As part of Stockport being awarded Greater Manchester’s Town of Culture, it was an opportunity to prove that their culture is going beyond a title when Manchester legends Inspiral Carpets took to the stage for an intimate gig at AMP.
‘Stockport isn’t shit’. That’s the tagline circulating amongst the SK postcodes who have seen a rapid transformation in the town, which earned them £50,000 in funding to improve their arts and creative offering.
A part of that was the heroic Madchester outfit Inspiral Carpets, who performed an intimate gig at AMP in front of an audience of 300, who were in the midst of supporting Happy Mondays on their nationwide tour.
Whilst tickets weren’t cheap at £40, the audience was raucous, and the atmosphere was electric, as walking up to the underbank past the closed venues on a Monday night, the only noise was coming from AMP.
With a can of Red Stripe in my hand and chants bellowing out of ‘Boon Army’, Inspiral Carpets took to the stage, which has undergone many lineup changes. Following the death of original drummer Craig Gill, Kev Clark was behind the kit with big shoes to fill, the band’s first vocalist, Stephen Holt, retook his place on the microphone, original guitarist Graham Lambert and cult favourite Clint Boon on keys with his son Oscar Boon on the Bass.
Legendary Madchester band, Inspiral Carpets played an AMP for an intimate gig in Stockport.
But as soon as the opening chords for the rampant Joe rang throughout the venue, AMP were well aware that they were in for a spectacle, and the Stockport crowd were firmly under the spell of the Inspirals.
It was evident that the intimate performance was just as enjoyable for the band, who took the rare opportunity of playing in a small venue to entertain the crowd beyond the music with their banter with the crowd. Whether it was provoking fun of those living in Brinnington or mocking the size of their ‘dressing room’, it made the moment all the more special.
Regardless of the many iterations the lineup has undergone, the chemistry between the new band members was undeniable as Clint regularly gave looks of assurance to his son, who didn’t need it as his lack of experience was instantly distinguished by his incredible musicianship.
It was a chance for the band to play some of their back catalogue, which they wouldn’t be able to when supporting the Mondays, as they carried that momentum forward from the first track to perform Generations, Weakness and Butterflies. It stamped down their authority of why they were a band so synonymous with the Madchester movement, which accelerated the city’s pop culture significance.
As mentioned before, Clark had big shoes to fill in the form of their late drummer Gill, but effortlessly showed he was well up to the task and immediately captured the hearts of the Stockport crowd with the introduction for She Comes in the Fall, which only continued when those in attendance euphorically sang the chorus back to the group.
Straight after, we were plunged into “new material that we have been working on recently.” Only for This is How it Feels to play – their most popular track. We knew we had been righteously embarrassed when Boon’s infamous opening hook rang through the venue, but that feeling was fleeting with a rampant showing. Whilst we wanted new tracks, nobody could kick up a fuss with the performance we had just witnessed.
Manchester cult legend Clint Boon on the keys who constantly received ‘Boon Army’
chants from the crowd
There was an eclectic mix of people in AMP – those who lived through the Madchester era and those who can retrospectively listen on streaming platforms. But regardless of the background, we were unified by the heartfelt track Two Worlds Collide, which created a magic moment between the generations.
On a wet and miserable day in Stockport, there are very few bands in the region which would get people out in their numbers, and the Inspirals were one of them. The repayment? A sweaty gig which only got hotter following a flourish of bangers, which belted out of the speakers. It was loud, really loud, and fast, the two essentials of a perfect gig.
One of the highlights of the band in a successful career was creating Let You Down with legendary Mancunian poet and comedian John Cooper Clarke. When they attempted to play the number, the reverb on Clarke’s words fell a little flat. In a normal setting, a band would roll with the punches, but this was an intimate setting, so they restarted the track to allow a proper performance and left the crowd desiring little.
Dragging Me Down preceded the encore when the band briefly ‘took a piss in the backstage bucket’ before coming back to close the show with the anthemic tunes Commercial Reign, 96 Tears and, of course, the stratospheric track, Saturn 5.
The band and crowd gave every inch of energy they had left to revel in the colossal song. “That was fucking quality Stockport” closed off Boon, as chants of “Stockport isn’t shit” echoed back from the crowd as the legendary five-piece walked off stage, knowing they had just delivered a masterclass.
33-RPM 