The History Of 'MADCHESTER'

by David Cross on 27.11.08

ELEVEN years after The Hacienda nightclub lost its licence, TV is still determined to keep the legacy of “Madchester” alive – sex, drugs and rock‘n’roll.

Johnny Vegas’s new BBC3 sitcom, about two Manchester youths starting their own record label, gives fresh insight into the Manchester music scene of the 80s early 90s.

Of course, it is not the first to portray the chaos. Steve Coogan has attempted it twice – first with 24 Hour Party People (2002) and then with Control (2007) – both focusing on the chaos of the Hacienda scene.

The legendary club, The Hacienda, now replaced with luxury flats, was the centrepiece of Manchester’s nightlife, and earned a worldwide reputation as the first “superclub”.

The club changed the way the whole city looked. It seemed crazy that designer Ben Kelly should build something so radically different – extremely modern and big. But, it was home to such incredible events that it became the focal point of “madchester” in the 1980s and was embedded into the youth culture of Britain.

Rob Gretton, manager of New Order and boss of Factory Records, came up with the original idea for the Hacienda. After deciding his record label should have its own club, he decided to build a huge one.

The former yachting showroom was converted into a social haven. The name Hacienda was part of a slogan of the radical group Situationist International, “The Hacienda Must Be Built”, found in Ivan Chtcheglov’s book Formulary for a New Urbanism.

Many important people from the music scene came to The Hacienda at some point. It played a key role in shaping the city’s importance in the world of music in Britain.

On May 21, 1982, the Hacienda’s glorious opening included an appearance by Bernard Manning. The club was packed. The first two years had some historic events, including Madonna’s UK club debut – but the average night was not very busy.

However, because of its grand design and its personality, the Hacienda gradually changed into a superclub. Prominent nights included Mike Pickering and Graeme Park’s Nude in 1987, and Hot, with Jon Da Silva and Pickering, in 1988. The ‘rave’ scene caused this dramatic change.

Audiences had beforehand been content with drinking alcohol on nights out – Now drug dealers were selling E’s. Ecstasy, it seemed, was the reason why bands like the Happy Mondays were bringing a new kind of energy to the stage.

Rave culture was changing the face of British nightlife, but the focal point was The Hacienda. It was a shrine to ravers everywhere. When you entered the club, you felt a wave of ecstasy – quite literally sometimes.

But the drug fuelled nights of the club became a big business for dealers. And in 1989, Clare Leighton a 16-year-old girl from Cannock, died outside the club. It was an incident that started a chain of events that led the Hacienda down a road to destruction.

The mid-1990s was a miserable time “madchester”. Even the success of Oasis seemed to belong to totally different era. After struggling on for a few more years the club closed in 1997 – with massive debts.

The Hacienda era had ended, but the legend lives on – so much so that people still get nostalgic about it.

Robert Boardman, 41, a sales executive from Manchester, remembers what the Hacienda meant to him when he was in his 20s.

“It was the best place in the world and the worse place in the world at the same time. It was a place to escape to, but also a place you needed to escape from after a while. I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.”

Hardly any nightclubs attracted such a wide range of people as The Hacienda. Some talk of drug fuelled madness; some say rave ruined the place and remember its early years; others fondly remember little design quirks like the photograph of Anthony Blunt over the door of the downstairs bar, The Gay Traitor.

Jon Savage, the cultural commentator and author, lived in Manchester at the time. He commented last year that “clubs, by their very nature, are transient. They flower and they disappear. The Hacienda lasted longer than most. And, as a story, it’s got everything. There’s celebrity, design, scandal, larger-than-life personalities and drugs.”

The Hacienda meant many things to many people, but it is still one of the major foundations of Manchester’s cultural history. Few, if any, have followed in its footsteps.