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The Haçienda: How Not to Run a Club
Peter Hook (Simon & Schuster)

A warts and all account is what was promised, and former New Order bassist Peter Hook has delivered - to the extent that by the time you have finished reading this compelling sortie into the heart of British clubland, you may wonder whether the subtitle should have been ‘For the Love of God, Never Try to Run a Club, It’s a Bleedin’ Nightmare’. Driven by the vision of New Order manager Rob Gretton and largely financed by the band, The Haçienda aimed to provide Manchester with a dynamic alternative to the drab uniformity of many clubs of the day. In this regard, and in its subsequent influence on a generation of nightclub developers, it was undoubtedly successful; alas, the same could not be said of the owners’ financial, emotional and physical well-being. The club began haemorrhaging money early on but, ironically, it was at The Haç’s greatest peak of popularity in the early ‘90s that the heavens really opened: caught betwixt warring gangs, it fell victim to an alarming sequence of violent incidents. Hook tells the tale with wit, style and an admirable lack of bitterness, whetting the appetite nicely for his projected follow-ups on Joy Division and New Order.
David Davies

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****************************************************************** Bad Vibes: Britpop and My Part in its Downfall
Luke Haines (William Heinemann)

Britpop has already been the subject of numerous books – of which the most comprehensive remains The Last Party by John Harris – and you would be forgiven for thinking that a further tome raking through this short-lived and patchy period was about as essential as another half-baked statement on the economic crisis from ‘Call me Dave’ Cameron. Thankfully, The Auteurs/Black Box Recorder prime mover Luke Haines has written a vivid and frequently vitriolic account that makes Bad Vibes more than worthy of investigation. A man for whom the term ‘cult status’ could have been invented, Haines offers ‘in the moment’-style reflections unburdened by hindsight, meaning that his observations of band members, record companies and musical peers incline towards the amusingly blunt. Bad Vibes is certainly not lacking in flaws – as Haines admits, his generously-sized ego was fuelled by booze and drugs throughout much of the Britpop era, and this can render him an unsympathetic narrator. The explanation of the controversial concept informing solo project Baader Meinhof also fails to convince… Still, if you can overlook these drawbacks, there is much to savour in Bad Vibes’ blend of electric prose and barbed wit.
David Davies

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