A brief history of the Haçienda and its wider cultural impact

The Haçienda was an iconic Manchester nightclub 

It became famous during the Madchester years of the 1980s and early 1990s. What made it so famous though? Is there any comparable events going on today?

Author - Sophie T 

Creation

The Haçienda was opened on 21 May 1982. Over the first few years, a wide range of musical acts appeared at the club. One of the earliest was the German EBM band Liaisons Dangereuses, which played there on 7 July 1982. 

The Smiths performed there three times in 1983. It also served as a venue for Madonna on her first performance in the United Kingdom, on 27 January 1984. 

House music

In 1986, it became one of the first British clubs to start playing house music, with DJs Hewan Clarke, Greg Wilson and later Mike Pickering and Little Martin 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

The growth of the 'Madchester' scene had 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.

Other iconic Haçienda gigs

The Stone Roses band played at the Haçienda on  February 27th 1989. They performed songs that would be classic anthems for the next 35 years. This She Bangs the Drums, Sally Cinnamon and I Am the Resurrection. 

A few years later, the now legendary Oasis performed there with Noel Gallagher reportedly saying that his band playing there felt like a rite of passage. 

Eventual closure

Security failures at the club were one of the contributing factors to the club eventually closing, it was also argued that the most likely cause was its finances. The club simply did not make enough money from the sale of alcohol, and this was mainly because many patrons instead turned to drug use. As a result, the club rarely broke even as alcohol sales are the main source of income for nightclubs.

Ultimately, the club's long-term future was crippled and, with spiraling debts, the Haçienda eventually closed definitively in the summer of 1997. Peter Hook stated in 2009 that the Haçienda lost up to £18 million in its final years

Legacy

The overall legacy was huge. It was instrumental in the careers of Happy Mondays, Oasis, The Stone Roses, 808 State, Chemical Brothers and Sub Sub.

One former attendee of the club said: "The Hacienda lives on in spirit, celebrated in music history and remembered fondly as the place where Manchester found its rhythm and the world danced to its beat."

In addition, popular music nights from today including The Warehouse Project probably wouldn't exist without the history of the The Haçienda being in people's consciousness. 

All that being said, some have been critical that some within Greater Manchester's current music scene have become too obsessed with the iconic nightclub. One example of this came from Amy W, who said: "Manchester used to be reinventing the wheel in terms of nightlife and music. Now we go on about history all the time."

24 Hour Party People 

This is a 2002 British comedy-drama film that looks at this era of music and culture. The film begins with the punk rock era of the late 1970s and moves through the 1980s into the rave and DJ culture and the "Madchester" scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s. It stars Steve Coogan as Tony Wilson. The video below contains a clip from the film.

What's interesting is that a famous phrase in “This is Manchester. We do things differently here” is a quote that is often attributed to Anthony H Wilson, a champion of Manchester. However, there is next to no evidence that Wilson ever said it. In fact, Steve Coogan said it in the film and it wasn't actually said by Tony himself.