The Haçienda (39 page)

Out were resident DJs Buckley and Russ and in came Tim Lennox and Allister Whitehead. An optimistic Rob Gretton asked whether Tim Lennox would attract the gay crowd. Unfortunately not, offered Paul Mason in response. The team kicked around other ideas for more nights and money-raising opportunities. Bhangra Nights were discussed and then rejected – again thanks to their reputation for attracting violence between rival religious factions. Soul nights and Saturday matinees were discussed and viewed as possibilities to be investigated for another time, though there’s no evidence that they ever were. More pressingly, a meeting with Whitbread had been arranged,the idea being to invite the brewery to contribute.

Before anything could take place, however, it was agreed that the deal with London Records should be completed, at which point, presumably, faces turned towards Tony Wilson. All outstanding points on the deal had now been agreed verbally,he replied,and it was ‘just a question of the necessary paperwork being drawn up’. At which, notes the minutes, there were ‘wry smiles all round’.

We couldn’t file for bankruptcy because we were still afraid that the creditors would come after our personal guarantees as shareholders of the Haçienda.

We tried to sell the club many, many times. But nobody would ever buy it because when they looked at the accounts there were too many irregularities. For instance, director’s loan accounts, huge investments that could never be repaid,and extraordinary items such as the security costs, which alone totalled £365,000 in one year, ten times higher than those of any other club in England.

Richard Branson of Virgin came to look at the Haçienda, as a possible addition to his club empire.He seemed very interested in buying it, and nearly reached the point of taking it over, but then realized there was no way to make a profit because the security costs were so high. Whenever prospective buyers looked into it, the truth about the gangsters would come out; and when they discovered how deep-seated the violence was – and the extent of it – they scurried off. They realized they couldn’t keep the customers safe. They’d take a look at the accounts and think that the figure for our security costs was a mistake, a misprint. But once they’d walked around the club for a couple of nights, they knew better. Any sensible businessman would say, ‘This is fucking madness.’ It
was
madness. We’d just got used to it.

I would have thought that an investor with a big enough ego would decide,‘This club’s rocking.I’m going to sort it out.’But most admitted that they could not. The guy who started Direct Line was very interested at one point, then got away as fast as his car could take him. Beep beep!

Meanwhile, the criminals even began shifting their focus from the night-time economy – clubs and bars – to the daytime economy – ‘normal’ businesses and businessmen and began setting themselves up in transport and,of course,security.

One interesting aside. We were invoiced by our security firm and always paid their invoice plus VAT. When we were asked during a special VAT inspection about those security invoices it transpired that our security firm weren’t paying their VAT. What a surprise. In fact, they’d never paid any. The VAT number they’d provided us with belonged to B&Q, of all people. They just kept the money.

The tax office wanted us to pay the outstanding VAT (for the second time) so, not unreasonably, we suggested they get it off the security firm. Do you think they did? No. Even they were scared of the bouncers.

Meanwhile, Home had opened and was faced with the same problems
...

I remember sitting in Home the night of the riot that shut the place down. This lot from Cheetham Hill just barged behind the bar, grabbed a whole shelf’s worth of champagne and walked off. Just like in the Haçienda, nobody could do anything about it. They were fighting in the street outside for hours; no one could get out. Funny, I always thought Tom Bloxham’s choice of name was much too close to ours. Haçienda – Spanish for ‘homestead’, geddit? Seemed to backfire on him, though.

When I watched some closed-circuit TV footage of the Haçienda’s 1995 New Year’s Eve party I saw that not a single person paid admission or showed a ticket from eleven p.m. onwards. The bouncers were religiously filling up their Lucozade bottles with champagne. That’s how businesslike they were. It had been a really heavy night with loads of trouble. Ang had walked on to the cocktail bar landing, seen Damien arguing with some young kid and started kicking off,screaming,‘Just get him out.’ There had been that much trouble, she just freaked. The next
thing she knew she was picking herself up from the bottom of the stairs, very dazed and confused. Then Damien came up and said, ‘You all right?’

What had happened was that as she started yelling the kid had pulled a gun and put it in her face. Damien had grabbed her by the collar and threw her down the stairs to get her out of harm’s way. He beat the shit out of the gunman, came back, went downstairs and – like a gentleman – helped her back on to her feet.

Later, as she looked around the club, still in her dazed and confused state, she realized that she didn’t recognize anyone in the crowd. Everyone who had partied at the Haçienda during the golden era had moved on, because of fear or age.

Happy New Year.

FACT 51 Limited
Trading as: The Haçienda

NOTES

Sundry creditors include Swivel, Sandypress, Clean-Machine, etc., without whom running the club becomes almost impossible.

The involvement of bailiffs has only become an issue towards the end of this week. Three in one week is hardly to be expected. The ones working for PRS are very aggressive (I know them from Factory days and if payment is not made then they will take away whatever they feel is required). The ones working for the rates people are less of a problem, but we obviously need to keep them happy each week.

The third one works for the court and is merely collecting various small CCJs but cannot be ignored.

We can always pass on the contents insurance as before, despite the obvious drawbacks and dangers. There is no way that the buildings insurance cannot be paid.

This cash-flow makes no provision for saving towards the next VAT return – due on 31 October 1993.

Bar and door sales figures are estimated on the performance of the previous five weeks with increases for the late openings during September.

The PAYE people are running out of patience with us. If we were not involved with the bailiffs I feel that we could have dealt with them satisfactorily but obviously this is now not the case.

There is a chance we could get away with not reducing the bank overdraft each week but we risk losing their support.

As I write I do not know when we will receive the Stella Dry or whether there will be VAT of £700 on top of it.

No provision has been made for any further payments to PLT (the building bridging loan company).

Saturday door has been increased to £12.00 per person for September. No adjustments have been made for Friday nights.

RTL fee has been calculated on the basis of recent bills and has been adjusted for the later opening during September.

I would like to think that this is very much a ‘worst case’ scenario, but if we are asking people to inject yet more money into the club then they should be made aware.

In conclusion, if there had not been a sudden influx of bailiffs I still feel that the situation was manageable until the autumn when we come into our busiest period and the ownership issue will (hopefully) have been resolved.Unfortunately this is now not the case.

(Uncredited)

FAC 51 Limited
Trading as: the Haçienda

CASH FLOW TO THE END OF SEPTEMBER