The Hacienda In 1982
From City Fun Fanzine, February 1982:
“Even if it has to close after a year… if we can say that for 12 months we had the best club in Europe, it’ll’ve been worth it.”
Howard Jones, Manager
And all of a sudden it’s May 1968 again. HJ points out that he and his colleagues furthered their education in the years of hope and “Arts Labs”, when the state had the resources to nurture the creativity/enthusiasm of its children.
Once a visionary, always a visionary… deep down… (let’s not be polite! What we really mean is HIPPY!) They want to see Fac 51 become a new focus for the idealism that blossomed all those years ago.
Fac 51 isn’t just about bands.. there’s room for theatre on the dance floor… it can be either official performances or just the audience spontaneously creating… or performing sea-lions. And videos that reach further than the traditional promotional capacity – “Here’s the VJ box.”
“THE HACIENDA MUST BE BUILT..”*
And there they are, building it… right here, man.
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From City Fun Fanzine, August 1982:
The club now has around 3000 members and there has been the occasional complaint that some members could not always get in on a very crowded night, notably for the free-to-members New Order gig.
“Membership does not guarantee admission, it only guarantees priority”…
“The design of the club limits the choice in modifications. As it’s going to be around for a long time, it’s important that we do it right.”
Surprisingly there has been no response from members to the invitation to submit videos… Mike (Pickering) also listens to all of the tapes sent in but as yet none have been of high enough quality to survive passage through the sound system. Tapes of ‘mood music’ for the cocktail bar were also cited as means for members to contribute something. Also if anyone wants to use the space within The Hacienda constructively to stage their own ideas, they should contact the club.
…Dance group, The Jazz Defektors, lost no time in asking to use the club during the daytime for rehearsal space… The club has already employed seven members with a specific skill who were enterprising enough to ask to take part.
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* From Ivan Chtcheglov’s Formulary For A New Urbanism (Translation) 1953:
We are bored in the city, there is no longer any Temple of the Sun…
…without music and without geography, no longer setting out for the hacienda…
That’s all over. You’ll never see the hacienda. It doesn’t exist.
The hacienda must be built.
All cities are geological. You can’t take three steps without encountering ghosts bearing all the prestige of their legends. We move within a closed landscape whose landmarks constantly draw us toward the past.** Certain shifting angles, certain receding perspectives, allow us to glimpse original conceptions of space, but this vision remains fragmentary…
…Our imaginations, haunted by the old archetypes, have remained far behind the sophistication of the machines. The various attempts to integrate modern science into new myths remain inadequate. Meanwhile abstraction has invaded all the arts, contemporary architecture in particular. Pure plasticity, inanimate and storyless, soothes the eye. Elsewhere other fragmentary beauties can be found — while the promised land of new syntheses continually recedes into the distance. Everyone wavers between the emotionally still-alive past and the already dead future.
From Bureau Of Public Secrets website, www.bopsecrets.org.
** In 30 years, The Hacienda has come full circle, ironically becoming one of the ‘ghosts bearing all the prestige of their legends’ which it was originally intended to challenge.
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Further reading: ‘Unknown Pleasure: The Hacienda’ Jon Savage, Corridor8 Issue 1 Page 17-18.
Many thanks to Dave Haslam for the scans of the City Fun articles.
Evidence Of A Football Immunity Disorder
My husband took this photo on Monday afternoon in town; he and the other City supporters are understandably excited about their team winning the League for the first time in 44 years.
My dad, who also supports City, took me to a match only once, when I was about five, and he never made that mistake again. I cried and complained about the crowds and the noise; we left at half-time.
Our house was only a couple of miles from both the big stadiums, but most of our Chorlton neighbours were United supporters, especially the Irish Catholic contingent.
Football seemed to me to be as dull and ordinary as wallpaper… the subject of a thousand choreographed adult conversations, overheard outside church or on the street corner… and a constant theme of playground banter. Every Saturday there’d be Grandstand, the scores and the score-draws for the Pools, Match of the Day, and then on top of that, there were all the international games.
I watched these dutifully on telly with my family; we were all carried along by my dad’s infectious enthusiasm for each big match. He is quiet and unassuming, but watching football triggers a temporary alter-ego; meanwhile I remain living proof that ‘exposure’ to a subject does not automatically lead to expert opinion or even mild interest.
At the age of about 8, I noticed that MUFC and MCFC were scrawled all over the place at school. I asked the boys on my table, ‘What’s ‘mcfc’?’ I should have been able to work it out for myself, but for some reason, I was foxed.
‘It means Man City Fu Ckoff!’ said Martin, without hesitation.
I was confused:
‘Oh! But that would be MCFO, wouldn’t it?’
‘No.’
‘So does MUFC mean Man United Fu Ckoff then?’
(This was a genuine query.)
‘No…’ The boys laughed, and I was none the wiser.
It was only when I repeated this conversation at home a few days later that I realised that the ‘Fu Ckoff’ bit was made up.
At secondary school, there were fans of both teams amongst the boys; I don’t recall this causing any major friction in spite of all the bluster and rhetoric.
Meanwhile, the girls in my class were fixated by the ‘glamour’ of Old Trafford’s Executive Suite, where the father of one of them had a box, enabling them to loiter there on a regular basis. One girl even dated an actual United player briefly. I was completely unimpressed; this achievement was so transparently groupie-like, it seemed almost gauche. How desperate would you have to be to do your courting in front of your dad and his mates, in the brightly-lit, hideously-carpeted Old Trafford social rooms, surrounded by a choking fog of male chauvinism? Certainly not an experience to be envied… although I admired her thick skin and go-getting zeal.
How strange it seems, that Manchester’s football teams, which seemed so parochial to me growing up, are now considered by marketing people to be the city’s greatest asset in its ‘struggle for distinctiveness’ on the global stage:
“…United is the biggest sporting brand in the world… and all the rest of the other sporting assets that we have …really help businesses …our image and our marketing, to give Manchester a place in that global community…”
Baron Frankal talking to Andrew Bomford on PM on April 30th 2012.
Thankfully we also have graphene.
Pop-up Gallery in ‘Death Alley’
There’s an alley in Whalley Range, running between Milton Grove and Upper Chorlton Road, which emerges alongside the Territorial Army centre, opposite the 86 bus stop.
An industrial building runs the length of it, which currently houses the Morris Minor Millenium Company and the studio of artist Michael Mayhew.
Ten years ago, the Manchester Evening News christened the place ‘Death Alley’, following the fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Matthew Bryan from Hulme; 2 years before that, Roger Ormsby (who I was at school with) was found shot dead in a blazing car in the same spot.
Some local people wanted the alley to be gated, as so many other nearby entries and ginnels have been, but so far this hasn’t happened… and I’m glad because I like taking this short-cut, in spite of its unhappy history.
In recent years, the row of shops between the alley and College Road has altered to become a vibrant social hub. Award-winning restaurant Palmiro’s pioneered this local scene, but their premises is now The Nip & Tipple bar; next door is the pub The Hillary Step, and a few doors along is Jam Street Cafe.
Local artist Michael Mayhew plans to hold a pop-up gallery in the alley called ‘The Allery’ on the Jubilee Weekend at the beginning of June. He has invited submissions from local artists and has organised a series of talks, workshops and events, in conjunction with The Hillary Step, The Nip & Tipple, Jam Street Cafe and The Creative Corner Cafe, which occupies the old Driving Test Centre premises on Milton Grove.
The Creative Corner Cafe is offering a free film workshop, primarily intended to document the festival, but those taking part are free to pursue other ideas. The cafe will also host a ‘speakers corner’ called ‘Speak Your Brains’, which will run each day; a stage will be set up outside the cafe, named ‘The Anthony Wilson Stage’, which will bare the likeness of Anthony Wilson, supplied by participating artist Trafford Parsons. There is also a darkroom photography workshop with Margeret Banton; email inclusiveartsresources@gmail.com for more details.
Please book in advance for the workshops at: allerygallery.weebly.com. At present, the event line-up is as follows:
Friday 1st June
The Creative Corner Cafe
5 Day Open Film Workshop – FREE
email: inclusiveartsresources@gmail.com
The Hillary Step
2pm – 4pm: Ed Barnwell, solo jazz piano
6pm onwards: THE ALLERY GALLERY LAUNCH
Begins in the Alley and continues into Jam Street, Hillary Step and Nip & Tipple. Details to be announced.
Nip & Tipple
Later: Dirty Vinyl
Saturday 2nd June
The Creative Corner Cafe
Àgata Alcañiz, Life Drawing Workshop
Steve, Lampshade-making Workshop
email: inclusiveartsresources@gmail.com
Nip & Tipple
10am – 12:30pm: Sue Fox, Photography Workshop
The Hillary Step
2pm – 4pm: ‘Take 2′ with Dave Taylor on keys, accompanied by guitar and percussion, jazz and blues
Jam Street Cafe
1pm – 5pm: 10-Second Film Festival
Nip & Tipple
7pm – Late: A Curious Night
Sunday 3rd June
The Big Red Bus Magical Mystery Tour – Time to be confirmed.
Nip & Tipple
11:30am – 1:30pm: David Rudlin, Talk: ‘How Cities are built’
2pm – 5pm: Sophy King, Tiara Making Workshop
2.30pm – 5pm: BINGO
Jam Street Cafe
12pm – 5pm: Films About Place
The Hillary Step
2pm-4pm: Helen Pillinger (Tenor Sax0, Bob Jones (guitar) Jazz, Latin, ska
9pm: Ed Barnwell (keys) Steve Chadwick (Trumpet) modern jazz
Monday 4th June
Nip & Tipple
10am – 12:30pm: SuAndi, ‘Sussed Words’ Writing Workshop
Afternoon: Classical Music Presentations
“Classic FM bounces into The Late Junction and gate crashes into Jarvis Cocker”
Jam Street Cafe
12pm – 5pm: Films About Place
The Hillary Step
2pm – 4pm: Ed Keinyak (sax) with piano accompaniment, modern jazz.
Nip & Tipple
7pm – 10pm: Words That Bite
Tuesday 5th June
Nip & Tipple
10am – 12:30pm: Lucy Burscough, ‘Butterfly Bombing’
11am – 1pm: Sophy King, Tiara Making
Afternoon: Tiara Parade
7pm – 10pm: Tiara Party
Jam Street Cafe
12pm – 5pm: Films About Place
For more information, or to check or confirm these details, see allerygallery.weebly.com.
The Creative Corner Cafe and Trafford Parsons are also participating in Chorlton Arts Festival during May 2012.
New Order @ The Apollo (& The Rochdale Canal)
New Order – looking porky at The Apollo in Ardwick at the end of April…
New Order – Perfect Kiss
(Orezlyrad’s Youtube Channel contains lots of high quality films of artists performing recently in Manchester.)
I find New Order easier to watch without Peter Hook; the way he plays bass looks so uncomfortable – like the posture equivalent of a hairshirt. Although his bass-line on Bizarre Love Triangle is a great part of the song, so it does seem strange that he isn’t on stage playing it:
New Order – Bizarre Love Triangle (Polewka123′s Youtube Channel)
Way back in June 1987, New Order did a gig at The Hacienda to raise money for the club. The ticket price was relatively high (about £10 I think) and I decided not to go on account of their lack-lustre performance at GMEX the year before. There was a general feeling at the time that they were taking the piss.
On the day of the gig, I was drawing by the Rochdale Canal, and I heard them rehearsing inside The Hacienda. It sounded like most of the music was pre-recorded because when it stopped and started it seemed to happen all at once, like a tape being switched on and off.
I think I heard Shellshock that day, and Bizarre Love Triangle, which is still one of my favourites; the wistful vocals and bass work so well against the up-beat, pure-pop, electronic back-drop.
Every time I think of you
I feel shot right through with a bolt of blue
It’s no problem of mine
But it’s a problem I find
Living a life that I can’t leave behind
There’s no sense in telling me
The wisdom of a fool won’t set you free
But that’s the way that it goes
And it’s what nobody knows
And every day my confusion grows
