Canal Street — August Bank Holiday Monday 1990

I shot these photographs exactly twenty years ago today, on August Bank Holiday Monday 1990.

The jumble sales are how the Manchester Pride, that we either love or loathe, started off at some point in the second half of the 1980s. However the word 'pride' wasn't used in the name until 2003 and in the 90s the organisers were vocal about telling the public that the August fundraising was NOT a pride.

In those days, June was the month for pride events, being the anniversary of the riot outside the Stonewall Inn in New York in 1969. One year in Manchester there was a pride in June and the jumble sale in August.

August Bank Holiday Monday 1990 on Canal Street ManchesterAugust Bank Holiday Monday 1990 on Canal Street ManchesterAugust Bank Holiday Monday 1990 on Canal Street Manchester

Poster: Acorn AntiquesBack then, the sole aim was to raise money to help people who were affected by HIV and AIDS and in particular for the ward at Monsall Hospital where they were looked after.">

Poster: Non-Virgin RecordsThe August weekend was organised by several of the business people. I remember staff from Clone Zone walking from Bloom Street (the shop was in a basement there), their arms piled high with t-shirts and other items to be sold on the tables on Canal Street. I still have some of the things I bought that day, including a red t-shirt with 'there's nothing quite like getting it' written across it.

August Bank Holiday Monday 1990 on Canal Street ManchesterAugust Bank Holiday Monday 1990 on Canal Street ManchesterAugust Bank Holiday Monday 1990 on Canal Street Manchester

They can tell I like cameras and video equipment! It was rare to see anyone black or asian on the gay scene in those days. I believe the man in this photo was a member of staff at the Rembrandt or Napoleons.

August Bank Holiday Monday 1990 on Canal Street ManchesterAugust Bank Holiday Monday 1990 on Canal Street Manchester
August Bank Holiday Monday 1990 on Canal Street ManchesterAugust Bank Holiday Monday 1990 on Canal Street ManchesterAugust Bank Holiday Monday 1990 on Canal Street Manchester

Word had spread about the drag act that Harry and Bill (two friends of ours) did at their parties and they were persuaded to appear at the Rembrandt on Bank Holiday Monday. Bill told me he had been an officer at Greater Manchester Police and was in the vice squad! Now here he was on Canal Street in high heels, dressed as an air hostess.

August Bank Holiday Monday 1990 on Canal Street ManchesterAugust Bank Holiday Monday 1990 on Canal Street ManchesterAugust Bank Holiday Monday 1990 on Canal Street Manchester

In 1990 we had own unique fashion styles. Gay men and lesbians who dressed in this distinctive way were immediately recognisable to others. Whereas the general public were clueless about it on the whole.

Some men favoured Levis 501's that were heavily ripped and there was a craze for putting a teddy bear in the back pocket along with keys on a clip. Black Doctor Marten's boots and shoes were popular, as were denim or leather biker jackets. Checked-shirts, which had been worn throughout the 1980's, were still going strong for both men and women and MA-1 bomber jackets were just beginning to be seen.

Those who dared wore cycling shorts. Probably in black. Although sometimes white ones which left nothing to the imagination. In some ways things felt more liberated and outrageous than now and looking 'different' was just accepted. Perhaps because there had been three decades of extreme changes in fashion? Sometimes I think the 1960's lasted for 30 years and this was the tail end of it!

Strangely, in the late-1980's, the lumberjack look with checked-shirts, Levis 501 jeans and moustaches was extremely popular among straight men in Newcastle — my hometown. We found this very amusing when visiting.

August Bank Holiday Monday 1990 on Canal Street ManchesterAugust Bank Holiday Monday 1990 on Canal Street ManchesterAugust Bank Holiday Monday 1990 on Canal Street Manchester

Some of today's gay profiteers dismiss what happened in 1990 as 'just' a jumble sale and ask 'would you want to go back to that?'. I'm not sure whether it was 'just' a jumble sale on the Monday in 1990 but that was the only part I photographed.

Cameras weren't particularly welcome around gay events and venues in those days, one reason why there is so little evidence of what happened in Britain in the past. A situation that suits those who now aim to rewrite history for their own purposes. Certainly, by the following year (1991), it had turned into a weekend of events (the 'Carnival of Fun') and received a telegram from Diana Princess of Wales along with wishes from many other famous people.

The Village Charity was launched in Autumn 1990 and then registered the following year. In the financial year 1994/95 it raised £60,000 for good causes (equivalent to about £115,000 in 2010).

Although Manchester Pride is now a gigantic event, with costly tickets and it brings in £17.5m of extra income for Manchester's businesses each year, it barely raises any more for good causes than it did fifteen years ago and that's a disgrace. Read more and see vintage video and flyers from 1991 on my Manchester Pride investigation page.

Over in Huddersfield the annual Pink Picnic had been raising money for several years. Stay tuned for two fabulous and quite outrageous videos of the Pink Picnic from 1990 and 1991. Coming soon. And if you've been led to believe that we were all in the closet, creeping from one darkened bar to another in the dead of night until the uber-capitalists and marketing people came along to exploit us circa 1995, some of this media from the old days will come as a bit of a shock!

About the photos

Back in 1990 quite a bit of my income came from work as a freelance photographer and I carried a camera with me wherever I went (I still do). Black and white was still the preferred format for many magazines, so that was the film stock I had in my main camera with some colour slide film in another.

Contact prints - jumble sale on Canal Street, Manchester, in August 1990

I only took a couple of colour pictures and shot about forty black and white frames. However ten of those were on the tail-end of a film and, for some reason, I didn't process it at the time. I did the film processing myself in those days and likely I was too busy with work.

So the film stayed in a black plastic bag and was forgotten about until eleven years later when I decided to process all the odds and ends that were lying about. What a surprise to discover more images of the Bank Holiday event. Unfortunately, by then, some light had got to the film and those ten frames have a slight 'solarised' effect (below).

Jumble sale on Canal Street, Manchester, in August 1990Jumble sale on Canal Street, Manchester, in August 1990Jumble sale on Canal Street, Manchester, in August 1990

I still love black and white film. I doubt there are many other images of this event. There may be none. Even snapshot cameras were bulky in those days and most people didn't think to take them along. And, as already mentioned, cameras were only just beginning to be tolerated on the gay scene.

Due to my work, I was fortunate enough to have access to cutting-edge home video equipment (latterly Super VHS-C). At the time, camcorders were expensive and still rather cumbersome. So, again, carrying one was a bit of a chore and something that few people could be bothered with on a day out.

That same summer I shot stills and video of the Huddersfield Pink Picnic and video of New Year's Eve at the Greyhound pub — also in Huddersfield.

The following year, 1991, I shot stills and video of the Liberation 91 march. While I concentrated on video for the Walk For Life, August Bank Holiday in the gay village, the Huddersfield Pink Picnic, the Christmas Costume Ball at Manchester Town Hall and again New Year's Eve at The Greyhound.

These films and photographs are a unique record. It seemed we were on the brink of something exciting. But, looking back, it was actually the high point in some respects. The community we had then, which had developed over more than a century, was about to disappear.

Unexpectedly, in February 1992, I moved to London to take up my dream job. So my coverage of gay events in the north-west came to a halt for five years. When I returned I was horrified...

UPDATE (2021)

I've made a few changes to reflect new information that has come to light since 2010.


5 Comments

  • Diane says:

    You can’t beat a good jumble sale!

  • Felix says:

    Thank you for reminding us of how much fun it was and how much money it raised back then! The “Pride” of today is a corporate-led mutual back-slapping fest that will eventually eat itself. X

  • Andrew Millea says:

    I would love to see your photos of the Pink Picnic and New Year at the Grey Hound. Is there any way that I could?

  • GS says:

    g7uk.com in reply to Andrew: I’ll try and do something in the next few months. The Greyhound material is all video and from two different years. The copyright music is a problem. A kind person has donated an SVHS video recorder and I’m in the process of making the best possible digital master copies from all the original VHS and SVHS tapes.

  • Robert Dagg says:

    Have you had chance to process the digital master copies of The Greyhound in Huddersfield?

    Would love to see this x

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