Hey! FUC51
You may already be familiar with FUC51 – the blog that popped up earlier this year to poke fun at all things Madchester and Factory. Their writing is witty, their sources anonymous – just like the writers of the blog itself. But Hey! Manchester thought we’d ask them what it’s all about anyway…
Basics first: who are you?
Stephen Morris and Cressa. Some twat out of Northside probably. That guy with dreads who used to do ‘Wonderwall’ outside Boots on Market Street.
You set up FUC51 back in January. Was there a particularly terrible experience that prompted you to do so?
Nope. People tend to assume we emerged intentionally at the same time as Hooky re-opened the doors of the old Factory offices, but really, that was just a fluke on our part and proved incredibly useful in terms of interest around Manchester and music.
And why the blog format?
As opposed to what? A newspaper? A fanzine given away in Piccadilly Records? Blogs are cheap and direct and easily allow everyone to chip in with their views immediately in the comments. When people need to call you names, they need a platform that encourages their urgency and rudeness. There’s nothing nicer than someone logging on anonymously to give us lot a bloody nose. The collective readership is always smarter and funnier than the collective ‘we’.
You get a lot of feedback, both positive and negative, through comments and tip-offs. Are you pleased with the response?
I think what we’re most pleased with is some of the ‘names people know’ who’ve got in touch and said they’re right behind what we’re doing. There’s almost a culture of ‘omerta’ among the old guard, ‘you’ve paid your dues’, and all that. It was refreshing to know not everyone necessarily wants to continue the whole revival industry.
You don’t seem short of things to write about. Is FUC51, in one for or another, something you’ve had in mind for a while?
It doesn’t really matter what we want. Fact is, it didn’t take very long for FUC51 to get noticed by other people. It is obviously something that has been playing on people’s minds for a while as everyone was ready and primed with opinions on Manchester and its culture. A lot of people surrounding Factory, members of Tony Wilson’s family and people Who Were There, Maaan…. have all been in touch both in public and in secret. We didn’t expect it as such, but we were aware of people complaining to each other about the things we’ve touched upon.
You seem very knowledgeable about everything Madchester. Are/were you an active participant or just a concerned onlooker?
We’re fans of music and we vary in age. We’ve participated and complained, we’ve watched with furrowed brows… we might have even enjoyed some of it at the time. But that was a long time ago.
In your very first post you compared Manchester to Liverpool – ‘a Beatle-museum’. Surely it’s not that bad here?
Look at the press coverage of Manchester. It is that bad. At least in Liverpool they’ve got the decency to fawn over the most famous pop group in history.
Saying that, what’s the single most embarrassing Factory-related incident/event/item you’ve encountered?
Again. Read the press. The Guardian are particular offenders. They’ll crowbar Factory or the Hacienda into an article about Manchester’s folk scene. That’s toe-curling and utterly pointless. As for things that have amused us, rather than angered us, was Hooky’s book giving away pieces of the Hacienda bar like it was a bit of the Berlin Wall. That was hilarious!
Has FUC51 itself got a shelf-life, or will it continue for the foreseeable future?
We’re the last people you should ask. Maybe we’ll end up becoming a parody of ourselves and rehashing old articles and jokes and thereby inciting someone else to start a blog going on about how woeful we are. We’re not going to break through some kind of wall and ‘go to phase 2′ or anything like that – the blog’s purpose has always been as a mirror more than anything else. Anyway, blogs are tomorrow’s chip wrappers made digital, aren’t they?
Various commenter have said that they ‘KNOW WHO YOU ARE’. Scared?
People certainly keep guessing there’s all manner of people behind it. For some reason, Hooky keeps emailing us and calling us ‘Phil’. We can categorically say that there is no ‘Phil’ at FUC51. The most surprising thing was how many people have got in touch and offered to contribute or have contributed. It was reassuring to know it wasn’t just us, and there’s always been an email address on the blog if you want to get involved. Some of our ‘tipsters’ have found themselves sat at pub garden tables with a few of the ‘professional Manc’ crowd, stifling smirks as it’s mentioned that ‘someone had better batter those fuckers’ – but it’d be like catching smoke.
Hey! Manchester has found that it’s actually possible to be involved in music in Manchester without having to engage with Madchester. Are you encouraged by this, or do you believe that this city will be stuck in its musical past forever?
Of course it’s possible! Everyone in Manchester knows that. The only people who haven’t twigged are those who write about the music of Manchester who, despite what people think, are our targets. There’s a whole scene going in and around Chorlton that hasn’t leaned on Madchester at all. There’s nights all over town that play music from all over the world without once thinking of Tony Wilson or Bez.
One of these days, a music critic will talk about a Manchester band without resorting to Joy Division comments. Imagine if every London band was likened to The Kinks or every Welsh group compared to Tom Jones! The press need to catch on to the fact that people in Manchester might just sit around listening to The Stooges or Heino or fuckin’ Glee. Manchester isn’t solely soundtracked by people gasping at how much Ian Curtis meant it.
If anything those ties are more of an albatross than anything – people come here with preconceptions, and Mancs have to fight to prove them wrong.
What are some of your favourite Manchester things, musical or otherwise?
We love it all – we were all here pre-bomb and afterwards, and it’s good that Manchester continues to evolve, new things continue to emerge, old things die back and all the rest of it. Mainly we love that there’s always been a great DIY culture in Manchester, people deciding they could do better and making something their own.
And finally, who’s your favourite Manchester band?
The Clone Roses. The Purple Gang. Wait, they were from Stockport weren’t they?
Visit FUC251 here.
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2 responses to “Hey! FUC51”
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May 24th, 2010 at 10:04 am
C’mon Phil…just admit it’s you and let’s move on.
June 29th, 2010 at 9:39 pm
What a bunch of hilarious chancers these people are. (and everyone knows it’s Phil).
Can they do an interview without droning on about Hooky and his club or Joy Division or Bez. Ironically most other writers in and about Manchester are too busy writing about new music to bother with the past that these prats seem to obsessed by.
Their holier than thou approach masked by cowardly anon status is typical of the web age and their bigging up of the ‘Chorlton scene’ tells us all we need to know about another bunch of indie snobs from the Chorlton and Northern Quarter in crowd who resent the rest of the city’s music and can’t even muster any new bands that they actually have as an alternative.