Interview: Peter Hook
‘IF you come and see me DJ, you’ll find that more than 50 per cent of the music I play is new. If you just played all that old **** all the time it would drive you mad.”
Peter Hook wants to get something off his chest.
He has, of late, been held up as an example of a more regressive Manchester and accused of being stuck in the past, which is not the sort of thing you need when launching a club devoted to pushing new music.
“There’s a lot of keyboard terrorism out there,” he says, perhaps referencing one blog in particular which has spewed forth particular ire of late.
“The personal criticism is upsetting, but, if you put your head above the parapet, you have to know that people are going to throw **** at you.
“Besides, you learn how to cope with it a bit better as you get older. It beats coming home and kicking the cat. I suppose I’m flattered to be used as a scapegoat”
Stinging net-barbs and feline assault are not what we are here to talk about today, however.
Indeed, Hook has broken off from rehearsing with his new band Freebass to tell us about the arrival of his latest clubbing venture, FAC251.
Far from being a re-enactment of former glories, the club aims to become a breeding ground for new talent, giving space for DJs, bands and creatives to find their feet – hardly an exercise in memory-dredging, and more forward-looking than a lot of people perhaps expected.
Our first question to him is obvious: after hitting the bestseller lists at the end of last year with a book entitled How Not To Run A Club (and unleashing a cavalcade of haphazard anecdotes in the process), why on earth would he want to go back to the world of sticky floors and flashing lights?
'Factory ethic'
“Good question,” he laughs. “Well, we were presented with a golden opportunity.
“Aaron (Mellor, more of whom later) spoke to myself and Mani a while ago and we actually tried to get somewhere in the Northern Quarter.
“Then we heard that the old Factory building had come back up for lease. It was too good to pass up.”
“Ironically it was at Hooky’s book signing in Newcastle, for How NOT to Run a Club – we talked about opening another,” says Mellor. “In itself that’s perfectly Factory.
“The aim isn’t to create a new Hacienda; the aim is the Factory ethic of giving a space back for bands and creatives to do something with.”
Hook agrees: “Rob Gretton and Tony always said, Manchester made us, we should give back to it.
“We have the same belief in people as they did. I want to set up a sort of surgery at the club, where young bands with problems can come and speak to me, Clint Boon and Mani for advice.
“As far as the industry goes, there’s not a screwing we haven’t suffered.
“You don’t want to see younger people going through that.”
And with Manchester on the verge of producing a new wave of heroic musical acts, Mellor believes the time is right for the city to reclaim its musical crown.
'Kings of Manchester'
“In the last couple of years some really great venues have sprung up and Manchester’s creative heart is beating again.
“We are the kings of music and we need to reinstate Manchester as that music capital... not by wallowing in the past but with a new wave of Mancunia – Delphic, The Whip, Egyptian Hip Hop, MAY68 are all great examples.”
“We just want peaceful nights, contentment and a nice state of mind,” says Hook.
The importance of the balance between raving and behaving has, he says, been learned from the past.
“We’d never encourage anyone to behave the way we used to. We lost too many people.
“Ultimately we just want to enjoy the new venue.
“I want to be able to look back and be proud.
“If it lasts half as long as the Hacienda, it will have done bloody well.”
As part of The Hacienda’s committment to breaking new talent, Peter Hook is setting up a Hacienda Presents Saturday night residency at The Factory to present local unsigned bands and DJ’s.
Email mail@fac51thehacienda.com with digital materials or send demos or mix CDs to Fac 51 The Hacienda, Third Floor, Strawberry Studios, 3 Waterloo Road, Lower Hillgate, Stockport, SK1 3BD.
FAC251 The Factory is open for live gigs 7pm to 10.30pm and then as a club venue. 10.30pm to 3am (weeknights)/4am (weekends). The list of club nights is: Mondays: FACT, Tuesdays: Missionary, Wednesdays: Fuel, Thursdays: Dyslexic, Fridays: Bulletproof; Saturdays: Stonelove/ Hacienda Presents. Tonight’s opening night is SOLD OUT. Fac251: The Factory, 112-118 Princess Street, M1 7EN, 0161 2727251. For info go to FactoryManchester.com.
Published: Fri, 05 February, 2010
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