PARK, GRAEME / PICKERING MIKE / HOOK, PETER / MANCHETSER CAMERATA - HACIENDA CLASSICAL

Born in Aberdeen and grew-up in Kirkcaldy, Scotland. Worked at Select-a-Disc record shop in Nottingham, England, sourcing obscure House music records that he later deejayed at local The Garage club in 1986. Soon formed the Submission record label and under a variety of names released some of the first UK House material. Was later invited to join Mike Pickering at the decks of the infamous club Hacienda in Manchester, England, in 1987 where he played for a decade. Continues to DJ all around the world and also remixes for many artists. Graeme Park: over 25 years on the decks, more than 15 years on the radio. The story of DJ Graeme Park really mirrors the story of the evolution of dance music and club culture itself. Graeme found himself working in a Nottingham record shop called Selectadisc in the early 1980s, when the very first house records began to filter through from Chicago, Detroit and New York. When the shop’s owner also opened a nightclub, it was only natural he should turn to Graeme to select the discs. Determined to showcase this new style of music, his reputation as a house pioneer soon brought him to the attention of Mike Pickering at the Haçienda in Manchester, who asked him to cover for him whilst he went on holiday in 1988. Simply put, there was no-one else in the country who could do the job. The Summer of Love followed, and Parky quickly became one of the biggest names on the emerging dance scene. Aside from his eight-year residency at The Haç, he was one of the first British DJs to play places like Australia, South America, the USA, Asia and beyond as well as producing and remixing tracks for the dancefloor. The Haçienda was a club without a purpose until house music filled its cathedral-sized dimensions. It undeniably defined Graeme as a DJ, but in 2012, that can only be seen as one chapter in an on-going tale: ‘Yeah it was a very big chapter,’ says Graeme. ‘I guess the first was when I discovered I could DJ and discovered house music from the US. The Haçienda was chapter 2, then chapter 3 was when it re-opened after closing for a couple of months in 1992. Chapter 4 was when it closed not long after I left and I played all around the world. I suppose Chapter 5 is where we are now.’ As far as Graeme’s concerned, things are as fab as ever. But where is dance music and club culture headed? Well, who better to ask directions than the man who wrote the disco A-Z? ‘I started doing it purely by accident,’ he details. ‘And then realised I was actually pretty good at it. But I never thought I’d end up doing it for over 25 years. And I see no need to stop at the moment. I still love playing fantastic tunes in a variety of different clubs all over the place and people still want me to do it too.’ And where we are now is a very interesting place to be with regular gigs around the UK, Europe and beyond playing a selection of classic house cuts as well as new and current tunes too. There’s also a variety of productions under various guises including the single ‘Shady’ by Gooden & Park with legendary Ten City vocalist Byron Stingily on vocals and his ongoing Yellow & Black project which includes original tracks, remixes and collaborations. Although keen not to be bracketed as purely a ‘classics’ DJ, Graeme regularly delves into the thousands upon thousands of tunes he has collected on vinyl over the years: “House music has made people channel their tastes, so I went back to my roots and pulled out some forgotten classics,” he grins, still in love with process of mining those rich seams of vinyl. “I love seeing a crowd go wild to a tune they haven’t heard for years or playing something really obscure from 20 years ago that people think is new.” And with 2012 being The Haçienda‘s 30th anniversary, Graeme has found himself playing a lot of classic tunes on the ongoing 30th anniversary tour which began on The Haçienda‘s birthday the 21st May in the car park underneath The Haçienda apartments, continued all over the UK, Europe and beyond and ends with Graeme DJing for 7 hours at the annual Haçienda Christmas Party at Sankeys in Manchester on 27th December. Celebrating over 15 years on the radio with shows on Kiss, Galaxy, Key 103, Radio City, Juice FM, Forth One and more, Graeme’s years of experience help him understand the specialist skills required by a radio DJ: ‘A lot of radio shows or DJs just play the same big tunes. You can’t simply pretend you’re in a club, you have to talk to the audience and put your personality and knowledge across without sounding like an idiot.’ His weekly Graeme Park Radio Show airs on scores of radio stations both in the UK and overseas and brings in a big audience with his mix of new and older tunes mixed together like only he knows how. You can listen to the show anytime you like at http://thisisgraemepark.com/music-archive or subscribe to it as a Podcast via iTunes. Keeping ahead of the game, Graeme has also his own official app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch and you can download it from the iTunes Store for free. It keeps you up to date with what he’s playing and where while you’re on the move, you can listen to his weekly radio show too and not surprisingly it’s proving extremely popular since it’s launch in March 2010. Whether through his sets, his radio shows or simply by getting to know that audience, Graeme has spent over 25 years getting his jocular personality across. He was there before it all started, he was at the forefront of the dance scene when it was at its zenith and he’s still there, still rocking it, years later – longer than some of the people on the dancefloor have been on the planet! And the best thing is he still loves it, still loves the music and still loves to play it for people to dance to. ‘Yeah, for my entire career I’ve been finding good tunes that I want other people to hear. The reason I keep doing it is simple: it’s my mission in life to let people hear good music.’ The Haçienda is now an apartment building (the developers asked Parky to DJ at the launch; he politely declined). At the back of the building there is a time-line, carved into steel, detailing the history of the club from Madonna‘s early performance to its closure. And there’s Graeme’s name not once, but twice, carved into the metal for time immemorial. What other DJs (what other venues?) have had that significance in clubland? Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Peter "Hooky" Hook (born February 13, 1956 in Salford, Lancashire) was the bass player for the English post-punk band Joy Division, and the new wave/synthpop band New Order. Hook was a co-founder of Joy Division along with Bernard Sumner in the mid-70's. Together, they recruited vocalist Ian Curtis and drummer Stephen Morris to complete the quartet. The band reformed as New Order following Curtis' suicide. In May 2007, Peter Hook announced that he and singer Bernard Sumner were no longer working together. Background and bio: The pioneering sounds of the highly influential English bands Joy Division and New Order were dominated by the droning basslines of Peter Hook. In the late '70s, Hook's ominous bass enabled Joy Division to carve portraits of profound despair. Although the late Ian Curtis' harrowing lyrics and downcast vocals are often credited for Joy Division's bleak beauty, many of the group's songs were driven by Hook's sinister, throbbing bass. While badly tuned guitars were the rage during the punk era in late-'70s England, Hook's bass playing instilled the importance of rhythm in punk rock, helping to inspire a generation of dance-oriented new wave bands. After Ian Curtis hanged himself on May 18, 1980, Hook joined the other surviving members of Joy Division in New Order. He performed the lead vocals on New Order's first album, Movement ("Dreams Never End" and "Doubts Even Here"), and his bass-playing style became increasingly melodic as the band developed its use of sequenced, synthesized sounds. He also played some keyboards and electronic drums. Between the release of 1983's Power, Corruption & Lies and 1985's Low-life, Hook took part in the short-lived Ad Infinitum, an act featuring Lindsay Reade (then-wife of Factory boss Tony Wilson) and members of Stockholm Monsters; they released a cover of Joe Meek's "Telstar." In 1990, after New Order released Technique, Hook formed a side project dubbed Revenge and released One True Passion. Collaborating with Dave Hicks (guitar, keyboards) and Chris Jones (keyboards), Hook combined elements of techno and hard rock; he also sang. A second Revenge album, 1992's Gun World Porn, was released before New Order resumed with the 1993 album Republic. While New Order went on an extended hiatus, Hook teamed up with vocalist David Potts (who had joined Revenge after that band's debut) and released Music for Pleasure as Monaco in 1997. Instead of shifting away from New Order's distinctive sound, Hook Xeroxed it; Potts even sounded oddly similar to New Order's Bernard Sumner. However, the album startled fans and critics with its well-crafted pop; the track "What Do You Want from Me?" even became a hit in clubs and on alternative radio stations. Monaco split up after label indifference temporarily shelved their self-titled second album; Monaco was finally released in 2000. Hook remained restlessly active throughout the 2000s. He recorded two more albums with New Order (Get Ready and Waiting for the Sirens' Call) prior to leaving the band in 2007. He contributed basslines to recordings by a handful of acts, including Perry Farrell, Hybrid, and the Crystal Method. Freebass, a band he formed with fellow bassists Andy Rourke (the Smiths) and Mani (the Stone Roses) as initial members, issued a handful of EPs, along with a 2010 album (It's a Beautiful Life). Peter Hook and the Light were formed for the sake of performing Joy Division's two landmark studio albums, Unknown Pleasures and Closer, in their entirety, and were launched at The Factory, Hook's Manchester nightclub. In 2011, the band released an EP, 1102/2011, which featured a version of Joy Division's "Atmosphere" with Rowetta on lead vocals. Unknown Pleasures: Live in Australia was released around the same time. Throughout this phase of his career, Hook also DJ'ed, compiled The Hacienda Classics and The Hacienda: Acid House Classics, and even wrote a book, How Not to Run a Club. He also served as an executive producer for the Hacienda Classical project, which transformed the hits played at the club into orchestral pieces in live shows and on the 2016 album of the same name. In 2020 Hook was part of the Song Machine project, a web series involving the ongoing release of various singles and music videos by British virtual band Gorillaz featuring different guest musicians over the course of 2020. He was featured in the song “Aries", also featuring drummer Georgia. The track was released on 9 April 2020 as the third single for Gorillaz' seventh studio album, Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez which came out in October 2020. He also played Aries with Peter Hook and Light in a quarantine cover of Gorillaz - this take on “Aries” features Hook’s distinct bassline, which is instantly recognizable for any New Order or Peter Hook and The Light fans. This performance gives “Aries” a nostalgic new wave feel, as Hook deliver soothing vocals on top of an infectious old school synth-pop instrumental with passionate choruses. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.