It's the superclub that put Manchester on the world map - and now a new BBC film will take viewers on a trip back in time to when the Hacienda was the centre of the clubbing universe. The new documentary, to tie in with the 40th anniversary of the club first opening in Manchester, features rarely seen footage of some of the big stars who performed there, as well as the incredible story of how the Hacienda all came to exist.
Oasis icon Noel Gallagher will talk in the documentary of how he'd "never danced before going to the Hacienda ". While footage will show the extraordinary moment Madonna made her first live performance in the UK in the early 80s - to an unsuspecting Manchester crowd who couldn't really care less at the time.
And the film will explore the extraordinary way the club came to exist - from the legendary Factory Records founders who used money from their most successful band New Order to plough into the Manchester venue. New Order founding members Peter Hook and Stephen Morris are among the key figures who speak in the new Hacienda film, which airs on BBC2 on Saturday, November 5, at 10.15pm.
Read more : Hacienda club turns 40 - the highs, the lows, the £6m losses as told by key figures behind the venue
For anyone who raved inside the vast former shipping warehouse, the BBC film will also screen for the first time an incredible virtual reality recreation of the iconic club interior, famously designed by Ben Kelly. Viewers will get to feel as if they are walking through the club once again with its legendary black and yellow stripes, bollards around the dancefloor and through the huge warehouse clubbing space.
DJs who famously played the club inclulding Mike Pickering who created the iconic Nude night and Paul Cons and Kath McDermott who would later play at the seminal Flesh gay club night also speak in the documentary. Mike sums up exactly what an impact the Hacienda had on Manchester at the very start of the film, saying: "It was like a spaceship landing in this grey city."
He added: "We were trying to introduce to Manchester a whole new thought, a whole new way of living." But while culturally the impact would be profound, in terms of making a business out of the Hacienda it never financially stacked up.
New Order's Peter Hook says in the film: "We weren't earning a lot of money from New Order because most of it was going into the Hacienda."
Formerly a yacht warehouse, the Hacienda was first opened in Manchester by the Factory Records board of Rob Gretton, Tony Wilson, Alan Erasmus and Peter Saville with their band New Order back in May 1982. Having seen the vast warehouse clubs of New York City, the plan was to bring that aesthetic and vibe back to Manchester.
Click or swipe below for a gallery of photos inside the Hacienda:-
In the early years it would become known as a live gig venue, boasting performances from the likes of The Smiths, New Order and The Fall.
Although the very first night would see a performance from controversial Manc comedian Bernard Manning. Who famously told bosses after playing the venue: "Keep the money, you'll need it for this s*** hole".
Channel 4 music show The Tube would go on to film there in 1984 when the young Madonna would make her debut - and former club manager Leroy Richardson will speak in the documentary of his memories of her appearance. He says: "I thought we've got a superstar here - she knew it - but I don't think anybody else did at the time."
But it was not until 1988, with the house music movement, coinciding with the explosion of the drug Ecstasy, that would see the rave scene born - and the Hacienda at the epicentre of it all.
Happy Mondays star Shaun Ryder will speak vividly about that time in the film - and of how the band would party so hard they rarely went home "except for a shower".
Shaun even jokes: "We probably didn't go home, apart from a shower, for five or six years. Bez still hasn't really been home since about 1989."
It was known right from the start as a club where you could "come as you are" - with no dress code and where an extraordinary mix of people would happily dance side by side.
The club would go on to have a huge impact on the many thousands of revellers who would regularly attend. That includes Noel Gallagher, who speaks in the film of how the Hacienda opened his eyes from the moment he first went back in 1983.
In the film he says: "Musically, it opened me up to everything." He also reveals that he'd "never danced in his life before the Hacienda" and how he still enjoys the Hacienda club nights held in recent years at the Warehouse Project.
He says: "I come up to Hacienda nights when they're on with my mates, the music is still great, people are still talking about it."
But as well as the highs, the documentary will show the terrible lows as the club progressed towards its inevitable closure in 1997 amid increasing door trouble and gang violence. Former club manager Ang Matthews says in the documentary: "I was having to give CCTV to police all the time, it was just losing all its fun."
DJ Mike Pickering recalls one night when everyone was marched out of the club after an incident. He says: "We got walked out of the club and there was riot police with shields. I resigned at that point".
It would close with staggering financial losses, with the members of New Order saying they're still not sure exactly how much of their money went in to the club.
After the club's closure it would lay empty for years - before being bought by developers and demolished to make way for flats. It is now the Hacienda apartment block at the corner of Whitworth Street West and Albion Street.
But now, 40 years on, the Hacienda has been given a new lease of life as a club night. It continues to inspire and energise revellers with the Hacienda Classical live shows, with a 7th annual event to be held at Castlefield Bowl in summer 2023, just this week announced by bosses.
In the documentary, Hook says: "The legacy is about the people, that people were able to meet and feel free."
Hacienda - the Club That Shook Britain - airs on BBC2 on Saturday, November 5, at 10.15pm
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