Mike Pickering is one of the key people in the Manchester/Factory/Hacienda story- a mate of Rob Gretton's via Man City away games he started putting on club nights in abandoned buildings in Rotterdam and formed Quando Quango. He was the man who shaped the music policy of the Hacienda from its early days. He ripped the microphone out of the dj booth so they couldn't talk over the records and began to create the vibe he'd been so impressed by at New York's dance music clubs. He was the bookings manager for the Hacienda. He played house music at the Nude and Hot nights which in no small part invented the house scene of the late 80s. He signed the Happy Mondays to Factory. He told Factory he wanted to set up a dance offshoot label and when knocked back set up DeConstruction, one of the 90s key dance music labels. In 1987 he formed T-Coy to make house music (along with ex-ACR man Simon Topping) and they made this classic record.
Carino
He still djs today. This set from a night at Manchester's Albert Halls from earlier this month shows him in fine ravey house form, albeit with less hair than he had in the photo above.
4 comments:
Still love Carino today. Another belter from the following year which was included on the North comp along with this was Dream 17 by Annette. 87 -87 what a joyous time, early House, every record sounded different, new, exciting, magic.
That of course should have been 87/88
Dream 17 is immense. Played it yesterday in fact
Swiss Adam
Carino!! You knew something was happening in Manchester when this track came along. It got played a lot in NYC at the time - as did Quando Quango in it's day. I was, of course, attracted by the fact Simon Topping was involved - any ACR association is a good association in my mind, but Soon enough I discovered the great abilities of Mike Pickering. I only went to the Haçienda twice in my life, once it was a night filled with solitary men in macs, the other was Nude and it was joyous!
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