Remembering Manchester’s Haçienda nightclub

Manchester was primed for an era-defining mecca of music by the time the Haçienda nightclub opened in 1982. For the next 15 years its pills-and-thrills fuelled hedonism spawned a legacy that still thrives to this day… The

Making The Orb’s Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld

The Orb’s Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld cover A former roadie for Killing Joke supplied what tender partygoers most needed by artfully taking the beats out of techno for The Orb’s Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld… The idea seems

Making Simple Minds: New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)

Simple Minds – New Gold Dream cover Critical acclaim is one thing, but what Simple Minds really desired in 1982 was a hit record. With their fifth studio album, New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84), they finally got it,

Clare Grogan interview

Clare Grogan Surely the hardest working singer in 1981 was Clare Grogan. Just as Altered Images were releasing their debut album, she became a film star too. Aged just 19, how did she cope with the workload?

Peter Hook talks Joy Division, New Order

After the tragic death of Ian Curtis, the surviving members of Joy Division, including Peter Hook could have faded into obscurity – instead, 1981 saw them reborn as New Order, masters of alternative synth-pop. “We owned those