From Piccadilly Records to Westminster

By Ian Youngs
Music reporter, BBC News at In the City, Manchester

As culture secretary, Andy Burnham is the minister for music. But he got his teenage kicks watching The Stone Roses, strumming along to Billy Bragg and working for the father of Inspiral Carpets organist Clint Boon, he reveals.

Mr Burnham has been Secretary of State for Culture since January 2008

Chewing over the future of the music industry at the annual In the City conference in Manchester, Mr Burnham puts forward his musical credentials.

"I was hugely into music and I was very lucky to grow up in this region at a time when it had the best music in the world," says the politician, who was born in Liverpool and grew up in Warrington.

"I loved the Smiths, I saw the Stone Roses at the Empress Ballroom in Blackpool, which was a landmark gig that announced their arrival.

"I went to watch lots of bands - I went to all of the venues right across Manchester and Liverpool."

'Inside track'

Twenty years ago, Manchester was going through one of the biggest creative explosions in its history, with indie greats like The Smiths and Stone Roses in their pomp at the same time as the city was the epicentre of the acid house revolution.

Eighteen at the time, Andy Burnham preferred the guitar music, naming Billy Bragg, The Pogues, The Men They Couln't Hang and The Wedding Present as other favourites.

"I listen to all of Billy Bragg's stuff still, the whole lot," he says, and proudly boasts that he has now bought The Wedding Present's album George Best on four different formats.

The Inspiral Carpets' hits included Saturn 5 and This Is How It Feels To Be Lonely

"Thinking about all that time ago, I was working in a summer job with Clint Boon's dad in Manchester," he continues.

"He worked for BT if I remember rightly, and he used to talk about 'our Clint' and what he was getting up to, so I had the inside track on the Inspiral Carpets at the time."

Now 38, Mr Burnham wistfully recalls wandering to the (infamous) local independent record shop, Piccadilly Records, in his lunch hour and buying his tickets to see The Stone Roses.

"But there was just so much happening back then. I sometimes sound a bit old when I say, 'is it still the same today?'"

But in true politician fashion, he swiftly adds: "There is still loads going on, which is great."

Governments often compare their records on the economy or on politics, but not usually on the state of the music scene during their times in office.

But Manchester's creative boom of the late 1980s and early 1990s happened under the Conservative government - and I put it to him, mischievously, that the music scene under Labour cannot compare.

"You could say that some of the greatest music is born of adversity, and it's certainly true that our region was struggling with adverse times in those days, and those were the conditions for great music," he replies.

"I think that is true. Those were some tough old times and there were some angry people out there and it actually helped make some very powerful music."

So by that logic, the current financial crisis is great news for Britain's musical talent. Mr Burnham winces at having fallen into this crude journalistic trap.

I was once a bloke in my bedroom with my Billy Bragg songbook with my guitar, self taught Andy Burnham

He pauses before responding: "Well it's never dried up - this region has always had good music.

"Events have always been sent to try us and they try us in politics, they try us in music too. There always will be voices there who will take the events of their day and turn it into great music, and who knows?

"We are living in uncertain times and difficult times in many ways, but I've got a belief in the people in the northwest and the culture more generally that whatever the circumstances, that talent will out."

Guitar hero

Talent is one thing Mr Burnham is keen to talk about, and he speaks enthusiastically about giving young artists the chance to emerge.

But what can the government really do when most great music comes from kids strumming guitars or playing keyboards in their bedrooms, far removed from the reach of politicians?

"I was once a bloke in my bedroom with my Billy Bragg songbook with my guitar, self taught," he says.

"But that was kind of the point actually." He should not have had to teach himself, he says, and schools should play a far greater role in setting children on a musical path.

"In some ways, talent had to find its own way out in the past and we shouldn't have that, and we should have a situation where we encourage young people to explore their creativity.

"We should support and nurture talent and we have it as an absolute right that all young people get a chance to learn a musical instrument, rather than the school music service being the first thing that gets hit in tougher times.

"I feel really strongly that if you give young people the full range of opportunities and you help them explore their own creativity, you build more confident, more well rounded individuals who will then fulfil their own potential."