Manchester legend and infamous pantomiming DJ Peter Hook has been on a mission recently, revisiting the former glories of his old groups New Order and Joy Division, including a tour of Australia last year where he and his live band The Light performed Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures in its entirety.

While Hook and The Light are now releasing a new EP of reworked Joy Division classics that features a spruced up version of the unreleased demo Pictures In My Mind – with Hooky on vocals – the Manchester guru is protecting another part of his legacy, namely the notorious The Haçienda nightclub that was owned by New Order and its label Factory Records.

According to a news item on Pitchfork, a club in San Francisco had been promoting nights under the name The Haçienda despite the Manchester club’s reputation. While the original club was closed in the ‘90s and sadly demolished in 2002, Hooky reportedly sent a cease and desist order to the SF nightclub demanding a name-change. Or else!

You can read the letter from Hook’s lawyers below – as obtained by SFWeekly.com – which was apparently enough to rattle the promoters into re-dubbing the night Rançhería. Bless you, Hooky.

Dear Whosoever is running Hacienda SF

You must cease and desist in the running and promotion of this night using either the name of the Hacienda or design or artwork which is owned by the designers and the club.

All links to Fac 51 The Hacienda, the trademark which we entirely own and also to any other reference to the club must be instantly revoked by your organisation, including the deletion of your facebook account and any other references now and in the future to your club being related to The Hacienda.

If this action is not taken and confirmed by email to myself and Hooky at james.masters@fac51thehacienda.com, we will look to issue proceeding on behalf of ourselves and the designers which will be highly detrimental to you and your standing.

You have no authority to be promoting this night and we hope that you will see sense and dissolve it immediately. Otherwise we will be forced to take action as outlined above.

I thank you for your compliance in this matter – I take it that it will be dealt with promptly and look forward to hearing from you.

James Masters
Fac 51 The Hacienda / Peter Hook Press Office