If you are hunting for present ideas for Manchester music fans, the hard part is not finding something with a band name on it. The hard part is picking the one band, out of a city that produced about six of them worth arguing over. I research and draw these discography maps myself, and this collection is where the Manchester ones all live, so this is my honest guide to choosing between them.
Every map in the Manchester Bands Tube Map Art Prints collection is built the same way. Each studio album is a station, each musician is a line, and the line only runs where that person is actually credited playing on the record. That means the map shows you who stayed, who left, and who came back, which is usually the argument the fan already wants to have.
Oasis Discography Tube Map Art Print
The obvious Manchester starting point, with the shifting rhythm section drawn line by line behind the two constants.
Explore This Art PrintPresent Ideas for Manchester Music Fans Start With One Question: Whose Line Do They Follow?
The five maps below cover five very different shapes of career. One is a single unbroken line across four decades, one is a band that lost two members and kept going, one is a guitarist who never stayed still. Read the findings and you will know which one belongs on your person's wall.
All of them come in A2 (420 x 594mm) and A1 (594 x 841mm), from £42, printed as Giclée on heavy art paper, and available in a black wood frame if you want it ready to hang.
Mark E Smith Is the Only Name on All 31 Fall Albums, and Martin Bramah Leaves Twice
When I built The Fall map I logged every credited musician across all 31 studio albums, from Live at the Witch Trials in 1979 to New Facts Emerge in 2017. Exactly one line runs the full width of the sheet, and it is Mark E Smith's. Everybody else is a branch off it.
The best bit of the whole map is Martin Bramah. He is there on the 1979 debut, then his line stops dead for a decade, restarts for Extricate in 1990 and Shift-Work in 1991, stops again, and appears one final time on Levitate in 1997. Three separate spells, visible at a glance, which is not something a tracklist poster can do.
The album with the most credited musicians is Extricate at eleven. New Facts Emerge, the last one, has five. Watching the band swell and shrink is the thing Fall fans stand in front of for ten minutes.
This is the right present for the obsessive, the person who owns the live bootlegs and has opinions about the Brix years. If you want the longer version of the research, I wrote it up in my post on The Fall map.
Rob Collins Stops at Tellin' Stories, and Martin Duffy Appears Exactly Once
The Charlatans map carries the two hardest moments in the band's history without needing a caption. Rob Collins's keyboard line runs from Some Friendly in 1990 to Tellin' Stories in 1997 and then stops, because he died during those sessions. Martin Duffy of Primal Scream appears on that album and on no other, which is exactly what happened.
Jon Brookes drums on every Charlatans album from 1990 to Who We Touch in 2010, and his line ends before Modern Nature in 2015. Peter Salisbury of The Verve picks up the drums from Modern Nature onwards. Two losses, two continuations, all readable in about four seconds.
The map also takes in Tim Burgess's solo records, I Believe in 2003 and Oh No I Love You in 2012, because the sheet I keep treats them as part of the same story. Different Days in 2017 is the busiest station on the whole map at nineteen credited names, including the novelist Ian Rankin and the writer Sharon Horgan alongside Paul Weller and Anton Newcombe. There is also a full album-by-album write-up in my Charlatans albums in order guide.
Denise Johnson Turns Up on Three Marr Records Across Two Different Bands
The Johnny Marr map is the one people underestimate. It runs four Smiths albums, two by The The, three by Electronic, two 7 Worlds Collide records, The Healers, Modest Mouse, The Cribs and five solo albums. Almost nobody realises how many separate bands that is until they see it laid out.
The name I keep coming back to is Denise Johnson. She sings on Electronic in 1991, returns for Raise the Pressure in 1996, and turns up again on The Healers' Boomslang in 2003. Three appearances, twelve years apart at the ends, across two entirely different projects.
The guest list around her is absurd in the best way. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe on Electronic, Karl Bartos of Kraftwerk on Raise the Pressure, Sinéad O'Connor on The The's Dusk, Zak Starkey drumming on Boomslang, Eddie Vedder and three Finns on 7 Worlds Collide. My Johnny Marr map post goes through those in detail.
The Names That Cross From One Manchester Map to Another
This is the argument for giving two of these rather than one. Manchester is small, and once you have the credit sheets side by side the same people keep reappearing on other bands' records.
| Musician | On one map | And on another | Why it is worth seeing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Johnny Marr | His own map: The Smiths, The The, Electronic, five solo albums | The Charlatans, Different Days (2017) | The two maps literally share a station |
| Donald Johnson (A Certain Ratio) | Electronic (1991) and Raise the Pressure (1996) | The Charlatans, Different Days (2017) | Twenty six years between the two credits |
| Ged Lynch | Marr's Raise the Pressure (1996) and Twisted Tenderness (1999) | The Charlatans, Wonderland (2001), Up at the Lake (2004), Simpatico (2006) | Leaves one map and settles on the other |
| Stephen Morris | The Joy Division and New Order map, all the way through | The Charlatans, Modern Nature (2015) and Different Days (2017) | Gillian Gilbert joins him on Different Days |
| Denise Johnson | Electronic (1991), Raise the Pressure (1996) | Johnny Marr and The Healers, Boomslang (2003) | Three credits inside a single map, spread over twelve years |
If the person you are buying for loves two of these bands, a pair of A2 prints side by side is the present that actually rewards a second look.
Simon Rogers Produced The Infotainment Scan, So He Loses His Station
I have one rule that decides who gets a line and who does not. A producer only appears if they are also credited playing something on that record, and The Fall gives me the cleanest example of it anywhere in the collection.
Simon Rogers plays on This Nation's Saving Grace in 1985, Bend Sinister in 1986 and The Frenz Experiment in 1988, so he has a line across those three. He comes back in 1993 for The Infotainment Scan as producer only, and my sheet marks him PROD for that album. No instrument, no station.
The Charlatans throw up the same test on We Are Love in 2025. Dev Hynes produced it and is also credited on synthesizer, guitar, piano and backing vocals, so he is on the map. Stephen Street produced two tracks and nothing else, so he is not. Fans notice this rule once it is pointed out, and it is the thing that makes them trust the rest of the sheet.
Joy Division to New Order, and the Two Gallagher Options
The Joy Division and New Order map is the one for anyone whose Manchester begins at Factory Records. It covers 21 albums and the offshoot bands that grew out of the same four people, which is a lot more branching than most fans expect. I broke it down in my Joy Division and New Order post.
Then there is the Oasis map, plus separate Liam and Noel maps for people who have already picked a side. That choice needs its own explanation, so I gave it one in my guide to the three Oasis maps. The Smiths, Morrissey and Marr maps get the same treatment in my Smiths collection guide.
Which Manchester Map Suits Which Person on Your List
For the completist who reads sleeve notes, The Fall. Thirty one albums and 56 musicians gives them the most to work through, and the Bramah gaps will start a conversation every time somebody new walks into the room.
For the person who came to Manchester through Britpop, The Charlatans or Oasis. Both have a clear narrative arc and a guest list that surprises people who thought they knew the records.
For the one who wears the Unknown Pleasures shirt, Joy Division and New Order. For the guitarist, or the friend who says Marr is the real story, the Johnny Marr map, because it is the only one that shows how many bands he quietly held together.
On size, A2 at 420 x 594mm suits a hallway, an alcove or a desk wall. A1 at 594 x 841mm is the one to choose for The Fall or the Marr map specifically, because both have enough lines that the extra width genuinely helps. Prices start at £42, and the black wood frame is worth it if you want the present to be finished rather than a job for them.
Questions I Get Asked About These Five
They love one Manchester band and are lukewarm on the rest. Is a collection print wasted on them? No, buy the single band map rather than something citywide. Every map here is one band or one musician's career, so it will not be diluted with acts they do not care about.
Does the Charlatans map really include Tim Burgess's solo albums? Yes, both of them, I Believe from 2003 and Oh No I Love You from 2012. They sit in the run in the right chronological places, which is how the credit sheet I keep has always treated them.
Why is Johnny Marr on the Charlatans map as well as his own? Because he is credited on Different Days in 2017. I map what the record says, not what the band photo says, which is the whole point of the exercise.
Can I buy two and have them match? Yes, that is the most common order I get from this collection. Same size, same paper, same frame, and the shared names in the table above give the pair a reason to hang together.
Where to Start
Browse the whole Manchester bands collection and see which cover stops them. If the person you are buying for is a Manchester fan by geography rather than by one band, the wider Music Wall Art Prints collection has the rest of the catalogue, including the bands who left the city and the ones who never quite did.
Any of them arrives as a Giclée print, A2 or A1, framed or unframed, from £42. I draw and research every one myself, so if you want a second opinion on which map suits your person, ask me and I will tell you honestly.
