SUMMER OF LOVE

SUMMER OF LOVE

The summer of Love page will explain why this year was a special year for house music,
and why there will never be an other year like this?

Since that year(1988) the house music industry has not looked back and has expanded into a huge industry. The account of 1988 is my personal view of that special year and I would like to point out that there is not just one obvious account as everyone involved in that year were in different places with different people so each account will vary as will how each person interprets their story but one part of everyone's account on that year must be the same, is that in 1988 house music made its biggest impact its when house music kicked off and has not looked back it is truly the music of the future.


My explanation on this year comes from been bought up in London (Hackney) and if you view the
flyer gallery you will see that I did not restrict myself to were I raved I wanted to meet as much
peoplein different places as I could and enjoy want each rave offered.
It was a time when everyone united and danced the night away.

The summer of love in 1988 saw house music make it's biggest impact and from this
time on it has not looked back, growing to become the music of the future.

What happened in 1988 was something special, as it was a time when everyone young united, a time to enjoy and rebel in a fun way, a time to be truly free. House music had arrived like a virus spreading across Britain, becoming the biggest youth cult, by the time the tabloids and government had caught on to what was going on it was too late, for everyone had been affected by this pumping rhythm called "HOUSE".

"HOUSE" music had started a trend that had affected the UK's culture; it had truly changed people's lives. The tabloids compared this year with the 60's and said it was just a phase that would die like the 60's; well it's still alive and kicking all these years on.
What they did not know was that the scene had been around for some time,
but 1988 was the year it kicked in with a bang. Even the Americans who had started the
scene many years ago in the 80's were shocked at the impact house music had made,
1988 belonged to Britain!

Club nights that opened in London were " DELIRIUM",
"LOVE","SPECTRUM", "FUTURE", "CONFUSION " and "THE TRIP" , which went on to hold regular nights at the Astoria called "SIN" , bringing the best PA's of the current tunes. The main events in Manchester were "NUDE" and "HACIENDIA" .

Also what helped house music grow was, of course, the pirate stations out there like the legendary "CENTREFORCE" on 88.3FM. And "SUNRISE" on 88.75FM. These stations flooded the airwaves with information on all the house raves. Unlike today where you can hear house music all across Britain, in all the main clubs and bars making it commercial, 1988 was underground in the fact that you had to go to certain venues on certain nights. These were mainly illegal giving you the feeling that you were a part of something special and unique. These were some of the main factors that made "THE SUMMER OF LOVE".

Freedom to Party was a rally at Trafalgar Square on Saturday 27th January 1990 2pm-4.40pm, to protest against a new law on march 9th that would stop all raves.

The rally saw thousands of people march through London, but of course the new law was passed which was the end of raves been held in warehouses and fields all over the country basically house music was been forced by the Government to move into clubs, was this good or bad? One point I would like to make is that once house music had moved into clubs it could be controlled with rules so it had lost one of its most important features you were not free to do what you wanted to do that's why raves in warehouses and fields in 1988 were so unique. You can never replace that feeling that you were free for the first time in your life to do want you wanted to do without having to look over your shoulders bouncers gave you rizla paper,would that ever happen again?


House music started way back in the 80's in Chicago and New York, who came first? One certain fact is that at the Warehouse in Chicago we got house music and from the Paradise Garage in New York we got garage music that we can all agree on. For a more in-depth account on how house music started in USA you can go to:

For more info log on : http://maestro-documentary.com
Press contact:Gaia Somasca gaia@maestro-documentary.com
Cell: (001) 646 320 1988

HOUSE MACHINE.COM

History of Chicago House Music
www.globaldarkness.com/articles/history_of_chicago_house

Hacienda Article

Factory boss Anthony Wilson, Rob Gretton and New Order in the early 1980's decided that there was no club in Manchester that catered for their tastes.
So the Hacienda was dreamed up.
It opened on Friday May 21st 1982.

The Hacienda was designed to be a slap in the face for established night clubs.
The stark industrial design from Ben Kelly was utterly unlike anything
club goers had seen before. The first experience was unforgettable.

You entered through large metal doors into a vast interior space supported on
steel girders of black with yellow safety stripes. It was functional, hard, almost overwhelming, like a set from the yet to be released movie Aliens .
The music was rolling out and here we were , a thousand or more poor clubbers
trapped in the hold of the mothership of an Intergalactic fleet.
To continue the theme of difference and subversion, below the dancefloors lurked
the Gay Traitors bar celebrating Kim Philby and Guy Burgess, the homosexual Brits
who betrayed their country to spy for the Soviet Union.

The name itself was weird, coming from an a fifties book nobody ever read called The Situationalist International Handbook, the "hacienda" being an idealised co-operative community. Even the flyers and the posters set new standards in design for other clubs
( by the way some of the early promotional material is now very collectible).

The sheer originality of the concept and its design meant that it took almost ten years for
other clubs to follow but now the basic ingredients of the Hacienda's steel, iron,
glass and wood interior can be seen all around Europe - and everybody now
takes great care over their flyers.

Throughout its existence, the club put on live concerts featuring a who's who of leftfield stars including The Smiths, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Echo and the Bunnymen, an unknown Madonna (1984), the Happy Mondays, James, Oasis, Blur and many many others .But its prime, its heyday, came in the mid and late 1980's when it popularised the new dance craze, "House", and, partially fuelled by ecstasy, became the most famous club on the planet. DJ's such as Mike Pickering (later of M-People), Graeme Park and Dave Haslam played to a packed house andhad great fun experimenting; for instance, some memorable
evenings included a swimming pool in the main room.

The rhythms in the club appealed to the city's indie bands and resulted in the phenomena
of "Madchester", the rolling guitars flying out over beats you could dance to.
Manchester even developed its own, Hacienda inspired, look of flares and floppy hats.
It was the summer of love all over again. You had to be there. The staid American news magazine Newsweek picked up on the fantastic buzz in the city and put the
club on its cover. The secret was simple: the Hacienda made people happy and
it made them feel part of something special.

But in 1990 the mood started to change, the drug gangs moved in occupying their
own areas of the club and intimidating staff and public alike. Then in 1991
a young club goer from Stoke died from ecstasy poisoning.
Soon after security staff were threatened with a machine gun and the police
closed the club with the tacit approval of a shocked management.
The club opened again in 1992 but the heights were rarely reached again.

The end came shortly after the fifteenth birthday celebration in the summer of 1997. Police looking into the night time economy and its malign and benign effects were sitting in
their car near the Hacienda one evening accompanied by local magistrates.
As the club was closing a gang of thugs almost beat to death some innocent individual
who they thought had insulted them inside the Hacienda.The club became convinced
it would have its license revoked and did not have the finances to support a
lengthy closure. Thus the Hacienda died its final death.

It was probably financial reasons - not the dark reputation of the club for attracting violent gangs - that lay behind the permanent closure. Despite the undoubted success
of its later years, the club appears to have been run in a naive business manner.
Spectacular tricks and appearance fees swallowed any potential investment money.
It is said that US DJ Knuckles played the Hacienda on New Year's Eve 1996 and was paid
£15000 plus flight, plus accommodation, plus hotel, plus limo. Even with an entrance price of
£46 per head this kind of excess was unsustainable. The debts mounted.

Now, the company that bought the building wants to convert it into offices or apartments.
This would mean the end of the glorious Ben Kelly interior.
Manchester Civic Society has shown a modern sensibility in opposing the conversion
because of the club's pop culture importance. But people who were involved with the club,
such as Anthony Wilson, deplore making the Hacienda a trendy heritage centre.

They say, the Hacienda might be dead but Manchester music goes on. That's the nature
of the thing. Outside the club the graffiti splashed on the walls reads "the Hacienda must be rebuilt" or just "rewind". But the enigmatic nameplate - FAC51 THE HACIENDA -
next to which thousands queued to gain access to the club, has been chiselled
away and a plain replacement brick slipped into its place...

Tim Williams
Promoter Hacienda Sessions Email: tim@m1pages.com