CityLife

Special return for much-loved Plush

MANY HAPPY RETURNS: The Plush crew

IT will be a busy end to August for birthday-toasting superclub Sankeys: ahead of superstar DJ Armin Van Buuren’s appearance on Friday, August 28 (where he’ll no doubt turn up armed with some choice 12 to 16-minute trance mixes – excellent), the weekend of 21-22 August looks set to bring fine fun in the form of parties featuring 2manydjs and Plush, the latter of whom will be staging a reunion all-nighter.

We caught up with Plush promoter Mark Latham to talk about the brand, what it means to Manchester and how the future will shape up.

Here is what he said.

1) The Plush reunion will be huge
“In our eyes we have not done a party since our fifth Birthday at the Coliseum, where we had over 1,200 people in for a residents night. This being a reunion means bringing people out of the woodwork who we have not seen for a long time.”

2) We’ve got some great sets lined up
“On the night we will have all our residents – Tim Owen, J Latham and Paul Spencer – playing, as well as headline sets from Funkagenda, who have been at all the festivals this year with Swedish House Mafia, and the mainman from Space Ibiza, Jonathan Ulysses. To have these two play for us is a massive coup.”

3) It had to be at Sankeys
“Now that we don’t have a weekly home to do our shows, we wanted to do the reunion at the best venue in Manchester. Myself and Tim [Owen, fellow promoter] have done parties at Sankeys before, which have always been great shows, but this event is special because we have groomed the brand from its early days, when we started out at Ampersand and then took it to Relish. To do a party at Sankeys means a lot.”

4) Plush has a special place in people’s hearts
“There is a special place for Plush in Manchester. We had such a young crowd back when we started on a Friday night and were voted best club and things like that. I think because we’ve put on some great shows, with amazing production, dancers, stilt-walkers, fire-eaters and also done shows in Ibiza and other places means people have taken us to heart. Also we’ve always been noted as a cool brand, with a friendly crowd, great music and an up-for-it atmosphere.”

5) We will return weekly – if the setting is right
“We feel that Plush still has a great following, but due to the lack of venues in Manchester we are going to put one-off parties on at Sankeys, with the next date pencilled in on Boxing Day with Chris Lake. Hopefully the brand will come back bigger and better with a weekly residency on a Saturday, but the venue needs to be right.”

The Plush reunion is at Sankeys, Beehive Mill, Radium Street on Friday, August 21. 10.30pm-7am. £12.