The Hacienda
How Not to Run a Club
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The Hacienda
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Narrated by:
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Peter Hook
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By:
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Peter Hook
About this listen
Peter Hook, as co-founder of Joy Division and New Order, has been shaping the course of popular music for 30 years. He provided the propulsive bass guitar melodies of 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' and the bestselling 12-inch single ever, 'Blue Monday' among many other songs. As co-owner of Manchester's Hacienda club, Hook propelled the rise of acid house in the late 1980s, then suffered through its violent fall in the 1990s as gangs, drugs, greed and a hostile police force destroyed everything he and his friends had created.
This is his memory of that era and 'it's far sadder, funnier, scarier and stranger' than anyone has imagined. As young and naive musicians, the members of New Order were thrilled when their record label Factory opened a club. Yet as their career escalated, they toured the world and had top ten hits, their royalties were being ploughed into the Hacienda and they were only being paid £20 per week. Peter Hook looked back at that exciting and hilarious time to write Hacienda. All the main characters appear - Tony Wilson, Barney, Shaun Ryder - and Hook tells it like it was - a rollercoaster of success, money, confusion and true faith.
©2009 Peter Hook (P)2010 Simon & SchusterListeners also enjoyed...
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Big fan of the band.
- By Curtis Carpenter on 11-15-24
By: John Illsley
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My Bass and Other Animals
- By: Guy Pratt
- Narrated by: Guy Pratt
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 42
Guy Pratt came of age just as bass playing became sexy. Having dallied with punk legend Sylvain Sylvain, Pratt suddenly found himself on Top of the Pops and supporting David Bowie with smooth Australian outfit Icehouse. He became bass player to the stars, crawling from studio to bar and hotel to stadium Portakabin with the likes of Pink Floyd, Robert Palmer, Womack &Womack and Bryan Ferry. Guy has recorded with everyone from Madonna and Michael Jackson to McFly.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Best book on Audible by a bass player!
- By Fjolnir on 03-12-12
By: Guy Pratt
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Oasis the Truth
- My Life as Oasis's Drummer
- By: Tony McCarroll
- Narrated by: Stephen Ballantyne
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 49
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 44
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 44
In 1991, five wannabe Mancunian musicians came together and cracked the spark that ignited the explosion which became Oasis. The band went from obscurity to a global phenomenon in the space of a year, achieving world-wide recognition and selling over 70 million records. What started out as five young lads with a common dream of becoming rock stars eventually disintegrated into in-fighting, clashes of egos, and financial disputes.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Insider's view of a rollicking band
- By Scott on 11-15-13
By: Tony McCarroll
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Unknown Pleasures
- Inside Joy Division
- By: Peter Hook
- Narrated by: Peter Hook
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 419
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 371
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 366
Joy Division changed the face of music. Godfathers of alternative rock, they reinvented music in the post-punk era, creating a new sound - dark, hypnotic, and intense - that would influence U2, Morrissey, R.E.M., Radiohead, and numerous others. The story is now legendary: In 1980, on the heels of their groundbreaking debut, Unknown Pleasures, and on the eve of their first U.S. tour, the band was rent asunder by the tragic death of their enigmatic lead singer, Ian Curtis.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Like sitting next to Hooky in a bar...
- By Andrew on 03-26-13
By: Peter Hook
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When Giants Walked the Earth
- A Biography of Led Zeppelin
- By: Mick Wall
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,035
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 905
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 899
They were the last great band of the '60s and the first great band of the '70s. They rose, somewhat unpromisingly, from the ashes of the Yardbirds to become one of the biggest-selling rock bands of all time - and eventually paid the price for it, with disaster, drug addiction, and death.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Very annoying but tolerable for serious fans.
- By M. Allen on 08-14-19
By: Mick Wall
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My Damage
- The Story of a Punk Rock Survivor
- By: Keith Morris, Jim Ruland
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 451
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 405
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Story5 out of 5 stars 404
Keith Morris is a true punk icon. No one else embodies the sound of Southern Californian hardcore. Short and sporting waist-length dreadlocks, Morris is known the world over for his take-no-prisoners approach on the stage and his integrity off of it. Over the course of his 40-year career, he's battled diabetes, drug and alcohol addiction, and the record industry. My Damage is more than a book about the highs and lows of a punk rock legend, however.
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5 out of 5 stars
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keith rocks.
- By Jeff on 05-13-18
By: Keith Morris, and others
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Deal
- My Three Decades of Drumming, Dreams, and Drugs with the Grateful Dead
- By: Bill Kreutzmann, Benjy Eisen
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 566
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 504
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 502
On their 50th anniversary comes a groundbreaking rock-and-roll memoir by one of the founding members of the Grateful Dead. The Grateful Dead are perhaps the most legendary American rock band of all time. For 30 years, beginning in the hippie scene of San Francisco in 1965, they were a musical institution, the original jam band that broke new ground in so many ways.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Decent but not great
- By Monty S on 03-02-16
By: Bill Kreutzmann, and others
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Me, the Mob, and the Music
- One Helluva Ride with Tommy James and the Shondells
- By: Tommy James, Martin Fitzpatrick
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 269
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 205
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 203
Everyone knows the hits: "Mony Mony," "I Think We're Alone Now," "Crimson and Clover," "Crystal Blue Persuasion." They are nuggets of rock and pop history. However, few know the unlikely story of how these hits came to be. Tommy James had been performing in rock bands in the Michigan area since the age of 12. Prompted to record a few songs by a local disc jockey in 1964, Tommy chose an obscurity titled "Hanky Panky," which became a minor local hit that came and went.
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5 out of 5 stars
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What a ride - excellent story, well told
- By Dave on 03-25-10
By: Tommy James, and others
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Meet Me in the Bathroom
- Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City 2001-2011
- By: Lizzy Goodman
- Narrated by: Charlie Thurston, Nicol Zanzarella
- Length: 19 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 636
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 552
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 548
In the second half of the 20th century New York was the source of new sounds, including the Greenwich Village folk scene, punk and new wave, and hip-hop. But as the end of the millennium neared, cutting-edge bands began emerging from Seattle, Austin, and London, pushing New York further from the epicenter. The behemoth music industry, too, found itself in free fall, under siege from technology. Then 9/11/2001 plunged the country into a state of uncertainty and war.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Deeply disappointing.
- By ChicagoRob on 01-18-20
By: Lizzy Goodman
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Elton John
- The Biography
- By: David Buckley
- Narrated by: Simon Shepherd
- Length: 16 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 53
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 50
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Story4 out of 5 stars 50
Elton John is as much loved for his outrageous personality and witty outspokenness as for his music. Such shamelessness and sheer silliness rivals anything uttered by punk rockers, yet it is so typically Elton: honest and intemperate. Tragedy and heartbreak have played a large part in his life. Behind the parties, the hedonism, the lavish stage costumes, and silly glasses lies a more somber story. Between disputes with managers, legal wranglings, public breakups, and divorce, John has been faced with serious health problems and drug addictions.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Trite!
- By michael mckone on 08-04-22
By: David Buckley
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Anger Is an Energy
- My Life Uncensored
- By: John Lydon
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 18 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 279
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 261
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 262
John Lydon is an icon - one of the most recognizable and influential cultural figures of the last 40 years. As Johnny Rotten, he was the lead singer of the Sex Pistols, the world's most notorious band. The Pistols shot to fame in the mid-1970s with songs such as "Anarchy in the U.K." and "God Save the Queen". So incendiary was their impact at the time that in their native England, the Houses of Parliament questioned whether they violated the Traitors and Treasons Act.
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3 out of 5 stars
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I Just Can't
- By notamatopoeia on 12-30-15
By: John Lydon
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Keith Richards
- The Unauthorised Biography
- By: Victor Bockris
- Narrated by: Adrian Mulraney
- Length: 20 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 45
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 42
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 41
In 1992, Victor Bockris' celebrated biography was the first to recognize Richards' pivotal role in the legend of the Rolling Stones. Now that book on rock's most incredible survivor has been expanded. Here are the true facts behind Richards' battles with his demons: the women, the drugs and the love-hate relationship with Jagger. His struggle with heroin and his status as the rock star most likely to die in the 1970s. His scarcely believable rebirth as a family man in the 1980s. Illuminated with revealing quotes and thoughtful insights into the man behind the band that goes on forever.
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3 out of 5 stars
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doesn't comapre to LIFE
- By A. Garofalo on 02-20-14
By: Victor Bockris
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Iggy Pop
- Open Up and Bleed
- By: Paul Trynka
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 14 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 107
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 73
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 71
Iggy Pop's legendary career has been tumultuous, reaching great heights with mega-hits and then hitting rock-bottom lows in jail and mental institutions. Along the way, he's become a cult-rock hero, an inspiration for dozens of other famous rockers, and has had a pretty good time of it, too. But the image of Iggy Pop versus the man behind that image, James Newell Osterberg, Jr., is surprisingly contradictory.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Banal and Boring
- By Michael on 12-03-08
By: Paul Trynka
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The Improv
- An Oral History of the Comedy Club That Revolutionized Stand-Up
- By: Budd Friedman, Tripp Whetsell, Jay Leno - foreword
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 47
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 40
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 41
In 1963, 30-year-old Friedman - who had recently quit his job as a Boston advertising executive and returned to his hometown of New York to become a theatrical producer - opened a coffee house for Broadway performers called the Improvisation. His goal? Simply to make a living, and if all went according to plan, to also make enough professional contacts to be able to mount his first Broadway show within a year's time. Later shortened to the Improv, its first West 44th Street location was in a seedy section of Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Shockingly tone deaf
- By JenniferW on 06-28-23
By: Budd Friedman, and others
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All These Things That I've Done
- My Insane, Improbable Rock Life
- By: Matt Pinfield, Mitchell Cohen
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 39
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 32
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 33
Matt Pinfield is the ultimate music fan. He's the guy who knows every song, artist, and musical riff ever recorded, down to the most obscure band's B-side single on its vinyl-only EP import. As a child, music helped Pinfield make sense of the world. Later he would approach his music idols after concerts and explain why he loved their music. As an adult, rock music inspired his career, fueled relationships, and, at times, became a life raft.
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5 out of 5 stars
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great listen
- By nilda v. on 08-28-20
By: Matt Pinfield, and others
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My Appetite for Destruction
- Sex, and Drugs, and Guns N' Roses
- By: Steven Adler, Lawrence C. Spagnola - with
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 370
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 335
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 334
From Steven Adler, the original drummer for Guns N' Roses, comes My Appetite for Destruction, the inside story of GNR. Offering a different perspective from the bestselling Slash, Adler chronicles his life with the band, and own intense struggle with addiction, as seen on Dr. Drew's Celebrity Rehab and Sober House.
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4 out of 5 stars
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TERRIBLE NARRATION
- By SNAFU666 on 02-04-21
By: Steven Adler, and others
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Wild Tales
- A Rock & Roll Life
- By: Graham Nash
- Narrated by: Graham Nash
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 793
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 723
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 721
From Graham Nash - the legendary musician and founding member of the iconic bands Crosby, Stills & Nash and The Hollies - comes a candid and riveting autobiography that belongs on the reading list of every classic rock fan.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Best of the Recent Rock Biographies
- By Steven Schuster on 10-28-13
By: Graham Nash