Manchester North of England

Format: 7-CD box set: Released: 2017 Cherry Red Records (CRCDBOX38)

Manchester North of England

The Manchester Digital Music Archive (formerly District instead of Digital) is an online archive of music and memorabilia featuring all Manchester bands where possible. They teamed together with the long established indie label Cherry Red Records to form an expansive compilation of Manchester music history from 1977-93, entitled "Manchester North of England - A Story of Independent Music Greater Manchester 1977-1993" which apart from the usual suspects of Buzzcocks, Joy Division, New Order, The Fall, The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Oasis et al, also features many tracks from lesser known Manchester bands.

When I'd heard about the compilation I was hoping for a track by The Cygnet Ring on there, and sure enough, when the compilation was released on 28 July 2017, on CD-6, track 16 features no less than "18 Daze" which was a very good choice in my view. The box set also really does delve deep into some of the archives, so no doubt would be an essential purchase amongst Manchester music and indie music fans generally. The price tag isn't cheap but is cheapest from Cherry Red directly in the link or image above - Amazon and HMV / Fopp are charging around £10 more at the moment.