Legend

121 Princess Street, Manchester. M1 7AD. (Now called 5th Avenue) Paul Rae writes: The "Legend" club in 122? Princess st. was first opened in Sept? 1980. DJ Nicky Flavell opened the club which by law required membership, this was to cause problems for quite some time. Flavell was a out and out funk DJ and the club was state of the art. The installation was mind blowing form the massive Hi-Fi sound system to the laser / neon lighting (you'd be had pushed to find a better installation today in 2008 - in fact the club that is there now has a awful installation). Anyway, due to it's close proximity to Mosside / Hulme large numbers of young gifted and black people turned up at the club, which was great for Flavell who delivered the funk the punters sorely needed. The management however had other ideas. They wanted a club that would compete with Peter Stringfellows "Millionaires" nightclub and all the rich clients that would bring. There was a shake-up and the upshot was that Nicky Flavell quit and Lennon Management contacted me to take over as DJ. When I arrived it turned out they had also asked Ralph Randell (a.k.a. Ralph Mayles) from the "Blue Note" in Derby to be DJ. So, Ralph and I worked as DJ's side by side (we DJ'ed an hour on and off whilst the other worked the extensive lighting system). We were instructed to play Pop music only, and for a few months that's what we did. We started a Alternative (Futurist) night on Thursdays, whilst Wednesdays was strictly Funk. The Funk night really took off after Greg Wilson started playing regularly (he already had a Tuesday funk night at "The Pier" in Wigan). Our Thursday night was a real circus, it was amazing within a few months it was packed to the rafters and we had people outside that couldn't get in, the same happened on Wednesdays for Greg. Fridays and Saturdays took longer, but they too were packed after a few months with people from the Funk and Alternative nights plus anyone else who needed good new music. Ralph and I had started to change the music from Pop to anything that was new and rocked the house. We spent at least £ 100 a week on US imports (the club paid for them), and we played all the top tracks from Gregs Funknight plus Thursday night top tunes. When the Hacienda opened, in May 1982, we thought that we would probably lose a few punters, but we didn't, we were basically full an hour after opening at 9pm. The Hacienda had real problems. At the end of 1982 or the beginning of 1983 Ralph quit because the management had once again decided that we should play more wally music for some unbeknown reason, and Ralph wouldn't play "that shit", there were many heated arguments, I decided to work alone for a while even though I agreed with Ralph. Ultimately, I thought the magic had gone, Ralph and I had a really good working relationship and the club couldn't have been better. All the top artists of the time used to drop in. Duran Duran and Thompson Twins said it was their favourite club, but after Ralph left I thought that maybe I should move on. I had problems at home (my wife is Norwegian and wanted to move back to Norway), so in March 1983 I left to move to Norway (I came back and opened the "Playpen" in the old "Slack Alice" / "Zoo" club in October 1983, but that's another story). In the six months that I had gone Hacienda had started to fill up (I believe that they almost went bankrupt a few time before that in late 1982). Whether the change of music policies at Legend and the loss of Ralph and myself had anything to do with the Haciendas rising from the dead I don't know, but I guess it was a combination of the two. I truly believe that if the management had left us alone the Hacienda would have gone bankrupt, and more that likely closed never to have become the legendary club it became. Only the people that frequented "Legend" know just how great it was, no matter which night you decided to go, it was full on bangin' from start to finish. I am extremely proud to say that I was a big part of the truly legendary "Legend" in Manchester.