{"id":643189,"date":"2026-10-11T13:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T13:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/643189\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T13:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T13:36:08","slug":"theres-more-to-our-music-than-oasis-says-manchester-mayor-greater-manchester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/643189\/","title":{"rendered":"There\u2019s more to our music than Oasis, says Manchester mayor | Greater Manchester"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Manchester<\/a> mayor, Bev Craig, has said the city\u2019s music scene is about more than just Oasis, as she announced funding to nurture a diverse range of local artists, be they \u201cguitar bands or not\u201d.<\/p>\n

Craig pledged the \u00a32m investment funding in Greater Manchester<\/a>, as the city region hosted a conference for the creative industries at MediaCity in Salford.<\/p>\n

She said there was a \u201creal intentionality\u201d to what Manchester was doing, in terms of growing its own music industry and attracting international events.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Manchester\u2019s Co-op Live arena hosted the Brit awards and the Mobos, Europe\u2019s biggest and most influential celebration of Black music and culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to have a major event that celebrated black music, culture and creativity,\u201d Craig said, \u201cand so that\u2019s why we said, just after the Brits, we\u2019d host their 30th anniversary, because we knew it would be the last one that the Mobos founder Kanya<\/a> would be able to come to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a real intentionality around what we\u2019re doing with our music scene,\u201d she added. \u201cWe\u2019re known, I think, over the world for the influence that some of our indie guitar bands have had on Greater Manchester music, but there\u2019s more to Greater Manchester\u2019s music scene than just Oasis<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bev Craig was addressing Beyond the Music\u2019s creative industries AI summit. Photograph: Marieke Macklon\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m struck by the diversity, the creativity, the talent that we see,\u201d Craig said. \u201cAnd the job, as I see it, is making sure that that next generation of talent in an industry that\u2019s becoming more and more middle-class, more and more London-centric, and a world where it\u2019s more and more expensive to be able to break through, that we\u2019re giving our local artists the hand up that they need to be able to be the next big thing, guitar band or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Addressing Beyond the Music\u2019s creative industries AI summit on Friday, Craig set out her plan for diversifying opportunities in the music industry. She also outlined commitments to support AI literacy for music professionals, and to monitor the impact of new technologies on employment, income and diversity in Greater Manchester\u2019s music sector.<\/p>\n

The festival that accompanied the summit featured performances from up-and-coming black and minority ethnic artists including Bawo, JayaHadADream and Alt Blk Era.<\/p>\n

The final day of the conference was convened by the prime minister, Andy Burnham, whose love of Manchester guitar bands is well known.<\/p>\n

The culture minister Ian Murray told the conference: \u201cWith a prime minister who picks up his guitar to murder Smiths tracks, we have a passion from the very top.<\/p>\n

He added, joking: \u201cThat\u2019s probably a career-limiting sentence for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re living and working at a time of considerable change, particularly with technology,\u201d Murray said, \u201cbut the future of creativity will not be shaped by technology alone. It will be shaped by the choices we make today, and how we support talent, how we reward creativity and how we embrace that innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u00a32m of funding Craig has set out is in addition to the \u00a34m Culture Fund investment announced earlier this month, which will fund music projects from grassroots venues to world-renowned institutions.<\/p>\n

The additional funding is aimed at improving access to rehearsal and production space across the city region, providing practical support and ensuring there are jobs for musicians in their communities.<\/p>\n

Although the Manchester music scene may be about more than Oasis, the newly elected Manchester mayor did say she would be going to see the band on their sellout tour next year, which includes 11 nights at Manchester City\u2019s Etihad Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will, and thankfully the price of pints are much too expensive and the clientele have aged [which] means that you\u2019re not as cautious as to what\u2019s travelling through the air as historically you once would [be],\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But she added that \u201cas somebody who loves all forms of music\u201d she was \u201cas excited about seeing [Merseyside band] the Ks at Beyond the Music as I am about seeing Oasis\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a little bit more into my dance music than the previous mayor as well,\u201d Craig added. \u201cSo maybe a bit more varied in my tastes, shall we say.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Manchester mayor, Bev Craig, has said the city\u2019s music scene is about more than just Oasis, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46],"class_list":["post-643189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}