Gorton girls know all the words to songs by Chaka Khan
If you’re familiar with the suburbs of Manchester - particularly South Manchester - you may well recognise this phrase.
It’s been popping up for years, stencilled simply onto various walls, bridges, cardboard, billboards and fences.
Bitrot and Newfred have noticed the graffiti, and so too have Flickr users:
In fact, there’s a whole Flickr tag group been set up for it:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/gortongirls…
And one Flickr user, hugovk, has tracked the source back to a poem by Manchester poet Mike Garry:
Mancunian Meander
Gorton girls know all the words
To songs by Chaka Khan
They dance and sing
And point and grin
At all the boys covered in tattoos
Trainers gleaming
Faded denim
Twisting a sleeper in one ear
Driving XR3’s and growing home-grown weed
Following the Kippax cheerBut only girls gyrate in Gorton
The boys are making plans
To rid themselves of the CSA
And move to Amsterdam
You can buy an anthology of Mike Garry’s Manchester poetry - including Manchester Meander - from independent publishing house Cheers Ta.
6 Comments so far
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Quite the most informative post I’ve read for some time — there’s no way I would have ever researched where that stencil comes from! Although this knowledge possibly, though not necessarily, scuppers my romantic notion that genuine Gorton girls were going around graffitiing material of high wit and literary calibre.
By Newfred on 07.16.06 3:37 am
Is Mike making Gorton Girls t-shirts yet? He represents everything I love about Manchester. He’s world class, and yet, he’s Manc through and through.
In fact, he performed after football practice at my going away party a month ago. Sadly, that also means you should remove me from the Manchester blogs. I’m in Seattle now.
By Dave Maass on 07.16.06 9:26 am
I’ve been wanting to know for ages, Mr Newfred! It was fairly easy to find answers as it happened.
No idea about tshirts Dave, but I’d definitely buy one if he is…
By Mancubist on 07.16.06 2:00 pm
Mike Garry is performing at manchester art gallery on 31st august 2006 @ 6pm
and at basement cafe on lever street on 2nd of september 2006.
He will also perform at the mancehster independant book fair in st annes square on friday 1st and Saturday 2nd of september where his books and T shirts are available to buy.
By cheersta on 08.23.06 11:49 am
Blimey, I thought it was just me! This is from Bloom Street a couple of years ago:
http://manhattanchester.blogspot.com/2008/05/spray-it-on-and-tag-it.html
By Greg on 06.23.08 8:45 pm
Thanks for clearing that up! I knew it was from some poem or other, but wasn’t sure which and I see it every day on my way from work in Gorton.
I wonder why it’s always stencilled?
By Missy on 09.15.08 6:56 pm
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