Factory lived
:1
leap. and things changed. Music. drugs. clubs. Manchester. and. soon. the vvorld. A real lil’e situation was on their doorstep and the dancelloor had been detnocratised. The Society ()f'l'lte .S/u't'mt'lr' made flesh. And blood. Because. not so very eventually. it \yould lose control and pttll a gun on them. l‘actory and its bastard progeny lived last. died young. then called in the receivers. lixcept once upon a time. before it had its thunder stolen by Ministry and Cream. the Hacienda vvas the best clttb in the world. liver. And it paid for every second. lirom the birth ol‘ punk to the death ol‘ acid house is hovv 'l‘ony Wilson. sometimes Anthony H
(‘oogan. the other tnan on the telly sitting next to hitn. becomes the centre of the universe. the
celebrity square-eyes equivalent of the Rover"s
18 THE LIST "
Return. around vvhom everything else revolves. A
very (iranzula-land analogy. that. Know your
place. vvait your turn and drink tip vvhen you‘re told. As reliable as Betty 'l‘urpin’s hotpot.
\Vilson vvas the (‘ambridge grad dal‘t lad with ideas above his station. When he read the nevvs you could see him sneer. and once he got hitttsell a decent haircut and a shovv ot‘ his ovvn. there was no stopping him. By that time. he and l‘actory. for whom he provided the necessary mouth. vvere in the thick til it. and he’d already provided crucial TV debuts l‘or the Sex Pistols. Blondie and all the rest on So It (may. the best punk rock shoyv in the world. liver.
etc in a disused warehouse in Manchester a year
ago. not so tnuch too cool as freezing cold. and il‘
the vvords 'vvarehouse' and ‘Manchester' give you a nostalgic little tingle. you already knovv what happens next. Sean Harris vvho plays lan (‘urtis is a lanky bag ol‘ nerves. He says he lirst savv (‘urtis on telly vvhen he vvas ten and it looks like he's been haunted by him ever since. Wilson‘s fault. that. Then again. it might just be because l’aul l’opplevvcll. who plays Shaun Ryder‘s ()ur Kid Paul. has jttst lurched in. pulled open a can of Red Stripe and is babbling sotne impenetrable l‘reel‘orm gobsliite. making a spectacle of himsell‘. Very Happy
_ vvhen he’s being poncier than usual. sees 24 Hour Party People. In it. his character. played by- Steve young, then
Mondays and a little bit Jerry Springer vvith it. Wilson’s pttt till his stroke a moment. bttt as displays ol' accidental method acting go. l’opplevvell’s is. well. appropriate. As too are the lipstick traces ol'a soggy stubbed-out joint nearby. lividence. last night they lilmed the last night of the Hacienda. or Sodom. or somevvhere. Best party ever. by all accounts. liveryone was there. Twice. in some cases. Back from the dead in others. In the finished lilm. this scene is very near to. but not quite right at the end. Which is a shame. because anyone who’s anyone else knovvs that all the best picat'esque post—modern romances tinish with a party. a grand linale. where everyone goes. vvhat vy e novv. call mad l‘or it. As in () Luv/er .lltm.’ \vliere Malcolm Mcl)ovvell meets all the lat‘ger—tltan—lil‘e cartoon characters he's met on his travels. out ol‘ context and out of time. and loves each and every one ol’ them because. alter everything that‘s gone before. it all makes perl‘ect sense.
What should'ye been the final scene til 24 Hour Party People is a bit like that. Which is l‘unny'. because in Wilson‘s nevv book. also called 24 Hour l’tu'ly l’r'np/r’. but not the book of the lilm. there's a picture ol' hitn t'rom the mid—7()s. looking the exact spit ol the young Malcolm Mcl)o\vell. Bet he watched [lat (‘ambridgc too. Bet that‘s where he learned to sneer. liither l‘rom that or A ('lm'kn'urk (Mt/tee. And you'll already knovv that Anthony Burgess had once been called Anthony \Vilson from the book. \Vilson's that is. not Burgess‘.
Bttt tonight is the night alter the last night of the Hacienda. and \\'e tnake do with the Stone Roses and Happy Monday s. or versions thet'eol. Hang on. though. didn't they knock the Hacienda doyvn. turn it into llats‘.’ 'l‘rttth is. they lound another vvarehouse in Ancoats and rebuilt it. liven il' you only ever vvent there tvvice in IDS—l when it was rubbish like I did. you can see it‘s identical in every vvay. ('rap sound. even crapper lager. Plastic glasses crunching underl'oot. lixcept when you’re pointed tovvards the toilets. you push open the door. and there's nothing there except an ever-so Mancunian redbrick \vall. attd you can‘t piss on that. Again. it‘s appropriate.
I‘m standing next to a Hacienda pillar \\lllt a lad from The .lIu/tt'lu'slr'r l-fi't'm'ne News. \yho turns out to be the same lad from The .llum/tm/t'r lire/tine News that Shaun Ryder very lamously pulled a gun on. Another legend. liveryonc here