The Haçienda Classics by moist

The Haçienda Classics
By moist

moist worked and played at the Haçienda. This is an edited extract from his work in progress, "The Haçienda: must be guilt."

The final text at the foot of the inside-back cover of Fac 351: 'The Haçienda Must Be Built!' reads: "Hear also 'Haçienda Classics', a compilation album of the best music played at the club over the last ten years."

As the unthinkable landmark Haçienda tenth birthday approached, it was deemed necessary to commemorate the historic event in true Factory style. Just how far wide of the mark the arçi-end of the management (ie those back-room staff that believed they had actually caused the dance revolution with their 'theme night' overlays) could go was difficult to imagine as the first ideas floated out of the collective emperor's derriere, though it soon became clear that on this occasion they would manage, finally, to avoid the mark completely. Remember, the idea is to celebrate the important, the ground-breaking, the revolutionary moments of the ten: the reinvention of the gig, the venue, the disco and the whole of club culture; the dance revolution; music; (an)architecture; design; space; style and class. Praxis.

A party. A concert. A fashion show. A book and maybe an album.

Maybe.

A party. The party. The obligatory 'bigger than all the rest put together' party to end all. A chance to out-gimmick the past five gimmick-ful years. DJ Frankie Knuckles. Right, that's the music out of the way, now what can we really entertain the punters with? Fireworks. Fairgrounds. Amusements. Props, bigger props and even bigger props. The PR-challenged people had a field day. Dodgems. A BIG wheel. That'll show those Mersey wannabes and southern Ministry wankers!

A concert. Lest we forget the early years whereby countless gigs kept the whole thing afloat, a Manchester concert to end all Manchester concerts was needed. A concert to follow on from ESG, The Smiths, Factory All-Stars. Obvious really: The Pet Shop Boys. Poncey, non-Mancunian, irrelevant, backing-tape-tastic and twenty quid. Perfect then (there was even a rumour that the 'grate' Bernard Manning had been asked to introduce the gig but, still smarting from the trouncing of a decade ago, impolitely refused).

A fashion show. A bank holiday fashion show. With all Manchester's all-important clothes shops and hairdressers guest-listed and Dave Haslam playing records. The pre-hype blurb reads: "Ten: The Fashion. In celebration of ten years of club couture; a catwalk show featuring…(big list of non-Mancunian designers)". Signing off the notices of this groundbreaking event were the four words that had, by now, become the mission statement of the whole arçienda movement: "Hair by Vidal Sassoon".

A book. The chance to glorify those elements desperate to be glorified in a witty, well written, well designed, intellectual coffee table book set in quality type with pictures. The real movers and players to be forever immortalised in text. By? Jon Savage. Qu'elle surprise. Oh, and an album. Maybe.

The gig was well attended by a concert-going public (most of whom, judging by the number of calls to staff on the day, had to find the place via A-Z) and is remembered more for the fullness of the club than by any other redeeming feature. The fashion show came, went, and like the arçienda unfaithful it was designed to glorify, was quickly forgotten. The book is still available to this day and, in amongst the spin and mutual back-slapping by the management, does actually provide some very relevant insights from some of the more obscure fraternity of Haçienda contributors. Selectively. The album?

Unbeknownst to all but an accidental few the album turned into a historic document of epic proportion. A beautiful compilation of the most important music played in our Haçienda. Each track democratically elected by an undemocratically unelected committee of DJs, it perfectly fulfilled the brief of simultaneous celebration, reminiscence and education. It was to be the first ever dance compilation album to be released by a discotheque. It was the best dance compilation ever assembled thus far. It would, both by name association and content, sell. In buckets. It even came in on (miniscule) budget. It was never released.

The idea for the album originated from the Wythenshawe wing of the Haçienda / Factory management (that had unsuccessfully campaigned for a Factory Dance label years earlier only to be told that dance was, in fact, "dead"). Taking inspiration from much heralded earlier compilations by Studio 54, Street Sounds et al, the idea was to provide a double album of après-club party music, but with Haçienda branding - at that time a groundbreaker of a concept that would be repeated with great success by the later 'superclub' albums - still being issued today - by the likes of Ministry of Sound and Cream.

The project was first officially discussed at a meeting of interested parties convened in the autumn of 1991 at Factory's new Charles Street HQ. Initial enthusiasms were pulled together to form a set of formative guidelines: every attempt should be made to distance the project from the dreadful 'Madchester' hyper-marque of the time; the album should plot a definitive timeline of the club's musical history; full-length versions of tracks should be used (no mixing) and, crucially, Haçienda DJs past and present should be fully involved in the compilation of the album itself.

Rob Gretton invited Dave Rofe (recently installed as resident cocktail bar DJ and one of the attendees of that first meeting) to kick the process off by compiling a list of potential tracks. A communiqué was drafted and dispatched to the entire DJ coterie by the Haçienda back office (letter and facsimile) initially requesting a 'top ten or twenty' from each DJ and reminding them of the historical aim of the project.

Dear ------

On May 21st 1992 The Haçienda will be celebrating its 10th Birthday / Anniversary. In order to celebrate this fact the idea of compiling an LP of the best music heard in the club over the past decade has been given approval. It was decided that the best way to compile this would be to ask a selection of past & present DJ's to submit a top 10/20 of the tunes that made The Haçienda special to them during the time they worked there. Some years were more productive in bearing classics than others and, as an overall picture of the last ten years has to be obtained, your selection should cover as broad a period of time as possible i.e. not just a couple of months in the summer.

Cheers.

An initial list of around sixty titles was collated from the returns and quickly whittled down to around forty by natural wastage and outright deletion. This second list was redistributed to the DJs for comment. There was one dissenter: as all references to the recent indy/dance crossover 'movement' had, by now, been expunged, its greatest cheerleader returned his copy crossed-out with the words: "Congratulations Dave [Rofe]. You've finally got what you wanted all along - the ultimate Friday night dance album".

The Haçienda Classics – the original tracklisting:

Side One

Afrika Bambaata & The Soulsonic Force - Planet Rock
Klein & MBO - Dirty Talk
NYC Peech Boys - Don't Make Me Wait
Hashim - Al Naafiysh (The Soul)
New Order - Blue Monday
Man Parrish - Boogie Down Bronx Maze: Twilight

Side Two

Marshall Jefferson - House Music Anthem
Farley Jack Master Funk - Love Can't Turn Around
Fingers Inc - Can You Feel It
T-Coy - Carino
Arnold Jarvis - Take Some Time Out Sterling Void: It's Alright
Richie Rich - Salsa House
Young MC - Know How

Side Three

Nicole - Rock Da House
Beat Club - Security
Turntable Orchestra - You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone
Deeelite - Wild Times (Mayday Mix)
Company Of One: Real Life
Think Tank - Hack One
Trevor Fung - The Shaker Song

Side Four

Extortion - How Do You See Me Now?
Clive Griffen - I'll Be Waiting
K-Klass - Rhythm Is A Mystery
Degrees Of Motion - Do You Want It Right Now?
Eleanor Mills - Mr Right

Further practical details had also, by now, been decided upon. The album was to be released on a new Gretton label: Manchester Records (later used as an indy foil to 'Rob's Records' itself), and the budget was set at £10,000. At this point Rofe was now officially retained and armed with only a copy of the International Showcase Music Business Guide, a complete lack of knowledge of disco music licensing and Rob's ten grand, he set off to attempt the second, crucial phase: licensing the actual tracks themselves.

In the compilation album business licensing can be highly profitable for the label, but not so for the artist. As the total number of artists on a compilation will share the meagre 16% (of retail price) royalty - before deductions - between them, they will usually ask for a fixed fee - up-front - as an advance against future returns. In reality, this fixed fee will probably be the only return they actually see.

Some of the artists approached (Bambaata, Klein, Jarvis, Fung, Think Tank) were so excited by the idea of being asked to contribute to an album bearing the Haçienda name they licensed their track with no advance fee. Bands that already had a relationship with Rob (Beat Club, New Order) donated likewise. Acts that had already been snapped up by major labels (and one band that hadn't, but acted like it had) generally charged full rate - the highest being around £1000 per tune.

By the birthday month of May the Factory in-house design team had been approached with an album name (thankfully the early favourite 'Decade-Dance' had been dropped) and a 'cheesy disco label' brief. The glitterball motif that had successfully been employed both at the tenth party itself and the book (itself nearing production) was quickly adopted. By June some twenty-seven tracks had their licenses agreed for a grand total of £9150 and were finally assembled into a complete running order. On June 24th 1992 the only ever copy of Haçienda Classics was compiled to cassette, ready to play at the next meeting. On time, under-budget, the album was ready for release. Maybe not.

Defeat, jaws and victory: the money for the album ran out. The book was safe - it had very little in the way of up-front running costs, was also designed in-house, and was published by a third party: IMP - purveyors of rock sheet music (originally the publishing wing of Warners, now owned by Faber). But, having gone over budget in May with the party celebrations and with no major label backing, the bargain licence bill simply couldn't be funded. No licences, no tunes, no Haçienda Classics: the album was dropped.

Would it have shifted units, historically educated the new generation of Haç-goers, confirmed and consolidated the haç's reputation? In praxical terms, who cares ? It was necessary.

To add vast insult to grave injury, Rob later calculated what the money originally earmarked for the album had actually been spent on: a temporary scaffolding bridge that spanned the canal to the rear of the club on the night of the party, erected so that the guests could access the funfair on the opposite bank! The supreme irony: a vehicle for bringing people into the club was sacrificed for one that took them away……..

Many thanks to Dave Rofe