Soup of the Day

FAC 51 The Haçienda

Today marks the 25th anniversary since the opening of FAC 51 - The Haçienda, a music venue that defined both Manchester and the UK music scene in the closing years of the twentieth century. Unfortunately it was almost exactly ten years ago that the lights went out on FAC 51 for the last time and today there is no sign of the original club. In it’s place is a large block of luxery apartments, which is a real shame that such a piece of modern history has been lost forever - at least the name plate survived.

All that know me personally will know I was too young to have gone to The Haçienda. Born just a year before it opened, I was approaching my 16th birthday when it shut. But I knew of it’s existance through the appearances on Channel 4 (The Tube) or the regular features on national news for another drug related murder. The club has been responsible for a lot of things in it’s time, most of all creating a new Manchester from the old industrial past.

Everyone who has seen 24 Hour Party People (Michael Winterbottom, 2002) will know the story of Tony Wilson, Factory Records and the great and notorious groups that are directly associated with The Haçienda; notibly Joy Division (later New Order) and The Happy Monday’s. So I will not repeat what has been covered by that film, although the accuracy of the film is still debated today. But what is clear is what The Haçienda gave back to Manchester and to England. In 1982 the country was in a state of transition, Margret Thatcher was busy ‘reforming’ everything, especially nationalised industry, which basically meant selling them off. Manchester and Salford were heavily hit by unenployment due to the closure of the cotton mills, Salford Quays docks and other big industry (Steel, Defense) in the Greater Manchester area.

But they say that there is nothing better to get the creative juices flowing than a bit of depression and repression. Tony Wilson used his record company Factory Records to launch a new venue in Manchester that would usher a new generation of music lovers world wide. Manchester already had invented the modern practice of a DJ using two decks simulataneously to enable seamless playback at The Ritz nightclub in the 1940’s, but now DJ’ing would change gear. As Steve Coogan (playing Tony Wilson) says in 24 Hour Party People, this was the first time the crowds actually started cheering for the DJ’s rather than the bands. It was the birth of the super-DJ’s we all know about an follow today; from originals such as Graeme Park to modern day superstars like Norman Cook.

Speaking of Norman Cook, he visited FAC 51 on a special evening in 1984 when Madonna made her first ever UK appearence at The Haçienda, which appropriately was being filmed for Channel 4’s The Tube programe. Once again prooving that Madonna had her finger firmly on pop-cultures pulse even at the beginning of her career.

Like all great things, The Haçienda eventually became the victim of its own success. The alternative scene was just discovering the next popular recreational drug, Ecstacy (Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, MDMA), that had two rather unfortunate side effects on the club. Firstly Ecstacy usually causes the user too only want to drink water and all clubs make most of their money from alcohol sales, not door entry fees. Secondly the sheer volume of Ecstacy consumption at The Haçienda attracted large numbers of dealers who eventually faught for their turf inside the club itself, creating a number of high profile shootings. Tony Wilson had to result to using drug dealers as security and from that point the first nail in the coffin had been hammered in. Amazingly during this time the management of The Haçienda actually considered selling Ecstacy in the club as an alternative to alcohol just to make money, but I am sure the lawyers advised them against that idea. Since then it has been alledged that many big clubs (I won’t mention any names here to save litigation) have actively encouraged, if not supplied, drug use in their clubs ensuring they took their share of the profits.

Today the only echo of the past is the remaining catalogue number and name on the wall of the new Haçienda apartments on the former site of the club. The apartments have little relation to the amazing history on the site, except for a nice feature along the rear of the building where the grating for the car park features a timeline of the history of the club from opening to closure. To see that, you just need to walk along the Bridgewater cannal away from Rain Bar towards Deansgate Locks.

It is sad that today’s youth have almost no idea of what The Haçienda is, or the history surrounding the great club. Siân regularly has to explain the history of the site to the young people she mentors as they are completely ignorant of what was there before. Manchester has not had a place like it since and probably will not again for a long time to come.

If you’re visiting me at any point and want to have a look, it is a two minute walk from our flat and I’d be more than happy to take you down there. For a much more detailed and accurate representation of those years, read Tony Wilson’s novalisation of 24 Hour Party People, then watch the film.