs of giants, but always moving forward. It’s got a spirit that influences you whether you like it or not.
On the 6th day, God created MANchester.
PS: If you haven’t read the book, do it. While this article was far more of a personal memoir than a book review, Peter's writing about the escapades of the Haç gave me the inspiration to write this piece, so I'll dedicate it to all them at Factory, also for the countless hours of musical enjoyment and inspiration. The book itself is an inside look from a musical legend about a time that we now, with the benefit of hindsight, realize was nothing short of iconic. A wild ride full of bad decisions, great stories, and advice that’ll stick with you. Packed with setlists from nights that went down in history, it’s a music lover’s dream.
5/5 – highly recommended.
Get your copy here; https://amzn.to/3ZrEREd.
