MAKINGLegends in the words: ANDY THOMAS THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF THE HACIENDA ’S PRE-RAVE BLACK CLUB SCENE

20 “Nowadays, people naturally want to talk to underground music would come under the lighting and behind an incredibly advanced me about The Hacienda and how incredible umbrella term Electro . sound system that Greg Wilson, a wide-eyed it must have been for me to work there [as Obscure 12”s had begun arriving on DJ from Liverpool’s suburbs, first hit the switch one if its original resident DJs]. Given its import in the UK, and were avidly snapped up marked Electro. Cutting up the of labels subsequent worldwide recognition, I can by those DJs and dancers eager to plug in to like Prelude and Beckett and the productions appreciate how difficult it must be for them the ‘New Thing’. While the likes of West End, of Francois Kevorkian and Patrick Adams with to fully comprehend that, although I had some Prelude and Beckett released forward-thinking the sci-fi beats of The Jonzun Crew and Man great nights at The Haçienda, it couldn’t disco or what in the UK became known as Parrish, Wilson created a deep and futuristic begin to compare with the intensity of what boogie, the output of imprints like Emergency, mix. Every Wednesday, a mainly black crowd was going on at Legend.” (Greg Wilson) Sunnyview and Streetwise was far more would come up from across the North of futuristic. And while it is true that it was disco’s England and the Midlands to check out his sets. At the dawn of the 1980s, the common left turn at the start of the ‘80s that would help One such head was a young Gerald Simpson, perception in a divided England was that it create the blueprint for , to Greg a 15-year-old dancer, now better known as was “grim up North”. Post-industrialisation, Wilson’s ears the sounds of what became A Guy Called Gerald. Looking back on those chronic unemployment and the beginnings known as electro (usually more associated with times, Gerald is only too pleased to give credit of Thatcherism had blighted towns b-boys and ) was a missing link in dance where credit is due. “Though I was underage, like Manchester, Liverpool, Wigan and music’s evolutionary chain. I managed to get in. The atmosphere was Huddersfield. Closed factories, disused office something I’ve never ever seen repeated. blocks and empty shipyards were a sign of the “Though I was People would come to Legends from all over times, and in 1981 inner-city riots broke out underage, I managed to the country just for that night.” in Toxteth, Liverpool and then in Manchester’s Meanwhile, over at an intense session infamous Moss Side after 1000 youths get in. The atmosphere named Berlin those with a more soulful impulse converged on the police station, fed-up with was something I’ve were spinning and dropping to the deep jazz, day-to-day prejudice, harassment, and lack of soul and disco of the legendary Colin Curtis, any opportunities. never ever seen who would become a big influence on young Yet out of the austerity and oppression jazz dance DJs like Gilles Peterson. In the mid grew a flower that blossomed to give new life repeated. People would ‘80s, Curtis would also play alongside another to the area. While it was acid house and the come to Legends from Manchester legend, Hewan Clarke, at The whole scene (centred around Playpen where House music really first took the and ) all over the country hold. It was at these groundbreaking clubs that made The Hacienda famous worldwide, just for that night.” where future Hacienda DJ Mike Pickering Manchester’s club scene has a much deeper would receive his musical education. and black-rooted history. And it’s a story that Yet while house music was rocking the has been largely forgotten, although it was in Like techno and house later in the decade, dance floors of the black underground clubs, fact responsible for laying the foundations for this exciting music had its roots in a wide Hewan Clarke was often fighting a losing battle Manchester’s house music explosion and the variety of electronic music – from the German at the Hacienda where he was the resident DJ subsequent cultural regeneration of the city. techno pop of Kraftwerk and Japan’s Yellow when the club opened in May 1982. He would The genesis of this scene can be traced Magic Orchestra to British futurists and new play a diverse and often bizarre mix of music back to The Reno, Moss Side’s strictly romantic acts like Visage and Human League. to suit the disparate crowd (everything from underground club where DJ Persian spun Just as importantly it was a direct continuum of serious Factory Records types to cutting edge soul and funk to a devoted crowd of dancers the experimentations of black sonic scientists black jazz dancers), blending underground throughout the ‘70s, many of whom also – from Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis to classics such as Riuichi Sakamoto’s ‘Riot in frequented where DJs John Grant Stevie Wonder and of course, the afro-futurism Lagos’ and jazz cuts like Kalima’s ‘Smiling Hour’ and Colin Curtis held court. At the turn of the of George Clinton. When the next generation of alongside a whole host of offbeat indie-pop ‘80s, with jazz-funk holding sway across the producers like Newcleus, Warp 9 and Hashim singles. UK, a new and exciting form of American black finally got their hands on the new technology Tony Wilson, founder of Factory Records electronic music was about to hit the UK club it would only be a matter of time before they and the Hacienda, dreamed of creating a scene and it was in Manchester where it first would create deep alien machine funk that club in his beloved home town to match the landed. would rock the nation. Paradise Garage, where the likes of New Order While in America these records were Legend was a state-of-the-art club in and had hung out while in New known by a range of terms including electric Manchester’s city centre, which looked as York. But Manhattan was a long way from boogie and freestyle, for DJs like Greg Wilson futuristic as the music that was being played Manchester. “Tony Wilson had expressly told in the North of England this new and vibrant there. It was here beneath the space age me that he wanted me to play black music,“ Hewan Clarke recalled. “And so you had all (3 of them), its light show was described in music slot on Britsh radio these people who had grown up on Siouxsie Black Echoes magazine as like something back then, was a former Legend regular. A Guy and the Banshees and stuff like that in The out of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. Called Gerald was, once again, a former Legend Hacienda, and here I am playing Sharon Redd The atmosphere in a club like Legend was regular and someone who’d been on the scene ‘Can You Handle It?’. It freaked them out and absolutely intense - this was no hands in the air since the Jazz-Funk era - 1987 certainly wasn’t they freaked me out, you know, cos of their party vibe, but seriously good dancers losing Day 1 for someone like Gerald, and although reaction.” themselves in the music. it’s termed ‘House’, you can clearly hear the It was another few years before Mike influence of Electro, and indeed Jazz-Funk, in Pickering’s Nude night took off in 1987 and AT: You’ve made the case that rather than ‘Voodoo Ray’ – it’s very much a hybrid track, acid house exploded across the North. But being a footnote in UK dance music, electro hence its out and out uniqueness. by then the majority of the black dancers who and electro funk was the missing piece of the had made underground clubs like Legend their jigsaw – can you expand? AT- How much was this golden period a home had mainly moved on. To help us delve GW: The Electro-Funk era was the catalyst response to the pressures of Thatcherism etc? deeper into their forgotten culture we track that enabled the old to become the new – it GW: From a black perspective, clubbing was down Greg Wilson, who continues to drop the was right at the crossroads as far as British a serious business. It wasn’t just about going electro funk bomb across the globe. dance culture is concerned. Without it things out to party, it was far deeper. These were kids could never have worked out in the way that who during there normal day to day were being Andy Thomas interview with Greg Wilson they did. Had it been a white led movement, regularly stopped and searched by the police, like Northern Soul or Rave, the question would many picking up drug convictions for having AT: After moving from Merseyside you built have been irrelevant, for its place in the great little more than a spliffs worth of grass on their your reputation playing Jazz Funk at Wigan Pier scheme of things would have been documented person. As I said, most were unemployed – it - can you describe this scene? in depth, and its influence on all that followed was difficult enough to find a job if you were GW: At its peak, every Tuesday there’d be white working class, let alone black. Then there around 250 black kids travelling to Wigan At its peak, every was the racism, which was a constant in their (in the North West of England) and on some lives. With all this going on the need to release special one-off nights there’d be as many as Tuesday there’d be the pressure was massive, and for many this 500, which is pretty phenomenal now I think was done on the dancefloor. about it (considering there were only a handful around 250 black kids of black families living in Wigan at the time)! travelling to Wigan AT: Was there a big interchange with other black clubs like Rock City in Nottingham, AT: When did you first start playing what [in the North West of the Locarno in B’ham and The Star Bar in became known as electro/electro funk? What England] and on some Huddersfield. Would you call it a scene. What was the reaction from the dancers? were some of the other clubs? GW: Before Planet Rock exploded on the scene special one-off nights GW: Very much so, via the travelling crowd in May ‘82, there had already been a handful from those cities (especially Birmingham) of releases in the previous months that would there’d be as many as who’d regularly come to my nights. When help define this new genre. D Train’s “You’re 500, the Powerhouse started promoting their All- The One For Me” (Prelude), “Time” by Stone Dayers, in 1983, it brought the focus more (West End), etc. After this, the controversy towards the Midlands, drawing in people not started with what the purists called the fully acknowledged. However, because it was only from further North, but also down South. ‘blatant’ Electro-Funk, stuff like ‘ET Boogie’ black led, at a time when black people were The All-Dayers played a major role, bringing by the Extra T’s, ‘Nunk’ by Warp 9 etc. The still very much marginalized in this country, the people together from all the different areas. crowd definitely began to split as a result, the whole era has been obscured… This was a dedicated crowd that was totally generalisation being that we lost a fair chunk prepared to travel in order to hear the latest of the white kids who’d been regulars at Wigan tunes - for many it was absolutely Pier whilst Jazz-Funk held sway, but filled the AT: To what extent do you think the black music essential to get up to Wigan every Tuesday, gap with black kids, who instantly went for this scene and in particular electro funk laid the or Legend the following night. We were living new Electro sound. Legend, being a black club, foundations for the house music explosion of in Thatcher’s Britain and jobs, especially in the didn’t have the same dynamic - it just went the late eighties. black areas, were scarce. A large percentage through the roof. GW: In places like Manchester, Birmingham, of my audience at Legend and the Pier would Nottingham and Sheffield, where the black have been unemployed. AT- When did Legend open - can you explain the scene was strong, the lineage of the House atmosphere and dancing scene connects directly to the Electro-Funk era. AT: Was there also an interchange between GW: Legend opened in 1980. It was so Both Mike Pickering and , DJ’s London and the North of England at that time? impressive that even now, over a quarter of a at The Hacienda before the House explosion, GW: Although car loads of Londoners did century on, it would blow people away if they have stated that the original pre-88 House venture as far as Manchester and Wigan from walked into such a venue - they just don’t make crowd at the club were mainly black kids. These time to time (Ashley Beedle certainly checked clubs like Legend anymore. It was the first club were the same kids who went to clubs like the things out up here), they were far more visible I’d worked in with a sub bass system, it was the Playpen, The Gallery, Berlin and Legend. Stu at events in the Midlands, which was obviously first British club I’d worked in with SL1200’s Allan, the DJ with the most influential House much nearer. DJs like Tim Westwood and

Paul ‘Trouble’ Anderson came up to play in GW - As dancing was an integral part of their Birmingham, so there were strong connections AT- You’ve been quite outspoken about the culture; it was completely natural for black being forged there. The Fusion dancers from Hacienda being given more credit at the kids go out to dance. With this in mind it’s not Birmingham would also go to London’s Electric expense of the black music clubs. Can you difficult to understand how they must have Ballroom to challenge the dancers there, and expand - why do you think this was. felt when, all of a sudden, there was no longer when Broken Glass (Manchester break dance GW- I don’t want to take anything away from any room on the dancefloor at The Hacienda, crew) appeared in London for the first time in The Hacienda but at the same time, I don’t with people filling every available inch, packed December ‘83, at Camden Palace, London’s believe it should be given what doesn’t belong together like sardines. When you watch the best known break crew of the time, Sidewalk, to it. What happened at The Hacienda didn’t old footage from The Hacienda you can see were there in force, with battle commencing. come about in some sort of vacuum, but was that there’s hardly any foot movement, the It’s also true that Gilles Peterson used to go to very much dependant on the foundations set dancing is pretty much all with the arms, Berlin to hear Colin Curtis play. Colin definitely in place by the black scene. The fact that it hands and hips. This is a world away from how made a big happened in Manchester wasn’t by accident, people danced in the black clubs. It must have impression on Gilles. but had to do with the cosmopolitan nature of seemed like their party had been well and truly the city, with blacks and students / Indie kids gatecrashed. AT: Can you talk a little about The Playpen mixing together to create a cultural melting pot - everyone from Colin Curtis to Hewan Clarke that would result in white AT - Where did those dancers go - did they played there didn’t they? grow out or move to jungle etc? GW: Along with The Gallery, Berlin and Legend GW- The majority of black kids moved away it completes a quartet of city centre venues What happened at The from the four-on-the-floor playlist of clubs like that would lay the groundwork for the coming The Hacienda, to forge their own new direction. House era. Colin remembers Winston Hazel Hacienda didn’t come Hip Hop, which had always been played being a regular - Winston would head across alongside the early House stuff on the black from Sheffield, where he and DJ Parrot about in some sort of scene in the North and Midlands (as well as would set up their Jive Turkey night, which vacuum, but was very during the pre-Rave period at The Hacienda), had so much influence on what subsequently began to be fused with it, creating the early happened in the city. Warp Records was born much dependant on Hardcore tracks, which, in turn, would evolve of Jive Turkey and Luke Unabomber, later into Jungle. Previously, black artists in this of the Electric Chair, cites the night as his the foundations set country had pretty much copied what was inspiration for getting into deejaying. in place by the black going on in the US or Jamaica, but this was a British take on things, AT: How important was radio at this time in scene. bringing together various elements of black particular Mike Shaft on Piccadilly Radio? music past and present to create new hybrids. GW: Piccadilly was the biggest local radio bands like the Happy Mondays and the Stone station outside London, broadcasting Roses embracing dance music, whilst black AT – I remember coming up from London to throughout the region, artists (albeit lesser known) like the Rap go to the Hacienda in ’89 and ending up at so Mike Shaft’s weekly Soul Show, ‘Takin’ Care Assassins and MC Buzz B, drew inspiration Konspiracy – totally feeling the Jam MC’s and Of Business’ wielded a lot of power. If Mike from Indie and Rock music. I don’t think that underground Manchester vibe. Looking played a new import, Spin Inn would invariably that there was some sort of sinister plot to back that felt like a continuation of that we have order more copies from the States to meet the ‘whitewash’ the history, it’s just that most of been talking about. A history I was unaware of expected demand. Along with Spin Inn and the the people writing about the House explosion at the time. All-Dayers, it was one of the lynchpins of the after it’s big bang of 88/89 weren’t previously entire scene up North. involved in the black scene, so ‘dance culture’ in GW: The black crowd who’d attended this country was, in their eyes, something of a The Hacienda could definitely be found at AT: And then of course you had Stu Allen new phenomenon. Ecstasy Konspiracy, but with Madchester on the verge whose importance for spreading house music muddied the water more than anything else, of being re-named Gunchester by the music is often forgotten and whilst the important link to Ibiza ‘87 was to media - the lucrative trade in drugs bringing GW: Stu Allan greatest legacy is his crucial role do with drugs, to the uninitiated, it seemed that in the gangs – it was all about to implode. as champion of Chicago House music, giving the DJ’s on that fateful trip also returned with Konspiracy would be short-lived, closed down by many of the formative House releases, on US this new music called House. the police, whilst The Hacienda would eventually labels like Trax and DJ International, their first close for a period itself, given the escalation of plays on British radio during the show’s ‘House AT- Did a lot of the black crowd go missing violence both outside and inside the club. But Hour’ when the house music took over in 1988. that’s another story…