There has been some great club night's come and go over the years.
What were people's favorite night? and what made the club, was it the dj's, atmosphere or venue?
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For me..any Friday night at Shelleys, deffo the crowd that made it special, the dj's were top bananna of course but the relentless effort and determination by the massif made the club a ledgend.
Yeah man.. Sasha was already established but used Shelleys as a platform to define "his" sound, Dave Seaman was kinda seen as Sasha's next in line but infact was already established and cutting tuneage as Brother In Rhythm...Ralphy DAVE RALPH was another famous Shelleys Dj...but all of these are relatively new to Shelleys, it started as the Sindrome boys, Steve Warner, Neil Macey, Eddie "evil" Richards...Bod..not ours..Birmingham Bod...the list goes on, hard on a Sat night and then house on Fridays...thats where it was all at for me and once I was experienced, there was no going back...there were good, even great clubs up and down the country...and there was Shelleys. I spose peeps will say similar about the Hac or Schoom etc ...but one thing is for sure, not many clubs went fkn úber steller legendary in such a short space of time, it's closing down and eventual destruction has kept it from the relentless hoards of promoters that would've deffo leached into it's history to try and rip some credability for their bag of toss...I can still see, in my minds eye..lol..cue pervy comment from Reet, the mental queue of pilled up, dressed up clubbers dissapearing around the corner and down the road, through the ind estate and beyond...the car park just rammed and heavin'...wish mobile phones had been about cos the footage would be just awesome.
Gatecrasher when it was at The Arches down the Wicker. This was before it got taken over by the Crasher Kid tossers years later in town. The venue at The Arches was brilliant, a club in the arches of the Wicker railway viaduct. There were several floors, dance floor being on the ground. You got in the club higher up climbing internal stairs, then came down onto the dancefloor and you could see in the booth as you came down the steps. Remember getting a birds eye view of Carl Cox playing three decks at once and cutting between them all.
The crowd were really good and the place got rammed. Walls used to drip with condensation. There was a good mix in there with people really friendly. It was the first club I got taken to by some mates who were already into it. I was into indie and punk mainly but getting more into dance music. It was the whole atmosphere that blew me away - I was expecting to go into a 'night club' with all the beered up aggro and shit which was de rigeur in the early 90s. What I got just blew my mind. People just being nice - fer fuck's sake, that was so out there in those days, sad to say.
And glam as well. As said, I was into the indie scene which wasn't noted for girls being dressed like something out of a fashion party magazine. An this place was just full of the coolest girls - like where had they come fromAnd it was suddenly ok for a bloke to dress up, be a bit outrageous, without getting your head kicked in for being ' a poof'. I loved that, I was able to buy some nice stuff.
Wish I could remember more about those nights though. I guess if I could then I couldn't have been there
Like djperkins says, so sad there isn't the visual footage to record that scene. By the time it started to get filmed it had become corporate and changed.
There were loads of great club nights in the early 90's personally i dont think it was just the venue that made the night. it was the people and the music the chemicals around that time were also spot on not cut up shite that it turned to by the end of 92 everyone was up for a good night so the atmosphere was banging.
It all seemed to go downhill at once the music and the drugs.
My best nights were in no particular order
Shellys
Tall Trees
Wigan pier
Bowlers
Haciends
The gallery
maximes
Back to basics
Soak and Kaos nights at the corn exchange and leeds warehouse were great
Ark at leeds poly
warehouse
quadrant park
the orbit (music too hard for me in there but had some crazy nights)
jenks
hard times
went to the ministry a few times and gate crasher but never rated them. people were to much up there own arses too bothered about looking good than getting sweaty and losing the plot for a few hours.
God i feel old was over 20 years ago now. Will there ever be a music movement again to make an impact that house made ?????
Are you from around leeds dear sir? quite a few leeds based clubs up there like the ark, basics, the gallery, corn exchange. the orbit nearby in morley I think.
I myself used to go to the ark leeds poly, also sampled up your ronson ( not my cup if tea muscally more garage house I'm more of a prog headed space cadet). I loved the ark, I dunno if you were there but around xmas 92 the ark was actually in this night club in leeds instead of the poly and they had to shut it down early and the cops came (not too early) nowt about drugs, summat about playing too noisy too late which is a bit fookin silly for a night club
I live in Selby now but yes used to live in Dewsbury very near Leeds.
Most of my clubbing nights were either Leeds / Manchester / Wigan or liverpool or the odd trip down to Yarm for Tall Trees.
Only club i go to now is the local working mens![]()
What era of Gatecrasher did you go to? I didn't find that sort of tude when it was at the Wicker or The Adelphi but I can see where you're coming from when it was in the final venue in town in later years.
The problem by that time - and this afflicted Ministry, Cream and all the big clubs - was that the scene had changed. The people in there were mostly people 'clubbing'. We're not talking about people well into the music, more like the usual townies who had moved into the club scene from the traditional nightclubs once things had got corporate and come out from the underground. And crucially - as you touched on - the drugs had changed - coke was on the scene. IMO it was coke that changed things - get a room full of several hundred people on coke and you're going to get a lot of confidence and egos clashing. Plus some paranoia from the seasoned users. And alcohol had arrived too.
In later years I actually had far better nights at clubs which had no particular name. Little local places with an minor / unknown DJ. I had some great nights at Kikis in Sheffield, in Doncaster with a DJ who used to work in Track Records, and a memorable night I stumbed on in Falmouth in a boozer on the quayside where a local bloke with some brilliant tunes span for a few hours. By this time the big clubs had lost the plot. I remember going to B2B in later years for the first time and getting the same impression that you got from Crasher and being properly underwhelmed by the experience.
went to Gate Crasher a few times at the back end when like you say it was trendy for the piss heads to go clubbing. People who were just jumping on the band wagon. Not people who were really into the music.
B2B turned out the same way. I think most clubs did towards 1993/94
Been looking on youtube at the warehouse nights in leeds they look like there frequented by people my age (40) who are into the music.
thinking of getting a few like minded mates together this summer and going to check one of there nights
Wouldnt mind coming to an OSA night aswell.![]()
Yeah bud. The night we put on at the warehouse age ranges mostly 30 to 40 + We get groups of 20 year olds too but it's only people we know really.
Our Music policy is 88-to 93ish so we get the older crowd.
Here is the photo album of our last SHINE event.
PHOTO ALBUM
It was ark for the atmosphere, no doubt about it, although I`m talking from 94 onwards, leeds uni, palace in blackpool for the couple of nights they held there.
Also did bowlers regularly 94-97 for both house & hardcore nights, I have mixed views on bowlers really, some great nights in there but plenty of aggro too.
Other clubs I went to semi regular around those times donnie warehouse & club kinetic were ok I guess looking back, no real special memories.
Although others have said gatecrasher was not so good when it moved to the republic in Sheffield (also moving into more of a trance sound) I had some great nights in there 97-99 and the majority of the crowd was well up for it, forget the crasher/candy kids whatever ya want to call em, I wasnt interested in all that, seemed like a load of tosh even then off me nut, but , it was the tunes that did it for me, and I still listen to & spin trance today.![]()
Check this out from the Doncaster warehouse
Doncaster warehouse tribute video - YouTube
Missed lots of the best clubs but loved going to Maximes and bowlers still get to bowlers a couple of times a year even now![]()
Old Skool Lives On.......