Trainor also wanted to capture the shifting economic and cultural status of a place that loomed large in the popular psyche. Its vast antique ballrooms weathered boom and bust, hosting ’70s Northern soul nights, DJs that would push the UK’s ’80s modern soul movement, and with Manchester close by, underground rave nights well into the ’90s. “I was driving by with my fellow artist friend Liam Curtin, talking about how I was looking for something to wrap up around this environment and all this wild history,” Trainor explains. ‘They Shoot Horses’ soon became an emblem of both the Northern UK and post-millennial rave culture, its likeness used in BBC News idents and on underground party digital invites alike. The monument has been refurbished twice — once in 2010 with Trainor’s full participation, and then during Covid, as a volunteer-led civic project.