A diverse crowd of Hacienda regulars, Manchester musicians, Factory Records illuminati, friends and hangers on descended on Urbis last night to celebrate the launch of Hacienda 25: The Exhibition - FAC 491.

Rather appropriately as we waited outside some wag commented "it's just like the Hacienda itself - a large queue for no apparent reason".

Once inside and bolstered by a free drink courtesy of Stolichnaya (unfortunately it wasn't a typo on the invitation and it was only "a free drink" and not "free drinks") an energetic Peter Hook was DJing in the main space.

Gradually people filtered upstairs to the freshly-completed exhibition space itself. Spread out over several rooms and grouped both chronologically and thematically, it contained just about everything and anything from the history of the Hacienda.

Original artefacts began with the original '51' doors, Kevin Cummins's portrait of Tony Wilson, Hacienda 1 by Peter Saville and as such it evoked strong memories of stepping into the club itself.

A rather splendid Hacienda family tree by Elliott Eastwick charted the links between all the people who were ever linked to the club.

Films and videos of live performances, TV documentaries (including FAC 104) and original scratch videos by Claude Bessy and Swivel were available for your own viewing pleasure.

A whole section was devoted to the Visual Brand Signifiers of the Hacienda through the years. From original conceptual sketches for birthday posters to a brand new pair of FAC 51-Y3 trainers (via a bottle on Vin D'Usine) this was a particular highlight.

Downstairs the crowd spilled out to the popular smoking and drinking area to the sounds of Sasha and finally Graeme Park (who was introduced by Oliver Wilson who had just auctioned a pair of FAC 51-Y3s to a lucky lady for a cool grand).

[By the way, if you want to get your hands on a pair at the slightly-more-reasonable price of 345 quid then get yourself to the new flagship Y3 store in the Triangle, Manchester, on either Monday 23 or Monday 30 July. These are the only two days that the limited edition trainer is being sold.]

Proceedings came to end at a respectable midnight but continued into the wee small hours at One Central Street.

A non-exhaustive list of those in attendance: Ian Brown (sporting a pair of FAC51-Y3s), Pat Carroll, Pete Carroll, Andy Connell, Paul Cons, Terry Hall, Peter Hook, Karen Jackson, Trevor Johnson, Ben Kelly, Ang Matthews, Bruce Mitchell, moist, Damian Morgan, Martin Moscrop, Liz Page, Graeme Park, Suddi Raval, Lindsay Reade, Gonnie Rietveld, Matthew Robertson, Andy Robinson, Rowetta, Shaun Ryder (sporting a Y3 bomber jacket), Sasha, Peter Saville, Tim Sinclair, Ian Tilton, Oliver Wilson, Andrea Zapp.

Special Cerysmatic shout-outs to Andy Brydon, David Sultan, Iain Smedley (hope you caught your flight), Alex the Red and his mates, Rebecca, Damian Morgan, Suddi (I wanna see those pix!), the King's Arms, the Marble Arch and Tampopo, for pre-match entertainment, moist for beer, Jan Hargreaves, Liz Page & Andy Connell, Pete + Pat + Karen + Sam, Leroy Richardson and all at One Central Street for post-match entertainment, Colin (wish you coulda gone), Tim 'the greatest lover and photographer in the world' Sinclair & mates and Matt Robertson.

Labels: artefacts, Ben_Kelly, FAC51_The_Hacienda, Factory_Records, Kevin_Cummins, Leroy_Richardson, Martin_Moscrop, Matthew_Robertson, Oliver_Wilson, Pat_Carroll, Peter_Hook, Peter_Saville, poster, Section_25, Tony_Wilson

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