The Hacienda: How Not to Run a Club

Praise for the UK Publication of THE HACIENDA:

“A frank memoir of altruism, idealism, and breathless incompetence.” – Uncut magazine (5 stars)

“Had the Hacienda not been run by a bunch of Manchester chancers it wouldn’t have been half the club it was, nor would Hook’s account be half as riveting.” – Time Out

“Entertaining . . . Hook is revealed as a born anecdotalist . . . engaging and hilarious.” – Sunday Times

“Saturated with gleeful hedonism, Hook’s memoir includes frank admissions of eye-popping commercial ineptitude, which gives the book a restless energy.” – Financial Times

“Packed with period detail and tales of debauchery, gangsters, and especially, as the title promises, how not to run a club.” – Under the Radar, 7 ½ out of 10 stars

Like Don Quixote on Ecstasy – Rolling Stone, 3 ½ stars

Praise for UNKNOWN PLEASURES:

“There is perhaps no better demonstration of the complexities of life and art than the fact that a history of Joy Division is often laugh-out-loud funny. [Unknown Pleasures] gives back this mythologized band its humanity [and] shows hindsight truly can be great. It is also heart-rending, ruthless and redemptive.” – Michael Azerrad, Wall Street Journal

“Honest, punchy, and rough-hewn . . . a portal into a vivid moment in rock history . . . the life and times of a working band . . . and, in the middle of it all, the transformative power of music.” – Los Angeles Times

“Unflinchingly honest . . . Hook peels away the romantic sheen colored by its dark history and gives unfettered insight into the band’s origins and inspirations . . . this is required reading for anyone who ever felt moved by Joy Division’s cold, dark music.” – Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“A candid, revelatory, and unexpectedly witty survey of post-punk’s greatest (if shortest-lived) band . . . Peter Hook avails himself an engaging, unpretentious celebrity storyteller. It’s high time we got a firsthand account of Manchester’s most influential pop quartet, an impassioned deposition by a principal player rather than tenuously-connected kinsman or bystander.” – Cleveland Music Examiner

“The most colorful and intimate account of Joy Division ever written . . . a marvelous raconteur[,] Hook evokes the spirit of the age with a bluff authenticity that no outsider could hope to emulate, as if this self-styled “working class tosser from Salford” was holding court in a pub, explaining the creation of his band’s remarkable music with all the passion and insight it deserves.” – Keith Cameron, MOJO

“Reading UNKNOWN PLEASURES . . . is like talking to a bawdy uncle after his fourth beer. But better, unless your uncle has stories about trying cocaine for the first time at the Pretty in Pink premiere. Apparently being in the saddest post-punk art-goth band in history can occasionally be pretty fucking funny.” – MTV Hive

The acclaimed and wildly outlandish inside account of Britain’s most notorious club, The Haçienda—a story of gangsters, drugs, violence, and great beats

In the 1980s, The Haçienda was one of the most famous venues in the history of clubbing—a celebrated cultural icon alongside Studio 54, CBGB, and the Whiskey a Go Go—until its tragic demise.

Founded by New Order and Factory Records, The Haçienda hosted gigs by such legendary acts as the Smiths, Bauhaus, Grandmaster Flash, Run DMC, Kurtis Blow, Happy Mondays, and Stone Roses; gave birth to the “Madchester” scene; became the cathedral for acid house; and laid the tracks for rave culture and today’s electronic dance music. But over the course of its near fifteen-year run, “Madchester” descended into “Gunchester” as gangs, drugs, greed, and a hostile police force decimated the dream.

New Order cofounder and bassist Peter Hook provides an up-close and visceral look at this cultural touchstone and it’s rise and fall. The Haçienda is a funny, horrifying, and wild story of success, idealism, naïveté, and greed—of an incredible time and place that changed the face and sound of modern music.