CityLife

Sankeys still striving for party perfection

FLUORESCENT ADOLESCENTS: Revellers at Sankeys

“I’M devoted to it. I’ve been doing it for 10 years; it obviously means a lot to me. There’s been a lot more ups than downs.”

These are the words of Sankeys’ David Vincent, speaking as the Radium Street club’s 15th anniversary celebrations continue apace (this weekend sees sets from 2manyDJs and a Plush reunion, while trance demon Armin Van Buuren pops up next Friday).

Hearing Vincent talk about the club which he took on a decade ago is like listening to a proud father recount the best years of his son’s childhood, such is the fondness he holds for old Beehive Mill.

“It’s pretty hard to say exactly what it means to me. It’s a personal thing. It’s definitely been a soap story,” he laughs, referencing the club’s former name.

Perfect picture

“I almost think about it like a palette, with me as the artist. I’m always messing around with the colours, trying to get the perfect picture. I think I’m nearly there.”

He took another step towards making his ideal club this summer when, as part of the festivities to mark 15 years of Sankeys, he unveiled 15 improvements to the set-up.

These included new lighting and sound systems, the return of the beach and, intriguingly, ‘toilets’, to complement a summer of line-ups designed to mark the club’s birthday in style.

“I’m a perfectionist; I like changing things,” says Vincent. “There was a stage where we’d literally change something every two weeks in the club. People were like, ‘It’s a laser, what else do you need to do?’ and I’d say to them, we’re only 70 per cent there.”

Wholesale tweaks

With the spectre of this summer’s anniversary looming, David realised the time was right to unleash wholesale tweaks.

“We had a choice between [continuing to make changes] slowly or doing it all at once and having people go ‘Wow’, really noticing.

“So we were thinking. It’s the 15th anniversary, how are we going to shout that we are 15 years old. Then the ideas started to flow: let’s do it for 15 weeks, let’s make 15 changes to the club.

“And so we did it all at once and people really noticed. It’s been our most successful summer so far. It really has all fallen into place.

Indeed, the programme these past couple of months has been a smash, regularly filling the club on nights that, for want of students, would be thinly populated in any other year.

Inspired picks

A lot of which is due to Vincent’s line-up choices. Inspired picks in the form of Dubfire and the Martinez Brothers, both of which he cites as highlights (“Really refreshing. They could be the new Masters At Work,” he notes of the latter) have brought great success, but the Sankeys man just wants to talk about the future.

“August is definitely going to be our biggest month. There’s gonna be some really good parties that people are going to enjoy.

“I’m interested in seeing Armin van Buuren. When someone’s been voted the world’s best DJ for two years... I just want to see what he’s about... what he does to the crowd. I bet he hasn’t played in a club as intimate as Sankeys, with a soundsystem like ours, in a long time.

“I’m also really looking forward to finally getting our bloody ice cannons installed. They’re not like normal CO2 ones, they’re liquid nitrogen. I’m looking forward to standing beneath two of them and getting blown to the other side of the dance floor!”

Long term

So that’s the immediate future sorted, but what about the long term? What does Sankeys’ architect envisage the next 15 years will bring?

“One thing I will predict is that it’s not gonna get any bigger. I won’t allow it. I think it would ruin the club.

“Sankeys won’t become like the previous superclubs. It won’t be a name you’ll see popping up all around the world. It’s not really what we’re about.

“As a club I think we’ll remain where we are. We wanna be the best. We will stay focused on what we’re doing: trying to create party perfection.”

Sankeys’ 15th anniversary celebrations continue. See the link to the right for more info.