In a backstreet boozer just south of Manchester, the strains of The Sound of Silence drift through the room. It’s Monday night, and apart from a few regulars hunched over their pints at the bar, the room is quiet.
But the hush doesn’t last. The song grows louder — not from The Alexandra’s jukebox, but from a woman warming up for tonight’s competition.
This is karaoke, but not as you know it. Forget open-mic nights with butchered renditions of Dancing Queen. Forget sealed-off booths and 1am singalongs to Sweet Caroline. In Stockport, karaoke isn’t a hobby — it’s a way of life.
“We believe the league is the only one of its kind in the UK,” says Dan Brown, chairman of The Stockport Fun Karaoke League. “I’ve never seen anything like it. And considering how many towns have different pub leagues for things like darts and pool, it’s mad that we’ve just got this one karaoke league in the whole country.”
There’s even a claim — improbable, but persistent — that karaoke, beloved by the Japanese, was actually invented in Stockport in the mid-1970s. We’ll come to that. But first, a more pressing question: why is this former mill town, best known for its Victorian viaduct and hat manufacturers, the undisputed capital of British karaoke?
To read the rest of this article, become a member for free.