The Haçienda Read online

  I took her behind the bar, called this kid over and said, ‘Go on, tell her that I own the club.’

  ‘You don’t.’

  ‘No. It’s OK. Tell her that I do.’

  ‘No, you don’t.’

  ‘Oh, you bastard.’

  It all went proper tits-up from there.

  One time our bouncers actually caught me in the ladies’ loo – with a lady, of course. It looked very nice, actually. The girls’ bathroom was much nicer than the boys’ and about three times the size. I never realized.

  Everybody said that if you wanted to cop in Manchester you’d just have to go to the Ritz. On occasion you’d hear about people fucking in the DJ booth, or getting blowjobs in the lighting booth, and now and then you’d see a couple getting carried away in a corner. I remember one couple going at it on the shelf by the staircase and everyone was walking past cheering on their way to the cocktail bar.

  One of the Haçienda’s biggest nights around this time was Flesh, promoted by Paul Cons and Lucy Scher. Staged on Wednesdays, it boasted a controversial ‘no straights’ door policy and soon gained a name as the UK’s most outrageous gay night out, attracting a nationwide clientele. It went on to win the Best Gay Club Night of the Year in the Pink Paper and, along with Nude and Hot, is recognized as being another of the landmark nights of the era.

  The ‘no straights’ policy did ruffle a few feathers, though, with Paul Cons labelled ‘Third Reich’ by one punter who screamed, ‘Fucking came marching with you for Clause 28 and now you don’t want me at your club for being straight. Fucking fascist.’

  Flesh kick-started a series of Wednesday-night events: DJ Sasha was given his own night; he had by now become legendary on the rave circuit but had first been inspired on the club’s dance floor. It was a sign of the times, a gratifying acknowledgement of the huge part the Haçienda had to play in the birth of dance culture. The first of Sasha’s nights played host to K-Klass – another well-travelled rave-era act who had met and found inspiration at the Haç.

  Flesh nights were wild. They’d put shower cubicles by the toilets and hang cages from the ceiling with male dancers writhing inside. Later they added massage tables. Drag queens from all over England made the pilgrimage. Even by our standards Flesh could be really debauched. It was completely over the top.

  The bouncers resisted it at first, as they resisted every new club night they didn’t understand – be it Asian, black, or whatever. But the bouncers were very popular at Flesh because the Muscle Marys fell in love immediately with them and their uniforms; it was a gay fantasy come to life. Initially the gangsters were scared off by it, too, but soon changed their tune when Flesh became a runaway success. They’d come in to sell drugs, or just to enjoy the wild atmosphere. No-one dared say no to them.

  Mick Hucknall told me that a couple of them (who shall remain nameless) decided that they’d try a blowjob off the greeter,just to see what it was like. So Flesh introduced them to a whole new culture; and, if any of them already leaned that way or were curious, this was their opportunity to experiment.

  The weirdest Flesh night involved an employee running up to Ang in tears because two guys at the back of the stage were dancing around with bottles shoved up their arses. He was worried about collecting the empties, I suppose.

  I can’t tell you how many times Paul Cons suggested that we make the Haçienda a gay club. One of our friends, Kevin Millens, ran Heaven, which was for years the biggest gay club in England, and they never had any trouble there. Paul would make his pitch to us at the directors’ meetings.

  ‘Why do you bother with these straight fuckers?’ he’d say. ‘The gays spend more money. They’re less trouble. They smell better . . .’ etc., etc.

  In fact Flesh nights proved to be so profitable that when Paul eventually left us he’d rent the Haçienda and host his own nights. Paul was ambitious – I liked that about him – and at one point we were so sick of the fighting that we really thought, ‘Oh fuck it, let’s knock it on the head and go gay.’ Never did, though. It would have been too radical a departure.Rob wanted the club to be for everybody.Plus he wouldn’t have been able to ogle the girls then, would he?

  Flesh ushered in the era during which we could stay open until seven a.m.and serve drinks until three a.m.We could never get a late licence until Paul applied for one. Rob went off: ‘Why was he able to get one and we weren’t?’

  Then we heard that the licensing committee were very ‘gay friendly’. They did Paul and the Haçienda a very big and important favour.They also set a precedent: once they’d accommodated Paul, they couldn’t refuse our other late-licence requests – nor those made by anyone else, unfortunately. So getting what we wanted did backfire slightly because we ended up in competition with a lot of other bars and clubs that also got late licences.

  Meanwhile, the cost of maintenance had become astronomical. On popular nights, when it got hot and wet inside the club, and the bass made everything throb,huge lumps of plaster would fall from the roof and hit people. Ang used to compensate them with free memberships, free drinks and/or sexual favours (only joking, Ang!) so that they would-n’t file claims against us.

  Towards the end the building decayed even more and skylight glasses started slipping off too;by this time incidents were occurring on an almost nightly basis.

  The licensee was required to be on the premises at all times, but Paul Mason was also in control of the Dry bar so it became difficult for him to remain Haçienda licensee.Thus he moved across to Factory Leisure,which ran the Dry bar. The day-to-day running of the club was then put in the hands of Ang Matthews, who became the Haçienda licensee.

  As the years passed, stress wore Paul Mason down. He was a good bloke with a good heart and he tried to deal with issues in a businesslike manner. He also worked hard to change the relationship between the police and the Haçienda, and to improve the licensing magistrate’s standpoint, too. He wanted to earn us money and he tried to stay optimistic – he’d phone me sometimes, really happy: ‘Hooky, two thousand two hundred in tonight; you can’t move.’

  Once they were in, though, they were difficult to control. And that was the bit he found more difficult. Overall I’d say he worked best in pub culture, which was calmer. That’s why he came to prefer working at Dry.

  Tony could convince Paul to do things just to annoy Rob. Arguing with Tony gave Rob something to do and they’d get into some almighty rows,which Rob always won because whenever he ran out of retorts he’d get right up in Tony’s face. Tony didn’t like that and he’d just say, ‘Fuck off,’ and storm off. To his credit I never saw Tony angry, whereas I saw Rob angry millions of times.

  Paul also put himself in danger. In the early days, if the alarm went off at five a.m., or something, he’d have to investigate. God bless him. The place was so big and so lonely, if anyone had asked me to do it I’d have told them to fuck right off. You’d need to be mad to walk through that place by yourself. For a time the police responded to our alarm, but eventually stopped doing so because there were so many false alerts – mainly birds flying through the broken glass panels on the roof and triggering the alarm.

  I liked Paul. He and his wife Karen were always wonderfully sweet to me, especially when I needed help, and I couldn’t be more grateful. But I didn’t work at the Haçienda any more, so my opinion of him didn’t matter. What did matter was what the staff thought. And they didn’t like him. It got so bad in the end that no one would work with him or take any notice of him as manager. At that point he’d had enough and wanted to leave – you couldn’t blame him.

  He’d had a tough time,poor bastard:death threats and everything. I felt really sorry for him.Funny that when he left I bought his Lancia off the club (I paid £7,100), then couldn’t sell it. It was very fast but was left-hand drive, totally useless. I lost money on it twice.

  When Paul handed over the club’s management and licence to Ang, he became operations manager of both the Haçienda and Dry. This ensured that he would
n’t work in the club. Obviously Ang in her new role assumed more responsibility, but Paul Cons also took over some of Paul Mason’s duties; it became his job to decide our stylistic direction.

  Rob always looked for ways to earn money and to make the building profitable,but it was always on his terms.In 1991 he started his own music label, Robs Records, which he operated with great success out of an upstairs office that he shared with his assistant, Rebecca Boulton (who took over the running of New Order when Rob died). He specialized in finding home-grown talent: most of the acts on Robs Records came from Manchester. He didn’t extensively scout for talent, either – he relied on John Drape (Ear to the Ground), Dave Rofe (Doves’

  Manager) and people like that to bring him the Manchester acts. Despite all the power at his disposal, he ignored anyone outside of our area.He hated everyone south of Chorlton.He wasn’t looking for the next Black Box. He preferred to back a group from Wythenshawe, like the Doves or A Certain Ratio.It was a very purist attitude,but then he was a proper Wythenshawe boy.

  JANUARY

  Thursday 3rd TEMPERANCE CLUB Tim Chambers

  Friday 4th THE MIX Dave Booth

  Saturday 5th NUDE Graeme Park; Mike Pickering

  Wednesday 9th THANKSGIVING: CELEBRATING SIXTH

  MONTH REPRIEVE Graeme Park; Mike

  Pickering; Jon DaSilva; Electronic

  Set-list (Jon DaSilva): Off-Shore – ‘I Can’t Take the Power’, MCJ feat. Sima – ‘To Yourself be Free’, MDA & Lilian Vieira – ‘Batucada Tropical’, Nexus 21 – ‘Self Hypnosis’, N-Joi – ‘Anthem’, Double Dee Feat. Danny – ‘Found Love’ (Caipirina Remix), the Beloved – ‘It’s Alright Now’, Nomad – ‘(I Wanna Give You) Devotion’, C & C Music Factory – ‘Gonna Make You Sweat’, Alison Limerick – ‘Where Love Lives’ (Red Zone Mix), Cappella – ‘Be Master in One’s Own House’, Systematic – ‘Dancin’ the Whole Night’, African Jungle – ‘Jungle Beat’, Disco City – ‘Future’ (Techno Mix), 2 Men From Jersey – ‘So Special’, Katherine E – ‘I’m Alright’, Pako – ‘Pakito Lindo’, Baffa – ‘Piano On’, Tingo Tango – ‘It is Jazz’, Circuit – ‘Shelter Me’, Blanca e Negro – ‘Get Down (It’s Party Time)’, 2 in a Room – ‘Take Me Away’, Pierre’s Pfantasy Club – ‘Dream Girl’ (Ralph Rosario Mix), Loleatta Holloway – ‘Love Sensation’, Plus One – ‘It’s Happenin’’, Inner City – ‘Big Fun’ (Juan’s Magic Remix), Rickster – ‘Night Moves’, Annette – ‘Dream 17’, Seduction – ‘(You’re My One And Only) True Love’ (New York House Mix 2), Kariya – ‘Let Me Love You for Tonight’ (The Pumped Up Mix), Kechia Jenkins – ‘I Need Somebody’

  Thursday 10th TEMPERANCE CLUB Tim Chambers

  Friday 11th THE MIX Dave Booth

  Saturday 12th NUDE Graeme Park; Mike Pickering

  Monday 14th DMC Mixing Championship Heat

  Thursday 17th TEMPERANCE CLUB Tim Chambers

  Friday 18th THE MIX Dave Booth

  Saturday 19th NUDE Mike Pickering; Graeme Park

  Thursday 24th TEMPERANCE CLUB Tim Chambers

  Friday 25th THE MIX Dave Booth

  Saturday 26th NUDE

  Wednesday 30th Violence forces the Haçienda to close its doors

  APRIL

  Wednesday 17th New Order/Joy Division producer Martin Hannett

  dies

  MAY

  Friday 10th THE HEALING: A REOPENING CELEBRATION

  Saturday 11th Graeme Park

  Tuesday 14th New Fast Automatic Daffodils; What?; Noise

  Thursday 16th BEAUTIFUL 2000 Dave Haslam

  Friday 17th SHINE! Mike Pickering; Sasha

  Wednesday 21st NINTH BIRTHDAY PARTY

  JUNE

  Friday 7th SHINE!

  Wednesday 12th Cabaret Voltaire; Sub Sub; Amok; Winston &

  Parrot; Dave Haslam (cancelled)

  Friday 21st MIDSUMMER NIGHT SHINE! Mike Pickering

  JULY

  Friday 12th SHINE! Mike Pickering; PA by K-Klass

  Tuesday 16th DEFINITION OF SOUND Mike Pickering

  Tuesday 23rd Primal Scream

  Wednesday 31st The Adventure Babies

  AUGUST

  Friday 8th Graeme Park

  Thursday 22nd BEAUTIFUL 2000 World of Twist; Dave Haslam

  Thursday 29th BEAUTIFUL 2000 Intastella; Dave Haslam

  SEPTEMBER

  Wednesday 4th Inspiral Carpets; the Bridewell Taxis

  Thursday 5th BEAUTIFUL 2000

  Wednesday 25th HARMONY Sasha; Nipper; Justin Robertson; PA

  by PKA/ Together/ Evolution

  OCTOBER

  Wednesday 30th FLESH Cicero; Tim Lennox: Michelle

  NOVEMBER

  Wednesday 6th Sasha; K-Klass

  Wednesday 13th WEDNESDAY-NIGHT FEVER Sister Sledge;

  Jon McCready

  Wednesday 20th Dr Phibes; Puressenc

  Wednesday 27th FLESH Tim Lennox; Princess Julia; Luke Howerd;

  PA by Army of Lovers

  DECEMBER

  Tuesday 3rd Venus Returning

  Wednesday 4th Sasha; PA by Altern-8

  Saturday 14th Graeme Park

  Tuesday 17th Northside

  Monday 23rd FLESH: ‘QUEER CHRISTMAS’ the Amazing Pippa

  Tuesday 24th CHRISTMAS EVE PARTY Odyssey;

  Tuesday 31st NEW YEAR’S EVE PARTY PA by K-Klass

  FAC 51 Limited

  Trading as: the Haçienda

  PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT (for the year ended 30 June 1991)

  (£) (£)

  Takings

  Mondays 33,374.00

  Tuesdays 9359.00

  Wednesdays 46,286.00

  Thursdays 101,368.00

  Fridays 83,426.00

  Saturdays 139,547.00 413,360.00

  Loss cost of sales 18,416.00

  Opening stock 229,226.00

  Purchases 26,259.00 221,423.00

  Closing stock 191,937.00

  Wages: bar staff 42,082.00

  Bar management 22,578.00

  Bar consumables 300.00 64,960.00

  Bar trading profit 126,977.00

  Takings

  Mondays 15,558.00

  Tuesdays 12,047.00

  Wednesdays 30,551.00

  Thursdays 69,988.00

  Fridays 66,530.00

  Saturdays 168,998.00 363,672.00

  Wages: doormen 59,503.00

  Topguard fees 25,180.00 74,682.00

  Door net income 288,990.00

  Other income

  Cloakroom 8298.00

  Hire fees 4617.00

  Merchandising 32,569.00

  Miscellaneous 39,543.00 85,027.00

  Trading profit 500,994.00

  FAC 51 Limited

  Trading as: the Haçienda

  EXPENSES AND COSTS (for the year ended 30 June 1991)

  (£)(£)

  GROSS REVENUE FROM TRADING ACCOUNT 500,994.00

  Management Charges 34,084.00

  Wages: admin & management 64,647.00

  maintenance 32,829.00

  reception & cloakroom 3339.00

  merchandising 6794.00

  DJs 61,291.00

  Health insurance/pension 6475.00

  Bands & entertainers 45,092.00

  Concert labour 1310.00

  General staff costs 1994.00

  Catering goods 3985.00

  Light & heat 13,788.00

  Water 2392.00

  Rates 29,294.00

  Rent/service charges 87,157.00

  Insurance 40,036.00

  Telephone 10,237.00

  Stationery/printing/posters 31,542.00

  Design & artwork 36,007.00

  Advertising 5233.00

  Cleaning 24,402.00

  Waste disposal 521.00

  Glassware 6418.00

  Security 16,234.00

  Stocktake 1000.00

  Flowers 656.00

  Sundry expenses 9377.00

  Subscriptions & donations 850.00

  Professional fees 55,782.00

  Aud
it & accountancy 5368.00

  Repairs & maintenance 25,374.00

  Lights & video 26,024.00

  Records & CDs 1296.00

  Equipment consumables 7440.00

  General consumables 20,466.00

  Taxis 6969.00

  Motor expenses 6982.00

  Travel & accommodation 13,697.00

  Entertaining 1844.00

  Carriage/couriers 6404.00

  Licences 13,204.00

  Promotional retainers 4387.00

  Bank charges 3719.00

  Bank interest 10,442.00

  Whitbread loan charges 338.00

  Leasing interest 1640.00

  Depreciation 32,789.00 83 1,129.00

  * * *

  Profit/loss for period -330,135.00

  * * *

  Martin Hannett died of heart failure in April 1991, aged forty-two. During the last few years of his life his career had gone into freefall because of his heavy drinking and heroin abuse; his weight had doubled, to almost twenty-six stone. Ironically, however, he had cleaned up his act four years before his death, only to die moving house. He was one of Factory’s,if not the world’s,true musical geniuses.

  By 1992 the whole rave scene had changed and a new generation had come on board – kids who knew acid house only from reading about it in the media – and many of the people I knew stopped going clubbing (strangely, the old-timers would return religiously for our New Year’s Eve celebrations every year). Most of the time I’d look around the club and barely recognize anybody.

  By now the Haçienda’s wildest period, from 1988 to 1990, was well behind us; looking at the accounts for the years that followed, the profits came down very gradually by about 10 to 15 per cent per year.As Manchester had got hipper, more clubs had opened and investment came into the city. In some ways the Haçienda became a victim of its own success: people we’d drawn to the area opened their own places, which took our customers and made us look old-fashioned. And, because of our ongoing financial dire straits, we couldn’t afford to fully renovate the club to keep up with the times.