Clash Music

Memorably called “the Eric Cantona of house music” by myself and Mark Rae amongst others, Jon Dasilva’s original stints at the Hacienda, dating from his epoch making residency at FAC 51’s Hot night, have deservedly led to his reputation as an innovative, adventurous DJ, inspiring a young Sasha and many others along the way.

Style wise Dasilva blends the finest muscular beats and the twisted soul that is at the heart of great House, Disco, Electro, and remains remarkably true to the original, open-minded, Balearic, acid house ideals. In his own mercurial and dancefloor devastating way, Dasilva is still one of the true DJ professionals and his skills and considerable discernment are hard to match.

“So what are your memories of Tony?

“There’s so many. I was asked that an awful lot around the time of his death and funeral and there’s one that just came to me a few weeks later. We went out to Turin about 2 years ago (a year before his death), it was a big festival in Turin linked with Manchester and industrial this and that, New Order were playing. I think on the way there we were going through a hell of an airport, it was either possibly actually in Madrid. Flew in, situation was the taped barriers and there was nobody between us and the counters. We just unclicked them all and went through and left it like that. Chaos. We left chaos behind. We got through and looked back and people walking everywhere and it was a good memory with Tony.

“Other than the kind of warmth, friendship during the Hacienda years he was a spectral figure really. He was huge really. In many ways coming from Preston, Manchester was the place as opposed to Liverpool or London for that matter. It kind of turned the sex on for Manchester in a way because the industrial grime of everything was sexy as opposed to the post industrial grime.

“The other figure to remember who was certainly intentionally backroom was Rob Gretton, between the two of them they reformed Manchester.”

“Tell us a bit about the Hacienda, what were the highs and lows of that era?

“The high was obviously the first year, 88, because it was so new and fresh and nobody had experienced anything like this before, certainly in this country. It was just you know, that was a unique moment in dance history I suppose. Not to deny people that had moments later that i.e. in the early nineties. Those were the highs. I suppose the involvement with New Order was pretty special. Interesting in the music and other things that came with it as well, certainly we managed to have some great parties with them. They were obviously still financing the Hacienda through this period so the least we could do is give them a party! There’s a load of really fun memories from those times.”

Lows were obviously seeing it close and seeing it close for pitiful reasons. I mean it didn’t owe that much money. People in charge perhaps just had enough. I find it quite strange that everybody’s suddenly going we love Tony Wilson. He was a pariah in many ways for a lot of people and they wanted to see the Hacienda shut earlier. They should have stepped in and turned into an arts centre but the building itself really should be here. Instead there’s stupid ugly fucking flats. That upsets me,

“At the moment you’ve been playing out with The Hacienda and releasing records again.."

“I’m doing dates with The Hacienda which I’m starting to enjoy now, only ‘cos I’ve got my own stuff coming out now that I feel comfortable going back again to those days. We do actually mix contemporary and old where we can, some places demand we don’t. There’s a single out at the moment on Perspex Records called Bowie In The Bronx with a Shinichi Osawa remix on there which is something I arranged which is fantastic. He’s now the boy so we got him early, cheap. Frankly I’m too old, I should have done it 10 years ago but then again that’s the story of my life.”

“Earlier you mentioned Manchester and Barcelona, what do you think gives Manchester its character and individuality that’s made it what it is?”

“You obviously look at its industrial, grim side. It obviously had an influence to an extent on the demand to actually get out in a way. There’s got to be more to it than that. Certainly there’s been a kind of rebel feel about Manchester in a sense that it feels apart from London, it’s a cog on its own, it works on its own. Tony very much was somebody that it was post punk thing that we all felt, anti centralisation, brain drain to London. Tony exaggerated that and brought it to the fore, so there was that feeling that you stayed in the north. It’s so disparate. I don’t even think it’s for me to even begin to try and explain.”

The Virgo Mechanically Replayed (TVMR) debut single, “Bowie In The Bronx” is out now on Perspex Recordings featuring Jon Dasilva / Virgo Hi Fi Mixes and two Shinichi Osawa mixes.

By Dominco Marte

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