Graham Clark, Music Correspondent
Manchester Must Dance - Mike Pickering
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Pickering is as influential as others who shaped the Manchester music scene, even if he's not as well known.
Starting out as the booker for groups to perform at the Hacienda, he booked early gigs for the Smiths, Culture Club, The Alarm, Thomas Dolby, and, at the time, an unknown singer named Madonna. Anyone who attended any of those gigs will tell you that the Hacienda probably wasn't the best place, sound-wise, to see an act: the former yacht builders' warehouse and showroom had concrete floors, the acoustics for touring bands were not the best, the steel pillars made the sight lines an obstruction; and the low and wide stage was never a good venue to witness an act.
Like the entire ethos of Factory Records, which was part of the Hacienda's identity, there were never any rules. Bands frequently rarely came on stage before 11pm; if you were travelling from West Yorkshire to see a band there, you were lucky if you got to bed before 2am, which would be fine if you didn’t have work the day after. Somehow, the week hosted all the live music nights.
Pickering is held in high regard by some of the biggest names in music – the book has chapters written by Martin Fry of ABC, Johnny Marr of the Smiths, Noel Gallagher and superstar DJ Calvin Harris, whom Pickering discovered and signed up while running the Deconstruction record label, which he co-founded.
Gallagher probably isn't someone you would associate with going to the Hacienda, jumping up and down to acid house, though in the book he admits it was an unlikely inspiration for Oasis as he tried to create that joy and euphoria of the Hacienda in the Oasis song, Live Forever.
The book offers a candid and honest perspective, particularly regarding Madonna. She played the Hacienda in 1984, miming and dancing with her brother. “We didn’t rate her chances much," he writes. Her tour manager took him to meet Madonna in her dressing room. "She had no interest in looking me in the eye."
Thankfully, meeting other legends, such as Quincy Jones—the American record producer, arranger, and composer—was more favourable.
With M People, Pickering sold over 11 million records, including the most famous one, Moving On Up. Fronted by Heather Small. The band proved the doubters wrong who said that dance acts didn’t sell albums in large quantities – their albums always charted in the top five album charts, and the band performed a huge sold-out gig at what was the G-Mex centre in Manchester – fittingly just across the road from the Hacienda.
Manchester is not the same city it was 40 years ago when the Hacienda was at its peak before gangs and drug wars shut it down. As Pickering observes in the closing chapter, 'It's exciting in a different way than when I was there. People move there now rather than move away. It’s where you can feel things happen; people are always trying to do something different. It's more cosmopolitan than in my day."
The huge cranes that dot the Manchester skyline confirm this view, as they build yet another tower block of apartments. Bizarrely, when the old Hacienda was demolished, it was redeveloped as the Hacienda Apartments.
These days, Pickering still follows Manchester City and cycles the Tour de France in his camper van. Although he is now living in Camden, his enthusiastic spirit, soul, and love of music shine throughout the book.
Would he live in Manchester again? “ No way, I can’t stand the F**king weather” he jokes on the often misconception that it always rains in the city.