Fact #159506
When:
Short story:
At The Hacienda, Manchester, England, UK, Europe, 52nd St play, supported by little known band The Smiths.Full article:
Mick Middles (Northern Correspondent, Sounds) : The Hacienda was still in its infancy at this time. It was open every night of the week, so it was great to have a place to go, but very few people actually went. Tony Wilson used to look very worried.
One very distinctive thing about The Hacienda was the smell. They had these rubber tiles, and they gave the place that very industrial smell, which was a major part of the atmosphere. It hit you as soon as you went in.
By the time The Smiths played there the first time it was changing from being a club to being a venue, where they’d have a couple of big gigs a week – The Thompson Twins, people like that, but they always seemed to get them just before they had a hit record, which isn’t really as clever as it seems if you’re trying to get people to come to your club.
Joe Moss (manager, The Smiths) : What nobody realises it that there were less than 12 people to see them that first time. By the time they came back a few months later, there were 2,400 people there, and thousands more standing outside, unable to get in.
I remember Morrissey was already doing the shirt wearing. I’m standing behind these two guys. After one of the songs, part way
through, one guy turns and goes, ‘You’ve got to admit, they’re fucking great these guys’. And the other guy goes, ‘But his fucking shirt’s shit!’ If ever there was an exchange that sums up Manchester - that’s it.
Tony Wilson (owner, Factory Records) : It was like a homecoming gig. Morrissey was on good form, throwing daffs everywhere.
Morrissey (vocalist, The Smiths) : The flowers actually have a significance. When we first began there was a horrendous sterile cloud over the whole music scene in Manchester. Everybody was anti-human and it was so cold. The flowers were a very human gesture. They integrated harmony with nature – something people seemed so terribly afraid of.
It had got to the point in music where people were really afraid to show how they felt – to show their emotions. I thought that was a shame and very boring. The flowers offered hope.
Jim Shelley (reviewer, NME) : The four Smiths were proud and powerful, pale and angular, a formidable and inventive force. Their sound - a fine, fierce combination of tight drums, hidden walls of guitar and deepest of bass-lines - proved to be a suitably refined, aggressive setting for the searing wail and majestic poetry of their enigmatic vocalist.
Joe Moss : They were magic that night, and we recorded the gig, so that was the version of ‘Handsome Devil’ we used on the single - straight off the sound-desk. That shows you how good that gig was, how fully formed the band was already - after just three gigs.
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One very distinctive thing about The Hacienda was the smell. They had these rubber tiles, and they gave the place that very industrial smell, which was a major part of the atmosphere. It hit you as soon as you went in.
By the time The Smiths played there the first time it was changing from being a club to being a venue, where they’d have a couple of big gigs a week – The Thompson Twins, people like that, but they always seemed to get them just before they had a hit record, which isn’t really as clever as it seems if you’re trying to get people to come to your club.
Joe Moss (manager, The Smiths) : What nobody realises it that there were less than 12 people to see them that first time. By the time they came back a few months later, there were 2,400 people there, and thousands more standing outside, unable to get in.
I remember Morrissey was already doing the shirt wearing. I’m standing behind these two guys. After one of the songs, part way
through, one guy turns and goes, ‘You’ve got to admit, they’re fucking great these guys’. And the other guy goes, ‘But his fucking shirt’s shit!’ If ever there was an exchange that sums up Manchester - that’s it.
Tony Wilson (owner, Factory Records) : It was like a homecoming gig. Morrissey was on good form, throwing daffs everywhere.
Morrissey (vocalist, The Smiths) : The flowers actually have a significance. When we first began there was a horrendous sterile cloud over the whole music scene in Manchester. Everybody was anti-human and it was so cold. The flowers were a very human gesture. They integrated harmony with nature – something people seemed so terribly afraid of.
It had got to the point in music where people were really afraid to show how they felt – to show their emotions. I thought that was a shame and very boring. The flowers offered hope.
Jim Shelley (reviewer, NME) : The four Smiths were proud and powerful, pale and angular, a formidable and inventive force. Their sound - a fine, fierce combination of tight drums, hidden walls of guitar and deepest of bass-lines - proved to be a suitably refined, aggressive setting for the searing wail and majestic poetry of their enigmatic vocalist.
Joe Moss : They were magic that night, and we recorded the gig, so that was the version of ‘Handsome Devil’ we used on the single - straight off the sound-desk. That shows you how good that gig was, how fully formed the band was already - after just three gigs.