Exhibition celebrating British pop culture to launch in Manchester

The first national collection dedicated to the preservation and research of popular culture will launch in Manchester next month.

The British Pop Archive, created at the The John Rylands Research Institute and Library at the University of Manchester, aims to celebrate and preserve British popular music and other aspects of popular culture, including UK television, youth culture and counter-culture from the mid-20th century to the present day.

The collection will initially focus on Manchester and the British pop culture to have come out of the city.

The archive will include Joy Division and New Order’s manager Rob Gretton’s original written vision for the band and Ian Curtis’s handwritten lyrics to Joy Division classics such as She’s Lost Control and Atmosphere..

It also features original posters for Sex Pistols gigs at The Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester and important works by designer Peter Saville that set the visual template for Factory Records.

The complete corporate archive of Granada Television is also included.

The archive’s creator, Professor Hannah Barker, told the PA news agency: “British popular culture is unique. It’s one of our biggest cultural exports.”

She added: “People outside of Britain, if you talk to them about pop music or the music they like, they will often talk about British music.

“And in terms of TV and film too, I think we have unique stories to tell there.

“British TV is famous throughout the world so it’s that sense of the importance of British popular culture as a particularly unique export.

Mat Bancroft, curator of the British Pop Archive, said: “We launch the British Pop Archive with a Manchester-focused exhibition full of unique and unseen artefacts. These materials tell the story of a vibrant city with art, culture and music at its heart.”

The exhibition will explore elements of the highly recognisable Manchester pop scene with items relating to The Hacienda nightclub, the Factory Records record label, and some of the city’s most memorable bands including Joy Division and The Smiths.

“We even have a pair of trainers in one of the archives,” said Prof Barker.

She added: “It’s in Kevin Cumming’s archive – he’s a rock photographer and he has a pair of Hacienda trainers, unworn, in the original box.”

The archive will subsequently be expanded to become a national collection, and create a comprehensive representation of British popular culture.

Prof Barker credited the idea for the project to the death of Buzzcocks singer Pete Shelley and The Fall vocalist Mark E Smith, and wondering whether the musicians had archives and what would become of them.

As part of the creation of the archive, conversations were had with individuals who were heavily involved in development of the British pop culture scene during the 1960s and ’70s including The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr.

Prof Barker told PA: “One of our biggest supporters is Johnny Marr, so I got to meet him and talk about the project and I got to talk to other people and the family members of people involved.”

She added: “People are often really keen to ensure that that things stay in public hands, because a lot of this stuff is the sort of thing that could easily be sold on auction sites.

“So it’s great to be able to keep records of businesses or individual lives publicly available.”

– Collection, launching the British Pop Archive will run from May 19 until January 15 2023 at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library at the University of Manchester.