Opened by Factory Records, the Hacienda club in Manchester was an important hub for the city’s already prolific music scene. Not only were some of Happy Mondays’ earliest gigs held there, but it pretty much created a significant emergence of DJ culture and was a heavy contributor to the rave scene. Needless to say, a lot of important musical events happened here.
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Whether you’re a die hard Factory Records fan or you are simply into dance music, you should check out Blog51. This amazing website offers visitors a wide variety of Hacienda DJ sets, all downloadable in MP3. Not really sure how the guys running the site managed to get hold of all of these, as they all range between 1983 and 1997 and there aren’t any other sources online.
They’re apparently mostly by the house DJs, Graeme Park and Mike Pickering, although there’s plenty more including people like Frankie Knuckles. What a find.
Another website with downloadable music and beats is Gemtracks.
While we’re on the topic, check out this video taken in the Hacienda back in 1989:
