I just bumped into the Manchizzle in Magma bookshop on Oldham Street, where she reminded me that the benefit gig for victims of the Dale Street fire is taking place this Sunday, June 3. The event’s Northern Quarter-based organisers, Ear to the Ground, have only gone and called it Burnt to the Ground!

The Manchizzle’s already said all that needs to be said about it so, in the true spirit of originality, here’s one blogger quoting another blogger:

The best part is that the Arthur Brown, he of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, will be performing his scary 1968 song “Fire.” Also performing will be a whole slew of musical acts including… Mr Scruff, The Unabombers (who’ve graciously put up with their 24 Lever St. offices being the alternate entrance for the entire building for weeks), Polytechnic, Broke n’ English, Marc Riley, Rita & Sue, Magic Arm, Peter & the Wolf, The Mekkits and the deejay stylings of clans Fat City, Tramp, El Diablo, Rockers, Jayne Compton, Solja and Flotsam & Jetsam. Loads of these people work in or around the buildings, or are otherwise connected with them.

Burnt to the Ground runs from 4pm til 11pm and even if only a fraction of the square’s 5,000 capacity pay the £2 suggested donation then I’m sure a lot of fire-affected people will be much happier than they are today.

This one pretty much speaks for itself:

Naked Bike Ride 2007 Manchester

June 8 at 7pm we will be riding naked to protest oil dependency.

We will meet at 6pm at The basement, 24 Lever street, then ride naked through the streets of manchester.

Hope to see you Bare!

Meg Fenwick
Manchester Naked Bike Ride Coordinator

Full details available on World Naked Bike Ride’s Manchester wiki entry. You can also watch a documentary about the event on YouTube and see a few photos of what to expect on June 8 [not quite safe for work].

I went for lunch with the re-Mancified Manchizzle this week. We had dim sum lunchboxes at Lotus on King Street (£6, with or without this voucher) and had good chat about Manchester blogs. She’d noticed that, for some reason, very few people had blogged about the Northern Quarter fire a fortnight ago.

I think it’s more a case that people have been unusually slow to react, however: Manchester Clubbing has found a few videos on YouTube, for example, and Mamucium is already talking about the aftermath - including looting and an inquiry into the blaze.

On If you’re sad and like beer, Kate posted a very personal first-hand account of that firey morning - and about not knowing what to do when your office is full of smoke. She’s followed it up too, with some of the confusing lines those involved are being fed:

Different degrees of destruction; the sprinklers went off, the fire spread, the smoke damaged, just looks like someone had a really good party, smells a bit, needs demolition, the chimney’s unstable, the roof might cave in. You’ll be let in next week, you won’t get in for a fortnight, closed for three months, you have half an hour to go in and grab your stuff. Dramatic access by torchlight up dark stairwells flanked by fire officers.

Morag over at Twangorama is appealing for help. The Basement on Lever Street avoided the fire but suffered smoke and flood damage from the sprinkler system.

Some of us were able to briefly go in and salvage important items; the scene that greeted us was grim but rather less apocalyptic than we first feared. There were puddles of water rather than the 2 metres we were warned about but many books, leaflets and art works are well beyond repair. Ceiling tiles have come down and we can not yet be sure how badly affected the IT hub and kitchen are.

They need any help on offer, including cleaning up the place and donations to cover an inevitable insurance shortfall. You can register your support on the Basement website.

CIDS continues to take a strong lead in the situation and has now published a list of temporary and permanently office space available for those displaced. I guess the mashup of Manchester’s wireless hotspots might come in hand right now too.

It’s been difficult to avoid news of the major fire that broke out in Northern Quarter on Monday morning. It made the national headlines, disrupting work and transport throughout the day.

Though the fire started on Dale Street, it eventually spread to Lever Street, which, as the Manchizzle notes, is home to many record labels, publishers and other creative companies.

One of these - D:percussion organiser Ear to the Ground - has been quick to draw up plans for a music event in the neighbouring Stevenson Square on May 28. It will raise money for traders and businesses affected by the blaze and has the support of the council.

Ear to the Ground’s John Drape told today’s Manchester Evening News: ‘Ten years ago when the IRA bomb went off we delivered a similar event and we feel it is appropriate now to hold a fundraising event.’

CIDS, the Northern Quarter-based creative industries development agency, has also offered support in the form of a Mac and desk in its Oak Street office, and has asked anyone affected by the fire or anyone with office space to spare to email info@cids.co.uk.

[The image above is one of several great shots taken by Flickr user root-2]

My favourite Manchester photographer died on Monday. Don worked at the Guardian’s Manchester office for over 30 years:

For more on Don, read this piece in the MEN by fellow Manchester-based Guardianer David Ward, and view a gallery of his 2005 Northern Lights exhibition, at Manchester Art Gallery.

The gallery currently stocks prints and postcards of some of Don’s most iconic photographs.