I was DJing early on in the day I remember. The DJ box was on a separate and rickety stage next to the main stage. I remember playing Sonic Youth and the Cocteau Twins but generally being a bit clueless about what to play. I played just before the Smiths came on by which time the venue was rockin’. I played something by Laibach – one of their big semi-classical things – and then the Chi-Lites ‘Stoned Out of My Mind’, and then the Smith’s sound guy (I guess it was Grant Showbiz) put on that Prokofiev music that the Smiths used to come on to. I had a great view of the gig, the band, the crowd going bananas, and Morrissey’s white jeans which I thought made him look porky, which was odd because he never was.
I remember also playing the Steve Miller Band’s ‘Fly Like an Eagle’ and some Trouble Funk, and Shannon’s ‘Let the Music Play’ just before ACR came on.
Backstage I met Bill Grundy and I interviewed Paul Morley for my fanzine; “In the end we all share the same worries about life and madness and in the end you just fall in love with the most unlikely people,” he told me.
At 10 I had to leave because I was DJing at the Hacienda; I was doing Thursday nights too at this point but that night was the first ‘Wide Night’, and it was a good night to launch it because everyone piled into the club after the G-Mex gig. I did the next 120 Saturdays and then got replaced – what I was playing was “too Arndale and not enough King Street” which I accepted as probably quite true but carried on doing Thursdays. The management always wanted Saturdays at the club to have a hairdresser element which I didn’t really understand at the time.