A time capsule of images documenting Manchester music history has been unearthed
A series of posters and photos promoting nights out at the Hacienda have found their way back into the public(Image: Matthew Rich)
When screen printer Matthew Rich was making and posting posters back in the 1970s and 1980s – promoting nights out and concerts at some of Manchester’s top music venues such as The Haçienda and Rafters – the idea was that they would be torn down and replaced within weeks.
But more than 44 years on from The Hacienda’s opening night party on May 21, 1982, much of the artwork once intended to be fleeting have resurfaced and are on public display, featuring promotional art for shows of big bands like The Fall and The Smiths.
For years, Matthew – now an artist embedded in the heart of Glasgow’s creative and music communities – had held on to a number of duplicates, prints and photographs of the artworks in a drawer in his studio as they collected dust. When one fellow artist came across them in passing, he says he was encouraged to put them on show.
Click here for the latest on Manchester’s food & drink scene, gigs and more in our CityLife newsletter
“There was a roll of posters kept in a box in my studio for close to 40-odd years,” Matthew tells the Manchester Evening News. “I was working with a guy who runs a record label in Glasgow, and he saw this drawer of Hacienda posters and he said I needed to put them on display.”
I Am The Fly was first held in Glasgow last summer, with a second run taking place in London at the end of the year. But Manchester, naturally, was always on the cards for an exhibition. “It was always the plan for it to come back home to its roots,” Matthew explained.
A poster promoting The Smiths’ iconic show at the Hacienda on November 24, 1983(Image: Matthew Rich)
From now until the end of September, a series of the works – spanning across posters and photos – will be on display in a free exhibition at The Refuge at the Kimpton Clocktower Hotel, on Oxford Street.
“These posters were never meant to last,” Matthew said. “They were pasted onto walls, fly posted across the city and before long, covered over or torn down. Today, they offer a nostalgic glimpse of Manchester at an incredible time. They reflect the energy and determination of the people who helped shape Manchester into what it is today.”
Speaking about how he ended up in screen-printing posters for the likes of the Hacienda and big name record labels, Matthew said he fell into the career after moving to the city to study engineering – before dropping out and being in need of a job fairly quickly.
Pictures were taken as proof that the fly postering work had been done(Image: Matthew Rich)
“I got talking to some of the guys who were running a silkscreen printing shop on Oxford Road called Community Expression,” he explained. “I started working there and I learnt how to screen-print, it was something I had never done before – it all just went from there really.
“After a while, I teamed up with the guys who were running the main flyposting operation in Manchester. We would print the posters then post them around. At the time, the Hacienda was more of a live music venue rather than what it came to really be know for.
“Each week, we’d be roaming around town putting up posters for the bands that were in town. At the time, it was just a job and you didn’t really think much about it. It was just a normal life for us.
But looking back, it was this incredible time for music. I was around for the opening of the Hacienda, we printed their posters for quite a while as they were putting on these great artists like Alan Vega and Aztec Camera. Because we did the posters, we got to get into the shows too – I got to see some amazing artists at the start of their careers.”
Posters were also made to promote nights out at venues like PSV Club and Rafters(Image: Matthew Rich)
Part of the job also required putting up posters promoting the latest album and single releases for artists, with photos taken and sent over to London as proof of their work. Some of these images have also been recovered and found their way into the latest exhibition too.
“We’d have to post photos to show we had done the work so they would then pay us,” he explains of the process. “I ended up with a few leftover packets of photos that were never actually sent out, and it’s been really interesting to see all the details, the dates, and the names for shows I had completely forgotten about.”
Asked if he has a favourite of the images on display, Matthew says he has a few he considers. “There’s some really obscure ones that I love,” he muses. “I love the ones promoting the shows at the PSV Club, which used to be a big Caribbean venue in Hulme.
‘These posters were never meant to last. They were pasted onto walls, fly posted across the city and before long, covered over or torn down'(Image: Matthew Rich)
“There’s one poster promoting a night at the PSV for reggae DJ Prince Far I. I love that one because I really liked their music. I think it’s something a bit different too, it shows how eclectic Manchester’s music scene has always been.”
Asked what he hopes people will gain from exploring I Am The Fly, Matthew says he hopes it’s a walk through history for both those that were there and those that weren’t. “I think it will be a big nostalgia trip for so many people,” he explains.
The Fall’s show at the Hacienda on December 16, 1983 also got the fly posting treatment(Image: Matthew Rich)
“There will be a few people of my generation who were around and might recognise these posters or have gone to some of the shows they are advertising. With the photos, it’s also a chance to look at the streets of Manchester and how they have changed over the years. It’s interesting to see the small details in the background, like the cars or what people wore in 1983.
“But I think it’s something that people can still have a connection with – whether they were around at that time or not. It’s about Manchester, it’s music and some of the pictures were actually taken not far from where the exhibition now is, which I think really puts all of that into perspective.”
I Am The Fly is at The Refuge at Kimpton Clocktower Hotel (M60 7HA) now until September 26. Free to attend.