Remember the humble cassette tape? Those clunky bits of plastic wound up with tape containing all your favourite songs waiting to be played in your bedside cassette decks?

Well, while they may seem like a distant memory to most of us (or completely pre-historic to you younger readers), it turns out they’re still quite the hit for one shop right here in Manchester.

Mars Tapes, located in the vibrant and eclectic Affleck’s Palace, was opened by friends Alex Tadross, Giorgio Carbone, and Borja Reguira who all shared a passion for retro music. But their love for cassette tapes in particular came when the group started their own music label, Sour Grapes, in 2017.

Alex told the MEN: “All three of us have been musicians and in bands, done gigs, and been on the local scene before we launched the label. We kind of specialised in doing cassettes for local bands, and European garage rock bands, and that kind of turned into this shop.”

The group found vinyl to be a little too expensive to produce music on, and no one was interested in CDs, so they turned to the next best thing: cassettes.

Alex explained: “It was all about affordability at first really. Vinyl runs can cost up to £1,000 to £2,000 to do depending on how many you want to release.”

And, despite everyone getting their music fix via Spotify or Apple Music (guilty) these days, demand for cassettes is surprisingly high, with Alex saying that business couldn’t be better.

“We started selling them here in Affleck’s and we got more and more stock, and became an authentic cassette shop. And we like to think we’re unique and that we’re the last one.”

Mars Tapes now boasts an incredible selection of music, including ‘New music,’ which includes an array of brand new, unopened and newly released tapes from the likes of Chic, Bjork, Florence and the Machine and Lewis Capaldi.

Though for those with a somewhat more vintage taste in music, fear not! Customers will also be able to find some golden oldies, too, such as The Beatles, Elvis and The Rolling Stones.

There’s also a ‘Manc Bands’ shelf with tapes from Take That, Simply Red, New Order, and even current chart-toppers Blossoms’ last album ‘Foolish Lovin’ Spaces.’

There’s even a selection of cassette tapes brought back from a holiday in Cairo, limited edition tapes ‘from around the world’, pop, rock, compilations, radio shows, ‘songs for the bedroom’ and plenty more.

So, when you next come across a dusty cassette tape in your bedroom drawer, make sure you bring it down to Mars Tapes, because they’ll definitely buy it off you.

To stay up to date with their wonderful cassette finds and offerings, follow their official Instagram page and drop a visit to their website… Or, just pop into Affleck’s when you’re next in town. I’d recommend the latter.

Located just off Albert Square in the smaller, more easily missed location of Lincoln Square, there stands a statue of the late US President Abraham Lincoln.

But why?

You’d be forgiven for being a little puzzled at the presence of an American politician who seemingly has no connection or place in our city, especially in a location as quiet and hidden away as Lincoln Square is.

But, as it turns out, the statue stands tall today as a poignant reminder for the role Victorian Manchester played in the US Civil War and the eventual abolishment of slavery.

David Dixon / Geograph

Let’s start from the beginning: As the largest processor of cotton in the world at the time, Manchester took a strong moral and political stance by supporting President Lincoln, despite his blockade of the Confederate states and the cotton supply beginning in April 1861.

Even though Manchester and its surrounding areas found a huge proportion (an estimated 60%) of its mills were struggling to stay afloat, largely as a result of the blockade, in a meeting at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in 1862 workers agreed to maintain their support for Lincoln – who was aiming to out-manoeuvre the Confederate states, win the civil war and ultimately abolish the US slave trade.

In supporting Lincoln and the Union the working people of Manchester had selflessly put their principles ahead of their own economic self-interest, leading to unemployment and hardship for the workers.

Thomas Hawk / Flickr

President Lincoln wrote a letter in 1863 to thank the people of Manchester for their support – the letter, currently held by Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, reads: “When I came, on the 4th of March, 1861, through a free and constitutional election to preside in the Government of the United States, the country was found at the verge of civil war.

“Whatever might have been the cause, or whosesoever the fault, one duty, paramount to all others, was, before me, namely, to maintain and preserve at once the Constitution and the integrity of the Federal Republic.”

Just two years later and months after the US Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment which officially abolished slavery, Lincoln was assassinated. 

Despite his death, however, Lincoln continued to be regarded as somewhat of a Mancunian legend so, shortly after the First World War, a statue in his memory was sculpted by George Grey Bernard. The original statue was completed in 1916 and exhibited in New York before its sponsor, wealthy businessman Charles Taft from Cincinatti, said he would pay for a replica to be erected in England.

The statue was actually intended to stand outside the Houses of Parliament, in a tribute from the United States marking 100 years of peace between the two countries. However, the American sculptors’ depiction of a ‘vigorous pose’ was far too controversial for London’s tastes at the time, so the statue subsequently came to Manchester where it remains today.

Waymarking.com

The monument was initially unveiled at Platt Fields Park, where it remained until the late 1980s before being moved and mounted on a new pedestal in its home today, Lincoln Square. 

And, in 2013, after years of enduring pollution and dirt build-up, the plaque was eventually cleaned and the message to the people of Manchester was revealed at long last.

It reads: “The support that the working people of Manchester gave in their fight for the abolition of slavery during the American Civil War… By supporting the union under President Lincoln at a time when there was an economic blockade of the southern states the Lancashire cotton workers were denied access to raw cotton which caused considerable unemployment throughout the cotton industry.”

If you hop onto the 42 bus towards Rusholme, you’ll find yourself transported to a magical land of endless curry houses, proper kebab spots and shisha bars – otherwise known as Manchester’s famous Curry Mile. 

Throughout the last couple of decades, the Curry Mile has gained both nation-wide and global fame for its abundance of South Asian restaurant offerings. Yet while this stretch of road has both given Manchester a handsome reputation in the world of South Asian cuisine, very little is actually known about its history. 

While the part of Wilmslow Road which stretches through Rusholme was given the affectionate nickname in the 1980s, the area’s origins actually date back three decades prior, to the 1950s – Manchester’s textile industry was thriving, and the city was seeing an influx of South Asian migrants relocating to fill British labour shortages. 

Bruce Anderson

One worker told the BBC that people were enticed to come to Britain when the recruiters ‘went round the villages banging drums, telling everyone how great it was to come here.’ The approach worked a treat and, as a result, thousands of keen workers made the move to Manchester, with the majority settling in Rusholme. 

It is most commonly believed that The New Taj Mahal Restaurant was the first curry house to open in not just Rusholme, but the whole of Manchester, back in the late 1950s. However, Shere Khan – the first fully licensed Indian restaurant to grace the area –  is thought to have taken over the site in 1987, where it remains today. From that spot, it paved the way for other Indian restaurants by combining modern design with the traditional tastes of India.

Abdul Akhtar, co-owner of Sanam, one of the oldest surviving curry houses alongside Shere Khan, says that the growth of South Asian cuisine was a slow one because, even in the late 60s, the area was still made up of more ‘traditional English shops’ like banks, hairdressers, jewellers and pubs.

Dai O’Nysius / Wikimedia Commons

He said: “When my father set up the restaurant in 1968, there were very few Asians and only one other Indian restaurant, Gulam Sweet Centre – but that’s gone now. In a short space of time, the area totally and utterly changed. There were an increasing number of Indian restaurants, as the success of one business attracted others.”

He added that by the late 70s, the predominantly Pakistani community had settled down and was expanding – which, in turn, fuelled the expansion of The Curry Mile.

Alternatively, another local resident recalled how the population of the area changed completely within a couple of decades of the initial migrants’ arrival, noting that in the 70s, out of seventy or eighty houses on a Rusholme street there were about four that were home to Asian families, but by the mid 80s, ‘there were only two or three non-Asians living there.’

David McKelvey / Flickr

He explained: “So in the space of about fifteen years, it became obvious everywhere you went, Asians were moving in either from abroad or from other areas like Bradford or Derby.”

By the mid 1980s, the nickname of the ‘Curry Mile’ had stuck to Wilmslow Road’s Rusholme stretch and, in January 2008, Manchester City Council officially put up signs bearing the title.  And, fast forwarding to today, even though the Curry Mile has made room for a number of Turkish and Middle Eastern cuisine spots as well as the relatively modern trend of Sisha, South Asian food remains its focus and its pinnacle. 

Who else really fancies a curry now?