LISTINGS
Regular weekly clubs plus one-off events are listed by city, then by day, then alphabetically by title. Clubs will be listed, provided that up-to-date details reach our offices at least seven days before publication. Club listings compiled by llory Weller and Bethan Cole.
Fridays
I Active at the Tuxedo Princess. 9pm—3am. £6 (£3 before 10pm. £5 after 10pm with flyer). No curfew. Techno hardcore.
I The Ark at The Tunnel. 10.30pm—3.30am. £5 (£3). Pumping house and garage grooves. Michael Kilkie and Scott McKay in bar 1. Duncan Reid and Steven McCreery in bar 2. Good and loud house. garage. sun tans and cleavage. All drinks £1 before midnight. Jeremy Healy guesting on 17 June.
I AXIS at Club Inter. 10.30pm—3am. £6 non members (£4 members). ‘Trancey. ambient. heavy. hardcore mix‘ with DJ Lewis.
I Bloornin Generation at the Sub Club. 10.30pm—3am. £5 (£3). All drinks £1. The Holy Cow gang diversify away from dairy produce to bring you a night of polyunsaturated house-based mirth.
I Banus 10.30pm—3am. £6. DJ Paul Mulholland playing commercial dance.
I Bar 10 9pm-midnight. Free. A laid- back (but very loud) soul-based set from Stevie Donaldson with various guests dropping in from week to week.
I Bennet’s l lpm—3am. £4. Busy gay night with DJ Sara.
I BIO Deal at The Garage. 10.30pm—3am. £3 (£2). House. soul and loadsa disco from Divine of Art School Saturday fame. Skinny and spliffed out rather than fat and
airy. I Body Mechanics in The Attic (formerly the Cameo Suite). 10.30pm—3am. £4 (£3) Members and guests only. If you know about Body Mechanics then you know how good it‘ll be. ifyou don‘t, find out. Run by some fairly heavyweight Glasgow names who prefer to remain anonymous. I The Cathouse 10pm-3am. £3 (£2.50 with ticket). Well respected rock- orientated night reaching capacity at the weekends. Industrial/rock downstairs and studenty stripey tigth upstairs. Now with mainstream chart sounds from DJ Craig (Garage) on yet another floor.
I Cleopatra’s 10.30pm-2.30am. £6. Disco. chart and mainstream with DJ Davie Johnston.
I Club Xchange llpm—3am. £4. Gay. brash. trashy and fun as ever with Ms
ENTERING THE MINISTRY
Club tours can be ten a penny in the louche world of dance music. You’ve got a nationally famed club on a Friday and a Saturday night but the thumbs are twiddling the rest of the week. The most natural thing in the world to do is to load up the Volvo with an evening’s worth of top toons, a banner with the club’s name on it and,
i if there’s space for them, a couple of
lle. Everyone is happy: the local venue gets to associate itself with the
great and the good, the DJ can
entertain those fun-starved provincials and the locals are bound to be impressed at the seamlessly
. mixed, ultra-exclusive tracks.
It was precisely this patronising attitude that made london’s Ministry
g oi Sound choose not to undertake a
1994 tour. Earlier this year however Concorde, a booking agency more used to handling indie college events, persuaded the Ministry to change its mind and to stage a club tour on a scale never before seen in Britain. The colleges had had enough of no-hope
i shamblers - they wanted to dance.
The Ministry has a reputation at stake however. The sound system at its ultra-modem mothership in london’s Elephant and Castle is described by resident DJ Justin Berkman as the best in Europe. ‘You can take it to the limits of people’s pain threshold and the limit of the system, working with the frequencies to give the sound a wicked texture,’ he explains. This is the environment Ministry calls home and it was unwilling to compromise for the away fixtures. ‘Vle were only prepared to go on tour if we could re-create the
Ministry in the venues,’ says Mark llodel, one oi the founders oi the Ministry of Sound, ‘which meant taking on the road a huge sound system, lighting rig and a crew of twenty people.’ To pay for this, as well as the tour buses, articulated lorries and specially commissioned artwork inevitably meant the assistance of a pretty heavyweight sponsor. Enter Pepsi, ‘the only credible streetwise corporate brand to fit the bill’, according to a Ministry handout.
They would say that, of course but Pepsi obviously reckons its cola brand will benefit from the hip association. In a Pan-European survey carried out by the sponsors, the Ministry came tops as the most well known club from Thurso to Taranto. ‘People fly in from all over Europe just for Saturday at the Ministry,’ Bodel says. ‘llow many people do you know in Britain who fly to Milan just for the night?’ Even without the jet set, Bodel claims that about 20 per cent of the customers are tourists, a factor that has led many to question the credibility of the venue. Has it simply joined the list of sights to tick off when visiting in London, along with the llard Rock Cafe, Big Ben and the Tower of London? Maybe, but the Bloody Tower doesn’t have a 26k sound system and lids flying in from llew York refusing to play anywhere else in the Uli. (Rory Weller)
The Ministry of Sound Tour arrives at The Vaults, Edinburgh on Saturday 25 June and The Tunnel, Glasgow on Sunday 26 June. Both dates feature Justin Berkman, Kevin Saunderson and Eli.
Club X. ‘Slimline‘ Karn. Happy Hour llpm—12.30am. all drinks £1 and £1.25 Beck's promotion all night.
I Crash at The Cotton Club. 10pm—3am. £4 (£3 with matric card). A lush mix of happy sounds packing the place week after week.
I llolly Mixture at Reds. Strathclyde University. 9pm~2am (doors close lam). £1 (free before l()pm). Students and guests. Tam Coyle putting together a ‘credible' assortment of student sounds. I Fluid at R.G.’s. 8pm—midnight. Free. The best in garage and house with DJs ‘Mac 'n‘ Tosh'. Ho. ho.
I Frantic at Floozy‘s. l()pm-3am. £5 (£3 before 11pm with a Floozy's discount card). DJ Dave Young and Mike Costa.
I Coodfoot at the Glasgow Caledonian University Student Union. lOpm—3am. £3.
l7 .lune. The persistently popular essential
- mix of soul. reggae. jazz and Latin returns
for another much welcomed outing.
I llelter Skelter at Eruption (formerly the Venue). 10.30pm—3am. £3. Long serving rock/indie/70s/funk/kitsch night.
I Katch at The Cathouse. Studio 3. l()pm—3am. £3 (£2.50/£1.50 with a ticket). The Katch boys pedalling their blend of indic/studenty/good time vibes. I Knucklehead in the Vic Bar at Glasgow School of Art. 9pm—late (doors close lam). £2.50. A sweaty night from the dubfunking Blue Juice boys Johnny and Hamish.
I langa langa at The Cathouse. 10.30pm—3am. £3. New Latin American. African, soca night.
I Quench at Floozies. 10pm—3am. Garage. hip hop and upfront dance night. I Beds 10.30pm—3am. £4 (£3 for students before 11.30pm). ‘Chunky funk. deeliteful disco and groovy garage!’ With DJ Paul N‘Jie. Beck‘s £1 all night or until they run out.
I Reggae Explosion at The 1301 Note. 7pm. Free. Last Friday of the month. Free Caribbean vegetarian food and a rum
promotion.
I Retro at The Hive. l()pm-2am. £2. Students and guests. 70s and 80s sounds with DJ Trax.
I Rhapsody llpm—3am. £5 (£2). All drinks £1.50. Stevie Sleepman and Graham Wilson with a fine mix of hip hop. garage. house and funk.
I Shag at Fury Murry‘s. 10.30pm-3am. £4 (£2 before 1 1pm). Maintaining the legacy of the traditional student night. a rare species today. Included in the price is one free tequila. Dutch beer or white wine.
I Slam at The Arches. 10.30pm—3am. £6. Underground. upfront. technologically- minded dance music from Stuart and ()rde. the biggest names this side of Hadrian‘s Wall.
I Sonic The indie Club at Rooftops (Secrets Lounge). l()pm--3am. £2.50 (£1.50 before 11.45pm). Indie club (it's a bit ofa dead give away isn't it?) with £1 pints of lager on tap.
I Soundclash Republic at The 13th Note. Spin—midnight. Free. Attracting a good crowd every week. I)Js Andy. Joe and Iain take you on a ‘pre-club trans dub ambient journey to the ultraworld'.
I The Volcano 1().3()pm~2.30am. £4 (£3). Packed night of mainstream dance. rap. funk and pop with DJ Alan Ronald.
Saturdays
I Bar 10 ()prn-midnight. Free. Socialise to the mellow sounds of DJ Nick Peacock e! (11.
I Banus 10.30pm—3am. £7. George Bell with his upfront dance and regular guest DJs.
I Bennet’s l 1pm—3am. £5. Gay. With Roddy Stewart the busiest shopkeeper/musician/DJ around.
I The Cathouse 9.30pm—3am. £4 (£3.50/£3 before 1 1pm). Sweaty rock- orientated club on two floors. with early opening and specially cheap drinks till llpm. Trad rock upstairs and contemporary rock downstairs.
64 The List 17—30 June 1994