We catch up with Tony Ratcliffe before he launches his new club

1. After your success with one-off Koochi events, why have you decided to open your own club?

It was really an extension of doing one-off events. I saw there was a gap in the market with regard to late night clubbing. People have started coming out later and later and I felt that I’d be able to do something within Manchester that no one else was doing. I looked about for a venue to do a night and there weren’t any apart from the one I picked and I had to buy it to use it! So that’s what I did. I bought it and then I applied for a license and got it.

2. What is the history of the venue?

It was open a couple of years ago for about a year and a half. Two guys became partners behind a night called Emporia, which used to run at the The Bar and be a funky house night. They spent a lot of money revamping the place, which used to be a labour club or a working men’s club at one time, but they didn’t do that well with the night itself. They tried to compete against other nights and from the background I don’t think they really had any experience of Manchester, so it failed and the venue shut for two years. I had a look at it and felt that I could do something with it. We’ve done a revamp on it, put in brand new sound and lighting, and it opens next week.

3. What have you done to change it?

It has two rooms; one is going to be an electro vibe, the other is more minimal tech. I don’t know how many kHz the sound is but we’ve spent about £100,000 on the sound. It’s a Funktion 1 sound system which is the best sound in the world, the same sound that Space Ibiza uses.

4. Saturday nights run from 1:30am. Why have you chosen to do this?

I’ve noticed in the last few years that people tend to come out later now – they want to go for a meal or to house parties, or they just want to sit in and have a few drinks with friends and then come out for a late drink. So we decided to do something with that. The Friday nights aren’t a late night, they’re a standard night like everyone does but the Saturday nights are licensed until eight or nine in the morning. We’re going to make it into a member’s place due to the fact that we have a really good client base through running the Koochi nights and we’re going to target that client base. Our market isn’t an after hours. It is more of a late night thing. It is not for people to come out of one club and then stumble over to ours; the way the night is structured, it’s as though you were going into a club at 10 o’clock at night, but really it’s half one. Our main guest slots are going to be at four, half four in the morning and really, we have got more than enough security.

5. What will the security be like?

Well, as well as having a promotions company I run a security company as well, one of the largest in the north. As far as security goes, I wouldn’t say it was a walk in the park but I’ve got it covered. We’ve got a big CCTV system in there, everything is going to be membership, we’ve got crowd control people as well as door people – so we’ve not just got doormen, we’ve actually got people who are there to assist people to the taxis at the end of the night, stop them roaming the streets. So we’ve put quite a lot into it.

6. There’s been quite a lot of speculation that Area51 is setting itself up against Sankeys – is there any truth in this?

Not really, no. I think people are thinking that because of the way we’re going with the bookings. But Sankeys is Sankeys, isn’t it? For me, it’s a club that opens 10:30pm, 11pm and goes on till 4 or 5 in the morning. The whole idea of the club that I’ve got is to do that late-night experience. I wouldn’t say Sankeys couldn’t get the license we’ve got, but with being in such a highly residential area they’d probably struggle. The bookings are fairly similar but on a Saturday night we’ll be trying to go a little more underground than Sankeys. The first bookings, Tom Novy and MYNC Project – they’re really booked because I didn’t really know if I was going to get the license or not, so I had to make the guests a little more middle of the road.

But after that, my bookings are going to be a little more underground, and I’m going to concentrate more on the niche, late-night clubber market. On Fridays I’m doing something that nowhere else is really doing by bringing those strong brands into the city (like Kiss Da Funk and Filth which is a really big Leeds brand) and trying to get that cool edge. So there’s no truth in saying we are going head to head with Sankeys – there are similarities but I wouldn’t say we were going head to head.

7. Who are you most looking forward to seeing yourself?

Tom Novy. I was in Ibiza quite a few times last year and every time he played in Space he smashed it. I’m quite looking forward to seeing how he does over here.

Lineups so far:

Friday 1st Feb

AREA 51 LAUNCH PARTY WITH KISSDAFUNK

Trophy Twins

Rob Tissera

+ Friends

10.30pm - 4am

£7 / 10

BUY TICKETS

Saturday 2nd Feb

AREA SESSIONS

MYNC PROJECT (CR2 Records)

Da Guy

Mister S

Tempered DJS

Jon Cotton

1.30am - 9am

£7 / 10

BUY TICKETS

Friday 8th Feb

BITCH

Jo Mills

Will Bailey

Daley Padley

+ residents

10.30pm - 4am

£7 / 10

BUY TICKETS

Saturday 9th Feb

AREA SESSIONS

Viktor Valasko

Tempered DJS

Techno Tez

Eddie Regano

1.30am - 9am

£7 / 10

BUY TICKETS

Friday 15th Feb

SEX TOY

Judge Jules

Sir Knight

Dave Booth

Uberchic

10.30pm - 4am

£7 / 10

TICKETS NOT YET AVAILABLE

Saturday 16th Feb

AREA SESSIONS

Tom Novy ( Toolroom Records)

Da Guy

Viktor Valasko

Curious George

Anton Powers

+ Many More

1.30am - 9am

£7 / 10

BUY TICKETS

Friday 22nd Feb

AREA SESSIONS

Sandy Rivera

Dangerous DJ’s

Fran Cosgrave

Joel Lawson

1.30am - 9am

£7/10

BUY TICKETS

Saturday 23rd Feb

AREA SESSIONS

Anton Powers

Tempered DJS

Curious George

Techno Tez

Jon Cotton

1.30am - 9am

£7 / 10

BUY TICKETS

Friday 29th Feb

FILTH

Micky Slim

Ed Kane

The Zoo Project

10.30pm - 4am

£7 / 10

TICKETS NOT YET AVAILABLE

 

 

words: Claire Symonds

 

Comments:

30 Jan 2010 Ben

Neil is not alone in experiencing baffling entry policies at Area 51. A few months ago me and about 10 mates (mixed sex) went to A51 on a Friday night which is technically a student night which opens at 10. We got there about midnight to wait in a queue in the pouring rain. One of the guys we were with was wearing an ‘Ed Hardy’ T-shirt which apparently is unsuitable so he refused entry. Anyway after queuing for bout 20mins they let us in one at a time so it took about half an hour to get us all in. To my complete surprise I walked into an empty club with around 10 people there making it obvious that the bouncers were instructed to retain a long queue to attract the generic groups of lads and girls out on Deansgate Locks. This meant the organisers had a complete disregard for attracting genuine music lovers and was happy to sacrifice a good atmosphere for a healthy profit, which is strange for a club that claims to promote new underground talent. In my opinion the organisers have focussed too much on the decor and pointless features like the VIP booths - who really wants to sit in a massively overpriced sofas all night when genuine up and coming house and techno is blasting out a very impressive sound system? To me A 51 seems like they are trying to showcase proper underground acts and have a fairly spot-on music policy and have invested in the most important of features – a decent sound system, but the club is spoiled by the awful attempt at modern styling that would be more at home at a cheese/commercial club like Pure or Tiger Tiger. Sadly this is a blatant move to appeal to a trendy and flash clientele who will spend much more money than genuine music fans. This method is always sure to spoil a club as proved by the terrible refurbishment of Sankeys in 2006 which turned the top underground club in Manchester to a fashion statement where all the plastic girls and metro-sexual guys go to be seen. Unfortunately, despite its respectable music policy, Area 51 is too focused on image to become a ‘classic’ Manchester night club. Clubs that hold the best underground nights are usually held in small dark and dingy rooms with any spare money being spent on refining and improving the sound system and DJ equipment. The atmosphere this attitude creates is one where there is no judgement, no gimmicky fashion styles but just a group of people who are there to simply lose themselves in music for a precious few hours. These are the nights that bring up and coming new talent to a wider audience (somehow the word ‘mainstream’ doesn’t seem appropriate when discussing underground dance). The management of Area 51 seem more focused on creating a trendy meeting spot for the cool kids making the actual music regress into a background necessity rather than the forefront and purpose of the night that underground dance music should be.

2 out of 5

09 Dec 2008 will purdy

Me and Wifey came out late Elevenish on a Cold December night to go to Sankeys yet the B***h on the door who was wearing NAppies when I first going Clubbin' said it was A Younger Orientated Night Laidback Effin Luke. God If I would have known we wouldn't have bothered anyway The DJ is Pants!!. Well then someone mentioned Area 51. Being Ex Tangled Devotees we decided to give it a go!. I can only say that Upstairs was absolutely brilliant Soundsystem The Vibe and the Clientele and Staff absolutely the Tops! The Djs playing upstairs were Right on The Money. We love Dancing, "Proper Clubbers" Mr Club Owner You have got this Spot On Right Time we stayed from the Start till &:15 on a Sat/Sun a week ago and had a Fantastic Time. Definately the Best Club in Mancland by FAR!!

5 out of 5

22 Apr 2008 pete

I went to this place friday and it was absolutely rocking . It was the best night I have ever had in manchester easily and I have been almost every where, less of the negative comments, and to the 'race card' I was with 9 people and 3 were black we all got in with ease!

5 out of 5

29 Mar 2008 Lee

Well that's enough to put me off ... we still need a decent club in Manchester and now we've got one that you only need to join the queue to figure out it's a waste of time.

1 out of 5

02 Mar 2008 Neil capper

I would like to have been able to comment on the new area 51 experiance in manchester considering i myself am from manchester and also a dj for many years . Unfortunatly after queing up patiently for nearly 15 minutes behind just 6 other people in the pouring down rain and strong winds a lad appeard from within the club cluthing a clip board and told the bouncer something then went back inside at this point i was told i was not wearing the correct clothing and asked to leave . Dont think i or my friends will be returning unless there is some way of you garunteeing us entry as i'm sure your aware of how this put a big downer on the night which we had planned around your club . Thanks dj kappa

1 out of 5

01 Mar 2008 Mendi

The house music scene has been known as a the most open and friendly scene in the world. I was refused entry with the claim being that Friday was a student night. Being one of the only 2 black guys in the queue and with no one else being asked for student id I drew a conclusion. We are both profeessionals both respectable people. You do the maths - I am not one to play the race card but this was blatant.

1 out of 5

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