Professor Brian Cox’s live world tour, Universal: Adventures in Space and Time is coming to Manchester Arena on Friday, September 13. Tickets are available from www.briancoxlive.co.uk.
My earliest memory of Manchester is…
Manchester city centre. I remember Piccadilly gardens bus station vividly. I didn't go to Manchester very much I was 16. I used to go to Cloud 9 on Cross Street. Me and my friends used to get the bus from Oldham to Piccadilly and walk down. I was a goth at the time so I used to walk down in overcoats and purple hair. Then at the end of the night we used to go to the chippy in the bus station chips to eat chips and curry sauce at 3am before we got the night bus back.
My favourite place to eat in Manchester is…
I’ll say the chippy in Piccadilly Gardens bus station, just for fun. I don’t remember what it was called but it was there in 1985.
My favourite Manchester bar or nightclub is…
Actually, it’s in Oldham. I used to have a season ticket for Oldham athletic and we’d go to The Horton Arms in Chadderton. Last year I worked with J W Lees Brewery to create a craft beer and we actually launched it there at The Horton Arms.
My favourite place to shop in Manchester is…
I don’t know if it’s still there, but Affleck's Palace. It’s where I used to get all my second hand overcoats to wear so I could walk around being miserable and staring at the floor - that fake miserableness that you have when you’re 16 and listen to Joy Division.
The last gig or show I saw in Manchester was…
Other than mine? When I was 15 of 16 I was really lucky and got to work with Timmy Mallett on Piccadilly Radio answering phones. Chris Evans worked there as well. But I used to get to go to all the gigs that came through there. There were loads of New Order gigs I went to. But my favourite was the Smiths Meat is Murder tour so, even though it’s not the last gig I saw, I’ll say that.
My favourite hidden gem in Manchester is…
I think Saddleworth Moors. That’s where i grew up. I teach at the university so I get to talk to loads of students that come here to the city and people forget Manchester is surrounded by the greenery of the moors.
The best Manchester band of all time is...
Ahhhhh, most influential would be Joy Division i think. And that's because, essentially Factory Records defined Manchester and the city is the way it is now because of Factory and Joy Division was the start of that. Peter Saville, Tony Wilson, all the people who are still influential in Manchester are all from Factory. And Factory is Joy Division.
Manchester has everything except...
I’m so tempted to say weather. I bet loads of people say that. I quite like the bleakness of an Oldham winter. It has everything except the Sydney Opera House.
People’s biggest misconception about Manchester is…
I think it’s the romanticisation: the misconception that it’s still that place that produced the music of Joy Division and New Order. Also that it used to be a place of industrial decay but now its a vibrant, modern, thriving city. People still think Manchester is as it was in the 70s but I loved it then and I love it now. Manchester has a complicated image driven by music and music history and an industrial revolution. People get here and go ‘Oh? It’s really modern and nice?’
The thing I love most about Manchester is…
There’s so much. For me it’s the University. It’s a tremendous asset to a city such as Manchester that we have a world leading university. There have been and are Nobel prize winning people there. The university is, along with the music. And I suppose the odd football team (Oldham Athletic).
