We spoke to the brothers behind Gio-Goi and Manchester's illegal Acid House raves

Whoever invented the saying ‘Jack of all trades’ was probably thinking about Gio-Goi founders the Donnelly Brothers. Manchester duo Christopher and Anthony rose from being working class criminals with links to the infamous Quality Street Gang, to being key players in the rise in the Acid House scene, forging out careers as promoters, running some of the first and largest illegal raves in the UK.

After fruitful careers running parties, the brothers decided to avoid ongoing clashes with police investigations and pursued a career in fashion, with their highly successful clothing label Gio-Goi, which became an overnight success with everybody from Deadmau5, Rhiana and Vivienne Westwood as fans, with Westwood naming the brothers “Ambassadors of a generation”.

As the brothers prepare to re-launch the label for the third time, Mixmag caught up with them to talk more about their past experiences and their plans going forward.

So, you started out bootlegging clothing?

Anthony: Yeah, I got employed as a kid when I was about 10. As I got older we started to progress all across Europe with our friends. We were like the unofficial side of the bands – that’s how I first got in with Bono and the Edge. They’d turn up to go into their gig and who’s fucking face would be there but mine. They’d wave at me out their tour bus and ask us how we’re doing.

That must have been some experience.

Anthony: The funniest recollection was when we printed T-shirts for Michael Jackson's tour. We went to Scandinavia and had all the gear shipped in. We’d all been on a boat for 24 hours counting our profit in our heads, thinking we’re gonna take all this Scandinavian money and then we opened the parcel and Michael Jackson looked like a fucking alien! He was printed with a green face! We had to sell the T-shirts in the pitch-black dark about a mile away from the gig, but we sold them.

How many did you have?

Anthony: About 4 [laughs]. Nah, I’d say 4000, 5000.

So how did you get into throwing parties?

Christopher: Our sister Tracey worked at Factory Records and we were seen as her scally brothers who caused trouble on the Haçienda doors. Then the Acid House thing kicked off and Tony Wilson asked us to do the official merchandise for Factory Records and The Happy Mondays off the back of us bootlegging merch.

Anthony: We got really into it and wanted to party all night as the clubs used to close at 2am, so we decided to do Manchester’s first illegal rave called ‘Sweat It Out’. We had everybody there from Tony (Wilson), New Order and Noel Gallagher.

What’s some of your most memorable times from running parties?

Anthony: We threw a party for Chris’ 21st birthday, which we based the video for Chase & Status’ 'Blind Faith' on, when we were asked to direct it. The lights we hired went so we used a sun bed to light the venue.

You must have experienced a lot of backlash?

Christopher: The government bought a law out that if their more than 10 people in a room dancing it was classed as an Acid House party, which really fucked us up. We started a protest with Tony Colston-Hayter and Biology when we heard.

Anthony: After that we had to move away from the events because of it. We tried to do some legal ones and police would turn up and threaten to revoke the club's licence, so we thought it’s time to move on. Which I suppose took us into the launch of Gio-Goi in 1988.

What were the first steps you took to launch the brand?

Christopher: We’d done the Happy Mondays bootleg thing and become close with two kids who did all the artwork for the Mondays. We didn’t have any training in clothing except what we liked to wear, so we got them to do the graphics and got a couple of other people together from Central Saint Martins who knew how to construct clothes.

Anthony: We put a range together and booked ourselves in for a show called Men And Boys at Earl's Court. We built a wacky stand and were like a new energy in among loads of boring corporate brands. Straight away we got loads of interest, somebody asked to put in an order with us for £3 million pound.

That’s not a bad way to launch a label.

Anthony: No, but it didn’t help that somebody asked to put in a £3 million pound order when we didn’t have any initial stock. I thought, shit. We’re going to need about £1.2 million pounds to produce the order and at this point we didn’t have 1.2 pence. I had to tell them that they weren’t cool enough for us to get rid of the order.

Christopher: We started taking cash before we could afford to produce the clothing, so I bought a load of plain T-shirts and got Gio-Goi printed and embroiled onto them.

So the full collection came after profiting from the T-shirts?

Christopher: Yeah, as soon as we got the money in from the T-shirts, we re-visited the range. We made striped T-shirts without knowing what we were doing so we never colour-fasted them properly. People kept coming back to us and complaining that the stripes came off in the wash and we didn’t know why.

Anthony: As soon as we realised, we did what any self-respected young designer would do, we blagged it! We changed the name of the range to the Fucked up range, which meant we could do whatever we wanted. When people called to complain, we told them that’s how the clothes are supposed to be. Fucked up!

Anthony: Things were going well. We got ourselves a flagship store in Covent Garden and a flat in Kensington above Issey Miyake, but the authorities caught up with us and framed us for something we didn’t do. That really crippled the brand.

How did you bounce back from that?

Anthony: The case collapsed and we done a bit of jail time. We took a hiatus and decided to re-launch in Berlin, in 2005. We couldn’t afford a stand at this exhibition, so we decided to rent a club and showcase the collection in there.

Christopher: We thought fuck it, if there’s one thing we’re good at it’s throwing a party.

Anthony: It was described that if somebody dropped a bomb on that building on that night, nobody would be left in the fashion industry. G-Star left their party and came to ours.

Christopher: We put the collection on the catwalk, done the party and from there everybody was talking about the brand again. Straight away investors were offering us mad amounts of cash.

Anthony: The brand was a success again. We collaborated with Pete Doherty and had everybody from Liam Gallagher to Calvin Harris wearing it. Then one of the shareholders gained control and made a terrible fucking job of it. We decided to write a book with the authors of Stoned and Two Stoned – Irvine Welsh read it and wanted to produce a series on us.

Christopher: We went back and fourth over the course of a year, spending a lot of time and a lot of money until we could finally be 100 per cent owners of our brand again. That’s when we finally agreed to doing the series and official re-launching the clothes.

So what are your plans with the brand this time around?

Anthony: We’re going to make sure nobody interferes with our label. We’re set to launch within the next coming months and will be opening up stores in London, America and Japan.

Do you think the clothing will appeal to the generational youth of today?

Christopher: Yeah, because of the backstory and the realness of the brand. We know we’re not 21 years of age but my son's 17 and he’s more than happy to go to college wearing Gio, and to be honest two years ago he wouldn’t have been, but now it’s back with the family, it’s back where it belongs.

Anthony: You can quote me on this, I’m sick to fucking death of talking about the Madchester and the Haçienda, it’s like the Second World War! Don’t get me wrong it was nice. We did an event with Pretty Green and it was nice of Liam Gallagher to say he was inspired by us and the brand and that did help to give us a little bit of kudos to appeal to the younger generation in the lead up of the relaunch.

What’s your biggest achievement to date?

Anthony: It’s nice to be able to achieve a status where your brand is sat with highly respected labels and it’s nice to be back, but we’re not going crazy with marketing, trying to chase people to wear the brand. If you know about it, you know about it. We’re never going to pay any celebrity to wear the brand.

Christopher: We never have done, our ethos is if you like it, then you like it.

Is there any advice you’d give to your younger selves?

Anthony: That’s a fucking question isn’t it? Yeah, don’t leave any skin on the bone.

Christopher: Trust your heart and stick with it. If you work hard and you believe in it, it will come.

Head over to the Gio-Goi website now to shop the new collection or check out 'Still Breathing - The True Adventures of the Donnelly Brothers', available on Amazaon now

Lewis Munro is Mixmag's Digital Fashion Editor, follow him on Twitter