Forty
years ago today, on November 5th, 1984, Psychic TV played at the
Haçienda nightclub in Manchester. Run by Factory Records main man, Tony
Wilson, the club was notorious as one of the most pivotal venues in the
UK during the late 1980s and early 1990s, becoming a key venue for the
Acid House & techno music scenes. But before it really started to
click as a place for DJs and Ecstasy fuelled dancers, it was initially
opened as a financially struggling alternative music club, partially
funded by the profits from New Order's Blue Monday single.
Psychic
TV's appearance there in 1984 captured the band as it was undergoing
the first of its major stylistic transmutations of its career. The
group's live performances during its first few years were predominantly
noisy, tribal-industrial happenings, often taking on the disposition of
rallies, veiled in pseudo militaristic occult symbolic trappings. But
by 1984, the group were starting to develop a kind of psychedelic rock
that Genesis P-Orridge dubbed "Hyperdelic" music. The group on stage
became more conventional, incorporating a regular drummer and bass
guitar along with Alex Fergusson's guitar, in order to perform more
conventional rock music. This particular performance is notable for
being the gig where Godstar was first performed. This song would become
the group's most successful single once it was fully developed in the
studio and released in 1985.
The
group membership for this gig included founding members, Genesis
P-Orridge & Alex Fergusson, Paula P-Orridge (uncredited on the
reissues of the recording), John Gosling and Paul A Reeson. In addition
to Godstar, the set included versions of Roman P., Southern Comfort,
Thee Starlit Mire, Unclean and I Like You. The performance was recorded
and initially released on cassette in an unofficial Temple Ov Psychick
Youth edition in 1984. It would be remastered and reissued on CD for
the first time in 2013 by Cold Spring Records. A double LP red vinyl
edition was also issued by Let Them Eat Vinyl in 2014.
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