FOR all its cult appeal and cocky swagger, Manchester music boasts only one regular radio show in its honour on the city's airwaves. Its hosts are erstwhile Word presenter and M.E.N. music columnist, Terry Christian, and his relatively young pal, Conrad Murray, a publicist at the city's burgeoning Storm record label.

Their platform is the BBC station, GMR, where they provide a taste of musical Mancunia past, present and future every Wednesday evening.

Listening in last week provided a perfect example of their stock in trade. There was The Smiths' stirring classic, How Soon Is Now, a blast from the not-so-distant-past in the guise of Audioweb, and a taste of the not-so-far-off future in Ian Brown's Noel Gallagher collaboration.

Cocksure

It's bound together seamlessly by Christian's cocksure, but not unlikeable northern brogue, his attitude perfectly epitomising every right-thinking Mancunian's belief that they were there first, bought the T-shirt and are now intent on making sure everybody else knows about their part in making cultural history.

For his part, Murray provides a weekly look at the lesser-known potential hit-makers which Manchester continues to produce, even if the tabloid Press opted to forget that the city existed as soon as the baggy bubble burst.

So far as I'm concerned, and I'm sure I'm not alone, the Murray/Christian BBC axis is about as much as supporting evidence as the licence fee requires.

I joined them at Manchester city centre's Atlas bar - sometimes haunt of that fellow Mancunian muso, Vinnie Reilly - to ask why they should continue to fight for the cause.

And, Heaven knows, Christian is never short of a word or two on the subject of himself and music.

In the flesh, it's easy to work out that his key strength as a seasoned broadcaster and commentator is an encyclopaedic mind for the minutiae of Manchester music. He can't help but hold court.

Murray is more of a wallflower, but an enthusiastic and knowledgeable one, nevertheless. Between them they reel off the names of bands, promoters, DJs, venues and radio show hosts who have graced the city over the last few decades.

Christian is big enough to admit that as a 40-something father, he doesn't go out looking for new talent so much these days.

'I have kids, now, that's why I let Conrad do that side of things,' he says between the musical war stories.

Punk gigs

'But what I do know is that there are still similarities to the scene back then and now. People didn't go to the punk gigs because there was a band they wanted to see, it was because they wanted to have a drink and look at girls. Then there was a band on.'

Murray, who appears during the final hour of the three-hour GMR slot, says that events like the Bierkeller's Blowout night - when Christian and he are most likely to be seen out at the same time - are similarly important when it comes to gauging Manchester's listening taste.

'We work together as much as we can,' Murray adds. 'They let us tell people about the radio show and we plug bands which are going to be playing. Blowout is probably the closest thing there is to a scene at the moment.'

Given the underground swell of support for the GMR show and events like Blowout, Manchester music still has some kind of appeal.

It's understandable that both Christian and Murray are slightly bemused - if not overly depressed - that the world has seemingly forgotten about Mancunia for the time being.

'I'd liken the current scene to 1986,' suggests Christian. 'Back then Manchester was like a bubbling volcano just waiting to erupt. I think something similar might be around the corner.'

Murray agrees, but suggests that the city needs to become even more insular before something seismic will happen.

Citing acts like Fear Of music, Loose Canon, Beats For Beginners and Raw-T, he says: 'There is a great pool of talent bubbling under. Unlike the old days, lots of people are doing lots of different things on their own. '

And for the time being, they hearteningly agree: 'We'll keep plugging away.' Tweet