Bez’s first night in The Haçienda: “Made me the man I am today”
Bez is an extremely passionate man. We know this because he has made a career essentially flaunting that passion on stage his entire life. Describing what he does for the Happy Mondays is difficult, but those of us who have seen them perform, who have seen him, know that the band wouldn’t be the same without him. The poorly educated might just call him a dancer, but he’s the proprietor of good times, someone who shows that the band are having just as much fun as the crowd is.
Music is one of the things that Bez is most passionate about, but there is more than that. One of his other passions is getting drunk, specifically on cider. When asked to talk about his favourite drink, Bez spoke sonnet-like, describing cider as something otherworldly.
“I’ve had a long-lasting love affair with apple cider over the years. I just love the apple. There’s no contest as far as fruit goes, in my eyes,” he said. “It comes from the garden of Eden. With some cider you can literally taste the spirituality in it. When you think about it, the apple covers every angle: it gets you drunk, it’s great food, plus it’s really beneficial medicine.”
Music and cider are both important parts of his life, so it makes sense that he would also think highly of the place that combined the two. The Haçienda is a nightclub which opened in Manchester in 1982 and became a battleground for young ravers. It used to host gigs all the time, and any band who were making a name for themselves in Manchester ended up playing there.
“I’ll never forget the first time I went to the Haçienda. It was like walking into a big butcher’s fridge with the plastic curtains hanging down. It was everything we had ever dreamed of in a nightclub,” recalled Bez while talking about the first time he went to the club. “There was no dress code; there were absolutely no rules. It was like stepping into a world of utopia where you could do anything you wanted, and nobody batted an eyelid.”
One of these bands was The Happy Mondays, as The Haçienda became a venue where they performed frequently. It also marked the first time that Bez played on stage with them. His dancing got the crowd going, and he made a connection with the band that couldn’t be broken from that day on.
“Before I first met Shaun Ryder – which was when I got back from travelling – so many people were telling me that I needed to meet him because they just knew we would have this amazing connection,” he said. “When we first met, we were a little stand-offish, but then we started hanging out at the Haçienda, and that’s where we grew closer. It’s also where I joined the Happy Mondays for the first time on stage, supporting New Order.”
Concluding, Bez summed up the impact that the venue had on his personal and professional life: “The Haçienda made me the man I am today; it’s given me such a great life. It was such a melting pot of activity, not just music.”
