You think those guys are thugs? Seriously? Seemed pretty reasonable blokes trying to cope with a relentless stream of pissed up idiots
I worked behind the bar in the Hacienda during the whole Madchester/gunchester thing. The bouncers were all serious gangsters, proper hard-as-nails career criminals! Into allsorts. And some of them were out-and-out psychopaths. I’ve seen some proper scary shit. People taking some genuinely shocking beatings dished out for maybe spilling the wrong lunatics drink, then just dumped out by the canal at the back, unconscious and bleeding
I stopped going to the Hac for this very reason.
An amazing, inspirational nightclub became a very dangerous place to frequent.
It was difficult to get in unless you were ‘known’.
We’d been going for a while, to various nights, at that point & despite having long hair and the wrong trousers had started to feel at home.
The atmosphere changed completely – the little booths at the back were just taken over by thugs and woe betide anyone who did the slightest thing they could possibly take offence at.
The music ceased to be the thing.
Konspiracy & the Thunderdome were just dodgy from the start – a mate of mine, a dope dealer and major acid casualty from the festival scene started operating at the Thunderdome and very soon had acquired a couple of ‘minders’, who just fleeced him mercilessly.
There was nothing we could do – that was made very clear to us.
Don’t get me wrong, we had some great nights in both places, a proper ‘FU’ vibe, everyone welcome, but they coincided with heavier drugs becoming more prevalent, as they had on the free festival scene a few years before.
Thus ended the dream.
We all lost.
I gave up on dance clubs and went back to my punk/rock roots – it was safer and the drugs suited my haircut.
The Banshee, a family owned club, employed honest, decent, non steroidal doormen.
Jilly’s/Rockworld continued with local motorcycle gang refugees on the door, lead by Sarge, who was a thoroughly nice bloke and treated people with decency and respect.
I’d been going to both on a weekly basis since I was 15 and the only trouble I ever saw in 10-15 years was a bloke having the shit kicked out of him for trying to bite my ear off. 😯
Sorry for the rant – Her indoors is away for weekend and I’ve just had The Dust Junkys/North – Sound of the Dance Underground on. 😀