Dave Haslam is a former Hacienda resident and nightlife academic. Here he tells us about six cities and their contribution to UK nightlife
Dave Haslam’s latest book, Life After Dark: A History of British Nightclubs and Music Venues, documents how nightclubs and music venues are often the source of a lifetime of music taste, best friends, and vivid memories. They can define a town, a city, or a generation, and breed scenes and bands that change music history. As a resident of the infamous Hacienda nightclub and as a scholar of nightlife Dave has played a huge part in British nightlife. His work looking at nightlife economies and instrumental moments, cities and people who have shaped our club landscape have been monumentally important in our understanding of the country’s lust for after-hours entertainment.
This June, he will take part in a talk at Belfast’s AVA Festival and Conference discussing the book and cities like London, Newcastle, Brighton, Sheffield, Leeds, Hull, and Edinburgh which all feature in its pages. Here he picks just a few other cities featured in the book and describes what part they have played in the story of life after dark.
Belfast
There were so many venues and clubs in Belfast and Northern Ireland generally in the 1960s and no history can ignore the emergence via the Maritime Hotel of Van Morrison’s Them, and Rory Gallagher’s Taste. The effect of the Troubles on nightlife in the 1970s is clear, but the activity centred around the Harp Bar and how punk acted as a catalyst for bands like Stuff Little Fingers and Terri Hooley’s Good Vibrations label is documented in the book, as well as mentions of many other venues, clubs, and DJs (notably David Holmes).
Manchester
The Ritz is a great example of the Mecca dance halls that dominated nightlife from the 1920s onwards. The Twisted Wheel is considered the birthplace of Northern Soul, and then there’s the Hacienda of course, the focus of the Madchester scene. But Manchester, like other cities, is full of clubs off the beaten track, barely noticed, where great things happen.
Birmingham
Birmingham and Black Country venues and clubs are strongly represented in Life After Dark; the Sixties chapters include Noddy Holder of Slade talking about the scene around the Plaza in Old Hill (including Noddy’s memories of the early days of Led Zeppelin). I also interviewed John Taylor of Duran Duran about the scene at the Rum Runner; a New Romantic club, although it wasn’t called that at the beginning. Strange to think that a scene that became so huge (and defined the 1980s in some ways) sprang from just a few venues, like the Rum Runner, and the Blitz in London.
Glasgow
The splendour of the Barrowland Ballroom is celebrated in the book, and its survival too, through economic depressions and a huge fire. Then there are tiny Glasgow venues like the Mars Bar where Simple Minds held down a residency, and unorthodox club nights like ‘Splash One’ at Daddy Warbucks.
Bristol
The Bristol Locarno is just one of the many Bristol venues I pick out as significant in the national story. Others include the Colston Hall, the Bamboo, the Thekla, and the long-running rock club the Granary. The Dug Out on Park Row looms large in my book too. What happened at the Dug Out in the 1980s laid the foundations for so much that happened in Bristol, and British music in the 1990s, most notably Massive Attack.
Liverpool
As you would expect of a book celebrating significant venues in music and nightlife history, Liverpool venues and clubs are strongly represented. The Cavern, Eric’s and Cream all get extensive coverage and among the many interviews in the book there are tales from Pete Wylie of Wah and James Barton from Cream. The importance of clubs like the Casbah, the Jacaranda, the Timepiece, the State, and the Kazimier are all celebrated. But going back to Victorian Liverpool, I also document some of the sleazy Victorian music halls on Wolstenholme Square and exclusively reveals details of a club that pioneered breakdancing a hundred and fifty years ago. One of countless intriguing tales of ‘Life After Dark’.
Life After Dark is available from all good bookshops and online retailers
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