MIKE PICKERING - MANCHESTER MUST DANCE [In conversation + book signing ]

From Manchester’s backstreets to global dancefloors – the untold story of The Hacienda & a musical pioneer.

We're excited to welcome Mike Pickering to Walthamstow to mark publication of his exceptional and long-awaited memoir.

From Manchester’s backstreets to global dancefloors – MANCHESTER MUST DANCE is the untold story of a musical pioneer.

Mike Pickering takes the reader through sixty years of clubs, clothes, gigs, record labels, football matches and politics.

Pickering has lived through decades of rapid change in popular music. As an influential DJ he introduced house music into the legendary Haçienda. He signed Happy Mondays and James to Factory Records before working with Kasabian, Gossip and Calvin Harris at Sony. His Mercury Prize-winning, multi-million-selling group M People transformed the music industry's attitude to dance music. As he tells his remarkable story he introduces an array of friends and collaborators, many of whom would become important – and sometimes notorious – figures in music history. Manchester must dance is a revelatory insider’s account that moves from the cramped back streets of 1950s north Manchester on a journey deep into music, the city and the wider world. It features forewords from some of those Pickering inspired: Martin Fry, Johnny Marr, Noel Gallagher and Calvin Harris.

Mike will be on conversation with Luke Bainbridge. Q&A, book signing and a stonking soundtrack