[Closed] Hacienda reunion......anyone?

Me and a badly pissed up mate parked ourselves in the same booth as The Happy Mondays one Thursday night in there many years ago. My mate then dropped a lit Zippo down the sleeve of his jacket and caught fire.

The Mondays nodded their approval.

To be honest, I'm quite happy to leave it in the past.

One day I'm going to write a book of all my horror stories of working behind the bar at the Hac. All the stories in 'How Not to Run a Club' are true, and then some! Mind you, it was never dull, and a laugh most of the time. 😀

Now, a Paradise Factory reunion? That'd be a different thing altogether

EDIT: This should give you a laugh. I've just dug it out from the archives. Me behind the bar at Fac 51, with curtains, having just put the shutters down at 2am after another night of insanity. Circa 1992, I reckon 😀

[img] [/img]

Oh God, the Paradise Factory 🙂.

I was given a magazine called 'Breaking Them In' once in the queue.
Pretending to be gay to get into a club? Never worked.

How about a Thunderdome reunion? Can you imagine it?
Big Dave's still inside, wondering who was going to get shot in the queue, walking home to Moston via Oldham, just to get a Kebab.

Happy daze.

I last went to the Hac in 83 or 84. Quiet place back then. Saw the Virgin Prunes amongst other not terribly good acts. And therefore would not go back. (You can never go back.)

(Source of regret that punk and aftermath was my proper youth culture, grazed rave - which let's face it was loads more fun - but basically it was recreation as opposed to meaning of life and so over for me by then.)

Bloody hell Binners, I remember you now!
Top tonsure.

I stopped going once it got heavy. Turned up one week, new door staff, wouldn't let us in. Went to Berlin instead, then Sankey's, then the Thunderdome. Proper Northern Scum.

What was that place near the Cathedral called? Pre bomb? Conspiracy? That was dodgy.

You know, I've never seen Binners and Curtis Stigers in the same room. Makes you think...

You know, I’ve never seen Binners and Curtis Stigers in the same room. Makes you think…

...or Bo Derek.

Should’ve undone a few more buttons on your top binners - better tips that way......

…or Bo Derek.

But we did know Binners was a Perfect 10. How did we not make the link?

…or Bo Derek.

or Bo Selecta. Keith Lemon anyway

We sacked it off and ended up in The Brick House or The Boardwalk.

One of my mates would always badger us to go to that underground death trap on Whitworth Street that had the scaffolding robot thing in it, so that he could back-scuttle one of the regulars. We called her "Little Bernard" because she looked like Mr Manning. An evening in a crap club for everyone in order for him to make squelching noises for a couple of minutes. Mates eh?

Never managed to get in to the Hacienda, the 2 times (probably 89/90) we tried we got turned away 🙁

I moved to Leeds not long after that so Basics was my club of choice, Manchester was just a bit too much of an effort to get to then!

Great hair binners 🙂

I'm with Binners. Best left in the past for me. Will never be the same.

Couple of mates went to a Shaboo reunion few year back. Said it was terrible.

It should be left in the past. You can't re-live it with an overlay of 25 years of life experiences colouring it.

Last time I went to the Hac was to watch The Mighty Lemon Drops. Mark Burgess came on as guest to sing Don't Fall. It was awesome.

One day I’m going to write a book of all my horror stories of working behind the bar at the Hac.

I looked at the photo and tried to work out if I remembered you. Then remembered I didn't actually remember just about anything about visiting the Hac.

I never went, but you may remember my brother Neil.

[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47072995254_60916a0d44_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47072995254_60916a0d44_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2eHFpus ]Neil4[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/alpinist-photography/ ]Rob Sutherland[/url], on Flickr

On a wall in the Northern Quarter. Gone, but not forgotten.

[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/7904/46678627635_8b6cea46eb_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/7904/46678627635_8b6cea46eb_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2e7QaJK ]Remember The Hacienda[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/49561411@N02/ ]Frank Yates2010[/url], on Flickr

Being a southern softy I never went, but am currently reading the Peter Hook "How Not To Run A Club" book - wow!! There are some stories right there!
Can't decide whether I'd have loved to have gone, or am glad I lived hundred's of miles away.
Loved the stories about the firework display setting fire to the night's takings, and Peter Hook working in the club to earn extra money and not realising it was all New Order's own money that was keeping the club open.

best unexpected gig ever there, the joe boxers, didn’t go expecting anything other than another boring night, turned out to be a brilliant night

Finally happened eh, hacienda waiting.

I could tell you a lot of toe-curling, hilarious, utterly debauched, truly terrifying stories. If you've not read Hooky's 'How Not to Run a Club' then its well worth a read. I can testify to it all being true. He's not embellished it at all. In fact, he's probably left out a lot of the dodgier stuff

Just been thinking about it now. When you're older you look back and realise what utter madness it was. But at the time we were students, working behind the bar at what had become the biggest and scariest club in the world, the north west of England was awash with industrial quantities of weapons-grade MDMA and we were having the time of our ****ing lives 😀

The only rule - NEVER EVER GO IN THE ALCOVES!!!

RIP Mr Wilson

Friend (Graham Ola) used to be a DJ there

I could tell you a lot of toe-curling, hilarious, utterly debauched, truly terrifying stories.

Please. 🙂

My drinking bud, Alkie Malcy used to get his knob out and wave it around when the strobes were on. No one ever noticed, everyone was too busy waving their hands around.
He used to drink Poppers too, but that's another story.

Who was the bloke who used to sit on the stage playing drums?

The only rule – NEVER EVER GO IN THE ALCOVES!!!

...because my mate Phil was in there, on fire.

Pete - next time I see you i’ll give you chapter and verse over a beer

I used to love walking into ‘work’ in the summer, about 9pm on a Saturday night, through this, in silence. With nobody there.The calm before the storm.

It really was a beautiful space. Ben Kelly did a great job of it! It used to be a yacht warehouse, you know? In the middle of Manchester City Centre? The ceiling was so high to accommodate the masts. Go figure?

When we put the lights back up at 3pm it’d look like a war zone. We’d all sit and have a beer amongst the carnage when everyone had gone. Happy days 😃

I can’t remember half the places I ended up in.....

Seriously, I really can’t!

🤣

Tell me about it. I lost an entire decade. I’m aware the 90’s happened, and I was there, but that’s about it 😂

Only went once and I think it was 95, it was a shared night with a club called the royal? It was ****ing awful in there with a powder keg atmosphere, totally different in the hacienda. I was also a regular at basics and Ronson in Leeds. With Derby being home we were also very lucky for such a small place to have progress as well.

derek_starship

Member
It should be left in the past. You can’t re-live it with an overlay of 25 years of life experiences colouring it.

You can you know.
I have no regrets, don't feel guilty and am happy and grateful to be 50 and still alive. 🙂

Just because we're old doesn't make life any less fun.
In fact, I enjoy getting off my tits and dancing like a loon much more than I did as a youth.
I don't feel stupid, I don't worry about my appearance, I'm not ashamed about who I am or who I used to be.
I just like dancing.

The only stuff I've left in the past is my negativity.

Rave on, it's a crazy feeling, as a wise man once said.

Anyone going to watch "Beats" ? New rave film that's out today in cinemas.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/may/16/beats-review-blissed-out-flashbacks-90s-rave-scene

Soundtrack is pretty decent too.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0f7ocVNRgVkWMSWn8BGTNB

"I looked at the photo and tried to work out if I remembered you. Then remembered I didn’t actually remember just about anything about visiting the Hac."

Ha. +1
Although I do remember the alcoves! Opened my eyes!

I too am happy to leave it in the past, but fair play to you Rusty, you go for it!!

Never went to the Hacienda as was Midlands based but spent many happy nights (and quite a few fraught ones!) in the Eclipse in Cov....

I only ever went to the Hac towards the end for a drum 'n' bass night having travelled across from where i was a student in York, my haunts like Wrightyson were Up your Ronson and Back to Basics, then Music Factory & Gatecrasher in Sheffield...

Then coming from the Sarf, used to end up at Bagleys on a regular basis, that was a crazy place in Kings Cross

There used to be a really dodgy "club" in the loosest word on outskirts of Sheffield, in a really industrial bit, used to open at 6am on sunday and go through to midday, so was full of absolutely wrecked people, bodybuilders and hookers, trying to think what it was called?

"Worst" ones that I went to were Shelley's in Stone and Wigan Pier in, errr, Wigan.

Paranoia with a threat of violence. But that could have just been me.

After Wigan I decided that I never wanted to go to a club night again.... and became a bit of a piss-pot for the next decade.

I can't remember that Sheffield one either. Misty because I was warned off it!

Gatecrasher was good fun, used to collect the tickets/money from the student bars and take it down in a taxi in return for entry and as much vodca as I could handle. Think I was there (or kingdom, or fuzz) twice a week for two years until it burnt down. I'm sure there was no connection to Plug opening and kingdom getting refurbished.....

I used to go to Bagleys often too. Loved that place and having gone to a lot of places in London it was my fave.

so was full of absolutely wrecked people, bodybuilders and hookers, trying to think what it was called?

South Yorkshire?

 

Rusty - have you been to any of the Hacienda Classical do's?

We went to the first on at the Bridgewater Hall. I thought it was either going to be absolutely brilliant or embarrassingly awful. Thankfully it was the former. It was brilliant. It absolutely went off in the Bridgewater Hall as well!

Well worth heading too when its on

Well that dodgy club i used to frequent in Sheffield of a sunday morning, was this place, Niche, reading it's history it really was a dive!

https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2015/09/nightclubbing-niche

“Worst” ones that I went to were Shelley’s in Stone

Shelley's was Brilliant. Became our club of choice after all the Blackburn Warehouse parties got closed down. It was in Longton. Sure you got the right club ?

Yep. Longton. Must have had a bad night.

You must have had a bad night at the Pier as well Harry. I used to bloody love Wigan Pier. It was an every Friday night place for years. Had some epic nights in that place

lowey - how about Zone in Blackpool? 😀

I met Mrs stu in Shelleys.😁😵
We were both regulars there and the Eclipse
Used to do the Eclipse on a Friday into saturday morning. Then head up to Longton for Shelleys on saturday evening then sometimes back to the Eclipse after Shelleys had turfed us out.
Driving up and down the M6 has never been so much fun...
God only knows how I managed to keep a job. Used to take until wednesday to come down🤣

I only ever went in niche in Sheffield once after the northern exposure tour. I've never been so eye opened and scared all at once. I will never forget the man walking in to the toilets with a tray of drugs and I'm not joking. I looked and just thought this isn't for me. I had a cup of tea and ****ed off!

Just missed out on Eclipse and Shelleys but older mates went and I treasured the Sasha mix tapes from that era. Randomly found the bloke who produced PKA's Temperature Rising (Philip Kelsey who's into MTB, on Facebook). It was Golden at Hanley and Wobble at Hockley, Brum for me.

In the beginning, after the Blackburn Warehouse nonsense, we used to do Wigan pier on a Friday and the total mentalness that was Legends in Warrington On a Saturday.

On Doves, obvs. The whole north of England seemed to be fuelled by Doves at the time 😃

People go on about Madchester, but in reality it was made in Blackburn, Burnley, Farnworth, Wigan and Warrington.

And Morley deserves a special mention for the techno lunacy of Orbit

Like singlespeedstu Christ only knows how I held a job down. Tragic Tuesday would be truly tragic

Jim.
We also had a few visits to Wobble later on in our lives.🤣
Remember the decks hanging from chains from the roof getting knocked and the records skipping on many an occasion.
Did you ever do the illegal CREAM nights?
Chevron Shoes/ Rabanas?

Used to go with mates in the mid 80's just before the e generation, more beer and whizz focussed then. I do remember the gay traitor (?) and lots of pints of snakebite on the 50p nights and sleeping it off in a car parked around the corner before attempting to head home. And various Factory / indie bands of the time there. Good times, not sure I'd want to go back to it though.

Stu, not the illegal nights. It was the progressive era (92/93 IIRC?), D.O.P, Leftfield, Lionrock, TC93 etc. Good tunes!

Lionrock? I believe we’ve been slacking on this thread by not actually posting any choooooons up. A massive oversight.

So I’m starting with not even a house tune, but it’s bloody brilliant. The Lionrock remix of My Beautiful Friend

Then we’ll get stuck in with a proper Wigan Pier tune (the benchmark of all good music)

Let’s have ‘em then, you lot

I never made it over to the Hacienda as it had all gone a bit pear shaped when I started clubbing in early 91. I enjoyed Palais/Jam Factory/Love To Be/Bed & Rise in Sheffield, Hot To Trot/Renaissance in Mansfield/Derby and a stonking night at Havana in Middlesborough!

This always bring back memories of those first few 'doves'

Christ how could I forget Shelleys!

Was Wobble the place in Brum that didn’t open til 2?

Yep. some proper **** ups in there as soon as it opened. No need to wait a couple of hours.😄
An interesting Wobble fact. Dirt Magazines opening party was in Wobble. I don't think the Dirt boys knew what a night out was.
The nearest it got to any excitement was Jerry Dyer thinking he was Rock n Roll waving a shit little spliff around on the dance floor while wearing a TroyLee top.😟
Jim
You missed out mate.
Nothing better than having to duck down under a half open roller shutter door in an industrial unit in Hockley to find yourself in a building with all the fire escapes chained shut.😄

Went once in 1988 to see James supported by the Happy Mondays. A mate had a freebie because someone pulled out at the last minute. TBH I thought that James were ok and the Happy Mondays were a bit shit…

Essential mix
Tong
The beginning of progressive trance
We forgive you for your truly terrible mixing.
Mitsubishi 😉

Happy Mondays were a bit shit…

That was the point of them. I wasn't much into dance music and Es, which is probably why I didn't get on with some of the clubs mentioned.

The Mondays on the other hand I must have seen half a dozen times and it was always brilliant carnage. I've seen them fight amongst themselves, fight with the crowd, refuse to play because someone stole Bez's maracas and was in Blackpool at the Black Grape gig when Bez re-joined the band after getting sacked. Now that was a night to remember! I bet the Winter Gardens Ballroom suffered structural damage due to the bouncing.

Did you ever do the illegal CREAM nights?

I remember cream when it was up a few concrete flights of stairs off a shopping street in liverpool, prob round '88? Dancefloor upstairs, bar with great old school jukebox downstairs. Then we (and it was 'we' by then) moved to london and got jobs, but you'd still see some of the same faces.

Used to go to Shelley's from Wolves every now and again. Some decent raves. Stu Allen an crew. He's still knocking out mixes on Mixcloud.

Was a Quest boy but I was only 16/17 and it was.... a certain clientele....Quest for rave and First Base / Amazon in Wolves for some jungle. Then jungle got a bit dark and stabby so I got into techno and acid.

one of my best friends at school was the bass player in new fast automatic daffodils and then founded Unabomber and did Electric Chair nights at the Roadhouse and then Music Box. If that rings a bell with any of you?

I loved the New Fads and saw them live supporting the Charlatans I think. Still listen to their album now.

I did most of my clubbing in Brum. The Dome and Powerhouse were pretty good. After cheap beers in the Barrel Organ. The delights of Digbeth.

Binners - I’m a mate of Phil’s. Used to ride together a fair bit until I just got lazy.

Loving this thread 😀

I moved to Manchester for uni in 1998 so I missed out on all this - I was the mitsi generation, at the Phoenix, the Music Box, that club under Affleck's, various railway arches etc etc. Love hearing all the stories

Used to do the Eclipse on a Friday into saturday morning. Then head up to Longton for Shelleys on saturday evening then sometimes back to the Eclipse after Shelleys had turfed us out.
Driving up and down the M6 has never been so much fun…

this stuff blows my mind! Even in my ravingest days, I could never do 2 nights straight through. And adding driving into the mix would have been absolute carnage!

Remember a few (looking back, ridiculously dangerous) drives from Wolves to Sheffield and back. I wasn't, and wouldn't drive, far too mullered.... But my friends who did drive. Well we're here by the grace of.

"Let's go Crasher? We're meeting xyz in the Howard"

"Let's go to the Arches.... NY Sushi....." etc etc..... Yeah. Great idea.

(Wicked nights though)

Did anyone go to the Love Parade in Leeds?

lowey – how about Zone in Blackpool? 😀

Finished my long clubbing career there after an incident that very nearly finished me.

In the beginning, after the Blackburn Warehouse nonsense

Sett End and the Blackburn raves were the best times of my life. Genuine chaos. Hardcore Uproar!!

I worked there as a pot lad and worked on the beer delivery back in 86-89, also did a bit of promotion and dj ing in the fifth man in 96

A good employer, 2 free cans of red stripe or breaker at the end of the shift and a complimentary taxi home via Salmonds for some chicken and dumpling,

I remember Peter Hook driving his new sports car into the club through the big doors at the end of one evening and the bar staff expessing surprise as we knew he couldn't afford it, being more aware of the state of his finances than he was.

As a pot lad you got to (had to) go into all the alcoves.

Have a bit of this....

https://www.mixcloud.com/DaveJunglist/hacienda-89-mix/?fbclid=IwAR21QK29d5pcaZaytjifhU4oF8_MgNFHo68na5td-gowO9Afy3NsxVkpZKs

The Mondays on the other hand I must have seen half a dozen times and it was always brilliant carnage. I’ve seen them fight amongst themselves, fight with the crowd, refuse to play because someone stole Bez’s maracas and was in Blackpool at the Black Grape gig when Bez re-joined the band after getting sacked. Now that was a night to remember! I bet the Winter Gardens Ballroom suffered structural damage due to the bouncing.

You ever see them more recently Harry? They are on tour later this year (think with the original line up) and we (me and a few old friends) were thinking of getting together and going. Could be an absolute tragedy of a gig though.
Playing Manchester in November.

I never made it to the Hacienda despite living in Manchester in the 80s. couldn't be bothered with the queues. I was also more into Reggae anyway - I do remember going to the PSV in the Moss. Differnt sort of dodgy!