It's nothing you'll see on Shameless, but - whisper it - Salford has an artsy underside that is shaping up to be a Northern variant on Warhol's early Factory. Based in a former disused Mill and shrouded by council High Rises, its first breakout stars have emerged. Welcome, if you will, The Ting Tings - the Sonny and Cher of Salford Precinct for the Noughties.
Date: 03 February 2009
Venue: HITEC - Star Hall
Country: Hong Kong
The Ting Tings are Jules de Martino and Katie White. They met when she was just out of being a Wigan school-girl and bonded over a shared ambition to rock the foundations of pop music.
Brought up on an exclusive musical diet of radio pop music ("any old crap really") on a farm in the delightfully named Slag Lane ("try living with that in the school playground"), Katie is quite the most unusual front woman you might expect to crossover as the figurehead of Manchester's Bohemian margins. She speaks as she finds, admits to being fired up by "a massive chip on me shoulder" and hadn't heard of The Smiths until she moved into The Mill.
The heart of The Ting Ting's plucky, arty, double-headed power-pop assault is back home at The Mill. Home to sculptors, painters, webbos and DIY musicians given free reign to do what they want with their private areas of creativity. Too urbane to be called a commune, the only time the occupants of this diverse and scintillating space came together was for ad hoc club nights that became word of mouth Mancunian sensations a year or so ago. "There weren't many places that you could go and get off your face to white noise back then," notes Katie.
It's nothing you'll see on Shameless, but - whisper it - Salford has an artsy underside that is shaping up to be a Northern variant on Warhol's early Factory. Based in a former disused Mill and shrouded by council High Rises, its first breakout stars have emerged. Welcome, if you will, The Ting Tings - the Sonny and Cher of Salford Precinct for the Noughties.