“The Hacienda was a very levelling place and very mixed. If you went to Hot or the Hacienda on a Friday night, the cultural mix of people was really diverse. You’d have people you wouldn’t think would be into the scene, like taxi drivers, nurses, doctors….” Graham Massey, 808 State
“At the beginning, it was just brilliant in the club. I remember I just used to look at people and you know when you want to just know everybody cos everybody just looked so great and I didn’t know anybody, then a year later I knew everybody.” Rowetta
“There were guys like Bobby Gillette and Alfonso, the unsung heroes of the scene who no-one had ever heard of but without the pied pipers leading the scene then it wouldn’t have continued. You need those kingpins, on dollar, on that level, on the shopfloor. You needed people to look after it, like Eastern Bloc, it was a nice place to hang out, provided you were on the in.” Darren Partington
“The change was that people just used to turn up at nine and go straight on the dancefloor at nine o’ clock. They’re not being cool, weren’t milling around or waiting for a tune they liked to go on the dancefloor.The whole feel of clubland changed there and then. You could barely hear the tunes for the whistles and the cheers. It was a rush.Jon Dasilva
“One thing I’ll also never forget is week in, week out, especially on the Fridays, the anticipation of those nights began in the middle of the week. Like when I used to turn up outside before the doors open there was already an amazing anticipation and atmosphere in the street. People were getting out of cars and out of taxis and running to join the queue which was already snaking round the corner over the canal. It was the enthusiasm which was all around you and the fact that once people got in, they ran to the dancefloor. That doesn’t happen nowadays. I suppose now everyone’s got so much choice and takes so much for granted that I don’t suppose you’ll see those sort of days again.” Graeme Park
“The Hac was a massive driving force, for me personally, ideas came thick and fast. I was good mates with bands like Evolution, Love Decade, 2 For Joy, K-Klass, and it’s incredible cos every single one of us charted because we’d all been so inspired. We were all so taken by it, it became our equivalent of that Sex Pistols gig. That was a legendary thing where all these big bands came out of it but we went to the Hacienda, and a load of bands came out of it. And if not bands, graphic designers, djs, fashion designers, all doing their own things, it inspired us all.” Suddi Raval
“They were wild and exciting times. You certainly weren’t thinking that it was going to go on for decades or anything like that, mainly because you didn’t think you’d be able to do it for decades.” Jon Dasilva
“We were rebels. It wasn’t a money making thing. A lot of good people lost a lot of money.” Mike Pickering
“No I’d never do it again. But if it was 23 years ago and Rob walked in the room going I want to run a club, I’d do it then. I’d never change that. I had some fantastic times in there, I has some of the scariest night of my life as well. You lay in bed on a Friday, Saturday night thinking “God I hope that phone doesn’t ring”. The responsibility, when the drugs got involved was just too much ‘cos you were dabbling with peoples lives. And then the gangsters were there, you just couldn’t do it, you know, I didn’t have the balls.” Peter Hook
“ Tony’s thing was that it was all based on anarchy, “The Situationalist’s Review” which was typically an anarchistic Italian piece.” Mike Pickering
