In the winter of 1988, Inspiral Carpets were one of the most talked-about new bands in the country. Their debut single “Keep the Circle Around” had earned the Manchester band glowing reviews in and , the Radio One DJ John Peel was singing their praises, and their gigs were selling out. There was just one minor problem: their singer had recently left. The search was on for a new frontman.
Among those who auditioned was a young lad who had a day job working for British Gas. “He was a cheeky little scamp from Burnage who used to come and watch us because he loved our band,” recalls Carpets keyboard player Clint Boon. They auditioned him but decided that although his voice didn’t suit their sound, he might have a future as a roadie and general helper. The young man did that job for four years before he eventually quit to join his younger brother Liam’s group. The roadie was Noel Gallagher and Oasis would, of course, go on to become one of the most successful bands of the past three decades.
It is a great tale among many excellent stories in Boon’s new memoir The Manchester Chronicles. Reading the book, one gets the sense that there isn’t a major Manchester music figure or band that Boon has not encountered or encouraged – from Ian Curtis and Mark E Smith to Morrissey, Ian Brown and Guy Garvey. “I’ve often said I feel a bit like Forrest Gump at times,” Boon tells me. “It’s not like I’m the most amazing musician that ever walked the planet, but all these amazing things have happened.” He’s not wrong.
Boon, 67, grew up in a working-class family in Oldham and was a student at Rochdale School of Art. The plan was to leave college and study at university – but in December 1976 he went to see a new band called the Sex Pistols who were playing at the Electric Circus supported by the Buzzcocks, Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, and The Clash. The concert made quite an impact.
“In a lot of ways that was the night I was born,” Boon says. “It was jaw-dropping: it inspired me to think that I could not just buy records – I could actually be in a band.” The next day, he dropped out of college and started dreaming of a life in music. That dream had to sit alongside the need to earn money, so he got a job in a sheet metal factory, becoming co-owner of a Manchester furniture company. “I built a small four-track recording studio and started inviting bands,” he recalls, “and that was when I met the Inspirals.”
Inspiral Carpets had been formed in 1983 and Boon joined in 1986 as their keyboard player. When he told his boss at the furniture company, Clive, that he was joining the group, Clive mentioned that he might be able to offer some advice. Boon was a little bemused as to what a furniture factory boss could tell him about the music business, but the man mentioned his brother used to manage a few acts. It was only then that Boon remembered Clive’s surname was Epstein.
“When Brian Epstein died, Clive had become manager of The Beatles for about six months,” Boon laughs, shaking his head. “He had managed The Beatles and now he was working with me in a furniture factory.”
Inspiral Carpets built a devoted following through relentless gigging and a string of self-released singles before signing to Mute records and riding the Madchester wave alongside The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays. The Inspirals never quite reached the heights of that pair, but with their trademark Farfisa organ, jangly guitars and Cow logo they occupied their own distinct place in the Madchester scene with such hits as “This Is How It Feels,” “Saturn 5,” and “Dragging Me Down.”
In 1990, the band had cracked the top five with “This Is How It Feels” and their debut album Life, and they were headlining Reading Festival. For their set there, they decided to bring a pantomime cow on stage – inside which, holding up the back end, was Gallagher, in his roadie days for the band.
But it was Manchester that felt like the centre of the world. I was a student there at the time and I remember the queues outside the Hacienda nightclub, friends seeing The Stone Roses at Spike Island. And I am pretty sure Inspiral Carpets played out our freshers’ ball. “I started going to punk gigs in the early 80s but all my memories of that time are in black and white and then suddenly it becomes colour when the Manchester thing happened – they were happy times,” says Boon.
Inspiral Carpets were also responsible for one of the most iconic moments in British music history when they performed on Top of the Pops with The Fall’s Mark E Smith, with whom they collaborated on 1994’s “I Want You”. It was Smith’s only appearance on the show. “He was a crazy genius, unhinged at times, and a loose cannon because he could be charming or he could be angry and quite violent,” says Boon. “But he was the Manc genius for me and if getting him on Top of the Pops was the only thing the Inspirals did I’d be happy – but no, we also brought Noel Gallagher into the industry.”
The Inspirals’ fall was as fast as their rise. “We had headlined Reading in 1990, and a year before that we didn’t even have a record label,” says Boon. “But then the Happy Mondays fell apart, Factory records went bankrupt, the Stone Roses fell apart and our record deal with Mute ended at the end of 1994. Our time was over.”
Boon went from headlining festivals to signing on at the job centre. “I had two little kids, a big mortgage, and bills to pay and no money coming in,” he says. “I had to sign on for a year and get family allowance and milk tokens. I was lining up in my local supermarket with my milk tokens hidden in my hand because my neighbours all thought I was loaded because I’d done Top of the Pops eight times – that was a real low point in my life.”
At the same time as he was at his lowest, Gallagher had found success with Oasis. “I would visit supermarkets and see newspapers full of ‘Oasis selling out Maine Road [stadium]’, all while I was fucking struggling,” he says. “The irony of that was crushing.”
He has DJed with another fan of Manchester music – Andy Burnham. “He’s a music obsessive – definitely,” Boon says when I bring up the Prime Minister. “He’s a friend of mine as well – I’ve DJed for him and his wife when they turned 50 and he’s been to family parties and he’s genuine, absolutely. He’s got a copy of the book – it got posted to No 10 the other day.”
Meanwhile, Inspiral Carpets have re-formed, and are currently on a tour that lasts into December. Performing brings the same excitement it used to: “If anything I’m enjoying it even more now, because I’ve had it taken away a couple of times, and that makes you appreciate something even more when you think it’s finished.”
Boon says they draw a relatively young audience on tour – not only those who remember the band from the first time around. “That feels very rewarding. It gives us proof that these songs we wrote 40 years ago still resonate with people,” he adds.
Inspiral Carpets are, of course, not the only beloved Manchester band to have gone back on the road recently. Gallagher is set to tour with Oasis again next year. Is Boon hoping Inspirals could get the support slot? “We’re not making the call but they know we’d love that gig,” he grins. “Actually, I think we might try a bit harder to get it. I might just stick my business card through the letterbox and say, ‘Don’t forget where it all started for you.’”
‘The Manchester Chronicles‘ by Clint Boon is published by Monoray, at £25