| Fac 51 Haçienda
(better known simply as The Haçienda) was a nightclub
and music venue in Manchester, England. It became most famous
during the "Madchester" years of the late 1980s
and early 1990s, during the 1990s it was labelled the most
famous club in the world by Newsweek magazine. The Haçienda
opened in 1982, and despite considerable and persistent financial
troubles survived until 1997 – during much of this time
the club was mainly supported by record sales from New Order.
The Haçienda is associated with the rise of acid house
and rave music.
The warehouse formerly occupied by the
club is at 11-13, Whitworth Street West on the southside of
the Rochdale Canal: the frontage is curved and built of red
brick. Before it was turned into a club, the Haçienda
was a yacht builder's shop and warehouse before becoming a
Bollywood cinema in the 1970s, showing films to the South
Asian immigrants from the Manchester area.
Originally conceived by Rob Gretton, it was largely financed
by the record label Factory Records and the band New Order
along with label boss Tony Wilson. It was located on the corner
of Whitworth Street West and Albion Street, close to Castlefield,
in the centre of the city. FAC 51 was its official designation
in the Factory catalogue. New Order and Tony Wilson were directors
of the club.
Designed by Ben Kelly, upon recommendation by Factory graphic
designer Peter Saville, upstairs consisted of a stage, dance
area, bar, cloakroom, cafeteria area and balcony with a DJ
booth. Downstairs was a cocktail bar called 'The Gay Traitor,'
which referred to Anthony Blunt, a British art historian who
spied for the Soviet Union. The two other bars, 'The Kim Philby'
and 'Hicks,' were named after Blunt's fellow spies. From 1995
onwards, the lower cellar areas of the venue were converted
to create the 5th Man, a smaller music venue.
The name comes from a slogan of the radical group Situationist
International: "The Hacienda Must Be Built", from
Formulary for a New Urbanism by Ivan Chtcheglov. A hacienda
is a large homestead in a ranch or estate usually in places
where Colonial Spanish culture has had architectural influence.
Even though the cedilla is not used in Spanish, the spelling
"Haçienda" was decided on for the club because
the cedilla makes the "çi" resemble "51,"
the club's catalogue number.
History
The Haçienda's exterior on Whitworth St. WestA wide
portfolio of important 20th century musical acts appeared
at the club. The Smiths performed there three times in 1983.
It served as a venue for Madonna on her first performance
in the United Kingdom, on 27 January 1984. She was invited
to appear as part of a one-off, live television broadcast
by Channel 4 music programme The Tube.
At one time the venue also included a hairdressing salon.
As well as club nights there were regular concerts, including
one in which Einstürzende Neubauten drilled into the
walls that surrounded the stage.
In 1986, it became one of the first clubs to start playing
house music, with DJs Mike Pickering (of Quando Quango and
M People) and Little Martin (later with Graeme Park) hosting
the visionary "Nude" night on Fridays. This night
quickly became legendary, and helped to turn around the reputation
and fortunes of the Haçienda, which went from making
a consistent loss to being full every night of the week by
early 1987.
Acid house and Rave
The Haçienda's Interior before openingThe growth of
the Madchester scene was little to do with the healthy house
music scene in Manchester at the time but it was boosted by
the success of the Haçienda's pioneering Ibiza night,
"Hot", an acid house night hosted by Pickering and
Jon DaSilva in July 1988.
Although peaking in popularity during the rise of the rave
era with many events there, most of the money ended up circulating
to drug dealers due to the popularity of ecstasy on the club
scene. The Haçienda itself saw very little of the nightly
expenditure. In July 1989, the United Kingdom's first ecstasy
death, 16 year old Clare Leighton, occurred in the club after
she suffered internal bleeding from taking a tablet.[8] The
resulting problems caused the club to close for a short period
in early 1991, before reopening with improved security later
the same year.
Hacienda DJs made regular and guest appearances on radio
and TV shows like Granada TV's 'Juice', Sunset 102 and BBC
Radio 1. Between 1994 and 1997 "Hacienda FM" was
a weekly show on Manchester dance station Kiss 102.
Security was frequently a problem, particularly in the club's
latter years. There were several shootings inside and outside
the club, and relations with the police and licensing authorities
became troubled. When local magistrates and police visited
the club in 1997 they witnessed a near-fatal assault on a
man in the streets outside when 18-year-old Andrew Delahunty
was hit over the head from behind with what looked like a
metal bar before being pushed into the path of an on-coming
car.
Although security failures at the club were one of the contributing
factors to the club eventually closing, the most likely cause
was finances. The club simply didn't make enough money from
the sale of alcohol, and this is mainly down to the fact many
patrons instead turned to drug use. As a result the club rarely
broke even as clubs rely on the sales of alcohol as the main
source of income. Ultimately, the club's
long term future was crippled and, with spiralling debts,
the Haçienda eventually closed forever in the summer
of 1997.
Legacy
The Haçienda lost its entertainments licence in June
1997, following a final gig on June 15th by Spiritualized
and remained open for a short period as an art gallery before
finally going bankrupt and closing for good. After the Haçienda
officially closed, it was used as a venue for two free parties
organised by the Manchester free party scene. One of the parties
ended in a police siege of the building while the party continued
inside.
The Whitworth Street West site was purchased from the receivers
by Crosby Homes. They chose to demolish the nightclub, and
reuse the site for the construction of domestic flats. The
iconic name was kept for the new development, with the Hacienda
name licensed from Peter Hook, who owns the Haçienda
name and trademark. The nightclub was demolished in 2002 -
Crosby homes had acquired the property some time before that
and, on Saturday 25 November 2000, held a charity auction
of the various fixtures and fittings from the nightclub. Clubgoers
and enthusiasts from across the country attended to snap up
memorabilia ranging from the DJ booth box to radiators to
emergency exit lights.
Michael Winterbottom's 2002 film 24 Hour Party People starring
Steve Coogan as Tony Wilson, tells the story of the Haçienda.
The movie was filmed in 2001, and required reconstructing
the Haçienda as a temporary set in a Manchester factory,
which was then opened to ticket holders for a night, acting
as a full-scale nightclub (except with free bar) as the film
shooting took place.
The Manchester exhibition centre Urbis hosted an exhibition
celebrating the 25th anniversary of the club's opening, which
ran from mid-July 2007 until mid-February 2008. Peter Hook
and many other of those originally involved contributed or
loaned material.
The Manchester Museum of Science and Industry now holds a
variety of Hacienda and Factory records artefacts, including
the main loading bay doors from the club, and a wide array
of posters, fliers and props. Rob Gretton bequeathed his collection
of Hacienda memorabilia to the Museum.
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