Jon Dasilva Interview: “Acid house has never gone away, it keeps evolving”

In a time of rising ticket prices and increasingly unaffordable festivals, Northenden Fringe Festival sought an alternative approach, bringing big festival names to smaller, grassroots venues across a lesser-explored corner of Manchester in Wythenshawe. Pete Doherty, Tom Meighan (ex-Kasabian), Andy Bennet (Ocean Colour Scene), Aziz Ibrahim (ex-Stone Roses), Jimi Goodwin (Doves), and more had crowds cramming into suburban grassroots venues across the August bank holiday weekend. Rock wasn't the only genre being celebrated, as another name that graced the smaller stage in the aftermath of New Order's Wythenshawe Park gig was acid house pioneer Jon Dasilva. 

A cult figure in Manchester music folklore, Jon Dasilva has cemented himself as a seminal and influential name in UK house music. Raised in Preston, Dasilva spent time in London after his studies at the University of Kent only to hear the bright lights and record scratches of Manchester calling his name. He was offered a residency at The Hacienda and the rest is history; he played a vital role in ushering the rise of acid house along with a new generation of DJs, while collaborating with legendary names like New Order and Graeme Park along the way. 

Before Dasilva’s late-night set at The Cringlewood for Northenden Fringe Festival, we had a catch-up with Dasilva to chat about what to expect from his set, the importance of supporting grassroots venues, his favourite places to play, and what else is in store for him in the future. 

 

 

What can we expect from your set at Northenden Fringe? 

"Well it’s a celebration of New Order, and the Hacienda has been inextricably linked to them for so many years. I aim to do some special edits of New Order stuff that I think is relevant, and will celebrate that particular period when New Order was involved in a big way. 

"Funnily enough, I’d just been handed some photographs from my son that I’d left in Sweden. He’d moved back a few years ago and I found these photos and it was with Graeme (Park) and myself over on tour with New Order in the States. So it’s kind of funny I was going through these. 

"It’s a time when we were actually touring with the band to provide not only the music, but the afterparties, which were quite something to behold at times. So there’s been that big connection between us and that is what we’re going to expect, I suppose. Just a celebration of New Order, a celebration of Hacienda." 

 

Image: Northenden Fringe Festival

 

Northenden Fringe Fest is all about supporting and upholding smaller and grassroots venues through bringing in big names. What do smaller, grassroots venues like The Cringlewood mean to you?

"I mean this is again strange, I’ve had a conversation with somebody this afternoon about the Carlton Club, who are being threatened with closure. 

"I mean this is getting ridiculous, you know, it’s a very serious issue across the country concerning small grassroots venues disappearing thick and fast. Those are the venues that I worked my way up through and still find myself enjoying playing to this day because I prefer a small intimate venue. 

"But coming back to the grassroots bit, this is important to the community as well to have something. I mean, you know, they’re often not just about club nights but also other events that might be staged in these venues or arts clubs. 

"So it does disturb me that we’re losing so many venues full stop, never mind the grassroots venues that are important to the community and to supporting up and coming DJs and the like. So yeah, it’s terrible for those like the Carlton Club." 

 

Tickets for Club Solo - This Must Be The Place at The Carlton Club | Friday 1st November 2024

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Along with supporting grassroots venues, the festival shines a spotlight on Northenden and Wythenshawe. Have you had any experiences with this area in the past?

"Not for a long time, to be frank. I think the last time I did a gig there was at the Wythenshawe Forum, and that was about 30 years ago with Lemn Sissay. 

"That was a really interesting evening, you know, that gives you some idea that exactly this kind of thing was going on with grassroots venues, you get that collision of scenes with poetry and music. 

"So that’s the last time and I travel through Wythenshawe all the time if I’m going to the airport and I don’t live that far from it myself. But yeah, the last time I actually played in Wythenshawe was way back." 

 

Like you said, your set is a lot about celebrating New Order, and it takes place right after their gig at Wythenshawe Park, do you have any favourite stories involving them?

"Yeah, I mean again, I was reminded by one of the photographs of the dressing room on tour. And I’ve told this story before, but they had this wonderful portable sound system - I think from Andy Robinson who is now their co-manager - with a DAT tape machine and cassette machine, some really powerful speakers and a nice amp in there. 

"It was all flight cased and put in the dressing room, which is the kind of normal thing you do when people listen to music, but they used it specifically to soften up the journalists. 

"So you get the tour in the States and you’d have the local journalists every gig, be it the Chicago Tribune or whatever, and you’d have a little smoke machine, a little strobe. 

"I have one of my tapes on, usher them into the room which was filled with smoke, put the machine on, put the tape on some low acid house and leave them in there for like 20 minutes in the pitch black with a strobe, just to soften them up. 

"And they just go walk in the room and go ‘Right, what do you want to talk about?’ So that always amused me. But yeah that’s my favourite story, out of many." 

 

As someone who was one of the trailblazers of Northern acid house, how has the genre evolved in your eyes since you began?

"It’s never gone away, it keeps evolving. I’m a resident of a night called I Love Acid and we recently did the Golden Lion. There are a few assumptions that it’s all about retro acid and it isn’t at all. We’re playing everything that’s brand new, so it’s fresh out if that gives you some idea. 

"It’s never gone away, and the resurgence is clear, there’s still so much interest in that kind of music, both in making it and playing it. I think the idea that it’s in any shape or form a retro thing is ridiculous. 

"The range of materials and styles is incredible, and you could play a set from any mood or any BPM and be able to play acid house." 

 

You’re originally from Preston but spent time in London and Kent, what first drew you to the music scene in Manchester?

"Yeah, I went to London to do a filmmaking course when I was 19, then went off to university to study film in Kent, and that’s when I started DJing. 

"I moved back to Preston to set up grassroots, arts-based venues then got drawn into Manchester and got a job at the Hacienda within a few months of arriving. I was only back in Preston in the end for about nine months before moving to Manchester, trying to do things and then the Hacienda picked me up. So the rest is history.  

"I was drawn to Manchester more than, perhaps, Liverpool, mainly because of the bands on Factory, and I was going to gigs there as well seeing bands like Talking Heads, and Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers. 

"I remember going to see them on the train and found myself staying because of the record shops like Affleck's Palace, just as a place to hang out as well. So the whole mystique around Factory Records was really important.

 

As someone who was very integral in Hacienda’s history and was there to see it all, how do you react to the almost mythologised place it has in Manchester’s history, do you feel like it’s an accurate depiction? 

"It’s inevitable, I think in some ways it’s been distorted, but the way the Hacienda is perceived has changed. For the time it was quite radical in its ideas, it was one of the few clubs that had its own nights, and you couldn’t hire the Hacienda and do your own club night. 

"There are so many venues where that’s the meat and potatoes of what they do, you know? Like the Golden Lion, that’s precisely what they do; they’re very careful about who they bring in. 

"But Hacienda was orientated around its own nights and they had a great team doing that. I think that made a difference on the nature of the venue itself. I think it’s been sanitised to an extent, despite the films and whatever, it was a lot more visceral, exciting, and left-field musically than it’s ever been portrayed. 

"The rise of Hacienda Classics brings strings to it, so it’s got an establishment vibe to the whole thing. It was really important culturally for not only the North West, but the country in itself because I know for a fact there were promoters on my guest list, don’t mind other people’s guest list, that came, saw, went home and delivered their own club nights, whether in Nottingham, Birmingham, Glasgow or wherever. 

"And we’ve got a lot of history since Hacienda that’s just as laudable, in terms of club nights from Electric Chair through to Warehouse Project. The Hacienda has its place, but let’s move on, you know." 

 

 

What are some of your favourite Manchester venues, big or small?

"Hidden’s great, I love Hidden. I do a regular thing there with Thunderdome, and I’ve played many times with the great guys who run it. 

"Some of the areas of Warehouse Project I really like playing, I’m looking forward to playing there, I’m not allowed to say which room I’m in, because we’ll keep that a secret.

"But, you know, I’m not one for the huge auditoriums because the sound gets lost and it doesn’t feel very personal. Of course there’s the White Hotel as well." 

 

You’re also playing at Warehouse Project in December as part of The Hacienda and the Mancbeth launch at Band On The Wall - what can you tell us about your schedule for the rest of the year?  

"Well, September’s very Manchester-centric, as I’m doing Mancbeth then after that The White Hotel the same night.

"The week before, I’m doing Thunderdome at Hidden, so that’s three in a row virtually, which is not what I'm supposed to do, but it's kind of falling like that, then I’m off to Malta for a festival. 

"I’ve got a lot of production works coming out under the name Skyscraper HiFi and a remix for The Woodentops coming out. There’s an album in the process at the moment for I Love Acid and something for Mighty Force Records, so it’s a lot of production work as well." 

 

Tickets for Mancbeth Launch - SHADOWPLAY: The Official Joy Division Tribute | Saturday 14th September 2024 

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Has your approach to kind of DJing and music making shifted that dramatically since you started out, or has it been more of a gradual process?

"I think the biggest change was going digital and being able to edit, I’d always had that desire to do dub plates in a way where you could change and play around with the music. 

"Aside from obviously vinyl, the only way of producing dub plates that were actually with tape and edits at the time, you know, lots of things that Greg Wilson used to do. Digital’s made that so easy now. 

"For me, that’s been the biggest shift so it enables me to have a play around and change, add things, cut, you know, just sculpting music a little bit so it fits with what I want to do. 

"Musically it hasn’t changed that much, I’m still obsessed with machine music above anything else and maybe, dare I say, the sound of Chicago to an extent, you know." 

 

If your set was reduced to three tracks, what are you playing and why?

 

'Playtex' - Mike Ink

'Take it all Away' - Crooked Man

'Smush' - Skyscraper HiFi 

 

 

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Eager for some acid house? Check out where you can find Jon Dasilva on Skiddle: 

 

Mancbeth Launch: Rowetta, DJ Jon Dasilva, Maria Uzor & Friends

Mancbeth Launch - SHADOWPLAY: The Official Joy Division Tribute

Club Solo - This Must Be The Place

The Haçienda at Warehouse Project 

 

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Check out our What's On Guide to discover even more rowdy raves and sweaty gigs taking place over the coming weeks and months. For festivals, lifestyle events and more, head on over to our Things To Do page or be inspired by the event selections on our Inspire Me page.

 

 

  

 

 

Header image: I Love Acid / Facebook.com