5 Things You Didn’t Know About The Legendary Haçienda Nightclub

Manchester was primed for an era-defined mecca of music by the time The Haçienda opened in 1982. For the next 15 years its pills and thrills fuelled hedonism spawned a legacy that thrives to this day…

5 Things You Didn’t Know About The Legendary Haçienda Nightclub

1 . – The name Haçienda comes from a slogan of the radical group Situationist International; “The Haçienda Must Be Built”, from Formulary For A New Urbanism by Ivan Chtcheglov.

2. – The club carried on the tradition of giving all Factory releases catalogue numbers. The Haçienda’s catalogue no. was FAC51.

3. – The Haçienda included three cocktail bars. The downstairs bar was called ‘The Gay Traitor,’ after Anthony Blunt, a British art historian who spied for the Soviet Union. The two other bars, ‘The Kim Philby’ and ‘Hicks’ were named after Blunt’s fellow spies.

4. – The UK’s first ecstasy-related death occurred at the club on 14th July 1989 when 16-year-old Clare Leighton collapsed and died after her boyfriend gave her an ecstasy tablet.

5. – Despite its notoriety, the club was constantly at a financial loss. In 1985, New Order returned from their US tour to discover that the club was £2 million in debt; they paid it so that the club could continue. In his book The Haçienda: How Not To Run A Club, Peter Hook says that the later years of the club cost £18 million.