Greater Manchester is spoilt for literary talent. There’s the Bard of Salford, John Cooper Clarke. Tony Walsh captured the spirit of a city in mourning following the 2017 Arena bombing. Anthony Burgess penned one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. Rosie Garland is The John Rylands Library’s writer-in-residence — and that’s not to mention the countless musicians who have put their writing talents to music.
Thankfully, the city’s poetry scene shows no signs of slowing down. Every week there’s a spoken word event in a dusty pub, a renovated warehouse, or somewhere far grander.
Of course, the city has poets to thank for that — but few of them can choose to write full-time for a living. One of those is Loll Perkin, a hairdresser at P&D Haircutters on Tib Street, in the Northern Quarter.
Originally from Merseyside, the 33-year-old's first poetry gig was in late 2019, and she has gone from strength-to-strength — now hosting a spoken word event at Pull Up on Swan Street every month, and also releasing a book, called Fewmin.
“I’ve got 72 pages of my soul in there,” Loll said, before the Manchester Evening News spoke to her at work, dog-sitting for her boss’ pooch Cash. Here’s what she thinks of Manchester.
Where’s your favourite hidden gem?
Junior Jackson’s, on Oldham Street. Unless you know it’s there you won’t spot it. Once you know it, it will become one of your favourites.
What’s your favourite view of the city or in the city?
I live in Middleton, and there’s a monument in Middleton where you can sit and watch the sunset — it’s in [Tandle Hill Park] and looks like a big spike [Royton war memorial] That’s become my favourite view. City-wise, I don’t know.
Where’s best to go for your dinner in town?
I’m vegan and gluten intolerant, so at the moment my favourite place to go to eat is Purezza. The whole menu is vegan and it can be gluten free, so it’s great for coeliacs. That’s where I enjoy going for food. I went on a date last night, it was good.
Was it a good date?
Third date. He’s doing well.
Where would you take someone to show them the real Manchester?
For me, my favourite side of Manchester is the spoken word side of things, I’d take them to different spoken word evenings around Manchester. That’s what I’d do.
There’s Pull Up and Speak, it’s booming. It’s every second Monday of the month, I host it. I perform a lot, not just around Manchester. I recently did Brighton and Camden fringe, Morecambe fringe, I’ve been in Birmingham and Nottingham recently.
Mine is not with a beat, but it’s very rhythmic. If someone wanted to go for the first time, there’s Verbose, Punk in Drublic, Saying Manchester, Vortex, Natter in Bolton, Mic at the Mill in Leigh, Long Story Short in Manchester, Express Yourself at Bask in Stockport, Mind Over Matter, and Just Stories.
What’s your favourite Mancunian neighbourhood?
Hulme. I like the Red Bricks. That, when lockdown started to ease a bit, and you could be in groups of six, was really good to sit out on the fields. A lot of music would be playing and it was nice. There’s a real community vibe. It’s very artistic over there.
What are the five words that best describe the city?
Friendly, unique, artistic, musical, and colourful. That’s Manchester, for me. Any sort of artistic thing that you want to be into, Manchester has got it.
Whether it’s a clay workshop, painting with f****ing prosecco, poetry, music, historical walks, gigs. It’s got it all. Manchester Council is really good for it, and the National Lottery, for giving grants to artists. It’s fab.
City or United?
Neither, I’m a Liverpool and Brentford fan! I’m from Liverpool and I’ve been supporting Brentford since they were in League 2.
I used to go and sneak and watch them at Tranmere. I went to see them when they played against Carlisle when I was on holiday in the Lakes, once.
I’d seen everything Ambleside had to offer in about 24 hours. I’m not a nanna, I went for a Chinese and went for a walk. That’s Ambleside, really.
I thought we’d go up to Carlisle, and then quickly realised Carlisle had nothing else to do, either, other than the nice drive to get there.
Brentford and Carlisle were playing, and I like my football, and I thought ‘it’s not going to get packed, because who is going to go and travel all the way to Carlisle for a League 2 team? Let’s get Brentford seats.’
We went and watched Brentford, they were snapping ankles with studs-up tackles. There was a firm at the front, and I said ‘I like this! I’m doing this from now on!’.
We went and watched them in Tranmere and we kept our mouths shut. If they heard a Scouse accent, or a Northern accent, all your Peggy’s and Phil’s eating their liquorice and that will think that we’ve blagged better seats — but we’re actually Tranmere fans.
Liam or Noel?
Liam. I guarantee anyone who said Noel votes blue.
Your favourite city pub is…?
The Abbey Taphouse, in Hulme. My friend is the chef.
Who is your favourite city ‘character’?
Joe Gilgun, from This Is England . I saw him last night on my date, and he was dead nice.
What’s the one thing you’d add to Manchester if you could…
I would take all the vacant properties and give it to the homeless, that’s what I’d do if I ran Manchester for the day. There’s bare vacant properties and bare homeless people.
Who else works in town?
