Music in Manchester

Listen to Ella talking about Manchester, a city in the north of England with a very exciting music scene.

Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.

Preparation

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Transcript

Interviewer: Hi, Ella!

Ella: Hello!

Interviewer: Thanks for talking to me today. What do you want to talk about?

Ella: Well, I love music. So I'd like to talk about music.

Interviewer: Fantastic.

Ella: As you might be able to tell, my accent isn't from the UK. I was born in Canada but I live in Manchester now and I'm so happy that I do because I love the music scene there. It's really interesting: the history that's come from the acid house movement through bands like the Happy Mondays, the Dillons, through the culture of clubbing that came from the Hacienda has now left this really cool community of artists of all different genres who still gig and perform there in Manchester. It's really cool hanging out in the Northern Quarter. It's an area that used to be mills back in the industrial era of Manchester but now it's turned into coffee shops and clubs and restaurants.

Interviewer: Cool! And do you make music yourself?

Ella: Yes. I play guitar and piano and I sing. And getting to play with the other musicians there has introduced me to playing a lot more electronic instruments as well, like drum sequencers, playing with Ableton and playing with DJs. What's really interesting about Manchester is the musicians in Manchester focus a lot more on what they love to make than, in my opinion, musicians in London. Musicians in Manchester really like to focus in on the time they spend in the studio and the time they spend creating, forming smaller and smaller communities to hone into a weird or specific sound, whereas in London people are a lot more out and about, and they like performing and socialising and being around each other.

Interviewer: Mmm. Do you think you'll stay living in Manchester for a long time or are you planning to go back to Canada?

Ella: I really like Manchester. I think I'll stay there because the smaller population has meant that the community is a lot more connected and we see each other by circumstance a lot more frequently. So, yes, I would like to stay in Manchester!

Interviewer: Great. Thank you very much for talking to us.

Ella: Yes – thank you.

Task 1

Audio zone: Music in Manchester – 1

Task 2

Audio zone: Music in Manchester – 2

Discussion

Do you like music? What types of music do people play where you live? Do you like listening to bands or going to clubs?

Download

Worksheet80.43 KB

Language level

B2 Upper intermediate

Topics

entertainment

I love music very much. In fact, I love very different music genres, actually my friends say that I am very eclectic choosing different songs on my playlists. As a physiotherapist working with elderly people, many of them with dementia like Alzheimer´s desease, music is an essential tool to use everyday. It is really amazing to realize how old wellknown songs can litteraly turn people to do things like singing, dancing, even changing their whole mood. It is just like trying to find out the right key to press on, in order to get them more aware of the environment they are living in, people around them and of course, the familiar sounds of their lives.

i think music is one the important part of our life. it can give us energy when we are not actually in a good mood! or maybe sometime it can make us feel hopeless! so yes! i really fond of music but i don't have any special favorite singer or favorite type of music! i like to listen all of them! it depends on my mood that what kind of music i enjoy that day.

I like music a lot, I'm from Colombia and its known as salsa capital as well as vallenano, cumbia, porro and so on. There different kind of instruments related whit these genres, but most common are piano, accordion, guacharaca, guitar, tamboora.

I like music. When I was younger I played the piano. It was amazing. But now, unfortunately I don't have time to play. I want to play again.

Normally I like to listen music. I would like to attend concert. But I have no abilities to play any music instrument. In my country, street music and rap is becoming more and more widespread. And in addition, using social media is getting larger. Thanks to YouTube you can establish a cannal and you can share your talents with your environments.

Yes ,I do.The people in my country like listening to musics and in my opinion they like classic and pop music types.Also I love listening to musics and my favourite singers are Ed Sheeren and Ariana Grande.

Yes, I do. I like listening to music. I like going to clubs most of all, dancing and listening to music at the same time)

Yes. I does. I plays westernized music where I live. Yes. I does.

in transcript the word acid home and in task 2 there is hacienda , what does it mean?

Hello nicky62,

The correct name is acid house (not home), though most people just call it acid, and it is the name given to a particular style of music which was popular in Manchester in the 1980s:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_house

The Hacienda was a very well-known club in Manchester:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ha%C3%A7ienda

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team