After The Noise
Everything Is Equal
Tuesday 21 April 2026
Orbital – The Girl with the Sun in Her Head (1996)
From In Sides. Brilliant album.
I’m hurtling down Eccles New Road. Haven’t been down here in years. Thought about moving here once. Didn’t. It’s a bit… rough. Weaste. And I still ended up somewhere similar anyway, so what do I know.
It’s not that bad, to be fair. Good for the tram. Cleaner than Gorton, I’ll give it that.
Some parts of Manchester feel a bit… continental. Not weird, just different. The trams on the road, the flats, the layout. This stretch definitely has that feel. You could almost convince yourself you’re somewhere else if you ignored everything else around you.
We’re in Salford now, really. 100 years old today. Same as the late Queen Lizzie.
I haven’t heard this track in years. Love Orbital. Saw them at the Cambridge Junction in 1990. Still one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to. Small venue, huge sound. Proper moment.
After that… not sure I ever saw them again. Maybe at a festival. Possibly drunk. Possibly imagined. I used to keep a notebook of bands I’d seen. That didn’t last long.
That’s the thing about living in a decent-sized city. Manchester and Salford together, really. You can just end up in places you’ve never been before. And here I am in Weaste, ticking another one off.
Ah, there’s United Utilities. Lovely. £47 a month for water. Absolute bargain. Wankers.
Out of Weaste and into Trafford Park, where my parcel should be waiting.
People who don’t know it assume Trafford Park is a place. It isn’t. It’s just a massive industrial estate. Huge. Endless units, trucks, roads that all look vaguely the same. No one lives here. It just exists.
Somewhere around here is Old Trafford. I can’t see it, but it’s there. Never been to a match. Feels like something I probably should have done at some point.
Got a horrible right turn coming up. Always one.
Sat-nav’s back on. I pretend I don’t like using it, but I clearly do. It’s better when you actually need it.
That smell… definitely something industrial. Let’s not investigate that too closely.
The track just glides along underneath it all. Bleeps, pulses, that slow build. Not one of the big obvious dance tracks. More laid-back, almost trippy.
Exactly what’s needed.
The playlist throwing up another gem.
Traffic ahead looks grim, so I’ve taken a gamble and peeled off. Might be genius. Might be a disaster.
Nope. That’s worked.
Sometimes you get away with it.
There’s something I like about Trafford Park. No idea why. It’s just an enormous, slightly surreal sprawl of industry. Feels like a place that shouldn’t really exist in the middle of a city, but there it is.
And apparently, you can fly direct to Shanghai from Manchester.
Didn’t expect to learn that today.
Whitesnake – Sweet Lady Luck (1989)
Ah, big, unapologetic 80s rock. Love it when this stuff comes on.
Volume up… again.
Of course, the roads decide to get involved. Some absolute maniac in a lorry flying along like he’s late for something important. Doing 40 in a 30 and somehow I still can’t catch him.
Calm down. Breathe. Whitesnake will sort it.
Back to the track.
One of those songs full of wanting and needing. “I want it, I need it…” and all that. You’re a loser in a game of love, apparently.
Bit dramatic. But it’s Whitesnake, so I’ll allow it.
Sat-nav’s off now. I know where I am. Which usually means I’m about five minutes away from needing it again.
Used to drive around here a lot. Haven’t been down this way for ages. Funny how places feel both familiar and slightly off at the same time.
Cars getting priority over the tram. Always feels slightly wrong, that.
And then it appears.
Old Trafford.
Right there in front of me. Proper moment every time. I’ve never actually been to a game there, which feels ridiculous when you think about it.
It looks exactly how you expect it to. Iconic. You can feel the history just driving past it.
To be fair, the Etihad’s impressive as well. Not the same depth of history, but plenty of big moments already. Aguero… you can still hear it.
But Old Trafford has that weight to it.
Meanwhile, Whitesnake are still doing their thing in the background, completely unaware they’re now part of a Manchester football tour.
And somehow, it all fits.
Gladys Knight & the Pips – I Don’t Want to Do Wrong (1971)
I saw a documentary about them not so long back on BBC Four. There’s often good stuff on there if you catch it at the right time.
And I realised I don’t really know them that well. Not beyond the obvious ones. Midnight Train to Georgia, the Bond theme… that sort of thing.
So I thought, right, stick some of it on the playlist.
And now this comes on.
Just quality. Absolute quality. That voice. Effortless, but full of something.
Meanwhile, I’m on the Mancunian Way.
I love it. One of those odd bits of road that sticks with you. When it opened, people apparently had a picnic on it the day before it went live. Feels right somehow.
You can see the changing face of Manchester from up here. Old, new, squeezed together.
It’s a strange motorway. 30mph, no hard shoulder. Feels like it shouldn’t really exist.
I’m fascinated by it.
The junctions are chaos. Feels like Wacky Races at times. But the reduced speed limit probably works. Not often I agree with that sort of thing, but I think they got this one right.
It’s a magnificent bit of engineering, in its own slightly mad way.
Gladys just carries on in the background, doing what she does.
And everything else sorts itself out around it.
Joe Smooth – Inside My Mind (1988)
Oh, this is good.
Late-80s house. Simple, effective. Just works.
Bassline, drumbeat, done.
Turn it up.
A bit of synth comes in and everything settles. Completely chills me out.
I’d forgotten how good Joe Smooth was. And the voice as well.
I had a moment of confusion earlier, but yes… “Promised Land”. That’s the one.
I’m pretty sure I had this album. Feels familiar.
Strangeways tower coming into view.
Bowie loves it round here. Sniffing heaven.
I read something about letting dogs explore properly. Letting them sniff, not rushing them along. Makes sense.
I try to do that with him. Within reason. Unless he’s about to eat something questionable.
Joe Smooth just rolls on underneath it all.
Simple. Steady. Effective.
The Coward Brothers – Boyguns (2024)
Who are The Coward Brothers?
No idea… until you realise it’s Elvis Costello and T-Bone Burnett.
Lightbulb moment.
Short track. Blink and you miss it. But excellent.
I’m a dabbler with Costello. Always good when I land on something like this.
And then it’s gone.
One minute forty-one.
Same as the road decision I’m making. No sat-nav. Bit of a gamble.
This way.
Feels bigger than it is.
And then it’s done.
King Tubby & Roots Radics – King Stereo Gav Dub (1981)
Throbbing bass through me ears.
Traffic going nowhere again. No reason.
But King Tubby’s here.
That bass could kill a man.
Dub just works.
Then I think the car’s bleeping again. Service warning. Nope. It’s the track.
Nearly apologised to the dashboard.
And just like that, traffic moves.
Dub sorts things out.
King Tubby. Job done.
END OF LISTENING LOG
The Listening Log 