Quadrant Park also known as the Quad or Quaddie was a

nightclub A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

Bootle Bootle (pronounced ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, which had a population of 51,394 in 2011; the wider Bootle (UK Parliament constituency), Parliamentary constituency had a population of 98,449. Histo ...

, UK opened during the late 1980s to the early 1990s.''Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture'' by Simon Reynolds
/ref> and one of the most important in the UK at the time. and was known to attract a number of international guest

DJs A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile ...

. The main styles of music played were

Italo house Italo house (often simply referred to as "Italian" or "Italian house" in the UK) is a form of house music originating in Italy. Typically popular in Italy, Britain, and United States since the late 1980s, it fuses house music and Italo disco. Th ...

and

acid house Acid house (also simply known as just "acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synthesiz ...

, retrospectively it could also be defined an early

Superclub A superclub is a very large or superior nightclub, often with several rooms with different themes. The term was first coined in Mixmag, the British electronic dance and clubbing magazine, in 1995, referring to the new wave of clubs such as Mi ...

History

The nightclub was located on Derby Road in

, north of the city of Liverpool, in a converted warehouse. The building was originally an

Owen Owen Owen Owen was a Liverpool-based operator of department stores in the United Kingdom and Canada. Beginning with a drapery shop in Liverpool, a chain of department stores was built up, often by taking over rival retailers. The company remained u ...

warehouse, which was purchased by steel magnate James Spencer in the late 1980s to convert into a nightclub and snooker hall. A "Heritage Market" was opened shortly after to make use of the large unused lower floor space at the rear. Originally opened in the late 1980s as a snooker hall and mainstream nightclub, there was also a market in the downstairs warehouse area, and the upstairs contained a small

social club A social club may be a group of people or the place where they meet, generally formed around a common interest, occupation, or activity. Examples include: book discussion clubs, chess clubs, anime clubs, country clubs, charity work, criminal ...

(the ''Harlequin Suite'') which could be hired out for social occasions. After the Sunday market trade had moved to a nearby dock warehouse (Stanley Market), Quadrant Park started holding all night

rave A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...

s in the then-vacant space. A loop-hole in a Sefton council licensing law enabled Quadrant Park to be the only legal all-night rave in the UK, as the venue did not sell alcohol.''Life After Dark: A History of British Nightclubs & Music Venues'' by Dave Haslam
/ref> Quadrant Park's main period of activity began in early January 1990 with a capacity of 2,400, Quadrant Park began focusing on house music in early 1990. The club was dubbed "The Quad" and in October 1990 it opened the Pavilion, the first weekly legal all-nighter in Britain. Pavilion was put on in the basement below the main club. Some party goers would travel long distances to get to the venue; from London, Glasgow, Birmingham and even as far away as Aberdeen. Near the end of 1990, the club obtained a licence to stay open to six o'clock.

DJs

Mike Knowler was the initial resident DJ, and soon invited DJ partner

Andy Carroll Andrew Thomas Carroll (born 6 January 1989) is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for Championship side Reading. He has played in the Premier League and English Football League for Newcastle United, Preston North End, Liv ...

to join him. Carroll and Knowler had previously helped bring

acid house music Acid house (also simply known as just "acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synthesiz ...

to the city of Liverpool, DJing at ''The State'' nightclub in Dale Street. When the all-nighter opened in November 1990, John Kelly, James Barton and Gary J joined the resident DJ crew. Guest DJs at Quadrant Park included

Laurent Garnier Laurent Garnier (born 1 February 1966), also known as Choice, is a French electronic music producer and DJ. Garnier began DJing in Manchester during the late 1980s. He became a producer in the early 1990s and recorded several albums. Early influ ...

, Derrick May,

Frankie Bones Frankie Bones (real name Frank Mitchell; born 1966) is an American disc jockey and house and techno music producer from Brooklyn, New York City. He is considered to be the "Godfather of American rave culture"

Fabio Fabio is a given name descended from Latin '' Fabius'' and very popular in Italy and Latin America (due to Italian migration). Its English equivalent is Fabian. The name is written without an accent in Italian and Spanish, but is usually accented ...

Grooverider Raymond Bingham (born 16 April 1967 in Streatham, London, England), better known as Grooverider, is a British drum and bass DJ. He and DJ partner Fabio are regarded as "originators" of the scene.

, Rob Tissera,

Trevor Fung Trevor ( Trefor in the Welsh language) is a common given name or surname of Welsh origin. It is an habitational name, deriving from the Welsh ''tre(f)'', meaning "homestead", or "settlement" and ''fawr'', meaning "large, big". The Cornish langua ...

Joey Beltram Joey Beltram (born 6 September 1971) is an American DJ and music producer, best known for his pioneering singles "Energy Flash" and "Mentasm" and for remixing Human Resource (band), Human Resource's "Dominator (Human Resource song), Dominator". ...

and Sasha. Knowler was given the Thursday night gig in January 1990, and was later also given the residency of the club's Friday and Saturday nights.

Live PAs

A number of live performances at Quadrant Park included:

Guru Josh Paul Walden (6 June 1964 – 28 December 2015), better known as Guru Josh, was a Jersey musician, active in the British post-acid house scene, best known for his debut single "Infinity". Biography Musical career Walden was the son of a Jer ...

Anticappella Anticappella were an Italian music group led by Gianfranco Bortolotti Gianfranco Bortolotti (; born 2 May 1959) is an Italian electronic music producer and manager of Media Records and Media Studio. He was a member of Cappella, and 49ers who h ...

, Baby D,

Baby Ford Peter Ford, better known as Baby Ford, is a British electronic music record producer, known particularly for his contributions to the birth of acid house. He has also released material under aliases with Mark Broom (Casino Classix, El Mal, Solcy ...

Bassomatic In cryptography, BassOmatic is the symmetric-key cipher designed by Phil Zimmermann as part of his email encryption software PGP (in the first release, version 1.0). Comments in the source code indicate that he had been designing the cipher sin ...

Bizarre Inc Bizarre Inc were an English techno group. Formed in 1989 as a duo between English DJs Dean Meredith and Mark "Aaron" Archer (not to be confused with the film producer of the same name), they later re-formed as a trio consisting of Meredith, ...

, Dream Frequency, Jam MCs,

K-Klass K-Klass are a British electronic music musical ensemble, group from Wrexham, Wales and Chester, England, who are based in Manchester, England. Its original members were Andy Williams, Carl Thomas, Russ Morgan and Paul Roberts. In 1991, K-Klass ...

Katherine E Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and other variations are feminine names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria. In the early Chris ...

, LFO,

N-Joi NJOI is an English production duo from Southend, Essex, England, consisting of Nigel Champion and Mark Franklin, (who met at Alleyn Court Prep School) with vocalist/ front person Saffron. Champion went to Framlingham College and Franklin to Fe ...

, Mr Monday,

Nightmares on Wax George Evelyn (born 15 January 1970), better known by his stage name Nightmares on Wax or DJ E.A.S.E., is an English DJ and record producer from Leeds. His music has been released by Warp Records. He is based in Ibiza. Nightmares on Wax were or ...

, and

Shades of Rhythm Shades of Rhythm are an United Kingdom, English electronic dance music musical ensemble, group most active from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, still performing live today and hailing from Peterborough in 1988. They are best known for being a pa ...

Closure

The club survived until 31 December 1991, despite considerable and persistent licensing issues and unfavourable media attention in newspapers. Quadrant Park closed voluntarily that night, following an incident of robbery and a stabbing. The building has since been demolished and has been replaced with a waste recycling centre.

Cultural impact and legacy

The club was featured in an exhibition hosted at the

World Museum World Museum is a large museum in Liverpool, England which has extensive collections covering archaeology, ethnology and the natural and physical sciences. Special attractions include the Natural History Centre and a planetarium. Entry to the ...

as part of the European Capital of Culture in July 2008 of which Liverpool was the host city.

References

Sources

* * * *{{cite book, last1=Webley, first1=Elvis, title=Hooligans, Doormen, and the Ten-Metre Walk: Ten-Metre Walk, date=2013, publisher=Balboa Press, isbn=9781452576626, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h6b6G00rrKkC&q=famous+liverpool+nightclub+the+quadrant+park&pg=PA84, language=en

External links

QuadrantParkReunions.com - the official home of the original Quadrant Park DJs and LIVE events for 2011
*https://web.archive.org/web/20151003122010/http://www.quadrantpark.com/index.php - official website since 2002. *http://www.mikeknowler.com Nightclubs in Liverpool Culture in Liverpool Electronic dance music venues