The Haçienda Read online

  Over time my own relationships with the DJs got better. Jon DaSilva hosted the midweek nights, which I’d occasionally attend, but I’ve since gone on to know him very well and I work with him a lot.A great DJ. He tells a great story about the Technique tour, when he and Graeme did a support tour with us,with me on one particular night offering the pair of them out for being a pair of big-headed bastards. Doesn’t sound like me, does it?

  Dave Haslam, in contrast, alienated himself from all of us. Dave hosted Temperance Club, the 1980s indie-rock nights, which became a popular evening for students. In some ways it offered the kind of music that people would expect from a club associated with us. He played a broad spectrum of styles, whereas I preferred a narrower focus on dance music.

  He got into a fight with Tony, which culminated in October 1990 with him turning off the music to rant about Tony and Factory over the PA system. He slagged everyone off – hilarious – in front of the puzzled customers. Until the doormen kicked down the DJ-box door and threw him out. Tony rarely took exception to people or carried a grudge, but with Haslam he really did and literally took it to the grave.

  Dave returned to the Haçienda later, much to Tony’s indignation, and has since become an author of many books about Manchester.

  According to Wilson in his book 24 Hour Party People, even in 1990 – at the height of Madchester fever – the club still wasn’t making money. ‘There were huge crowds and a great atmosphere,’ he wrote, ‘but it was all fuelled by Ecstasy, not alcohol, and they didn’t sell E at the bar.’ (Presumably, in the post-hearing era, any drugs were taken before arriving at the club.) The money was going to the drug dealers, he said, and they weren’t passing it on to the Haçienda.

  Wilson, the co-owners and other club promoters in the city were at the sharp end of an inevitable side-effect of rave culture. Where there were drugs there was money. And that meant gangsters. And guns.

  The trouble had begun to snowball in September 1989, when the police had closed the Gallery,a favourite haunt for Cheetham Hill gangsters.The following weekend the gangsters needed somewhere to go and arrived at the Haçienda.

  It all changed forever that night. Three guys came to the door and said to the bouncers, ‘We’re coming in.’

  ‘Yeah! You and whose army?’

  ‘Us and these,’ and they opened up their coats and flashed their guns.

  ‘Well, of course you’re coming in.’ And our doormen stepped aside. What would you do against three guns?

  These guys went inside the club and just sat in a booth, quite normal, drinking and chatting; we were watching them on the closed-circuit TV.

  The bouncers told Paul Mason what had happened. He phoned the police and the CID came down. They looked at these kids on the CCTV and told Paul, ‘If they don’t cause any trouble, leave them.’ And then they left.

  That was the moment.That’s when we started having regular trouble with the gangs, because they knew that the police weren’t going to do anything about it. We needed a ballsy, proactive police force and we didn’t have one. We’d repeatedly ask for police on the door and they’d just laugh at us for thinking they’d even want to confront the gangs on our behalf. (I know: it’s very easy to criticize them; and I don’t blame them for wanting to avoid the danger. You wouldn’t send someone to war without a gun, but in Manchester, England, we ask people without guns to face people with guns all the time. It’s ridiculous.)

  Tony knew how to get publicity and during this period that really helped. He highlighted our problems with the gangs in the press. The police really,really hated that he brought their shortcomings out for all to see. They were anti-Haçienda. They just wanted the club to disappear,which is ironic:I’d have thought that knowing where every lunatic and Salford gangster was located on a nightly basis would have been handy. Tony also complained about the cops’ treatment of the club to Manchester city council every chance he got.He wouldn’t let them get away with it.

  Not that it helped on our door, of course – the attitude of the doormen had to change. They had to become much, much harder in order to protect themselves.Everything had to change.Eventually the whole axis of power in the club would shift, so that it was no longer the management running it – it was the doormen.

  Throughout 1990 there were numerous instances of violence, with doormen and clubbers assaulted, guns pulled, knives used. Some gangsters saw the dealers as easy targets for muggings, or ‘taxings’ as they were called; others wanted a slice of the drug-money pie. At Christmas that year there was an incident at Discotheque Royale, where Cheetham Hill gang members beat up doormen, then ‘taxed’ dealers and clubbers at gunpoint. The most notorious taxing method was the ‘scraping’, which meant a dealer being kidnapped, driven to the M602 roundabout in Salford, then having his face held to the tarmac while the car drove round. There were incidents at Konspiracy and the Kitchen. The seeds of Gunchester were already sown.

  JANUARY

  Wednesday 3rd VOID Jon DaSilva; Mike Pickering

  Thursday 4th TEMPERANCE CLUB Dave Haslam

  Friday 5th NUDE Mike Pickering

  Wednesday 10th VOID Jon DaSilva; Mike Pickering

  Thursday 11th TEMPERANCE CLUB Dave Haslam

  Friday 12th NUDE Mike Pickering

  Wednesday 17th VOID Jon DaSilva; Mike Pickering

  Thursday 18th TEMPERANCE CLUB Dave Haslam

  Friday 19th NUDE Mike Pickering

  Wednesday 24th VOID Jon DaSilva; Mike Pickering

  Thursday 25th TEMPERANCE CLUB Dave Haslam

  Friday 26th NUDE Mike Pickering

  Saturday 27th Tommy Musto; Frankie Bones

  Wednesday 31st VOID Jon DaSilva; Mike Pickering

  FEBRUARY

  Friday 2nd NUDE Mike Pickering

  Saturday 3rd Paul Oakenfold

  Monday 5th Northside; Paris Angels; the Spinmasters

  Friday 9th NUDE Mike Pickering

  Friday 16th NUDE Mike Pickering

  Wednesday 21st COACH TRIP TO LOCOMOTIVE New Fast Automatic Daffodils; Paris Angels

  Thursday 22nd COACH TRIP TO LOCOMOTIVE James; Dave Haslam

  Friday 23rd NUDE Mike Pickering

  Tuesday 27th STAFF PARTY AT THE GREEN ROOM Revenge; Steve Williams

  MARCH

  Friday 2nd NUDE Mike Pickering

  Monday 5th The Beloved

  Tuesday 6th The Fall

  Set-list: 'The Littlest Rebel', 'Jerusalem', 'Sing!Harpy', 'Im Frank','Telephone Thing', 'Hilary', 'Hit the North', 'Bill is Dead', 'Black Monk Theme', 'Popcorn Double Feature', 'Deadbeat Descendant', 'Bremen Nacht' , 'And Therein' , 'Victoria', 'Mr Pharmacist' ,'U.S. 80's'-90's', 'Fiery Jack’'

  Friday 9th NUDE Mike Pickering

  Monday 12th Northside; Paris Angels

  Friday 16th NUDE Mike Pickering

  Wednesday 21st VOID Guru Josh

  Friday 23rd NUDE Mike Pickering

  Friday 30th NUDE Mike Pickering

  APRIL

  Monday 2nd Dubsex

  Friday 6th NUDE Mike Pickering

  Monday 9th The Farm

  Tuesday 10th Jimmy Somerville

  Friday 13th NUDE Mike Pickering

  Monday 16th Adamski

  Friday 20th NUDE Mike Pickering

  Monday 23rd The Mock Turtles

  Friday 27th NUDE Mike Pickering

  MAY

  Friday 4th NUDE Mike Pickering

  Friday 11th NUDE Mike Pickering

  Monday 14th New Fast Automatic Daffodils

  Friday 18th NUDE Mike Pickering

  Monday 21st EIGHTH BIRTHDAY PARTY

  Friday 25th NUDE Mike Pickering

  JUNE

  THE UNITED STATES OF THE HAÇIENDA: TRANCE AMERICAN TOUR Mike Pickering; Paul Oakenfold; Graeme Park; Dave Haslam

  Friday 1st NUDE Mike Pickering

  Wednesday 6th VOID Jon DaSilva; Mike Pickering

  Thursday 7th TEMPERANCE CLUB Dave Haslam

  Friday 8th NUDE Mike Pickering

  Wednesday 13th V
OID Jon DaSilva; Mike Pickering

  Wednesday 14th TEMPERANCE CLUB Dave Haslam

  Friday 15th NUDE Mike Pickering

  Monday 18th Northside

  Wednesday 20th VOID Jon DaSilva; Mike Pickering

  Thursday 21st TEMPERANCE CLUB Dave Haslam

  Friday 22nd NUDE Mike Pickering

  Wednesday 27th VOID Jon DaSilva; Mike Pickering

  Thursday 28th TEMPERANCE CLUB Dave Haslam

  Friday 29th NUDE Mike Pickering

  JULY

  Friday 6th NUDE Mike Pickering

  Friday 13th NUDE Mike Pickering

  Saturday 14th TRANCE AMERICAN TOUR HITS THE SOUND FACTORY, NEW YORK Paul Oakenfold; Mike Pickering; Graeme Park; Dee-Lite

  Friday 20th NUDE Mike Pickering

  Monday 23rd Licence-revocation hearing adjourned to January 1991

  Friday 27th Nude Mike Pickering

  Saturday 28th Nick Arrojo

  AUGUST

  Friday 3rd NUDE Mike Pickering

  Friday 10th NUDE Mike Pickering

  Friday 17th NUDE Mike Pickering

  Friday 24th NUDE Mike Pickering

  Friday 31st NUDE Mike Pickering

  SEPTEMBER

  Friday 7th NUDE Mike Pickering

  Friday 14th NUDE Mike Pickering

  Friday 21st NUDE Mike Pickering

  Friday 28th NUDE Mike Pickeri

  OCTOBER

  Friday 5th THE MIX Dave Booth

  Saturday 6th NUDE Mike Pickering, Graeme Park

  Thursday 11th TEMPERANCE CLUB Dave Haslam (his last night)

  Tuesday 16th CLASSICS IN MOTION Rolf Hind; GrahamFitkin; the Durutti Column; Steve Martland&Orchestra (Factory classical in conjunction with the Haçienda present . . .)

  Wednesday 17th SHIVA Jon DaSilva; Mike Pickering

  Thursday 18th TEMPERANCE CLUB Tim Chambers

  Monday 22nd Plenty; the Sandmen; Dave Booth

  Monday 29th The High; Dave Booth

  NOVEMBER

  Monday 5th Synergy; the Shamen; Dave Booth

  Friday 9th THE MIX Bass-o-Matic; Dave Booth

  Sunday 11th Northside; plus guests

  Monday 12th Blur; Dave Booth

  Monday 19th Bridewell Taxis; plus guests

  Monday 26th Cud; the Popinjays

  DECEMBER

  Monday 3rd The High; plus guests; Little Martin; Dave Booth

  Friday 14th DECONSTRUCTION RECORDS PARTY N-Joi

  Monday 17th New Fast Automatic Daffodils

  Monday 24th CHRISTMAS EVE PARTY Mike Pickering

  Monday 31st NEW YEAR’S EVE PARTY Mike Pickering;Graeme Park; Jon DaSilva

  FAC 51 Limited

  Trading as: the Haçienda

  FAC 51 Limited

  Trading as: the Haçienda

  Cheetham Hill

  Although Cheetham Hill in the north of the city is a relatively small area of Manchester, it boasted one of Manchester’s largest and best-organized gangs, a black and mixed-race outfit with a fearsome reputation.

  Doddington

  Operating out of the Moss Side area, this crew took its name from Doddington Close on the west side of the district and were notable for the youth of its members.

  Gooch

  Also based in Moss Side, Gooch was a mainly black gang formed in Gooch Close. Though it had many older, original members, it also boasted a youthful element with a fearsome reputation for violence.

  Salford

  Predominantly white, Salford was one of the older gangs if not the oldest in the city and was organized by family. As with other gangs, it was the younger members out to prove themselves who gained a name for extreme violence.

  As the club entered 1991 it had a problem. On the one hand it was being asked to stamp out drug use; on the other, thanks to bands such as the Happy Mondays, it was helping to create a scene that glorified their use.

  ‘We are not responsible for the backgrounds of our artists,’ Tony Wilson told writer Mick Middles. Wilson was aware of the paradox, however: he was, after all, a casual user himself. So, to find his own moral cut-off point in the drug culture, he needed to look in the direction of organized crime.

  ‘What I am not into and am, in fact, appalled by, is the violence that sometimes comes with drugs and has caused problems at the Haçienda. What people might take or smoke or drink is up to them until the point where they might harm other people. Then it becomes an issue and we would have no truck with that.’

  At the postponed hearing on 3 January the magistrates announced their pleasure at a ‘positive change in direction’ and renewed the club’s licence.

  In order to try to build on the reprieve offered by the magistrates, the club revitalized its original membership scheme and imposed stricter conditions on the door. The fact that the Haçienda, cheerleader of the new rave revolution, was to impose such draconian measures didn’t sit well with the clientele, however. Queues became even more lengthy; the distribution of the fanzine Freaky Dancing and the entertainment provided by the club did little to make this aspect of the experience seem appealing. Furthermore, the new system failed to keep the troublemakers out – and those troublemakers were armed.

  Up until this point our bouncers had never seen any real trouble and we still had a reputation for having the most wonderful, peaceful security of any club in England.

  That peace was about to end.

  After the police shut the Gallery the gangsters moved on to the Haçienda, saw how it had flourished and thought, ‘We’ll have some of that.’

  Don’t forget that for a long time the club had had a reputation in Manchester for being empty and playing indie music. But now the dealers in the Haç could earn three to four grand on Fridays and four to five grand on Saturdays. Then they were mainly middle-class, university-educated boys from Stoke and a lot of them worked the club on a regular basis.

  At first the gangsters were their customers, joining in with the hugging and general togetherness. But over a period of time they sussed out how much they could earn if they took over. They then began turning dealers upside down – literally, they used to shake them by the ankles – to take money and drugs off them and when that didn’t work the beatings were savage. Dealers wouldn’t press charges for obvious reasons.

  As a result, crime increased nightly. And Dry suffered the same security problems as the Haçienda – the same gang members were regulars at both. There were some terrible incidents of violence that made us regret opening both places, but it was especially bad at the Haç. I don’t know of any place in England that suffered with violence the way we did here. We were unique.

  On Wednesday 9 January the club celebrated its licensing reprieve with Thanksgiving, a night that featured Haçienda institutions Mike Pickering, Graeme Park and Jon DaSilva as well as a live performance from Electronic. The first Nude of the year was held the following Saturday, for which a membership scheme was introduced in a bid to stop troublemakers gaining entry.The next Saturday was the second Nude of the year – and in fact it was the last ever Nude to be held at the club.

  There was an incident. At the time it was reported that a doorman had been threatened with a gun but there were no shots fired. According to Tony Wilson in his book 24 Hour Party People,however:‘A Cheetham Hill subhead went walkabout in the Haç entrance. Waving a gun in the air. Shots were fired.’

  Apparently the punter had not taken kindly to being refused admission under the new membership scheme.

  It was the last straw. The following Wednesday, after days of meetings, Wilson called a press conference, held on the Haçienda dance floor.

  ‘The Haçienda is closing its doors as of today,’ he told journalists (looking ‘tired and haggard’ according to reports).

  It is with the greatest reluctance that for the moment we are turning the lights out on what is, for us, a most important place.

  ‘We are forced into taking this drastic action in order to protect our employees, our members and all our clients. We are quite simply sick
and tired of dealing with instances of personal violence.

  We hope and we must believe we can reopen the Haçienda in a better climate. But until we are able to run the club in a safe manner, and in a way that the owners believe will guarantee the role of the Haçienda at the heart of the city’s youth community, it is with great sadness that we will shut our club.

  It had always been on the horizon. The police were focusing on the drug issue while the owners of the Haçienda understood that guns and gangsters were the bigger problems. Since 1987 shootings in the city had increased and gang-style executions were taking place, such as the killing of ‘White’ Tony Johnson, a well-known troublemaker. The gangsters were primarily interested in heroin and cocaine, and not in what they felt was the low-level dealing usually to be found in a nightclub; but, as writer Andy Spinoza noted, ‘Gangsters like clubbing too’ – and their preferred night out was the Haçienda, the world’s most fashionable nightclub.

  There they expected free and immediate entry and were not above flashing a gun in order to get it. In return the Haçienda had sent a message to the gangsters. Whether it was heard would remain to be seen.

  At the press conference reporters were told that the club would be closed for about a month. It turned out to be five.

  When the Haçienda shut its doors in January 1991 it was because of gang violence. It had become too dangerous. We had to press pause while we reassessed, which cost us a fortune: it actually cost more to run the club closed than open. In that five months alone we lost £175,000.