Double whammy for Whitworth Street
Another couple of losses to Manchester's nightlife fabric and in a twisted coincidence, they're both on opposite sides of Whitworth Street and have numbers within their names.
Area 51 and House 9 have both closed their doors. House 9 opened just about a year ago as a cooler alternative to the other Locks bars but it seems like it just hasn't made its mark. It may well have wanted to set itself apart from the neighbours and be discreet, with minimal promotion and reliance on word-of-mouth, but there's minimal, and then there's invisible. House 9's location was hiding in plain sight, close to plenty of exposure to potential customers but not wanting to attract a typical Locks crowd. The discreet doorway coupled with no real web presence (Twitter account with no tweets all year, no Facebook page, a website address that opens up Warrington Golf Society!) led to many people asking “House 9? Where's that?”
Area 51 lasted two and a half years and during that time they had some great guests at the club. Maybe too many, with the fetish for bringing in French tech-house producers that only had a couple of releases to their names going too far at one stage. With two rooms and lots of guests each Saturday, it became too many cooks stirring that broth.
After months of guest DJs and different promoters from one Friday to another, the club switched to the other extreme and changed to parties, such as Nowhere and Spank The Disco, based purely around residents. The problem may have been that with the same DJs and music styles each weekend, routine set in, and routine can kill any club dead in a music scene that expects innovation. Eyes will now be on both properties to see what happens next, particularly with Area 51 since it was refurbished not too long ago.
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