Photo: Bernt Rostad from Oslo, Norway (CC BY 2.0)
A self-guided audio walk through the places Manchester's music came out of. It starts in the Northern Quarter at Band on the Wall, named for a stage set halfway up the wall, Afflecks of the Madchester years, and Oldham Street with Night & Day and Factory's Dry Bar. On Peter Street are the Free Trade Hall, where Bob Dylan was called 'Judas!' in 1966 and the Sex Pistols played the Lesser Free Trade Hall in 1976, and the Albert Hall, a Methodist mission hall reopened for music in 2013. Then Factory's headquarters, FAC 251; the Ritz, where the Smiths played their first gig in 1982; the site of the Haçienda; and the Boardwalk, where Oasis played their first gig in 1991. The walk goes south to the Hulme footbridge where Kevin Cummins photographed Joy Division in the snow, and ends across the Irwell at Salford Lads Club, from the inner sleeve of The Queen Is Dead. About 5 km on foot, then 2 km more, or a short taxi ride, to Salford.
11 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 461 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 138 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Where Dylan was called 'Judas!' in 1966, and where the Sex Pistols played the smaller upstairs hall on 4 June 1976.
Factory Records' headquarters from 1990 until the label went bankrupt in 1992, reopened as a club by Peter Hook in 2010.
Factory's club, FAC 51, opened in 1982 in a former yacht showroom, closed in 1997 and demolished in 2002.
A former Sunday school, later a club, where Oasis played their first gig in August 1991 and Noel Gallagher watched from the balcony.
The Hulme footbridge where Kevin Cummins photographed Joy Division in the snow in January 1979.
The 1903 club outside which the Smiths were photographed for the inner sleeve of The Queen Is Dead.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 11 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 11 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Manchester Music — the Free Trade Hall, Factory, the Haçienda and Salford Lads Club, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
11 narration points, including Band on the Wall, Afflecks, Free Trade Hall, Albert Hall and FAC 251. That is about 22 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~2½ hours with the walk to Salford total, but you walk at your own pace. 11 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.