Brenda and Bollox - a match made in heaven
STOP, collaborate and listen. As well as being one of the best first lines to grace an early-90s, Queen-sampling, white rap track, it seems the opening gambit of Robert Van Winkle’s Ice Ice Baby is a mantra taken heartily on board by club promoters.
Why? Because the world of clubbing has gone collaboration crazy.
In Manchester alone, we’ve got the likes of Up The Racket and Revolver staging quarterly love-ins, Shake It Shake It and Asparagus Next Left cooing fondly at each other over twee indie pop.
And in two weeks, Contort Yourself and Now Wave joining forces for a special double-header featuring Greco Roman’s Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaur.
Bloody brilliant
This weekend’s hook-up, meanwhile, is brought to us by the letter B, as two clubs – Brenda and Bollox – get together in one club – Blink – for a night that could well be bloody brilliant.
We caught up with Club Brenda and Switchflicker Records supremo Jayne Compton, to find out how the collaboration came about and what fans can expect.
Compton has been running Club Brenda since 1999, when a drunken conversation on the night train home from Liverpool with her friend, performance poet Chloe Poems, led to its Star & Garter debut.
“Brenda combines off kilter bands, visuals, performance art, and has a deliberately eclectic music policy,” she says. “It’s slightly oddball.
“I like to put together line ups that normally don’t appear on the same bill – it’s a crossing of counter cultures.”
Idiosyncratic little space
“I like Bollox because it offers an alternative,” she says. “And we share a crowd, so it seemed like the perfect collaboration.
The night will be taking place at Blink, an idiosyncratic little space beneath Affleck’s Palace, which, once it finishes its current ten-week run as a club, will be closed down and converted into a pool hall.
This Changing Rooms-style switch causes Compton some discomfort.
“I wish it was staying as a club space,” she says. “The northern quarter needs an alternative. Its close proximity to the Printworks can make it full of undesirables at the weekend.
Ramshackle charm
“I’m looking forward to working with the new space, though. It’s ramshackle with a rough-around-the-edges charm, so it should work well. And since it’s temporary, this will never be repeated.”
DJs from both clubs will be taking turns on the decks, and with fun high on the agenda, Compton says revellers can expect “a good party and a chance to dance to your favourite records.”
Brenda vs Bollox is on Saturday, July 4 at Blink, underneath Affleck’s Palace. 10pm, £5.
Published: Mon, 30 June, 2008
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