Beyond The Village People: Interview with Homoelectric founder Luke Unabomber

If you’ve been fortunate enough to spend any amount of time in Manchester’s alternative clubs for dancing over the last couple of decades, you may well have happened across Luke Unabomber behind the decks - or at least, lurking in the strobe lights.

Co-founder of pivotal underground club Electric Chair and one half of DJ and production duo The Unabombers, Luke killed his basement behemoth after 13 years, having sculpted a scene out of real music lovers and playing host to everyone from Laurent Garnier to Moodymann. Beyond the Chair, Luke and his collective would go on to release seven compilations and numerous other releases on their own label, tour internationally, and just generally leave a bloody great legacy.

Early next month, another brainchild of Unabomber, Homoelectric, bows out of its current home at Legends to find pastures new in Manchester. Whilst maintaining its roots as a rebellion to a bland Manchester gay scene, Homoelectric has fully blossomed into a four room underground extravaganza at the end of Whitworth Street. Now, a plethora of previous residents and a very special guest are set to return for a final party in the established home of heteros, homos, disco asbos and don’t- knows.

Buy tickets for the last ever Homoelectric at Legends

The man himself gives us a taste of what to expect down in the tunnels.

Homoelectric came about off the back of Electric Chair - is that right?
It was the sister night to Electric Chair back in 96' and 97', and the city was bouncing at the time with people wanting an alternative to what had become a very dominant mainstream at the time - particularly in the gay scene. I’d been drinking on the gay scene for years, because I lived on Whitworth and then Tibb Street. I’d drink at what was known as Follies, which at the time was a mix of transsexuals, British Rail workers and various other oddments from society. The gay scene was a little like Electric Chair, and I felt the need to create an alternative to what had become a sort of trancey, sort of Celine Dion mash-up, and it started there. And it was gay-oriented, but it was very mixed.

So it was a reaction?
Yeah, it was very similar to Electric Chair, but it was a reaction to what had become a very beige and flat scene run by a sort of gay mafia who just didn’t want creativity.

How has the club developed over the years into the existing team of Jamie Bull, Will Tramp! and Trash-O-Rama as residents?
Homoelectric has been mad, we’ve had more comebacks than Duran Duran. Follies got closed down, we got chucked out of somewhere else, there was a fire… We’ve had so many DJs, and the line-up for the upcoming November event is going to try and incorporate those. Kath McDermott, who played from the very beginning, Ryan Minchin, Phillipa Jarman, Moggsy, Mark Rolands. It was just a two-room venue, and then at Legends, that’s a four-room venue - the original Twisted Wheel - with an incredible history. And then the likes of Will Tramp! joined the fold around ten years on. So it’s seen a variety of different rooms, but the ethos has always been the same, which is residents who are passionate about music and occasional guests.

Have you always had the guest format, or did that come around later on?
It did come later on, with Legends really. When we were putting Erol Alkan on, Ivan Smagghe, Weatherall, nobody - certainly nobody on the gay scene - was doing that, at the time. And it was an incredible time for music, and the club was really quite forward thinking. One room would be really cutting edge RnB, soul and real stripped down electronic pop, whilst next door, Richard X was being played alongside J Dilla, and then there’s that sort of dark disco of Smagghe, Erol and Will Tramp!, all of that. And as well as that, we’ve seen the likes of Club Suicide and now Trash-O-Rama playing everything from bassline to 2 step and just, whatever really.

I was trying to explain Homoelectric and Legends to my parents of all people recently, and how it’s more about the spirit of gay culture than a exclusively homosexual event.
Yeah, I mean, of course there is sex and sexuality there, as at all of the best clubs. But in a way, that’s driven by the music and the love of music. In the 80s, house was a reaction to people dancing around handbags, but when you get basslines involved, sex becomes part of your club but in a very different and more interesting way.

You once wrote and published a manifesto, and it’s one of the most explicit things I’ve ever seen a club do - a real "fuck you" to the scene, and not much like anything done nowadays.
Well, it was a little tongue in cheek, we’re not haters. But it was trying to give two-fingers to sameyness, to beige, to say “enjoy yourself, have fun”. Obviously a discotheque is at the heart of having fun, and we never claimed to be anything more than that. The gay scene in Manchester had quickly became this bland baltiplex - and we just wanted to do something away from that, regardless of sexuality. It was good to be gay friendly, but as long as you had the right attitude and you were a good homosapien, you could come in - and that was really it. Where we did it meant that only good people came, because the venues were ultimately full of weird, dark corridors with stained walls, which weren’t going to attract your middle-England, cul-de-sac fundamentalists who were worried by anything left of centre. We wanted fun, and fun was a serious business, as The Village had become a barrier to fun. We did all these posters – ‘Gaychester is Dead, Long Live Homoelectric’ – and so on. Read the Homoelectric manifesto (opens in a new window).

Did you ever encounter any opposition to that approach?
Yes, but we were in a sense beyond the Village People. And for the leaders of the gay scene, creativity just meant them losing control. So they were quite right wing, not in it for the love of music.

You’ve been DJing for around 20 years now, and you’re returning to Homoelectric next month with the rest of the residents. What’s your relationship to the club as a DJ?
I started off doing it regularly but then it quickly became evident to me that there were other people better suited to the job. Not to mention, it’s a bit naff just playing your own night all the time. As well as that, not many of us in Manchester were playing Moodyman, Pharell and Soft Cell records in four different rooms, and there were people with a vast, cutting edge musical knowledge coming through. We’ve never felt comfortable in the shinier, bigger and more corporate places, because it just didn’t work. That wasn’t holier-than-thou posturing, it’s just easier to go to a shitty club and do your own thing, and play your own music. And really, it’s been quite understated, too. Over the years, that club has been full - and yet been under the radar to the point that some people don’t even know it goes on. We’ve had moments of accolades, but staying underground has, I think, preserved it. In London, fashion and excitement allow you three years of a club, whilst in Manchester, if something is right, you can, by osmosis, operate underneath the pavement for years.

Saying that though, Homoelectric has just recently begun a residency in London, in the basement of the Shacklewell Arms. How is that going? Has it captured some of the spirit of the original?
It’s been brilliant, I think we’ve got a little hive going, and it’s going really well. We’re going to move it about a bit. But Manchester has been going for 15 years now, and bar a few stoppages, it’s been great. It’s just provided us a consistent crowd of people who want something different.

As a DJ, can you think of many other venues like Legends? It always felt like a really strange, sincerely underground and even slightly magical venue.
I am genuinely sad to see it go, especially to become the site of a budget hotel. But on the other hand, the world is changing, Manchester is changing, as we know it. And I think other venues will undoubtedly spring up, and it’ll be very much a case of seek and ye shall find - be it Kraak, or Soup, or Islington Mill, even the Africa Café… There are rumours of a quite amazing new venue coming up, and a potential future home for Homoelectric. But November 2nd will be a real end of a chapter, and I’ve seen so many people come and go, through a love of music. And again, it sounds trite to describe the eclectism of the club, but we genuinely did have everyone. Lorry drivers in dresses, students, black kids, gay kids, kids who were into pop, kids who were into house - and it all gelled. But it was never trying to be something it wasn’t, and to be trite just once more; people did check their attitudes at the door. It wasn’t about elitism and train spotting, nobody wrote down the name of Moodymann 12 inches, but you could hear some genuinely obscure music. But to me, being underground is inclusive, as you don’t compromise on what you want to hear; it’s not 12 blokes in a pub in Levenshulme playing records backwards.

How do you feel alternative culture thrives currently in Manchester? Is it in a good place or a bad place in the grand scheme of things?
It’s just in a different place. It’s not better or worse, it’s just different. I mean, it’s quite interesting to see that DJ Harvey is currently making his return. In the late 90s, we sold 1000 tickets to Harvey at Elektrik Chair, and 1200 for Theo Parrish at The North. In London, they’d be playing to just a couple of hundred people. So the scene has gotten much tighter, but still, if you’ve got a taste for underground and cutting edge music, you’ll find it - regardless of the influence of any bigger venues. Something like Wet Play, that’s where it’s at, just a night for 150, 200 people, where as it was once 1000. But that underground will just re-grow again as people just do what they’re doing and get on with their own thing. The underground is not about overstating things; it’s just about getting on with it and doing what feels comfortable to you. Some people are more comfortable just making money, but that’s just life. It’s easy to slag off the mainstream or the bigger venues, but you can ultimately compliment the mothership. Positivity is a force for good and all you need is a red light, a basement and a feeling.

So, what can we expect from the finale? I believe we can expect a special guest?
Well, it’s somebody who really wants to return, who has played before, and someone of whom I’m a huge fan. I’m very excited; I’m warming up in the Tunnel section for them, which is my favourite room, and we’re working to get it sounding just perfect. And you can also expect tickets on the door.

Interview by: John Thorp

Homoelectric: The Final Party at Legends takes place on Friday 2nd November. Last remaining tickets are available below.

Tickets are no longer available for this event