WWW.THE-HIPPODROME.CO.UK

How did you first hear about the old place and what did you think on your first night there?

A couple of guys came in one Monday morning at college after being to the Hippodrome (Rob Barr, DJ at MOHO Live and the Ace of Clubs actually!!)

I remember them going on about what a fantastic layout the club was, I can to this day remember the exact conversation, "it's fucking mad, it's got a perspex bridge and a balcony that goes all the way around the dance floor'

Me and Little Nathan drove down the next weekend, said we'd meet Tim (Tim and Tez) Tim was on our course at college ( for a few weeks anyway)

I remember us getting there really early and seeing a girl from school down stairs, we were the first in, no ques then, I think it had only been open about a month, if that.

I don't think I was blown away, when I walked in but I do remember being excited.
All I wanted to see was the perspex bridge, I was gutted when I saw it, for some reason I thought that the floor was gonna be see through!!
Headed over to the top dance floor and the rest they say is history.

(Good thread this Bami)

Coming fom giggleton my first appearance in hippo's was to the kids night when I was about 13-14. The club was pretty fresh then and everythin brand new. Half way through the night everyone would be told to get of the dance floor and get ready for the Hippo's lights and lasers spectacular, which would involve watchin for 10 mins, fuckin shit( few more years and i'd love 'em)!! Now and then they used to have one of the dancers out of take that(before famous) throwin his moves on the dance floor and then they'd organise a dancin compition for the gay lads and girls who were into Bross and walked round with grolsh(spellin) bottle tops on thier shoes Hahaha. The first "proper time" was in the summer of 91 and it was still realitivly quiet. The upstairs used to be blocked off untill the club used to get fuller. The first night |I went in ther I absoloutley loved it and wanted more straight away, even though people were having fits for fun in there. lol You could always gurantee as soon as i'd neck a pill in there someone would have a fit in front of me nd i'd be thinkin thats me next I can feel it, I don't feel right. The first person I met in there from a diffirent area was Beechy who I havnt seen since '92 when he along wiht Big Nathen "Kiddnaped" me from my local in Midd an took me down to coventry for a crazy weekend top guys the pair of em!!

Used to go downstairs in Butterflys (top name!) where mix factory amongst others used to DJ. One of the guys I was with had got a recommendation for Hippos saying how mental it was. So the next week we wandered in there. What a shock it was! I remember we stood downstairs near the back to nervous to move.

The next week we ventured upstairs parallel to the bogs above Moggy. The E I'd had was super trippy and I remember walking round and all the music started distorting. Feeling really freaked I made my way to the toilets to calm down. I remember getting in a cubicle, shutting the door, sitting down and looking down at my feet which looked about 20 feet away. I jumped up and looked down again and felt like I was 20 feet tall so I sat back down and thought I better sort my head out. I sat in that cubicle for about 10 minutes before coming out calmed down and got talking to some lads in there for a bit. There names were Parker and Sully, and for me thats how the bog posse started

Bami do yo mean sully with the curly hair, he was a funny guy, sayin that Parker was pretty funny too!

Yeah curly hair Sully, with his 'pimped' escort van thing! Thats how I got to know Toad, Parker, Funky P and the rest.

A mate told us about Hippo's and said you just have to go to believe it. Me and my mates decided we would give it a go and trekked up there on a couple of buses. We were all pretty new to the scene and nobody was on anything.

From the moment I stepped in there everything changed in my life, I was blown away by it all, straight away the whole atmosphere hit me, the smiley faces, the sound system. I was used to the beer scene and crappy clubs, this was the total opposite this was what I had been looking for.. I remember being on no gear but I couldnt stop smiling the whole aura of the place overtook me but I must admit due to the lack of substance I was pretty shattered by the end..

After that first night me and my mates couldn't stop talking about the place and couldn't wait to go again, the next time we all a little more prepared for lasting the distance and drove down and what a night was had.... and to be honest from then we were there every saturday night, each week getting there early to beat the queue and the fear of getting turned away... (in fact one of the biggest downers is when one of us got turned down from getting in and we all had to stick together so had to miss the night)

I could go on for ages how good the experiences were but I think we all know what it was like..

After the end of Hippo's still carried on going out for many years and many clubs but nothing has ever matched up and the memories will never be taken away even though I can't really remember much about alot of the nights.. always seemed like I got in there and the next minute it was time to leave a few stone lighter due to dancing and sweating..

me and a few mates went to butterflies to and met bami in there one friday went back to a flat in oldham with bami i was tripping bami said he was going hippo's on the sat he went the week b4 and it was mental and to try an E nice one bami u had a mad trippy one and sorted me out haha went on the saturday and as they say the rest is history.....

when i first went in hippos i knew a lot of people in there especially the ancoats lads downstairs and i already knew parker and toad so i felt at home straight away fucking mint i was only 16 at the time and thort i was the dogs bollox lol..... the next week i was there with my bobble hat and was off my head living for the weekend spent most of my time in the bogs with dean and bami tez tim jez carl baz dave and every 1 else who was in there ....

TAKE IT EASY !

I was at Stand College with Ben and Reuben. I became mates with Ben in my first week and he had heard about Hippos and asked did I fancy going.
That would have been the second week of Sept 1991.

The first night we were there we both agreed it was something else.

Echoing John's sentiments, and I'm sure I'm not on my own here, my life was turned completely upside down after that. I'm not sure if it was the sweets, the music, the club itself or a combination of all three, but by the Christmas of 1991 I had dropped out of college telling my mum........
'I just want to be happy' (what a c**t).

I then became a full-time waster, and I'm ashamed to say that a few nights I passed down the queue with my oakley hat in hand asking for donations for my entry fee and a couple of sweets!

Fuck! I thought I was the one who did that! Entrance fee and drug money! Well thats until I ended up going in drug free with much relief to the people who I used to scrounge money from.

Who remembers 'beavering' up the queue?

Glad I wasnt the only Trog then!!!!

We were all Trogs then, I remember thinking Mad Chris must have been a millionaire or something, and the Ginger very polite lad with the Escort RS turbo (White car) them two where minted, well compared to the rest of us, me with my part time Kwik Save money, fucking hated that job!!

I used to go to school with Scott Ball (Heath's younger brother) - we left school in summer 1991 and were into doing trips and listening to the stone roses and all that sort of stuff. During the summer, some people we were hanging about with started having parties in garages and I started getting into rave / dance music - I had never took an E cos 1. there were loads of stories about people dying on them and 2. they were really expensive - £15!! (mad to think you can get them for about £1 now)

I think it was about October time, my first visit to Hippos - Scott had been once already and was going on and on about how wicked it was - I'd never been to a pub, let alone a club - I looked about 12! My first night i got a lift down with Heath, Big Chris, and Scott, with Shaun (on his bike) I remember driving into Middleton and going under that bridge that says "welcome to Middleton - home of British Vita" - that became like a landmark - the point when i got really excited on future journeys - it was like when you caught your first glimpse of the Tower on the way to Blackpool when you were a kid.

The Wards wouldn't let me in at first - I looked way too young at 17 and had no fake ID - everyone else went in without me and in the end I was the only person left on the step outside - this was before it used to get full - I blagged and blagged and eventually I think they felt sorry for me and let me in. I can remember the building excitement in my stomach now. When I got in I took my first pill - I think I might have only had half, cos I was scared I might die - I remember wishing I'd had all of it later on in the night.

As for the club, I fell in love with it straight away - the atmosphere, the music, everything - I just felt like this was something special - i had never experienced anything like it - nor have I since. I used to go as often as I could afford to. I remember looking forward to it all week - nothing else mattered.

Hippos was the birth of my 'Rave career' - I went to loads of other clubs after that, but I will always hold my memories of Hippos (what little I can actually remember) close to my heart.

dave the lad with the white rs turbo was a lad called poggy speaking about having no money ..... the sundays/mondays at bamis with no money for bread to make toast or fuckall that was madness i used to go to my mums rob the fridge and take it up to bami's not a care in the world i was an apprentice joiner at the time did 3 years at it couldnt hang a door nowadays lol i was on £45 a week £10 in hippo's £15 for my E and £10 whizz and £10 for getting there that was me skint till i started to do a few bits .... you know what i mean dave haha soz mate

Well the first time i went into Hiipos was when it was just a normal night club. It was a works do, i had to blag my age, as i was only 16, but i had fake ID from when i used to go into the Thunderdome at pretty much the same time!! I am sure you can imagine, from a underground club like the Thunderdome, to a main stream night club was a bit crap! I do remeber, they asked everyone to leave the Dance floor while they did a laser show, it was fucking amazing at the time, never seen anything like it! However crap club!!

But then Colin got hold of it and was promoting it to everyone near us, so i went down with the Moggy, i used to go to another club with him in manchester, carries his tunes free entry and that bolloxs. He said he was going down and did i want to come. didnt go up to the top dance floor just used to hang down near the DJ box, where i used to have it with, Symon M and his misses Linda and Colin's ises Joanne!!

Any way, i moved into a house, where Leon Crane lived. i was lodging there and Dianne and a few others used to go down every week and so i started to meet them in there, Leon knew Beechy and the other Burnage lot (yeah you know who you are) so i got to know them and i just thought, fuck me, all these peeps up here are too bloody nice and as Dave said before, the rest is history.