Here we are, back in Manchester ready to function from an office and a club…sh*t we don’t have either (insert big shout here) First things first was to get an office, working out of our parents house was not an option although the constant stream of refreshments and on tap kitchen service (hope my mum doesn’t see this!) was appealing we were looking to move forwards not back so the next month was spent looking for the place where we going to grow our brand even more.
If only finding the venue to host Bitch was as easy as finding the office to run it from. Manchester is a great city with lots of clubs and venues but I didn’t think that any of them were right for what we wanted. Bitch can’t just be shoved in any old venue, it needs to be right for us, to be right for the crowd and this was proving a difficult task and it was causing us many headaches along the way. I’m sure Nurofen profits rose during this time as did the local pub, where many a discussion/argument/make-up took place.
Then something big happened, something that would change the situation we were in for the better, one of those chance meetings that happens just as you need it to. I met the manager of the new Venus venue in Manchester and got talking about the night, the club and he invited me to come and have a look at the space and see what we think.
It was like love at first sight, literally. This was the perfect place to look at doing something, this was it, Bitch had found its home!! So, we had the place we were going to launch our Manchester return, the date had been set and September 2010 was going to be the first Bitch at Venus Manchester.
The opening night brought record numbers to the club, old Bitch favourite Micky Slim headlined for us that night and it is still one of the best nights we have had there. Venus is one of Manchester’s most established brands with a 12 year history and Bitch was honoured to be working with these guys and it’s a partnership that worked so well! Venus was very much the funkier side of house and Bitch was the tougher more edgier house music so with 2 rooms to choose from for the customers we literally hit the nail right on the head with the night and the crowds were lapping it up.
We saw out the rest of 2010 in style smashing show after show, including the legendary 4th birthday event which we SOLD OUT and was classed as the best club night ever at the venue. We had then planned a colossal New Years Day event that we decided to run from 6pm – 6am, not my bright idea but one that went down very well and set our 2011 off in good form. Over the coming months we had the crème de la crème of house DJs grace the decks and we firmly re-established ourselves in Manchester as the number one house brand.
The year just passed by so quickly, like Charlie sheen through a bag of powder, that before realised, it was time to plan the 5th birthday (drum roll) and we were going to do something spectacular to celebrate.
Putting on a night is hard enough but to decide to completely rip out the venue and rebuild the DJ box and dancefloor would just be ridiculous…well go on then g-d loves a trier!!
We began crafting the line-up and putting the event together. Arno Cost has had a smasher of 2011 and Tim Mason who is producing some of the biggest tracks of the year, were picked and the day we got them was a good day in Bitch HQ. We were pulling out all the stops on this event, the dancers were doing a Halloween freaky circus and the club was going to have a full Halloween makeover.
Watch the video here!
Before I carry on I have to give some props to the Venus staff here. They closed on the Monday before the event and set about MOVING the whole main room around, rebuilding the DJ box and changing the whole room. This was a mammoth task and one that kept the lads up for 5 days, so massive shout out to Ben, Dave, Paul, Les and all the other people involved in creating an even more perfect space.
The day was here! The final touches were being made to the room, I arrived at the club in the afternoon and to say I was shocked was an understatement, the place looked amazing!!! Apart from the hanging cables, the floor covered in rubbish the dust everywhere (thanks to the cleaning firm as they did an awesome job) they had completely changed the room and it looked amazing, hopefully the equipment was going to work!
The night went off in spectacular style…Radio 1 winner Danny Howard, residents Pete Mobey, Mark Kovich, Lempo, Martyn Russo were all playing and Bitch DJ comp runners up Reworked Robot and Paul Nag were on the bill too with the finest Venus DJs to do their thing in the Venus Room. For anyone that missed this night…what a dingbat! This was by far the biggest and best night the club had seen since its opened and I’m sure it will be one that will be talked about for a long time!!
Bring on the next one! Click HERE for the information on our next event!
