The 1001st post...

...Is this one.

A few things happen this week- I'm running another Tuesday night to Tiger Tiger for their Taboo night. Good music, mostly student-age people and a few floors to choose from. They claim to have had 1700 people through their doors at the last event. Tonight we're starting in the club at 9 so we don't have to pay an entrance fee. How busy it will be, considering most of the students are at home for Easter, we'll have to see. I know that a lot of locals visit there, so it could still have a crowd.

Here's the event on Manchester Social Group, and here's the same thing on Manchester Cool Bars and Clubs.

Who remembers Alison Limerick's Where Love Lives?

On Friday night she drops into The Milton Club to sing as part of Key 103's 

Anthems Live night. The Meetup with Cool Bars is here; the meetup with Manchester Social Group is here; the Facebook event is here. I've been to a Key 103 event at Milton but I didn't seen anyone sing. When I first got into dance music at about 13, Where Love Lives was one of the regular tracks on what was Kiss 102. Great music.

Sunday 31^st: author Irvine Welsh drops into Manchester to discuss his new book The Blade Artist. His latest novel focuses around the psychotic Begbie, seen in trainspotting, Porno and Skagboys. I've met Welsh twice already, and have more than enough books to read. But if you want to meet him and guest-blog for me, I'd be happy to put it up here.

Tweet me your events!

Martinez Bros in Sankeys

Techno rave on a bank holiday Sunday, you say? I'm there.

A few of us went to see The Martinez Brothers in Sankeys last night. Sankeys, formerly Sankeys Soap, is one of Manchester's longest-running nightclubs, and it has survived on the edge of the city through persistently hiring high-quality DJs and playing them though the best sound and light systems in the country. It's well worth a look. The smoke, lasers and LEDs combine to make among the best club visuals you'll find in the UK.

We got there at 22:45 and there was already a queue, and considering Storm Katie was battering large portions of England- including Manchester- we had to tough it out until we got inside, which couldn't have been more different- it was roasting and packed, like you'd expect a 90's rave to be. It added to the appeal, though.

Here's a glimpse of the warmup by Jozef K

DJ Jesse Calosso nestled between him and the main act, and here's some of The Martinez Brothers.

I got a handshake off the brothers at the end. Top night!

Plush: The Homecoming Reunion

Plush was a house music night held at Ampersand, the unit on Longworth St in Manchester which now houses Suede. The Plush brand has held nights in other places since moving in 2008, in a club that was near the Great Northern (the name escapes me; it's a homeware shop now) and more recently Venus. The Homecoming Reunion took place Thursday 24^th, a night of funky house tracks from the Plush era played by two of the DJs who were regulars on the Plush scene a decade ago. Jason Herd and Jon Fitz, known collectively as Herd 'N' Fitz, took to the decks of Suede Thursday night, and were joined by a crowd of (admittedly aging) clubbers and younger, newer house lovers.

I went with a few people that I'd been to Plush with in 2006, and we stumbled across a few more familiar faces once in there. There were more than a few flashbacks! Good vibes all round. I miss Ampersand. In what other club can you see the DJ climb on top of the booth to dance in front of the crowd?!

More pics will be on Suede's Facebook page or on the Plush Facebook page. Or both.

I was driving, so was a bit gutted that the staff took the lid off my bottled water. I have a tendency to dance a LOT when it's house music they're playing, so it's really handy to screw the lid on. They have a minimum spend of £10 if you're using a card, by the way.

There was an added appeal to holding this on the first night of the weekend, just like the Fridays used to be in '06. I've been to other Plush Reunions that were previously held in Venus on Saturdays- holding the night in the unit that was Ampersand is a nostalgic and aesthetic masterstroke. Once in an occasional while, let's do this again.

Easter Weekend Yeah?

So what's on the horizon this weekend? Other than devouring copious amounts of chocolate and nose-diving into sugar addiction and morbid obesity again? Well, no Easter would be complete without it. Likewise, no Easter would be complete without a few parties.

I might possibly be at Suede on Thursday for the reunion of Plush, a house music night that used to run in Ampersand. The club was in the same unit that now houses Suede, a smart, boutique venue with a large opulent mirror behind the bar and podiums and bookable booths.

I used to go to Plush nights at Ampersand in the summer of 2006. The music, atmosphere, DJs and regulars were all superb.

Previous Plush reunions had been held in Venus- I believe this is the first of its kind to be held in the original unit.

Good Friday is a family day this year, so I'm unlikely to be able to make it to monthly night Bamboo at LIV. Gutted. I've been to the last 2 Japanese-themed nights and they've both been superb. Having said that, Bamboo didn't get busy til quite late last time, so maybe...

Saturday: Showcase at Eivissa, AKA The Oxford Club is a possible, although last week was a bit of a misfire.

Easter Sunday: House music duo The Martinez Brothers are Djing at Sankeys on Radium St. I haven't had a proper night in there since I saw Armand Van Helden in 2004. I believe the place has changed quite a lot since then. We'll find out!

No meetups for any of these as yet, but keep your eyes on the Cool Bars group and this could change...

Model Search in The Oxford Club

Eivissa, a night of RnB and house which started in leafy Cheshire, is now the staple Saturday night in Manchester's The Oxford Club. Last night Nemesis Models were conducting a model search, so I thought I'd throw up a meetup on the Cool Bars page and see who I could entice. It'd mean it would be full of hot women, so why not.

We started in the bar of Pan-Asian restaurant Sakana, which got progressively busier as the night went on. We hung on a while and watched the sax action. It's always been a starting place for meetups in Manchester when going to Oxford Club, The Milton Club, Suede etc, so it was interesting to see how it developed later on. Our meetup group got talking to a group of girls- a Kiwi among others, memory fails me- and some stayed in Sakana with them. The atmos was so good. We also bumped into a few other familiar Meetup faces. I was keen to see what the talent scout party was like, so some came with me to the club.

I had got guest list for the group, but that only secured entry to the club- it was still £15 on entry, more than competitors LIV or Milton club, for example.

Lovely venue inside, although they don't sell pineapple juice... just a point... Also there were one or two difficult people from Oldham of all places. I didn't notice anyone from Nemesis actually approaching anyone, but I guess I wouldn't. Also: how come there are now bookable couches on the dance floor? Doesn't that reduce capacity? I preferred it as a busy dancing space myself.

But yeah, a fair few stunning people- but then, there was in Sakana and they were much nicer. Friends who stayed there say it was busy and “kept filling up with hotties”. I might hang on there some time. You might want to too, so keep your eye on the Cool Bars group.

Pics from Eivissa will be here.

Who goes out on a Tuesday?

Well, this week I do. I'm using up some leave so I thought I'd take a look at Tiger Tiger, as their student nights used to be great. I've talked about this with people at Manchester Cool Bars and a few of us have booked off tomorrow morning in order to go tonight. I found the student nights much more fun than the weekend ones. Nicer people, no fights, good old-school music.

Do you fancy joining us tomorrow night? RSVP to the event and come meet us. We're starting next door in Hard Rock Cafe at 9:30pm. Stay as late as you want.

The Open Door

At the previous Writers Connect we'd used the phrase “The Locked Door” as a prompt for a writing exercise. This time we switched it to “The Open Door”. We gave it 10 minutes instead of 15 as we took ages to get started and a few of us had work to read out. The meeting was looking like running over. Here's mine:

“Always leave the cage door open,” Sean said, “so the canary can fly back in.”

Wesley leaned on the window ledge and considered this. He thought of what happened with Sarah, with Becks, and with that crank whose name he couldn't even remember. He sure as shit wouldn't be letting those canaries flutter anywhere near his goddamn cage. He'd shoot them out of the sky without hesitation.

The Skoda purred as if his foot was on the pedal, a possible reactin to the cold. He'd bought it new last summer, and January was proving a test. But it was still handling winter better than he was.

Emma was different though. He wanted that canary back in the cage more than anything, he realised. Maybe it wasn't too late. Every other door was closing: the jobs market was saturated, he was stuck doing the same spirit-crushing spreadsheet, in the same flat with the same broke, over-worked friends he didn't have time to see. But then again, he'd left the door open for them.

Sean latched the car door open slightly. “Wait,” he said. “You should come too. You need cheering up.”

“I'm driving.”

“I'm not recommending alcohol. You need a total change of scenery.”

“What then?”

“Stay sober with me. Come to this club. Look around. I can introduce you to loads of people.”

“I dunno.”

“It's Sunday tomorrow and I'm not out til next week. Get involved.”

–

This was inspired by a scene in Rising Sun, a murder mystery starring Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes.