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By James Masters
Revisiting the Manchester scene of two decades ago it’s impossible not to
be reminded of “bliss that was to be alive but to be young was very
heaven” yet even Wordsworth would have found it difficult to capture the
all conquering, all comers style and panache of Manchester’s unique cross
cultural explosion in the late 80’s and early 90’s which sprang from The
Hacienda, Oldham Street’s early bohemian chic, an avid record shop
culture, a good few older heads cum social misfits and a whole variety of
circumstances and events.
Revisiting the Manchester scene of two decades ago it’s impossible not to
be reminded of “bliss that was to be alive but to be young was very
heaven” yet even Wordsworth would have found it difficult to capture the
all conquering, all comers style and panache of Manchester’s unique cross
cultural explosion in the late 80’s and early 90’s which sprang from The
Hacienda, Oldham Street’s early bohemian chic, an avid record shop
culture, a good few older heads cum social misfits and a whole variety of
circumstances and events.
Combining a multitude of influences and nuances, Manchester took on the
influences of the small US scenes and early doors Ibiza, then breaking
bands and new dj talent, plenty of narcotics and the odd conspiracy
theory, namely that the army ran all the E’s, the whole scene was down to
the kids of the Sixties getting into positions of power, and that it
represented a whole new anti corporate, anti capitalist reaction to
Thatcher and the scourge of Eighties yuppie-dom, to name but few.
Put this against the artistic background cultivated by the likes of
Factory Records and The Royal Exchange Theatre and the rebellious traits
of the city and the scene is classically set for a pivotal, revolutionary
moment.
Not that Manchester prior to 88 was always the cultural wasteland which it
has been far too lazily characterised by some, yet the shoe-gazing,
wrist-slitting indie dominance of the local scene meant the Manc acid
house phenomenon grew incrementally from what was a very small network. A
part of The Hacienda’s sound-track from 86 onwards, house and acid culture
slowly came to fit the sensibilities of the independently minded city
which became internationally famous for not only the clubs, the music (and
the football) but also for it’s buccaneering, wild, untamed spirit of
adventure.
Yet whilst Manchester was cementing its world-wide reputation as one of
the foremost musical cities around as acolytes and disciples spread the
vibe, Manchester’s compact, village-y city centre made it an intimate,
social culture where “in yer face” doesn’t describe half of it. The scene
expanded from not only the Hacienda but from now mythically treated haunts
like Afflecks Palace, Eastern Bloc and Dry 201 as Manchester began to lay
claim to both the true working class art forms, music and football.
So The Acid House Years, which in Manc terms is more a generic term from
87 to 90, as FAC 51’s Citadel and Manchester’s politics of dancing
rejuvenated and regenerated the city, the city’s fame and influence on the
developing scene rippled across the north, the country and as Italian
house records were latterly to remind us, to everybody all over the world.
With the Hacienda a central but not solitary hub of the scene, Manchester
had taken in Detroit, Chicago and New York and spewed out its own
sauntering, surly Mancunian most monster as records, fashion, clubs and
town’s café culture coincided in an uncontrived blend of time, art, place
and characters which I’ve often liked to compare as the closest thing to
live theatre I’ve ever been immersed within. At 15 in Manchester in 1988
(and just about able to blag into the Hacienda, certainly Dry was never a
problem), there was some luck in landing in a happening that even then
felt like it rivalled Paris or San Fran 68, London 76 for an authentic,
the rules do not apply, standing in the way of control, getting away with
it youth revolution.
So here, pieced together as an extensive oral history, is a whole rogues
gallery of DJ’s, club owning rock stars, artists, singers, and industry
bods, listed below in “role call” which takes in many major Manc acid
house faces riffing on the city, the clubs, the tunes, the parties and the
cultural shift that was Manc Acidica in a “you’ll swear you were there”
deconstruction.
Expect a not atypically Mancunian tale of establishment baiting,
piss-taking, risk-taking, camaraderie and untold shenanigans, yet within
all the devil may care, throw it to the all hedonism, I can’t escape the
fact that there is and was a very special something about Manchester back
then, something to fall in love with, something to believe in, something
independently willed that made the world look to Manchester and something
that at times made us feel like the coolest bastards on Earth.
So why Manchester?
“Manchester was dying for a change. Growing up there in the 70’s there had
been a lot of inventiveness going on but it just seemed to be always
following London back then. There were always things brewing in Manchester
but it all just came to a head. The generation that I grew up with had
been through the 70’s and early 80’s and by the end of the 80’s they’d
probably had enough of Thatcher and all the stigmas then went along with
that period.”
A Guy Called Gerald
“Manchester was very Eighties back then. The thing that we liked about it
was coming out of that horrible naff Eighties thing, that Eighties culture
of big hair and acid house sounded like nothing to do with that. It was a
kind of an alien type of music. When you heard that in a club, you could
pledge your allegiance to this new thing.”
Graham Massey
“You had a huge change in technology in 86 / 87 where 808’s, 303’s, 505’s,
all became available and it enabled people to spend much less money to
make that music. All of a sudden the little nippers gave us a cheap way of
making acid house music and that enabled people like A Guy Called Gerald,
808 State to sit in their flats and make music. They could never do it
before. You’ve got a circumstance affecting people’s creativity and that
to me was like a revolution, it was like another punk. So that is sort of
English Acid House.”
Peter Hook
“I did a night before that on the Friday at the Hac which was the Chicago
House night and that was quite early 87 with Adonis, Fingers Inc, Marshall
Jefferson, Frankie Knuckles and Larry Heard and that was really fucking
early. They didn’t have a clue really, they were like “Wow, people like
our music outside of Chicago gay clubs” which was amazing.”
Mike Pickering
“Rob Gretton and Mike put on this night in at the Hacienda in ‘87 and on
this night there was every fucking acid house DJ and it was before it had
all gone off and nobody came. Rob loved being ahead of the time at The
Hacienda, along with Mike and everyone else so I think that to the people
that mattered in Manchester that cultural change had already happened.
They were just waiting for the rest of the world to catch up."
Peter Hook
“Manchester is the sort of place where you can feel like you’re part of
something. I suppose Manchester imbued us with the spirit that we could
get up and do stuff. The most amazing thing was that you’d hear a good
record in a club and the person who’d made it was dancing next to you.”
Ed, The Chemical Brothers
“There was an open mindedness about it all. People like Graham Massey. The
Hacienda was a massive catalyst cos people would go socially and it would
just change everything that they thought. Massey was in a band called
Biting Tongues who were signed to Factory at the time and one day he just
came into Spirit Studio and said he was making house now. He’d been to the
Hacienda and literally 808 State was born overnight.”
Kelvin Andrews
“There was an enormous civic pride at that time. You would be supported
almost like a football team if you managed to get something going and
there was a general energy about the place that encouraged that kind of
thing. It was a very inclusive culture and it gave you a sense of self
empowerment. There were a lot of people around to support you and there
wasn’t really any jealousy about.”
Graham Massey
“Manchester back then was about having a laugh, bouncing from this scene
to that scene and as a place it seemed different. Because Manchester is so
compact, you really did know everyone. You’d let on to someone and it was
like a little village in a way.”
A Guy Called Gerald
“I do scratch my head about how vibrant it was and the music that came out
from all different directions. Manchester during that period of time, all
those people getting together and it really was a movement of sound. To me
it was all focused around the Hacienda, Factory Records, Tony Wilson, Rob
Gretton, all those characters that made this happen, the bands and the
DJ’s, it’s just amazing. For so much to come out of such a small group of
people, it’s just incredible. It has to be something to do with the
culture there, the people in Manchester.”
Sasha
“There’s a certain sort of can do attitude about Manchester, regardless of
whether it’s legal or not, and that risk taking carries a lot of weight.
Like I know back in the fifties, people that I sort of associate with,
people like Tosh Ryan and Bruce Mitchell had the same mindset that you saw
in promoters in the late 80’s , like “why not? Why shouldn’t we do it? And
you think about that from a situationist point of view, if it can be done,
why don’t you do it? It’s that attitude that I think distinguishes
Manchester. Glasgow seems to have had it a bit as well, and there are only
a few places in the country where the club scenes had that kind of level
of get up and do it and it was definitely very prevalent in Manchester.”
Gary Mclarnan
“That disestablishmentarianism and the individuality of the town you’re
asking me about, well Manchester’s never given a fuck what anyone else
does really. They haven’t really. None of the Factory bands ever looked at
any other band and said “Oh yeah, we’d like to be like that.” Even if they
were shit, they still had their own minds and that was certainly true of
the club as well.”
Mike Pickering“
"1988 And all that" Acid House Changed My Life
"Hearing that angular electronic funk from the kind of acid house, Detroit
thing for the first time in about 86 at the Hacienda and it not being busy
there but then just going “Oh My God, everything’s changed. That’s changed
now.” It was the beginning of the future.”
Kelvin Andrews
“It was amazing. It was like being attached to something when it first
started, you felt like it was more exciting than discovering something
after a while. It was revolutionary, it was the most exciting thing that
I’ve ever seen going on. It was different, overnight something had changed
and everything that used to be was irrelevant. It was like “We don’t know
what we’re doing but we know it’s better than that”
Danny Spencer
“I moved to Manchester from North Wales as we were travelling once a month
to go to the Hacienda and I moved to primarily to get closer to the music
really and I was just lucky to be there 88 through to 91 / 92, just living
and breathing that whole explosion. I moved into a block of flats where
Jon Dasilva was living and he got me to do some warm up slots for him, I
got some lucky breaks. He really helped me get on and as the rave culture
exploded and illegal warehouse parties and Blackburn, The Midlands, I
started doing those things. It all spiralled for me from there. At the
time I would just do any gig that I could get really.”
Sasha
“It gave a focus to my life really, it was what I wanted to do. It made
perfect sense to me to become a DJ. I’d been making music myself and
though I kind of turned my back on that in a sense and wanted to reinvent
myself as a DJ and it hit all the right buttons for me. Although the thing
with DJing is you almost don’t need any musicianship, rather than it being
cool to be a musician, it became cool to be a non musician.”
Jon Dasilva
“I was quite young when I got into it, like 14 or 15 when I first got into
the music, way too young to ever get into a club and when I saw it, a
couple of years later, that this club existed down the road, it blew my
mind, it completely blew my mind. I loved the Hac so much I just went all
the time, sometimes I went five nights a week. It was only like a couple
of quid to get in there when it wasn’t a big night. It’s fair to say that
it blew my mind and while it was blowing my mind, I didn’t realise that it
was inspiring me to make music and having this subconscious effect on me.”
Suddi Raval
“Ah it was amazing. There were all sorts. The thing that was great about
it was the names, everyone all of sudden had all these fantastic names as
if they were in a fucking James Ellroy novel or something. Geoff The Chef,
Eddie Beef, Bobby Gillette, y’know, Jimmy The Bacon Slicer, these are all
true nicknames. There were a lot of characters in there and you’d get
people who were bankers being mates with ex-football hooligans and
criminals hanging out with doctors. It was fantastic.”
Mike Pickering
FAC51 - The Hacienda
“In between ‘82 and ‘87 before it all kicked off the Hacienda was always
half empty, there was hardly anyone in there at all cos I used to get the
train up there to Manchester from Nottingham to go and see bands like
Aztec Camera and there’s be no-one there. If it wasn’t for house music,
it’d probably have shut a long time before it did.”
Graeme Park
“It was wonderful, it was wonderful prior to acid house. People didn’t
come in there for a while but we still had a fucking amazing time. 150
people, it was very secret society, it was great. The Nude night, my
Friday night started about 85 / 86 and that was fucking packed, even from
the off. My first thing was that I wasn’t having any door policy. The only
door policy was that I wasn’t gonna let fucking idiots in who wore ties.”
Mike Pickering
“It wasn’t a secret really, it was fucking cool. You could say that in 86
and 87 when they were trying to kick it off that was when it was a secret
but it had reached fruition by 88. There was nothing underground about
that, the place was packed and everyone was off their tits.”
Peter Hook
“Of all the members of New Order, Peter Hook was definitely the one that
was the most pro-active. He was the one that would always come down,
mainly cos he used to say he wanted to work out how much money he was
losing.”
Graeme Park
“Well but you see the thing is The Hacienda was like going in the bookies
and saying give me 50p on that horse and losing it. Then going I’ve got to
get my 50p back now and putting a quid on. Ah fuck, now I’m down a quid, I
better put two quid in. One minute it’s fucking 50p and the next minute
it’s fucking £8 million.”
Peter Hook
“I suppose New Order also influenced it by giving the club gravitas and
making it cool. We filled it with a bunch of lunatics, waving their hands
in the air. It made perfect sense really.”
Jon Dasilva
“If New Order hadn’t gone to New York to work with Arthur Baker they’d
never have gone to Studio 54 or the Paradise Garage and you could argue
that if it hadn’t been for those clubs, maybe the Hacienda would never
have ended up how it was. And, as for Ben Kelly and what was his bizarre
design at the time, like what the fucks this, the influence of that has
been immeasurable really cos most clubs and bars now have some
subconscious reference to Ben Kelly’s design of the Hacienda. So maybe
because of New Order the Hacienda ended up looking the way it did and also
being the size it was.”
Graeme Park
“I just remember it was like nowhere else, the atmosphere, the size of the
place, it always looked massive when you first went into the Hacienda,
when you looked down from the balcony it always looked massive with
everybody dancing to everything”
Rowetta
“Initially, the scene was very small. You were only talking about a few
hundred people really in what is a very big city but those few hundred
people it changed their lives. It wasn’t just Manchester as well. The
Wednesday night, the Hot night was a national night, a national event
almost. You had Slam down there from Glasgow who’ve gone on to do great
things with Soma Records, James Baillie who did Venus, Daddy G from
Massive Attack, loads of future promoters as well, James Barton for
example. The Hacienda really was Manchester’s acid house culture at the
time.”
Jon Dasilva
“ The Nude night was the big night, that was always the main one. Hot was
fun, like we put a swimming pool in there and it was a fun night but the
Nude night on Friday was the house night.”
Mike Pickering
“Hot was year zero for acid house in Manchester, it really was in terms of
the scene as we know it. It was a combination of the club, the music, the
crowd and certain chemicals. The whole feeling of clubbing changed. It
wasn’t from the first week, it was two or three weeks in that it really
kicked off. I came out of the DJ box one night, went downstairs and it was
completely exhilarating. I didn’t know what the fuck was going on really
at the time.”
Jon Dasilva
“Nude was going for a couple of years before 88. We used to get 1600
people in but once ecstacy kicked it, the change happened over a few
weeks. I likened it once to like the top end of the club, the change in
the characters who were there it was like a Mexican wave coming down from
the main bar, it was amazing. However there were a lot of people who
stopped coming then, who were replaced by other people. The club itself
became a lot whiter.”
Mike Pickering
“The Hacienda was a very levelling place and very mixed. If you went to
Hot or the Hacienda on a Friday night, the cultural mix of people was
really diverse. You’d have people you wouldn’t think would be into the
scene, like taxi drivers, nurses, doctors….”
Graham Massey, 808 State
“At the beginning, it was just brilliant in the club. I remember I just
used to look at people and you know when you want to just know everybody
cos everybody just looked so great and I didn’t know anybody, then a year
later I knew everybody.”
Rowetta
“There were guys like Bobby Gillette and Alfonso, the unsung heroes of the
scene who no-one had ever heard of but without the pied pipers leading the
scene then it wouldn’t have continued. You need those kingpins, on dollar,
on that level, on the shopfloor. You needed people to look after it, like
Eastern Bloc, it was a nice place to hang out, provided you were on the
in.”
Darren Partington
“The change was that people just used to turn up at nine and go straight
on the dancefloor at nine o’ clock. They’re not being cool, weren’t
milling around or waiting for a tune they liked to go on the dancefloor.
The whole feel of clubland changed there and then. You could barely hear
the tunes for the whistles and the cheers. It was a rush."
Jon Dasilva
“One thing I’ll also never forget is week in, week out, especially on the
Fridays, the anticipation of those nights began in the middle of the week.
Like when I used to turn up outside before the doors open there was
already an amazing anticipation and atmosphere in the street. People were
getting out of cars and out of taxis and running to join the queue which
was already snaking round the corner over the canal. It was the enthusiasm
which was all around you and the fact that once people got in, they ran to
the dancefloor. That doesn’t happen nowadays. I suppose now everyone’s got
so much choice and takes so much for granted that I don’t suppose you’ll
see those sort of days again.”
Graeme Park
“The Hac was a massive driving force, for me personally, ideas came thick
and fast. I was good mates with bands like Evolution, Love Decade, 2 For
Joy, K-Klass, and it’s incredible cos every single one of us charted
because we’d all been so inspired. We were all so taken by it, it became
our equivalent of that Sex Pistols gig. That was a legendary thing where
all these big bands came out of it but we went to the Hacienda, and a load
of bands came out of it. And if not bands, graphic designers, djs, fashion
designers, all doing their own things, it inspired us all.”
Suddi Raval
“They were wild and exciting times. You certainly weren’t thinking that it
was going to go on for decades or anything like that, mainly because you
didn’t think you’d be able to do it for decades.”
Jon Dasilva
“We were rebels. It wasn’t a money making thing. A lot of good people lost
a lot of money.”
Mike Pickering
“No I’d never do it again. But if it was 23 years ago and Rob walked in
the room going I want to run a club, I’d do it then. I’d never change
that. I had some fantastic times in there, I has some of the scariest
night of my life as well. You lay in bed on a Friday, Saturday night
thinking “God I hope that phone doesn’t ring”. The responsibility, when
the drugs got involved was just too much ‘cos you were dabbling with
peoples lives. And then the gangsters were there, you just couldn’t do it,
you know, I didn’t have the balls.”
Peter Hook
“Tony’s thing was that it was all based on anarchy, “The Situationalist’s
Review” which was typically an anarchistic Italian piece.”
Mike Pickering“
The Manchester Scene Beyond FAC51
"Manchester itself had the Hacienda, which then was like nowhere else on
earth, there were the DJ’s around at the start of the scene who’d all been
around for a few years and then also New Order, who brought a bit of that
drug and sub culture to it. Then here were other clubs all around the
North West cos’ people couldn’t get to the Hacienda. And parallel to that
Blackburn started and all those people round areas started to set up that
kind of thing.”
Gary McLarnan
“The scene developed at other clubs like Konspiracy and Thunderdome
because people began to see that they could do it themselves, do their own
nights. You’ve got a scene, people meeting outside the Hacienda, going on
to The Kitchen and it was important that it went beyond the Hacienda like
that.”
Jon Dasilva
“All the clubs in Manchester had different identities, the Thunderdome was
absolutely nuts. The energy in the city in the city at the time was just
insane. I can’t put my finger on a scene since then that’s been so vibrant
in terms of the freshness of what it was and how the people in Manchester
just embraced it.”
Sasha
“Konspiracy was an heavy club, volatile would be a good way to put it. It
was like the Thunderdome, it should never have happened, that shouldn’t
have worked, being in the middle of a council estate just outside the town
centre but it was more about that it could have been anywhere once you
were in there, than where it was actually, a real rough arsed part of
Manchester but the fact that it worked it meant a lot to the people that
were actually in there. Like the atmosphere was awesome.”
Darren Partington
“It wasn’t all about the Hacienda. Thunderdome was very important to us
cos we had a connection to it. Darren and Andy used to do the Saturday
night there. There was a different kind of music which came out of the
Thunderdome which I think led onto what became jungle and that kind of
thing. It was a much more urban, darker music and it wasn’t party music.
Thunderdome was about heaviness and a dark atmosphere.”
Graham Massey
“Thunderdome was Jimmy Muffin’s do, I was resident there, at a club called
Hypnosis and Sasha used to warm up for me. It was great. I used to Dj and
people used to come up and give me presents. I remember one night I got a
mountain bike. My dad’s still got it. Just came up and gave me it. I
remember one night someone gave me an acid tab in my drink. That wasn’t as
nice.”
Mike Pickering
“Thunderdome on the other hand was the scariest thing I’d ever seen in my
life but I continued to go. It was in this really dodgy area, full of
dodgy people, I didn’t know at the time what people were doing but people
were doing smack and whatever, scary people in scary parts of town but I
still went. There was something about being young and very naïve and
unaware of what dangers there might have been. I remember going to parties
in some really dodgy places and I can’t believe I used to go to some of
those things. You have no fear when you’re a kid do you and it was like I
really had no fear.”
Suddi Raval
“ I did do Konspiracy a few times as a guest which came through my
connections in Eastern Bloc really. I met Chris Jam and Tomlin from the
Jam MC’s via knowing the lads in Eastern Bloc, just chatting on the
counter and buying records really. They used to say “come down, we’ll give
you a date”. I think that was really the first time I’d DJ’d out of
Stoke.”
Kelvin Andrews
“Konspiracy, when I think of it now, my memories of it are like a sci-fi
film, walking down all these paths. It was really strange, like the
design, all these winding corridors, they did design an original dance
venue but cos it had the trouble it didn’t last that long. There, the
whole thing with like the Jam MC’s doing their really curious, mysterious,
moody vocals over dark house music, like Wild Times, the Derrick May tune,
which I still remember as a very abstract piece of techno, it was just
something else. Memories of it are almost dream like they really are.”
Suddi Raval
“Konspiracy was crazy. Along with Mike E Bloc I put that ID World Tour
party on there and there were 2,500 people locked outside, 2000 people
inside and a load of door staff told us they didn’t have any money for us.
It was super shady you know. You didn’t argue with them really. That night
was 89 / 90, 808 State and Candyflip live. People were fainting, there
were too many people in there but the night after I had twenty hotel rooms
booked that I couldn’t pay for so I legged it to Cyprus and disappeared
for two months. To tell you truth, a lot of people disappeared at that
point. It was getting quite rough.”
Kelvin Andrews
The Blackburn Rave Scene
“It seemed to grow really quickly. It mushroomed from a few hundred people
into a few thousand in no time at all. There were similarities in the
atmosphere to the Hacienda but the Blackburn do’s were on a bigger scale.
There was an element of risk because they were illegal parties but there
was a massive excitement about just waiting for that car to go past and
join the convoy onto this illegal acid house party. That risk did add a
bit of a buzz to them. It was also that the parties were full of people
from all over the UK. I remember clearly going up to people and asking
them “Why have you come up here from London?” And I loved their answer, to
this day I still love it, they said simply “To dance.” I remember thinking
“God, I suppose that’s why I’m here. I’m lucky I’m down the road” but to
think there’s a guy from London, there’s a guy from Edinburgh, there’s a
guy from Bristol, there’s a guy from Cardiff and they’ve come here just to
dance. Even though I was firmly in the thick of it, I was able to stand
back a little and think, wow, dancing is actually causing this. Everybody
needs to be here every week, even with the fact that they were risking
everything. People did get arrested and did get in quite serious trouble.
It was that hold that it had on people from all over the country that
added a real sense of excitement.”
Suddi Raval
“I remember Graeme and I weren’t into it because we thought club music
should be played in a club but for us to have 1200, 1400 people under a
sweaty roof was far better than standing in the middle of some daft field.
We called it a bit “Acid Ted”. It just wasn’t for us. I did a couple of
them. I did that Joy. Most of ‘em got cancelled anyway.”
Mike Pickering
“I was more involved with Blackburn towards the end. I think I’ve taken a
lot of credit for being involved in it but really I only got right towards
the end of it but of course that was when it was at its biggest and I did
some sets there that kind of reverberated across the country and really
got my name solidified in that sort of culture, the raves and the illegal
sides of things. I can’t really take credit for that, there were a lot of
local lads there who spent years building that scene. I think it started
off with 40 people in someone’s garage and it wound up with 10,000 plus
there on a Saturday night.”
Sasha
“I’ve got names for some of the old Blackburn dos but really I associate
the names with the venues more. Unit 7, The Abbatoir, you can imagine what
that smelt like. One of the best ones was the one next door to Blackburn
Rovers football ground. It was such a big room that once you got into the
warehouse, it was such a big room that even though you were in the same
room as where the soundsystem was, you actually couldn’t hear it properly.
It sounds like I’m exaggerating but all you could hear was a distant thud.
You looked down to the other end of the warehouse and there were just
these glowing lights and lazers which was just an incredible experience.
You just walked towards the distance, that’s where the people were
gathered, it was just this huge, huge place. You could have thought it was
many, many thousands there but at that party I’d reckon there were about
five thousand people there.
“The biggest one was at Nelson which was about ten thousand which
coincidentally was the place where we recorded Hardcore Uproar’s crowd
samples. That was the last party of it’s kind, after that the police did
really drive it underground cos they were arresting people after that. It
was the last one of its kind and that’s where we recorded the crowd that
night. That was in February 1990.”
Suddi Raval
The Proto Northern Quarter
Eastern Bloc
“Well Eastern Bloc started as a stall in Affleck’s Palace and they were a
very anarchistic bunch from Bolton. I think if you talked to all the
record shops in Manchester there was a huge rivalry going on that
energised it all. Eastern Bloc were arch rivals with Spin Inn, arch rivals
with Piccadilly Records. There was a classic Eastern Bloc story when one
of the Smiths albums came out. They went and superglued Piccadilly
Records’ doors together. It coincided with a Smiths convention in
Manchester and somebody was sent out to superglue their doors. They’d
ordered about twice the stock in.”
Graham Massey
“They did it when the Roses’ “Sally Cinnamon” came out as well. Don’t
forget there were people involved in Eastern Bloc who were borderline
psychopathic. They should have been on the Burmese border in the 50’s and
60’s them lot.”
Darren Partington
“They were from quite an anarchistic background. Eastern Bloc wasn’t an
unfriendly place though, in spite of all the madness.”
Graham Massey
“Hostile maybe.”
Darren Partington
“Eastern Bloc had attitude, a very Mancunian attitude but Spin Inn also
had it in spades. You could be shamed out of Spin Inn for not knowing your
onions. I never used to shop in Spin Inn because it felt intimidating and
I’m sure a lot of people used to feel the same way about Eastern Bloc.”
Graham Massey
“Eastern Bloc was a very important shop. If you were “in” there, you got
the hot records and if you weren’t, you kind of got scoffed at. It was a
bit like that. Some of the characters in there though. Justin Robertson
was working there at the time, Nick Grayson, Mike E Bloc, Moonboots
famously laughing at people asking for records that they had no chance of
getting. I think that was part of the shop’s mystique, some people daren’t
go in there. It was one of those places where you could lose all your
street cred by asking for the wrong record.”
Kelvin Andrews
“Eastern Bloc was a massive eye opener for us, we bought amazing records
from there from Moonboots and everyone. Then we just became friends with a
lot of people and then when Most Excellent came along we felt very much a
part of that and we were just hearing good music all the time.”
Tom, The Chemical Brothers
“Eastern Bloc did become the place, mainly cos it was the best record shop
in town. It was the only one that had the right attitude, the only one
that wasn’t sneering at you for not liking indie. Eastern Bloc was quieter
at the time because it wasn’t cool to a lot of people and you could spend
the time in there and you could play what you want. They also held a huge
back catalogue and you could pick out stuff. That’s where I found that
bootleg The Virgo Mechanically Replayed, Siedah Garrett “Kissing” and SLY
“I Need A Freak” which all went on to become huge Hot tunes. I wouldn’t
have found them otherwise but they had a policy of keeping things in
stock. With Dry Bar it just became the perfect circuit for any DJ. Bar,
Record Shop, taxi rank, there you go, life is sweet.”
Jon Dasilva
“Eastern Bloc was really my place. I did a little bit at Manchester
Underground but I had a closer relationship with the guys at Eastern Bloc.
I actually had a credit card ripped up in front of me once in Manchester
Underground and it sort of put me off from ever going back there again. I
used to be a right pest at Eastern Bloc, if there was a certain record I
was after I would go in there every single fucking day and I’d pester them
until I could get hold of it. Things would come into Eastern Bloc in very
limited quantities, like test pressings, there would be only ten copies
and they wouldn’t be pressing them up for another three months.”
Sasha
Dry 201 – The Factory Records / Hacienda Owned Bar
“The catalyst for the Northern Quarter was Dry, there was nothing else
there before there. With Dry, Rob decided that we weren’t able to drink
enough at the club so we needed somewhere with a bit more sociable hours
so we opened somewhere where we could drink all day. Stupid, why did we
open a fucking bar when we couldn’t make a club work. They seemed to think
that they could make a bar work cos it was open longer hours, it was the
most ridiculous concept. At least the Hacienda made a profit at one point,
Dry as an entity never made a profit. Dry never made any money whatsoever.
I think it made a hundred pounds profit one week and we all nearly fell
off our chairs.”
Peter Hook
“During the summer of 88, until Dry was built there wasn’t really a focus
point for the scene. The whole scene became galvanised with the opening of
Dry Bar the following year Dry made a huge difference, giving Manchester a
sense of identity, having such a well designed, beautiful hang out.”
Jon Dasilva
“Y’know what. I was never a fan of Dry. I never saw the point of opening a
bar on the other side of town to the club. It didn’t click with me, I
never saw the point. If they’d done it over by the arches which I think
was the original idea. It was the beginning of that fucking awful bar
culture.”
Mike Pickering
Afflecks Palace
“I think that maybe the fashion thing in London was slightly earlier where
from 88 onwards you could see Smiley T-shirts on Kensington Street Market
but Leo Stanley who had Identity, On The Eighth Day… was the one who
really jumped on the fashion bandwagon, the street clothes which then in
turn drove Afflecks, people going in there.”
Gary McLarnan
“Yeah the Oldham Street scene was definitely the catalyst for what became
the Northern Quarter. I remember Leo at Identity, that was the big place,
that was the place cos that drove the whole fashion for The Hacienda.
Y’know on the seventh day, on the eight day god created Manchester. Jesus
had long hair, Manchester, all that kind of stuff. It was very much a big
part of the scene. “
Mike Pickering
“Musically, I think that’s where it propagates. People were going into
Afflecks, hanging out in the hairdressers, hearing about all these
parties, all of which tended to be more illegal than the last.”
Gary McLarnan
Manchester's Own Acid House
808 State On Newbuild and Pacific State
“We definitely had a confidence about what we were doing. I wouldn’t call
it an arrogance but there was definitely a confidence about what we were
doing. Having a great engineer in Graham, having a producer and having all
these pheripherals and having Martin as a figurehead bringing half a dozen
people together. There was a confidence about the whole collective that
naturally Newbuild was gonna happen, like they say the Hacienda must be
built, well Newbuild should have been written.”
“That to me was proper acid house. It was real, dirty acid house. Because
I still thought that the stuff that was coming from the US had a Prince
tinge to it whereas the UK acid house was always a bit more dirty and
raw.”
Darren Partington
“Our attitude towards that music was that it was pretty disposable. I
don’t think we thought we were making history, we thought we were making
an acid house record and its importance would last two weeks, a month at
most. We didn’t think long term with it.
“The way Pacific State happened was that we were trying to do something
like Marshall Jefferson’s “Open Your Eyes” and we wanted to do a track
with sort of that kind of mood. We were going to all these acid house
raves that were going on in Store Street and all the places like that,
there were a lot of illegal raves going on and that record was huge. Put
that on at like three in the morning and it was something else, completely
off the scale.”
Graham Massey
“Once again, it was that thing, could we come up with something better, a
completely killer end of the night tune.”
Darren Partington
“You wanted an atmospheric, kind of warm, sweaty, tropical thing. “We’re
gonna make a warm, sweaty tropical record” and we started doing that for a
John Peel session. John Peel used to come in to a café that I used to run
opposite Eastern Bloc John Peel came in there after shopping at Eastern
Bloc, Alice and Martin who ran Red Alert, she used to bring John Peel up
and take him round the record shops and he used to come in so we gave him
white labels. He got really into it and started playing Newbuild and Let
Yourself Go, those records and then he was like do you wanna do a session.
We were like “yeah” and then he went “you’ll have to come down to Maida
Vale” and we were like “whoah, we can’t make that kind of music with the
BBC staff. We’ll have to make it in our studio.” John Peel was like “oh,
I’ll have to see about that, I think we can do it, I’ll try and get a
special dispensation. I’m sure it’ll be okay”. So we just booked the
studio and started recording and then he rang up and said that it had got
to be unionised and by that time we’d started about three tracks, one of
them was Pacific but it was pretty basic at that point, pads, a bit of
drum programming, not a lot really and it was kind of left on the shelf
that one. Then we returned to it at a session when nobody had turned up I
pulled a sax out because my mate had left his sax at the studio and I can
play a bit. I thought the tune needed a bit of melody so I got the sax out
and played over it and it sort of came together.”
Graham Massey
Voodoo Ray – A Guy Called Gerald
“Voodoo Ray was totally designed for the Hacienda. That’s was the sounding
ground for everything we were doing, even when I was working with 808
State, we always had the Hacienda in mind. It was kind of the place where
you thought if we can play it in there that’d be really cool. I actually
always wanted to bring the studio into the Hacienda, that was one of my
ambitions but it was definitely a place where you’d look towards trying to
make one of your tunes work there.” A Guy Called Gerald
“The first time we heard A Guy Called Gerald “Voodoo Ray” that haunting
melody and the sparseness of it all. All these records nowadays are fodder
for Now That’s What I Call House Music compilations but people forget that
at the time they were unbelievable, hairs on the back of your neck, never
heard anything like it records.”
Graeme Park
“Playing and hearing Voodoo Ray for the first time, that was a moment.
Manchester got its first real record of its own.”
Jon Dasilva
“Voodoo Ray, that was one of the records I absolutely pestered Eastern
Bloc into submission until they finally found me a copy. It was that
record at The Hacienda for so long because no-one else had it. It was the
record at the Hacienda, it was one of those defining records. It was that,
Ce Ce Rogers “Someday”, there were a few records that really defined that
88 to 90 period and they were really hard to get hold of and I remember
just craving those records so much that when I finally got hold of them, I
wore them out.”
Sasha
Hardcore Uproar - Together
“I had the idea for “Hardcore Uproar” when I met my partner, Jonathan
Donaghy, who did actually come from Blackburn. I had a bit of an idea for
a track and he pretty much put the finishing touches to it. We were pretty
much raving in Blackburn but if I had to make a choice between Blackburn
and The Hacienda it would have been the Hacienda hands down. It had become
our dream to hear a tune that we’d done in that club, that became our aim
after a while. We thought that if we did that we would just be happy
forever and I’m not gonna lie, it wasn’t that we thought that we were
doing something cool or innovative with music.
“We didn’t realise it at the time but because we were ravers, we were
probably on a much more commercial edge of house music. I’m trying to
avoid the word cheesy but with our air horns, crowd samples and I don’t
think my voice made things particularly underground which wasn’t
deliberate. Looking back on it, we made a pop record. We thought we’d made
a really underground piece of music which the Dj’s loved and got played in
the right places but really it was very radio friendly and had catchy
elements. It was aimed at the underground which was those bleeps but it
did give it a commercial edge as well.”
Suddi Raval
The Special Events That Defined The Manc Acid House
Scene
Well having got this far you deserve something a little juicy…..
The infamous New Order post Technique Party at Real World Studios,
Bath.
“Events would be definitely the trip down to bath to Peter Gabriel’s
studio and the party we had for New Order at the end of August 88. That
was pretty mad. You were playing a gig with a river running beneath the
glass floor in a studio. I lost my mind.”
Jon Dasilva
“I remember right at the beginning of it New Order, there was a very
infamous party they had, well it was one of my best parties really. They’d
been recording at Peter Gabriel’s Real World studios and when they
finished recording, they were like “We’re having a party”. We got two
double decker coaches down from the Hacienda, this was right at the
beginning so there were probably about a hundred heads and we were
absolutely twatted before we even left. It was amazing. As we were getting
near the place, people were getting off in these little villages and like
Geoff The Chef getting off asking the way with a whistle and one of those
little muslim hats on. In the end someone saw the lights and people were
running across the field to get to it, they were just that desperate.”
Mike Pickering
“I remember it all. God knows why? We decided to have a party to celebrate
the end of Technique so Rob decided to bring everyone down from
Manchester. Why did he do that? Two coach loads and [name removed] ordered
1000 E’s and he said to [name removed] “You sell em?” So [name removed]
got em and I think he got em for eight grand and [name removed’s] idea was
the two grand would pay for the booze. Once everyone was twatted, he was
giving them away anyway. I think he woke up with a fiver and a sore arse.
“A lot of people did lose their minds at that. The one I remember is [name
removed], he had a girl, holding her round the neck like that walking
round the party with an axe. He wasn’t there, he’d gone, there was nobody
there. A fire axe and her in a headlock and she was screaming blue murder
and nobody knew who she was and nobody could hear her because of the
music. Someone came and got me cos I was in the cottage so I went up and
went “[name removed], what are you doing?” Took the axe off him and told
him “let go of the girl, c’mon let go, let go.” So he ultimately let go
and the girl ran off screaming, I put the axe away somewhere good and then
he went off shagging [name removed] in the lake. You could see the two of
them in the lake like that with their heads bobbing.”
Peter Hook
“Yeah, (laughs), yeah, I was there. The whole thing was quite bizarre
because everyone was in such a haze about what we were going to do and
being invited was pretty cool, and then two coaches going down there got
fucked before they arrived so by the time everyone got there, they’d taken
everything they’d brought with them. My main memory of it is being in the
studio there, the one with the glass floor and it was quite a surreal
party. One of the things I never remember about that do is that I have no
idea how long it went on for?”
Gary McLarnan
“We got in there and there were silver trays full of E’s going round. It
was brilliant. It went on for about three days. I remember me and Graeme
were Djing and Graeme was like “Mike, Mike, Can I go on now?” And I was
like “I’ve only just gone on” and I’d been on six and a half hours. I
didn’t have a clue. I was like “Ah shit, sorry, there you go.” It went on
for about two, three days, it was one of the classic early parties.”
Mike Pickering
“Rob came up with a great idea for storing all the booze away and he had
these two girls giving the drinks out so everyone was allowed two cans of
beer or a bottle of wine and then they all came in off the coaches, pushed
the girls out of the way and ransacked the bar. There were people walking
around with twenty bottles of champagne cupped in their arms. It was an
annual pig fest. Everyone went fucking beserk. There was shagging
everywhere, it was just outrageous. I went and locked meself in my
bedroom.”
Peter Hook
“Peter Gabriel never knew about it.”
Mike Pickering
“There was hardly any damage. They repainted the walls. That was it.”
Peter Hook
The United States Of Hacienda Tour
“I’d say actually going to New York with the Hacienda. That was an amazing
gig. We kind of did this tour and it was a package really. We’d all just
gone over there and like going over there on your own is like one thing
but going over with a load of people who you know from where you’re from
it was such a mad buzz, it was amazing. I’ll never forget that.”
A Guy Called Gerald
“The United States Of Hacienda, I didn’t go on that but I got the T-Shirt.
It’s one of my most treasured T-shirts. The thing is, I was 18, 19 years
old then, just, and I was getting fifteen quid a gig and the idea of
touring America was just….so far out there. That’s why when it started to
kick off for me, it was just such an amazing change.”
Sasha
“The United States Of Hacienda was brilliant cos that was tied up with a
New Order tour of America and I remember having to DJ on the same bill as
The Sugarcubes featuring Bjork, Public Image Limited, then me, then New
Order. I was DJing on the tour and then the club coincided with that with
Jon Dasilva, Gerald and a few others. It was great. I was playing American
House music in a club in Manchester and then I was over in the Stares
playing it back to them. I suppose we re-exported house music back to
them.”
Graeme Park
“Yeah, the United States Of Hacienda, we paid for them and we lost a lot
of money on that. They just acted like primadonnas and we got treated like
shit. I remember one night I offered a load of them out, Dasilva and
Graeme Park. We were at a club in Detroit and they were taking the piss. I
went in and told em “Outside now ‘cos I’m gonna leather the pair of yer,
I’m fucking sick of yer, yer both a bunch of cunts”. “What’s up with you?”
“Fucking outside now” and they were dragging me off them.
“It just got really uppity. They just disappeared up their own arse. It
was a good time but I didn’t see much of them after that, I just went
“Fuck em” and left them to it. They were arriving to clubs in limos, “Ah
Hooky, how’s it going. Hey hold that for a stone man.” What a way to
disappear up your own arse……”
Peter Hook
The Role Call Of Contributors
A Guy Called Gerald
Gerald Simpson, architect of the archetypal Manchester tune, Voodoo Ray
who then went to follow this with the immense, ground breaking album
“Black Secret Technology.” Nowadays living in Berlin, playing live
throughout the world and still releasing innovative and exceptional EP’s
and albums.
Kelvin Andrews, Sure Is Pure
A Stoke born DJ who became a Hacienda regular in the late 80’s and early
90’s before setting up Gem Records, becoming resident at balearic club
Golden and one half of highly esteemed remix outfit Sure Is Pure who
scored a UK number one with their still astounding remix of the Doobie
Brothers “Long Train Running.” Now recoring as part of Soul Mekanik.
Jon Dasilva, Hacienda Resident
From his heady days as the resident at The Hacienda’s Hot to djing
throughout the 90’s all over the globe, Dasilva’s production work has
included remixing the likes of the New Fast Automatic Daffodils, A Certain
Ratio as more. Currently releasing highly acclaimed gear as TVMR, The
Virgo Mechanically Replayed.
Peter Hook, New Order & Hacienda Co-owner
Joy Division, New Order, Revenge, Monaco, Freebass and Fac 51 The
Hacienda. How lucky can one bassist be?
Graham Massey, 808 State
One of the finest studio engineers in the country if not the world,
Graham’s responsible for creating and developing 808 State’s sound
throughout the 90’s, including being the first to recruit indie type
vocalists to sing over techno (Bjork and Bernard Sumner on Ex.el). Still
cutting edge sonically speaking as his recent Toolshed excursions and
remixes have demonstrated. Check out his recent re-rub of The Whip’s
“Blackout” which is as ever superb.
Mike Pickering, Hacienda Resident & Bookings Manager from 1982
Rob Gretton’s best mate who came to shape the music policy of The Hacienda
and in the process re-shaped the values of club culture world wide. One of
the partners of Deconstruction Records, the “M” behind M-People and now
head of A&R for Colombia Records where he has recently overseen the
considerable success of The Ting Tings.
Gary McLarnan, Sparkle Street
A photographer for Mixmag, Boys Own and other such ground-breaking
publications back in the day, Gary went on to manage Sasha in his early
days before moving into music management full time where he now runs
Sparkle Street in Manchester and is responsible for shaping the career of
Mr Scruff since when he first hit the scene in the mid Nineties.
Graeme Park, Hacienda Resident
One of the finest US garage Dj’s on the planet, Graeme became a resident
at Mike Pickering’s Nude Night at The Hacienda in the Summer of 1988 and
has never looked back since. Still in demand around the world for his
technically excellent DJ’ing as one of the mainstays of the Hacienda Tour
and as a well respected radio presenter.
Darren Partington, 808 State
The energetic, bundle of fun frontman of 808 State. An Eastern Bloc
regular from the mid 80’s and one half of the infamous 808 State radio
show, Darren still plays with 808 State and dj’s throughout the world as
one half of the Spinmasters, the offical 808 State DJ team.
Suddi Raval, Together
Hacienda regular, man about town and the legendarily double jointed vocal
cords behind Together’s “Hardcore Uproar” which is set for a re-release
over the next few months featuring both the original and new remixes.
Tom Rowlands, The Chemical Brothers
One half of the Chemical Brothers who back then came to Manchester as
history students and left as The Dust Brothers whose first release “Song
To The Siren” set them on their way to international acclaim and some 15
years as one of the top dance acts across the world.
Rowetta, Happy Mondays
X Factor and Happy Mondays survivor, Rowetta boasts one of the most
fearsome, diva styled vocal ranges in modern music. From Step On to Black
Grape to current dance records, she remains one of the few girls to be
considered totally well in on the Factory Records / Hacienda scene and
remains so today.
Sasha, DJ Sasha
Came to Manchester one Alexander Coe from Wrexham back in 1988, left in
1992 as the internationally renowned DJ Sasha. At the top of his game
since then with residencies at The Hacienda, Renaissance, Twilo and more,
he presently records and releases his own gear vis his imprint Emfire
records and the follow up to his mega selling “Involver” artist / remix
compilation, “Invol2ver” is set to drop early September 08.
Ed Simons, The Chemical Brothers
The other half of the Chemical Brothers who back then came to Manchester
as history students and left as The Dust Brothers whose first release
“Song To The Siren” set them on their way to international acclaim and
some 15 years as one of the top dance acts across the world.
Danny Spencer, Sure Is Pure
The other half of Sure Is Pure and more the production head to Kelvin’s DJ
nous, Danny was practically resident at Manchester’s Spirit Studios in the
late 80’s and one of the early adopter of Acid House and it’s associated
technologies. Then onto the classic “Ride The Rhythm”, Gem Records and as
the other half of possibly the finest balearic remixers, Sure Is Pure.
Like Kelvin, nowadays part of Soul Mekanik.
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