WHICH northern city has made the biggest impact on England's musical landscape?

York? Alas, no. Leeds? No, but it could and should achieve far more. Newcastle? Great place for gigs, but still no. Hull? Better at Rugby League. Sheffield? Yorkshire's best by far, Pulp, Human League, early Joe Cocker, but in truth we have to look over the Pennines.

Manchester or Liverpool? Well, Liverpool can make a case, The Beatles above all others of course, but just as Anfield has never hosted the Premier League trophy while Old Trafford and the Etihad Stadium keep needing more silver polish, so Manchester is mounting an ever stronger case for musical supremacy.

Tony "Longfella" Walsh's rendition of his ode to his city, This Is The Place, at the Albert Square vigil in the wake of May's Manchester Arena suicide bomb attack was an eloquent testimonial to Red Rose culture and character that stretches back through the industrial centuries.

Cherry Red Records' Manchester, North Of England box set focuses on a smaller time frame, but with due diligence as it highlights A Story Of Independent Music, Greater Manchester 1977-1993. Note "A Story", rather than The Story. A Morrissey doppelganger may adorn the cover, but The Smiths are not present, though Morrissey's own work, The Last Of The International Playboys, pops up on Disc 5, named after Happy Mondays' 24 Hour Party People.

Seven discs span Buzzcocks' Breakdown in demo mode in 1977 to the Oasis finale of Columbia in demo mode in 1993, when "Madchester was over. Everything was over," according to the sleeve notes. "It seemed like the end. It was the beginning."

Not true, it was the continuation, and instead Manchester, North Of England emphasises just how many acts have made their abiding Manchester mark, from Joy Division and New Order to the Mondays and Stone Roses, The Fall and John Cooper Clarke to Magazine and Morrissey.

So much more is here too: a Nico And The Invisible Girls rarity; Smack's class-divide little gem Edward Fox, World Of Twist's glorious Sons Of The Stage; even the wonderfully named Crispy Ambulance. Manchester wins.