Cult homosexualist tea dance Macho City is staging a one-off party next week here at Superstore. We interrogated resident DJ Dave Kendrick who’s impressive pedigree stretches back to Manchester’s Hacienda club.
What is/was Macho City?
It started as an excuse for three grown men to play high-NRG records in the crumbling excess of the Joiners Arms in 2008. What it became was a manly knees-up that a local crowd of brilliant eccentrics could call home every Thursday night.
What are some of your overriding Hacienda memories?
The club space alone was incredible, like no other I’d ever been to, or probably ever will; the sheer scale of this disused yacht factory turned post-modern fantasy. My Hac debut was the first night of ‘Flesh’ back in ’91, the night that was to become the club’s most decadent. There were foam parties with actual swimming pools, always likely to collapse at some point leaving the club 6 inches in water. There was always a sense of glamour and danger, a very northern glamour that you just didn’t get anywhere else. Once inside the Hacienda you forgot that anywhere else existed. I remember DJing for the first time at Flesh, in that amazing booth right up in the gods overlooking the dancefloor & stage. It was immense yet it always felt intimate. There was no greater sense of sophisticated fun on earth.
Who would be in your disco supergroup?
This is easy…. Klaus Nomi, Donna Summer and Sylvester on lead vocals; Cher and Dolly Parton on backing vocals; Divine on rap. Then there’s Blue Weaver on keyboards and behind the scenes Moroder and Belotte on production. It’s a properly gay supergroup.
Name us 5 Macho City classics!
These five definitely sum up the sound of Macho from its early days to now.
1. Donna Summer – MacArthur Park
2. Mike Simonetti – Hollywood Seven
3. Sana Doris – Pseudo Wind
4. Carl Bean – I Was Born This Way
5. Viola Wills – If You Could Read My Mind
Macho City takes place on Thursday 24th May with Dave Kendrick, Dan Beaumont and Charlie Porter, from 9pm – 3am.