More gold from the vaults of Tony Wilson's late 80s Granada TV programme The Other Side Of Midnight. This episode went out on 6th November 1988, Manchester at the centre of a culture storm based around Fac 51, the Hacienda. For this episode the hardcore Hacienda crowd have decamped a short distance south to Victoria Baths on Hathersage Road. In the first section Tony Wilson presents (in a rubber wetsuit) an item about waterproof cameras and rubber wear, occasionally and knowingly dropping in the word acid. The very tall Manchester face and clothes shop owner Richard Creme models some rubberwear. Wilson promotes North: The Sound Of The Dance Underground, a compilation album put together by Mike Pickering, that sounds like November 1988 as much as anything else does.
Then we cut to the real business, A Guy Called Gerald playing live, the mighty Voodoo Ray bouncing round the Victorian baths, assisted by Graham Massey of 808 State. In the pool, as the bass drum kicks, clubbers frolic on inflatables. After another awkward interview Gerald returns and then part two starts at 12.52, dancing, smoke machines, whistles and cavernous bass. Pete Waterman is interviewed poolside, discussing clubs, music and acid house, and then we go back to the dancers and some water aerobics, Wilson gamely trying to pull everything together. You're left with the slightly frustrating sense that the real party is elsewhere, off camera or happened once the cameras were turned off. DJ Graeme Park shows up by the pool, answering questions about the music and attempts to ban it and then we cut back to the dancers. A snapshot of a time and place, the podium dancers throwing their arms around and showing once again that in the late 80s the crowd are the real stars.
This is one of the tracks from North: The Sound Of The Dance Underground, House Fantaz- ee by D C B (a Mike Pickering alias). The big hitters on the album were/ are Voodoo Ray, T- Coy's Carino and Annette's Dream 17, three tracks that still have the power to move today but the rest of the album still has plenty to commend it, thirty five years on, late '88 bottled.
