Amongst fey indie bands and acoustic troubadours, Manchester's punk scene has gone largely unnoticed despite a history of great bands including The Buzzcocks and Gold Blade hailing from the city.

A few years ago it was Stephen Nancy, Valerie and Hooker who were making noise, now it's Jackie O's club night Fight Club that are showcasing raucous anti-fashionista punk bands coming out of the city walls.

Black Fiction, born out of the ashes of the Strap Ons, are a non compromising bunch of old school punks who grew up on a diet of The Ramones. Head to toe in black, frontman Eddie Fiction confronts the audience with a cold hard stare. Musically it's rudimentary 3 chord punk, but it's an infectious blast of absinthe fuelled nihilism.

"Groupies In The Gutter", "God In The Gutter" and "Stench" are essentially the Strap Ons roughed up and dirtier.

Other bands in Manchester's idea of punk music is concerned far more with the idea of wearing the right "Punk" label or being seen at the right gigs. Black Fiction are proof that real punk music exists and long may that spirit live on.

Alex McCann