Hacienda - Acid House Legend 101

The Hacienda is one of Britain's most legendary music venues. Made famous in Manchester by Tony Wilson the venue introduced the likes of the Sex Pistols, Madonna and later Joy Division, New Order, Stone Roses and more. The long running disagreement on whether House music was launched in Manchester or in London wont be covered here. What is written in concrete is the fact that both Hacienda and Soundshaft (home to Future, Spectrum, Land of Oz) held the longest and most established club-nights in all the land. When the time comes when only our dust remains historians will speak of Hacienda and Manchester's thriving Acid House scene.

The Biology Event - Acid House 1989 (original footage)

This Biology event was held in Watford and totally illegal as was any Acid House event. I was actually involved in the management of the first open air Acid House in the UK. The meeting point was a pub called The Game Bird and i remember arriving with Biology promoter Jarvis in the pop band Bros limo. The pub owners were a lovely older couple though slightly freaked out by the surprise appearance of thousands of vehicles. Venue address or meeting points were rarely given to anyone that didn't need to know and the owners of this pub just didn't need to know.

Jarvis and i both introduced ourselves to the couple promising to leave security at the pub and assuring them that the masses of people congregating around their property were completely harmless. Public persona was so important for us when dealing directing with members of the public, especially when their first impressions of Acid House and party promoters were negatively impacted by the lies printed by the national press. So for sensible promoters who could foresee a future for bigger better and legal events, every liaison was handled with respect.

You see, it was important for the government to completely demonise Acid House because once branded and connected with serious crime such as drug dealing to teenagers, gangsters and even rape. The public outraged by newspaper headlines or tv news pieces would fully support all efforts to eradicate such behavior.  This meant a blind eye is turned while the government forced law enforcement agencies to treat promoters such as Genesis as enemies of the state.

This event was a milestone because it was illegal and unlike all our other events the actual stage was erected over 5 days so the police could've stopped it at anytime. Worried that we could be arrested if we fronted the event earlier in the evening we didn't roll up until the party was underway. After dropping Jarvis off i returned to the pub in the limo and picked up the pub landlords to show them the site. I handed them over to one of the female members of staff and had a mad old night which didn't finish until Monday A.M...

The full story of this event is in my book Class of 88 - The True Acid House Experience (Virgin)

Acid House Montages

I did these montages about ten years ago and they been collecting dust every since...

Behind The Groove - Collusion Magazine 1983

Behind The Groove: New York City's Disco Underground originally appeared in an English music magazine, Collusion, issue # 5 from September of 1983. The idea for the piece was to do an overview of the dance music scene in NYC though interviews with six of the most important New York DJ/remixers - Walter Gibbons, Francois Kevorkian, Larry Levan, David Mancuso, John 'Jellybean' Benitez and Shep Pettibone.

Balearic - In the Begining circa 1987 - 101

'In the beginning there was House' and for Americans that much is true. In the UK we opted for the sound of the Balearic's which was established by Argentinean deejay Alfredo in Ibiza 1987. The new sound or rather old sound new configuration was a mishmash of genres put together in a seamless fusion of global beats. The earliest pivotal club-nights such as Future, Spectrum, Shoom, and Rage all embraced the Balearic sound. The advent of the internet means i can search and post some of those originals sounds to my blog. So here are some of the tunes that kicked started an entire movement which was later wrongly called rave.

Jibaro - Electra - Love this tune...takes 



Why Why Why - Wooden Tops - Massive tune in Spectrum / Shoom 



Drop the Deal - Code 61 - Huge Tune



Amnesia - Hysteria



Rock to the Beat - 101 - Now this was massive brings memories flooding back



Flesh - Split Second - Another classic from 1987




More to Come...