CityLife

Bored of Oasis? Try Barely Legal

Barely Legal

“WE were drunk at Kendal Calling festival when the venue rang asking us to do the night”, says Steven McInerney on Barely Legal’s speedy genesis.

“Two months later, here we are.”

The club night - McInerney and co-promoter James Taylor’s first - may have been put together faster than a couple of Hadron-collided particles, but its conception was the product of several years spent sampling Manchester’s finest indie nightlife, and a lot of careful thought about how it could be added to.

“We were both fans of nights like Keys Money Lipstick and Up The Racket, but we’d always find ourselves with nothing to do at the beginning of the month because those nights weren’t on.

"There are alternatives, but - with all due respect - we’re a bit bored of dancing to Oasis.

“We just thought, let’s make our own night, something to fill that gap.

"We wanted to become part of the chain of nights we admire. So we came up with the idea and took it to Joshua Brooks.”

Glittering

The idea - to stage a glittering monthly party in the indie-electro, dance-pop vein, that would appeal to the city’s legion of hip, young hedonists - was lapped up by the venue, who have found themselves with a Clique-shaped hole to fill since the digital disco’s successful defection to the Northern Quarter in January.

However, concerned with quality control, the pair had a secondary aim. “We wanted to put on a night that we’d go to ourselves” says McInerney, with a tone that suggests he’s uninterested in joining the massed ranks of imagination-free indie nights that spring up nationwide at a rate of two a day.

But in staging another progressive indie night, are the Barely Legal boys worried about starting a beef with their more established counterparts?

“I don’t think there is a rivalry,” says McInerney, “We bumped into the guys from Up The Racket and they were really supportive; we’ve had nothing but help really.”

Epiphanies

Knowing that trying to provide dancefloor epiphanies armed with records by Razorlight and Kasabian is about as tear-inducingly futile as it is doing your shoelaces with your teeth, McInerney and Taylor plan to air music that will appeal to a wider crowd.

“We trust our musical instincts and don’t see any reasons why we can’t get people dancing. Our selection process is basically, ‘If we‘d dance to it, it‘s in.‘”

“It’s an indie night at heart but there’s gonna be electro, pop and all sorts of stuff. Some nights like to play obscure tunes, which is fine, until you find yourself trying to dance to a remix of a B-side of a band from Belgium.

"We want a night full of those moments where everyone hears a song and goes running for the dancefloor.”

Girls Aloud

To that crowdpleasing end, the night features Girls Aloud on its playlist. But will they really spin records by the country’s greatest ever girl group, or is it just another act of postironic flyer filling?

“It’s a contentious issue,“ admits McInerney. “I personally love them, but James isn’t a fan. We‘d definitely play ‘Biology‘, though.”

While most promoters would be busy hoping that launch night doesn’t end up resembling a wake attended by twelve of their most socially-limited friends, Barely Legal are already planning their next party.

“We’re looking to put something really special together for the second one, but that’s all to be confirmed yet”, says McInerney.

For now, though, the pair’s aim remains simple. “We just want to put on a party that makes people get up and dance. We just want people to have a good time.”

Barely Legal’s launch night is on Friday, October 3 at Joshua Brooks, Princess Street, 10pm-3am, £5/£3 with flyer.