CityLife

Is Manchester clubbing in crisis?

Saki Bar

Looking around town at the moment, you’d be forgiven for thinking that part of Manchester’s very fabric – its clubbing scene – is facing a crisis.

Village superclub Essential shut last month, Tiger Lounge followed in its wake just days ago, while question marks still hover over one or two of the city’s bigger names.

The latest venue to be affected is Rusholme’s Saki Bar, home of Underachievers Please Try Harder. The club lost its license last week after complaints about noise.

Dave Bassinder runs Underachivers, and was asked last year to take over all the bookings at the venue. He is eager to defend Saki and says the council’s recent decision is unfair. “It’s a venue that is very supportive of its nights and promoters, and by charging minimum hire to put on gigs they’ve given the chance for countless Manchester bands to play.

“We have known about it for a while. This is the reason we were asked to book as they recognised the need to get rid of the nights causing the problems.”

Bassinder remains optimistic in the face of the ruling.

He says: “Saki is still open as it is appealing the license decision.

“We’re fairly sure it will be OK as we’ve taken many measures to sort the problems out, despite what anyone says!”

Underachievers is on February 27, 2010 at Saki Bar. 9pm-3.30am. £3/4/5.