FAT CITY

Specialising in hip hop, funk, jazz and soul, Fat City Records opened as a small record shop in Manchester's Affleck's Palace in February 1993. In the subsequent years Fat City has grown into a three-stranded music organisation. The Fat City Record shop expanded several times over the years before finally residing in Oldham Street, the cultural Northern Quarter of Manchester. In August 2009 the Fat City shop closed its outlet in Oldham St and the business moved to London where it continues to be at the forefront of online music retailing. Fat City Recordings, the label, sprung up in 1998, with the purpose of illustrating the Fat City Sound on wax and cd. The label has released four different compilation series, the acclaimed eclectic mix 'Mystic Brew', a couple of more musically specific albums in the Special Brew series, digging in the funk 45 crates for the Fat and Funky series, and the 'Stars on 33 series that sees well known musical producers and DJs making their selections. The final strand of Fat City's musical involvement is club promotion. Over the years, Fat City has run many club promotions and since 1998 has been in partnership with Grand Central under the banner of Counter Culture Promotions. Counter Culture promoted the club night of the same name for several years before embarking on the current project, Friends and Family, which now runs in Manchester and London, with special events and residencies.