My friend Penny Henry, who has died aged 76 of kidney failure, was embedded in the life of Manchester and its vibrant music scene of the 1970s and 80s. She worked at the Hacienda club from its opening in 1982, and for almost 50 years lived on the ground floor at 86 Palatine Road, where Factory records was founded in 1978 and run from the upstairs flat. Penny later trained and worked for more than 25 years as a reflexologist.
One of the unsung women behind the scenes in the early days of the Hacienda, Penny was one of the more experienced employees brought in for the opening of the club by Howard “Ginger” Jones. As well as working front of house, she could be found up on the leaking roof replacing slates, or dealing with overflowing toilets when the canal behind the club flooded. After two years of helping to keep the building functioning against the odds, when Penny had a gun held to her head in a robbery one Monday morning, it was time to move on.
