That's interesting hearing it from an insider.

The London music slavish press obsession with Manchester from 1982ish to 1992 really got under my skin as I could never see how the music stacked up against the press it got. To be fair when the NME were slobbering all over Ze Records and the Club For Heroes scene in London it was the same thing.

My disdain for The Smiths masks the fact that I bought a lot of their records at the time but I could never love them the way I love Magazine. The endless hype, misanthropy and solipsism just get in the way.

I've a lot of time for Mark E Smith as a writer and The Fall are just one of those rare bands apart from everything else, occupying their own time zone and making some astonishing music along the way but I never think of them coming from anywhere in particular. Like Magma!

"Mark E Smith actually moved up to Edinburgh to escape i believe because he hated it all, this so called Manchester scene"

...though he found time to make a record with Inspiral Carpets!

8)