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Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (& Manumission) Part 2 - The Drugs

Author: Jonty Skruff
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
& DRUGS . . .

According to a recent issue of Mixmag Å'Ibiza drug lords have the blood of Europe¹s 9/11 on their hands¹ and drug-using clubbers are funding both Al Qaeda and gangs who threaten the island¹s entire nightlife, claims both local website Ibiza Spotlight and Andy Manumission are puzzled about more than impressed.

Gangsters are certainly present, as they are in every major nightlife destination, though from Andy¹s experiences, his greatest threat came in Manchester soon after he started promoting in 1993.

³It¹s hard to remember but when we were in Manchester in the early 90s we were living in an atmosphere of serious homophobia and there were an awful lot of people that wouldn¹t be seen dead in the gay village area of Manchester, because it would obviously mean others would they were gay, ie clearly having something wrong with them so all their friends would never talk to them again,² he recalls.

³At the time, gangs were running all the doors at all the clubs in Manchester, except for those in the gay village, because all the gangsters were subscribing to that homophobic attitude too, so when we came into the village we didn¹t have a problem with them, initially.²


³ We launched as an openly mixed gay/ straight night, doing some overtly gay advertising but we were also saying Å'you don¹t need to be gay to come here but your attitude needs to be right. You have to be able to deal with the fact that some of our customers might fancy you and if they do, you don¹t have to do anything about it but you have to understand that that¹s fine, and get on with your life.²

As the open-minded philosophy worked, however, the media picked up on the club, similarly attracting the curiosity of the now not quite so homophobic drug gangs.

³There was one particular character who we wouldn¹t let in one night and he ended up battering the door down and pouring petrol through the door,² Andy recalls.

³I foolishly ran upstairs to negotiate and he responded by dousing petrol all over me and throwing me down the stairs, shouting, Å'light the fucker¹. I ran away while he was looking for matches, went and hid behind Griff, then we evacuated the club immediately. We¹d had an incident a week before so we¹d bought loudhailers and we closed the club, there and then, on the spot.

That was the last Manumission in Manchester, we went to Ibiza on holiday and that¹s how this whole thing started. Although it was a horrible incident, if it hadn¹t been for that gangster I doubt any of these last ten years would have happened for us.²
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