What goes up, must come down: New BBC podcast charts the rise & fall of ecstasy in Manchester
Ecstasy: The Battle Of Rave chronicles the rise of a drug that ultimately shaped a movement that made Manchester the city it is today; both for better and for worse.
Unemployment. Racism. Poverty. Hooliganism. Hopelessness. Communities at war.
1980s Northern Britain was a tortured place.
By the mid-point of the decade, the region was a bubbling pot teetered on a gas burner; a scorching, bewildered swirl of different ingredients thrashing around against one another.
But then ecstasy came along, and it was like someone simply turned the heat off.
Temperatures cooled, waters soothed, and the contents relaxed; rising to the top together whilst softly entwining.
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A new BBC podcast, part-written by Danny Brocklehurst, is about that moment the cooker dial twisted down, and the music cranked up.
Ecstasy: The Battle Of Rave chronicles the rise of a drug that ultimately shaped a movement that made Manchester the city it is today; both for better and for worse.
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The project sees Danny – the Hyde-born writer of The Stranger, Brassic and Safe (along with credits for Clocking Off and Shameless) – teaming up with Chris Warburton from BBC 5 Live to examine how multicoloured capsules set a momentous cultural shift into motion.
Staring down the camera lens during his Zoom call with The Manc, Danny begins throwing fingers up in front of the monitor as he recounts the ways in which ecstasy remoulded the country.
“It changed crime, it changed policing, it changed culture, and ultimately it changed government policy,” he tells us.
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“This was the biggest and most radical cultural youth movement in this country since the sixties… possibly ever.”
But Ecstasy: The Battle Of Rave isn’t, as Danny reaffirms, an ode to “saucer-eyed, hands-in-the-air sweaty club nights”.
It’s a story about what this drug gave to Britain. And what it took away.
Ecstasy: The Battle Of Rave is built up of six documentary episodes featuring marquee names of the era; including Shaun Ryder and Graeme Park.
But tucked between each of these eps are five ‘Secret Voices of Ecstasy’; a quintet of fictional characters built from research and real interviews.
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According to Danny, this allowed him to retell the kind of stories that are rarely recited on the record, be it for fear of exposure, revenge or even incarceration.
A stellar UK cast steps in to fill the shoes of a raver (Meera Syal), a dealer (Ian Hart), an undercover cop (David Morrissey), a DJ (Monica Dolan), and an opportunistic party-organising entrepreneur (Adrian Edmondson) – who got rich by arriving on the crest of a wave.
“I think what the drama does is hopefully gets you inside peoples’ heads,” Danny reveals.
“[This lets us] tell their story very honestly, very emotionally, very truthfully in a way that you wouldn’t necessarily always get from someone who’s on the record in a documentary.”
Intriguingly, Ecstasy: The Battle Of Rave follows the same arc of the drug which bears its name.
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It reaches up to revel in the unparalleled highs – a glittering world of dilated pupils, flashing lights and giddy bliss – before diving back down to Earth to showcase the devastating, almost subterranean lows that came afterwards.
“We’re trying to be honest about the range of experiences that people had at that time,” Danny explains.
“If there’s a pattern to the story of ecstasy and acid house, it mirrors the drug.
“You’ve got the initial euphoria – which most people you speak to involved in this scene experienced – then you’ve got the levelling out where it’s becoming the norm.
“Then, you’ve got the comedown.
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“The good times were so good and [people] felt alive. It was very vibrant. But that’s not to say this didn’t come at a cost.”
As the podcast ascertains, ecstasy undeniably altered music, values and even society.
But it didn’t do it all alone. It had a companion. A partner in crime.
Acid house.
“In the eighties, MDMA found its moment,” Danny states.
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“The collision [with acid house] created this amazing cocktail… and to add to that there’s this youth culture in Britain that feels like it needs that escape.
“Ecstasy responds more to the situation you’re in. That’s why people take it at festivals.
“If you took ecstasy and got on a bus, for example, it probably wouldn’t quite have the same effect!”
According to DJ Graeme Park, ecstasy and acid house were the perfect match because the pills would raise your heartbeat to 120bpm… which happened to be exactly the same speed as the tempo of many tracks.
For the first time, people felt completely in tune with the music around them.
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Most parts of Britain had a home for ecstasy and acid house. But in Manchester in particular, the pair were welcomed into the city by thousands of open arms.
The nerve centre for rave here was, of course, The Hacienda – the black-and-yellow hedonistic hive that would spawn the ‘Madchester’ scene.
But the podcast makes another big revelation in that the first rumblings of the movement actually started at Stuffed Olives – a little nightclub smuggled away down South King Street off Deansgate.
If FAC51 was the place that ecstasy and acid house realised they were destined to be soulmates, Stuff Olives was where they first clapped eyes on one another.
Shaun Ryder describes the movement as taking Manchester from ‘black and white’ to ‘teknicolour’.
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People of all races were coming together. Different classes were mixing. Football hooligans from rival firms were hugging on dancefloors.
“It [ecstasy] had a real capacity to heal and make us love one another,” Danny chuckles.
“Whether you think that’s naive or not; that was the feeling.
“A lot of what happened at that time came out of what people were experiencing; Thatcherism, unemployment, no palpable future that appealed to them.
“This movement, this freedom, this drug, this music offered them something that was a bit like a ‘screw you’ to the system.
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“The system hated that – because they couldn’t control it.”
But, of course, what goes up, must come down.
During the nineties, ecstasy wore out its welcome as greed took over.
The drug was increasingly cut with dangerous substances so dealers could enjoy a bigger slice of the pie, and police were increasingly raiding parties to take down the culprits.
Raving undoubtedly has an ugly side. It’s one we’ve seen as recently as this year; as crowds have flocked to makeshift illegal gatherings during a pandemic.
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As police continue to tackle parties that put the wider public at risk, it’s an interesting time for a podcast about raving to be released. But Danny says the current climate had no real influence on the final edit.
“We’ve been writing this for a long time,” he informs us.
“We couldn’t have anticipated we’d be living through a pandemic… or that young people’s primal need to get together would result in a resurgence in illegal raves.
“At a time when people are supposed to be social distancing; that’s a very interesting contradiction.
“Obviously, COVID is a very different scenario [to the 80s/90s] because it’s [about] people responding to being trapped in their homes.”
But for the most part, the nightlife scene in Manchester currently remains under lock and key.
Nonetheless, Danny believes the shutdown could potentially result in a new wave of nightlife that may bring a resurgence to the city.
“There was a period in the early nineties where Manchester was the centre of the universe for a little bit,” he reflects.
“It felt like a very vibrant, lively, amazing place to be living and working.
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“Obviously that doesn’t last. The Hacienda has gone now and lots of the big famous clubs have gone.
“But it’s still a very lively place and it’s got that ability to be a great city for people going out.
“But everything’s under a shadow of COVID right now.
“It could go one of two ways. Some places will wither and die. Or the scene will come back with a bang because people will be so desperate to come together and live and be with other people.
Danny pauses and thinks about it for a second or two.
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“It could have a really positive effect, ultimately.”
You can listen to Ecstasy: The Battle Of Rave on BBC Sounds now.
A new series of Brassic is also in the works – with Danny working on plans for a third and fourth installment of the Sky comedy-drama.
There’s also discussions taking place to create a new show with Harlan Coben; whom Danny collaborated with on Safe and The Stranger.
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Speaking with Maggie Rogers before her spellbinding stripped-back set at Gorilla
Danny Jones
Every now and again we’re fortunate enough to get the opportunity not only to see a big name but to experience them in a smaller, more intimate setting for those special one-offs that people go on to talk about for years to come — that’s how we got to see Maggie Rogers at Gorillaon Monday.
Better still, we were incredibly lucky to be offered time to speak with the American singer-songwriter just a couple of hours prior to her all-acoustic set at Gorilla and just before she and her band set off to tour her new album, Don’t Forget Me, which drops next month.
Manchester being the first of these up close and personal pre-album launch shows here in the UK, of which she listed just four, it’s always an honour to be picked for the start or the end of an album cycle but it was immediately clear she had a lot of love for our city.
Arriving in 0161 on Sunday just in time for the Paddy’s Day chaos and to watch the FA Cup final between Man United and Liverpool in a local pub, our conversation started with simply: “That game!”
The interview
After meeting and greeting the line of people already queuing up for the 500-cap Gorilla show, we walked backstage for what ended up being a laid-back chat about live music, relaxing into herself as an artist and an album process that was recorded in a whirlwind five days.
Touching on the upcoming third album and that beautiful title track, Maggie said, “It feels like coming home. In a lot of ways, it’s like a return to a lot of the style of songwriting and production and arrangement that really got me into music in this place when I was like 16/17.
“It just feels really relaxed and my friends keep saying that it sounds like the version of me that they know. I think, after doing this for quite a while, I’m finally relaxing into it.
“I think it’s always been authentic but I think music sort of takes some of the most sensitive and intense people and puts them in really high-intensity situations… It’s not even that I wasn’t being authentic before, I think it’s just that my guard was a little bit up yeah. I was a little scared — I still am, you know, but I think that’s normal.”
Describing how it felt her last LP Surrender had the punchiest and most contemporary rock approach of her music to date, we then moved on to where her style is at currently and the difference between the studio listening experience and live performance.
“I mean, my undergrad was in production engineering but that record was really designed to be played live, especially in a time like the pandemic, where all I was thinking about was coming back to touring and really missing it.
“I got really into British rock and, at least during the Surrender era, I was like fully like in Oasis mode, but you guys are responsible for some of the best music and pop culture.”
Chuffed that she dropped in the Burnage boys so early in the conversation, she went on to say that although she was “discovered in a moment of experimentation” — that old Pharrell meme (yes, that is her if you’ve never put two and two together), her “songwriting has always been the same at the centre.”
“What I love about making albums is the world-building part of it, and I’ve just gotten to build different worlds. I always think about where the albums are designed to be listened to and Heard It in a Past Life was really designed for headphones, Surrender was really designed for stage and this is really designed for a car — like a Sunday afternoon drive”.
As she puts it, the debut was lots of synths, the sophomore was “drums and distortion” and the star of Don’t Forget Me is the acoustic guitar. “There’s definitely different forms of energy”, she said, adding: “but this is more on the stripped side and the whole record was kind of designed as a live album. Almost everything was a first take and this record was made in five days”. Some achievement in its own right.
Credit: Maggie Rogers
Having the most fun on stage
After touching on that internet moment from back in 2016, we then talked about how seeing her for the first time at Victoria Warehouse back in November 2022 (which she described as “so sick” and one of her favourite venues here in Manchester) was the real ‘wow’ moment for us and realising just important it is to see her live. Maggie puts a lot of it down to the band.
“I think that on stage what I love is that it’s different every night. I’ve worked really hard to be excellent at something that I really love and I get to play with some of the best musicians around and my band is just so f***ing talented.”
“It’s sort of like I hope the audience is having a good time too but also if they’re not I’m just having a really good time anyway.” She definitely was too; jumping ahead a little bit, one of our favourite moments from the gig was when she stopped between songs to laugh and say, “I just love playing music”.
She said similar about the creative process this time around too. Although there’s a lengthy newsletter post describing how the album came to be on her Instagram, she summed up it by saying, “Creativity, often comes from some of the most essential and sometimes childish or playful senses.
“Like, it’s called playing music and I think keeping that like sense of playfulness alive is so inherent to keeping my creativity alive, and in the studio making this record I was just having so much fun and was just feeling really playful, so we sort of made a record by not trying to make a record.”
Again, you could see that “contagious joy” she talked about written on her face and everyone else’s.
She was having the most fun and, believe us, so was everyone who managed to get a ticket for Maggie Rogers’ sell-out Gorilla show.
The show
Moving on to the show itself, Maggie said she was most looking forward to playing the likes of ‘Drunk’ which they’ve been doing live for a while now, as well as a track she called “devastating” with just the keys and a guitar entitled, ‘The Kill’ — and she wasn’t lying.
She set up the song by promising “It’s such a jam” with a full band but the stripped-back version fittingly killed us off in the crowd and the same could be said for a lot of the versions we heard on the night. From ‘Begging for Rain’ to an almost ethereal take on ‘Alaska’, you really get to appreciate just how incredible her voice is in this kind of scenario.
Bigging up British and Manchester crowds in particular because we “know culture and [we] care”, insisting, “It’s crazy how important those two things are”, her audience certainly lived up to the billing. She said there’s no “half-assing” it with us and she was right. We were emotional and so was she.
The set naturally closed with ‘Don’t Forget Me and a few teary faces (we didn’t dare film that moment as we wanted to be present) but nothing summed up the night better than when the Manc Maggie fans pretty much turned Gorilla into a congregation for ‘That’s Where I Am’, perfectly harmonising and clapping like a gospel choir.
We’re already looking back on the show and thinking of it as going down as one of those ‘I was there’ moments and we think we speak for everyone when they say they won’t forget the time they saw Maggie Rogers at Gorilla with nothing more than a guitar and her piano player — also incredible, by the way.
Don’t Forget Me releases on Friday, 12 April and we already can’t wait to hear not only how the rest of it sounds but how the tracks we heard sound fully-fledged.
‘That’s Where I Am’ – Maggie Rogers, live at Gorilla (Credit: The Manc Audio)
Featured Images — The Manc Group/Press Image (supplied)
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Night & Day Cafe issues statement after battle to save iconic venue comes to an end
Daisy Jackson
One of Manchester’s most iconic music venues has issued a statement after their lengthy court battle came to an end today.
After three years, the court has ruled that Night & Day Cafe in the Northern Quarter will be allowed to continue operating as a gig venue and nightclub.
The iconic venue was served a Noise Abatement Notice (NAN) by Manchester City Council way back in 2021 after a new resident in the area filed multiple noise complaints.
The initial incident sparked a huge outcry from famous faces in the music industry as well as locals who love the venue – though Manchester City Council has maintained that at no point did it seek to close the venue.
The council also said that the NAN was issued ‘as a last resort’ after months of negotiating and compromising with Night & Day.
Night & Day Cafe have now issued a lengthy statement after Manchester Magistrates Court ruled in their favour, meaning the venue will be allowed to remain open under new conditions, including a maximum volume level at weekends.
While saying they were ‘delighted’ that the Noise Abatement Notice has been amended in the venue’s favour, Night & Day Cafe added that they were ‘disappointed’ that they would have to adjust their club nights.
They said that they would have to tweak their late-night offering ‘to suit an occupier of what is a defective apartment’, adding that the apartment (which was built after the venue) was approved planning despite the proximity to an established music venue.
Night & Day also thanked all those who have shown their support over the last three years.
Their full statement reads: “We are delighted that the Noise Abatement Notice has been amended in favour of N&D with the judge agreeing to noise levels that we offered to Manchester City Council (MCC) in June 2023 as part of the joint testing and negotiations.
“This means we can continue with the club nights that N&D and other live music venues are so dependent on. DJ club nights contribute to developing the raw, amazing talent and emerging live music scene that grace our stage, Manchester and beyond.
“Although N&D has won, we’re disappointed with today’s judgement as the venue will have to adjust our club nights to suit an occupier of what is a defective apartment.
“MCC Planning approved the apartment back in 2000 in full knowledge that there would be serious potential for noise problems in this flat and before any resident moved in.
“Today’s decision has huge implications for other Manchester night time industries and operators.
“We want to really thank all of our supporters in Manchester and beyond and every single person that has stood up and shouted for us. Without your incredible support we couldn’t have done this.”
A spokesperson for Manchester City Council said: “We are glad that this case has reached a conclusion, although it is regrettable that despite many attempts it could not have been amicably resolved prior to Night & Day bringing this court case.
“The Council has never sought to close Night & Day and very much want it to remain open and continue to play an active role in Manchester’s music scene.
“Over many months numerous meetings have taken place where we have sought to reach an amicable resolution with the venue, through negotiation and offering compromise, to agree acceptable sound levels which would allow us to uphold our legal duties and the venue to continue to thrive.
“It is as a last resort and extremely rare for us to issue a noise abatement notice. Manchester’s music venues overwhelmingly live in harmony with their neighbours and while complaints and issues are not uncommon, they are almost always resolved through dialogue.
“We welcome the judge’s ruling that Night & Day should use a noise limiter. The use of a limiter was a solution we proposed – and the judgement makes clear that our officers acted correctly in investigating the noise complaints in line with the Council’s legal responsibilities.
“We hope that we can all move forward from this unfortunate episode and we wish to work constructively with the venue.
“Music is a key ingredient of what makes Manchester special. The Council not only recognises this but has for many decades supported and encouraged grassroots venues and emerging musical talent. We continue to do so.
“In response to the pressures facing grassroots music venues across the country and here in the city, the Council commissioned a major independent review into the support Manchester’s grassroots music venues need, and how the council and partners can support venues. Its findings will be launched in May and will set out a way to champion Manchester’s independent music scene for the years ahead.
“The Council regularly support music ventures across the city, from grassroots to major venues, and emerging musicians through initiatives like Manchester Music City, Brighter Sounds and the Manchester Music Education Hub. The Council also funds and supports Beyond The Music, a new annual conference and festival which brings music industry leaders together to address challenges within the sector.
“We are committed to helping Manchester’s music scene to continue to flourish for many years to come.”