CityLife

Something for everyone at Jilly's

By Daniel Nolan

THERE is a fourth room at Jilly’s Rockworld. We find this out after half an hour of searching the labyrinthine venue, eventually passing, Secret Garden-style, through a small black door next to the bar in room one.

“We’ve been advertising the room for a few years,” says club promotions manager Nerissa [it opened in 2003], “but not everyone has caught on.”

Nevertheless, therein a crowd of hip young things are frenziedly enjoying the intensely intense songs of emo-tastic bands such as My Chemical Romance and Jimmy Eat World, all of them singing along and waving their arms about with the sort of wanton abandon not seen since Lady Godiva ploughed through Coventry.

We’re visiting Jilly’s tonight to pay a visit to its now-legendary Allnighter, which starts every Friday at 9pm and runs for a mind-boggling 10 (TEN!) hours.

Loyal following

The night was introduced way back in 1990, when John Gannon moved to the club from The Ritz, ushering in a new era for the venue, which had previously been a cabaret club called Fagin’s.

Even before the arrival of 24-hour licensing and the all-night drinking it facilitated, the Jilly’s Allnighter had built up a loyal following willing to dance the entire night away (and then head for breakfast at the popular American fast food place across the road), allowing the venue to emerge as the city’s premier rock club.

And yet, despite its reputation among those in know (the club was voted the third best in the country by Kerrang! magazine), Jilly’s remains something of an enigma to the mainstream.

Pantera t-shirts

“It’s a Manchester institution that you can’t quite place,” says one fan we speak to before our visit.

“Lots of people have at least heard of it, but not everyone could tell you where it is, or what you’d hear and see inside.”

With that quote still ringing in our ears, we arrive at Jilly’s (which, for the uninitiated, is next to the Music Box at the top of Oxford Street) at around 11pm.

Walking into the venue is a bit like that scene in the Matrix where Keanu Reeves and Carrie Ann Fisher stride through a nightclub to the strains of the Prodigy’s Mindfields, only at Jilly’s there are more pool tables and Pantera t-shirts.

Trenchcoat-clad punks

Inside, the crowd, which amalgamates the steampunk stylings of Final Fantasy VII with the neon flashes of old rave, taking in longhair rockers and trenchcoat-clad punks and goths along the way, is steadily building.

Jilly’s is a club in the truest sense of the word. Like-minded individuals use it as a gathering point not only to enjoy the music but also meet and chat to friends.

At one point, we stumble across a group of young men discussing the ins and outs of astrophysics in the toilets, which is not something you’d normally find.

Costume-wise, corsetry is the order of the evening, with the opening foyer resembling a monochrome rendering of the Moulin Rouge.

Dream of being Slash

Elsewhere, t-shirtless girls sporting neon war paint and glowsticks dart around with hotpants-wearing friends, while boys look approvingly on.

Each of the rooms within the club plays a different genre of rock music, ranging from the emo of room four, through the new wave of room one to the heavier industrial sounds of the main room and its adjoining sibling (where tonight, hair metal riffery inspires dozens of air guitarists to indulge their dream of being Slash).

One of the common misconceptions about rock music is that it is hard to dance to. Try telling that to those who by 1am are packing the venue’s dancefloor(s) and you’ll get short shrift.

Far from the image of metal being little more than a lot of shouting over turgid bass and drums, the music spun by Jilly’s DJs is upbeat and the perfect incitement to move.

Bonkers brothers

When System Of A Down’s charmingly titled Violent Pornography begins to blast out in the main room, people literally clamber past each other to show their appreciation for Serj Tankian’s former band of bonkers brothers.

The diversity in the club’s playlist and clientele is remarkable, and not something that is often replicated in mainstream clubs.

Happily, attitudes are personable throughout. In our time at the club we didn’t see a hint of trouble, and the friendliness shared by guests is remarkable.

“It’s a very inclusive club,” says Nerissa. “I think everyone is welcome here, as long as you bring the right attitude. You can wear what you like and listen to whatever music as you like, and if you’re friendly you’ll fit in fine.”

The Jilly’s Allnighter is every Friday at Rockworld, Oxford Street. 9pm-7am. £5.50/£4 NUS. See the link to the right for details of the club’s other nights.

Published: Wed, 13 May, 2009

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