Tuesday, 5 October 2021

One 4 The Britz: Hacienda Hallway

Just noticed that a British holy grail has finally turned up on YouTube: the full episode of The Hitman & Her broadcast from Manchester's infamous Hacienda club in 1989. For doz that literally slept, The Hitman & Her was a British late-night TV show hosted by Stock Aitken Waterman supremo Pete Waterman & then-kids TV presenter Michaela Strachan. Beginning in 1988 the show's M.O was visiting various British nightclubs which were to be provincial meat-markets where Sharons & Tracys and Kevins & Garys would politely dance to current Top 40 pop music and indulge in wacky japes at the behest of Waterman & Strachan.

So far, so standard night at Ritzy's Wine Bar. Until, that is, Waterman & Strachan took a trip to the Hacienda during the peak of Britain's Acid House explosion in 1989 and came across a bacchanal of Mancunian 24 hour party people dancing to rave classics by L.U.S.T, Rhythm Is Rhythm, West Bam, Inner City, Maurice etc. Well, sorta - the club had announced The Hitman & Her would be filming that night so a shitload of Sharons & Tracys and Kevins & Garys also turned up to get their mugs on the telly. Thing is, though, it's this combination of folks which make the episode such a period-piece classic; seriously, there is no better documentation of British club culture in 1989 than the juxtaposition of Waterman & Strachan coaxing a group of hairdresser lasses into singing Beatles karaoke before the cameras cut back to a dancefloor full of Mancunian ravers locked into the plinkity-plonkity hypnotic 303 tweak of A Guy Called Gerald's Voodoo Ray.



Petition to get the aforementioned Voodoo Ray footage (32:35 in the second video) recognised and realised as the song's official video. Note the lad dancing on the stage who looks like a Pakistani Shaun Ryder and another lad who looks like a chunkier Kermit from the Ruthless Rap Assassins. Together they coulda been the Bizarro World Black Grape.
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9 comments:

  1. Ravy Davy DMX5 October 2021 at 16:47

    Michaela Strachan's lost years between Wacaday and Springwatch.

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  2. Kelvin Mack10zie5 October 2021 at 22:15

    Pete Waterman definitely a better co-presenter for Michaela than Timmy Mallett or Chris Packham.

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  3. L.A6 October 2021 at 14:39

    What is Mike Pickering wearing on his head? Lol

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  4. Yohan6 October 2021 at 15:11

    It's not my era by a long stretch but still crazy fun to watch.

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  5. Kelvin Mack10zie6 October 2021 at 17:01

    Technically, before my time too - I was in my first year of high school when this was broadcast 😄

    Only went the Hacienda once and that was to see The Pharcyde live in the mid 90s. Thankfully the Salford and Hulme gangsters who plagued the place weren't in attendance that night (or if they were they weren't robbing people.)

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  6. Spartan6 October 2021 at 19:53

    Would creep back home during the early hours with my head spinning, trying not wake up anyone and the only thing on TV would be The Hitman & Her and Get Stuffed. Good times.

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  7. Kelvin Mack10zie6 October 2021 at 20:12

    Holy shit, I completely forgot Get Stuffed.

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  8. Anonymous8 October 2021 at 14:16

    Pass me those Memorex vhs tapes.

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  9. Kelvin Mack10zie9 October 2021 at 12:27

    Urban legend has it that Michaela got spiked this night and ended up On One. Probably typical Mancunian bullshit but a funny mental image.

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