At the Hacienda, 25 years ago

Photographer Kevin Cummins documents three decades of Manchester’s music scene in his new book Manchester: Looking For the Light Through the Pouring Rain.

In an online featured on The Observer‘s website Cummins takes readers through some of the stories behind the photos, and this is how he recalls taking pictures of Madonna 25 years ago.

• Madonna, 1984.

Madonna had just had a hit with Holiday and was invited over to the Hacienda to perform so I took pictures. The next day my assistant was processing them, she went to answer the phone and ruined all the film. We only salvaged three frames and I remember saying: ‘Well, it’s only Madonna’. We didn’t think she was going to be the most famous woman in the world, she was just a kid. Years later she denied playing at the Haçienda, saying ‘I don’t even know where Manchester is’. But the Hacienda pillar in the shot proves she was there.

Photograph: Kevin Cummins. Source: The Observer. Thanks to Thedo.