About the Stockport Music Story

The Stockport Music Story is a celebration of our town’s illustrious music legacy, from 10cc to Blossoms, and highlights the cultural significance of the places where ground-breaking music was made and played.

Stockport has a unique musical heritage. In the 1960’s, all the major British rock and roll artists played in the town including The Beatles, who played one of their last club gigs at the Offerton Palace Theatre in June 1963, and The Rolling Stones who played at The Essoldo cinema in May 1964.

Many other legendary names including The Who, The Kinks, Small Faces, Pink Floyd, Rod Stewart and a young Elton John also played at music venues in Stockport, including The Manor Lounge, The Tabernacle and The Sinking Ship.

One of the the most inventive and influential bands in the history of popular music, 10cc, recorded their first four albums at Strawberry Studios on Waterloo Road. This included their million-selling No.1 hit ‘I’m Not In Love’, which has appeared in numerous films and television shows, including Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.  

The studio also attracted many international artists including Neil Sedaka, The Ramones and Paul McCartney – and was referred to as the ‘Abbey Road of the North’.

Stockport also played a pivotal role in the Manchester music scene, with Joy Division recording their seminal album ‘Unknown Pleasures’ at Strawberry Studios, along with debut singles from New Order, The Smiths, James, The Charlatans and The Stone Roses also recorded there.

Other influential Manchester artists to record at the studios included The Buzzcocks, Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets, punk poet John Cooper Clarke, Mark E Smith and The Fall.

Young local singers got their share of fame too. Who would have believed that a song recorded by the children from St Winifred’s RC Primary School would knock John Lennon off the Christmas number one spot?

Their single ‘There’s No-One Quite Like Grandma’, which was produced by Strawberry’s founder Peter Tattersall, made it to number-one on the UK Singles Chart from 21st December 1980 to 3rd January 1981!

More recently, Stockport’s Blossoms have been flying the musical flag for the town. Their story has gone from small beginnings, gigging at The Blossoms pub which inspired their name, to touring the world and playing to 15,000 people at Edgeley Park, home of Stockport County FC.

With three number one albums under their belt, the band are an absolute credit to Stockport. They even launched their second album, Cool Like You, from an ice-cream van at the town’s monthly Foodie Friday event!

Through our tours, our events and our website, we aim to take people on a musical journey through the decades to share the cultural memories of the town. As well as focusing on the past, we also want to celebrate Stockport’s future musical talent and attract cultural tourists from outside the town to experience what it has to offer now.

Our ambition with the Stockport Music Story is to bring people of all ages together and celebrate the unique tale of Stockport’s musical past, present and future.

The Stockport Music Story is curated by John & Rosemary Barratt, a husband and wife creative team who have been delivering community arts and music projects in Stockport since 2011.

Their projects include Screen Stockport Film Festival, The Teenage Market, Seven Miles Out Arts Centre, Stockport Old Town Fringe and Folk Festivals and the award-winning Foodie Friday, for which they recently won the Howard & Ruth Award as recognition for their efforts to revitalise Stockport Old Town.

John and Rosemary are a great collaborative team with John doing the talking and Rosemary doing the writing. Curating the Stockport Music Map has been a passion project for John, who had always wanted to create something which brings together all of Stockport’s music history in one place and gives the town the credit it deserved for its contribution to the Manchester music scene.

Read more about John and Rosemary’s musical background and experience