THE idea of pairing some of the great songs which filled the dancefloor at Manchester’s legendary Hacienda with one of the country’s leading orchestras sounds like an unlikely marriage.

But from an initial performance last year, Hacienda Classical has become one of the hot ticket shows and next month it will be at Lytham Festival

Graeme Park, one of the original DJs at the Hacienda and one of the driving forces behind Hacienda Classical admits that initially he too was taken aback at the event’s popularity.

“When we started, it was only supposed to be for one show in Manchester which quickly became two and then it just grew and grew,” he said.

“I’m much less surprised now because what we do has mass appeal.

“Although other electronic artists have dabbled with classical music, we are the first ones to do a whole tour and take it out on the road, not just as a one-off.”

Hacienda Classical features Graeme and fellow DJ Mike Pickering working with Manchester Camerata.

“This year’s show is a lot better than last year’s show because we have learned so much,” said Graeme.

“We have put together a completely new setlist for this show.

“Last year we created it as though we were DJ-ing in a club so it started quite laid back and them slowly built up but after four or five shows we realised that it’s not a DJ set; people are expecting it to be a big event from the start.

“It’s been quite a challenge to put the set together this time - last year Mike and I picked pretty much the same tracks but this year we picked totally different ones.

“But now we’ve got a show which will hit you right between the eyes from the first moment. The energy level starts at 100 per cent straight away and then goes up.”

Graeme admits that working with an orchestra has been a steep learning curve.

“The first thing I’ll do is to create a DJ mix of the set and then give that to Tim Crooke, the Camerata’s conductor,” he said.

“He will then work out what the orchestra can do which on a lot of tracks that’s quite a lot. Then he’ll go away and score the whole set for the orchestra.

“For some of the things like the drums or the bassline I will to recreate them when we play live.

“There is a lot more room for manoeuvre in the world of electronic music than the world of classical music.

“Being part of an orchestra requires such a disciplined approach.

“Last year Mike and I got taken along by the whole momentum of the thing and enjoyed the ride but this year I’m going to take some of the discipline the orchestra has and put it into the work.

“But we want to keep the spontaneity in there so Mike and I have the flexibility to improvise around the orchestra.

“It is two world colliding and the result makes for a very special situation.”

Hacienda Classical, Lytham Festival, Thursday, August 3. Details from www.lythamfestival.com