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 gen ...

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 Parliamentary constituency had a population of 98,449. Historically part of Lancashire, Bootle's ...

, 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 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 synthes ...

, 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 ...

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 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 A billiard, pool or snooker hall (or parlour, room or club; sometimes compounded as poolhall, poolroom, etc.) is a place where people get together for playing cue sports such as pool, snooker or carom billiards. Such establishments commonly serve ...

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 mu ...

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 to join him. Carroll and Knowler had previously helped bring acid house music 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, Derrick May, Frankie Bones, Fabio,

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, Joey Beltram 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, Anticappella, Baby D, Baby Ford,

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 si ...

, Bizarre Inc, Dream Frequency, Jam MCs, 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, 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 o ...

, and

Shades of Rhythm Shades of Rhythm are an English electronic dance music 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 part of the early '90s rave scene. ...

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 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