06/01/2025
To mark the release of Singing Streets Manchester, we are honouring one of our favourite locations.
This seemingly obscure section of the Fallowfield Loop path, just off Alexandra South Station, has a surprisingly important role in the history of music.
Alexandra Park railway station (renamed ‘Wilbraham Road Station’ in 1923) opened here in the 1890’s, as part of a 7-mile loop line that ran south of Manchester.
However, the introduction of electric trams and the availability of better options for local commuters in and out of Manchester reduced the station’s popularity and, in 1958, it was closed to passenger services.
On 7 May 1964, the disused station buildings was the location for Granada Television’s ‘Blues and Gospel Train’ TV special. The special, for which the old station was transformed into a train station in the style of the American South, featured Muddy Waters and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, as well as Cousin Joe Pleasant, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Otis Spann, and Reverend Gary Davis.
All of the musicians were in England as part of the 1964 American Folk Blues and Gospel Festival tour of Europe.
The programme featured Muddy Waters singing ‘Blow Wind Blow’ as a special train brought the show’s audience to the platform, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe singing ‘Didn’t It Rain’ as the heavens opened around her.
The TV broadcast that August was watched by about ten million viewers and is said to have influenced The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, and many more. Footage can be found on YouTube, albeit with some inaccurate commentary from the BBC (see link below).
The railway line remained active, initially for express passenger trains until 1969, and then for freight trains through to 1988. The train tracks were then lifted and the route became derelict until the Fallowfield Loop path, an off-road cycle path, pedestrian and horse riding route, was created along the footprint in 2001.
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