In this episode I sit down with Bobbi and Paul from K-Klass to talk through their journey into house music and the moment Manchester changed everything.
Bobbi takes us back to the early 1980s, when Legends was already quietly shaping the city’s dance culture. Going in for the first time in 1982, she became hooked on the music, the atmosphere, and Wednesday nights spent dancing to DJs like Greg Wilson and Mike Shaft. Saturdays meant heading to Spinn Inn, ordering records she’d heard in Legends and waiting weeks for rare imports to come in — often as the only woman in the shop, but completely unfazed. If it sounded good and made you move, she was into it.
From Legends to the Haçienda, Bobbi remembers Manchester before acid house exploded — R&B, funk and electro giving way to something new. When house music finally hit, everything shifted fast. Suddenly everyone was in it. Gallery, Sound Control, the Haçienda — size didn’t matter as long as the music and atmosphere were right.
Paul’s story starts outside Manchester, growing up in Chester and obsessively following New Order and the Factory Records world. Hitchhiking to gigs, blagging trains, sleeping on stations — anything to see bands. House music first grabbed him through late-night radio, but it was a club night in London called The Trip that changed everything. From there, a recommendation to check out the Haçienda every Friday and Wednesday led to an experience he still describes as life-changing.
Walking into the Haçienda in early 1988, Paul was struck by something deeper than just the music. Black, white, gay, straight, football lads, students — everyone together for one reason, with no friction. He talks about queuing in daylight, racing from work to get there, and nights so powerful they reset your idea of what clubbing could be.
From cheap keyboards, drum machines and borrowed studio time, K-Klass emerged with one simple goal: to make a record that would be played in the Haçienda. When Rhythm Is a Mystery finally landed and took off, everything else felt like a bonus. Being played week after week in the club that inspired it meant more than chart positions ever could.
We also talk about longevity — how tracks written in that moment are still being sung back today by crowds who weren’t even born when they were made. Warehouse Project, festivals, all-night sets — the music never really went away.
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