Neil Summers

Name, where are you from?
Neil Summers. Stockport (same as Fred).

Describe your style in three words?
Sweet and tender hooligan.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever been to?
Hmm, tough call but I’m going to go for Prince at the Manchester Apollo on the 7th October 2002. Before the gig, lots of his super fans (AKA the NPG) were gathered outside the venue and I got talking to one who told me that Prince was now super religious and so wouldn’t be doing any of his old stuff. To be honest I didn’t mind too much as it was still Prince right? So imagine my surprise and total joy when after about 45 minutes of new stuff he broke into 'Strange Relationship' before proceeding to entertain us (for a good two hours) with a string of his classic hits. He was like James Brown, George Clinton and Jimi Hendrix all rolled into one unique person, he was on a different level to other human beings.

If you could put any three bands in history, what would the lineup be?
The The, Talk Talk and The Smiths.

Which subcultures have influenced you?
Where to start? As a nine-year-old, I aspired to be a ‘Perry boy’ because I wanted a flick haircut and a Fred Perry shirt which later evolved into the casual scene, though in between the two I was a young electrofunk obsessed body popper for a bit. By the mid-'80s I became a bit of an indie kid though I was equally into soul, hip-hop and reggae as well. Then when the whole acid house/Madchester thing exploded it was like all those different elements joined together on the dancefloor and Shaun Ryder became my role model. After which, the '90s were a bit of a blur with me eventually hanging my raving shoes up in favour of more laid back trip-hop type stuff. Then Oasis and The Verve injected some rock and roll back into the proceedings and livened things up again. Currently, I’m big into all the new Balearic stuff that’s around, there’s some beautiful music being made at the moment.

If you could spend an hour with anyone from history, who would you choose?
I worked at Granada TV at the same time Tony Wilson was there but never really got a chance to talk to him. I’d love to have a sit-down and ask him about growing up in Stockport as he always spoke about Manchester and Salford but never really mentioned the time he spent growing up in my hometown.

Where is your favourite independent venue?
Band on the Wall in Manchester is my favourite independent venue. It’s the perfect size for a gig, big enough to get a great atmosphere going but still small enough to see the whites of the artist's eyes. I first started going there regularly when I was fifteen to their reggae night that was on every Friday. It’s had a massive overhaul recently but back then there was a speakeasy style slot in the door that you had to knock on and be checked out by a pair of anonymous eyes before they’d let you in. The DJ was an old Jamaican guy called Prince Tony and there’d always be two live bands on and the landlord would often get his saxophone out from behind the bar and join in with the band. It was peak ‘Gunchester’ era back then in 1988 but there was never any trouble despite some very interesting clientele being in attendance, I can still feel the bass reverberating round my ribs now.

Your greatest unsung hero or heroine in music?
A Certain Ratio are one of my favourite bands and criminally overlooked probably due to being label mates with Joy Division/New Order. Though I think the fact that they’ve never gone mainstream adds to the appeal as we’re unlikely to see their imagery being used to sell doormats and coffee mugs any time soon.