Throughout the late 80s and early 90s, Manchester was rife with baggy fashion and acid house. From the Happy Mondays and Bez’s iconic maracas to The Hacienda that was full of bucket-hat-clad kids, obsessed with hedonism and a little party-helper called MDMA, Manchester was at the centre of something pretty special.
It was an iconic era in British youth culture, and as we have our fair share of oversized football tees, baggy jeans and bucket hats, we wanted to do a deep dive into the madness that was Madchester.
From how it started to what it actually was, and why Manchester’s cathedral for raving eventually shut its doors for the last time.
The 70s: The foundation for raving
The 60s/70s was dominated by soul and funk music that mostly made its way to the UK from over the pond. This eventually led way to another trend, Northern soul.
Northern soul was a music and dance movement that started in Northern England and the Midlands in the early 70s. It actually emerged from the mod scene in clubs like the Wigan Casino and Manchester’s Twisted Wheel club.
At these Northern soul nights, DJ’s would spin 60s Motown records, sped up. The goal was to find the lesser-known soul tracks, the ones that no one had heard before. Teens would be stomping, floating and bouncing to the ground, in dance moves that are too wild to describe in words (you can get a taste of Northern soul dance moves here).
Northern soul was a space for disillusioned young people to have something that was their own. Many of these kids were working in local pits or factories, so the weekends were a chance to let loose. The events were full of kids who were happy to dance all night long, with the help of some chemical-based uppers.
A pastime that would continue well into the future.
The Sex Pistols ‘76 show: the start of Madchester
In the mid-70s the Sex Pistols were only just starting out their short-lived career. The band was formed in 1975, in London, and in 1976 they played a gig in Manchester.
Now, there were only about 40 people at this gig. And the people that were there, weren’t really that impressed. But, they were inspired… in a kind of “I can do better than that” way.
The Sex Pistols were proof that you didn’t really need to know how to sing, or even how to play your instrument that well, to get on stage. You just had to do it.
It was thanks to this average Sex Pistols gig that we ended up with some of the most iconic Madchester bands not just of that era, but ever.
So, who was there?
- The Buzzcocks: It was actually Howard Trafford and Pete McNeish (later Howard Devato and Pete Shelley) that organised the gig. They wanted to bring the Sex Pistols to Manchester so they could support them onstage. In the end, they weren’t even ready to support them. But, when the Sex Pistols came back two months later (to a sold out show), Devato and Shelley were there warming up the crowd.
- Peter Hook: At that time he was a clerk for Salford council, but the day after the gig he walked into a music shop and bought a bass guitar. Not long after that, Joy Division was formed followed by New Order a few years later.
- Stephen Morrisey: Morrisey was severely unimpressed by the Sex Pistols performance. He wrote “The bumptious Pistols in jumble sale attire had those few that attended dancing in the aisles despite their discordant music”… “I’d love to see the Pistols make it. Maybe then they will be able to afford some clothes which don’t look as though they’ve been slept in”. But despite his disdain, the gig was a catalyst for The Smiths. The Smiths then became the first indie band, inspired by punk, to achieve mainstream success. All five of their albums reached the top five of the UK album charts.
Mark E Smith, Ian Curtis and Tony Wilson (more about him later), were also there. This gig was a who’s who of underground icons.
Steve Diggle summed it up perfectly…
“That was the day the punk rock atom was split… That’s where it exploded from, it changed Manchester and it changed the world.”
In the years after that gig, bands like the Smiths, New Order and the Fall were dominating the music scene in Manchester. Then, in 1982, came the icing on top of the Madchester cake. The Hacienda.
The Hacienda: The home of Madchester
The Hacienda opened in 1982, the brainchild of Rob Gretton (manager of Joy Division and New Order and partner in Factory Records). Tony Wilson was also involved in the fun. This club reimagined how clubs needed to look. The fancy, suave posturing was gone and the warehouse-look was in.
In the early days, New Order were the Manchester sound. The band’s success helped fund the club (as it was actually losing a fair amount of money). The Hacienda was also home to appearances from artists and bands like:
- The Smiths
- Madonna (on her first UK performance)
- Happy Mondays
- The Stone Roses
- Inspiral Carpets
- 808 State
- Chemical Brothers
Baggy music and baggy fashion begins
It was this era of music that gave us baggy music and baggy fashion.
Baggy music was full of psychedelic, acid-house-influenced guitar music, usually with a funky drum beat. Then, alongside the music, came baggy fashion. Fans and lovers of The Hacienda would party in baggy jeans (often flared jeans), brightly coloured tops or even football tops, finished off with a bucket hat (like Roses drummer Reni).
Madchester baggy fashion was part comfy rave wear, part hippie and part football hooligan. I mean, who doesn’t want to be comfy when they’re dancing all night long?
(A note on football hooligans — at the time of The Hacienda’s heyday, the Chief Constables of Merseyside and Greater Manchester actually said the club reduced football hooliganism. Maybe because the fans were full of love-inducing substances instead).
Joe Bloggs: Filling a gap in the Madchester market
In 1986 a 24-year-old Shami Ahmed saw a gap in the market: designer-style clothes for those who couldn’t afford to shop high-end.
Shami wanted to make designer-glamour available to all, available to any old ‘Joe Bloggs’. And so, a brand was born. That brand made all kinds of baggy jeans, bold t-shirts and the iconic 25-inch flares that became synonymous with the Madchester era.
Getting heavy in the late 80s
In the late 80s The Hacienda became one of the first British clubs to pioneer house music.
DJs like Greg Wison, Mike Pickering and Little Marten were hosting Friday’s ‘Nude’ nights. This club night quickly became the place to be, and The Hacienda went from making hardly any money to selling out every night by 1987.
Then in November 1989, an earthquake hit the UK. The Stone Roses and The Happy Mondays appeared on an episode of Top Of The Pops. Both bands made their debut on the charts show and all of a sudden Madchester was nationwide.
Tony Wilson said “Happy Mondays and Stone Roses entered the charts together the same week and got their first Top Of The Pops together… this makes a decade well and truly declared open”.
Here come the 90s
But, it didn’t last long. By the early 90s The Happy Mondays broke up and the Stone Roses stepped away from the limelight. These two bands were seen as the biggest players in the Madchester scene, so media interest dwindled when they disappeared off the face of the earth.
House music was becoming more and more popular anyway, so The Hacienda jumped on this trend instead. The club had an Ibiza-inspired night called ‘Hot’ that was hosted by Pickering and Jon DaSilva. This night was a huge success and between 1994-97 Hacienda FM was a weekly show on the dance station, Kiss 102, giving young people nationwide the chance to get in on rave Manchester .
But, even that success came quickly crashing down.
Drug use became an unavoidable problem for the club. The UK’s first ecstasy related death happened at The Hacienda and the police started a clampdown. Security was another issue, there were often shootings in/around/outside the club.
But the real kicker was actually the club’s finances. The Hacienda wasn’t making enough money from alcohol sales as partygoers were more interested in consuming things out of little plastic bags.
The Hacienda eventually closed in 1997. And an era was over.
The legacy lives on
The Madchester era was definitely done by the mid 90s, but, like the Sex Pistols before it, it left its own legacy too.
We never did get rid of the bucket hat.
We ended up with the almighty Oasis. Noël was actually a roadie for Inspiral Carpets back in the day.
And, we got Blur’s debut album, Leisure, which incorporated Madchester and shoegaze style.
Want more Madchester?
We’ve got a treat for your ears. Listen to Vint Street’s Madchester playlist on Spotify.
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