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Singer-songwriter Morrissey, former front man of The Smiths, a Manchester group that performed at the Hacienda. Caligvla at en.wikipedia. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.

Plumbing fixtures from Britain’s famed Hacienda for sale

Tom Hoepf
Tom Hoepf
Singer-songwriter Morrissey, former front man of The Smiths, a Manchester group that performed at the Hacienda. Caligvla at en.wikipedia. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.
Singer-songwriter Morrissey, former front man of The Smiths, a Manchester group that performed at the Hacienda. Caligvla at en.wikipedia. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.

LONDON – A British music fan is auctioning off the urinals from Manchester’s Hacienda, the legendary nightclub where stars including Madonna, New Order, the Stone Roses and The Smiths once played.

Mike Shepherd said the stainless steel urinals had not been washed since he bought them following the closure of the nightspot in the northwestern English city in 1997.

The urinal and a collection of posters and records from the time are for sale on eBay with a starting price of £15,000 ($23,000, 17,000 euros).

“These are the urine stains of Manchester music history. That one on the left could by Morrissey’s, the one on the right could by Anthony Wilson,” said Shepherd. The club was founded by Wilson, the late boss of famed Manchester music label Factory, and played a key role in the rise of acid house music as well as hosting a slew of influential bands.

Shepherd, 48, has converted the urinals into a display cabinet to house his collection of Hacienda memorabilia but said he was selling them so he can move to another house. He bought them at auction in 2001.

The Hacienda opened in 1982 with Wilson and New Order, the pioneering electronic band, as directors.

Madonna gave her first British performance there in 1984, while The Smiths, led by singer Morrissey, played there in 1983.

Key acts in the so-called “Madchester” music scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s including the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays also played at the Hacienda, while it had a lead role in bringing house music to Britain.

But the club suffered from problems with drug abuse and gang violence in its later years and closed in 1997 saddled with millions of pounds in debts.

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Singer-songwriter Morrissey, former front man of The Smiths, a Manchester group that performed at the Hacienda. Caligvla at en.wikipedia. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.
Singer-songwriter Morrissey, former front man of The Smiths, a Manchester group that performed at the Hacienda. Caligvla at en.wikipedia. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.