One of the Haçienda's cult club nights returns for one night only.

As the current exhibition at Urbis (FAC 491) reminds us, Manchester's famous Haçienda club wasn't all bleepy-bleepy acid-housey; in the early 1980s particularly it hosted some great live gigs, and there was one massive club night - The Temperance Club –when you could guarantee musical boundaries would be pushed in all directions. Hosted at the Haçienda every Thursday night by DJ Dave Haslam in the late 1980s, it's where you’d hear pre-release copies Stone Roses singles alongside Public Enemy; Detroit techno next to classic rock; and New Order, the Stooges, the Pixies, and 'Sympathy for the Devil' every week.

The Temperance Club was created by the Haçienda's in-house promoter Paul Cons (now the proprietor of South) and launched on May 1st 1986. The eclectic mix of rock, hip-hop, indie and house played a key role in fuelling the indie-dance crossover that became a feature of the Madchester era.

Journalist and Brit-pop author John Harris was a frequent visitor, and recalls that "walking into the Haçienda was like being wrenched into the future". Four years after the Temperance Club had started, the world was catching up with its inspirational mix of music, and its devoted audience; according to the NME in May 1990 "In the hands of DJ Dave Haslam, Thursday night at the Hacienda has become, simply, the best night out in Britain."

Musicians who were regulars at the Temperance Club back in the late 1980s include Ian Brown of the Stone Roses, Ed O’Brien from Radiohead, Tim Burgess from the Charlatans, and Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons from the Chemical Brothers. Noel Gallagher was another regular; at the time, he was a teenager at the back of the queue, his pop stardom a dream away.

Since DJing at the Temperance Club, Dave Haslam has made his mark as an acclaimed music writer and still has a successful and continuing career as a DJ. He currently hosts 'Another Planet' at South every Friday; "There's more interest than ever in bands like the Pixies and Stooges – that music feels alive and important still – and bands like bands like the New Young Pony Club and the Gossip take their influences from everywhere, and the current clubbing generation seem more open-minded than any I've ever DJ'd for. So playing a classic Temperance Club selection seems to make a lot of sense; there are a lot of connections between then and now."

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Friday 24 August 2007
South
4a South King Street
Manchester M2 6DQ

'Another Planet' meets 'The Temperance Club'
Featuring DJs Dave Haslam and Ben Livingstone
10pm - 2.30am
Admission 5.00 GBP
(between 10pm and 11pm all drinks at 1986 prices!)

Labels: Dave_Haslam, FAC51_The_Hacienda, New_Order

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