Some background before we get into the next session:

Ben Kelly designed FAC51, otherwise known as the Hacienda. My wife, Jackie, spent many an evening and early morning in that building and it’s shaped, in some small part, her adult life. It’s not just about the music - the vibe must also have been created by the industrial feel to the Hacienda that was so starkly different to the standard look of the local discotheque. Me, I was into indie, but my club stomping ground was The Jenks Bar in Blackpool. It’s not quite as well known as the Hacienda.

Tom Bloxham is the founder and owner of Urban Splash, one of the most prolific property development companies in Manchester…and beyond for that matter. I’m itching to go to the Midland Hotel now that it’s been restored…and this is key to Urban Splash strategy - redevelopment as opposed to razing and rebuilding.

Peter Saville is joining them on the sofa’s. But first…

Frank Sidebottom has just been on doing, in his own inimitable style, a tribute to Manchester, Factory and Tony Wilson. I’m hoping that the video will be available after the fact…as it was quite a performance.

Fortunately, Mr Sidebottom came into the press room to see where all the action was going on. Not wanting to miss the opportunity, you can judge who has the bigger cranium for yourself.

16:25 - Urban Splash impact on Manchester - chance and accident. This is a recurring theme, it seems. Saville talked earlier about how Factory was just a bunch of people doing what they wanted, looking forwards and not backwards, whilst keeping it interesting. But chance and accident need to be navigated…need to be grabbed, or they’ll pass you by. “Lucky people are successful people”.

I suppose, for the talent dotted around the tent, listening, the message is always going to be follow what you think is the right path, the right thing to do.

Saville is making a nice point here. Urban Splash are keeping the ethos of Factory going - doing as much as they can, as opposed to doing it as cheaply as they can. I suppose when we look at the history of Factory, particularly in light of the case study that I’m determined to commission, this is a nice working title. Factory: Doing as much as it can.

Of course there’s a myriad of subtitles we could string under there, but we’ll leave that to the imagination.

16:45 - Peter Saville is talking about the Manchester Music Archive. I’ve not come across this meme before, but he’s ruminating about some sort of a Centre for Contemporary Arts. This is about recognising what cities have in the now, or the recent past before they destroy it. The Hacienda is a case in point, but as someone said before, the Hacienda meant nothing to most people. I suppose we could say that about any building. Recognising value in the here and now is incredibly difficult it seems.

But, the digerati can play a significant role here. Social tools give us the capability to archive what’s happening now and build an understanding of the current value of the artefacts around the city. We build a current understanding by engaging with the people who actively use or are influenced by their surroundings. The history of the Hacienda is anecdotal…there isn’t that much in the way of an archive of what that building meant to people who went there.

Sure, we can talk to people like Mrs Carruthers and get anecdotal evidence. But, if we could have captured and entered into a dialogue about the Hacienda, at the time, would the future of that building been different?

OK, so sounds like I’m advocating social media changing the world and maybe that’s naive. But if we follow Peter Saville’s point about better understanding the current value of a city’s cultural icons (be they buildings, people or just movements), I think there’s a valuable role for social media in that mix.

Plus, his vision about a Centre for Cultural Arts is a conversation that i4SM should try to get involved with.

-pc.