In the late 1980s, Steve Cresser – aka Cressa – was hailed in i-D magazine as 'the face of Manchester', he went on the road with Happy Mondays, and was onstage with the Stone Roses at their big shows and their first TV appearance – even being described as 'to all intents and purposes the fifth member of the Stone Roses'. In the mid 1990s he co-founded a band called Bad Man Wagon, became close friends with both Damien Hirst and Joe Strummer but then disappeared from view.
What happened to Cressa? He became addicted to heroin, and homeless, and was attacked and hospitalised. Drawing on a series of deep and intimate interviews, Dave Haslam tells Cressa’s profoundly moving and intriguing story from the inside of the world of music and the depths of addiction.
Dave Haslam is a former resident DJ at the legendary Haçienda club. His journalism has appeared in NME, The Times, Guardian, London Review of Books and New Statesman. He’s written five books including Manchester, England - a cultural biography of Manchester which was declared one of the ten books that best represent Britain (alongside work by Jeremy Paxman, Zadie Smith and George Monbiot). His other books include Life After Dark: A History of British Nightclubs & Music Venues, and his autobiography Sonic Youth Slept On My Floor (acclaimed by BBC 6 Music presenter Gilles Peterson as 'the best book of 2018').
