CityLife

Clint lays out his party plans for the autumn

BUSY BOY: Boon

BEHIND the scenes at Xfm Manchester, Clint Boon gives the latest scoop on the events that will help keep Manchester alive socially, not only at night but even in the afternoons with the re-launch of Mrs Boon’s Tea Party.

After two years of delightful indulgence, Mrs Boon’s cake-tastic afternoons have expanded! The events are now taking place at the Ruby Lounge.

Clint's busy lifestyle almost caught up with him as his appendix ruptured back in December.

Amazingly the outcome was not to go slow. The health hazard just gave Clint more ideas and inspiration that will be keeping him far more busy than ever before.

Big household names are soon to make an appearance at Clint’s brand new Boon Army nights at Moho Live!

And Mr Boon is even extending his presence within the Manchester music scene by completely taking over the club known as South on Fridays.

Friday night will be know as ‘The C-Word!’ It will be more off the wall than the already long standing night (he’s been doing it for 8 years) known as ‘Clint Boon’s Disco Rescue’ which is on Saturdays! (Check out more details and dates to add to your diary below).

Thank you for inviting Manchester CityLife in to your Xfm Studio. We are here to talk about the up-and-coming events you have planned.

Do you want to start off with Moho Live?
Yes that’s monthly Thursdays but will actually start on Wednesday September 16. I never really wanted to be a promoter (as in booking bands and putting them on) but I accidentally fell in to a situation and that’s what I’m doing here.

Moho Live is a venue owned by Danny McNamara. He’s the guy that sings for Embrace. He is a good friend of mine, we go back a few years. He’s been asking me to sort of take over a night in his club for a while and what we decided to do is a night called Boon Army. I’m doing it in partnership with a chap called Mac. It’s where we’re picking some of our favourite bands and each month it will be quite a big headline act.

So far at Moho Live we have Kid British doing the launch night, we also have a load of decent local bands supporting. On October 1 we’ve got Howard Marks. This will be a spoken word thing. He will be talking about his experiences as a world famous drug trafficker.

How did you get Howards Marks ? Are you interested in Howard Marks?
Yes, I’ve never actually met him. He is an icon. Even though he broke the law and was an outlaw many people see him as a role model really, as he did have morals and principles and he stood by them.

It’s gonna be a top night. You’re gonna see an established act at the top of the bill and lots of local talent so were not doing anything charitable like ‘you’re band are a bit cr*p but if you bring 80 people we will give you a gig’. Its like your band has to be good or were not putting you on you know what I mean, mark my words!

On the November 5 the band that are headlining are a household name. Two or three months ago they sold seven thousand tickets for their Manchester gig. This time they’re going to play to 600 at Moho Live because they like me and I like them! So that’s a bit of a scoop, I can’t really advertise that yet.The following month, December 10, we have another household name and the same sort of thing.

So are you sure you can’t tell us who they are yet?
I can’t tell you yet but they are a big big band and the reason I can’t tell you is that they’ve got other Manchester gig soon after mine. If I start announcing my gig then their gig might not sell, it’s cheeky isn’t it! Their gig at Moho will be a secret warm up gig for their tour.

It is really exciting because the venue Moho Live is an established venue and its means you can ask some of these people to come and play and they’re not squeezing in to a broom cupboard hiding before the gig. It's got a dressing room and it’s got a bar and security. It’s a proper good venue.

The other stuff that’s happening is Mrs Boon’s Tea Party, which is my wife’s cakes business. She makes the cakes. We just decided to start having tea parties. We’ve been doing them for over a year now. We do them every week in the Northern quarter. We just had a summer break and now we are re launching on October 3 at the Ruby Lounge.

Every Saturday afternoon people can come down with their kids and I play records on old record players and we have the vintage china and free tea. We are getting live performances by some of the biggest pop acts in Britain today. They say they’ll do it for the cake and the kids. It’s very child-friendly to the extent that when we re-launch we are actually having a kids' cake decorating workshop as part of the event.

So it all revolves around kids when the bands come and play. The Enemy have done it and Reverend & The Makers. Kid British, Maximo Park have played also. It’s at a volume that’s good for the kids. We don’t want to get the place rammed as we don’t want to frighten the kids.

It’s unique and phenomenal and its not about making money either. It’s not like were making loads of wedge out of it. We barely cover the costs of the ingredients for the cakes.

It’s just something we love doing and when you see the amount of pleasure the audience get out of it, its quiet incredible and quite breathtaking. It’s such a simple little thing. People come to Manchester for our Saturday afternoon Tea Party from all over the North West. They do a bit of shopping and then come and hang out with the Boons you know what I mean? Then by tea time it’s all over.

So what’s the story behind the party concept?
It’s the way we live at home. It’s all about music and cakes and kids and its like transfer that atmosphere to a bar in Manchester and invite everyone to it. People say it’s phenomenal and it’s incredible what you have come up with here but it’s just how we live. It’s what families do at home. We have a record on in the kitchen and Mrs Boon’s making cakes or dinner and kids are crawling about. It’s taking that nice northern English family vibe and putting it into an event in Manchester.

When we re-launch we’ve got a band from Wrexham called Heal the Last Stand, they’re brilliant, it’s a real sort of love and peace sort of vibe and it works really well, it will be perfect for the Tea Party.

On the October 10 we’ve got a band called The Lovely Eggs from Lancaster, it’s a two-piece band with a female singer called Holly and a geezer on drums. They’re almost like The White Stripes but reversed, really quiet quirky. The third week we’ve got Sonic Boom 6 from Manchester and some very special guests. I can’t tell you who they are but they are massive.

Are you sure you can’t tell us?
I could tell you who they are but they might decide to TAKE ME OUT Subtle clue there!

For more information check out the links to the right and watch video footage of the interview.