In this video, I sit down with Jane, whose TikTok comments caught my attention for her deep knowledge of Manchester’s music scene. This is the first time we’ve spoken, and what follows is a rich, personal journey through the cultural heartbeat of Manchester in the late 1980s and early ’90s — told through the eyes of someone who lived and breathed it.
Jane begins by sharing how her TikTok algorithm started serving her my videos, and how she was struck by how they archive Manchester’s cultural landscape. She humbly says she never created anything herself, but loved being one of the many who were inspired by what was happening around them. It wasn’t until she moved away that she truly appreciated how unique and vibrant Manchester was.
She grew up in Sale, but her roots stretch across Newton Heath, Middleton, and Oldham. Jane paints a vivid picture of her family’s Irish Catholic working-class background, including stories of her grandmother running the Cloggers Arms, and her mother being placed in an orphanage due to poverty.
Her passion for the arts started early — encouraged by a teacher, she auditioned for Manchester’s Contact Theatre, a pioneering venue for youth performance in the 1990s. From there, she landed roles in Drama Rama and Children’s Ward, at the same time her boyfriend Damien Morgan was DJing at venues like Sunset Radio, Devilles, and The Venue.
Jane recalls lying about her age to get a job at Cafe Society in Afflecks Palace — a hotspot for vintage fashion and a nucleus for Manchester’s exploding music scene. She shares memories of working next to Eastern Bloc Records and rubbing shoulders with DJs like MC Tunes and the Spin Inn crew, including Mark XTC. She’d often carry Damien’s record boxes to gigs — this was the pre-USB era, after all — and they’d end their nights at the Haçienda.
She reflects on how Manchester gave people the belief that they could do something — that it was a city where creativity felt accessible, whether you were into music, writing, art or fashion. Even when she moved to London to study drama, she carried that identity with her — wearing a bold Gio-Goi denim jacket on her first day.
The story comes full circle as Jane reflects on how the Manchester scene shaped both her and her brother, who went on to create his own music events company. Now raising her own children outside the city, she’s still sharing that legacy — trading music recommendations with her 14-year-old son on drives up north.
At the end, Jane picks a classic Manchester track as her favourite: “The Only Rhyme That Bites” by MC Tunes.
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