808 State ‘Pacific State’ released in November 1989 on the ZTT label.
It was first getting played at the Hacienda at the ‘Void’ Wednesday nights and ‘Nude’ Friday nights by Mike Pickering. It was a big club tune in the summer of 89 before its official release in November that year.
Here is the promotional booklet for ‘The festival of the tenth summer’ (Fac 151) a week long series of events from 12th-20th July 1986 organised by Factory Records and given a catalogue number. The event was about celebrating music, art, literature and film ten years after ‘Punk’ in the UK.
The week culminated with the ’10th event’ concert on Saturday 19th July featuring A Certain Ratio, The Smiths, New Order, The Fall amongst others. If I remember correctly New Order were last on, but it wasn’t really about who headlined. Just a excellent line up of bands and 10,000 people going crazy, great night!
Some Music from three of the bands playing that night. All three songs featured in the bands set on the night.
Echo & the Bunnymen ticket stub from the gig at the The International in Manchester 21st June 1985.
This was billed as a warm up concert for Glastonbury on June 23rd. The Bunnymen did two sets that night, the first was a set of cover versions including Velvet Underground; There She Goes Again and Rolling Stones; Paint It Black.
Their second set at The International that night was packed with excellent tunes from, Crocodiles, Heaven Up Here, Porcupine and Ocean Rain.
Something to listen to; Echo & The Bunnymen; The Cutter from the 1983 Album Porcupine.
Great photograph of the Hacienda dance floor in daylight!
The postcard was from the exhibition ‘Sublime’ Manchester Music and Design 1976-1992 at the Cornerhouse in Manchester. A excellent exhibition with a very smart exhibition catalogue to coincide with the show.
Something to listen to; Played a lot in the early days at the Hacienda. New Order, Temptation Fac 63. Released May 1982.
I got this poster from one of the notice boards inside the Hacienda at the time, typical Factory it was hand written with no exact dates on it, the gigs were in April!! I think it may have been the first couple of shows as a Factory band for Happy Mondays and being the support for New Order meant it was good crowds at both shows.
I seem to remember the Macclesfield leisure centre one being pretty rowdy and most people there being the worst for wear. The Happy Mondays were great and had only played a few concerts up to that point and had not yet released their first record.
New Order were excellent too and it was a home town gig for two of the memebers of the band.
This poster was on me and my brothers bedroom wall at my mum and dads house for years, you can still see the bluetack marks on the corners!
Its now lovingly framed on my wall at home!
Something to listen too; New Order ‘Thieves Like Us’ Fac 103. May 1984.
Here’s my ticket stub from August 1989 from one of the Happy Mondays dates on the American ‘Bummed’ tour. That night they were supporting The Pixies who were a really big indie band at the time. The Happy Mondays performance that night was captured on film and later featured on the ‘Madchester Rave on’ video, Fac 262 1989. Excellent night it was too!
A photo of Happy Mondays taken by the renowned Manchester photographer Kevin Cummins. From the same US tour in 1989, taken on the Staten Island ferry in NYC. Bez refers to this as his favourite photo taken of the band!!
And something to listen to; Happy Mondays ‘Country Song’ from the album ‘Bummed’ Fact 220 November 1988.
Here is my Factory laminate pass for the opening night/party in September 1990, of Fac 251 the then new Factory Records headquarters. The opening night was pretty chaotic but great fun!
And here’s another one of my photographs of the outside of the building that became Fac 251, taken around late 1989 (I think)! When Factory had just bought the building that is on the corner of Princess Street and Charles Street in Manchester M1. This was before they renovated it and turned into their stylish new offices/headquarters! Complete with adornment of Central Stations portrait of Shaun Ryder used for the Happy Mondays album cover ‘Bummed’ Fact 220 1988. (Take a look at one of my earlier posts on the blog with other photos of the same building).
The building is still there now and is Factory 251, the nightclub, part owned by Peter Hook one of the original and founder members of Joy Division and New Order.
Something to listen to; Happy Mondays ‘Dennis and Lois’ from the album ‘Pills ‘N Thrills and Bellyaches’ Fact 320 1990. What a great track!!
Here’s the original cover for ‘Pills ‘N Thrills and Bellyaches’!!