The Pleasuredrome, Chapel St, Farnworth - August 1991 - February 1992.

History:

This article was put together by Paul Welding (DJ Welly) resident DJ at the Pleasuredrome from August 1991 to February 1992 and is a reflection of the club and its history as he saw it.

Back in the summer of 1991 at the height of the REVENGE Warehouse Parties era I was approached by John Waddiker and Co and asked if I would play a guest spot at a club in Farnworth called the Pleasuredrome, I agreed and played at the club that weekend.

At this time the Pleasuredrome had shed its Sharon and Tracy image and was being run as a House Music venue under the name "REDZONE at the PLEASUREDROME", with John Waddiker, Kenny Grogan of Manchester Underground records and co at the helm, playing some quality U.S. and U.K. House and Garage. Although the club was pretty quiet the first night I played there, I could see the potential of this 2500+ capacity venue, a huge space with two floors, "this could be massive" I thought to myself. If only I knew how big it was to become!

A week after my first guest spot at the Pleasuredrome I was playing at a Revenge night at Maximes in Wigan on a Thursday night, and the guys who had booked me to play at the Pleasuredrome were in attendance. After completing my set I located the guys in the club and asked if they would consider me as a resident at the Pleasuredrome, and to my amazement they said yes! The rest was history as they say.

I can't quite remember the exact date I began my residency at the Pleasuredrome, but within 4 weeks of my residency beginning, Saturday nights went from a couple of hundred people to 2500+ people queuing around the block to get in! The music I was playing at the time was a little harder than was currently being played at the time of my residency beginning, and was a real melting pot of house music styles of the times, a mixture of Piano Anthems, Deep U.S. and U.K. House, European Techno / Hard House and the occasional Hardcore track.

I too was taken by surprise at the speed with which the club exploded, Saturday nights in the main room featured John Waddiker, DJ Shez, and myself, DJ Welly plus guests with MC Bibbi and the Dredd MC, whilst upstairs Ken Grogan, Jamie Scahill and guests treated the Pleasuredrome clubbers to some of the finest U.K. and U.S. house and garage, a perfect antidote to the pumpin rhythms of the main room.

Towards the end of August 1991 the success of Saturday nights lead to a new Friday Night being established with myself (DJ Welly) and DJ Shez as the residents with various guests such as DJ John J, Greenbins, Carl Cox and more. Fridays soon became as busy as Saturdays and the club was rocking!

Some amazing nights were had by many during the short 7 month reign of the Pleasuredrome, clubbers were treated to the finest House music of the day served up by some of the country’s finest guest DJs and Artists such as The Prodigy, The Love Decade, Dream Frequency, New Atlantic, The Bassheads, Carl Cox, DJ John J, Greenbins and more that I can’t quite remember.

New Years Eve 1991/92 was probably the highlight of the Pleasuredrome’s short existence, an amazing night, the atmosphere was unreal and I was tasked with bringing in the New Year on the decks, a moment I will never forget.

The club hit such heights during this time that Granada T.V. decided to bring their T.V. cameras along to see what all the fuss was about; pity they had to bring Pete Waterman and the “Hitman and Her” crew with them, but you can’t have it all.

Although we weren’t really happy with the T.V. cameras being there, the night itself was amazing, Dream Frequency played an amazing P.A. as you will know if you were there, and so did New Atlantic, and after the T.V. crew had turned off their stadium sized lights (which lit the club up like a football stadium) it was back to business in the dark, just how we liked it.

This T.V. exposure only served to spread the word to a wider audience and the queues to get in got even bigger. As a result of the ever increasing popularity of the Pleasuredrome the local constabulary began to lose patience with the venue’s organizers and tried every trick in the book to close the Pleasuredrome down. We did not have the best of reputations at the time, as due to the nature of our scene and the music we were playing, the club had been labeled as a “Drug Den”, not surprising as this was the height of the Rave scene, a scene so inextricably linked with drugs, I guess it was unavoidable.

There were numerous reports in local newspapers about the goings on in the Pleasuredrome, stories of bar staff peddling drugs, and that the clubbers were forced to buy water etc, which only served to strengthen the position of the police and local councils bid to close us down.

Eventually, the Police took the club owners to court and succeeded in their attempt to get the clubs entertainment license revoked, a move which ultimately ended the madness once and for all.

I got the phone call from Adam Campbell on Friday 28th February 1992 to tell me that the club had lost its license and that the Pleasuredrome was no more. I remember that day as if it were yesterday, a sad day indeed……..

A few weeks later I had a phone call from Adam, he had found another venue in Manchester at which to continue the Pleasuredrome night, so we jumped in my car and went to meet him.

The venue?

BOWLERS EXHIBITION CENTRE, TRAFFORD PARK, MANCHESTER.

I can still remember the very first time we walked into an empty Bowlers Exhibition Centre to meet Adam, my jaw hit the floor, “just like being in a warehouse” I thought to myself, and this is going to be big!

In April of 1992, myself (DJ WELLY), Kenny Grogan, John Waddiker and others opened the very first night of Life@Bowlers, an historic event as the venue was to continue for another 8 years, and the Pleasuredrome legacy would live on.

So there you have it, if it was not for the people of the Pleasuredrome, then Bowlers would never have existed!

COME ON, SHOW SOME RESPECT!

DJ WELLY.