CityLife

Funkademia celebrates with Norman Jay

This birthday party will have lots of soul

WHAT were you like when you were 14?

If the early years of your teenhood were anything like ours, the answer is probably that you were awkward, spotty and desperately hoping that someone would invent meat pie and pickle flavoured crisps.

Most 14 year olds are about as sophisticated as Beethoven’s 5th would be if it were played on a kazoo by a pig with a lisp.

Not so Funkademia, one of Manchester’s longest running clubs, which is settling into being a teenager quite nicely. Indeed, in clubbing terms, the night is not so much an uncomfortable upstart as a seasoned veteran of the scene.

The club was born in 1995 at the Boardwalk and quickly forged a reputation as one of the north west’s most authentic funk and soul propositions, fusing current and classic sounds, whipping up a frenzy of Wigan Casino proportions among ?its ardent dance floor ?disciples.

Over the years, the Funkademia fanbase grew (they now claim to have more than 17,000 people on their members list) and the club went on a journey that would see them throw parties at most of town’s top venues before eventually finding their way to their current base at The Mint Lounge.

The night moved to the Northern Quarter basement last month when its old home, One Central Street, relaunched as No. 1 Club, marking the return of one of the Eighties’ most popular straight-friendly gay clubs to town.

The Funkademia move was just the latest in a long line of venue changes for the club, which has been around the block more often than The Littlest Hobo and, so far, it looks to have paid off.

Pioneer

Since arriving on Oldham Street, the session has gone from strength to strength, regularly packing the Mint Lounge and joining young whippersnapper Clique as part of the venue’s must-attend weekend line-up.

To celebrate its 14th birthday, the club has broken with tradition and signed up a guest DJ to appear on Saturday night. Of course, with this being no ordinary 14-year-old, it won’t be some sad act with a mobile phone full of bounce bangers providing the audio thrills, but none other than legendary musical pioneer Norman Jay MBE.

Jay is largely credited with bringing warehouse parties to the UK, making him indirectly responsible for the vibe that drives Manchester’s very own Warehouse Project and all the factory-based raves of questionable legality which the Store Street mash-up seeks to emulate.

He first came to prominence as one of the driving forces behind pirate radio station-turned-legal franchise Kiss FM. Using the platform as a springboard to launch the careers of DJs such as Danny Rampling, Gilles Peterson, Trevor Nelson and Judge Jules (all of whom ended up being part of Matthew Bannister’s Radio 1 revolution), Jay became known as ‘The Godfather’ of the scene.

He also found time to create the Good Times sound system, which would later spin off into a Notting Hill Carnival fixture and a series of compilation mixes. It is that brand, blending tracks and styles spanning the entire spectrum of Jay’s 30-year career, which he will bring to Funkademia tomorrow.

The famously coy DJ will have to put up with lots of attention in the up-close-and-personal confines of The Mint Lounge, but it should be all in a night’s work for a man who has grown accustomed to captivating crowds with a soulful blend of classic house, funk and even jazz.

In the other room, Funkademia residents Good For The Soul – fresh from appearances at several of the UK’s summer festivals – will be stoking up revellers with one of their famous anything goes sets.

Here’s hoping they keep on keeping on for many years to come.

Funkademia’s 14th Birthday with Norman Jay is on Saturday, November 7 at The Mint Lounge, Oldham Street. 10.30pm-3.30am. £6.