The Haçienda (42 page)

Extract from the minutes for weekly management meeting held in the Round House on Thursday 6 January 1994:

New nights

PM [Paul Mason] and AM [Angela Matthews] had put together a calendar of events planned over the first two months of 1994.

Apart from two private parties in the cocktail bar, there were no other special events planned in January and CS [Chris Smith] expressed his disappointment at this fact as it had been stressed at the last meeting that we should be arranging as many events as possible to make sure we have enough money to pay the VAT at the end of January.

PM explained that three weeks’ lead time was required to properly arrange and promote a night and a Christmas break meant that it had been impossible to get anything arranged in time for January,and hopefully the Jazz night through SJM on 27 January will be confirmed.

Three new Wednesday nights had been arranged for February,with a monthly Luvdup Jolly Roger reunion night, the first retro night and the first trance night.

PM and AM were meeting Luvdup later that day to finalize matters.

Extract from the minutes of the meeting held in the Round House on Thursday 13 January 1994:

New nights

The first Jolly Roger night had been postponed until the first week in March due to technical problems.

No suitable DJ had yet been found to front the first Retro night, and there was a discussion as to who might be suitable but no one could come up with anybody. It was suggested that we ask a DJ to programme
the night and get someone else to play the actual records but it was felt that no DJs would be prepared to do this.

The trance night was still scheduled to go ahead on 16 February. RG [Rob Gretton] requested that a late licence be obtained for this night.

Extracts from the minutes of the weekly management meeting held in the Round House on Thursday 27 January 1994

Trance night

AM had prepared a budget of the first trance night. It was agreed that the entrance price should be £5 in advance and £6 on the door and that the night was to be called TRANSFORM.

Jolly Rogering

The Luvdup monthly Jolly Roger night was still going ahead, and it was still planned to link up with Dry on these nights.

Extract from the minutes of the weekly management meeting held in the Round House on Thursday 10 February 1994:

Transform

Preparations for the first Transform had not gone well. The name and date on the flyers were both incorrect and another Herbal Tea Party was being held at the Airdri on the same night, with Charlie Hall from the Drum Club DJing

PM suggested that we put back the first night until March, as we create negativity towards the night if the first one is not a success. RG felt very strongly that the night should go ahead as we had to face up to the competition at some stage and we had a very strong line-up from March in the shape of the Trance Europe Express.

It was agreed to proceed with the night.

Basement improvements

A meeting had been arranged for Friday 11 February with the architect. Those attending would report back to the next meeting. AHW
[Tony Wilson] asked to go on record that we would be making a mistake if we did not involve Ben Kelly in the project. Following lengthy discussions regarding the cost involved and BK’s track record of constantly going way over budget, AHW also asked to go on record to say that we would be making a mistake if we did use BK.

Extract from the minutes of the weekly management meeting held in the Round House on Thursday 17 February 1994:

Transform

While the night had not been a success in financial terms, those who had attended the night agreed that there was a good atmosphere and that the club had looked excellent there was also no problem with drugs.

About 450 had attended, nearly all free, but apparently there was only about 300 at the Herbal Tea Party, and Herbal Tea Party had already contacted us with regard to making sure that we don’t clash again in the future. The Trance Europe Express night in March had been cancelled, but AM felt that using Justin Robertson as the resident, and bringing in guest DJs and acts such as Andy Weatherall and Aphex Twin, should be a successful formula for a regular monthly night.

Extract from the minutes of the weekly management meeting held in the Round House on Thursday 24 February 1994:

Gigs and fashion shows

RG felt that we were not exploiting the club’s full potential as a live venue. Our two main club competitors, Home and Paradise Factory, did not have the ability to put on shows and he felt that we were the ideal venue for acts attracting crowds between the capacity of the Academy and the Boardwalk, although he admitted that there were problems with the size of the stage and the lighting.

PM said that he was constantly trying to book gigs but could only try to get what was available and we have the problem of not being available for Fridays and Saturdays, which is why we lost the Incognito gig.

Extracts from the minutes of the weekly management meeting held in the Round House on Thursday 3 March 1994:

Jolly Roger

Only 190 had attended the first Jolly Roger night.

Flesh

There was a general feeling that Flesh was going stale and that Paul Cons, being aware of this, was not spending as much as in the past, thus creating a downward spiral. AHW suggested that if this was the case we should look to promote the night ourselves in the future, but the general feeling was that this would not work.

It was decided to arrange a meeting with Paul Cons to discuss the matter further.

Extract from the minutes of the weekly management meeting held in the Round House on Thursday 10 March 1994:

Jolly Roger

AHW felt that one of the biggest problems was that the advertising to the first night did not push the Luvdup aspect of Jolly Roger hard enough,but the artwork and printing for April had already been done on the same lines.

PM said that we were going to hire a lorry and parade around the city centre with a sodding pirate on the back and also have it suspended from outside the club.