Hacienda Classical with Mike Pickering

Words by Dan Prince

Photography by Dominic Simpson and Anthony Mooney

 

“Dan there’s no need to shout” whispered Mike down the phone from his desk at Columbia Records when I call him for our interview. “It was a Sony party last night and let’s just say I’m a little delicate today.” But who can blame him for the celebrations though? It has been another incredible twelve months for one of dance music’s all time greats thanks largely to the success of Hacienda Classical, the Park & Pickering concerts that witness The Hacienda’s heritage colliding with the world of classical music. Last summer saw the show open Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage as well as headlining the likes of The Big Feastival, Kew The Music and Lytham Festival. Now entering its third year, these inspirational nights recreating the tunes that defined a generation have just announced the first of their 2018 dates that include The Royal Albert Hall, Kendall Calling, Kenwood House and the Isle of Wight Festival amongst others.

 

Things though could have turned out oh so different for the team after a less than satisfactory launch events at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall in 2016…

“I was ready to jack it in after that first event as the sound was all over the place” recalls Mike. “We were only able to have one full rehearsal due to the scale of it all and as you can imagine, every single instrument had to be mic’d up – the poor sound engineer was having a nervous breakdown. I can remember nervously looking at Graeme just before we walked onto the stage, neither of us had any idea what it was going to sound like and it was basically a case of just hoping for the best. We scraped through and then worked tirelessly with our conductor Tim Crooks to get it right for the second event. By the time The Royal Albert Hall took place the show was out of this world, everything had fallen into place perfectly.”

I was listening to you being interviewed by Jo Wiley on BBC 2, you said that this is the hardest you have had to concentrate performing in 30 years! Just how intense is it on stage?

To be honest with you, I’ve never had so much fun in my life. It is such a joyous experience to be in the middle of our beautiful orchestra and looking out at so many happy faces in the crowd. The intense bit is all in the curating and preparation before we hit the stage.

Massive Attack ripped into Pete Tong’s orchestra event late last year calling it a “nostalgia nightmare roadshow”.  How much of a nostalgic person are you?

“I’m not nostalgic at all to be honest – and that’s one of the reasons I was a little mindful of Hacienda Classical before it all began. When myself and Graeme are out DJing the only time we’ll play an old tune is when there’s a new mix of it, we’re not the kind of DJs who just fill our sets with anthems.

How did the idea come about in the first place?

“Just another one of those post club boozy sessions where a load of shit ideas get thrown around and one finally stuck. We were just trying to think of a concept where the younger clubber and couples in their 40 could all enjoy, if you are going to go to a club you really have to be young to want to stand in a dark sweaty room and get messy until the sun comes up. Hacienda Classical is perfect for everyone, it’s a trip down memory lane for some and it’s an avenue for great music and also an insight into what happened years ago for others. And it’s perfect for me as it’s usually a daytime or early evening shift!

You’ve kissed goodbye to the allnighters then?

There’s life in the old dog yet but I much prefer the timings of our Classical events. I got offered a gig in Berlin last week with a DJ slot of 4am-6am. I passed.

This year’s events will feature the third new set with new classic tracks added to the repertoire and some old favourites returning. How do you all decide on new tunes to feature?

We are quite lucky as myself and Graeme are always getting people coming up to us at gigs and suggesting tracks for Hacienda Classical, so we both have big lists on our phones of music we know our audience like.

Are there any big tunes that just don’t work with an orchestra?

Voodoo Ray is just a no go unfortunately, there’s only a few strings that can be pulled here and there with that one. A few of the old acid tracks too, Adonis for instance…

What about belters?

‘Strings of Life’ still sends shivers down our spines every time we do it. Unbelievable. ‘Ride on Time’ is always a slam dunk finish and Sabrina’s ‘Peace’ is so uplifting.

Most of the tracks were made on little Japanese machines in bedroom studios in Chicago and the UK. Have any of the pioneer producers come to any of the shows and expressed their disbelief?

Marshall Jefferson came down and cried. It was amazing. We played ‘Someday’ and the Keisha track, he was very moved.

You performed at Jamie Oliver’s Big Feastival food festival last summer, I believe Alex James was playing bass and he was er, a little nervous beforehand?

Haha, yes he had a few nerves before we played but he did great. He came and played ‘Blue Monday’, what a fabulous gig. Very posh in a really beautiful setting…

As gigs go, opening Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage to 50,000 people must rank up there as one of your career highlights?

I have been going for 20 years and headlined other stages with M People, but this something really special. We had to do the sound check in complete silence which was pretty surreal and I kept turning to Emily and Nick asking ‘are you sure this is going to work?’. They were pissing themselves as they knew it was going to be spectacular, but I didn’t know what to expect. Well we came on and the scene was just biblical. 5-,000 people pouring down the hill, such a massive crowd. I ended up DJing 3 times around the site, they couldn’t get me off!

There were rumours that you were bringing the show to Ibiza last summer?

Yeah we had a pencil, I think it was for IMS. But for whatever reason, it didn’t materialize.

Aside from your nocturnal activities, you also A&R for Columbia Records and have been responsible for signing the likes of Kasabian and Calvin Harris. Just how difficult is it for new bands to break nowadays, if they don’t enter a TV show?

For bands it is very, very difficult at the moment, but the music industry works in cycles so fingers crossed it’ll improve. In the old days a label would take a band from ground zero, now the artist has to do it all themselves with management in place already. They have to approach us with a healthy following, have a good social media presence, have great music ready to go. It’s all a bit alien for me as I like to listen to a song and if it’s great I’m interested. But it’s a whole different world now.