Football Pop Music and Flat Caps

Comprising the counties of Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire, Cheshire and Cumbria, the North West of England runs from the top of Wales in the south to the Scottish border in the North. Lies on the western side of the pennines, with Yorkshire and the North East to the east. The principle cities are Manchester and Liverpool, with other notable towns and cities including Preston, Bolton, Wigan, Blackburn, Blackpool, Warrington, Lancaster, Salford and Carlisle. In the northern part, near Scotland, is The Lake District.

Football

The North West of England is home to the English League's two most successful clubs of all time, Liverpool and Manchester United, along with several other notable teams such as Manchester City, Everton and Blackburn Rovers. Six of the twelve founder teams of The Football League were from the North West.

Pop Music

Due mostly to being a major port, a lot of American blues and rock and roll music came to the UK through Liverpool, inspiring The Beatles and many other bands. Not to be outdone, Manchester has produced a number of bands such as Take That and became one of the main cities where British Alternative Rock and indie bands came from. They even ended up at the forefront of the British music scene for a while between the late eighties and the early nineties thanks to the "Madchester" movement.

Flat Caps

During the industrial revolution, Manchester was the UK's largest manufacturer of cotton, and flat cloth caps became the stereotypical headwear of the Northern working-class man. During the 2002 Commonwealth Games, held in Manchester, the people who gave out the medals wore silk cloth caps during the presentations (easily the silliest thing about a Games that, on the whole, went well for the city).

Famous real people from the North-West:


 * The Beatles - Liverpool
 * Take That - Manchester
 * Craig Charles - Liverpool
 * Christopher Eccleston, actor, the Ninth Doctor - Salford
 * Peter Kay, comedian - Bolton
 * Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff, cricketer - Preston
 * LS Lowry, artist - Manchester
 * Chris Lowe, keyboardist of Pet Shop Boys - Blackpool
 * Jethro Tull, prog-rock band - Blackpool
 * Joy Division and by extension New Order, post-punk bands, The Smiths, "Madchester" bands (The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, The Charlatans), Oasis - Manchester
 * The Teardrop Explodes - Liverpool
 * Ian McKellen, actor - Bolton
 * Nick Park, creator of Wallace and Gromit - Preston
 * Lee Mack, comedian - Southport
 * The Verve - Wigan

Famous fictional people from the North-West:


 * Wallace and Gromit - Wigan
 * Everyone from Coronation Street - Mostly, Manchester
 * Gene Hunt - Manchester

Appearances in fiction:
 * Cracker is set in Manchester.
 * Survivors is set around Manchester (Naj has a Man City duvet cover and other signs indicating it have been seen).
 * The TV show Shameless is set on a fictional Council Estate in Manchester.