Hillegonda Rietveld on Quando Quango and Manchester Electronica
Netherlands-born Hillegonda C. Rietveld was a postpunk electronic dance music pioneer with Manchester-based art-pop group Quando Quango, an early theoretical investigator of house music culture with her book ‘This is Our House’ and is holder of probably the coolest title in UK academia, Professor of Sonic Culture. In this interview, she talks about the chance meeting - literally involving a message in a bottle - that led to her involvement in electronic music with DJ-animateur Mike Pickering. She explains how that led to getting involved in Manchester’s alternative culture around Factory Records, New Order and the pre-acid house Haçienda club, as well as the New York dance music scene of the mid-eighties. The journey comes full circle after the UK rave upsurge when she travelled to Chicago to interview house music pioneers for her PhD and found out that they loved Quando Quango’s record ‘Love Tempo.’ Quando Quango started off in Rotterdam. It all started with Mike Pickering...