Afflecks Palace Manchester - Factory Records Tony Wilson mosaic

From the Ben Robinson interview, "Afflecks Palace In Pieces Once More" SELF-made Manchester mosaicist Mark Kennedy has had seven mosaic art pieces installed on Tib Street along the wall of Affleck’s Palace. The colourful and cracked pieces feature the likes of Eric Cantona, Colin Bell, Karl Marx, Morrissey, Ian Brown, Emmeline Pankhurst, Bet Lynch and many other 'legends' associated with Manchester. In total Kennedy has spent almost 20 years crafting the two sets of mosaics amongst other on-going work. The theme on Affleck’s is Manchester heroes, with a nod given the shopping bazaar’s rock’n’roll past. Thus among the great figures of Manchester depicted there are musicians, actors, media and radical politicians. He also couldn’t help including something from his own Manchester memories of Tib Street. “When I was a little kid I used to go to Tib Street all the time to get my ferrets and buy mice from a little pet shop and that’s where we all used to go. Next door was Tib Street Joke Shop that used to sell masks and stink bombs so there’s one piece that represents all that.” You have to have a closer look at some of the new mosaics to fully appreciate them with some of them holding a few hidden surprises. Kennedy’s take on Joy Division’s classic Unknown Pleasures album cover features several tiny coloured tile fragments to set it apart from the now iconic original.