The Manchester clubs that dress to impress

This week's three main recommended events as noted in our newsletter have something in common. Superficially, it's hard to see. The first promotes a record label and is about good, classic house music. The second is a burlesque show that dances to a modern soundtrack, breathing life into a relatively ancient nightclub phenomenon that creates an atmosphere of cheeky fun without any actual sex. Thirdly we have a fancy dress party based around a stage show and BBC comedy programme. The last event gives it away: time to dress up.

A venue's interior gets dressed up as Defected in the House will be adorning Sankeys on Friday with banners, posters and cut-outs, plus don't be surprised if a few people are wearing Defected t-shirts. Or being given them by the tour's promo people. Many of the performers at Carnival Divine (Matt and Phreds, Sunday) will be about as dressed up (or down, if you get my drift) as possible with garters, feather boas, stockings and whatever little else they can get away with. A deluge of Noel Fielding lookalikes will be confusing the hell out of their friends in Sankeys (next Thursday) as the customers impersonate the show's weird and wacky characters.

It's no coincidence that these three events stood out this week as the ones to attend. Each is doing something a bit special, rare or unique, and in times when certain music styles are threatening to become too common across 50% of the city's venues, or one club event looks much like another, we thank the promoters that look for a gap in the market rather than jump on the bandwagon, or create an event out of love rather than greed.

Words: Justin Richards

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