The Eclipse (later The Edge) 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 ...

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, and the first legal all-night club in the UK. The Eclipse was a former Granada Bingo Hall, when local entrepreneurs Stuart Reid and Barry Edwards would put on the first allnighter in October 1990. The 1,600 capacity club was split over three floors. The resident DJs were Mick Park and Mick Wilson (aka Parks & Wilson), The opening night line-up included:

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, Sasha, and

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, who moaned about the sound system and walked off stage saying, "Get the sound sorted out, we'll be back soon", but he didn't return. It is said that the venue gave

The Prodigy The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music band formed in Braintree, Essex, in 1990 by producer, keyboard player and songwriter Liam Howlett. The original line-up also featured dancer and singer Keith Flint and dancer and occasional l ...

one of their first gigs for a fee of £60. The venue would also host nights from promoters such as ''Dance Planet'' and ''Amnesia House''. In September 1992, the venue became ''The Edge''. It finally closed in February 1994. Virgin Records would release a two volume retrospective compilation ''The Eclipse Presents Dance 'Til Dawn'' in 1996 - one mixed by Stu Allan and the other

Slipmatt Matthew Nelson (born 22 April 1967 in Loughton, Essex, England), better known as DJ Slipmatt, is a British electronic music producer and DJ. He was one half of breakbeat hardcore group SL2, who had a 1992 UK hit with " On a Ragga Tip". Biogra ...

. After The Edge closed, the building was bought by

Coventry University , mottoeng = By Art and Industry , established = , type = Public , endowment = £28 million (2015) , budget = £787.5 million , chancellor = Margaret Casely-Hayford , vice_chancellor = John Latham , students = () , undergr ...

and repurposed as a student union entertainment venue and called ''The Planet''. The building was eventually demolished to make way for a car park.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eclipse Electronic dance music venues Dance venues in England Rave culture in the United Kingdom Demolished buildings and structures in England

See also

References