As the Haçienda turns 40, Peter Hook - bassist of Joy Division, New Order and one of the founders of the club - talks about the chaos, foolhardiness, and the music
bassist is know – is currently wading through the receipts for the various nights he runs under the Haçienda brand.
He remembers it being noticeably inclusive, too. “There was no dress code, and people seemed a lot more relaxed and less beer-monstery. I remember walking down 5th Avenue watching the sun come up, and it was me, Barney, Rob Gretton… I think Steve Morris had gone to bed like he usually does… and we were going, ‘Oh my God if this could happen in Manchester, this would be all our Christmases come at once.
“When they told me it was going to be called The Haçienda, I reeled back in horror,” says Kelly. “I knew nothing about the situationists at the time, and thought it was just a really naff-sounding name, and conjured up images of Spanish adobe houses… but I ended up thinking it was genius.” A clubber raises their hands on an atmospheric main stage during a break in the music at the Hacienda, Manchester 1988.
Problem number two: where there is dance music, there are drugs; and where there are drugs, there are drug dealers. “Middle class university kids first started selling drugs there… and they were making a fortune. What happened was the gangsters noticed how flash they were.”Gangsters, from the likes of Salford, Wythenshawe, and Moss Side, then moved in on the club. “We were trying to fight these gangsters for a while with our doormen, and they couldn’t win, they were too nice,” continues Hooky.
But there was still the question of money. And guns. And drugs. “The writing was on the wall,” recalls Kelly, who was still designing for The Haçienda right up to the end, only by this point it was attempting to make the new metal detectors on the door “look as friendly as possible”. “Someone had fired a gun in the club… one of the DJs was threatened with a gun or knife and walked out. It was hugely problematic towards the end. It became a nightmare.
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